Revisiting the Boggart Lesson

[sunnyskywalker]

When I was a kid, I didn’t think too hard about Lupin’s boggart lesson. It was a cool creature, a DADA teacher finally taught them something useful, and we got a clue to Lupin’s fears and a segue into Lupin teaching Harry the Patronus Charm. Neat, right?

But now I’ve tried imagining myself as one of the students in that lesson. And as Lupin, for that matter. What the hell was Lupin thinking by making the students face the boggart in front of the entire class?

First, even if he could guarantee that every single student had nothing but relatively innocent fears like spiders and mummies, who would want their classmates knowing what scared them most? Especially at Hogwarts, where you know someone will make use of that information to play humiliating and/or terrifying “pranks.”

Okay, Hogwarts is extremely tolerant of public humiliation. McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid all find it an acceptable teaching tool, and young Snape follows their example extremely faithfully. Maybe Lupin just doesn’t use it as much while not seeing anything wrong with it. But…

Second, Lupin knows it’s likely that at least two students have worse fears. Leaving aside the probability that one or more children in the class has been abused, sexually assaulted, stalked, etc., he doesn’t let Harry try because he thinks the boggart might turn into Voldemort. He also was in the Order of the Phoenix with Frank and Alice, and knows that Neville’s boggart might be a Death Eater yelling “Crucio!” or his parents staring blankly. (He probably doesn't know about Uncle Algie.) He’s had at least a day to think about this lesson. So… was he planning to prevent Harry—and possibly Neville too in the original plan—from trying all along? How was that supposed to work?

Third, even if he knows or believes that Neville’s run-in with Snape right before the lesson will make the boggart Snape, the fear most recent in his mind, rather than something deeper… he knows Snape, and he ought to be able to predict the effects of “helping” Neville this way. Really, how does he think Snape will treat someone who publicly humiliates him by putting him in women’s clothes in front of the entire class? With praise and kisses? Or even indifference? Lupin may not know about young Sev’s possible blouse, but he has every reason to know that Snape has, um, issues with his clothing being mocked in public. (Understandably.) Does he really think any possible boost to Neville’s confidence will be enough to shield him against Snape’s anger? I mean, Snape was not nearly as bad as he might have been, since Harry is vague and probably would have mentioned if there were any specific, unusually shocking incidents, but still.

Fourth, even if you posit a chillingly callous Lupin who doesn’t give a damn about the students’ emotional well-being and will happily set Neville up for retaliation as long as he gets the chance to mock Snivellus in public, this lesson is a threat to his secret. He could reasonably predict that he might have to be the person closest to the boggart at some point, and that it would turn into a moon. He could hardly count on no one recognizing the round thing as a moon, could he? And then noticing that he’s sick once a month at the full moon? Wizarding-raised kids who grew up on stories of real werewolves like Fenfir Greyback, who might have been raised to stay inside at full moon and keep track of moon cycles, ought to be able to figure this out easily. Especially when they are all required to take Astronomy for five years, and many take Divination as an elective. Keeping track of the moon is part of their regular homework! Really, he was damned lucky that Hermione was the only kid who figured it out. (Or was it just luck? Insert your conspiracy theory here.)

So. Given multiple compelling reasons to believe that having students reveal their fears in public is a terrible lesson plan, why did he do it? Why didn’t he find a way to demonstrate the procedure that didn’t involve risking outing himself as a werewolf? Why didn’t he handle the individual student attempts the same way as in exams, when each student faced the boggart alone? Was he just unprepared and incompetent, or was their a point to this?

I’m struggling to find a Watsonian explanation. Any ideas?

Comments

Re: Lupin Boggart

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

The relevant text from the book:

The legless spider had vanished. For a second, everyone looked wildly around to see where it was. Then they saw a silvery-white orb hanging in the air in front of Lupin, who said, “Riddikulus!” almost lazily.

~*~

“I wonder why Professor Lupin’s frightened of crystal balls?” said Lavender thoughtfully.