Boggart

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.

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.

Subject ID: 116700

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Subject ID: 116700

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