A double birthday party to remember.

July 31. Two birthdays. Joanne Kathleen Rowling and her fictional, yet somehow very realistic, memorable, lovable, and admirable character, Harry James Potter.

With the help of several of my friends, I threw a party. It took days of thought and preparation, but I think I did something worthy of the honorable JKR and HJP. We had been talking about this Harry Potter party for months, literally since May when I discovered that my friend Joey loves Harry Potter as much, perhaps more, than I do. I didn't think I would meet my match in this life, but Joey, I think, knows more about Harry Potter than I do. He is a trivia king. He listens to Harry Potter in his car like it's music. Over and over again.

So anyway, we decided to celebrate our love for HP and throw a party.

We planned, made assignments, and then everyone showed up at my house around 9PM, July 31, 2010.

The party consisted of:

• Lots of Harry Potter food: Cockroach Clusters, lemon drops (because they're Dumbledore's favorite muggle candy), Acid Pops, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Love Potion, Butterbeer, Cauldron Cakes (compliments of Scott Pew), Pumpkin Pasties (compliments of Sarie), and a muggle-style birthday cake for both JKR and Harry (compliments of Dani). I'm going to be honest: the food. was. awesome. You might want to click on that picture to see it all up close!
  

• Decorations. I made 4 large poster banners- one for each house. I hung them from my ceiling. Joey made a collage/drawing of a fat lady to put on the front door (so it's like you are entering Gryffindor tower. I made a sign for the bathroom that says, "Prefects Only" and then really small at the bottom, "Password: Pine Fresh." I also made a little pear to hang in the kitchen, you know, cause you have to tickle the pear in the fruit bowl painting to get into the Hogwarts kitchens.

• Costumes. I just wore my HP7 shirt, HP glasses, and carried my wand in my back pocket (yes, I got several warnings that a back pocket is a very dangerous place for a wand). Rachel, however, came dressed as Luna Lovegood, and it was perfect. She even had a necklace that looked like it was made of radishes. She had spectrespecks and a Quibbler. Tyler came as Malfoy. He wore a badge that said, "POTTER STINKS," and hand-carved his own wand. Joey wore a shirt that among many things, said, "Neville is my homeboy" and "I heart defeating evil" and "heroes don't sparkle." Caitlin came dressed as the cutest Ginny Weasley I've ever seen. And Melissa wore a Gryffindor scarf. Scott made a badge that said, "Team Hermione." Bryce and Isaac found sticks outside and brought them as wands. You gotta admire their ingenuity.

Me and Rachel. You see her Quibbler?

Draco Malfoy.

Luna (Rachel), Bryce, Isaac. So cool. Rachel is trying to look like Luna- mystified and like there are wrackspurts flying around. Bryce looks stoned on accident.

• Sorting. I made a sorting hat. I also made house badges for everyone to put on after they got sorted. (Some people were really excited about the badges and even wore them to church the next day. Tyler in particular). Joey wrote questions to help sort people, and then to begin, he told us a sorting hat song. From memory. The questions worked for like 3 people, and then it got too easy for people to pick the answers that they wanted for the house they wanted. That's when it got good. Joey, Ryan, and Michael became the sorting hat. They asked random HP-related questions and then made arbitrary decisions about houses. Then, they would yell the house name out together. Like, "HUFFLEPUFF!" in unison. I recorded the house decisions on a piece of parchment with my quill. Most people accepted their houses. Some Slytherins were mad though. They wanted Gryffindor. One unlucky Syltherin appealed to me: "But don't I get to choose? Harry got to choose. And Dumbledore says that it's our choices that make us what we are, not our abilities." I, of course, could not deny her argument. She pulled the Dumbledore authority card. No one can beat that. One Hufflepuff was unhappy with his house. Bryce. I told him it was a noble house, and that he could be like Cedric Diggory. He accepted that and finally put his badge on. I shook my head and recorded his name and house.

Dani getting sorted. Can you tell from the mean look on her face that she is a Slytherin?

The handsome sorters. This might be my favorite picture of all time. (Michael, Joey, Ryan) PS, they are drinking Butterbeer. Not an alcoholic beverage.

• Trivia. Rachel came up with over 200 questions. We started the trivia with a few words from Joey: "Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak," and then broke up into two teams: boys against girls. We didn't keep score though- I have no accurate way of knowing who won. We just answered questions back and forth, and it was a lot of fun. After the team trivia, though, came the face off between me and Joey that everyone had been anticipating for months. I had been dreading it, because I knew in my heart of hearts that I was going to lose- no longer the master of HP trivia. Which is fine. We actually didn't keep score for this competition either, and we mostly just answered together. So it was fun too. Very low pressure. It was the best, though, when we would answer a really hard question in unison. Everyone would cheer. One of my proudest moments, though, was after the question, "What was written on the Potter's headstone in Godric's Hollow?" I knew it. Joey didn't. "The last enemy that shall be defeated is death." BAM. I think, though, that by far and away, he won. He says that I won. He's just being nice. He won. For sure. But we pretended that we both won, and we decided to share the prize: The Tri-Wizard cup that Scott made.

Trivia Champions? Maybe.

Didn't I have the best helpers in the world? Scott, Joey, Sarie, Rachel, and Dani really came through for me. We worked hard, and the party was a blast. It is way too fun to be nerdy with all my friends. Everyone nerdy together. Such a good lifestyle. It was just so great to have so many people involved who love Harry Potter as much as I do. It wasn't like my past Harry Potter parties where my best friends come and marvel at my eccentricities. I mean, that's fine, whatever, I know they think I'm cool or else they wouldn't hang out with me, but this party was like I was among peers who are just as crazy as I am. And that was so great. And there were lots of us too, like 30-35 people coming and going. My apartment was really cramped, anyway. I think the party was for sure a success.

So, Mr. Potter and Ms. Rowling. Happy Birthday.