Chapter 80: Neptune, Scheme(?), and Boggart

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

It turned out that the Roman gods weren't ancient magicals. They were mythology in both the magical and non-magical worlds.

"But Jupiter's thunderbolt, Neptune's trident, and Pluto's pitchfork are real magical artifacts," said Quinn while reading from an ancient tome he had found in Hogwarts library. Then he scoffed at the next piece of information. "Of course, all of them are either lost, missing, or possibly destroyed."

"Maybe they were real and became so powerful that no one believed their existence," considered Quinn about the identity of the Roman gods. "If that is true, then those guys were total legends."

Quinn sighed as he read through Neptune's status in the magical Roman dynasty.

"Neptune is the Roman equivalent of Poseidon. As Neptune, he becomes more disciplined, militant and warlike than his Greek counterpart. For the Greeks, Poseidon was a major civic god and was highly respected for being the god of the sea and earthquakes. However, the Romans, who were not seafaring people, associated Neptune more with fresh water and horses and treated him with fearful respect."

Quinn stopped reading for a second before thinking about a tangent. "Why am I assuming that the riddle is about the Roman god Neptune and not about the planet Neptune." Quinn groaned and took out his notepad, and added a note.

'Do research on Neptune (Planet).'

"Maybe the divination section will help me out in this one." Quinn wondered before returning to the ancient tome and sighed, "Oh well, let's worry about that later. Let's continue on with this."

"The Romans believed in a series of gods associated with the world around them. They designated Neptune as the god of water and the sea, a close parallel to the Greek god Poseidon. As the god of freshwater, Romans prayed to Neptune to provide water for their crops. In ancient Italy, farmers would honor Neptune with a festival in July, when frequent droughts would destroy their fields. He was also a horses' patron and had temples built near racetracks."

Quinn frowned at this paragraph.

'So you are saying that in Greek society, he was a big badass with storms and earthquakes. But in Roman society he was demoted to the god of freshwater.'

Quinn understood that Neptune was still the god of seas, but the Romans didn't know how to build sturdy ships to sail in the violent sea, so the sea was nothing but something foreboding to them. That meant that they didn't pray to the sea god Neptune and associated the god more with fresh water and horses.

'Alright, now this is becoming more and more of a situation where there will be a presence of something like a Bane,' Quinn felt happy about the progress he had made and wrote everything down. 'Now, I just need to find what is the bane in this situation. Is it another god?'

There was only one way to find out, and that was to read more books. And Quinn was really good at that.

- (Scene Break) -

"Hey, what do you think about the hippogriff that attacked Malfoy?" gossiped Eddie over the table. "Some are saying that the hippogriff tried to kill Malfoy."

Quinn wagged his finger and corrected the gossip that had been going around. "That is something Malfoy and his goonies have been spreading around. According to my sources, Malfoy called the hippogriff an 'ugly brute' while he was sitting on it."

Marcus almost spat out his food after hearing that, "He was on the top of the hippogriff?! Now, that is not the poppycock behavior I'm expecting from a Slytherin."

Quinn laughed at Marcus' statement till his sides were hurting, "We're in our fourth year. You should have learned by now that to be in Slytherin isn't synonymous with being cunning nowadays."

He glanced over his shoulder to peek at the Slytherin table and scoffed, "We have been witnessing Malfoy's antics for two years now. Can you expect anything else? Plus, at-present, he's doing something really foolish."

"Foolish?" Eddie turned in his seat to peep at Draco Malfoy, who was sitting at Slytherin's table. Draco's right arm was covered in bandages and bound up in a sling; acting, in Eddie's opinion, as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle.

"What do you mean by foolish?" Eddie solicited an explanation as he turned back.

"Look at his sling," Quinn brought their attention to Draco's broken arm. Eddie and Marcus, however, didn't see anything weird about the situation.

"The sling in his arm doesn't make any sense. Madam Pomfrey can regrow all bones in an arm in a single day," Quinn pointed his thumb back in the direction of the Slytherin table. "Malfoy's arm is just broken. She could fix him up and then announce that Malfoy's fit to continue his life as normal under an hour. That sling in his arm is just a hoax."

Realization dawned over Eddie and Marcus as they finally noticed the anomaly that was the sling in Dracos' arm.

"Even if Malfoy's arm was weak because his muscles were torn from the hippogriff's talon and needed to recuperate, then it would take maybe two days at most to get it back to full functionality."

Draco had been parading the arm in his sling for just under a week. So there was no reason for his arm to be in a sling.

Heck, Quinn had taken just ten days in the hospital wing, and he had been injured quite severely. There were lots of injuries in his organs, and that kind of thing had taken just ten days to get fixed. Draco's arm was a piece of cake for any decent medic.

"But maybe Malfoy is cunning," Quinn added another outlook to this situation.

"Huh, how?" Marcus looked confused at the sudden counter addition. "You just pointed out that he is doing something foolish by keeping his arm in a sling."

"That is exactly it. I mean, look at you two," Quinn pointed at his two friends with his fork before continuing. "No offense to you guys, but you guys didn't notice anything wrong with Malfoy's arm in a sling. Think how many people will believe the same thing. A sling in his arm creates an image of injury, and with the story propagated by the Malfoy's group, this image will be upgraded to a serious injury. So maybe with this arm sling drama, Malfoy is trying to make the situation seem more serious and portray that he survived a deadly accident. So he's showing traces of cunningness with this ploy."

Quinn thought about the upcoming Buckbeak execution plotline that happened this year. Malfoy Senior lobbied for the execution of the hippogriff who 'almost killed' his son.

If the sling in his arm was a ploy to elevate the situation, Quinn had to admit that this was an excellent tactic, as his two friends didn't see anything wrong with it, and both had come from magical families. Students from non-magical families who were used to the idea of using a sling to heal arms after getting broken would eat this up without a second thought.

"A good manipulation of the public," Quinn nodded in appreciation. "The final question is whether this came from Malfoy or his father, Lucius Malfoy. If it came from Malfoy, then props to him, but if it came from his father, yeah, this guy's still a fool."

- (Scene Break) -

Lupin wasn't there when they arrived at their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. They sat down, took their books out, quills, parchment, and talked to one another when he finally entered the room. Lupin gave a faint smile and placed his briefcase on the teacher's desk.

"Good afternoon," he said. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today will be a practical lesson. Only your wands will be needed."

The students and, at some level, even Quinn, were surprised, as the class put away their books. Lots of curious glances were exchanged as they had never had a practical class in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The current third-year students had one memorable class last year when their old teacher had brought a cageful of pixies to lesson and set them loose. But, they, fourth years, hadn't had a practical Defense Against Dark Arts lesson. Not even in their first year, when they had a decent enough teacher, as she never gave them a practical class.

"Right then," said Lupin when everyone was ready. "If you'd follow me."

Puzzled but interested, the class got to its feet and followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom. He led them along the deserted corridor and around a corner into another classroom.

The room was empty, with no chairs or tables.

"Now, then," said Professor Lupin, beckoning the class toward the end of the room, where there was nothing but an old wardrobe. As Professor Lupin went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall.

"Nothing to worry about," said Professor Lupin calmly because a few people had jumped backward in alarm. "There's a boggart in there."

Quinn knew this was coming. And Quinn would be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to this.

After getting in touch with his emotions during the summer break, Quinn understood the importance of negative emotions and their place in his magic. He learned to accept that he had emotions that made him vulnerable, emotions like fear which a creature like Boggart exploited.

With that realization, Quinn felt he needed to really know all his negative emotions, what caused them and, then, accept them rather than outright rejecting them.

A Boggart would be an excellent way to start on understanding his fears.

Most people seemed to feel that the thing inside the wardrobe was something to worry about. Marcus at Quinn's side was eyeing the rattling doorknob apprehensively.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," informed Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - I once met one that had lodged itself in an old man's clock. This one was moved in here two afternoons ago, so I asked the headmaster if I could use it as a practical lesson for all years."

Everyone knew that permission was granted.

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"So the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a boggart?" Professor Lupin threw out a question to the class.

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Quinn followed his usual routine and looked left and then to the right to see if anyone had raised their hand. Seeing that no one was going to volunteer to answer the question, Quinn raised his hand.

When Lupin pointed at Quinn, he promptly answered.

"A Boggart is an amortal shape-shifting non-being that takes on the form of its observer's worst fear. Because of their shape-shifting ability, no one knows what a Boggart looks like when it is alone, as it changes shape instantly upon encountering someone."

The words amortal and non-being were the words to focus on here.

A Non-Human Spirituous Apparition, also known as a non-being, was a magical spirit created of human emotions. They were notable because they had no equivalent in the non-magical world and their similarity to ghosts, despite never being truly alive. While non-beings were not truly alive and could not be truly destroyed, magic users had invented over the centuries various spells that could drive off these spirits using positive emotions. Their numbers could also be limited by reducing the conditions that would generate them.

Amortality was the condition of never having died and being unable to die, as an amortal entity was never "alive" to begin with. As amortality referred to entities that were never alive at any point in their lives. It was different from "immortality," which described living beings who were unable to die or had an infinite lifespan.

Dementors, Boggarts, and Poltergeist were examples of non-being and amoral entities, as they weren't ever alive and couldn't be killed.

In the distant future, someone with black hair and stone-grey eyes would discover a way to kill various amoral beings, putting the concept of Amortality in need of revision.

"That is actually better than I was expecting," Lupin blinked in surprise as he regarded Quinn with interest. "Well, Quinn," Lupin was pleased with the answer, so he rewarded the answer. "Take twenty points to Ravenclaw for an excellent answer."

Quinn gave a slight nod, and Lupin continued with his lesson.

"So a Boggart that resides in the darkness doesn't assume a form. It doesn't know yet what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but if I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us fear the most."

Lupin raised both his hands and gestured to the students who had become restless. "Please, calm down. The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires mental prowess. You see, the thing that really ends a boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape you find amusing."

The professor lowered his hands as he continued, "We'll practice the charm without wands first. After me, please... Riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!" chanted the class together.

"Good," smiled Professor Lupin. "Very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, only saying the word isn't enough. And this is where you come in, Jessica."

Jessica Tring, a fourth-year Hufflepuff stepped forward, while shaking slightly.

"Right, Jessica," said Professor Lupin. "First things first. What would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?"

"... Snakes," Jessica answered with a tremble in her voice.

"Right, have you seen one of these rubber balloon animals," Lupin asked Jessica, who nodded.

"Excellent, when the boggart bursts out of this wardrobe and sees you, Jessica, it will assume the form of a snake," Lupin explained at a slower pace so that Jessica would catch every word. "You'll have to raise your wand —like this— and say 'Riddikulus'. Concentrate hard on the image of the snake turning into a balloon version which then deflates while creating a fun noise."

"If Jessica is successful, the boggart will likely shift its attention to another one of us in turn," said Professor Lupin. "I'd like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most and imagine how you might force it to look comical..."

The room went quiet as everyone began thinking about their greatest fear and how to make it comical.

"Everyone ready?" asked Professor Lupin. He looked at Jessica and instructed, "Jessica, we're going to back away. Let's get you a better field of vision, all right? I'll call the next person forward. Everyone, back. Now Jessica has a clear shot."

They all retreated and backed against the walls, leaving Jessica alone along the wardrobe. She looked slightly pale and frightened, but had pushed up the sleeves from her robes and was holding her wand, ready.

"On the count of three, Jessica," said Professor Lupin, who was pointing his own wand at the handle of the wardrobe. "One, two, three - Now!"

A jet of sparks shot from the end of Professor Lupin's wand and hit the doorknob. The wardrobe burst open. A long forest green snake with shiny scales slithered out while making loud hissing sounds.

Jessica backed away, her wand up, and cried, "Riddikulus!"

There was a squeaky noise of a blown balloon being touched, and the green snake turned into a balloon art, and immediately after, it started deflating while making a noise that sounded like a fart.

There was a roar of laughter and as the Boggart kept on leaking air and making fart noises, Lupin shouted, "Carmicheal, next!"

Then the entire class went through the same thing as they faced something they feared and then turned it into something funny.

There were many animals and creatures, a few renditions of Snape, one of Filch, some parents, mummies, zombies, one big eye... but everything was turned into comic relief after a cry of 'Riddikulus'.

Eddie was scared of his mom, who looked furious and had a ladle in her hand. Marcus, on the other hand, feared screaming banshees.

Finally, it was Quinn's turn, who stepped forward after everyone was done and were talking among themselves.

Lupin thought everyone was done, but stopped when he saw Quinn step forward towards a disco-ball-shaped Boggart. He was interested to see what would be the Boggart of the Quinn West. Flitwick had said that Quinn was the brightest student he had ever taught. And the half-goblin had said it when Lily Potter was sitting with them.

His eyes widened when the Boggart turned into a replica of Quinn. But Boggart-Quinn had a wide smirk on his face and a wand in his hand.

'What in the world?' Lupin didn't know what to think. He wasn't sure what it meant when a Boggart turned into the person itself. Lupin turned his face to the real Quinn and thought, 'He fears himself?'

...

Quinn, who was looking at his Boggart, immediately knew what his greatest fear was.

'That smirk and the wand in his hand,' Quinn thought as he observed his Boggart, and he knew that this was his greatest fear, as his heart was starting to beat slightly faster.

Quinn's current biggest fear was him never escaping the sin's curse and giving in to the temptation of his wand. He feared how he would have turned out had the curse continued to have a hold on him. Quinn had even erased Lockhart's memories and was going to cause pain and suffering to Luna's bullies. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if the curse had continued to change him.

He feared that if the curse continued, then he would've been replaced by someone who looked like him but wasn't him. The fear that the base of his existence, his identity would've been erased without anyone knowing.

'Just like I replaced the original Quinn,' thought Quinn as he stared at the Boggart-Quinn and tightly balled his hands in a fist.

Quinn also dreaded the possibility that one day he would give in to the temptation that posed his wand, abandoning all the hard work he had done to develop his wandless magic. Quinn knew better than anybody else that if he started to use his wand, he would never be able to put it down. The temptation of power would be too much for him, a fatal flaw that would ruin him.

Those two things were Quinn's greatest fears.

He took a deep breath and raised his fake wand, and softly chanted, "Riddikulus."

Immediately, the Boggart-Quinn turned into green slime that tried to stay upright but then collapsed into a puddle.

He turned back and informed a bemused Lupin, "Professor, everybody is done."

Quinn's voice brought Lupin out of his thoughts, as he waited for a second and replied in a delayed manner, "... Ah, yes, Quinn. Please, join your classmates. I'll lock the Boggart back into the wardrobe."

Quinn didn't notice the oddness in Lupin as he was occupied with thinking about his fear.

Quinn West - MC - A lot of introspection.

Draco Malfoy - Slytherin - Cunning genius or Daddy's boy

Remus Lupin - Werewolf - [Boggart = Full moon.]

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