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harry potter - Are boggarts able to take the form of abstract fears?


So to provide a little bit of context to my question I put up a scenario that happened at school.


A friend and I were talking about some horror movies and we happened to end up talking about what we feared most. Seeing as he was a really creative and artistic person he said that he feared his 'imagination'as he described it as nice yet also occasional confronting in a mental sense.


Another friend stated that he feared his 'memory' as he says that thinking back sometimes made him relive his worst moments such remembering about the death of one of his family members.


I wanted to know whether boggarts are able to take form of abstract fears and if so, how would they be going about it?



Answer



I would say that, technically, yes a Boggart could take the form of an abstract fear based on how Hermione describes a Boggart in Prisoner of Azkaban:




‘So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a Boggart?’

Hermione put up her hand.

‘It’s a shape-shifter,’ she said. ‘It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most.’

Prisoner of Azkaban - page 101 - Bloomsbury - chapter 7, The Boggart In the Wardrobe



She doesn't say "thing", "object", or "person" -- she just says "whatever it thinks will frighten us most."


The Boggart would have figure out how to present itself in a meaningful way, though, to be scary.


Now I'm wondering if the Boggart ever guesses wrong when it comes to individual fears ...


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