Boggarts

[welshdevondragon]

Hi- I'm just wondering how abstract Boggarts could be/ what sounds stupid. Like Hermione's fear of failure was shown by Professor McGOnagall telling her she'd failed her tests, and Harry's fear of fear was shown by the dementors. But what about other "concepts" as opposed to exact things?

Like one of my characters fears failure and being trapped in a monotonous cycle. Now at the moment I've got this being him trying to push a rock up a slope, and the rock falling down before he reaches the top. Is this too stupid/ abstract? Any other possible suggestions?
ANy help/ advice would be great thanks!

[Harry_Potter4life]

The rock falling on him is his BOGGART? Is that what your saying? Or are you saying that the rock falling on him is HAPPENING to him? I can help you if you clear that up for me.

[Tim the Enchanter]

I like the reference to Sisyphus, but I don't think this would be a very good Boggart. Remember, a Boggart is supposed to scare you senseless - I don't think watching a little man push a boulder up a mountain (by the way, where will the mountain come from?) and failing every time would be very terrifying. This Boggart doesn't have much instantaneous shock impact - you'll have to watch the Boggart do its cycle all the way through, and how long will that take? A minute? It might even be boring.

Here's a suggestion for the concept of "failure" - how about the Boggart simply transforms into an older version of the character, but as a drunk, repulsive low-life homeless person who begs his younger self for money? I think that would be quite shocking.

Tim the Enchanter

[welshdevondragon]

I'd forgotten about the slowness of it- you're right it would be boring, unless they were forced to watch it, but that doesn't really apply to boggarts. I really like the idea of a drunk and homeless beggar representing failure, thanks for that!

Anyone else with any ideas for monotony?

Also as a general question how would you portray a doctrine? Like racism/ prejudice, possibly Death Eaters but what about before them? Just wondering

Harry_Potter4life- I mean he is trying to push the rock up a hill, and cannot push it to the top, but has to try and do it again and again (hence monotony). It is, as Tim the Enchanter pointed out, an idea referenced (or stolen ) from the greek myth of Sisyphus, whose punishment in Hades was to push a rock up a hill, and never be able to get it over the top. Can't remember why- just looked it up and it was for defying the laws of hospitality/ greed/ defying the gods amongst other things.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Also as a general question how would you portray a doctrine? Like racism/ prejudice, possibly Death Eaters but what about before them? Just wondering

"Prejudice" and "racism" is pretty abstract, and I think there cannot be any generic Boggart form for either. It would depend on the individual person, in my opinion. For example, a Muggle-born who survived through the Voldy wars might have Lord Voldemort or a Death Eater be a Boggart, or perhaps somebody demanding that he/she give away his/her wand because as a Muggle-born he/she had supposedly stolen it from a Pureblood wizard/witch.

As for racism, the same rule applies - it depends on what the individual person is and what his/her personal experiences with prejudice are.

Tim the Enchanter

[Harry_Potter4life]

Oh, now I understand. I kind of like the idea of him having to keep pushing it up over and over again.

[Jen]

We were discussing Dementors the other day in our MWPP class, and we came to the conclusion that instead of causing a person to relive his/her worst memory, they could also bring back horrible feelings. The example we used was James Potter being lost in Diagon Alley. If a Dememtor would've cornered him after that, it could've just made him feel panicked and frightened. I know it's not exactly the same thing, but maybe the same prinicple applies. Could the boggart just transform into a feeling, or does it have to be something material? I think that's the question we should be asking.

[Karaley Dargen]

No - I think the Boggart has to be something corporal. How are you going to "Ridiculo" a feeling? But that corporal thing can be very different. I have a Drabble about Boggarts, and one person for example is afraid of crowds, so the Boggart turns into dozens of people so that the room is really crowded. One is afraid of height, so the Boggart turns really flat on the floor in front of her feet and gives her the image of standing on a really high cliff or something. But the Boggart still has to be visible.

[Nez]

I agree that it must be something real. But for general things it assumes different forms for different people.

How much do you think a Boggart can actually hurt someone? Could Neville's Snape curse him? Could Harry's Dementor administer the Kiss?

What I find interesting is that when the students were having a go at the Boggart in PoA everyone had a pretty good idea what their biggest fear is, and apparently they all knew what they were going to face. Personally I don't know what I'm afraid of the most so that always seemed a bit odd to me.

Do you think that the Boggart assumed the form the students were expecting because at that moment, they were thinking about it and were convinced it was their biggest fear? If they had run into a Boggart without knowing it, do you think any of the forms it assumed would be different to what we saw in the lesson?

Say, Lupin said to Harry the reason why he wouldn't let him face it was because he thought it would turn into Voldemort and that would cause panic, indicating that people would be more afraid of Voldemort than their actual Boggarts, so one could ask how come the Boggart didn't turn into Voldemort at one point anyway?

I'm rambling here a bit, I hope you guys know what I mean.

[Raffles]

I also agree that the Boggart can only turn into something material. But I think that the thing it turns into can bring back feelings or un-materialistic things. Such as how Karaley Dargen explained, that the flat form on the floor brings back the fear of hight.

B]How much do you think a Boggart can actually hurt someone? Could Neville's Snape curse him? Could Harry's Dementor administer the Kiss?[/B]

I don't think that a Boggart can actually hurt anyone, because I don't think Remus would have incorporated a Boggart into his lessons, if they could cause danger to any of his students. Also I think the reason a Boggart turns into someone's biggest fear is to scare off predators as it doesn't have the strength to defeat them.

Do you think that the Boggart assumed the form the students were expecting because at that moment, they were thinking about it and were convinced it was their biggest fear? If they had run into a Boggart without knowing it, do you think any of the forms it assumed would be different to what we saw in the lesson?

I think that the Boggart just sort of knows the biggest fear of its victim because I think it does this to scare of enemies and these might not always be thinking about their biggest fear when seeing a Boggart, for example they could just stumble upon a boggart without knowing its a boggart and then they would really be in for a scare.

I also find it strange that all the students knew what their biggest fear was.

Say, Lupin said to Harry the reason why he wouldn't let him face it was because he thought it would turn into Voldemort and that would cause panic, indicating that people would be more afraid of Voldemort than their actual Boggarts, so one could ask how come the Boggart didn't turn into Voldemort at one point anyway?

I think this is due to the fact that the other students are not constantly reminded of Voldemort and most don't have traumatizing memories where he kills their parents (unlike Harry who does). They probably fear Voldemort just as much, but in their knowledge, he is gone and dead (well in that class in third year he was... supposedly)

I hope that all made sense^^