The wait is over

Don't let the magic end with this post, go check out these awesome girls. Seriously, the magic of Potter compels you! Laurel, Lisa, Renae, Colene and Jen.

Today, three generations of Wideen's will be watching the matinée of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Just like we have for every other movie in this epic series. (Yeah, my mom totally pulled me out of school to go watch a movie. You know you're jealous.)

One of the most magical things about Harry Potter is the way in which it brings people of all ages together.

For me, Harry Potter is so much more than a book or a movie, a world or characters. Harry Potter was an escape when I needed one, and a hope when I had none.

Harry potter saved the wizarding world but even more amazing and incredible is that he changed ours. The impact of this one idea is insane. There really is no other word for it besides magical.

(And in case you were wondering, yes, I attended the midnight showing. No, I won't spoil it for anyone.)

Did Harry Potter change you personally? Any other books change you? 


My amazingly talented friend Ramona edited these pictures for me! Check her out. 

House elves do more than just clean

Don't forget to visit my fellow magic bringers!

Colene, Renae, Laurel, Jen and Lisa.

Dobby the house elf's mental list to protect a Mister Harry Potter sir from a GREAT EVIL at Hogwarts this year!

1. Forge letters from Harry Potter's friends telling him he shouldn't go back because he isn't Hogwarts material. Learn to write first!

2. Steal Harry Potter's letters from his friends so he feels alone and unloved and wants to stay home. Destroy confidence!

3. Steal all of Harry Potter's socks. No one goes anywhere without their socks!

4. Block the entrance to platform 9 3/4 so Harry Potter  thinks the school hates him so much it doesn't want him back.

5. Curse a bludger to attack Harry Potter. With broken bones he'll be unable to defend himself, get scared and leave.

6. Iron hands. Bang head against wall. Punish self for thinking of protecting Harry Potter. (Maybe he feel sorry for Dobby and go home?)

7. Break Harry Potter's wand so its like Mr. Wheezy's and backfires. Puking slugs and other nasty things will happen. Harry Potter will think he's loosing his magic.

8. Iron Harry Potter's head so he sleeps for a long time and Dobby can take him back to the Dursleys.

9. Frame Harry Potter for a serious crime of Master's. Harry Potter will be sent to Azkaban and the Dementors will protect him there!

~~~

Oh, Dobby, you meant well I'm sure.

Ever done anything crazy to protect someone? What else would you add to this list?


PS. Farewell to Dobby on the soundtrack makes me want to cry!  Alexandre Desplat has managed to capture death in a song. So powerful.

Sifted through and Sorted

Make sure you check out my fellow friends bringing the magic of Hogwarts to the internet.

Jen, Lisa, Renae, Laurel, and Colene

I'm breaking down the Hogwarts Houses for you. No allegiances and no mercies. Be prepared.

Gryffindor

Pro: Daring to go where no man has gone before. The girls staircase for example. 

Con: Tendency to find themselves charging recklessly towards death for reasons distressingly unknown to them. 

Ravenclaw

Pro: Can do it better, faster and with less time in between. No one writes papers quite like they do.

Con: No, your significant other really doesn't want to know how they make Bertie botts beans taste like boogers.

Hufflepuff

Pro: Everyone wants to read an open book. 

Con: Being known for loyalty means in a war, their on the front lines. And Gryffindor already has the market covered on heroism. (Poor Cedric!)

Slytherin

Pro: With forked tongues talking their way out of any situation is easy.

Con: Ambition often leads to siding with the crazy person with the big ideas who is mentally and emotionally unhinged (not to mention soulless).

In all seriousness though, I don't think any of the houses are either inherently good or bad. I mean, Pettigrew was a Gryffindor and he betrayed his friends and was rather cowardly. And the supposedly cold-hearted Slytherin's? They have Snape who loved fiercely and showed tremendous loyalty.

No one is black and white and neither are the houses. They all have strengths and weaknesses.

All that house rivalry stuff? I'd like to point out that Colene and Renae are Gryffindors, Lisa and Laurel are Ravenclaws, Jen is a Hufflepuff and I'm a Slytherin and we all teamed together to bring you this week of awesome. (I also like all of them.) If the houses banded together like the sorting hat suggested - well, I guess it would've ruined JK Rowling's plot so I can actually understand why she didn't go there. 

If you're curious about the house you'd be in, this is the best test I've found so far: GET SORTED.              


What House are you in? Your stance on house rivalry?


PS. If you don't already know, I'm a huge music person. HUGE. Like, music is even more important to me than books (though I at least have some vague talent with writing so I can actually go  somewhere with it. Maybe). Anyway, the point is, the scores for the Harry Potter movies are always good. I didn't think it would be possible to ever top Half-Blood Prince though.... I can't believe I'm saying it but the Deathly Hallows soundtrack trumps the other soundtracks. All of them. I'm a little in shock myself. I only hope this is a reflection of how the movie is going to be! If you like movie scores, or music that is so powerful it inspires emotions without words then I highly recommend getting yourself a copy (and Half-Blood prince too). Obliviate, Lovegood, Ron's Speech, Rescuing Hermione, and Detonators are, as of tonight, my personal favorites.

Mythical creatures....aren't so mythical?

Don't forget to visit Jen, Colene, Laurel, Lisa and Renae for more Harry Potter themed magic! (Seriously, I'd like you to open their blogs in a separate window so you don't forget.)

If you are anything close to an avid fan like me, you've probably thought to yourself on more than one occassion, "I wish the Wizarding World was real." I have news for you guys, it is! (And no, I'm not talking about the theme park.) The mythical creatures that JK Rowling uses are around us everyday.

They are disguised as people in our everyday lives:

Dementors: The people who drain you until you're left with nothing. Sometimes, it can be so subtle and gradual you don't notice until after it's over. They leave you feeling cold and empty.

Thestrals: The people we don't see or acknowledge but they are their supporting life, helping us continue our way of existence. They generally provide valuable service that we take for granted. It usually takes a cataclysmic event in one's life for them to acknowledge these types of people.

Hippogriff: Seems reluctant to embark on new friendships, so much so that they may come off as arrogant. You wouldn't think of turning to them in a time of need yet surprisingly they are their to back you up, loyal and true until the end. 

Basilisk (snakes in general): Will blindly follow the only person who seems to understand them. Wherever that may take them.

Centaurs: The wise and knowledgeable people who are, unfortunately, rather unhelpful because they believe that we all must come to our own answers in our own time. 

Acromantula: Only focused on their own needs, selfish and uncaring until the end.

House elves: So ingrained in their ways and wanting to keep with the status quo that even when freedom is presented to them, they won't take it. They don't like change. At all. 

Unicorns: Are the innocents, they are pure and full of light. It takes a truly awful person to try and steal any of that away.

Werewolves: The people who are truly, unfortunately, and sadly misunderstood.  

Phoenix: It doesn't matter how horribly life affects them, their entire world could erupt in a flash of fire and they'd still get up. They gather the wreckage about them, acknowledge it and stand - stronger and wiser than ever before. (We should all strive to be like this.)

What sort of mythical creatures do you see around you? Anything else to add to my list? How do you see yourself?

Potions, the unused solution

This week five awesome bloggers teamed together to fill the next five days with magic to celebrate the anticipated release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I. Yes, I am one of the awesome bloggers. (No, that isn't very humble but just look at the gals doing this with me.) Make sure to stop by and revel in the awesome with Jen, Renae, Colene and Lisa.

Harry Potter and potions class never got on very well (sixth book aside). Here are a few of the ways the Death Eaters and Voldemort (if they had been using their Slytherin cunning) could have ended the battles with little to no effort.

Amortentia: Because an utterly infatuated person is googly eyed, empty headed and thinks of little beside their own love. When your obsessed, you have little time to think of other things - like a Dark Lord set to kill you.

Beffudlement draught: Induces the effects of a severely intoxicated person. Your opponents become so reckless they run straight into your curses. 

Forgetfulness potion: A first year's potion that makes the drinker forgetful. Make your opponent forget you were opponents in the first place. See? It's first year logic too. 

Shrinking solution: Fairly straightforward - shrink your problems too.

Polyjuice Potion: Turn yourself into one of Harry Potter's friends, wait till he turns his back and say two little words with a flick of your wrist. He'd never see it coming.

 Felix Felicis: Hello? Succeed in your every endeavor? Harry Potter and the entire Order would be dead in less than an hour. 

Do you have any other ways you would have won the war sooner (from either side)? Do you have any cunning solutions to problems in your own life?

Most Compelling Character

A fellow blogger, Margo Berendsen, challenged me to explain why I said Severus Snape is the most compelling character I've ever encountered. Now, let me preface this post by saying that I have many other favorite characters, and certainly characters that I've loved far more than Snape. But he is, without a doubt, the most compelling.

Why?

Because I've hated him, suspected him, pitied him, laughed with/at him, cried for him, loved him, and forgiven him (among other emotions but these are the strongest 7). I've never crossed a character whose single handedly made me feel so many different emotions - frequently, at the exact same time.

Because Severus faces everything he loves and hates in the world every single day - Harry Potter. James Potter was the leader of the group that terrorized him, making his school years awful. If you think about it - which Snape surely has - Harry could have been his. But Harry looks exactly like James - Snapes reaction is, admittedly, unfair but I get why. Lily - the love of his life - died to protect him. She lives on through Harry. To top it off, Harry being alone, Lily being dead - it was his fault. His mistake. What horrible prospects to face every time he looks at this boy. This all makes for excellent internal conflict.

Because Snape made a mistake. And he spent the rest of his life trying to make it right. Who can claim they'd do the same? Not many characters, or people, for that matter.

Because Snape is rude, sarcastic, mean, intelligent, and he's nothing but shades of grey. There is no definite good or bad in him - he's both predictable and unpredictable at the exact same time (and how many characters can both prove and disprove a label like predictability simultaneously). He is gorgeously flawed and complicated.

Because he's a Slytherin who showed more courage than any other Gryffindor when he killed Dumbledore. Could you kill the only person who really believed in you, who meant so much to you, who you respected, even if you'd save hundreds of lives by doing so? Even if, in reality, it was out of mercy because your mentor was dying anyway? Maybe I'm naive but I doubt many could. I couldn't. I'm selfish and would probably let the other hundreds of people die if it meant just a little more time with someone I cared about.

Because he's mysterious. When I first met him, heck...for the majority of the series, I never expected him to be one half to such a tragic, beautiful, could-have-been love story. He did so much for the girl he met on the playground. Not all of it good, mind you, but I've never crossed a character who's had such unwavering love and devotion for another, so long after they've gone and with nothing in return. Lily was Snape's  one true love. Maybe he wasn't hers but that's okay, he loved her enough for the both of them.

It doesn't hurt that he's played by Alan Rickman....just saying.

Who is the most compelling character you've ever read? Why?