We’ve spoken a lot about the Fantastic Beasts in Harry Potter. We’ve written about it from the Basilisk to all the cats we’ve mentioned to Thestrals. Our next creature is the ever-elusive boggart Harry Potter first encounters during his third year while on the Hogwarts Express.
So, what does a boggart look like? No one actually knows, as no one has seen the creature’s true form. Well, maybe Mad-Eye Moody has but we simply don’t know.
The most fascinating part of the boggart is that the Ministry of Magic doesn’t give the creature a classification. Why? If you can’t see something, how can you classify it? They are classed in the same way Poltergeists are: as non-beings. Also, they are not considered ‘alive’ as they can be banished.
A boggart takes the form of the one thing the victim fears the most. For Harry Potter, it was the dementors. For Neville Longbottom, it was Professor Snape. When confronted with a boggart, the best thing to do is to have someone else present.
Repelling A Boggart
The best way to repel the boggart, as Remus Lupin tells Harry Potter’s Defence Against The Dark Arts class in his third year, is laughter. He teaches the class a special charm to turn the boggart “into something funny.” For Neville, the boggart combined his two worst fears; Snape (as we mentioned earlier) and one that isn’t so farfetched; his grandmother.
The class laughs when the boggart takes the shape of Snape dressed in Augusta Longbottom’s clothing. Finally, during the second wizarding war, many people’s boggarts took on the appearance of Lord Voldemort due to the fear he spread.
