[my] Harry Potter, Part 1

 In lieu of the final Harry Potter installment, I will now commence to write about the two different aspects of Harry Potter I experienced this weekend. I present to you:

Part 1: Sarah Singsing and the Final Midnight Movie

{First off, I must warn you that these pictures are semi-low quality. The camera I brought doesn't fare well in the dark, so yeah. Also, I didn't even think about checking the lens (silly me), so it was dirty for about half of my pictures.}


I've been waiting for this Harry Potter to come out for a while now; almost 10 years, in a way. Last year when I heard the finalized date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2; I was super-de-duper excited.  Last week, all I could think of was Harry Potter. I could barely focus on work I was so excited, and since none of my coworkers are Potterheads, I had to keep it bottled inside. Although I would randomly slip and start blabbering about how excited I was. I even asked my boss, "is it stupid to ask for Friday off because of Harry Potter?" 
"You know, four other people have asked me that exact question today." Silence.  "No, it's not stupid. You can have Friday off."
When Thursday ever-so-slowly rolled around, I couldn't contain myself. I wore my potion necklaces to work and under my scrubs I donned a "Butterbeer" shirt.  They even asked us to work overtime, and I said no because I had to get my hair done (a little much? I think not!).


My sister did my hair while we watched Deathly Hallows, Part 1. Mary dressed as Narcissa Malfoy, Julia as Bellatrix Lestrange, and I as Dolores Umbridge. Observe:

My critically-acclaimed costume* was horribly fabulous, I must say. Except I forgot to wash the clothes, so they kind of smelled like old woman/DI.  
*may not have actually been critically-acclaimed


Tess dressed up as Luna Lovegood from the Slytherin vs. Gryffindor Quidditch match in The Half-Blood Prince. She papier-mâchéd a lion head, painted, and decorated it herself. Everyone wanted a picture of her. (We actually went to a Harry Potter party Wednesday night and she won the costume contest. She won a goblet of "fire," aka a goblet filled with Red Hots). She even had spectrespecs. Observe:

On the way to the theater, we found out we had an extra ticket. Instead of selling it, Mary invited one of her friends last-minute.

I honestly had a fabulous time waiting in line. We were only there 3 hours early (only!), but we took the time to go look at others' costumes. There was a guy dressed as Gilderoy Lockhart handing out signed pictures of himself and calling everyone "his loyal fans."
The best one I saw was an older woman dressed as Professor McGonagall. I know my pictures don't do her justice, but her costume was amazing! She had the hat, the brooch, the fitted robes... it was perfect. I actually went up to talk to her and a bunch of people came up and wanted our picture. Okay, now I'm just being vain.

The theater folk gave these to people
with awesome costumes.

As 12:01 grew nearer and nearer, I became more excited. They finally let us into the theater, and we managed to secure seats for everyone in our group. Lockhart was in our theater and stood up in front of everyone and started talking about how good-looking he was and handed out more autographs. I nearly died of laughter.

Umbridge, Lockhart, and Narcissa

A Death Eater jumped out
and scared Julia while I
took the picture.

When the movie started, there were cheers. The crowd in our theater was dynamic- they laughed, cheered, clapped and cried at all the right parts. When the movie became sad or Sirius serious, everyone was dead silent. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say I probably could've heard a pin drop. At the end of the movie when the credits rolled, I wanted to see it again. RIGHT AT THAT VERY MOMENT.

The movie itself was fabulous- I've loved the way David Yates has directed his share of the Potter movies, from The Order of the Phoenix to The Deathly Hallows, Part 2. And Steve Kloves did his best job adapting the screenplay since The Chamber of Secrets and Deathly Hallows, Part 1. My favorite element was that when the movie was at its most serious, it was still able to relieve the sadness and darkness with bits of humor. JK Rowling really has a gift for that, as seen in every one of her books.

And even though I have a severe case of Rickmania, I'm not kidding when I say Alan Rickman did a fabulous job. Absolutely phenomenal.
I don't cry in movies, folks, but Snape made me cry. His death and memories were my emotional breaking point- everything after that made me cry; the scene with Dumbledore, when Harry sends his kids off on the Hogwarts express, and especially all the others' deaths.
So for me to cry in a movie means one of three things:

1. The movie is entitled Bridge to Terabithia
2. I am pregnant and extremely hormonal
3. Alan Rickman's acting was fantastic, phenomenal, splendid, etc.

I'm pretty sure it's number 3 this time around. I feel like he should get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Maggie Smith (McGonagall) and Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) even had their own golden acting moments (each also had their own comical moments, surprisingly). My favorite line of Maggie's was "I've always wanted to use that spell!" and giddily smiling into her shoulder. Ralph Fiennes's great moments include a super awkward hug between him and Draco, and him shoving Bellatrix out of the way.

After all was said and done, I could've nearly cried the next morning when I truly realized that there are going to be no more Harry Potter movies. The excitement of waiting in line for another midnight premiere isn't going to happen, not to see our favorite witches and wizards, at least.
So thus ends a fabulous era of Hollywood entertainment. Ten years where Hollywood had great story development, great characters, and even good morals to create some perfectly golden movies. So at the end of this era, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 was by far the greatest adaptation in the Harry Potter film franchise.

We found Waldo.

My post-Harry Potter Umbridge bedhead. 

Felix Felicis and Veritaserum
necklaces.