What are you afraid of?
In the third novel, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” there is a scene where Professor Lupin teaches the class how to encounter a boggart. For those of you who aren’t a die-hard Harry Potter fan (like myself), a boggart is a shape-shifter that takes on the appearance of that in which we are most afraid. The only way to defend against a boggart is to think of a way to alter the shape-shifter into a comical representation of that fearful aberration.
For example, I am terrified of mice. I can’t quite explain the reasoning behind this phobia…it has something to do with how small they are and how fast they move. I spend my summers at my family’s cottage in Ontario (Canada), and the mice always find their way into the warm confines of the inner-cabin.
To take a quick trip down memory lane, I had to go into a work shed at the bottom of the cottage property (pictured above). I was promised that there would be no mice. It took me about 15 minutes standing outside of the shed to muster up the courage to go inside. The moment I set foot inside the shed, a mouse scurried across my feet. That was the last time I set foot in that shed. Yes, it traumatized me…and that fear hasn’t changed with age. I still get anxious that I’m going to see a mouse every time I return to my cottage.
If I were to defend against a boggart that shape-shifted into a mouse, I must admit that I would make the mouse dance. In all honesty, I would make it twerk – because what would be funnier than a mouse with its hands on its knees, twerking?! Don’t judge my sense of humor.
Yet again, we see J.K. Rowling presenting another opportunity to apply some deep character analysis. If we think through our main characters (and even our secondary characters), the way in which we consider their fears and their sense of humor will help us develop believable characters within our fictional WIPs.
Give it a try! What will a boggart shape-shift into if appearing before you? What would you do to the shape-shifter that would make you laugh? What about the characters in your WIP?
Tiffany Price 