My 10 years with Harry Potter

*** I don’t think there are any spoilers in this post. But still, read it at your own risk!

Harry Potter grew up with me, literally. This year marks my 10th anniversary with Harry Potter, having known him since 2000 in Primary 6. I know, you must think I’m mental. But 10 years is a very long time. I have only known my Massey classmates for at best 3 years, Poly classmates for 5 years. So tell me why Harry Potter doesn’t deserve to be in my best-friend list’? (Oh, just cause he’s fictional?!)

But of course, it is not just Harry Potter per se, but also Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, even Draco Malfoy and the rest of magical community.

I just caught the first instalment of the final Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows on the big screen. It really feels like everything is coming to the end - the final, final chapter. For books 1-6, even if it was the last chapter, there was a ‘next book’ to look forward to. For book 7, there was still the remaining movies to be watched even if the book days reached a dead end. Now? One last movie to catch and that’s it. Noooooooo!! (Engulfed in the flames of self-denial)

Will there be a sequel? I long to ‘see’ Dumbledore once again… but then again, the thought of reading about Harry Potter’s kids doesn’t thrill me the least bit. Imagine: Draco Malfoy taking over Voldemort and thus finally killing Harry Potter. His daughter, the girl who lived – with a star-shaped scar on her kneecaps. Ugh. Or. Worst of the lot, Voldemort and Bellatrix giving birth to an ugly baby with slits for his/her nose ala Voldemort, with scaly skin and an maniacal evil laughter. Plot:  Kids of Harry Potter/Hermione/Ron VS Serpent Boy.

…….

Ok no sequels please. Harry Potter 1-7 are as good as it is.

One thing I’m really proud to be, is a Harry Potter fan (I might otherwise die of shame if I admitted I was a crazy fangirl of Shinee or Super Junior).

I have the entire collection of Harry Potter books! (First and most important prerequisite to being a full-fledged Harry Potter fan). Published by Bloomsbury, hardcover 1st edition for books 4-7, and bought off the shelves on first day of release (in Singapore)! I remember finishing book 7 within 3 days – I could hardly stop. Childish guys competed who could finish reading the book faster so that they can drop spoiler bombs on others.

MyHarry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone book:

Where else can you find another Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone book (now) which only has “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” listed under ‘Also available‘?!

By itself, is a testament of time.

There are also other versions of Harry Potter series available, but it’s a dead giveaway that you’re not a hardcore fan if you have the adult version since it was only released after the fourth book. Don’t worry, nothing R21 about the adult version, it’s this:

I admit the cover’s alot more sophisticated than the children’s version which I have, but no way was I going to buy the adult version when my other three books were already the kid’s version. I bet adults all over the world were complaining about the kiddy and skittles-coloured version. Before the release of the adult versions, they probably had to disguise the covers with last year Christmas wrappers, National Geographic covers or read it behind the newspapers.

…. But Harry Potter is a children’s book! It’s the winner of the 1997 Smarties Gold Award! Blimey.

Ten Reasons Why Harry Potter Is Magical  (or why Rowling deserves to be a mi/billionaire)

One)

It’s magical. Both literally and non-literally. Who doesn’t want to be able to turn their fat ugly bullying cousins into toads? Harry Potter made millions of kids in the world wait for their letters of admittance to Hogwarts by the fireplace when they turn eleven. British kids start ramming themselves into the walls between platforms 9 and 10, hoping to fall into platform 9 & 3/4 at the London Train Station (I won’t be surprised to see medics on standby there). I used to chant “Lumos” when I went to toilets, ignoring the fact that the lights were turned on by the automatic sensor and not by my wizardry. Oh well, so what if it didn’t work?!  Maybe I’m a squib that’s all.

Two)

Everything mythical to us Muggles were commonplace for the wizarding world. Unicorns, talking snakes, Centaurs, Hippogriffs, Dragons, Werewolves, Potions, Spells, Time-travelling, Broomsticks. Is there anything which Rowling even left out? Ah yes, vampires (mentioned except for when Professor Quirrell was fighting them off  in Albania). Which explains why they managed to become such a big hit by just falling in love with Muggles.

Three)

Quidditch! 1000x way better than watching soccer even if it was an imaginary game. For starters, it has 4 ‘balls’ and not just one. I apostrophed the word ‘balls’ not because I’m thinking wryly but because it is degrading to call the Snitch, Quaffle and Bludgers as mere balls.

…. They can move on their own and the Snitch has wings .. ! How are they just balls?!

And they only need 7 people on each team to make the game interesting (1 seeker, 2 beaters, 3 chasers and 1 keeper). Soccer has 11 people on a team and the excitement level is unfortunately inversely proportional to the number of players.

Read ‘Quidditch Through the Ages’ (the green one) to find out more about this mystical game, and book four for an exciting World Quidditch Cup match between Ireland and Bulgaria.

Four)

Spells and more spells!

Ever wished you had more than just ‘Abracadabra’ and ‘Open Sesame’ in your spell vocabulary?

Want to levitate bubble gum above that bitch’s hair? Try Wingardium Leviosa, with a nice swish and flick action with your wand.

Want to be your own boss? Control everyone’s mind with the Imperius curse – “Imperio! You shall continue to read my blog everyday for the rest of your life….”

Did something embarrassing? Erase everyone’s memories with Obliviate (Warning: Spell does not selectively erase memories, it erases everything. Use with caution).

***Just to clarify, Hermione did not erase all her parents’ memories of her like what the movie depicts. She only modified it, I think. But I admit, it has a higher chance of making movie-goers cry.

I wonder why there isn’t a ‘The Standard Book of Spells’ by Miranda Goshawk (a textbook used in Hogwarts) published yet like ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’.

Anyhow, you can refer to the Muggles’ version of the textbook in the meantime here.

Five)

Hogwarts, Gringotts, Diagon Alley, Ministry of Magic. The equivalent of Universal Studio, Hello Kitty Land, Disney Land and Movie World to us Muggles. Creating places are just as important as putting life into the characters! No fun if everything was just concrete and tile. Harry Potter attending magic classes, sitting at a normal desk in a normal school building – bah. Harry Potter boiling the Living Draught of Death in a cauldron in a cold dungeon – that’s more like it!

Six)

Harry Potter comes to life in the movies.

The movies deserve some credit even though I am a book evangelist. My favourite movie is still that of book 1, where Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint were still cute/handsome – to quote Rousong, they look like drug addicts in the 7th movie. The plot in its entirety and the wizarding terms were easily understood (from a non-book reader’s point of view). … And Dumbledore was still acted by Richard Harris.

The kind, slow-speaking and ever so patient Professor Dumbledore.

My favourite Dumbledore quote from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Harry was doubting whether the sorting hat placed him wrongly in Gryffindor (where he could have achieved great powers in Slytherin for being able to speak Parseltongue and having Voldemort ‘qualities’ in him (ok, phew what a long explanation and I just made it even longer)):

It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

Harry chose to be in Gryffindor, and therefore he is.

But horror of all horrors, never in my Harry Potter life had such a debacle occurred – the new actor for Dumbledore, Michael Gambon was outrageously atrocious and out of character.

That’s Dumbledore yelling at Harry and coercing him to say whether he put his name into the Goblet of Fire. First of all, Dumbledore does not and will not yell at Harry. Secondly, it seems as though the Dumbledore in the movie was thoroughly convinced that Harry cheated. Dumbledore has full trust in Harry! Not because the book explicitly says so, but based on what we know of Dumbledore and the things he has done for Harry for all 7 years!

A downright treachery to us Harry Potter cum Dumbledore fans.

I blame the change in directors for the movies as well. Why did they let him carry on if they knew the actor wasn’t in character? All of them obviously never flipped past the chapter ‘The Boy Who Lived’. In fact, the two worst movies IMO were Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, both  having new directors. Book 4 was the worst, nearly threw popcorn at the theater screen.

Who could forget the bellowing yell of “SILENCE” by the new Dumbledore? It was the most un-Dumbledorish thing ever said.

The most redundant scene in the Goblet of Fire movie - Harry Potter escaping from the Hungarian Horntail on his firebolt.

Question: Why did they spend a good 45-60 seconds of the movie touring round the castle, with the dragon hot on Harry’s heels (literally)? Impress audience with their CG? Take audience on an around-the-Hogwarts-in-80-seconds trip? They didn’t even show how the other three Triwizard champions got past their dragons! Then one wouldn’t really know whether it was a genius move by Harry Potter to defeat the dragon and capture the golden egg as compared to the rest. Nonsense! Hate it. Book 3 also, a tour of Hogwarts with Harry Potter on Buckbeak’s back, flying through the castle, over the lake, above the clouds, with Harry shouting “woooos” like Lupin on the loose.

Back to why the movies are still good.

Before the movies, the Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in my imagination were all very… ugly. Nerdy if not condescending. If there’s something I must blame, it’s the cover of the first and second Harry Potter book.

….. See what I mean?

My imagination of how Harry and Ron looked like (before Danial Radcliffe and Rupert Grint) was not far from that of the book covers’. Sad, but true.

At least the movies made imagining the scenes, characters and voices in my head x1000 better when re-reading the books.

Ok it’s been a really long post!

Think I shall stop blogging here (haha sorry for the “ten reasons”, as usual, I only managed six).

That pretty much sums up my 10th anniversary tribute for Harry Potter :)