(this time tomorrow, I expect to be already crying)

Part Two:

* I took in the fourth movie with Merefin at an afternoon showing at the Kirksville theater, with the usual walk downtown from campus. I don't think we skipped class, as we were usually responsible people, but we were a little more flippant as time went on. I remember desperately needing to go to the bathroom from about the second challenge on, but not wanting to miss anything. Stupid cheap soda. (Also, Ron has very unfortunate hair during this film. Poor Mr. Grint.)

* Applesauce used to be my midnight movie pal. He'd provide the transportation; I'd provide the snuck-in candy. Too bad he moved to Austin. Among the many movies we did see, however, was Order of the Phoenix. Time was never his strong suit, though, and thus we ended up not leaving until well after eleven (for the midnight show), and stuck to the far right corner of one of the back rows. I was mad about how much they cut out at the time, but the battle at the Ministry of Magic is still one of the best sequences in the series.

* Though I've done movies with fellow ADPers, none were quite like Half-Blood Prince, where there was a group of about twenty of us and the majority of us dressed up as various characters. Apparently, there's no better way to get your picture taken with teenage HP fans than to be twenty or thirty year olds dressed in the best items pulled from your friendly costume shop stock. (I should've kept the jacket I wore for Tonks, as I went looking for it again this past Halloween and it was no longer in the shop.) The best part of the movie, though, was the knowledge that I was leaving for London the very next day/that same day (depending on how you view midnight movies). That opening sequence, where the death eaters destroy the Millennium Bridge? There might've been crying.

* We were all a little behind on things, so there wasn't any costume dressing up for Part 1, but I did stay up a couple hours the night before making shirts for myself and RJ (a self-professed "Muffle"). Even having just reread the book--at least to where the movie was going to pause--didn't make me want to throw things at the screen when they were different from the original. I'm still a little sad that B. wasn't able to stay, seeing as he and I had organized the tickets (and did so again for Part 2, for the third time total), but he assures me that no illness will get in the way this week. Some woman (who clearly hadn't read the book) yelled back at Bellatrix while the rest of us (who had read it) had already started to mourn for Dobby. That was unfortunate.