Starr the Slytherin and Bianca the Gryffindor

This is a shot from the 2007 launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Starr, a good friend of mine since the sixth grade, worked for the Buensalido PR firm and made sure that I got an invite to the event, where they transformed the bookstore into the Great Hall. They even had ‘floating’ candles and a live snake contained inside a glass cage (I refused to go near it). I lost the trivia game because I couldn’t remember the address of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes—93 Diagon Alley, I had put in 91—but I had a pretty good time. I got to keep the robe too, so it’s somewhere in my cabinet.

This was also the night that my boyfriend James first brought me home. Of course, he wasn’t my boyfriend back then; I was single at that time, and I could barely remember his name because for several months, I was calling him Sam for some reason. My siblings and I hitched a ride with a friend, who met up with him at the mall and asked him to take the wheel. He thought I was a geek for being nuts about the Harry Potter series, but a couple of years ago, I managed to get him to enjoy reading all the books. In return, I do my best to pay attention to basketball games and literature. I’m still working on that last aspect.

10 days to New York, and I’m wondering if I should get an iPad just so I could read more ebooks as I can’t haul hard copies in my luggage. Not just Harry Potter, mind you. I do try to read whatever I can get my hands on because I rarely watch TV; I still remember those book-deprived months in Berlin when I had nothing but Lonely Planet Central Europe and a battered copy of Pygmalion to read! I had a laptop and plenty of literary websites at my disposal, but articles just aren’t the same as an interesting book. Once a bookworm, always a bookworm.

Aside from J’s return from Bangkok, of course. I’m excited! I just know I’ll be dabbing away tears in the movie house, although I have to admit I was more excited about the book because the movies tend to be inconsistent with style and narrative. I wish J.K. Rowling would write about the Marauders—it’s sad that all of them died tragically.

I know that she’s done with writing about Harry, but I’m hoping she’s not sick of the Hogwarts universe just yet. I started reading the books when I was 15, and 11 years later, I’m still a big fan. So you know where I’ll be on July 15, come hell or high water. Or Voldemort.

All eyes are on the royal wedding coming up on Friday. Apparently, people in the U.K. and some of the British Colonies are even placing bets on the color of the Queen’s hat, what they’ll eat at the reception, etc. As I’d never been a fan of Prince William to begin with (my interest in British royalty lies mainly with the Tudors and Queen Victoria), I’m not particularly interested in the ceremony or the events leading up to it. Plus, Prince William no longer looks like the fairy tale prince they joked about marrying off to Mia Thermopolis in Princess Diaries 2.

She totally wants him

Remember that when Prince William started getting heavy exposure after the death of Princess Diana, this is what he looked like:

He was clearly the spitting image of his mom, who I think is still is prettier than Kate Middleton (who is allegedly going to be the third best-looking royal), who looks okay but is starting to show signs of aging as well.

But at 28, Britain’s second-in-line to the throne looks much older than he should, no thanks to the premature balding. With all his money, you’d think he could afford a nice toupee or the services of Svenson.

The 1981 wedding. Probably the last relevant royal wedding event that actually captivated the world. Plus, Prince Charles had a full head of hair.

Since Prince William will no longer be on the market, fangirls are starting to shift their attention to Prince Harry, who had spent years in the shadow of his older brother.

If the considerably more rebellious Harry wants to get into another field if the royalty thing doesn’t work out, he could take up acting and join the Harry Potter cast as one of the ginger-haired Weasleys.

"Join the dark side." Oh wait, that's Voldemort.

"What? He's British, he'll clearly fit in with the cast."

Nope, I’m not a big fan of the movies, especially since the first two were lousy, and I felt that I wasted my money on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 3D because SM North Edsa showed only the first 15 minutes in 3D, yet charged the full amount for it *shakes fist vigorously at SM*

However, I admit that I love the books, which is why I watch the movies anyway. So when I saw these newly released publicity photos for the last Harry Potter movies, I got a little excited as well. Anyone want to help me identify these scenes from the movies? I’m not sure which ones could correspond to the books, although I could give pretty good guesses. By the way, the captions are heavy on spoilers. If you haven’t read the books yet and are just waiting for the movies, you’re missing out on a lot. Just sayin’.

This is where Ginny tries to give Harry a "birthday present" before he leaves for his deadly dangerous task :p I never really liked the character Ginny Weasley. She didn't do much in the series.

I think this is the one where Rufus Scrimgeour gives Dumbledore's inheritance to Harry and co. (that's the Golden Snitch)

Is this Xenophilius Lovegood or Marvolo Gaunt? My guess is Lovegood; his house seems a little too cheerful to be owned by Voldemort's grandfather

I have no idea what this could be.

Harry escaping from 4 Privet Drive with Hagrid

Sirius's two-way mirror with Aberforth Dumbledore

It’s probably safe to bet that The Hunger Games, the young adult sci-fi series by Suzanne Collins, will not reach the cult status given to Harry Potter. However, it doesn’t stop it from being an stellar example of young adult fiction—I have to admit, even better than J.K. Rowling’s in terms of writing and plot execution—due to its complex themes and well fleshed-out characters. Hogwarts still has an irreplaceable spot in my heart, but this weekend was dedicated mostly to Mockingbird, the last book in the trilogy.

I actually didn’t realize that the book was already out until Geolette, a good friend and co-worker, excitedly opened a package from National Book Store in the Metro office. “It’s Mockingjay!” she squealed as she held up the copy. Being swamped with work, she unfortunately didn’t have time to read it this week, so I borrowed her copy until I got one for myself. I read it twice this weekend: the first reading was to find out what happened (I was dying to know what happened after Catching Fire), and the second was to enjoy the detail and understand the heroine’s motives more easily. Well, how you’ll react to the ending depends almost entirely on whether you’re for Team Gale or for Team Peeta.

(Warning: spoilers below)

Read More…

So today is September 1, and I’m unfortunately still in Manila—which means that I missed the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9¾. And man, what I wouldn’t give to be able to have a Hogwarts to escape to. I like my life, but sometimes, everything screws up at the same time for no inconceivable reason whatsoever.

Today was a tough day. I got out of it with a headache from copyediting plus a few extra bruises, a scraped knee, a hurt ego and an upwelling of resentment against my mom after I fell down a set of stairs (I just don’t want to go into detail any longer, because I finally figured out there’s no winning an argument against a mother until you’re old and gray yourself). I’ve had a lot of tougher days, but today, a few sharp words from The Mother and some minor physical injuries were enough to push me over the edge. On the way home, in the middle of a darkened car, I started to cry.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Remus Lupin defined a dementor as this: “Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can’t see them. Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself…soul-less and evil. You will be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.”

Maybe dementors are real. There’s no conceivable reason for feeling so down over a scraped knee and a few sharp words. Maybe dementors aren’t always the scary, ragged-looking things we think they could be. Dementors could be everyday people—the people you know and love, but who, for some reason, turn on you just when you need them most.