Using Boggarts to Heal  

What would your boggart be? The first thing that comes to mind is probably humorously glib. When I’m being funny, for example, I’d say it’s a Hogwarts Legacy spider. Or a legit giant sunflower. This is unhingedly comical but also serious because I have trypophobia (fear of holes aka patterns that look diseased) so seeing a cluster of seeds that close would END me. Like literally I cut into a bell pepper once and couldn’t unsee the horror for days.

But when you refrain from the comical answers; when you really reflect on it, the answers get infinitely more horrifying. My worst fear is facing my parental figure.

How do you recover when the person who is supposed to keep you safe is your biggest fear? 

Harry’s parents were dead. A terrible, traumatizing tragedy. But they died to protect him. He knew from a young age that he was WANTED. That he was LOVED. Even though the Dursely’s did their best to make him unlearn that fact. I’ve never had those things. Love, for me, was always as conditional as Harry needing to earn his keep for his toxic aunt and uncle. 

What’s wild though? In a weird way, realizing this would be my boggart actually helped me. It made me have grace for myself for my other not-so-funny anxieties. That partners would abandon me. That friends would disappear. And it validated the very hard decisions I’ve had to make to protect myself and finally heal. 

I shouldn’t have to face my boggart daily in real life, praying that it doesn't hurt me this time. And you shouldn’t either.