harry potter challenge - day 9

least favorite male character and why?

source: from moviefone

ewww...lucius malfoy was such a creep!  i mean, i could have easily gone for tom riddle/voldemort here, but that's too obvious.  and peter pettigrew was a slime-ball, too.  but malfoy was slimey and cruel and rude and just evil.  i mean, he tried to kill harry just for losing his house elf!  who does that?!  he was rude and condescending to the weasleys, and - hello - nobody messes with the weasleys!  he was the one who dropped the diary in ginny's cauldron and kicked off the whole "heir of slytherin" debaucle.  and then in the end, he just ran away, disgraced. 

harry potter challenge - day 8

8. what do you think would be your favorite lesson?


i think that i would love charms class.  learning all those cool spells like accio and alohomora.  amazeballs.

harry potter challenge - day 7

7. your favorite female character, and why

source

minerva mcgonigall.  there were so many strong female characters, it was really hard to choose.  i love that j.k. rowling gave young girls so many options of strong female role models to choose from - professor mcgonigall, molly weasley, ginny, luna, hermione...even silly old professor trelawney.  she may have been strange but she stood by her strangeness and embraced it.  professor mcgonigall stood up for what she believed in.  she stood her ground when umbridge threatened to undermine her.  she stayed loyal to the order and loyal to harry.  to the very end.  and yet she was fair - she punished harry when necessary, never giving him special treatment.  her scene in the final movie, when she mobilizes the statues to guard the castle, moves me to tears every time.  she clearly loves her job, loves her students, and loves that school.  she was one of the first characters we met in the series, and i loved her from the start.

harry potter challenge - day 6

6. what house would you want to be in?

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the house of ravenclaw values intelligence, creativity, learning, and wit.  i like to believe that the sorting hat would put me into ravenclaw.  i always enjoy learning new things, be it just researching random things on the internet or learning how to make a new craft.  while a lot of people finished college and were done, i was looking forward to continuing school.  i love being in an academic setting, surrounded by people learning.  i enjoy being creative.  since the introduction of pinterest in my life, i have taken on many of the projects and relished making our house prettier.  one of my favorite characters of the series is luna because she is so naturally intelligent.  while hermione was obviously smart, she studied to become that smart.  luna just was smart.  and she was funny. 

here are the qualities from the other houses:

gryffindor - courage, bravery, loyalty, nerve, and chivalry.  while i would love to be in the same house as harry, ron, and hermione, i know the sorting hat would not place me in gryffindor.  while i am loyal, i am not courageous and have little nerve. 
hufflepuff - hard work, tolerance, loyalty, and fair play.  i was torn between ravenclaw and hufflepuff, but in the end chose ravenclaw.  while i certainly value tolerance and loyalty, i have to be honest in saying that i don't value hard work.  not to say that i don't work hard, but i prefer to think that i'm naturally intelligent and don't need to study hard to be smart.
slytherin - ambition, cunning, leadership, and resourcefulness.  i am not cunning.  i don't have a cunning bone in my body.  and i don't really think of myself as a leader. 

*source for house values - hogwarts on wikipedia

harry potter challenge day 5

5. favorite male character, and why

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at first it was a toss-up between dumbledore and lupin, but ultimately i chose lupin because for as wonderfully supportive as dumbledore was, he also lied and hid things from harry.  lupin was always honest.  lupin taught harry how to fight off the dementors.  i think lupin instilled confidence in harry.  he loved tonks because she was different.  he was a talented wizard.  and he was fiercely loyal to his friends and family.  i loved lupin from the moment he was introduced as the weird guy sleeping in harry's train berth.  oh, and also - he believed chocolate could always make you feel better - a sure way to the heart of a hershey girl!

harry potter challenge day 4

4. least favorite female character and why

source: harry potter wiki

dolores umbridge.  i know a lot of people probably say bellatrix lestrange, and i considered her for a moment.  but to me, dolores umbridge was pure evil.  with her sick little giggle, her delight in torturing harry, and her utter disdain for muggles and half-bloods.  she made my skin crawl.   i hated her in the movies, and i hated her even more in the books.  remember how cruel she was to firenze?  and how horribly she treated professor trelawney?  and hagrid?  oh, she was just awful. 

look at that look on her face in this picture, even.  that look says "i'm going to eat you alive, mudblood."  ick.

harry potter 30 day challenge - 3

3. are there any film adaptations that have made you angry because they ignored important parts of the book?

source: amazon.com

harry potter and the order of the phoenix was my favorite book because it gave so much great background, and i always feel like the movie missed a lot.  in the book, the scene in the department of mysteries was epic.  i mean, ron gets hit by a lunacy spell and goes completely bonkers, which was such awesome comic relief in a part of the book that was really tense; hermoine gets stunned and has to be carried out; neville breaks his nose.  you got to understand so much more about why voldemort was after harry.  and that the prophecy (which they barely touch on in the movie) could have actually been about neville, but voldemort chose harry.  you also meet neville's grandmother and see that his parents aren't dead, but instead chronically hospitalized, thanks to the torture of the death eaters, namely bellatrix lestrange.  there is nothing in the movie about that.  the movie also completely misses the plot line where firenze (a centaur) takes over in teaching divination classes after umbridge fired professor trelawny and how horribly wrong that went.  we also get to find out why harry must continue to stay with the dursleys.

i just felt like the movie missed a lot of that, and some of it was pretty important to the story.  i found myself having to explain some of it to matt when we watched the movie because he'd never read the books and therefore missed some of the connections.  i still loved the movie and it's probably my second favorite after harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2.  i just think they could have elaborated on a few things.  although, it probably would have made the movie about 5 hours long.  it must have been hard to decide what to include and what to cut out in making these movies.  a task for which i definitely do not envy the screenwriters!

30 day harry potter challenge - 2

2. your favorite movie

source

i'm probably among the minority here, but my favorite is the last one.  i was so happy with the way they pulled it all together and ended it.  i cry when snape reveals his patronus and whispers, "always."  i cheer when mrs. weasley steps in and says, "not my daughter, you bitch."  i swoon when ron and hermione finally kiss.  i swell with pride when neville reminds the death eaters that it's not just about harry but about all of them.  the whole series wrapped so beautifully.  and i will watch it again and again and again.