July 17, 2005

Pottermania

A very short Dementor and the Fat Lady
Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge is terrified by a very short Dementor.
The Harry Potter party at the Har Mar Barnes&Noble was a hot time, in more ways than one. The Har Mar mall air conditioning had apparently died under the strain earlier that day, so the only working A/C was that of the store itself. This was sufficient to keep the areas directly by the cash registers cool, and that's all. By the time we got our book - and I was in the first 50 of at least 500 - it was easily over 90 degrees in the humid store, and I was getting queasy.

But interior weather aside, the party was tons of fun. The costumes were imaginative and well carried out. Aside from the heat, the crowding wasn't too bad because we managed to grab and keep a table early on. From there we were able to watch all sorts of interesting people and costumes go by.

A fradulent Fat Lady (my spouse was of course the Real Deal) with her amazing floating picture frame.
A surprisingly tall Ginny Weasley drew a skeptical glare from a surprisingly short Professor Trelawney
Barnes and Noble had a system established that, I suppose, was intended to reduce crowding and confusion in the distribution of the books when they arrived. Certainly their efforts would be an improvement over the release of "The Order of the Phoenix". When that book was released at the Mall of America, your order of purchase was determined by how close to the front of the line you happened to be. Through lucky accident, I was standing in the unexpected point where they opened up the ropes, and instead of being about 50th that time I was number 12. For this release, the idea was to have people line up for numbers the morning beforehand, and then use those numbers to hand out the books that evening.

Upon arriving in the evening, one had to then line up again, this time to exchange one's number for a book-coupon (the difference being I suppose those few who might have gotten a number, but not returned later for the party). Once one had both number and coupon, then beginning at midnight one could, when called with one's group, line up a third time to actually purchase the book.

On reflection, it was a system that captured the British flavor of the books themselves.

While she looked very authentic in the store, the camera reveals that Hermione Granger had crazy eyes.
Hagrid and Dumbledore pose with the Fat Lady and an very special Hogwarts student
Given the complication of this process, the heat, and the vast number of people present, I was thrilled that we ended up being in the first group of fifty. Add to that the fact that we simply stumbled onto rock-star parking four stalls from the front door (while wars were being fought around us by those who had been circling the lot for ten minutes), and really we had nothing to complain about. Originally intending to arrive at 5:30 a.m. and grab a good spot, I managed to arrive at 8:30 a.m. instead, only half an hour early, and nonetheless managed to make #46. I didn't know it then, but they were going to hand out books in blocks of 50, so #46 was practically as good as #1.

The folks who got #1 were an unusual pair, a pierced and tattooed set of young heavy-metal rockers with platform shoes. NOT what you'd normally expect. They arrived at 10:30 pm the night before. Spot #2 was occupied at 5:30 a.m. the next morning. Frankly, if I'd spent 6 hours camping out just for one spot better in line, I'd have been annoyed.

A wizard held forth a potions lesson for the amusement of the crowd.
The astonishingly clever costume of a would-be Marietta Edgecomb, whose face bears pimples spelling "SNEAK"
The evening was rather merry. Like most of my costumes mine was last-minute, and was the result of my having been able to contrive a lime-green bowler hat out of a much taller novelty felt hat in which my children had long since lost interest. Prior to discovery of said hat, I had been planning on going as Willie Widdershins, seen only briefly during 'The Order of the Phoenix,' drinking whiskey with his head completely wrapped in bandages. Instead I wore the bowler, my tweediest jacket, green slacks, and a Halloween tie. It was as dignified a costume as I could have hoped for.

The only holdout on the costume front was my elder son, who grumpily declined any decoration and attended as a muggle. I really can't criticize him, as prior to the discovery of the hat I was not particularly keen on my 'Widdershins' garb. Nonetheless he was quite a hit in his own way.

A unicorn bids you adieu!
While the kids spent much of the evening squirreled away reading Manga in some portion of the store, my son reportedly gained enough of a following that one of the girls in the crowd apparently approached him and said, "I'm bored, can I have a hug?" I have endeavored to explain to him, in as embarassing a fashion as possible, that young ladies only do things like that to the best looking boys. I offered him the example of myself, to whom such a thing has never occurred. He blushed up to the roots of his hair, which was very gratifying.

Now, however, I am faced with a problem. Despite trying to avoid learning anything about the book in advance of reading it (I don't even read the jacket), I have been accidentally exposed to two newspaper comments. Both have said that the end of the book is a real tearjerker. So I don't actually want to read it!

Then there's the fact that after I read this, I won't have another new Harry Potter book to read for at least a year, maybe three... and that will be the last one!

This is truly a sucky situation. On the one hand I want to read it, and on the other hand I don't want it to end. I'm up to Christmas right now in the book (which is based around the school year at Hogwarts), and I know I'll finish it soon... but really I'd rather not.

Maybe I'll write to J. K. Rowling and suggest Harry be held back a year or five...

Posted by Albatross at July 17, 2005 11:55 PM