'Walkers' in The Walking Dead, 'infected' in Resident Evil, 'vampires' in The Strain.all scary in their own right, certainly, but a zombie outbreak also tends to reflect back to us our fears about modern society. But the lesson of the Boggart is a familiar one all the same-you can master the object of your fear by rendering it absurd. I haven't read the novels, so the movies are a bit confusing for me. Alan Rickman ends up in a dress for some reason. A snake Boggart gets magically transmogrified into a Jack-in-the-box, which is actually kinda creepier, really. With the wave of a wand and the incantation 'riddikulus,' a Boggart in the assumed form of a giant spider gets shod with eight roller skates. Unfortunately for the poor Boggart, there's also a spell that's laser-targeted on its ironic weakness, as Harry & co. In the world of Harry Potter, where the laws of natural selection seem to favor whichever genes carry the most whimsy, there exists a species called a Boggart which takes on the appearance of your greatest fear, and is defeated by laughter.