Daichi's legs had been wobbly even after he had read the homework announcement. Face your boggart and laugh. Nervous sweat broke out as he stood in front of the defence against the dark arts classroom door. Was the boggart going to pop up the moment he opened this door?

He already knew what his boggart was going to be. Merlin, he figured the whole school knew by now! After taking a few deep breathes to calm himself, Daichi touched the doorknob and turned it around slowly, so slow that it might have even been in slowmotion and for a second, the Prefect also hoped that the door was locked.

His luck was not with him when the doorknob clicked and he pushed the door open slowly. It creaked and a normal room met his eyes. Visibly relieved that the boggart hadn't popped out like he had expected, the Slytherin stepped inside and the door fell closed behind him like in those horror stories.

Looking back one last time, he gave himself an encouraging nod before walking in to the classroom. The first thing he noticed were the books that were stacked and scattered around the place but his main focus was on a strange looking trunk in the back of the room. Well, it looked like any normal trunk but Daichi had the feeling that the boggart was hiding in there.

Flicking his wrist, his wand fell out of his holster and in to his hand. He carefully stepped forward and it was then that the trunk suddenly rattled. Like something was trying to come out. He jumped in shock and gulped when he knew he had to continue or else he would fail. Taking another step closer, the Slytherin suddenly noticed that smoke suddenly came out of the key hole and the lid of the trunk. The smoke flew up to the ceiling though this smoke was different than from real smoke. It looked the same but..he could breathe normally. His eyes didn't hurt as well either.

Right, this was because this was just a boggart. Not the real thing. With this in mind, the Prefect took one last step and the lid of the trunk suddenly fell open.

Flames flew up as high as the ceiling and Daichi froze. With wide , terrified eyes he remembered that night when he had only been seven years old and had to fight his way through the fires inside his own house and loosing his mother..NO! don't think about that!. The same emotions swept through him as he stared at the huge flames that were now busy surrounding him. The fear, the anxiety and the tears.

And yes, as he stared at the blazing fire, tears sprung in his eyes and threatened to fall down. Fighting all of his instinct to run away from the room, Daichi suddenly had a clear moment in his mind that this was just a boggart and now that he concentrated on the warmth of the fire, he realized that there was none. The rooms temperature still felt the same as when he had first came in. "R-ri..riddikulus" he whimpered and tried to think of something funny but nothing came in his mind. He should have thought about that before entering this room!

He turned around and noted that the fire had now completely surrounded him like he was in the eye of an hurricane. He closed his eyes and realized that he was still trembling like mad. Holding his wand with both of his hands, he pointed it to his boggart and thought of , how strange this may sound, a duck wearing funny clothes and waddling around. Those creatures Always made him laugh AND it had helped him during his fifth year OWL , he pointed to his boggart and shouted "RIDDIKULUS!" His voice was stronger, though was still very high pitched. He kept his eyes closed as he concentrated on his funny thought.

Slowly, veeeeeeery slowly but effectively a smile became visible on his face and he started to giggle. Another couple of giggles as the duck in his mind did a pirouette and this was when he laughed. "HAHAHA" He opened his eyes and immediately froze again when the fire was still there. He closed them quickly and concentrated more on the funny duck. "RIDDIKULUS!" he shouted and laughed. It wasn't a real *real* laughter but it had to do right?

He dared to look again and the flames suddenly became smaller , it shaped differently and what he tried to see in his mind suddenly stood before him. It was a duck, wearing a cute yet funny tuxedo and did a pirouette before it vanished. The trunk didn't rattle anymore and he knew he had won.

He slowly put his wand back in its wrist holster and walked towards the door. Only realising he had been crying when he opened the door to leave and never to return