the boggart

[Athena Appleton]

there's a lot of speculation about what Hermione's boggart would have been in the first DADA class with Lupin, but this thread isn't necessarily for that... it's more along the lines of why did the boggart turn into different things for the different students...

Why did Neville, who in GoF is completely terrified of the Cruciatus Curse, fear a mean teacher? I mean, I understand he's intimidated, but I just find it odd that his greatest fear is Snape.

Why did Dean see a severed hand? We know he's good at art, is it because he loves art and would hate to lose his own hand? I find it odd that his greatest fear is a severed hand and a severed hand is one of the key ingredients necessary to bring Voldemort back to life...

The others: the banshee, the mummy... I can see, assuming they haven't had anything in their lives to really and truly fear, they fear the unknown monsters that children usually fear... but the Snape boggart and the hand boggart baffle me...

[Aberforth]

With Neville, he is really intimidated and scared of Snape, and that is an every day thing for him. He only bcomes more into the cruciatus thing later - when they learn about it and the death eaters responsible for his parents' incapacitation escape. Until this happens, he can put those issues to one side.

The hand - I don't know. Its just creepy, like "Thing" in The Addams Family.

[Jotomicron]

Well, I guess the boggart would assume the thing you mostly fear AT THE MOMENT. I mean, we know Mrs Weasley fear for her family every so often, but would she always see dead Ron, Arthur and Co.??

And I think that the thing that most frighten Neville in school is Snape. Now: does he "forget" abouth evil when he's there? Or does he know is safe from DE??

[Nobby]

i agree with Joto. i think that people's fears change and so does your boggart respectively! with neville, i think in the book the had just met snape, probably bringing his fear for snape to the surface. so naturally his boggart was snape. however, i think that is now probably bellatrix lestrange as he has met her and can fear her 'properly'

[Alice I]

Yes Nobby and Joto
I agree with that.
What ever Nevilles bogart was in third year I would be willing to bet all the gold in my Gringott's vault that if he came across a boggart now it wouldn't be Snape

[Ferrus]

I always thought of the severed hand as another of the "stereotipical" terror movie monsters, like the banshee and the mummy.

I also agree on the point that ones worts fear changes, Harry´s boggart would certainly not be a dementor before he knew dementors existed...

[paintballdecoy]

The hand theory is very interesting, but I don't think it anything directly connected to Voldemort. It might have been hinty towards it, but dean doesn't have any ties to VOldemort, yet!!!

Your fear must change, becuase Mrs Weasly would have feared her family dieing when she was a kid while growing up

[Athena Appleton]

lol okay, that makes sense, joto...

about the hand, thing... yeah, I think it *could* be one of the stereotypical horror movie things, but I just thought it odd that the student who is great with drawing would see a severed hand... AND that the severed hand is what brought Voldy back... but I don't think there's a Dean-Voldemort connection... just, like, a severed hand thrown in there to start giving hints. She does that a lot.

to whoever asked if Mrs. Weasley would always have a dead family member boggart... I have two little kids, and I think about 90% of the time, I would see a dead Cameron boggart or dead Colin boggart... and I would DEFINATELY see that if I were living in the kind of situation Molly's in at the moment.

[Ferrus]

Well, Dean might has a subconcious fear for losing his hand and it reflects itslef in severed hand, maybe. But still I think the hand come from the old B&W horror movie repertoir...

[Athena Appleton]

yeah, you're probably right...

[Alice I]

lol okay, that makes sense, joto...

to whoever asked if Mrs. Weasley would always have a dead family member boggart... I have two little kids, and I think about 90% of the time, I would see a dead Cameron boggart or dead Colin boggart... and I would DEFINATELY see that if I were living in the kind of situation Molly's in at the moment.

Big Ditto!

I have two girls and If anything were to happen to them my world would end (Really) so that would definatly be my biggest fear sustained through out my life.

[AngelicS_89]

I agree with joto and nobby for the changing boggart theory and as for Molly,defenetly her boggart at all time,I think,would be or Arthur or one of the kids death...

[Ferrus]

I agree with all the above, A persons Boggart is fixed, until he/she encounters something scarier.

[Athena Appleton]

does the boggart turn into what you admit is your greatest fear, even if it's not really?

I know that sounds weird, but what if Seamus, who saw a banshee when he was faced with the boggart in third year, were to develop a new fear. But when he's faced with a boggart again, he's scared that he'll see a banshee, like the memory of it being the greatest fear when he was 13 makes him fear it again, even if banshees aren't what he's most scared of at 16...

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

I think one of the books says that the boggart will turn into what it thinks will scare you most. So it wouldn't matter if you admitted it or not. I wonder why everyone's boggart wasn't Voldemort?