“I swear it was around here,” Sirius said, exasperated by his lack of success in finding the boggart he’d discovered less than an hour ago. “I was terrified at first. Honestly, anyone would be if my mother suddenly appeared in front of them. But then I realised she’d never come all the way up here to see me. Regulus, maybe, but not me. That’s when it hit me and I realised what it was. I cast riddikulus and forced it back into the cabinet it had come out of. I swear, I nearly choked up a lung. I was laughing so hard at the image of my mother with clown makeup and roller skates.
“Sirius, I’m sure it was great, but dinner is in ten minutes and…” Remus’s stomach growled to emphasise his words.
“Yes, yes, Remus, I’ll make sure you get to the great hall before the bangers and mash are all gone,” Remus grabbed him by the front of his robes.
“You’d better,” Remus growled. Sirius just grinned up at him fondly, knowing Remus wasn’t being serious. Remus leaned in to give Sirius a kiss when he spotted it.
He jumped around Remus and raced for the cabinet. He pulled it open still grinning, and out walked Walburga Black.
Sirius felt a shiver of fear run through him and had to remember she wasn’t real.
“Riddikulus,” he said, his voice strong as he imagined his mother with a burger splattered on her face. Boggart Walburga stumbled backwards. “Remus, Remus, come on, you have a go,” He waved Remus forward. Remus didn’t move. “Remus?” He turned away from the boggart and looked at his boyfriend.
“How do I stop the moon from being terrifying?” he asked, looking up at him from under his long eyelashes.
“Oh, Remus,” Sirius held out his arms and Remus walked into them.
“Pop it like a balloon,” Sirius said. Remus pulled away.
“Huh?”
“The moon. Pop it like a balloon,” Remus looked a little uncertain. But he squared his shoulders and turned to face the boggart.
Sirius watched as his mother disappeared and a smaller version of the moon filled the corridor before them. Remus turned away from it, squinting in its light. Come on Remus, Sirius said to himself.
“Riddikulus!” Remus yelled and a popped balloon bounced off the walls all the way along the corridor and out of sight.
“I did it,” Remus was beaming at him and Sirius pulled him into his arms again.
“Well done,” he praised him and stole a kiss.
“Do you think we should go after it?” Remus asked, pointing in the direction the boggart had gone.
“Nah, let someone else figure it out. Right now, those bangers and mash are calling.” He took Remus’s hand and led him away, still chuckling to himself over what he’d done to his boggart mother.
So a long while ago @lamieboo tagged me in this post (I'm not reblogging bcs it'll be way too long sorry 😢) I made some art and wrote a whole one shot for it because it was the perfect opportunity for a Winter lore I've always wanted to make.
Please be kind lol 💀 I haven't written in ages and I'm such a noob when it comes to writing, also English isn't my native language. I had to run my draft through multiple writing tools back and forth to find better phrasings and dictions that better express what I want to convey.
Roughly ~1,000 words.
Green and Gold
She stepped forward as the wardrobe creaked open, the boggart slipping through the narrow gap in the door. Long, flowing golden threads emerged first, and Winter drew in a sharp breath.
The rest of the boggart soon took form—a woman in a pale blue dress, slumped weakly on the floor, her calf bleeding from a deep slash. Golden locks framed her worried face, and her piercing blue eyes, so much like Winter’s own, locked onto hers.
Winter’s hand instinctively went up to the scar across her left eye.
The woman’s chest heaved with silent breaths. The faint murmur of the students lining up behind Winter faded until she could hear nothing. Then, the woman’s lips parted, as if to speak.
“Close your eyes, snowflake.”
Was that truly her mother’s voice? Winter couldn’t remember if boggarts could speak. Could they mimic human voices? Or was it only mouthing the words while the voice echoed from somewhere deep within her mind?
Her hands went clammy. A bead of sweat ran down the side of her face.
She knows what’s coming next.
Behind her mother’s beautiful, tear-streaked face, a blinding green light appeared.
Winter swiftly squeezed her eyes shut and raised her wand. “Riddikulus,” she whispered, her voice trembling as she kept her eyelids tightly closed.
· · ─────── ·❄ ❅ ❆· ─────── · ·
Sebastian went pale, even as the swirling Mallowsweet leaves spun into a twister before him, which without question, the most mesmerising form of the Riddikulus charm he had ever seen. It wasn’t a form he would laugh at, unlike most transformations of the charm. It was breathtaking.
But no, what had truly gripped him was the green light that followed her mother’s appearance.
He had never seen Winter like this—paralysed by fear, gasping for breath, drenched in sweat. She was always so composed, so captivating. Full of life, curiosity, and wonder.
He hadn’t realised this was her deepest fear.
And it was the very same curse he had cast just last year. On his uncle. Right in front of her.
What had she looked like back then? He couldn’t quite remember. The sound of her laboured breathing lingered faintly in his mind, and he recalled her standing frozen for a moment before following him as he fled the catacombs. But the look on her face—he had no memory of it. Was she shocked? Horrified? Traumatised? He had been too distraught, too consumed by his own turmoil, to notice.
Merlin, how must she have felt? Watching her best friend cast the Killing Curse—the very same curse that had taken her mother’s life—right in front of her?
His throat went dry. His insides twisted painfully. Clenching his hands into fists, he dug his nails into his palms.
Was this… was this the reason she had refused to learn the spell? Not that he had wanted her to; in fact, he had been relieved when she didn’t. But it left him with questions. She was his kindred spirit, after all, and he knew the Dark Arts intrigued her, even if it was purely out of curiosity and for the sake of knowing.
She wanted to learn, and had learned the other two curses. He had thought, perhaps, she would eventually ask about the last one, even though he wasn’t sure if he could bear to teach her—not after what happened to Solomon, to himself.
To Anne.
But she was adamant in her refusal to learn it. She had said so out of the blue, when they began speaking again after the catacombs—after weeks of silence between them. Now, he finally understood why.
And his heart broke for her.
“Sebastian? Sebastian, what just happened?”
Ominis’ voice snapped him back to reality. His best friend’s face was filled with concern, surely anxious for not being able to see what’s happening. Just this time, Sebastian is glad he couldn’t. He wouldn’t want Ominis to witness her in such a state.
He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out.
He tried again, but his gaze drifted to Winter, who was slowly making her way towards them from the front of the line. Another student—Arthur Plummly, perhaps—stepped forward to face the boggart, but Sebastian hardly noticed. His focus was solely on Winter, her head bowed, arms wrapped tightly around herself, her body trembling slightly.
“Winter…”
She looked up at him, her eyes wide. They stood there for a moment, locked in each other's gaze.
“I… I’m sorry.” He finally managed to speak.
“What... what are you apologising for?”
So much. Even though he’d already apologised to her and Ominis countless times, he hasn’t apologised for this one.
“You—you know why.” He knew she understood. They’d always had a way of reading each other, and this was one of those moments.
“That’s… It’s not—you shouldn’t…” She trailed off. And Sebastian was thankful she didn’t finish. Because he did feel like he should apologise. Even though hadn’t known about this, what he did that day might’ve stirred up memories she had buried deep down. Just like the cursed boggart had just now.
Another silence passed before he slowly pulled her into an embrace. One hand rested on her back, the other gently cradling the back of her head. She froze at first, startled, but after a moment, her body softened into his arms as he tenderly stroked her hair.
From his peripheral vision, Sebastian saw Ominis approached hesitantly. His alabaster hand tentatively found Winter’s smaller one, which still hung limply at her side, and she allowed their fingers to entwine. Sebastian could see the questions lingering in his best friend’s furrowed brows, but he’s certain that Winter would talk to him–she would explain everything to them when she’s ready.
He glanced forward, aware of the curious eyes from the students waiting in line—some watching with intrigue, others with quiet sympathy. It was a peculiar view, after all: Winter with her two best friends huddled together in such an unusual position. Up front, he caught sight of Amit ducking as his boggart morphed into harmless paper planes flying about after his successful Riddikulus. Sebastian hadn’t seen Amit’s boggart, but he imagined it was likely something ordinary, like a failing report card marked with a dreaded “T” in Astronomy or History of Magic.
None of that mattered now. The only person of importance was the girl in his arms, her trembling slowly subsiding, her once-laboured breathing easing into a soft, steady rhythm.
Headcanon: Tom Riddle is Ginny’s boggart and when he appears everybody loses their crap because why would Ginny Weasley be afraid of a Slytherin Boy. As far as students are concerned, no one else but her and Harry really know what Voldemort looked like before. Moody doesn’t even know who he is, because he met him later in life. She can’t use “riddikulus” because as far as Ginny is concerned nothing will ever make that moment in her life funny. He starts saying her diary entries out loud and it’s all coming back. He was her first friend that year and she told him so much. Moody is not caring like Lupin and he doesn’t step in her place but he does banish the boggart when she begins to cry. It won’t be until her 5th year that Ginny can defeat a boggart.
