It's no secret that Boggart Hole Clough in Manchester is haunted, but some may not know that the spirit that's said to lurk there is a magical creature that appears in Harry Potter.
Boggart Hole Clough in Blackley is full of nooks and crannies to explore, including ancient woodland with steep ravines, a lake and more - plenty of areas for a mysterious fiend to make its presence known. The park is said to be named after a boggart - a spirit that appears in English folklore and inhabits fields and marshes.
However, for those of you who are familiar with Harry Potter, you'll know that there's a lot more to a boggart than this. The magical creature features throughout the books and films, but its first appearance is in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
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During a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Lupin, Harry and his classmates are first introduced to a boggart who is living in a wardrobe in the staff room at Hogwarts. In JK Rowling's story, a boggart is a shape-shifting being that likes dark places and becomes the worst fear of whoever is looking at it.
They are "amortal" creatures - they were never alive to begin with and are unable to die, differing from "immortal" beings which are alive and will never die.
In the Prisoner of Azkaban film, Hermione says how a boggart "takes the shape of whatever a particular person fears the most". Professor Lupin adds that this is what makes them so terrifying, before explaining how the key to expelling a boggart is to use the Riddikulus spell while thinking of an amusing thought, as "what really finishes a boggart is laughter".
For example, we see the boggart turn into a huge spider when Ron Weasley looks at it, as this is Ron's worst fear. After saying "Riddikulus", Ron makes roller skates appear on the spider's feet, making it fall over and look, well, ridiculous.
When Neville Longbottom looks at the boggart, it turns into Professor Snape. After using the Riddikulus spell, Snape is suddenly wearing Neville's grandmother's extravagant clothes, making the boggart a lot less terrifying.
Despite being scary, boggarts can also be very useful, which Professor Lupin proves to Harry. When Harry faces the boggart, it becomes a dementor - a dark creature which feeds off human happiness and consumes a person's soul - following an encounter Harry had with real dementors at the start of Prisoner of Azkaban.
Lupin teaches Harry how to fight dementors by practising the Patronus charm on a boggart which has taken the form of a dementor. The boggart isn't as powerful, but it certainly helped Harry to defeat any future dementors that bothered him.
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As well as Prisoner of Azkaban, a boggart also appears in the Goblet of Fire during the Triwizard Tournament, and in Order of the Phoenix when Molly Weasley tries to get rid of a boggart in a writing desk at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. It's a terrifying experience for Molly, with the boggart turning into the dead body of her son Ron and then the corpses of various other family members before Lupin arrives and successfully conjures the Riddikulus spell.
If the creature haunting Boggart Hole Clough is the same as the one in Harry Potter, who knows what shape it could take? You may not know your greatest fear until you're standing facing the menacing creature.
According to the Harry Potter franchise, it's best to have someone else with you, as boggarts get confused when there are more than one person. This is because the boggart can't determine what it should turn into, as it can sense more than one greatest fear.
When it's confused, the boggart can turn into a combination of fears which just looks silly and a lot less frightening than someone's complete fear. You might want to take note of the trick above, to make sure you avoid a spooky encounter next time you're at Boggart Hole Clough!
What are your thoughts on the creature that haunts Boggart Hole Clough? Let us know in the comments section below.
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