Quote from Naaga on March 12, 2023, 5:55 am

Neville Longbottom as I had mentioned earlier, is my second favourite character. His Boggart being Snape is often used to paint Snape as abusive and worse than Bellatrix for Neville. Through this meta, we will try to understand Neville, concepts of fear and what his boggart form meant.

Source: Understanding Neville Through His Boggart by straysayake

I have seen fandom split hairs over the fact that Neville's Boggart is Snape and not Bellatrix, the woman who tortured his parents. And I have been a bit confused by this widely subscribed reading because before Book 5, Bellatrix is a name, an abstract fear to him. He has not met her, the way Harry has met Voldemort. You miss key clues into his character and background arc he has if we go with this reading.

So, what does your Boggart mean? Or how do you read a Boggart?

Lupin, in his scene with Harry when Harry confesses he thought of Dementors, tells us how: "Well, I am impressed. This suggests what you fear most of all is fear. Very wise, Harry"

This checks out when Hermione meets her Boggart: it's McGonagall, telling her she failed everything. McGonagall is not her fear, failure is. Failure could have a deeper meaning for Muggleborn Hermione, who, especially in the earlier books, feels like she is overcompensating. Is this a way for her to belong?

Molly seeing her dead family is her fearing her inability to protect them from the war. After all, she yells at Bellatrix: "You will never touch our children again!". This is her commitment to herself - that she wants to see her family make it through war and her fear is that it might not happen, and that she will fail at protecting them..

Similarly, the moon is not Lupin's fear - it's his condition that is triggered by the moon. The moon is a reminder, a representation for something deeper.

What does this mean for Neville then? I believe what's happening with Neville's Boggart being Snape is a fear of an authority figure who will never find him good enough. This is his deeper fear - seeded in by his grandmother who is constantly comparing him to his father since his childhood (recall Augusta Longbottom talking about Neville not having his father's talent or Neville jokingly suggesting that she would do anything to have Harry as a grandson). In fact, he is so beaten down by these comparisons and the fact that his Great Uncle Algie tried on many occasions to force magic out of him that he thinks he is "almost a Squib" in COS while buying protections against Heir of Slytherin.

In school, he simply transferred/ projected that insecurity and fear onto a teacher who treated him shabbily/bullied him. In his fight with boggart, interestingly, he overlays both Snape and his grandmother. It suggests to me that deeper fear that Neville has to fight against is the same one.

And he does - at the end of the series, we see him as a rebellion leader with Luna and Ginny, stealing sword from Snape's office, going toe to toe with Carrows. He challenges Voldemort, when Voldemort lies about Harry. He no longer needs his grandmother's or any authority figure's validation about whether he is magical enough or good enough for them, he did what he thought was right then and her validation came anyway. She sends him a letter before going on the run, telling him she is proud of him. He keeps that letter in his pocket.

This leaves out Ron with his fear of spiders. The fear Ron has was seeded in by Fred and George, turning his favourite teddy bear into a spider when he was about 5. A toy that was a source of comfort to Ron is suddenly a scary object. Anyone wants to take a crack at what that could possibly mean for Ron? (I mean, yes, he is archnophobic, but I thought it might be an interesting look psychologically to see if it matches with his arc)