Snape's karma and a bit of Neville WAS: Re: Cultural standards

[spotsgal]

No: HPFGUIDX 144580

> La Gatta:
> > As someone else pointed out awhile back, Neville may have been 
> > choosing to face up to a fear which he could handle in making 
> > Snape his boggart. <snip> 

> Alla:
> 
> Do we have a canon to show that person can choose one's fear? For 
> example even if Neville was afraid of his gran, it seemed to me that 
> Boggart had no problem choosing what his primary fear is. IMO of 
> course.

Christina:

I think it only makes sense to assume that one's fear can change. 
After all, what if Neville had encountered a boggart before he came to
Hogwarts?  Obviously it couldn't have taken the shape of Professor
Snape, because Neville hadn't met him yet.  Molly's boggart includes
the vision of Harry laying dead, but she wouldn't have seen that same
boggart before she had ever met Harry.  She wouldn't have seen her
children dead if she encountered a boggart as a teenager because she
didn't have children at that point.  Lupin wouldn't have seen a full
moon as his boggart before he was bitten.  If Harry had seen a boggart
before he had met the Dementors, his boggart would have been something
entirely different.  The list goes on and on.  We aren't born with our
greatest fears intact; they have to develop.  Just the fact that a
boggart is referred to as something that reflects our "greatest fear"
should tell us that a person's boggart can change, because it is rare
for somebody to have the same greatest fear for their entire lives.

Christina