Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 105 The Ineffective Boggart

Professor Lupin was wearing a tattered robe, carrying a broken box, and had greasy hair, only slightly better than Snape.

"Good afternoon. As you've probably already heard, today is a practical lesson."

He waved for everyone to follow him to a classroom on the fifth floor that had been abandoned for a long time. Pushing open the door, they found it surprisingly clean and tidy.

It was very empty, with only a constantly swaying wardrobe on the floor.

"So everyone knows what we're going to face today, right...?"

"Boggart!"

A Hufflepuff student replied.

“That’s right, a Boggart.” Professor Lupin nodded. “It’s a shapeshifting magical creature that transforms into whatever it thinks will scare you the most.”

"However, the Boggart, which hides in the darkness, has no form, and we cannot observe what it truly looks like."

"But if you let it out, it will become your greatest fear..."

"And then, I hurt you."

Professor Lu Ping's tone became serious.

"A Boggart can be very vulnerable or very ferocious, depending entirely on what you fear most."

"The most terrifying recorded Boggart attack occurred two hundred years ago when a wizard encountered a Boggart while traveling. It turned into a giant dragon, so large that it could be seen from several kilometers away."

"Unfortunately, there was a Muggle gathering there, and the dragon was exposed to their eyes."

"As a result, the Ministry of Magic had to deploy a large number of personnel to erase the memories of these Muggles."

"Of course, this is an extremely rare case, and a simple clown spell is all it takes to deal with a Boggart."

"The real difficulty is whether you can actually use the comical spell."

Knocking on the wardrobe only made Boggart inside make an even bigger commotion.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, take out your wands and remember the incantation for the 'Funny Charm': 'Funny Funny,'" Professor Lupin said. "Line up in a row and face the Boggart one by one."

"Don't be afraid, strengthen your will, and turn what you fear most into something funny."

Everyone obediently lined up in a row. Stuart, who had managed to get to the front after a lot of effort, was first, while Ike was in the middle.

"Mr. Akley, is that right? It seems I'm not mistaken." Professor Lupin patted Stuart on the shoulder. "Now can you tell me what you're most afraid of?"

"Cockroach, Professor."

"A cockroach?" Professor Lupin said. "So, what would it take to make this cockroach seem ridiculous?"

"I would be very happy if it was being spun around by a broom."

"Good job, remember that." Professor Lupin had Stuart stand in front of the wardrobe, while he stood to the side, wand in hand.

"And don't forget the incantation for the comical charm!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a string of sparks flashed, and a giant cockroach, almost a meter in size, crawled out of the wardrobe, causing the group of little witches behind her to let out a piercing scream.

The giant cockroach twitched its antennae and walked step by step toward Stuart. Stuart's hand trembled slightly; he swallowed hard, pointed his wand at the cockroach, and shouted, "Hilarious! Hilarious!"

A flash of white light from the tip of the stick, and the cockroach's body jerked violently, as if it had been struck by something, and it rolled rapidly in place.

It rolled faster and faster, and got smaller and smaller, until it was only the size of a palm. It lay on its back on the ground, with three little yellow birds circling around its head.

Ike, watching from behind, was completely dumbfounded. Wasn't this just the scene that sometimes happened when Tom ran into a wall in Tom and Jerry?

Some wizards from Muggle families were taken aback at first, then remembered and burst into laughter. The cockroach immediately stopped, and the little bird on its head stopped turning.

"It's confused!" Professor Lupin said with a laugh. "Next, let's go!"

Stuart quickly stepped aside, and Michael stepped forward. The cockroach immediately flipped over and pounced on him, transforming in the blink of an eye into a zombie covered in rotting flesh and blood.

"Hilarious! Hilarious!"

Another flash of white light appeared, and a traffic cone appeared on the zombie's head. Its clothes changed into a pink princess dress, and it seemed to have tripped over something, falling face down straight to the ground.

"Next!"

In just a few minutes, everyone took turns facing Boggart and turning him into one ridiculous thing after another.

Ike was utterly astonished by the sight of a centaur with its limbs caught in mousetraps, a female ghost with her head covered by a plastic bag, and a skull whose entire body had turned pink and was even sprinkled with colorful sequins.

Slowly, everyone before Ike succeeded, and finally it was his turn.

The previous person had just turned Boggart into a lion chasing its own tail in place. The moment Ike stepped forward, Boggart suddenly stopped and turned into a cloud of black mist that spun wildly in place.

"Crunch, crunch"

Strange noises came from the black mist, and it spun faster, but it did not take on a concrete form for a long time.

Everyone looked at the black mist with some curiosity, and Professor Lupin was also puzzled. Ike was initially confused, but then it dawned on him, and he immediately used Occlumency to imagine it in his mind.

"Snapped!"

With a soft thud, an ordinary brown paper bag fell to the ground. The bag was open, and it was empty.

"Hilarious! Hilarious!"

Ike waved his wand, and the paper bag immediately turned pink, with a new image of a unicorn riding a rainbow on it.

"Next!" Professor Lupin glanced at Ike, shook his head slightly, and called on the students behind him.

As soon as he stood to the side, Stewart and the others surrounded him.

"That's the bag you used to store cockroaches, isn't it! It must be!" Stuart put one arm around Ike's neck, and with the other hand, he and Terry started ruffling Ike's hair. "Why are you so afraid of not having cockroaches?!"

Ike dodged and nearly broke free, but Terry and Michael held him down on either side, leaving Stewart and Anthony to do as they pleased, forcing him to beg for mercy repeatedly.

After playing around for a while, the group stopped and started watching the others turn Boggart into all sorts of funny things.

Ike smiled outwardly, but inwardly he was calculating. He knew very well that the swirling black mist was Boggart's way of trying to figure out what he was most afraid of; its spinning was its way of probing what Ike feared most. But under an uncontrollable force, Boggart had no way of knowing.

Slightly narrowing his eyes, Ike's attention fell on a line of text on the Waste Notebook system:

Brain Lockdown Therapist (Customized Version)

(Your most secret will remain unknown to others if you don't tell them; as for the rest, that's up to you.)

(Not upgradable)

(End of this chapter)