The fun began with e-mailed acceptance letters from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the week before the release of the movie. (And just a side note: none of this will make sense for people totally unfamiliar with the books and/or movies. Sorry!)
Of course, it didn't look like this; our candles didn't float. But there were house tables with appropriately colored tablecloths.
And of course we had a sorting hat! It just didn't talk by itself, which didn't bother me, as that would've been mildly terrifying. Our names were called, and we were all sorted. I was a Ravenclaw.
Just call me Luna.
After that, each house competed in a timed challenge called "Introduction to Magic". We were given a puzzle and a spell to decode. The first station was "Lumos", and we received a keychain flashlight after unlocking the puzzle. This came in handy when we were sent to investigate a noise in the girls' bathroom. Oh no, I thought, there had better not be a troll in there. And there wasn't. Instead, we found "Moaning Myrtle", who shut the lights off and cackled as we used our keychain flashlight to solve the puzzle in the dark room. The answer was "Alohomora", which we had to use to get out of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Next, we ran down the hall to find a grinning Gilderoy Lockhart. He kept trying to hand us autographed pictures and tell us stories about his great deeds. We had to use "Expelliarmus" on him and run down the stairs, where there were dementors!
The dementors tried to pull us away from the puzzle, but we solved it and drove them away with a Patronus charm! And then we went to watch HP #1 while the rest of the houses tackled the challenge. The results came in later, with Ravenclaw in third place and Gryffindor in the lead. Slytherin took second, and Hufflepuff came in fourth.
Day 2: Quidditch semi-finals
That's right, we played Quidditch. Sans flying brooms, of course. But we did have an assortment of attractive (meaning incredibly worn out) brooms and mops, which we were required to have under our legs and held with one hand at all times. For goals, we had three hula hoops leaning against folding chairs on each side of Campus Park . We had two rubber balls--excuse me, Quaffles. No bludgers and no snitch.
It was one fierce game.
Gryffindor was the only house with enough members present to form its own team. The rest of us banded together as HuffleSlytherClaw. We lost the first game, narrowly winning the second.
Some competitors were more enthusiastic than others, as evidenced by my friend Matt's cape and cleverly decorated broom, which looks like a guitar (not sure if you can tell from the picture). Here he is, "flying"! He had to jump about five times for me to get this picture; photographing a jumping person with a dying digital camera is harder than it sounds.
Day 3: OWLs and Harry Potter Jeopardy
We reported for our Ordinary Wizarding Levels at the top floor of Glidden Hall, an old brick building with small-ish windows that arch to a point on the top floor. "Professor Snape", who was really Alex, one of the fabulous campus activity people, in a wig, graduation gown, and turtleneck, greeted us. "Snape" then commenced taking points away from houses for little or no reason and glaring at us while we took a quick Harry Potter trivia quiz.
"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
After that, we played Harry Potter Jeopardy, with categories like "Name that Weasley" and "The Dentist's Kid" (Hermione). Ravenclaw swept "Fantastic Beasts". Unexpectedly, Hufflepuff won! Anyone who wasn't in Gryffindor was thrilled, as we were waiting for them to lose something. Random good things kept happening for them...kind of like in the book. Eerie.
Day 4: Quidditch Finals
It was raining, and I had to work at the library. What I do know is that it took place at the stadium, and those present were going to watch the fourth movie outside. Unfortunately, the sound didn't work. Fortunately, Maggie, a Slytherin, suggested subtitles and then began to read them in hilarious voices.
Day 5: End of Term Feast and Horcruxes Scavenger Hunt
We watched the fifth movie and dined on pizza and chocolate bars in Grand Island Hall's Big Lounge. From there, we went a scavenger hunt for horcruxes, which we had to find and destroy. This involved shooting waterguns at pictures on the sides of buildings and running a plastic sword through a print-out of a snake. Partially due to the accidental removal of one of the clues, Ravenclaw came in last. But what matters is that we had fun doing it.
The House Cup was awarded to Gryffindor just before the midnight showing of the movie, which I did not attend. (Slytherin took second, Hufflepuff third, and Ravenclaw fourth.) I went on Wednesday afternoon with my friends Skyler and Matt instead. Skyler (she's a girl, don't let the spelling of her name fool you!) and I met in preschool and have been friends ever since, even though we haven't lived in the same town since then. I've seen every Harry Potter movie with her.
And the movie? I loved it, over-foreshadowy music and all (you always knew when something scary was about to happen). Skyler, on the other hand, had recently read the sixth book and was less than thrilled because she could recall everything that was left out. I haven't read the book in years, which made it easier for me to let all that go.
Thoughts on reading books right before watching movies? Thoughts on the sixth HP movie? On popcorn? (Which I ate a lot of at the movie theater.) Please, share them.
Summary: