#452 - Boggart and the Fish Tank

The students scattered with a bang, screaming and running around the classroom.

After all, the Boggart wasn't a real 'ghost'; it would pause for a moment each time the person closest to it changed.

So the 'ghost' was like a signal with poor connection, sometimes ferocious and terrifying, sometimes at a loss, switching states very frequently. The poor thing seemed completely confused by the students.

But because its appearance didn't fundamentally change, almost none of the terrified students noticed this.

Only Wade, who had been standing still, looked at the Boggart, then at Professor Trolca, who had completely lost control of the situation, and noticed that the new professor also looked a bit dazed, as if he had never expected such a situation to occur in the classroom, causing his CPU to short-circuit and temporarily unable to react.

After running around like headless flies for a while, the crowd in the classroom basically divided into two groups.

Most of them hid behind Professor Trolca, and a small number cowered behind Wade.

Wade: "…"

He sighed softly and took two steps forward.

Wade was actually curious and wanted to know what he was most afraid of. At the same time, he felt that even if Voldemort or the corpse of a loved one suddenly appeared in the classroom, he would know that this was a magical effect and wouldn't lose his composure.

The ghost quickly approached.

Snap!

With a crisp sound, the terrifying centipede ghost instantly disappeared, replaced by something no one had expected.

"Ah... Ahhhh..."

Daphne's face was pale, and she hid in the corner, eyes tightly closed, as if genuinely wanting to squeeze herself into the crack in the corner.

After screaming for a while, she suddenly noticed that the surrounding screams had disappeared. She abruptly closed her mouth and then cautiously opened one eye.

The imagined scene—the terrifying ghost right in front of her, with its bloody mouth wide open—did not exist. Daphne mustered her courage to look around and found that there was no ghost in the classroom, but instead there was a...

"Fish tank?" Malfoy voiced the question in everyone's mind. He raised his eyebrows and asked in surprise, "Gray, the thing you're most afraid of is a fish tank?"

He deliberately pretended to be relaxed, as if he wasn't the first person to run behind Professor Trolca when the ghost transformed.

At this moment, Malfoy snorted with laughter, looking left and right, seemingly thinking everyone would laugh at Wade with him, but even Goyle just stared blankly ahead, with nothing but incomprehension on his face.

Malfoy looked at the center of the classroom again.

Okay, looking closely, the fish tank was indeed a bit strange—

There was only a slow-swimming little fish in the transparent crystal fish tank, and the water was very clear, which was nothing.

But extending from the top of the fish tank was a dense circle of pink flesh-colored nerves. At first glance, it looked like a petal-shaped decoration, but upon closer inspection, one would find that the tips were all hanging with round eyeballs, and those eyeballs were all staring intently at the fish tank below.

This Cthulhu-esque scene gave Malfoy goosebumps belatedly, as if he had sensed some invisible, enormous, terrifying existence.

He rubbed his arms and whispered to Pansy beside him, "Which movie is this scene from? Have you seen it?"

Pansy shook her head and muttered softly, "So weird... What kind of things does Gray usually watch?"

The puzzled and surprised whispers of the crowd seemed to awaken the dazed Wade. He took a step forward, pointed his wand at the Boggart, and said unhurriedly, "Riddikulus!"

Snap!

The fish tank disappeared, replaced by a man in black with an old-fashioned camera on his head. He took a step forward, then fell to the ground with a 'splat', flailing his limbs on the ground like swimming on dry land.

Malfoy's keen eyesight allowed him to notice that the corners of Wade's mouth were slightly raised at this time, as if he really found this scene funny and laughable.

He couldn't help but say to the people around him, "That guy Gray... is there something wrong with him?"

"What? No way?"

Goldstein, who was also hiding behind Professor Trolca, said, thinking of a reason for his housemate:

Malfoy rolled his eyes, originally wanting to say that, but looking at the Ravenclaws beside him, and then at Professor Trolca's tall back in front of him, he finally swallowed the words in his heart.

Professor Trolca finally reacted at this time. He flicked his wand and threw the Boggart, which was lying on the ground unable to get up, back into the box. Then he coughed dryly and looked at everyone.

"Except for Wade Gray, I am very dissatisfied with the performance of all of you just now!"

Professor Trolca slightly increased his tone, and seeing the students who had fled in panic lower their heads in his gaze, he slowly breathed a sigh of relief, pretending that the chaotic classroom just now was the purpose he wanted to achieve.

Professor Trolca waved his wand, causing the wands, books, crystal balls, and other objects that had been randomly thrown away by their owners to fly back. Then he said:

"I think you have realized that running away is the most useless approach, and dropping your wand is even more foolish!"

"The way to deal with a Boggart is the Riddikulus charm, but if you are confused and have a weak will, then standing with others is also a way to cope!"

Professor Trolca walked back and forth in the classroom, repeatedly emphasizing the way to deal with Boggarts in a cold tone, and had everyone review the spell several times again. When most of the class time had passed, he restarted the practical exercise.

This time, the students lined up in neat rows, challenging one after another, finally becoming much more orderly.

It's just that every time the centipede ghost emerged, it would still cause a small exclamation.

…

As Wade expected, the [fish tank] incident quickly spread on a small scale.

At dinner, the SSC members sat near Wade, eating with hesitant expressions, looking like they wanted to ask but didn't dare to, which seemed a bit painful.

The Weasley twins, however, didn't care about other people's possible 'fragile hearts' at all. They walked over ostentatiously, holding a fish tank, which even had a small fish that was probably scooped out of the Black Lake.

"Look, Wade! The most terrifying thing in the world!" Fred winked and laughed.

"Overcome your psychological shadow! If you're afraid, we'll help you overcome it together!"

George patted the fish tank with a smirk and placed it on the long table in front of Wade. Theo and Ryan, who were sitting opposite, quickly moved several plates away.

"Hey, you guys!"

Hermione ran over angrily, but before she could condemn them, she saw Wade poked the fish tank and said:

"Who said I'm afraid of this thing? You should put this pike back in the lake. Its requirements for the living environment are very strict, and it's easy to kill it."

The twins looked at each other, and asked in confusion, "Huh? But we heard... the Boggart turned into a fish tank in front of you?"

Seeing that many people around were curiously perking up their ears, Wade also wanted to explain, so he patiently said:

"The vast starry sky, every star may be a sun, or even a galaxy. We live in the solar system, the outside world is very, very big, so big that it can be said to have no boundaries."

"Oh..." Harry asked blankly, "What does this have to do with the fish tank?"

Wade said, "A Muggle scientist once asked the question—if there are a large number of alien civilizations in the universe, why haven't we found any signs of extraterrestrial life so far?"

"It's like, in a huge body of water, under what circumstances would there only be one fish?"

"Either there is great danger in the water, and other fish have unfortunately died, and only this fish has survived in extremely accidental and extremely lucky circumstances."

"Or—"

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Wade tapped the transparent fish tank and said:

"The seemingly vast world is actually just a small fish tank, and this fish is being raised here—and the keeper only wants to raise one fish."

"The little fish seems to be swimming freely in the water, but in reality, it is trapped in this fish tank for its entire life and can never leave. It doesn't even know that there are eyes outside the fish tank observing it."

He spoke calmly, but whether it was because of rich associative abilities or overly sensitive emotions, several people suddenly shivered.

"I think I understand why you're afraid of that kind of thing..." Harry muttered.

He imagined himself as that 'only fish in the fish tank' and suddenly felt that even being with the Dursleys was better than that.

"Why can't it be that the ocean is too big, and this fish is small and swims slowly, so it hasn't encountered other fish?"

A dazed voice came from behind. Wade turned around and saw Luna standing behind him at some point. After listening for a while, she suddenly interjected, saying seriously:

"And what you said just now is wrong—it's not just on Earth that there are living beings! Someone once flew to the moon and brought back a bag of shiny moon frogs. If we can fly to Mars, fly to the sun, maybe we will find even more amazing life!"

"Oh, Luna! Don't say these crazy things! People will laugh at you."

A girl from the same dormitory as Luna covered her face with one hand and reached out to pull Luna away.

Wade smiled and said, "Maybe you're right... I haven't seen the world outside of Earth with my own eyes, so I can't be sure that there are no other life forms outside of Earth. But if one day..."

He paused and then said, "One day, if this small, slow fish really encounters other fish, will they coexist peacefully? Or will it immediately become prey for predators?"

Luna blinked and slowly said, "...How can we know that?"

"Yes..." Wade looked at her and said, "That's the problem."

The surroundings were quiet for a while.

Especially the Ravenclaws, many students frowned, thinking about unsolvable questions such as "What if the universe is barren", "The keeper observing the fish", and "Why do we exist".

Luna was pulled away by her friend thoughtfully, her eyes seeming even more dazed, as if her whole person was immersed in a half-dreaming, half-waking state.

When Wade turned back, he found that the huge fish tank in front of him had been moved away by someone. Theo had put a lot of food on his plate. When Wade looked over, a thick toast had just landed.

"Theo, what are you doing?" Wade asked in confusion.

"I heard that being hungry makes people pessimistic and prone to negative emotions." Theo said with a tangled expression, "Wade... eat more for dinner."

Wade looked at him, then at the plate.

He turned to Ryan and said, "Is he mocking me?"

Ryan suppressed a smile and put a potato on Wade's plate, silently expressing his support for Theo.

While everyone else was silent, the only thought of the two Hufflepuffs was—why think about these things? Scaring yourself.

…

Malfoy angrily discovered that the topic he had finally spread—"Wade Gray is actually afraid of fish tanks"—quickly disappeared, replaced by some grand and empty propositions.

Even during Astronomy class, Professor Sinistra added a white fish tank pattern to her hat and, while everyone was observing the starry sky, told a class of legendary stories of various constellations, finally saying that these were all fabricated by people.

During History of Magic class, Pansy suddenly said with emotion, "If our world is just a huge fish tank, then I will always like you, Draco. I don't care if anyone observes our feelings."

A confession that would have made Malfoy feel sweet in the past now made him frown.

—Why is everyone taking Wade Gray's casual remarks so seriously? That kid thinks about these questions so obsessively that even the Boggart turned into a fish tank. Do you have to be like that too?

—Speaking of which, why did the Boggart really turn into a fish tank with eyeballs? After all, compared to a guess, the centipede ghost looks more terrifying, right?

Malfoy faintly felt something strange, but he couldn't say why.

However, he didn't actually want to delve into Wade Gray's thoughts. After thinking for a while, he let it go, eagerly anticipating the afternoon to come sooner.

Last semester, when Hagrid first taught Care of Magical Creatures, he brought some Hippogriffs. Malfoy angered one of them, and both he and Harry Potter were scratched by the beast.

Later, because of "certain people's" threats, Malfoy had to swallow his anger and didn't encourage his father to find a way to fire Hagrid. As an exchange, Hagrid promised to take him to see a dragon.

But every day after that, Malfoy had to serve detention with the professor because of the earlier incident of almost killing Crabbe, and he couldn't find an opportunity to see the dragon at all.

Just recently, at Malfoy's repeated urging, Hagrid finally worked hard and "snatched" an opportunity to give Malfoy detention from Professor Snape.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Malfoy happily walked towards Hagrid's hut, trying to suppress his steps to keep himself from jumping up, but as he approached the hut, his face suddenly became gloomy.

Why are all those guys I hate the most here, too?