At the front of the classroom Professor Lupin stood with his hand on the wardrobe door, ready to open it.

Just in front of him Ron Weasley stood, shaking lightly, muttering under his breath a constant mantra of "Take its legs off"

The boy squared his shoulders and gave the nod to say he was ready and Remus released the boggart which instantly shifted into a form everyone was very familiar with.

It was not a spider.

To Remus's horror the boggart before him was a perfect copy of none other than Sirius Black. For weeks he had been unable to pick up a newspaper for fear of seeing the face of his once trusted friend staring back at him. Now here he was, large as life.

Ronald blinked in surprise. "What?"

"It's ok Mr Weasley" Remus assured him, fighting back his own unease. "Cast the spell."

The boy was still frowning in distress and confusion "That's not my Boggart. I'm not scared of Sirius Black"

The rest of the class were muttering between themselves; the escape of the famous Death Eater was big news at the moment and seeing the boggart take his form was a point of great interest and excitement.

"It's ok Ron" Hemione tried to reassure him. "It's perfectly natural to be afraid of an escaped murderer. Especially with all the sightings being reported near here. You have nothing to be ashamed of."

The young redhead still wasn't moving to cast Reddikulus, he just shook his head in denial. "It's not mine, I swear."

"I understand mate" Harry told him. "He's after me and we share a dorm. It freaks me out too. We're safe here though I promise."

"I'm scared of spiders" Ron screeched. "Spiders ok? Not murderers. Not Sirius sodding Black. Just spiders!" without even trying to cast the spell Ron pushed through the crowd to the back of the classroom and sat down letting another student take their turn.

A small group of concerned peers gathered around Ron, offering reassurance that the escape of Sirius Black had them freaked out too, and that with everything going on it was perfectly ok to be afraid of a crazed murderous Death Eater; all the while Ron buried his face in his hands and continued to mutter about spiders.

In the breast pocket of his robes Scabbers curled into a tight ball and shivered in distress.