Adam’s Boggart

"Fish? Eugene was afraid of fish? What kind of joke was that?"

Klon behind Eugene could not help crying out,

"Could this Boggart have changed into too many forms yesterday and broken down today?"

"Wait…"

By now, the scent of the fish had begun to spread. Smelling that subtle mixture of fishiness and sourness, Bernard behind Klon’s expression also turned peculiar:

"This smell is…"

Gradually, more and more people caught the scent, and their expressions became identically strange:

"This smell is…"

"West Lake Vinegar Fish!" xN

Amid the unanimous cries, Eugene’s voice was especially gritted.

Eugene could swear that out of every Chinese fish dish he had ever eaten, this was the most devilish-tasting one. After just one bite, it felt as though the fish on the plate had suddenly leaped up and slapped him in the face more than a dozen times.

At the same time, it gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity. This fish should have been stuck into a square grilled flatbread tray, not lying on a ceramic plate.

Just smelling it made Eugene’s face turn pale, and he felt like vomiting. Fortunately, he still remembered what they were doing and hurriedly raised his wand.

"Riddikulus!"

That plate of West Lake Vinegar Fish immediately turned into a grilled fish that was perfect in color, aroma, and flavor, releasing a fragrance that made everyone in the classroom swallow in unison.

"Adam, let’s have grilled fish for dinner tonight."

"Okay."

Eugene’s imagined grilled fish really did smell amazing. Even Adam could not help wanting some.

Professor Lupin’s expression turned a little strange. The thing used to counter a Boggart was supposed to be something funny… Was a plate of grilled fish really that… gulp—worth being happy about?

"Not bad. Next!"

Klon stepped forward, and unsurprisingly, the Boggart transformed into a huge swarm of Puffskeins.

"Riddikulus!"

The Puffskeins that had been about to pounce turned into inflated balloons, then burst with a rapid series of pops, leaving balloon fragments scattered all over the floor.

Next was Bernard. When he stepped forward, the Boggart turned into a beautiful woman in a suit. She crossed her arms and gave Bernard a cold glance.

"You can get lost with your father. All these years of pretending were only because I wanted to set him up and make him leave with nothing…"

"Riddikulus!"

Bernard’s face looked awful. After freezing for a moment, he remembered to draw his wand and quickly turned the Boggart into a balloon clown wobbling in place.

Professor Lupin gave him a complicated look. Did children these days really have such complicated things on their minds?

"Not bad. Next!"

As Bernard turned and headed toward the back of the classroom, Uther and Adam both reached out and brushed the back of his hand hanging by his side. Bernard turned his face slightly and nodded at them.

Before he could think further about Bernard’s Boggart, Uther took a deep breath and stepped forward. A moment later, the inflated clown twisted and burst into roaring flames.

The thing Uther feared was actually fire?

The students looked at the flames in confusion and discovered that three figures tied to metal frames slowly emerged within the blaze. They were Uther, Adam, and an adult man none of them recognized.

What was especially shocking was that Uther’s chest had been torn wide open, clothes and flesh alike, with a scarab beetle clinging inside.

Quite a few students took half a step back at the horrifying sight.

Seeing his own Boggart, Uther’s face first went slightly pale. After several seconds of confusion, realization flashed through his eyes, and he quickly raised his wand.

"Riddikulus!"

The flames surged, and the people within them transformed into a bruised and battered dog-headed man, sprawled on the ground and wailing miserably.

Uther could not help laughing at the sight.

Professor Lupin looked at the transformed Boggart, especially its bruised wolf-like head, and could not help falling silent.

He suspected that this student had already seen through his identity as a werewolf and was hinting at it this way, but he had no proof.

"Mm… not bad. Next!"

Giving Uther, who was walking toward the back of the classroom, a puzzled look, Adam decided to ask later why he had also been tied to a metal frame. Then he stepped forward.

However, the dog-headed man did not change at all for several seconds. Just as Professor Lupin was beginning to question his life, Adam suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to turn off his Shield Card.

Originally, as beings that did not truly exist, a Boggart’s abilities should have been able to pass through the Shield Card’s protection just like a Dementor’s. But Adam had later patched it…

The good news was that after this, Adam felt that his Shield Card should be able to block a Dementor’s effects.

Curious about his own Boggart, Adam turned off the Shield Card and looked at it with anticipation.

Under Adam’s gaze, the Boggart finally began to change—

Uther lay on the ground with his chest ripped open, almost exactly like Adam in Uther’s Boggart earlier—the only difference was that Uther was not wearing a shirt now.

Professor Lupin could not help looking at Adam. What was going on with these two?

Several shy girls in the crowd let out soft cries at the sight and hurriedly covered their eyes. Yet some bolder ones simply widened their eyes and stared hard… Wait, what was wrong with that male student?

Then they paid the price for their behavior.

A flash of green light vanished. Cedric, his eyes hollow, suddenly appeared and fell to the ground.

The young wizards: "???"

One of the Weasley twins, Professor Snape, Professor Dumbledore… Familiar and unfamiliar students and professors alike, even the bodies of people nobody recognized, appeared one after another without end. Their deaths varied as well, utterly shocking everyone who saw the scene.

"Riddikulus!"

Adam was equally stunned, but he quickly recovered and raised his wand to cast the spell.

The mountain of corpses instantly turned into fluttering scraps of paper that drifted down and scattered across the floor.

"…"

Professor Lupin remained silent for a long time. Among the bodies falling like rain, he seemed to have seen himself. Besides that, there had been a somewhat familiar figure… someone who had already escaped from prison.

Professor Lupin gave Adam, who seemed just as stunned and had yet to recover, a long look, but did not say much.

"Not bad. Next!"

When Adam reached the back of the classroom, his roommates immediately surrounded him.

"Adam, why was your Boggart so… bloody?"

Bernard could not help looking at Adam with concern.

"Ahem, actually, it was just a nightmare… I don’t remember it very clearly."

After thinking for a moment, Adam gave a somewhat vague answer, then looked at Uther.

"Come to think of it, why was I in Lake of Fire Prison in your Boggart too?"

"Uh…"

The concern in Uther’s eyes immediately turned to embarrassment.

"At the time, your protective magic appeared beside me, and I realized you had come to save me. But not long after that, I started worrying because I didn’t know whether you would encounter danger on the way, or whether you could evade Anubis’s Scales… So I was afraid that you would end up imprisoned there with me because of me."

"I see."

Adam nodded in understanding.