Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing BOGGARTS and famed dark wizard captor Alastor Mad Eye Moody. More specifically,
I’m going to be addressing a question that a lot of you have asked me which is: Can Alastor
Mad-Eye Moody see the TRUE form of a boggart with his magical eye?
Interesting fact about Boggarts that I bet you didn’t know: they exist in our own muggle
world AND in the magical Harry Potter world. However, while they share the same name, they
are a little different.
In our own muggle world boggarts are creatures from folklore that come in two forms: a household
spirit, or a malevolent creature that inhabits places like fields and marshes. The household
boggart does harmless but mischievous things like making things disappear. The more sinister,
malevolent ‘boggart’ that resides in marshlands is associated with darker behaviour, and is
known for doing things like abducting children. These boggarts also go by many other names
including but not limited to: bugbears, bogeymen and bogles.
In Harry Potter on the other hand, Boggarts are essentially the manifestation of our deepest
darkest fears. They are amortal shape-shifting non-beings that transform themselves in to
whatever it is that we fear most.
Supposedly, noone knows what a boggart looks like, and that’s because generally they
transform as soon as you encounter them. From the moment you lay your eyes on them, they
have transformed in to your deepest darkest fear. When boggarts aren’t scaring people,
they can usually be found rustling around in confined spaces or lurking around dark
corners. Similar to poltergeists which have an affinity for mischief, and dementors which
thrive on darkness and depression, boggarts are paired with fear.
Another frightening fact about Boggarts is that when they transform in to something,
they adopt the properties of that thing- I.e, when a boggart transforms in to a dementor,
it’s able to do all of the horrible things that a dementor can. The boggarts power, however,
will be much less potent than the original being. If you fear several things equally,
then a boggart will manifest itself in the form of each of your fears, cycling through
them for maximum emotional scarring. The best way to defend against a boggart is ‘riddikulus’
aka the ‘boggart banishing charm’ - which makes the boggart look-well, ridiculous.
Apparently the best way to face a Boggart is to bring someone along with you, as it
will struggle when trying to decide which form to take. Two people means two sets of
fears, and unless you both fear the same thing, the boggart will have a tough time. Often
the result of multiple people facing a boggart is a combination of their fears, which often
comes across as silly rather than scary. It’s also worth mentioning that a Boggarts ability
to shapeshift CAN sometimes be subject to limitations, i.e when a boggart transforms
in to something, it’s limited by the size of the room that it inhabits.
Furthermore, because of Voldemort’s looming presence in the wizarding world, it just so
happened that he was what most people feared most, and so for this reason, he was most
people’s Boggart.
However, the question remains: what does a boggart actually look like? Are we sure that
NOONE can see a boggarts real form? We know that boggarts hide in dark places- and these
dark places can include enclosures like chests. Assuming a boggart is inside a chest, and
you were to approach said chest, the boggart would not transform because you aren’t face
to face with it. So, technically- TECHNICALLY, this should mean that if you are somehow able
to look through the chest, you should be able to see the true form of a boggart- right?
Can ANYONE do this?
In comes Mad Eye Moody.
Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody was a Scottish Pure-blood wizard born in to the ‘Moody’
family- a family known for producing a plethora of amazingly talented aurors. In his youth
he attended Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, and later on in his life and
career, true to his family name, went on to become one of the most famous and respected
aurors of all time. Aurors are of course members of an elite and highly-trained unit of magical
law enforcement. They work for the department of magical law enforcement in the ministry
of magic, and are trained to investigate dark crimes, and detain dark witches and wizards.
Becoming an auror is certainly no easy feat, and given that Moody was arguably the most
famous auror to have ever lived- I’m sure he was nothing short of exceptional. Moody
played a pivotal role during both the first and second wizarding wars, but during the
first he had the most impact- as he dove fully in to protecting the wizarding world. Fighting
against the forces of darkness, Moody ended up losing an eye, a leg and part of his nose.
In an effort to piece himself back together, moody found artificial replacements for his
limbs. What this meant was that his eye was eventually replaced with a new, magical eye.
While Moody certainly sported a very jarring physical appearance overall, his most notable
physical characteristic was his eyes. One was small, dark, and otherwise normal, while
the other was a huge electric blue magical eye that moved around entirely independently
from his normal eye. This is how Moody got the nickname ‘Mad-Eye’.
The new eye that Moody received, however, functioned as much more than his original
eye. You see, Moody’s magical eye had the ability to see through things that a regular
eye couldn’t- things like invisibility cloaks, walls etc. He could even see through the back
of his own head! Things brings us back to boggarts. In the
Order of the phoenix, when they’re at Sirius’s house, Moody is asked to check if there is
a boggart in one of the rooms upstairs- to which he confirms that there is indeed a boggart.
"We've been wanting to ask you for ages -- could you have a look in the writing desk in the
drawing room and tell us what's inside it? We haven't wanted to open it just in case
it's something really nasty." "No problem, Molly."
Moody's electric-blue eye swiveled upward and stared fixedly through the ceiling of
the kitchen. "Drawing room . . ." he growled, as the pupil
contracted. "Desk in the corner? Yeah, I see it. . . .Yeah, it's a boggart. . . .Want me
to go up and get rid of it, Molly?"
Now, it’s long been professed that no one knows what the true form of a boggart looks
like. But,if Moody was able to look through the chest without the boggart knowing, then
presumably Moody WAS able to see the boggart in its regular form. So, did he?
This is up for some debate. First things first, based on Lupin’s logic when explaining the
properties of boggarts to students, Moody very well should be able to see its true form:
"So the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet
know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what
a boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become
whatever each of us most fears."
We can assume that the boggart was in its natural form because he hadn’t yet been
presented with anyone to scare. Therefore, yes, Moody saw it.
However, JK Rowling herself has expressed that no one actually knows what the true form
looks like, so what Moody saw is totally up to our own interpretation.
They are strange creatures, and I think that rather than seeing a physical form-giving
the boggart a natural appearance, Moody simply saw a presence of some kind- maybe even just
heat? It’s hard to say, and that’s because boggarts aren’t even alive- they’re non-beings.
They’re generated entirely by human emotions, much like poltergeists, which leads me to
believe that though Moody identified the creature as a boggart, it doesn’t necessarily mean
that he knows what a boggart looks like.
Does that make sense? I hope so. What do you guys think? Could Moody see the TRUE natural
form of a boggart? Let me know in the comment section below.
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY