Fearfully, Fearfully, Stepping Away

There was something a little disconcerting about watching a thumping cupboard.  Andrea looked from the cupboard to Professor Cox. Had he shut a misbehaving student in there?  Perhaps it was a warning to her own class not to be unruly.  Andrea had never unrulled in class so she was sure she was safe.  But there was the matter of the not quite complete homework she sometimes handed in.

Then he spoke, hitting the side of the box with his wand and asking the class if they knew what was in it. So no student?  Andrea looked around to see who'd guess first.  She had no idea at all.  Though perhaps that was due to her not having read anything of her book since the last lesson.  She didn't have long to wait and she now wished she could continue in her ignorance.  A boggart. A creature which looked like your greatest fear. Did that match your worst memory?  Because Andrea did not want to go revisit that.  Was afraid of that memory in fact.

She jumped up and helped push away tables on Professor Cox's orders.  Then came the practical part of the lesson.  The incantation riddikulus was burned on her brain. Remembering spells was the easy part of magic. It was making them work which was challenging. Especially when she had nothing to visualise.  She didn't even know how to separate her fear from her worst memory.  Thus she had no idea what she was really afraid of. "You can go before me," she said to another student after watching their classmate successfully deal with her clown fear by making the clown's facepaint run.

As soon as she entered the room, she was intrigued by the mysterious box. You know, that sensatiol telling you to seek the most dangerous path, even when it is filled with poisonous snakes? When Cox started to explain what was actually in there, Ursula was horrified. She had opened ip considerably during the last two years, but to face her fears in front of a crowd? That wasn't happening anytime soon. But wasn't this simply another barrier she had to overcome? She wasn't even completely sure what she was afraid of. And she wasn't simply a bold teenager. She was Ursula Clara Valdez Caballero, Amazon. She wouldn't let her fears stand a chance!

In the meantime, three students had already faced the boggart. She was the next one. Clowns, spiders, heights, but what would she have? She was kind of nervous... And then, it appeared. Or rather, didn't. Nothing really happened. Right? She looked to where Cox stood before, but he had vanished. She looked around to where the rest of the class had once stood. Vanished onto thin air... It puzzled Ursula. She wasn't afraid of being alone. She had been alone for eleven years, so what did it matter if she was again? She looked around once more. Still nobody. But then, she saw a massive crowd. She knew everyone there. Stephanie, Hassan, even Aidan and Apollo ere there. As she walked towards them, she hit a wall. She physically couldn't move further. She tried yelling, but they didn't hear her. They were walking away from her! Is this how it feels to be left behind...?