IT ALL ENDS!!!!

Now for a post from the other (much less frequent blogging) half of Sugar Paper zine, it's KD bringin you the HP...no, not the sauce....the Harry Potter!!!

I am a MASSIVE Harry Potter fan, this fact was recently proven by my ability to KILL a magazine based Harry Potter quiz and in turn have all my sister's friends gawp at me as I recite 'Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore' ! As you must all know, the FINAL installment in the film series was recently released along with a rather final poster campaign..IT ALL ENDS.

I know a lot of people who are big fans of the books don't like or watch the films, and over the years I have had more than a few bones to pick with them..but I have come to see them as separate entities to the books, I think that is the only way to fully enjoy the films! Also, I never re-read the book that I'm about to see the film of, last time I did this was for Prisoner of Azkaban...Never Again!!!

So, I am into the books AND the films, they are my go-to films...nothing on, just want to lie on the sofa and drink hot chocolate, I'll put a Harry Potter on!

In early June it hits me...this is it, the last EVER film, the last bit of Harry Potter to be released, the curtain of doom starts to fall...right, I'd better stop being sad and start making plans and make the most of it. A trip to the premiere and of course midnight showing are in order.

The Premiere planning starts, messages are sent to Holly Horcrux to arrange logistics (where to get the portkey to etc) and the countdown begins! The Premiere is on a Thursday night so being ever so very prepared I decide to travel down on the Wednesday night...only to find out on the Tuesday there's already hundreds of people there, aaaaaahhhh! Arrive at St Pancras late Wednesday night, meet my fellow witch and travel past Trafalgar Square to her flat. There are LOADS of people there already, we get really excited and decide we need to come back as early as possible. The only thing that stopped us staying then and there was that Holly didn't have her Hogwarts uniform on!

Two hours sleep and a good strong cup of tea later we're back, it's 4am and we find the queue we need to join for wristbands to gain access to the main area. Thinking about breakfast and if we will get a wristband, we wait....generally surprised at the lack of dressing up and anxious! Then we hear 'anyone a 2?' there are some girls making their way down the line with 2 spare wristbands that they got yesterday, looking for 2 people to take them off their hands. There are 2 girls directly in front of us after the wristbands, but they are pushy, we have full uniforms on and we are nice...we win the wristbands, hooray!

Photographic evidence of wristband, taken back at home with my Kitten Sirius Black.

Now for breakfast where I get VERY confused in McDonalds, I think someone has put the confundus charm on me. Post breakfast, it's about 5.30am, we head back to Trafalgar square and get exciiited. This is the spot where we stood for a large part of the day, great view of the Neville and Snape banners, stage and steps, sweeet!

But we don't have to stay put, we have wristbands so can come and go as we please, and it's stil very early. A cup of tea is soon in order. We go for hot chocolate followed by a (pretty rubbish) cup of tea, but manage to make it last at least an hour and make the most of the comfy sofas...reggae music brings us down, 90s hip hop brings us up...we've not had much sleep and are feeling it!

We find these phone boxes on the way back and massive over-excitement ensues. Aaaah, look I'm infiltrating the ministry, where's Arthur Weasley?! Note, in this photo the floor is dry, this didn't last. The rest of the day went like this: rain, trafalgar square, chatting to Bellatrix Lestrange, deckchairs for a 30 second sleep, more rain, ping pong, rain, food, rain, cafe, rain, friends, dry inside, good tea, funally sunshine! We headed back to Trafalgar Square about 3pm, across the road you could hear the crowds screaming...I was worried we were missing it, half ran to the bit we had been in earlier to find a line of hi-vis jackets. "No more in this side, go round." So we obeyed, and got in round the other side, phew. made it! We're near where the cars are going to pull in, not bad, now to wait (and gently push as far forward as possible). There was no concept of time, but before we knew it there was Ruper Grint, appearing on the red carpet, then Matthew Lewis (Neville), The Weasley Twins at the top, making their way round the WHOLE crowd, no lie, these two love it!

Seeing them do this almost set me off crying, you know why..and if you don't then go find out! Then the stars were coming thick and fast, Evanna Lynch looked amazing I like how her and Luna are almost one and the same, like Rupert and Ron! Then the most exciting bit, Lupin!!! As I mentioned we were stood by where the cars pull in, but this did not guarentee us getting all the stars up close and personal. A lot of them started making their way up and got dragged off by their assistants to the main Red Carpet bit. Not David Thewlis though, as soon as he arrived the whole crowd on our side went wild and starded chanting 'David' and banging the barriers, I think he was scared of a 'mass breakout' if he didn't come and see us. Here he is being amazing....

That was definitly the highlight, that and seeing JK Rowling in the flesh, and the twins, and getting to see some sneak peeks of film on the big screen, and screaming a-lot!

Daniel Radcliffe and JK were 2 of the last people to arrive, they had short interviews on stage (as did everyone) then the screen stopped showing camera footage and went back to the 'screensaver', we think it's over and leave. Bump into Nick on the way back, get take away, watch some of part 1 then sleep. The following day we find out we left too soon, there were some massive emo speeches from Harry, Ron, Hermione, JK and the film dudes, gutted. Back home I watch them on You Tube and cry.... I challenge you to watch Rupert Grint thank JK Rowling for what she has done for ginger people and not shed a tear!!!

Now there's a week to wait for the film, I spend a large part of this week looking at my wristband, thinking about the premiere and by the 14th I'm pretty much just watching trailers and clips and counting down the minutes til I can meet Nickie in town so we can get excited together and make time go a bit quicker. Finally, meet her near the AMC to go and pick up the tickets, she doesn't see me coming cos she has just seen a Lucius Malfoy double walk down the street and is staring at the photo she took of him on her phone. I almost wet myself...it's a total Lucius Malfoy double. Get tickets, get OVER excited, buy attitude cos Rupert Grint is in it, meet Seleena (yes, we are slowly converting her, she wore a cat hat for the occasion, professor McGonnagal disguise yeah), get food, I put Nickie's lion head hat on for the full Gryffindor effect, she puts her party cape for full magical effect, and finally head to the cinema to see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows...Part 1....followed by Part 2.

Again, surprised by the lack of dressing up, maybe not everyone loves dressing up like we do, but they should, it's FUN. I'm not going to do a full film review, it would take me another hour. Neville was pretty much my favourite thing in this one, his speech was amazing! Think they did a good job of the fiend fire bit. Luna was great. I am not going to go into any negatives, but leave you now with a quote from JK Rowling...

" The stories we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home"