Boggarts as Dementors and Moons (Was Boggarts 'n Such)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 33023

I just love boggarts and dementors, so boggarts that turn into 
dementors are truly irresistable.  Here are a few reactions:

*********

Mahoney wrote:

> I guess my interpretation of the boggart is that the so-called, 
> figurative, 'power of suggestion' *is* the boggart's 
> power.  
 
<snip great analysis> 
 

> Notice that my postulation does *not* conclude that the boggart 
> actually takes on the magical properties of the thing whose guise 
it 
> takes.  Rather, my postulation is that it calls up an echo ~ the 
> sense memory of a real or imagined event (i.e., the reason the 
person 
> fears the image it chooses).  

I think the boggart does have some of the powers of the thing it is 
impersonating.  The clearest (and maybe only) example is when the 
boggart dims the lights when Lupin and Harry are learning the 
Patronus charm:  "The lamps around the classroom flickered and went 
out."  This was definitely not an illusion:  "He took a bit of the 
chocolate and watched Lupin extinguishing the lamps that had 
rekindled with the disappearance of the dementor."

This suggests to me that the boggart/dementor really did dim the 
lights in the classroom.  Real dementors seem to have the power to 
extinguish lights, as the lights on the Hogwarts Express go out when 
the dementors arrive.  I think boggarts really do take on some of the 
characteristics of the thing they are imitating.  

Things get even more complicated when we look at the boggart/dementor 
in the maze in GoF.  Harry first believes it is a dementor, so he 
conjures a Patronus.  What does the boggart do?  It falls back and 
retreats, just like a real dementor would.  But Lupin told us that 
Ridikkulus is the spell for fighting a boggart, not Expecto 
Patronum.  A boggart shouldn't be bothered at all by a Patronus; it 
ought to keep right on coming, shouldn't it?  So now we have some 
evidence that boggarts take on the powers of the thing they 
impersonate (dimming lights), and we see that they react in the same 
way as the thing they impersonate (retreating when confronted by a 
Patronus).

But then again, the maze boggart doesn't become a perfect version of 
the dementor, does it?  No, because it trips, and dementors don't 
trip.  So that suggests that the boggart has some of the powers of 
the thing it becomes, but it doesn't become a perfect replica.  It 
gets some details or characteristics wrong.  (This is consistent 
with Lupin explaining to the students that he has seen boggarts get 
confused and become half a slug.)
 
As applied to Lupin, then, the reason Lupin doesn't transform when 
confronted by a boggart moon might have nothing to do with how he 
feels, whether he is especially talented or experienced, whether he 
has fear, or whether he drank his potion recently.  It could be 
simply that the boggart is doing its very best impersonation of the 
moon, but hasn't gotten the details right, just like its counterpart 
in the maze.

What are the limits of the boggart's powers, then?  Could the boggart 
perform the Kiss?  Well, it could try, but it probably wouldn't get 
it right.  As for why Hermione couldn't fight the boggart in the 
trunk, who knows?  It may just be that she is the only student who 
had her first experience fighting boggarts when she was all by 
herself, without the moral support of other students in the room.  It 
could also be that Hermione is humorless and can't think of a way to 
make her worst nightmare seem amusing.  :-)

Cindy