July 2005
Harry Potter and the Asheville Wolf Pack!
(continued)
The kids lined up to be sorted, each waiting his or her
turn to go in to the back room and wear the Sorting Hat. I
slipped in, trying to get a picture of Simon and Ethan and just missed
them both (happily, they were both assigned Gryffindor), but grabbed a
shot of the next person. He was sitting in front of Professor
McGonagall with a big brown patched witch's hat on his head. Then
suddenly it opened up and bellowed (just like the voice from the movie)
SLYTHERIN!!! I, not expecting that, jumped back. It was a
really cool setup they had -- they were sitting in front of a curtained
doorway, and the hat was on strings like a marionette. Behind the
curtain, the big guy from the counter was controlling the hat and
booming the names. VERY impressive! (Except for one little
boy, who burst into tears and ran through the crowd to his mommy. I'd
suspected he was unhappy about which house he was placed in, but the
mommy later confirmed to me and Ginger that the hat itself scared him,
and I assured her it had scared me, too.)
After the kids had been sorted into their houses
(one kid arrived late and they were very accommodating to get the
Sorting Hat set up again to sort him), there were Quiddich tryouts in
the back room (catching snitches and hitting bludger balls), followed
by a wizard's duel (trivia rather than spell throwing) in the back of
the main room. Our Gilderoy floated happily among the crowd
("Dad, what time is it?" "Time to look at meeee..."). Ginger
informed that there was also The Mirror of Erised in the back of the
main room, and Ethan needed her to write down what he most desired for
him to put in the box in front of it, because he couldn't spell what he
most desired (a picture of Harry, Hermione and Ron).
My time turner (a really nice reproduction I bought
last year) garnered some attention -- "Don't cheat and move the time up
to midnight!" McGonagall told me. (I replied perhaps I was Bellatrix
Lestrange, and would keep moving the time BACK so it would NEVER be
midnight and that Potter boy wouldn't get out!) Shortly later, a
mom asked if I could PLEASE move the time up to midnight so they could
get the book and go home... But nothing compared to reception of
the
invisibility cloak I had (a little too warmly) over my
shoulders. I draped it over people's heads so they could see how
much the effect really was like the movie. The people under the
cloak would be looking through the cloth in wonder, while people
outside would always ask in wonderment "Where did they go?" (One
indignant little Potter told me that HARRY should have that cloak.)
Shortly after 11, I tell Ginger I'M HUNGRY, and she
put Jameson in the stroller we brought (brilliant foresight on her
part) and we left Allan with the boys and walked down a few blocks to
their neighborhood pub to take a break. Jameson was unconscious
by the time we got there, of course, and stayed that way for the rest
of the evening.
We came back in time for the costume contest (Dobby
won)(Simon said he was glad Dobby won, even though he was trying very
hard to win -- but after a mom had told me and Ginger that Simon would
HAVE to be a Weasley with that hair, and I added "Yeah, great dye job,
huh?" and she was stunned it wasn't real -- Ginger and I suspected he'd
done too convincing a costume, and people didn't realize it), and buy
the book (the grownups were lining up while the kids were doing the
contest). They had two lines, one very long one (though not
hour-long Borders long one) of prepurchased buyers, and one shorter (I
was third) of buy-it-nows. A quick countdown -- four seconds --
and the boxes were opened and books began to fly out of them (not
literally). The prepurchased people handed over a certificate and
the large wizard handed them a book, snap snap snap -- again,
impressive.
Somewhere along the way, I happened to see a sign
that said if you prepurchased it, you saved $5, and it dawned on me --
I was paying full price! (Dad had asked me before, with everyone
selling books at a discount -- Harry was averaging $17 on the WalMart,
Amazon ads -- why on earth do they even mark them with prices no one
ever charges? Now I'd be able to tell him who charges it --
independent bookstores!) I shook it off, considering it a cover
charge well worth the fun of the party and helping the kids getting
ready for it all day. (And Allan's big with supporting
independent bookstores, although he laughed when he mentioned it to me
later and I just looked at him.)
Simon's eyes were gleaming as he carried their copy
toward the door, all ready opening it. This was the part I was
dreading -- being in a house with someone who was going to be reading
well ahead of me, while I would have to wait for the most part until I
had driven back to Atlanta. Some guy called out to him to read
aloud the first line, and I quickly pulled him out into the darker
front room where he couldn't read anymore -- he still managed to get
out the first half of the first sentence before we passed back through
the Diagan Alley entrance. He gave me what was the beginning of a
look of outraged indignation, but I McGonagalled him back with "Don't
spoil it for the others!" (meaning me, he and I both knew), and he
shrugged and nodded that that was fair. (Just like a true
Gryffindor!) We wrangled the rest of the family and stepped
outside -- and it was raining! Aigh! We had no choice but
to walk in it (Ginger said that a little too happily -- bed was soooo
close after such a day -- and I snapped, "I just dropped 30 bucks on a
$16 book, and you want me to throw it in the rain???" so she suggested
covering it up with my -- oh, wait, you don't have a robe. But I
got the gist, and pulled my shirt over it, and we walked under a bunch
of trees, and it wasn't bad at all. The happiness of the evening
overrode everything. We had a great time. Jameson was
happily asleep in the stroller. Simon was happily clutching the
book he planned to read through sun up ("Because that's what everybody
does with this!").
And Ethan was happily holding his little stuffed owl.
It was 1 o'clock in the morning when we walked back
into the house, where Simon promptly climbed into a living room chair
and buried his face into the book. Ethan was playing with Hedwig,
but chimed in he'd like a turkey sandwich when Ginger suggested making
some. The kids (the conscious ones) were too wired for bed, so we
all snacked (Maida included, who scored a bowl of tunafish since we'd
yet to get any catfood) and unwound and hit bed within a half hour.
Latest adventures
The Marilyn Website home
Copyright Marilyn Estes
1997-2005
