Harry Potter

Please don't read this unless you've seen the new movie. I wouldn't want to ruin anything for you.

My relationship with the Harry Potter series began well before I was old enough to stay home alone. I know this because I have vivid memories of ravaging our babysitter's house for robes and sticks that were wand like and pretending to be Hermione. By this time only three of the seven books had been written, and being an obsessive reader, they had taken over part of my world. However, by the time the fourth book came out some of the magic had faded, and being quite young, the length of the new book seemed a bit much. So unfortunately, my love for the books went into hibernation, only to be awakened approximately seven years later.

Last summer I started reading The Goblet of Fire, determined to finish all of the books by the time the seventh movie came out. I finished The Deathly Hallows during my first week at school and was infinitely excited for the movie to come out in November. While reading all of the books I also watched the movies and was left disappointed almost every time. Though I enjoyed the movies, I was sad that crucial scenes were taken out that I was so excited to see in the movie. This is nothing new to Potter fanatics, and it is just simple fact that the movies are no where near as good as the books. And yet, we love them all the same.

During the days leading up to the November release it was all Harry Potter all the time on my floor at school. Somehow, my hysteria had infected many of my friends, and we were watching as many as the movies that we could before the new one came out. I was Bellatrix for Halloween and I bought a 4 foot poster of Snape (which is amazing) and hung it in my dorm. It was really great fun.

Though going to the midnight release was exciting, The Deathly Hallows Part 1 left me dissatisfied. Most of this was natural, considering that the movie was two parts, but I HATED the forest chase scene. It was so similar to Twilight that I cringed while watching it again. I had planned on rereading the whole series again this summer, but getting caught up in work and summer classes, I haven't had the time. However, somehow my youngest sister took an interest in the books after we watched part of The Goblet of Fire together. This made me happy because she doesn't read much at all, and she ate up the Harry Potter books.

I saw part two today, and I am honestly so sad to see such an amazing story end. The movie blew away all of my expectations. I was really afraid that Snape's story line was going to be botched the way that so many others had in the movies, but it was executed so beautifully. The first thing I noticed about the movie was that it was so much darker than the others, and rightfully so. All of the momentous lines of the book were included, which made me extremely happy. The plot fit almost to a T, but what I really loved was how Snape was portrayed. His memories with Lily were so much more emotional than I was expecting, and seeing him holding her dead body after she was killed truly brought me to tears. He has always been my favorite character by far, and I have discovered that I have a thing for the characters that seem evil but then turn out to be the most virtuous. Out of all the characters that had loved and lost in the series, his love was the deepest and the most true. The pure genius of making Harry a perfect mix of the people Snape loved and hated the most still blows my mind, and the movie showed that in a way that I was not expecting. I found myself just wanting to watch Snape's part over and over again because it was so beautiful.

I have no complaints, and I didn't even notice that Dumbledore's past was completely left out until my friend and I were talking about it in the car afterwards. We're going to see it again in 3D next week, and I can't wait.

I can't post a blog about Snape without a picture. His hair was so voluminous in this movie! Plus Alan Rickman is a total hottie, no matter how old he is.