HP Nerd

I bought the latest HP movie today. On its release date. Yup, I'm a nerd. Actually, it just so happened that I was at the store yesterday when it came out.

Speaking of being at the store yesterday, what is up with me and Walmart? Since when did that become a way of "getting out of the house"? Wallyworld? Really? A cure for my cabin fever? I guess that is what happens when you don't have a car and you need to wander a bit. And you rely on others for transportation, so when they go run errands, you get super excited about it. Some days I feel like I'm thirteen years old again, all awkward and unsure of myself. Just waiting to get a life!

And maybe that says something about my love for all things Harry Potter. (Well, maybe not all things. I'm not about to start buying robes and witches hats and dressing up.) It's the stories, really. Or the story. I love the thematic elements of a good fantasy story, the light and the dark, the good and the evil. The suffering and the triumph that comes after. Harry's a real underdog, you know. He's not the biggest or fastest or best looking guy. He's not the richest, and he doesn't come from the happiest family. He's just an orphan boy who is trying. So it's really hard not to root for him, especially because he faces a fight that is impossible to win. Knowing he'll die. Knowing he wants to live.

Of course, then there are all his friends. Ron and Hermione. Luna and Neville. Oh, I could go on for days about them all, especially Neville. He's one of my favorites. They all stand up for right, even when it causes them nothing but heartache.

Let's not forget Severus Snape. I'm being dead serious when I say he's the most brilliant character ever written. How does this guy evince both empathy and loathing all at the same time? You want to mistrust him, and you want him to turn out to be rotten, and you sort of hate him a lot. However, you know Dumbledore trusted him, so you have to believe he's not a complete traitor. And then you think he's quite the hero himself in the end when you discover what he was willing to sacrifice, really, for the cause. Even if he was just about the most heartbroken, pathetically lost soul. Everyone knows what it is to love something you cannot have and to hurt for it.

I read somewhere that Draco was an ineffective character because he doesn't wreak enough havoc in Harry's life. But I think that is wrong. I think he's extremely effective as the boy who got caught. Caught in a situation where he's out of his league. You feel bad for him because he, as much as any character in the story, is thrust into a crisis, and he has to answer for the actions of adults. He doesn't seem to really want anything at all to do with it, but if he doesn't have something to do with it, he'll die. Or his family will. He's filled with obvious terror in Voldemort's presence.

That is what makes the books so endearing, too. The characters are flawed. But even the worst, perhaps save Voldemort himself, inspire some sympathy.

Anyway, so I'm a HUGE HP nerd, but I'm not ashamed.