Harry Potter Month

HP SPOILER entry

For months, I had looked forward to the releases of the movie for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OOTP) and the book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (DH).  They were both released in July 2007, and 10 days apart.  I’m not sure if it was just a coincidence, or it was planned on purpose.  Still, I enjoyed facing a double dose of Harry Potter.

I arrived at a theater on Tuesday night, July 10, 2007.  I wandered around the area until about an hour before the midnight premiere of OOTP.  Fortunately, I had brought a book.  After midnight, they still hadn’t started the movie, and many people were yelling complaints.  It was bad enough that they were 15 minutes late, but commercials and previews delayed the main movie for about another 10 minutes so by the time we left the theater it was almost 3:00 A.M.

Though the movie for OOTP was not as good as the ones for the first two books, it was at least better than the ones for the third and fourth books.  It was once again rush and like a slide show, so I don’t think I would have understood the story if I hadn’t read the book.  Besides, some of the situations and order of presentation didn’t make sense.  However, they managed to communicate a few important plot information to the audience through the Hogwarts bulletin and The Daily Prophet, which I thought was a good idea.

Out of the whole series, OOTP is my least favorite, but the movie wasn’t as bad as I expected.  I had closed my eyes whenever I expected a graphic scene from the book to show up.  Fortunately, they eliminated those.  I’m also glad they didn’t make Harry as angry or Professor Umbridge do so many evil things, because it would have been too much for me to bear.  I remember spending the whole book being mad.  In the movie, Professor Umbridge didn’t have a toad face.  Instead she was too beautiful, and more annoying than evil.

Sirius Black’s death was still hard for me to take though I didn’t feel as bad as I did with the book.  To tell the truth, I didn’t become emotional right when the death happened, because the situation was too instense and suspenseful.  However, after the characters were safe I almost burst into tears.  Fortunately, the emotional parts weren’t as long in the movie, or I would have been torn apart.

I had trouble finding parking when I arrived at Borders for the Grand Hallows Ball on Friday night, July 20, 2007.  I enjoyed it, but not as much as the midnight release parties for the previous two books.  They didn’t have as many decorations or activities, and things were more disorganized.  I just watched the costume contest and played Snape Bingo, but had no luck.  The long line began to form a little before midnight, and I left almost an hour later.

I usually look at spoilers and peek at the end of stories, because I need to know things in advance, especially unpleasant situations, so the shock wouldn’t be as great.  It doesn’t spoil the story for me because I still enjoy finding out how the story reached that point as well as the story for what it is.  However, I surprised myself this time by not peeking at the end.  I did look at a few small spoilers on the internet, but just read from cover to cover.  Maybe this time I wanted the experience of no spoilers, or I didn’t wasn’t looking forward to facing the bad news JK Rowling mentioned, so I was postponing it.  I know one reason was the book was so long that it would take forever to hunt for the parts with the bad news, and I just didn’t want to waste time.

I’m glad I encountered nicer people at this party than the one for the sixth book.  I recall narrow-minded, rude, and mean people on July 15, 2005 who couldn’t accept my reading spoilers and peeking at the end.  Some people even made death threats at anyone who even made a harmless comment about the books when they could have just said, "Please don’t spoil it."  Then came the attacks at the MB though I had posted a warning.  They even looked down at me for so-called "cheating" on stories.

This time, I heard that some kids couldn’t wait for the bad news, and had peeked.  This made me relieved that I’m not the only one who likes to find out ahead of time, and that I had proof that there was nothing wrong.  However, I bet those MB attackers in 2005 would not change their mind about that, and probably call me childish and immature.  I’m just glad I left that place.

I spent the whole weekend reading DH.  I tried to read it all Friday night, but a headache and achy eyes forced me to sleep.  I don’t know how people are able to finish such a thick book in a few hours.  They must be speed readers, or maybe I’m a slow and irresponsible reader who dawdles and doesn’t pay attention.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but there were too many deaths.  I understand we are dealing with war, but I think Rowling overdid it with too many unnecessary deaths: Hedwig, Professor Moody, Dobby, Professor Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks Lupin, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey, and a few minor characters.

I’m glad that Lord Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew, and Bellatrix LeStrange died.  They were so evil.  I’m not sure about Minister Scrimgeour since Rowling didn’t provide enough information for me to decide.  Same with Nagini since she was a pet following her master’s orders, and animals are usually not evil unless they are trained that way.  Crabbe died, but Draco and Goyle were saved.  I couldn’t tell if they became better people or remained evil.

Professor Snape was a complicated character, with a very difficult task, so it was hard for me to say.  He was undercover, and fulfilled his duty, but I think he went about it the wrong way in some areas, such as being narrow-minded, biased, arrogant, self-centered, and impulsive.  He was brave and intelligent, but seemed only to be reluctantly doing it for his crush, Lily Evans Potter, despite rejecting those who weren’t purebloods.  I felt that he didn’t care if any harm was done, as long as his job was done.  Still, it was confusing.

I liked how Kreacher became more faithful and led the other house elves on a rebellion.  Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, and Luna Lovegood were clever and brave to lead rebellions against the death eaters.  I’m glad to learn that Percy Weasley realized and regretted his mistakes and returned to his family.  I really like how most of the characters reunited at Hogwarts near the end to fight against Lord Voldemort and his followers.  It was also good that Harry got to talk to Professor Dumbledore in some spirit world.

The mood of this last book in the HP series was different from the previous six.  The story just seemed so different with Harry and his friends on the run and most of it not taking place at Hogwarts.  Overall, it was a good series, and the

ending was satisfactory with Harry and Ginny having three children and Ron and Hermione having two.  Bill and Fleur also have a daughter who appeared to be with Teddy Lupin.  Professor Lupin had appointed Harry as godfather for his son.

Rowling changed her mind on the last chapter.  Actually, I don’t know what she meant by last chapter: the epilogue or the chapter before it.  Some people don’t count the epilogue as a chapter of the book.  Neither end with the word, scar, as she had mentioned.  The chapter before the epilogue ended with for a lifetime, and the epilogue ended with All was well.

I seem to be the only one who didn’t figure things out in the sixth book.  I didn’t figure out that Professor Dumbledore ordered Professor Snape to kill him until everyone said they guessed so.  Even the MB attackers interpretted it that way.  Before that, I just kept seeing Snape as evil.  This probably shows I’m too stupid to see the truth, or I’m so irresponsible that I don’t pay attention.  I’m glad the last book answered many of the questions from the sixth book.  Now I see what Rowling meant by the last two books being a two-part novel.