It wasn't often that the Harry could walk down the halls of Hogwarts without hearing that he was somehow involved in the latest gossip. Word travelled fast throughout the school, Harry knew this first hand, and yet he still found himself surprised at just how quickly word had spread about the defence against the dark arts lesson he had had earlier that day.

The lesson was guaranteed to be spoken about since the professor had taken them into the staff room, but none of the students could have predicted the results of the boggart confrontation. Those within the castle who were familiar with boggarts were eager to hear about the experience of the class as soon as they heard the word 'boggart'. Nothing seemed more interesting to them than finding out what their schoolmates had seen it turn into, and Harry had heard a few ridiculous claims involving himself coming face to face with a manner of things such as an empty Gringotts vault, a clown, and even a chihuahua. This was to be expected though, the curiosity of the students would have led to these conversations happening regardless.

What was different was the Pines twins.

For every ludicrous rumour Harry heard about a classmate of his facing a made-up fear, he heard at least three new rumours about the Pines twins. Both had an unusual experience with the boggart, to say the least, and it was this which had sparked such a frenzy within the student body. Suddenly the two transfer students were the most interesting people within the school. Even at the beginning of the year, when Dumbledore announced they were newly transferred from America, the interest in the two students hadn't been this large.

Harry recalled the interest in Mabel had left pretty quickly once she joined Gryffindor, quickly managing to both irritate half of the girls in her house and scare away half of the boys with her loud personality. While Harry didn't know her twin Dipper personally, he didn't seem to stick out that much from the other Ravenclaw students. Apart from his tendency to mumble to himself and his almost paranoid glances around any room her entered, he seemed to be a typical kid. The only thing that the other students had gathered from them was that when the two twins were together, they had a tendency to speak of things that didn't quite make sense, and occasionally closed themselves off from the other students.

Walking into the great hall, Harry didn't even need to try and guess what was on everyone's mind as he heard "Pines" coming out the mouths of students from all directions. Taking his seat at the Gryffindor table Harry cast a quick glance at the staff's table, noticing that Lupin wasn't present. The twins had stayed behind after class with the professor and hadn't been seen by anyone since. Though rumour had it that Madam Pomfrey was seen leaving the hospital ward -a seemingly impossible thing to occur- and heading towards the staff room with an expression of stone. That was three hours ago, and classes were now over. If the twins didn't make an appearance during dinner Harry was sure some student would make an attempt to break into the staff room to satisfy everyone's curiosity.

"Harry, you were in that class today weren't you?" Colin Creevey's eager voice snapped Harry out of his musings.

"Uh, yeah I was." Harry coughed. "Why?"

"Is it true?" Colin's eyes were large. "What they're saying about the Pines twins?"

"What are they saying?" Harry asked blandly, taking a sip of pumpkin juice. He wished Hermione were with him right now to lecture Colin about the issues with spreading rumours, or something equally annoying so Harry didn't have to deal with it.

"Well I heard that they broke a boggart, but that can't be possible right? How do you break a dark creature?" Colin shook his head. "That doesn't make sense, but I don't believe that a demon possessed anyone either."

"What?" Harry choked on his drink. "Who's been saying that?"

"People." Colin shrugged. "I heard that when Dipper was facing the boggart it was able to walk around in front of other people without changing, and it even managed to scare the professor!"

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well, it did seem like it was doing that, but I'm sure that-"

"And," Colin pressed on, "it conjured fire onto Dipper, and it called itself a demon, and the spell to get rid of it didn't work."

"You weren't there Colin." Harry reminded him.

Collin hesitated. "Well is any of that wrong?"

Harry sighed. "Look Collin, I don't know. It seemed like it, but we could be wrong."

Collin frowned in thought. "Well if it was just a weird boggart, what do you think they were so afraid of?"

Harry thought of the genuine fear and panic on the twins faces when the 'boggart' yelled at them.

"I don't know Collin," Harry said after a moment of thought, "and it's not really any of my business to know."

Collin sagged in apparent disappointment.

"They seemed pretty shaken up. I don't think they need the whole school trying to dissect them on top of whatever they've just gone through." Harry made a pointed effort to look Collin straight in the face as he said this.

Letting the words sink in, Collin nodded in thought. "Yeah I guess you're right Harry. They did just have to face their fears in front of everyone. Thanks for the chat." And with that, the younger boy scurried off down the table, likely to tell his brother of this conversation.

With his younger housemate gone Harry stared at his dinner plate, suddenly realizing that he wasn't as keen on eating his dinner as he was previously. It was weird to him, what was happening to the Pines twins. Harry knew what it was like to have the entire school be interested in him and the self-consciousness that came with it. He didn't want to be a part of those who would make the twins feel how he felt last year after the duelling club incident, where is seemed like the whole school had turned on him. He wanted to be one of the people who didn't let the gossip spread, but who instead minded their own business or stood by the person who needed it. And yet he still couldn't help but feel uneasy about the whole thing.

"Are they back yet?"

Harry was so deep in thought he jumped at the sound of his best friend's voice beside him.

"Well?" Ron prompted.

"No, they haven't been seen yet." Harry said, noticing Hermione had also joined the table.

"Weird." Ron mumbled as he reached over the table to fill his dinner plate. "You'd think someone would have heard something new by now."

"Really Ron," Hermione huffed, "it's none of our business."

"Well yeah," Ron spoke through a mouthful of potato, "but you're dying to know right?"

Hermione visibly bristled at the question but didn't answer.

"You know," Ron swallowed his mouthful, "I've always thought those two were weird. Didn't you guys?"

Harry hesitated before answering. "I never really knew either of them well."

"Well yeah," Ron conceded, "but that Dipper kid is weird, always mumbling to himself."

Harry refrained from commenting.

"Hermione, Mabel's in your dorm right?" Ron asked. "What'd you think of her before this?"

In an uncertain pause Hermione thought of how best to phrase her response. "She was an... interesting addition to the girls' dorm."

"Oh come off," Ron scoffed. "What do you mean by that?"

Hermione pursed her lips slightly. "She was the loudest one in the dorm and had a tendency to wake us up early in the morning with her yelling."

"Yelling?" Harry asked, wondering if she suffered from night terrors.

"Yes, she often gets overexcited after she has a good dream and then wakes us all up." Hermione seemed to deflate slightly at the memory.

"Oh." So, it wasn't night terrors then.

"So, the sister is really loud and crazy," Ron surmised, "but even I knew that. Go on Hermione, there must be something you noticed that was odd about her."

Hermione glanced uncertainly at her plate in front of her.

"Cause I reckon there must have been some sort of signs that they were mental." Ron continued, oblivious to the conflict Hermione was going through. "I mean I'm pretty sure Dipper didn't have any friends, and everyone knows he's always twitchy and mumbling to himself. But there has to be other signs, right?"

"Ron would you please stop talking about this?" Hermione snapped.

He reared his head back in shock and glanced between Harry and Hermione. "What's your problem you two?" He asked. "I'm just asking what everyone else is asking. Don't you guys wanna know too?"

Hermione sighed. "Ron, it's none of our business." She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Besides, I don't think they're going to stay here for much longer now."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Mabel told me once that the main reason they transferred here was for a 'change of scenery'," Hermione paused, "but I'm pretty sure it was because something bad happened to them recently, and so they needed to leave that area for a while."

"What makes you say that, Hermione?" Harry asked, his stomach suddenly felt heavy from his dinner.

"Well..." Hermione was visibly conflicted and glanced around the room before she lowered her voice to the two boys. "She has night terrors sometimes, and I've heard her mention to her brother about 'getting away from him', whoever that means."

Both boys let the information sink in.

"You don't think this could involve you-know-who somehow?" Ron asked, looking at Harry.

Harry slowly shook his head. "I don't see how they could have anything to do with him."

"Maybe," Ron suggested, "they meant you-know-who; getting away from him!"

"They're from America Ron." Hermione spoke. "I doubt they're mixed up in that."

Ron huffed, then continued to eat his dinner.

An awkward silence hung over the trio as they made their way through their meals, before Hermione broke it with a quite murmur of "I hope they're okay."

"I'm sure they will be." Harry spoke. "Professor Lupin stayed behind with them."

"True." She didn't sound convinced.

It was during the trio's conversation that Dumbledore had made his way to the staff table, and then stood to make an announcement. Everyone's eyes were on the old wizard, and while no one was speaking everyone was wondering the same thing; 'what is going on with the Pines twins?'

"If I may have your attention for just a few moments, students." It was unnecessary for him to ask for what he already had. "Some of you may have heard rumours of an incident occurring during the third years defence against the dark arts lesson today. I would like to first clear up a few things. Nobody was killed, maimed, or thrown out of the window during the lesson. I'm sorry to spoil everyone's theatrics." He broke out into a brief chuckle, then continued in a more serious tone.

"I ask that everyone think hard about what you may have heard or may have said today. As you are all aware the Pines twins have been welcomed to Hogwarts as exchange students, and when they first came here I asked all of you to make them feel welcome here. Today there was an incident involving a Boggart that got out of hand involving the twins, and while I will not divulge any of the details of the incident to you -and ask that those of you who were present do the same- I would like to inform you all that both twins have been faced with their greatest fears and are recovering from that. Whatever you may have heard, these two students are just regular students who are just taking time to recover. I ask that you give them the space they need and refrain from hounding them about the incident when they are back in class.

"I wonder if those other students, who were in the class, would be so forthcoming about their own reactions to the boggart as they may have been with the reactions of the Pines? Think about it and sleep deep, you all have lots of learning to do tomorrow"

And with that he clapped his hands together once, ending his speech to the hall, and sat down watching as students began to file out.

"Come on Dipping sauce," Mabel lightly tugged on her brother's arm, "its time for us to leave this room."

"Your sister's right." Professor Lupin softly spoke. "Madam Pomfrey has given you both the all clear to leave when you are ready, and I think that time has come."

Dipper looked up at his teacher and sister and, taking a steady breath, nodded in agreement. He lightly pulled his arm out of Mabel's grasp as he stood up and faced the adult in the room. "So, what do we do about today?"

The professor held back a bewildered laugh. "I think the main focus right now for you should be getting you two to bed."

Dipper shook his head. "If we go to our dorms we will be hounded by eve- "

"- you will be spending the night in the hospital wing," Lupin cut the boy off, "to give yourselves some space to adjust and prepare for tomorrow."

"Okay," conceded Dipper, "but what are we going to say when they ask why we were sleeping there? Or for that matter why the 'boggart' reacted the way it did? They're going to want to know why…"

Dipper cut his ramble and drew a shaky breath. "They're going to want to know what happened here, because everyone will be able to tell it wasn't supposed to go like this."

Lupin looked at the twelve-year-old boy, whose face was set so seriously as he frowned in thought. He had refrained from asking too many questions about what happened, letting the twins process their emotions first before he managed to get from Mabel that the two of them had had a supernatural encounter previously with someone that seemed to have taken over the boggart. He made a mental note to check with Dumbledore if he was aware of this after he saw the two children off to the hospital wing.

"Well, I think today has been enough for the two of you." Lupin said softly. "Tomorrow you will be visited by the headmaster who will ask a few more questions about what happened, after which I'm sure he will help you decide on what to tell your fellow students."

Mabel nodded along with a small smile as she gave the professor a 'thumbs up' of approval. Dipper stared into the professor's face for a moment, then sighed and nodded dejectedly as he mumbled "Okay."

"Well then, lets get going." Lupin opened the door for the twins to walk through, closing it softly behind them as they made their way down the corridor to the Hospital Wing.