Post-Deathly Hallows numbness

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS SPOILERS AHEAD - WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

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Entwined with the 607 heroin-powdered pages of the LAST HARRY POTTER BOOK EVER, I was rolling and bouncing down a rocky slope towards the great swamp of eternity most of the time between 1am on July 21 and 1pm on July 23. :D

Ahhh, deliciously bitter-sweet. A FEW comments:

~Well, I always said I would rather want Severus dead and good than alive and bad... Obviously, alive, good and happy, with a chance to explain himself to Harry in person, would have been nothing to whine about, but JKR put him out of his misery. :'( At least I was not SURPRISED. However, I had sort of expected him to take a bullet Killing Curse for Harry, making the kid feel a little ashamed in the process. And now... If only Voldy had not misunderstood things, Severus and Harry might have had clinked their Butterbeers together the same night to calm their nerves... XC (Hmm, that sounded pervy...) At least he did much else.

~Dead Lupin. Very quick, and my relief over Snape made up for some of it... I only fear for my Thewlisian's mental well-being once SHE is done reading. Pretty though she is, her reaction shan't be. :O At least fate saved the happy, shiny part of Remus's life for last, and Dora went with him and Teddy was too young to know... :/

~Aye... The Lily/Severus shippers spoke true! :O I had read their arguments, which made sense - I suppose the idea was merely too cool to hope for in canon. And it was not only a crush from Sev... BEST FRIENDS. *SNIFF* Had there been no Sorting... Had Sev been in Gryffindor and not in the BAD COMPANY... Had he not gone all pseudo-racist on Lily... Had Lily forgiven the remorseful and well-meaning Sev... Poor Severus! "Always." *jumps out the headmaster's friggin office window* He took no Killing Curse, but risked all for many years just for Harry...s mum.

~When Petunia mentioned "that awful boy" in Order (page 34, UK edition) she meant SEVERUS, not James! It would have been SO funny if Harry had somehow realised this at the time. XD And also a major spoiler, soooooo.

~If the moviemakers do not stop and wallow in The Prince's tale I will... I will... crush my popcorn box like... like a popcorn box in my ragingly trembling fist.
I don't care for popcorn.

~With Severus satisfyingly good and tragically deceased, I decided to finish the book in a cosy forest. It was raining, so I sat under The Ewan Umbrella, on a rock by a wee waterfall. (Shivering, not necessarily because of cold, so HAHA!)

JKR: "As I was saying, Harry was fed up with adventure so he married Ginny and they produced some offspring named James, Albus and Lily. DUH."
RATEXLA: "Naturally, but damn, didn't ANYONE name their kid after Severus? Oh well, maybe as a middle name... I'll just pretend that they did."
BOOK: *draws its final breaths*
HARRY: "Albus Severus..."
RATEXLA: *SODASPRAY*
HARRY: "...you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."
RATEXLA: "BAWL!"

TRELAWNEY -91: *stumbles into great hall* "Zup? Did you know, I was just zapping through my crystal ball and guess what I found out? 15 years from now, Potter will name his kid after you, Sev. Bye."
SEVERUS: *TEASPRAY*
HARRY: "Ewww... and... EWWWWW!"

~Only after Harry takes the last train will Severus know that he forgave and honoured him.

~When Severus first said "Look... at... me" I assumed he wanted to convey the information to Harry via eye-contact... After all, he couldn't be certain Harry would make it to the Pensieve. When I went back for a second read about his death and tale, even I got that he wanted to... look into LILY'S EYES FOR THE FINAL TIME... X'C

~Is it just me, or was Albus Severus Potter totally the most SPEEEEEEEEEECIAL kid in Potter-the-next-generation? SPIN-OFF MATERIAL. James II was just rowdy James I. Lily was cool like Ginny, but Albus Severus alone resembled Harry... looks-wise AT LEAST... and it was hinted that he was SERIOUS. Sniff! Severus would have liked that the one with Lily's eyes was named after him. :')

And here are me old comments on Prince, including my favourite Snape Is Good arguments. :)

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This morning, near the close of my paper round, I saw a doe. :) (Hell, not of the same species as THAT doe, but.) *wants silver pendant*

Lowly anticipated DOUBLE Harry Potter 5 premiere report!

Photos.

It seemed that only Carin, kind-of-Stockholmer, total Thewlisian and London virgin, would join me this time.

JULY 1: Carin took the train down to me since she did not wish to fly alone to London. (Which meant that some plane fuel was saved!) After squeeing over the angelic Ellendog’s carrot tail she spent the last night on Earth in our guest room. (Having one sounds kinda snobbish! :O )

JULY 2: And in the morning we departed. Because of Carin’s aeroplane anxiety I expected her to be a somewhat hysterical flyer who would claw her surrounding passengers to a pulp before jumping out the window, causing the death of us all. She just had ear trouble. Awww. *morphine*

Unless someone somewhere fucked up, our flights were of course carbon neutral. :D

Door to door: ~6 hours. We rode with Terravision and, as usual, stayed at Piccadilly Backpackers, I know it’s OK and more importantly it is VERY close to the action!

Carin & Yoze: *burst thru hostel door rendering all onlookers breathless, blinded and weak-kneed*
Yoze: “The lift is usually kaputt, HAHA!”
Lift: *lifts ‘em... just not at break-neck speeeeeeeeeeed*
Yoze: “All right, we’ll probably get to stay on like the 6TH FLOOR or some such extreme altitude.”
Hostel guy: “Welcome, your room is number 709!”
Yoze: “Doh!”

Carin had refused to stay in a dormitory for fear of getting murdered in the night. My fearlessness of dormitories is probably completely irrational, so aight, our room was just for us. Luxurioussssssssss. We bounced back out into London for a taste of adventure:
~Leicester Square, where some CONSTRUCTION was going on for the premiere :O
~Sci-fi shop Forbidden Planet. Mmmm, Chucky dolls and Lupin’s wand...
~Oxford Street
~Green Park
~A ride in a real double-decker bus, OMFG! Although the first attempt involved Carin hopping onto one which LEFT while I was still on the street, digging for my card! We survived and where shortly reunited. :p
~Hamleys the 7 floor toy shop where I may have seen Sacha and where we now hugged all their cuddly toy animals, screamed to the universe that we needed them, and bought some sweet fuel.

JULY 3: I, warrior of Leicester Square, got up at “3.30am” which was in reality 2.30am as I had neglected to turn back my mobile phone clock, and crept out to Leicester Square just to see how many campers we would have to battle and stomp on. Not an overwhelming number – they were lined up along half the western park fence, perhaps. I returned to an awake Carin in our luxurious room and sucked the last luxury out of it by resting, with no hope of sleep, for another half hour. The rest of the night we spent next to the wall of the mighty Odeon... Very near the spot I had dreamed of since November 6, 2005. A few campers there as well, of course, but if only Justitia would kick our arses in the right direction, we figured we deserved a patch of TOP NOTCH FRONT ROW BARRIER. A barrier which was not to be erected (huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh) for another... day. :p

At dawn, we moved. Across the street. Still with top notch front row patches in our pockets. We moved to a lovely empty spot for 2 minutes, it was the press pit. (Think I did the same thing in 2005.) It was terribly annoying not to know how the barriers would be arranged, thus having no clue of one’s chances. We stood/sat in a line stretching along the eastern park fence most of the time, I believe... Playing games, reading The Half-Blood Prince :D, talking to a Mexican Pothead, writing in me diary, drawing, eating dried pineapple and getting our feet mashed by passing trucks. AND HOW THE HELL WERE THEY PLANNING TO ARRANGE THE BARRIERS?! In a sucky way for us, a cop said. But an extra piece of star-pen might be created and some stars ushered into it so they could meet even us!

A plastic tape was rolled out in front of our line, magical, for it would cause any tape-breaker to be chucked across the Thames. Or just into it. Tied to a sack of... uh, nails. “Stay calm, and you will all have your place by the barrier!” Alas, the cops were unable to control the crowd welling forth when the tape was removed, so Carin and I tragically landed in 3RD OR 4TH ROW behind the barrier perpendicular to the Odeon. We had probably not stomped on enough non-camping, queue-cheating pseudo-fans. LUCKILY, a wee stretch of barrier also ran along the Odeon wall... and there was room for us. I grabbed this chance of close encounters and proper photos, judging the spot to be of roughly the same quality as Lo’s and mine in 2005... Someone must take a detour there... right?! At first Carin wanted to stand looking into the park instead, so she could at least see everyone, but joined me eventually. Pineapple all around.

It seemed that only one park gate was open to the public. So, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, I bet the queue system worked well there. Today’s arrangement of barriers and stars inside the park was also used in 2005, so it is safe to assume that it is now... permanent, popular with the organisers? And that is why I AM camping FO’ REAL in 2008! Autumn! Yeah! And in 2010! SUMMER!

Weather was fine most of the day. But I had said it would rain. It did in 2004. It did in 2005. It did now. Thunder straight above arrived together with the stars. We were cosy under a wee roof, but the 500000000000000 people in front, not having acknowledged the existence of hats (for protection of cameras) and shirts (for keeping autograph books dry), KEPT THEIR UMBRELLAS UP, UP AND IN THE WAY. I so never did, in any year, at times that mattered.

Rain: *stops for a bit*
Umbrellas: “Damdidamdidam!”
Crowd: “UMBRELLAS DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWN!”
Umbrellas: “...”
Early guests: “Recognise US and win £8000!”
Umbrellas: “Sigh.” *crack*
Yoze: “Is that Rupert?!”
Lone raindrop: *splat*
Umbrellas: *WHOOSH*
Crowd: “IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH! REMUUUUUUUUUUUS!”
Carin: “OMGWTFDAVID?! WHERE IS HE? WAS THAT HIM? HE WALKED INTO THE CINEMA! IF IT WAS HIM!? I MISSED DAVID! MUUUUUURDER ME, YOZE! KILL ME!”
Yoze: *peppers umbrellas with machine gun* ”Nah, THERE’S Rupert, eh?”
Sun: :)
Stars: *fly by forever*
Carin: “I SAW RUPERT!”

After some time, a cast member found our little nook of the world – Chris Rankin! Saw him in 2004, now I got his siggy in my copy of Order, and a pic where he looks angry. :D Conversation ( = thank yous) and eye contact: Aye!

Phew. A siggy in me book. Trip definitely not wasted.

Later I spotted Alfie Enoch posing for the press, actually I did not know his name at the time… but soon heard the crowd scream it, and he too came to our corner and signed thingies! For my book he used some other fan’s pen, 2 seconds later he was 1 pen short and asked me “Can I borrow this?”, eye-contacting... via my camera display! Doh! I happily consented to the pen-loan. And got some photos. Carin has not quit squeeing over his dimples since. :B

Yay. Two siggies in me book. Up to 2005 level.

The wild mob then spotted Natalia Tena smoking outside the Odeon entrance. Carin screamed for “TONKS!” for a while and SHE came over!
Fan: ”Can I have your ciggy?”
Natalia: “No...”
Yoze: “Natalia! Natalia! TONKS! Er… hehehe! Natalia, please!” *click click click*
Natalia: “What’s your name?”
Yoze: “SORRY?”
Natalia aka 1st Ever Potter Star To Ask For Yoze’s Name And Thus Surprising Her To Deafness: “What’s your name?”
Yoze: “Josefine. :D”
I did not bother to discuss the unusual spelling and she spelled it -ph- of course. :)

Wee. 3 siggies in me book. Best result since 2004.

I think my Natalia photo was today’s fave because in it, she looks like some random smoking (well...) glamourous French celebrated film star of the 50’s so when I first saw the photo I screamed about making it black and white but that did not look any good when I tried it in Photoshop so I didn’t bother to wrestle with the contrast and oh, did I just use “smoking” and “glamourous” in the same sentence for publication in my uncensored blog which concerns a subject popular with 13-year-olds? Someone might start smoking because I wrote that. Well, children, I did read that rationality is generally developed in one’s late teens (if ever), so I suppose it would be unfair of me to burden you with the responsibility of working this out on your own: SMOKING IS BAD... for you, at leassssssst.

We saw other stars of course – some on the ramp/stage/stairs separating the street from the park, some posing for the press, some signing for the people in the GOOD SPOTS, some passing into the cinema. OMG lyke some examples:
~Dan
~Emma W
~Maggie Smith (I’d never seen her before AFAIK!)
~Brendan Gleeson
~Jamie Waylett
~Evanna Lynch, according to Carin at least :B
~David Tennant
~Bonnie Wright
~Robbie Coltrane (who arrived late but still signed for the people near us!)
~Helena Bonham Carter (Carin yelled for her and she kind of looked at us from afar, tilting her head and looking a bit saaaaaaaad...?! Hehe!)
~JO! My first view of Jo! I went “JOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOO!” Carin: “She must have heard THAT...”

We missed you:
~Alan! :O
~Jason! :O
~Emma T? :O
~Ralph? :O
~Gary-O :O

1 devastated Thewlisian, 1 satisfied celeb collector and 20998 other people sauntered off Leicester Square. After 13 h I still wasn’t in dire need of a ladies’ room (I just hadn’t quenched my thirst since the previous thirst-ay), but saw the point of taking my chance before we had to walk to the airport or summat. I also had some chips. And we examined the Odeon’s arse. It didn’t look, uh, glamourous, and we asked a nearby lady if she knew whether the stars would exit there or from the front. The front, she thought, and told us where to stand, then discussed Equus with me for a bit. *hogwartsgirly blush*

I had never waited for exiting stars before, but now we did, for a last Thewlis chance. The southern part of the square was pretty good. The desperate Thewlisian was in the front row conversing with Potheads, the satisfied hunter wallowing in siggies and photos took the 2nd row and chewed on asocially through The Half-Blood Prince. (Er... That didn’t sound right…!)

Some stars I remember seeing this time, through all my tunnel vision:
~Maggie Smith
~Shefali Chowdhury
~James Phelps
~Oliver Phelps
~Richard Griffiths
~Emma W
~Dan
~Tom Felton
~Warwick Davis
~Rupert
~Matthew Lewis
~Natalia Tena, who happily stuck her tongue out and waved at Carin or WHOMEVAH!
~JOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOO!
~DAVID THEWLIS AT LAST?! Carin said so. I called out his name. :D He stepped into a car and Carin was no longer such a devastated Thewlisian. :D

I took her for a quick look at Trafalgar Square in the dusk, and then we tamed the delayed tube. Well, some line was delayed... due to a... “passenger action”! Wonder what THAT means... We made it un-mutilated to Liverpool Street where we had just missed the second last bus, so we had some smoothie & fruit salad. :9 2 h later, Camp Stansted was set up. Carin slept in our faithful leopard blanket. It was now a dirty dirty thing as we had sat and stood on it all day. :D I slept quite well using my old winter coat and an inflatable pillow. Good to know... Like 3 h, good for an airport nap. :9

JULY 8: Carin was long gone to Stockholm, which has been granted every other gala premiere in history. But this time... THE TURN HAD COME TO LITTLE GOTHENBURG! I had known for a few weeks that... KATIE LEUNG AND MATTHEW LEWIS WOULD ATTEND! I saw them up close at London premieres, but was still without their siggies and it would be cool to see them again and maybe ask them to pose, so of course I was going to hang around. :B

What was not good about happening to leave my Ravenclaw scarf at home:
1. It was cold as hell.
2. Katie’s character is in friggin Ravenclaw.
But I am still among the living, for I remembered the camera. It all went down like this: I arrived around 12.30pm, what luxury, and stood around waiting for perhaps 4 h. Notes were taped to the doors: The cinema would close to the vulgar mortals at half past 3. Later I heard that the stars would arrive at 7...

The barrier, about as long as the width of 40 fans, was only ever half full. Wow. I guess this premiere REALLY wasn’t marketed. Sweet. I had read a wee note in the paper about it… and alerted people on 2-3 online forums. Oh, I do hope this was the mere first syrup-dipped Fragaria vesca in a long string of Gothenburg gala premieres... Is it cuz we got a new cinema?

I was the last fan along the barrier before the stars entered the cinema. Camera ready. Order almost as ready. Nice photos was my priority, but I would keep the book open in case someone had time to sign...

Every Swedish celeb who ever lived filed into the cinema. Except dead ones. A bad day to be prosopagnostic. Etc. I stopped believing the procession would end. Ever. Then the Potter kids were a bit late and I thought that the guards might just rush them past us to save time. :/ ‘Tis lucky that whatever I try to predict about people is incorrect. They arrived and began to work on the handful of fans! :D Katie went first and when she reached me I asked if I could take a picture, “Sure”, at the first attempt her hand was in her face, stroking back hair. Hehe, I had actually IMAGINED that. Second photo turned out nice! Then she signed my book, during which time I asked if she was cold. “A bit”, I believe she replied... *wraps*

Close behind Katie was Matthew. Some guard next to him grabbed what seemed to be every fan’s camera and took photos of Matt posing with the owners. :) The guy made for my camera as well, awww, but I declined since I wanted to photograph Matt myself. :B When he was finished with the previous fan, I waved the camera around a little and he posed for a lovely shot... :) Then he kindly gave me my 14th Potter cast siggy! :D

Pre-meeting: “Uhhhhhhhh, were these 7 wasted hours?” *teethclatter*
Post-meeting: “Weeeeeeeeeee! 7 hours well spent... Wouldn’t have wanted to risk missing THAT…”


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It really IS JULY 13, 2007! AT 6.20 TONIGHT… I WILL GET TO SEE HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX! OMFG!

Don’t stay up and wait for my review. :D