Lupin's Boggart (was RE: Longbottoms/Lestranges/Bagman/Lockhart)

[imamommy at sbcglobal.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 120027


Kneasy:

If Lupin's Boggart really is the moon, why doesn't he show some
reaction to it? He dismisses it 'almost lazily', yet he tells us that
the transformations are very painful. A Moon!Boggart should
induce the feelings of pain and panic that the real moon does,
though it probably wouldn't have the power to cause a full
transformation.
> > 
> > Potioncat:
> > And what "gets out" of the orb when he casts the spell?  A 
> > cockroach. Somehow, although I still don't "get" it, that makes 
more 
> > sense with a prophecy orb than with a moon.
>
Kneasy:
 
> Why a cockroach?
> IIRC the Riddikulus! spell changes something fearful just enough  to
> turn it into a joke -  Snape remains Snape but is dressed as Gran 
> Longbottom; the Mummy's wrappings unravel; the spider loses it's 
legs;
> a Banshee with laryngitis and so on. Following tradition you'd 
expect the
> moon would turn into a smiling moon-faced man or a wheel of green 
> cheese. An orb would become - who knows? Depends what's in it.
> 
> If a cockroach is the joke, what's the original fear? Logically it 
should 
> be something like a giant preying mantis. Closest thing in canon is 
a  
> Blast-ended Skrewt, but I thought Hagrid developed those 
experimentally.
> 
> Oh, dear. It's time to fire up those grey cells again.
> 
> Kneasy

imamommy

Eww, cockroach is enough of an original fear; they give me the 
willies!

I think, in answer to Kneasy's question about why Lupin reacts to his 
boggart!moon, or boggart!orb, or whatever it is, is that he has come 
to terms with his fear.  He is familiar with it, expects it, and has 
learned how to deal with it.  

Whether or not it is an orb or a moon, it is still his greatest fear, 
and he still reacts lazily to it.  I have no idea what the cockroach 
could mean, sorry.