Changing it up

     Nothing can stay the same forever, including Harry Potter. Scholastic has released a new cover for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second novel in the series. They have done this to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Harry Potter series.
      This morning, May 30th,  Ellie Berger, the President of Scholastic Trade Publishing, Arthur A. Levine, Vice President and award winning artist Kazu Kibuishi unveiled the cover of the new trade paperback of J.K. Rowling’s second Harry Potter book at Book Expo America in New York City. The cover is shown below.

Merlin's Beard!

I titled this blog "Merlin's Beard!" because in Harry Potter that is like saying oh darn. I also picked that phrase because I will be talking about beards. I have decided to rate the bearded characters from least to greatest based on beard. I also included some people based on mustache.

 

Barely a real beard, nice mustache though. This is werewolf Remus Lupin. Father of Teddy Lupin and Husband of Nymphadora Tonks. He met his demise in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

 

 

 

This beard has great style. In the photo above is Sirius Black, Harry's God father. He was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

 

 

That mustache, I know this on beards but damn that's awesome. This Flius Flitwick, more commonly known as Professor Flitwick. He teaches the charms class at Hogwarts.

 

 

Albus Dumbledore, both actors possessed great facial hair. Dumbledore was Headmaster at Hogwarts. He was killed by Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

 

 

Hagrid wins.

Potter Puppet Pals

Potter Puppet Pals is a web series with puppets that parodies the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. It was started by Neil Cicierega. The first couple episodes were animated, both posted in 2003 with Newgrounds. On the 26th of September, 2006, the series was launched  again on YouTube under Cicierega's page as "Potions Class". Six more episodes were released by Cicierega between 2006 and 2009. About one year after episode seven was released a new video appeared on Neil's channel announcing channel for just Potter Puppet Pals. That same day, three more videos were released on this new channel.

 

A popular Potter Puppet Pals video ^^^

Would you hire him?

I imagine this would be what Harry's resume looked like when he applied to the Ministry of Magic. He works as an auror there when he is all grown up.

Potter is moving up in the world

You may remember me blogging about the Orlando's "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" back in 2012, if you don't that's okay. Here is a link to that.

    In the couple of years since Universal Orlando Resort announced that they would be expanding the hugely popular The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, there had been no official confirmation on what exactly that would entail. It wasn’t the world’s best-kept secret though, as theme park-focused websites have heavily tracked the progress of the expansion, learning many details along the way. This continued in the past year, as you could watch the huge construction on the new section, occurring at Universal Studios Florida.

     Today, (May 8th) Universal at last have officially announced the focus of the expansion, confirming the expected information. Where the original section of the Wizarding World was modeled on Hogsmeade (named my blog after that!) and Hogwarts, the new section is Diagon Alley, located in London in the Harry Potter books and films. What’s very notable is that the two sections are at two completely different theme parks – Universal’s Islands of Adventure (the home of the original Wizarding World) and Universal Studios Florida are located right by each other, but with separate entrances and attractions. To travel from one part of the Wizarding World to the other, visitors will ride the Hogwarts Express. The expansion will open sometime in 2014.

Ted Remus "Teddy" Lupin

"Sorry I will never know him... but he will know why I died and I hope he will understand I was trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life."

—The spirit of Remus Lupin to Harry Potter concerning his son.

His Parents

^{I mentioned Teddy Lupin in my post about the The Black Family. He is the son of Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin. His first name is after recently deceased Grandfather Ted Tonks, his middle name is his fathers name. He is a metamorphmagus like his mommy, not a werewolf like his daddy. He was born April 1998 and Harry Potter was named his godfather. HarryPotterWiki are dirty liars! They said he was a Half-Blood, NO he is a Pureblood. Both his parents are wizards! I am frustrated because I couldnt find any images for him.}  

Harry Hater?

Not everyone likes Harry

     Four months ago, the Boston bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed yesterday in a shootout with police, uploaded to his YouTube Channel a lecture by the radical Australian Muslim preacher Sheikh Feiz Mohammed denouncing the Harry Potter movies for glorifying and promoting paganism.

Sheikh says  “How can you allow your children to watch this?”

This guy is really angry. Its not just Muslims though, many schools and Churches oppose Potter. The Church of England also denounced the movie Harry Potter, in fact they lobbied against it to try and ban it in the UK.  Don't people understand its fiction?

Harry Potter Shirts

Yes.

I am a big tshirt person. I have two Harry shirts (wearing one right now!), and I thought I might blog about some amazing ones out there.

My shirt. The wanted poster you see in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows movie. I purchased it at Hot Topic a couple years ago.

The deathly hollows. A very popular Harry icon. You saw this symbol in my blog about tattoos and probably other places. The triangle is the cloak of invisibility, the Resurrection stone, and the Elder wand. 

The organization formed by Harry. The one at school that held magic practices in the room of requirements. 

because I am really a wizard who attended Hogwarts. Keep it quiet, its a secret.

The shop where Harry (and most British wizards) buys his wand.

A person born with out magic. One of you normal people, not me, Im a wizard.

Fan Club

     So when I was in fifth grade I started a Harry Potter fan club. There were a few other kids and we didn't do much. We had plans to make shirts but we never got around to that. We did play my Harry Potter board game (Its like clue, but at Hogwarts!) and discussed movies and books.  I decided to look online to find out if there were Potter fan clubs out there on the web.

There are.

One that I found was "Harry Potter Fan Club", really creative name. On this website they talked about books and posted fan art.



This month's art winner



 They even had games. One I played was called Chaser. Instructions:

Use the up and down arrow keys to move vertically. You cannot move horizontally. Try to get the quaffle past the keeper. Use the ctrl key to shoot.
The game wasn't very fun but I thought I should try. My score was 140. Can you beat it?

Link to game

There were also some mini-movies but those were terrible. 

My favorite feature was the dictionary. It had a lot definitions. It was nice that they were not so obscenely long like on HarryWiki. HarryWiki is still a good research website.

The Black Family

"Toujours pur."

—The family motto, translating to "Always Pure"

The Black family is one of the most wealthy and noble British wizard families. You may remember some members like Sirius Black, Nymphadora Tonks, Bellatrix Lestrange, and the Malfoys. The family home is located at 12 Grimmauld Place in London, England. It becomes the secret hide-away for The Order of the Phoenix. The house of Black on the male side has become extinct with the deaths of Regulus and Sirius Black., the female side still has members through the Malfoy family and Teddy Luppin. Teddy Luppin is Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Luppin's kid, taken in by his Grandmother. Also when you goggle "teddy", "Teddy Luppin" is the first thing to come up. The Black family tree above has blacked out names, the relatives who have married muggles or done other non proper things.

Bellatrix Lestrange

Sirius Black

Nymhadora Tonks

The Malfoys

A Dead Dursely?

"No post on Sunday!"

-Vernon Dursley

RIP Richard Griffiths

31 July 1947 – 28 March 2013

His birthday (July 31) is the same as Harry's in the novel...Strange.

Died at age 65

Complications in heart surgery caused his death

Recieved the following awards: Laurence Olivier Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics, Tony Award



"I am proud to say I knew him," Radcliffe said.



Griffiths died aged 65 at the University Hospital Coventry on 28 March 2013 after complications following heart surgery. His funeral took place at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon on 9 April 2013, with over four hundred mourners, including Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Alan Bennett (English playwright, screenwriter, actor and author.) , Michael Palin (English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter) , Richard E. Grant (British-Swazi actor, screenwriter, and director) , Jack Whitehall (comedian, television presenter and actor) and Judi Dench (English film, stage and television actress).

 

Funny Harry Potter Pictures

Harry Potter has a very large fan base. These incredibly devoted fans write books, blogs (like me), comics, and weird fantasies about Harry Potter. They also make and edit photos for the enjoyment of fellow fans of Rowling's work. Today I shall focus on images.

I found this first one pretty funny. So true, more climatic that way.

                                                                     Oh, Snape.

 Now this is the story all about how
My life got flipped, turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the Half-Blood prince of a town called Bel-air

In west Great Britain born and raised
In the Hogwarts where I spent most of my days
Chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool
And all shooting some spells outside of the school
When a couple of wizards, they were up to no good
Started making trouble in my house
I got in one little fight and my headmaster got scared

He said "Your  moving over to Slytherin"

Just me.....making stuff up. Not really the story of Snape, just having a little fun.

WORD PLAY!

Easter with Potter

     Happy Easter! I love Easter the colors, the spring weather, and the chocolate. You know who else probably enjoys Easter? HARRY POTTER. But you probably saw that one coming. I throw together an Easter photo and now I am going to talk about Harry's Easter.

    I started by using Google for information. Harry Potter Wiki said the following:

"Easter, sometimes known as Easter Day or Easter Sunday, is an important annual religious feast celebrated in both the Muggle world and the wizarding world. Easter is the last day of Holy Week. Easter falls between late March and late April each year, as its date is not fixed.
In the wizarding world, Easter is celebrated as a week-long holiday. During this week, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has holidays, during which students may return home or stay in the castle without classes."

Okay than... Well I am going to focus on Harry's Easter basket. Below is just some incredibly luck person's basket, I shall talk of what the contents of Harry's are (in my mind of course)

Whoa....

 

Here is what I think might be in there

Deluminator (Put-Outer):

 A Deluminator is a device invented by Albus Dumbledore that looks like a standard cigarette lighter. It is used to remove or absorb (as well as return) the light from any light source to provide cover to the user. If Ron gets one I think Harry should too.

Revealer:

A Revealer is a bright red eraser, used to make invisible ink appear. It made its first appearance in Chamber of Secrets when Hermione tried to make hidden writing appear in Tom Riddle's diary. I think this is a fun yet useful item. Harry would enjoy.

Exploding Snap:
Exploding Snap is a wizarding card game in which the cards spontaneously explode during games. The game is popular with Hogwarts students. In Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ron are held back from investigating why spiders were fleeing Hogwarts because Fred and George delayed them with this game. Ron later singed his eyebrows while building a card house with Exploding Snap cards. This is a game that I think would cheer Harry up. Fighting Voldemort is stressful.

Maybe some more silly prank items (from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes):

Weasley's Wild-fire Whiz-Bangs are enchanted fireworks that have overly spectacular and remarkable effects.

Skiving Snackboxes are sweets that are designed to make the eater ill in order to skip or "skive off" class. Each variety of Snackboxes causes a different effect, such as vomiting, fainting or developing nosebleeds. One end of the sweet causes the malady, while the other end subsequently cures it..

Trick Wands are magical fake wands that turn into a silly item (rubber chickens, tin parrots, etc.) when someone tries to use them. More expensive varieties beat the unwary user about the head and neck.

Ton-Tongue Toffees make the eater's tongue temporarily grow to an alarmingly large size, as read about in Goblet of Fire when Fred "accidentally" drops some in front of Dudley, who subsequently eats one they "forgot" to retrieve.

Through some candy in there.

And there is a Easter basket I think young Mr. Potter would enjoy.

Hippogriff

You may remeber Buckbeak the Hippogriff from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, his species is what I shall be discussing today.

Wikipedia defines a Hippogriff below:

A Hippogriff (also spelled Hippogryph and Hippogryphe, Italian: Ippogrifo) is a legendary creature, supposedly the offspring of a griffin and a mare.

Wikibooks says the following:

A hippogriff is a creature that has the "body, hind legs, and tail of a horse; but the front legs, wings, and head of what seemed to be a giant eagle, with a cruel, steel-colored beak and large, brilliantly orange eyes. The talons on its front legs were half a foot long and deadly looking."

Much more descriptive. In the the third Harry Potter book you read about Buckbeak. Buckbeak is Hagrid's grey pet Hippogriff. He is a character many people are fond of (I named my roster after him). He does likable things like biting Draco Malfoy. Arrogant and ignorant Malfoy says before being bitten.

"I'll bet you're not dangerous at all, are you? Are you, you great ugly brute?"
     -- Draco Malfoy to Buckbeak, making a rather serious mistake

Draco proceeded to be a total cry baby. He runs to his rich daddy saying he is more hurt than he really is. Lucius Malfoy than goes on to convince " Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures" to have Buckbeak be executed. Harry and Herimone later released Buckbeak from Hagrid's pumpkin patch (the executioner and other people were nearby inside Hagrid's house). The then fly Buckbeak to Sirius Black. Sirius and Buckbeak than became fugitives together.

We have seen Buckbeak eat ( I am going to assume what he eats is the typical Hippogriff diet) chicken bones, dead ferrets, and dead rats. He is also depicted digging in the ground for worms. He has grey feathering and orange eyes. Individual Hippogriff colors vary such as mundane horses, including black, bronze, chestnut, grey, and roan. An adult Hippogriff has a wingspan of about 24 feet. Hippogriffs are dangerous unless tamed, so watch out!

There is certain protocol to be followed when wanting to interact with this creature. The Harry Potter Lexicon said the following:

"A person wishing to approach a hippogriff should maintain eye contact and should bow first; if the animal bows in return, it can be touched and even ridden. Hippogriff owners are required to keep them under Disillusionment Charms to prevent Muggles from seeing them (PA6, FB). "

Hippogriff are a very interesting and majestic creature. I hope to have shed a little light on the subject of their species.

Quiz?!?!?!?

    Today I will take a quiz called "Your life in Hogwarts". I don't really know what this quiz will tell me but Harry Potter is involved so might as well blog about it. Take it if you want to. Shouldn't it be "at" not "in", whatever. Okay, here are my responses and results.

"You just recieved your letter to get into Hogwarts, what do you do?"
You knew it was going to get to you someday and you are excited to get sorted.
"What house do you want to be in the most?"
Ravenclaw (because I like learning, especially when it comes to something fun like magic)
"If there were tryouts for quidditch would you go?"
I'm not athletic so I would rather spend my time doing something I'm good at. (like spells c: )
"Who do you have a crush on out of these?"
Neville Longbottom (it used to be Draco but I have a newfound appreciation for Neville)
"What would your patronus be?"
A Panther (because Polar Bear weren't an option)
"What out of these some up your personality most?" (not a typo - they used some not sum)
I love reading, writing a(nd) generally using my mind to achieve great things (another typo in the quiz!)
"If you were in the battle of Hogwarts which side you would fight on?"
The good side.
AND THE RESULTS ARE:
Anna Lomas
Name: Anna Lomas
Nickname: Anne, Anny

House: Ravenclaw

Status: Pureblood

Grades: E's & O's

Year: A year older than Harry

Personality: Intelligent, Loud, Loyal, Witty, Ambitous, Cunning

Family: Bethany Lomas (mother), Steven Lomas (father)

Best friends: Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood & Hermione Granger

Close friends:  Harry Potter & Ron Weasley
Enemies: All Slytherins

Crush: Neville Longbottom

Wand: Cherrywood , 13 inch, Unicorn Hair

Quidditch position: Your scared of heights and wouldn't dare to even touch a broom

Best spell: Finite

Best class: Herbology

Patronus: Owl

What people think of you
Fred and George Weasley: Whos that? We better prank her. Yeah merlin knows how shes avoided us for this long!
Neville Longbottom: Anna is in advanced Herbology, and shes helped me with alot of work, Shes really pretty too but don't tell her that!
Draco Malfoy: Ugh that little blood traitor doesn't deserve to be able to do magic. 
Pansy Parkinson: Draco hates her?... THEN SO DO I! THE LITTLE BRAT!Harry potter: Anny is really nice, she does my herbolody homewor for me, it gives hermione a rest
Hermione Granger: Shes shown me some great books to study from in the library!
Ron Weasley: Shes alright I geuss

Luna Lovegood: Anne is my bestfriend ever! shes so sweet and loving. And she Likes me for who I am and doesn't call me loopy..... Oh yeah have you seen my house scarf its gone missing? Maybe it was the nargles...
Adults

Headmaster Dumbledore: Anna is very bright and a Pleasure to have at Hogwarts
Professor Sprout: Oh yes miss Lomas is amazing at herbology.
Future

You have always had a crush on Neville ever since you saw him shuffle in the huge crowd of first years to get sorted, Most people bullied and teased him which you hated and always stood up for him even if you ended up getting bullied yourself.
In seventh year you and Neville got closer and Closer to eachother in standing up to deatheaters.
In the battle of Hogwarts you protected your friends before anyone else even they were on different sides. You eventually got Knocked down by a powerful Hex and were put into the great hall with other people who were injured or dead. After Neville had killed Nagini he came running to you and h kissed you Lovingly, ever since then you hav both been madly in love with eachother.
When you and neville left Hogwarts you got a job in a herbology store while neville taught herbology at Hogwarts. You both never got married because you agreed that it was just a piece of paper but you did have one child. A girl names Rose

Yard Sale

     Didn't feel like continuing the foreign Harry thing, so I decided to make something. I work for my dad (for little pay :'c ) at his business At the Y Auctions. There I do a lot of web advertisements and website design. So I am going to show you something Harry related I made.

     Cute right? I know. Well thank you I'm Jazzy Willis, stay classy San Diego. 

All Around the World

     The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling has become a global phenomenon over the past few years. As of 2001, the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, has been published in 39 countries and has been translated into 31 different languages. Its all over the place! In locations like Africa,  the Americas, Asia, Europe, Iceland , and the Middle East.

     To side of this text you see a photo. This photo is from the Harry Potter series in Iceland. There the first book is called Harry Potter og viskusteinninn (Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone). The book was published in Icelandic back in 1999.

       Next you see a Japanese page.  I find it interesting all the different ways this has been published. Think about, right now somewhere in the worl someone is reading Harry Potter. Whoa. There the first book is called Harii Pottaa To Kenja No Ishi. That was published in 2001.

There. A little about two places and their JK Rowling novels, I shall continue this later. Farewell. Despedida. Jäähyväiset. Abschied. وداع