Hermione's boggart (Was: Lupin's sense of humor (was:Re: TBAY: Evil! McGonagall

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 84111

> Annemehr:
> Hermione's boggart was never a basilisk.  What Pippin is 
referring to is that Hermione never faced the boggart in Lupin's 
first lesson. Perhaps Lupin didn't want her to because he was 
afraid it would turn into a basilisk for her (as she was petrified by 
one only a few months before), and he thought that would 
frighten the class to much.  If this is indeed the reason, then 
Lupin guessed wrong about both  Hermione's and Harry's 
boggarts -- hey, Pippin, can you turn that into
> something evil? <g>
> 
> Or --- if a boggart!dementor makes Harry hear his Mum's 
murder, whatwould a boggart!basilisk do?
> 


Er, not evil, no. But then, as JKR makes explicit in OOP, being a 
competent teacher does not preclude having Voldemort growing 
out of the back of your head. What it does point out is that Lupin 
*is* a competent teacher. Unlike Hagrid, who doesn't anticipate 
what will happen if some bratty kid ticks off a hippogriff, Lupin 
has considered the potential dangers in having his students 
confront a boggart.  

Lupin asks Neville what his worst fear is, which he doesn't do for 
the other students. I think Lupin is likely to know which of his 
students are  magically powerful (Neville is, though his powers 
aren't under control) and may have vivid memories of terrifying 
encounters (we still don't know if Neville witnessed the attack on 
his family.)  It's just speculation, but I think the power of the
victim may have something to do with the strength of the  
apparition produced by the boggart, so that Lupin would have 
reason to be extra cautious in dealing with Harry, Neville and 
Hermione.


The argument that once Neville had named Snape as his worst 
fear Lupin was obliged to use Snape for  the demonstration is 
weaker now that we've seen Molly's boggart take several 
terrifying forms in succession. Neville himself anticipates being 
asked to conjure something else as his worst fear, "I don't want 
the boggart to turn into her either." 

Pippin