Boggart

> So the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears.
>
> Professor Lupin to his third-year Defence Against the Dark Arts class in September 1993, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

A **Boggart** was an amortal shape-shifting non-being that took on the form of its observer's worst fear. Because of their shape-shifting ability, no one knew what a Boggart looked like when it was alone, as it changed shape instantly upon encountering someone.Template:Creature
When facing a Boggart, it was best to have someone else along, to try to confuse it, since facing more than one person at once made it indecisive towards determining what form it should take, usually resulting in a not frightening combination of the victims' fears.
Boggarts would, at least before the Battle of Hogwarts, very commonly appear as Lord Voldemort, since he represented the worst fear of many wizards and witches.

## Description

### Physical appearance

Nobody knew what a Boggart looked like if nobody was there to see it, although it continued to exist, usually giving evidence of its presence by rattling, shaking or scratching the object in which it is hiding. Boggarts particularly liked confined spaces, but may also have been found lurking in woods and around shadowy corners.

### Nature

> A Boggart is a shape-shifting creature that will assume the form of whatever most frightens the person who encounters it.
>
> A Boggart's basic nature, Pottermore

Much like Poltergeists, Boggart were non-beings, who, although they resembled living creatures, were not considered magically "alive" and were as a result amortal (a Boggart could be made to disappear with the Boggart-Banishing Spell, but it would inevitably reappear, with several more by its side at times). Much like Poltergeists with mischief and Dementors with gloom and depression, Boggarts seemed to embody the human emotion of fear, and consequently feed on other beings' fears.

Boggarts' ability to shapeshift showed remarkable speed and fluidity, but had several limitations. Firstly, being confined, if nothing else, by the size of the room it inhabited, the Boggart would scale down an otherwise-gigantic form (as seen when a Boggart turned into the full moon). Secondly, though a Boggart who transformed into a magical being or object could replicate its abilities to an extent, this would be a weaker facsimile of the real thing; thus, a Boggart transformed into a Dementor had weaker magic than a real Dementor (according to Professor Lupin, who exploited this effect to simulate a Dementor attack in Harry's presence to help him perfect the use of the Patronus Charm at no serious risk to Harry Potter's soul).

Additionally, when a witch or wizard had multiple fears that tied for their "worst," the Boggart would typically cycle through those fears, presumably randomly. For example, in August 1995, when Molly Weasley was attempting to banish a boggart that had taken up residence in 12 Grimmauld Place, the Boggart took the form of the freshly dead bodies of her family, as well as Harry Potter, whom she loved like a son. Since she feared the deaths of all her loved ones equally, the Boggart cycled through all the corpses randomly.

The extent of Boggarts' intelligence was unclear; though they sometimes took the forms of sentient beings as part of their fear-inducing transformations; those false "people" appeared to be little more than caricatures, acting out the motions of the victim's fear involving said people, heedless of their surroundings. It was worth noting however that one Boggart once settled into the form of a human killer, foregoing individual transformations, and successfully posed as this man for a long period of time; and Boggarts' closest-known "relatives", Poltergeists and Dementors, both possessed sapience.

Though they could not see other non-beings like Dementors, Muggles could sometimes see Boggarts; however, as most Muggles refused to acknowledge anything that might even be considered somewhat magical, the glimpses they caught of Boggarts were usually dismissed as mere hallucinations or figments of the viewer's imagination. This denial was helped by the fact that Muggles rarely saw Boggarts plainly, due to their favoured haunts being dark places away from the public eye.

Boggarts were capable of leaving a dark presence in spaces they once inhabited, that could be felt by humans.

### Hiding places

Boggarts were particularly fond of inhabiting dark, confined spaces, such as in wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, and the cupboards under sinks and desks. On at least one occasion, a boggart was found hiding in a grandfather clock. They also liked shadowy corners.

## Known encounters

### Number 12 Grimmauld Place

> Ron's body turned into Bill's, spread-eagled on his back, his eyes wide open and empty. Mrs Weasley sobbed harder than ever. 'R-riddikulus!' she sobbed again. Crack. Mr Weasley's body replaced Bill's, his glasses askew, a trickle of blood running down his face. 'No!' Mrs Weasley moaned. 'No ... riddikulus! Riddikulus! RIDDIKULUS!' Crack. Dead twins. Crack. Dead Percy. Crack. Dead Harry ...
>
> Molly Weasley struggling to defeat a boggart in 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

While cleaning up 12 Grimmauld Place, the new headquarters of the reconvened Order of the Phoenix, Molly Weasley stumbled across what she thought was a Boggart in a locked cabinet of a writing desk. She decided to wait for Alastor Moody to confirm it was a Boggart, before opening the cabinet.

After escaping from the party being held in celebration of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger becoming Prefects, Harry heard sobbing coming from the drawing room. When he looked inside, Harry saw Mrs Weasley cowering against a dark wall, and the body of her son, Ron, sprawled on the floor. After Molly tried the Riddikulus charm without success, Ron's body turned into the body of Bill Weasley, with his eyes wide open and empty. Molly's next attempt turned Bill's body into Arthur Weasley, with blood running down his face. The next attempts turned the boggart into Fred and George Weasley, Percy Weasley, and then Harry.

Harry shouted to Mrs Weasley that she should leave, causing Remus Lupin and Sirius Black to run into the room, followed by Alastor Moody. Lupin quickly figured out what had happened, and made the Boggart turn from Harry's dead body to the full moon, then with a wave of his wand, made the orb vanish in a puff of smoke.

### Unspecified

Although the precise details of this encounter are unknown, Lupin mentioned during his first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson in 1993 that he had once had an encounter with a Boggart in the company of at least two other people where the Boggart, attempting to frighten two people at once, turned itself into half a slug (One person was afraid of a Flesh-Eating Slug and the other was afraid of headless corpses).

## Known Boggart forms

> P-P-Professor McGonagall! Sh-she said I'd failed everything!
>
> Hermione Granger after having encountered her Boggart, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The following individuals all had Voldemort as their Boggart form, and after performing the Boggart-Banishing Spell, Lord Voldemort would turn into a baby and suck on a dummy:

* Colin Creevey
* Cornelius Fudge
* Dobby
* Draco Malfoy
* Fred Weasley
* George Weasley
* Gilderoy Lockhart
* Ginevra Weasley
* Justin Finch-Fletchley
* Minerva McGonagall
* Percy Weasley
* Peter Pettigrew
* Pomona Sprout
* Quirinus Quirrell
* Rubeus Hagrid
* Severus Snape
* Sirius Black
* Susan Bones
* Trolley witch

## Etymology

In Celtic mythology, a Template:Wplink (or bogart, bogan, bogle or boggle) is a household spirit, sometimes mischievous, sometimes helpful.

## Behind the scenes

 File:Boggart Snape (old edition).jpg
 File:Boggart Snape (new 2018 edition).jpg
 File:Boggart POP.jpg
* Lupin's Boggart, the full moon, indicated his dread of his transformations into a werewolf. However, the Boggart failed to frighten him because it is not the moon itself he feared, but its effect on him.
* In mythology, the Boggart actually lives in marshes or fields and has a short, grotesque, hairy appearance.
	+ The Boggarts in Harry Potter are more similar to the Bogeyman, being found in closets, under furniture, and cupboards and able to transform into one's worst fear.
* "Boggart" is the favourite word/line from the series of Actor David Thewlis (Remus Lupin).
* It is unknown if Boggarts can change into intangible fears like darkness, certain sounds or mental/physical illnesses. It is also unknown how they adapt to people who are only afraid of interacting with non-sentient concepts like drowning, loneliness or claustrophobia. Unless the Boggart is somehow able to engulf a person with these or similar fears it is likely they are powerless against them and might even be exposed in their actual form to these people.
	+ It is possible that the Boggart knows ways to symbolise these fears; for example, in the case of a person with Hydrophobia, showing the viewer their drowned corpse. This is supported in canon by Lord Voldemort (who feared death) seeing his own corpse, Remus Lupin (who feared his werewolf transformation) seeing the full moon, and Hermione (who feared failure) seeing Professor McGonagall telling her that she failed all of her exams. Mrs Weasley feared her loved ones dying, so the Boggart showed her loved one's corpses in succession, which supports this theory even further.
* It could be possible that if someone who has no fear attempts to engage a Boggart, it will not be able to decide what to turn into and will be forced to show its true form.
* In Template:POA, Remus Lupin mentions that no one knows what a Boggart looks like when it is alone. Alastor Moody, in Template:OOTP, is able to determine through his "mad" eye that a creature hiding in 12 Grimmauld Place is definitely a Boggart. It is assumed that Moody knew what a Boggart looked like in its true form as the Boggart had not seen him and shape-shifted.
* In Template:POA, Remus Lupin gives Harry private lessons on how to defeat Dementors, using a Boggart as a replacement. However, when Harry faced the Boggart the first and second time, when he failed to beat it, the Boggart/Dementor had managed to make Harry hear his mother's screams. This may imply that Boggarts can gain some abilities of the thing it morphs into. It also gained its weakness as it was easily defeated by Harry's Patronus.
* In an early script for Template:POA, there were several differences from the final cut of the film. The Boggarts for Neville, Ron, Harry, and Professor Lupin remained the same. Parvati's, however, would have been a vampire (specifically Count Dracula which would have been dressed like Template:W (presumably referring to her famous fruit hat outfit from the film *Template:W*) when the Boggart-Banishing Charm was used on it, with Dean having the cobra boggart Parvati has in the actual film.
* J. K. Rowling has stated that her Boggart would be the same as Molly Weasley's: her loved ones dead or alternatively herself buried alive. In an earlier interview, however, before the publication of Template:OOTP, she suggested Aragog as a possible Boggart for her, as she hates spiders.
* The Boggart may have been inspired by the "Clutterbumph" from *Manxmouse*, of which *Harry Potter* series author J.K. Rowling is a known fan. The Clutterbumph is described as follows: "...something that is not there until one imagines it. And as it is always someone different who will be doing the imagining, no two Clutterbumphs are ever exactly alike. Whatever it is that frightens one the most and that is just about the worst thing one can think of, that is what a Clutterbumph looks like."
* The Boggart also bears a resemblance to the Template:W, a monster in Hispanic and Latino folklore. Like the Cucuy, the Boggart lives in dark areas such as beneath beds and inside closets, and has the ability to change its shape at will.
* Boggarts have been compared to the Template:W from the Template:W horror novel *Template:W*, an ancient evil entity that took on the appearance of its targets' worst fears, most commonly appearing as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown".
	+ In Template:HM, Jacob's sibling's Boggart of Voldemort is turned into a clown after casting the Boggart-Banishing Spell; the clown Voldemort will then dance in the same style as Pennywise from the 2017 adaption. Later Barnaby Lee will admit that he found clown Voldemort even more intimidating due to his coulrophobia.
* Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom are the two known characters to have results for their respective Boggarts and outcomes featured in the film adaptation, the LEGO game, and the GBA game, and all true to the depictions in the books with no alterations.
* In the film and video game adaptations of the series, changes were made to the following individual's Boggart form and Boggart-Banishing Spell outcome:

 Tom Riddle | Omitted

## Notes and references

Template:Reflist
Template:Defence Against the Dark Arts

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Template:POA
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Template:WW
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Template:LEGO
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Template:POA
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Template:OOTP
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Template:POA
7. ↑ Template:HM
8. ↑ Template:WU (SOS Task Force Training - **Calamity Essentials II:** **Not So Riddikulus.** - "In a Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, you examine a cupboard that once housed a Boggart. The Boggart's departure left the cupboard undeniably bare, yet you are attuned enough to feel a dark presence reaching for you.')
9. ↑ Template:OOTP
10. ↑ Template:GOF
11. ↑ "About the Books: transcript of J.K. Rowling's live interview on Scholastic.com," Scholastic.com, 16 October 2000 at Accio Quote!
12. ↑ YouTube video
13. ↑ Yana Yanezic's agency profile
14. ↑ *Prisoner of Azkaban* script at the Internet Movie Script Database (archived here via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine)
15. ↑ Harry Potter: Meet J. K. Rowling - October 16, 2000 interview
16. ↑ Accio Quote - The story behind the Potter legend
17. ↑ 25 Years of Pennywise the Clown