Boggart (Harry Potter)

For the mythological creature, see boggart.

A boggart in the Harry
Potter fictional books is a shape-shifter that takes on the form of its
intended victim's worst fear. It generally likes to hide in dark,
enclosed places, such as in closets, under beds, or in hollow
trees.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or
ending details follow.

In Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban, Professor
Lupin teaches his students in Defence Against the Dark Arts
to approach a boggart in groups of two or more, so that the boggart
will have difficulty in choosing which one to frighten and also so
that if one target is frightened, the others will be less so since
they will likely have different fears. A common wizards' defence
against a boggart is to use a spell to make it appear amusing,
since boggarts are weakened by laughter. This
is achieved by pointing a wand at the boggart and saying
"Riddikulus"; this charm can apparently also be used to
destroy an already weakened boggart. Lupin later uses a boggart to
teach Harry to fight Dementors, as they are Harry's greatest fear.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire, a boggart was among the creatures in the maze
during the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. Initially
surprised at finding a Dementor (his boggart's form) in the maze,
Harry quickly realized what it actually was and dispatched it.

In Harry Potter and
the Order of the Phoenix, a boggart is hidden in a drawer
in Number 12 Grimmauld Place. When Mrs.
Weasley tries to get rid of the boggart, Harry sees the boggart
imitating the dead bodies of the Weasley family and Harry himself.
Mrs. Weasley is so terrified by this that she has a nervous
breakdown and has to be rescued by her companions.

Characters and their boggarts

• Harry Potter - (Prisoner of Azkaban) A Dementor,
  suggesting that the thing Harry fears the most is fear itself.


• Ron Weasley - An Acromantula


• Hermione Granger - Professor McGonagall telling her she had
  failed everything (more generally, failure)


• Neville Longbottom - Professor Snape


• Remus Lupin - The full moon. Because his
  boggart turned into a full moon, it signified that he fears turning
  into a werewolf.


• Molly Weasley - Those whom she cares about most
  dead (Arthur Weasley, Bill
  Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Percy
  Weasley, Fred and George Weasley,
  Ron
  Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter)


• Parvati Patil - A
  mummy (in
  the film
  version it was a snake)


• Seamus Finnigan - A
  banshee


• Dean Thomas - A hand
  walking on its own


• Lord Voldemort - Himself dead, according to
  an
  interview with J. K. Rowling

JK Rowling has purposely kept secret what Albus Dumbledore and Severus
Snape would see as their boggarts, implying that this
information can only be revealed in book 7 as it is too crucial to the
plot.

The author J.K. Rowling has stated that her boggart would
be either an Acromantula, a coffin closing
around her (fear of being buried alive), or seeing those whom she
loves dead.