Anti-Dementor lessons Boggart

"I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor."

- Professor Lupin details his discovery of this boggart.

This boggart was procured by Remus Lupin for use in Harry Potter's Anti-Dementor lessons in 1994.

The Tuesday before the first of the scheduled lessons, held on Thursdays, Lupin began combing Hogwarts Castle, hoping to find a boggart, as a reasonable substitute for an actual Dementor was needed for use in the lessons. Since Harry's worst fear was the Dementors (as a representation of fear itself), the boggart would take the form of one when Harry faced it. After much searching, Lupin successfully located a boggart in Argus Filch's filing cabinet and trapped it in an old packing case. When not in use, he kept the boggart in a cupboard under his desk in his office.

Behind the scenes

 * In the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lupin does not detail the origin of the boggart and does not even explain that it is a boggart until after Harry faces it for the first time and mistakes it for an actual Dementor.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)