This past week Drake University’s campus was fully prepared for the latest installment of Harry Potter: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part One. Students prepared for the movie in different ways. Some re-read the books and some watched the first six movies over again. Even the stallseat was Harry Potter-themed this week.
One way students could prepare for the movie was the Harry Potter Party Palooza.
Students of all ages gathered in Morehouse last Thursday evening. Harry Potter Party Palooza was put on by Hannah Ridgewell, with the help of Kyle Schura, Aaron Dicket, Cate O’Donnell and Laura Vollmer. It was a social event that helped to build community in residence life.
The palooza included trivia, potions class (students used glue to make a goo substance) and the Harry Potter Puppet Pals. Also featured were house sorting and the opportunity to decorate a tie with your house colors. Along with the ties, students also received wands. Students could partake in Quidditch, or as real as Quidditch can be for muggles.
A wide variety of Harry Potter-themed snacks were served including butter beer (cream soda), polyjuice potion (fruit punch with sherbet) and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans (jelly beans). For those who aren’t witches and wizards, muggle food was also served.
Drake student Kelsey Tope had plans to see the movie at midnight. So far the fifth movie was her favorite, but as far as the books go she enjoyed the third one the most. Her favorite house is Ravenclaw because she likes the colors.
With hours to go until the movie, she enjoyed hanging out at the Harry Potter Party Palooza and making up flavors for jelly beans and attempting to get other students to believe they actually were Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. Tope was even able to convince some students.
Sean Walsh a sophomore, who was Harry Potter this past Halloween, was also planning on seeing the movie.
“It’s really great; there’s lots of food and lots of Harry Potter fans,” he said.
Sean enjoyed watching Harry Potter Puppet Pals and drinking the polyjuice potion. He explained that he was most excited to see how the Quidditch was going to work.
While not all students in attendance were going to the midnight viewing, many were.
“I’ve had my tickets for a month,” exclaimed Stephen Slade (after explaining that Ravenclaw was the best house). While he wasn’t planning on going in costume, a few of the people he was attending the movie with were dressing up a little bit.
While many people have been reading and re-reading all the Harry Potter books and watching the movies, others have been preparing costumes and attending events such as the Harry Potter Party Palooza. Still, there is a number of students who don’t like Harry Potter at all.
As Drake cleared out to wait in the long lines leading up to the movie, only a few people were left on campus.
Virgina Fawcett warns these students, “You better convert to us, because witches and wizards are awesome.”
Photo: Connor McCourtney
