Avert your eyes if you’re sensitive to over the top nerdiness, because this entire post is nothing but shameless fanaticism devoted to the series that has captured our hearts and ABC family weekend programming for the past decade. You know, the children’s series? Also creep alert, am I the only one who thought Harry and Neville were kind of hot in this movie? I know. Chris Hanson. Take a seat right there.
So we had a small party six months or so ago for the second-to-last movie (HP Deathly Hallows 7.1). Amy made pumpkin pasties and butterbeer and it was so much fun I knew we could do that… and more.. for this the very final installment.
Also the planets were aligning for all of my favorite people, who also had fun with these books, to be in the same place at the same time. Bowler lives in San Francisco but was coming back for a reunion, Stokes is moving to London in two weeks, Amy and Chris are moving somewhere far far away once he finishes his PHD in a few months, and Alisa is a temporary college resident who works 23098430928408 jobs and is planning to move to Madison the first chance she gets. YOU SEE? You see how crazy it was that we were all together in Columbia MO at midnight on a Thursday (hello, a school night).
In short, the party was hilarious. The movie was pretty great too.
But let’s back up. When Bowler and I lived together in college we would spend days brainstorming ridiculous ideas for hot gluing things to our ceiling, or using a staple gun and safety pins to make a toga. We were crafty. We cracked ourselves up.
It warmed my little heart when Alisa tackled her first few college theme parties with the same creativity. Also Bowler’s mad deco paging skills got her wedding into Glamour. Oh HAAAAY.
OBVIOUSLY I took the day off work after picking her up from the airport and then we spent five hours at Jo Ann’s fabric getting craft supplies.
Making magic. If only we had spells for this kind of thing. We definitely wouldn’t have melted the Styrofoam. Speaking of which…. I now know that you can’t spray paint Styrofoam. Apparently this is common knowledge? Fail. The golden snitches look like eroded moon rocks.
We brought snacks too. Sterzings (heart! Thanks for sending them aunt Anne!), Treacle Fudge, Bertie Botts Every Flavor beans.
Amy, the most domestic of us all, produced butterbeer cupcakes. YUM. Not pictured is the butterbeer itself (part butterscotch schnapps and part cream soda), and the flasks we labeled ‘polyjuice potion’ that were filled with cinnamon whiskey. If you’re wondering if we took them into the movie theater. The answer is spilled in the bottom of Bowler’s purse.
My darling sister made fun cups for everyone’s butterbeer and pipe cleaner glasses for us.
We brought along an invisibility cloak. It’s a shame you can’t see Bowler and Stokes in this picture. They’re there, I promise.
Of course Bowler made tiny broomsticks and the makings for wands too (feathers, dragon heartstrings, pipe cleaners, etc.)
Remember how scary it was in HP DH 7.1 when the snake came out of the old lady? The following is a dramatization of that event.
Of course when you’ve got wands and butterbeer flowing, sh** starts getting real. DUELING.
REAL ACTION SHOT:
This one was totally inspired by the office, which I’m sure was inspired by a real action movie. You could cut this tension with a knife the sword of Gryffendor.
Another duel, Bowler is fleeing the scene of the crime by tiny broom.
Casting spells is totally the most effective way to solve a domestic dispute.
So after a most hilarious party in which we actually were SUPER excited for the movie, we eventually made our way to the theater for the midnight showing. Man. Midnight showings are great. Why don’t I do this more often? The crowd is cheering and laughing and amped up. And when you go with your buddies, it makes everything ten times funnier.
Wait a minute, is that the sword if Gilbert Godfrey Godrick Gryffendor?
This was my favorite of all 8 films. I laughed, I got choked up (others were bawling like babies), I hurled. And that’s not just the polyjuice potion talking.
