Ramblings: Harry Potter Madness: Part 2

Well we did it. Stef and I went to the Borders in North Wales, where she had reserved her copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows when it was initially announced. I had stopped by earlier in the afternoon to pick up her wristband that would determine when she would actually receive her copy. We got a silver wristband which I thought was pretty good seeing as it was after 3pm in the afternoon. The silver wristbands were the second group of people to get their copies (the happiest people on the night had orange wristbands).

There were a bunch of activities to be going on, including a costume contest, Snape bingo, trivia, and a few other things to keep kids occupied way past their normal bedtime. I still did not know what I was about to step into. When we pulled into the parking lot and saw that there were way more cars than what we usually see, so many in fact that it flowed into the lot by the abandoned Pizza Hutt, that is when I started to realize just how big this event was.

Pure pandemonium. Tons of kids. Lots of costumes. I have to hand it to these Potter-heads, they love their book. Now someday I hope to have some kids of my own, and I hope they enjoy reading as much as Stef does, because I believe it will be valuable to their lives, but part of me hopes they don't get so wrapped up in a series that they want to dress in costumes and go to the store at midnight to get a fresh copy.

Some of my favorite costumes on the night included a couple of real young kids dressed as Harry Potter, one kid dressed as Hedwig (whose mother by the way was dressed in a costume but I think she was dressed more like Link), and one lady was dressed as Dolores Umbridge. But the best costume, to me, was the guy who decided to show up as Darth Vader. I wish I had a picture of that one. Now I haven't read the final book yet, but here is my...

!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!
Darth Vader killed Potter's parents, and is the true father of Harry.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

All in all we received Stef's copy a little bit before 1am and we got home not too long afterward, so the night could have gone on much longer. Good thing I got that silver wristband, eh? I can safely say I will never go to a midnight release for book ever again. Enjoy a couple of my snapshots form the night. The rest can be found on my Flickr page.

This is what you saw as soon as you walked through the front door.

If you weren't into Harry Potter there was quality reading available for all. I was a little perturbed seeing Penn State picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten though.