Harry Potter Survey :D

Oh!  Oh!  I've got to regress a couple years and fill out a meme, because this is just too awesome not to do.  It's pure happenstance that I found this, but it is great timing, because the Very Potter Sequel musical is out on youtube, and I am crazy excited to watch it, but I can't, because I promised Stephanie we would watch it together.  So if you don't like Harry Potter, skip!  If you do, and you have time to waste, fill it out on your blog or in the comments!  I want to bask in the Harry Potter love and memories.

I gave away my HP books, but I've still got a HP coloring book.  

That I used as recently as earlier this week. 

1.  How did you get into the books?

My friend Lacie bought two copies of the 4th book when I was 12.  I'd heard they were good, so I bought one from her, then went and bought the first three.  I was instantly hooked.

2.  Your favorite book?

Gah.  I love the 3rd book, because I love all the Marauder backstory.  And it's just a brilliantly conceived mystery.  But I also love the 4th, because that was the moment I realized these books were serious stuff.  Once Voldemort regained his body and killed a student and took Harry's blood....well goodness, I knew it was no longer just a happy little children's tale.  I actually read that passage aloud, the "kill the spare" passage, to my mom in the car.  She didn't understand the awesomeness at the time.

3.  What house would you be in?

Ravenclaw, probably.  I'm smart and not particularly adventurous.  I like to think the Ravenclaws are off doing their own awesome things while the Gryffindors and Slytherins are being all antagonistic toward each other.

4.  Your favorite movie?

I never actually liked the movies until the 5th, which actually impressed me.  But I'm going to have to go with the 6th one, because I liked it so much I saw it three times in theaters (though it lacked by the third time).  That was the movie to which I dragged the Monahans at midnight.  Then when we left the theater at 3 a.m. it was lightning and ominous.  I thought Death Eaters were going to swoop in and attack.  I love my brain at 3 in the morning.

5.  Wizard Rock.  Discuss.

I know it exists (people making songs about HP), but....that's all I know.

6.  Your favorite characters?

*sigh*  My all time favorite is Draco.  Oh my word.  He is a sad little angry boy who wants to be awesome but just keeps losing to that annoying Potter brat.  How can your heart not go out to him?  He is actually the reason I loved the 6th movie so much--they focused on his character's struggle a lot, which I really appreciated.  Trying to be his dad, but unable.  Oh, Draco.  I love your snark, and I love you even though Harry is better than you at everything!

Also Hermione, because she reminds me of me.  I'm smart and I have bushy hair.  When I would read the books I would kind of put myself in her place, because I wanted to have two awesome guy friends with whom I could save the world.

Fred and George!  I love every scene they are in.  Fred's death was one of the most heart-wrenching things I've ever read.

And I'll throw Dumbledore in there too.  I love kooky mentors who help the hero while being very odd.  And the revelation that he had been grooming Harry to kill himself!?  So much awesome!  This kindly old man turned into a deadly practical war general.  Didn't see it coming and loved him for it.

7.  Drink that reminds you of HP?

Umm, not much, really.  Although sometimes when I drink out of cask/bottle/things, I imagine I'm sneakily drinking polyjuice potion like Fake Moody.

8.  Your favorite ship(s)?

Well, I'm going to have to say not the canon ones.  I like the idea of Hermione and Harry much more.  I don't like relationships based on bickering, which is how I see Hermione and Ron.  When H&H wandered the woods together in the last book, I thought they could easily be a couple.

But more than that, I like the idea of Hermione and Draco.  They have serious antagonistic chemistry.  So I don't like bickering, but seething hate turned to love?  Yeah, I can get behind that.

Really, I didn't read the books for the couples (probably because I didn't like who Rowling was obviously setting with who...don't even get me started on Ginny...blech).  That is what fanfiction is for!

9.  Fanfiction: discuss!

Oh, hahaha.  Okay, I will!  Pretty much since I was 12, I was equally invested in HP canon and fanon.  Since it was years between books, I had to fill up my HP love with the interwebs.  I theorized, read endless amounts of articles and essays, and most importantly, read fanfiction!  That is where I developed my love for Hermione/Draco.  There were some that were as long as the actual books themselves, and there are HP fanfiction authors that turned into real authors that I love (Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan!).

10.  Favorite book moment(s)?

I love the deaths.  That is morbid, but Rowling writes them with such heart-wrenching beauty.  Sirius!  Dumbledore!  Fred!  Dear Lord, even Snape, who only wanted to see Harry's eyes one last time because they were just like his unrequited love's.

Less morbidly, I love when Fred and George leave the school amidst rebellion and fireworks.  I love the end of book 3 when you find out Sirius is actually a good guy and it was Ron's pet rat all along!  I love Dumbledore offering Draco mercy...that scene on the top of the tower has me sobbing even before Dumbledore dies.  I love little baby Harry confronting Quirrel and defeating him with the power of love.  I love the patronuses, and I seriously want one.  I love that Harry gave up his life and died to save the world, and then came back to life (seriously, how did people think it was evil?  So much Christianity everywhere!).  I love that the Malfoys were actually all about their family instead of Voldemort.  I love all the sweet little moments of Harry and Ron and Hermione being best friends in the midst of horrible world-saving activities.

11.  Character you're crushing on?

Duh.  Malfoy.  He is snarky and broken, and he doesn't know how to be redeemed.  He is the Benjamin Linus of HP.  Of course I love him.

But in real life, I would probably crush on Sirius or Remus, regardless if they are school-aged or adults.  Besides, they were only in their mid-30s during the books.  And they are made of a lot of awesome.

12.  Favorite movie scene?

Again, the 6th.  It's gotta be Draco seeing Katie and realizing what he's done, then going to the bathroom to cry and almost repent.  But then in comes Harry and he's looked weak!  Oh no!  Better duel.  And then poor baby Harry unknowingly uses a dark curse that slashes Draco open, and they are both just shocked, and their rivalry has simultaneously raised the stakes and become so scary as to make them both back off.  Then Draco just lays on the wet floor in a growing puddle of blood until Snape swoops in and heals him while the camera looks on from above.  Beautiful and tragic. 

13.  Least favorite character(s)?

Ginny.  Ugh.  She went from a believable girl with a crush on her older brother's famous friend to SUPER GINNY who is just the best at everything and super confident and is desired by all the boys.  Shoot me in the face.  And then of course Harry gets the girl, only to leave her behind for his last year.  He takes his friends, but not his girlfriend?  She just waits for him?  What kind of medieval romance is this?  I want my romantic partners to fight together, to save the world together.  And I want them to have some flaws so that they seem vaguely human.

Also I hated Umbridge.  But who didn't?

14.  Moments that made you cry?

Hm.  I know I definitely cried when Sirius died.  I guess that was the first time?  The 6th book was the worst.  I sobbed through Harry spoon feeding that awful potion to Dumbledore in the cave, and then sobbed again later when Dumbledore actually died.  And I surprise sobbed when Fred died, because it's just so unexpected and cruel.

15.  Whatever tickles your fancy.

Well, okay.  I love Harry Potter.  I probably always will.  It is a huge part of my childhood/adolesence/young adulthood.  It is still going on, because there are two more movies as well as one released but unviewed youtube musical.  If I could live in any world but this one, it would be Hogwarts world.  Even more than Narnia or Middle Earth.