Wednesday's Opinion: These Are A Few Of My Favorite (Harry Potter) Things

Ugh. I haven't been posting a whole lot lately.  In my defense, I had a butt-load of dance-teaching stuff over the past two days, so getting a chance to sit down in front of my computer and force my brain to think about writing was really difficult to do.  Note to self: do a mass blog-writing session and schedule posts!

Anyway, this week's opinion:

A Few Of My Favorite Harry Potter Things

There are so many reasons to love the Harry Potter, but one of the big reasons why we Potterholics love it so much is the magical world that J.K. Rowling created; a wonderful place that feels oh-so-real but is just out of reach.  The spells, the books, Quidditch...there's just so much about "the wizarding community" that a Potter fan can love.

So, the question is, what is it specifically that we love about Potter's world that we truly wish was real so we could try it?  So I figured today I'd list a few of my favorite Harry Potter things, just for fun!

(WARNING: THERE BE SPOILERS! If you haven't read the Harry Potter books and you really want to, continue reading at your own risk!  Most aren't really spoilers, but I mention which characters have died in the stories, and which survive, get married and have children.)



Of course, this list is going to be long...really long.  I thought there would only be about a dozen or so things, but as I explored the Moments on Pottermore, I realized there was a lot of stuff I liked.  So listed below are the things/people/activities that I wish were real and that I would totally want to check out, that is assuming that we are in real time with the Harry Potter world (all seven books have already happened back in the 90s and Harry is now 35 years old).

If I Could Host A Dinner Party To Meet Certain Witches And Wizards I Would Invite:

• Harry Potter and Ginny Potter (of course!)
• Ron Weasley and Hermione Weasley (I'd love to talk to Hermione about her work promoting equality among magical races)
• Rubeus Hagrid (I love him, he's awesome)
• Arthur and Molly Weasley (she'd insist on helping with the cooking, but I'd talk her out of it)
• Minerva McGonagall (she seems like such a great straightforward person to have a conversation with)
• Neville Longbottom (he's one of my favorite people from Dumbledore's Army)
• George and Angelina Johnson (they could help keep the crowd laughing)
• Filius Flitwick (One of those people I'd like to learn more about)
• Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan (Once again, I'd like to know more about these guys)
• Ponoma Sprout (She seems like a kind and fun person)
• Viktor Krum (I know Ron would be a little jealous, but hey, you need a sports celebrity!)
• Kingsley Shacklebolt (It would be wrong to not to invite the Minister of Magic)
• Bill And Fleur Weasley (I confess, I mainly want to see what they look like)

People Who I'd Like To Use A Time-Turner And Travel Back In Time To Meet:

• Albus Dumbledore (the reason behind this is perfectly obvious)
• James and Lily Potter (they seemed like such nice people!)
• Dobby (aw, I would have loved to bring him a present of socks)
• Remus and Nymphadora Lupin (I wish we could have seen them as parents, or when they were dating)
• Alastor Moody (He's such a character!  I would have loved to talk to him)
• The Founders Of Hogwarts (wouldn't that be interesting to see how they interacted with each other and how they set up the school?)

Magical Objects I'd Like To Explore/Try Out/Take Home With Me:

• Wands (duh!)
• The flying motorcycle (since my husband has a bike, we could go on a flying motorcycle road trip!)
• Wizard money (I want to buy stuff with it)
• Magic Paintings (I want to see them move and talk to them!)
• Remembrall (seriously could use one)
• Firebolt broomstick (I don't think I'd trust myself to ride it, but I'd to watch and see how fast it actually goes)
• Chocolate Frog Cards (I want to collect them!)
• Harry's Invisibility Cloak (I want to "borrow" it for a few days and sneak up on people!)
• Wizard Chess (I don't play chess, but I totally would if it was with a wizard chess set)
• The Daily Prophet (I'd like a subscription please!)
• A Flying Car (that would totally help shorten my commute!)
• The Marauder's Map (that map is sooo cool!  I want to see how it works and what it looks like)
• Wizard tents (I no longer like camping, but I would develop a new passion in camping if I had wizard's tent, particularly one with turrets!)
• Quick Quotes Quill (would be useful for blogging...)
• The Beauxbatons carriage and the Durmstrang ship (I'm dying to see what the insides look like and how it feels to travel in one)
• Extendable Ears (I so want to try one!)
• The Pensive (I'd like to see a replay of my thoughts and memories)

If I Could Go On A Trip And Tour Certain Wizarding Places, I Would Go To:

• Hogwarts (I want to see the common rooms, the library, the Headmaster's office, the Great
  Hall, the Room of Requirement......let's face it I want to vacation there for a couple of weeks and explore everything!)
• Hogsmeade (I particularly want to have lunch at the Three Broomsticks and buy candy at Honeydukes)
• Diagon Alley (I like to check out all the shops in Diagon Alley, such as Quality Quidditch Supplies, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Gringotts, Flourish And Blotts...I would also like to stay for a night at the Leaky Cauldron)
• Platform 9 and 3/4 (I want to go through the barrier!)
• Ministry Of Magic (a grand V.I.P. tour of the place would be so much fun!)
• Beauxbatons School (we get a nice description of the place, but I would to visit there)

Wizarding Activities I Really, Really Want To Try:

• Send mail via owl post (I just want to try it a couple of times)
• Watch a Quidditch game (I wouldn't be a good player, but I'd love to see a game, maybe the World Cup?)
• Fly on a broomstick (I really want to try it!)
• Make a potion or two (I view potion-making the same way I view cooking: fun to learn at first, but I might start getting tired of it after a few tries)
• Play a game of wizard chess (I would be really terrible at it, so I'd only want to do it once or twice)
• Use magic to make moving photos like Colin Creevey (I want to make a super-cool scrapbook!)
• Get sorted into a House by the Sorting Hat (I would like to know once and for all if I belong in Hufflepuff)
• Make a coporeal Patronus (wouldn't it fun to see what animal shape it would take?!)
• Ride the Knight Bus (it would be a harrowing ride, but I still want to try it!)
• Tackle a boggart with a group (a weird thing to want to do, but I'm curious to see what shape it would take)
• Attend a dinner at the Great Hall on Halloween or Christmas (I really want to see the decorations)
  
• Camping in a magical tent (I hate camping, but a magical tent would be so much fun!)
• Use magical means of transportation: Portkeys, Apparition, Floo powder (I'd like to see which one I would prefer)
• Watch a Weird Sister concert and a Celestina Warbeck concert (Warbeck's music sounds a lot like the music I use for dance teaching, and I want to see what the Weird Sisters are like)
• Take a drink of Felix Felicis for a day (I wouldn't mind having a lucky day, maybe win the lottery?)

If I Could Study At Hogwarts For A Semester, The Courses I Would Take Are:

• Charms (I like the idea of using practical magic)
• Defense Against The Dark Arts (could be useful, but I'm more interested in the Dark creatures)
• Care Of Magical Creatures (I like learning about animals, so this is definitely the class for me!)
• History Of Magic (I love history, so much so that I might be able to withstand Professor Binns)
• Transfiguration (it sounds a bit like my Biology classes back in school, which I enjoyed, so I might like this)
• Study Of Ancient Runes (I once learned how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs and really enjoyed that, so this would be loads of fun)
• Ancient Studies (I saw this one listed and this would be right up my alley)
• Arithmancy (I liked math in high school, so this might be interesting)

Books That Were Mentioned That I Really Want To Read:

• Standard Book Of Spells, Grades 1-7 (I like learning about stuff that can be used on a regular basis)
• A History Of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot (once again, history buff!)
• Dragon Species Of Great Britain And Ireland (sounds like an interesting read)
• Voyages With Vampires, by Gilderoy Lockhart (I just want to read one book of his, just for fun)
• Great Wizards Of The Twentieth Century (I want to read about Dumbledore!)
• Hogwarts: A History (Hermione shouldn't be the only one who has read this)
• Important Modern Magical Discoveries (best to know what's been going on)
• Monster Book Of Monsters (reading should always be a little risky)
• Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (I want to read the full textbook, not the original published book)
• Notable Magical Names Of Our Time (did I mention I like history)
• The Dark Forces: A Guide To Self-Protection (this was the book that Harry got for Christmas in Year 5.  It sounded really cool)

Animals I Really Want To See Up Close (And Maybe Talk To):

• Dragons (I like reading about them, so naturally I'd like to visit Charlie in Romania and see these creatures)
• Unicorns (my favorite fantasy animal when I was kid)
• Mermaids (scuba diving in the lake anyone?)
• Centaurs (that would be interesting to study their culture and social behavior)
• Acromantula (maybe not up close and personal but I'd like to see how big they are)
• Hippogriffs (Buckbeak!)
• Nifflers (they sound so cute!)
• House elves (I feel guilty saying this, but I wouldn't mind hiring a house elf to help me with the cleaning)

So that's it!  I warned you the list was long.  Maybe one day there will a 3-D virtual reality (like in Ready Player One) where you can do all of this stuff and more!  We can only hope!

So now, if you want, it's your turn!  I know I don't get that many viewers, but I'd like to know: what are your favorite Harry Potter things?  If you're like me and can't make a short list, feel free to write up a post and provide a link!

And by the way, I have a Pottermore account!  If you want to friend me, my username is FlooSpirit2797.

Happy Harry Potter reading everyone!
-Lisa The Dancing Bookworm