The Obstacle-Filled Road to HP7 & the Deathly Hallows

THERE ARE NO HP7 SPOILERS IN THIS POST.

It all started two years ago, on the evening of July 15, 2007. Well, I guess it really started way back in the 1oth grade (1998?) when Jennie Kim lent me the first of the Harry Potter books. But let's jump ahead to July 15, 2007:

The 6th installment of the Harry Potter series, The Half-Blood Prince, was sitting behind the counters of Barnes & Nobles across the nation, to be sold to fanatics at midnight; the first Magical Midnight parties were about to begin. Angie, Sarah, Hoa and I were ready. We went around 10pm, leaving my new Center City apartment in Philly early enough to have our Polaroid taken with the cardboard cutout of Harry. We considered making wands using feathers and glitter, but instead sat in the Sexuality section (it was the only one that was open!) of the Rittenhouse B&N, reading HP5 in preparation. Every now and then, we looked up and giggled at the sight of each other in the free lens-less glasses they had given us. True Harry Potter scholars, if I may.

Within a week we had finished reading the book and had discussed it at length. Questions abounded. We re-read sections to try to answer, to predict. Snape, evil? Nooo. Harry, a horcrux? Hmmm. The big question: would Harry Potter die? Theories formed, evolved, mutated. People took sides. On cafepress.com, an abundance of HP-themed t-shirts. Some read "Trust Snape", others seemed to imply that Neville Longbottom was the one who was destined for sacrifice. Others were for young girls with crushes on Ron, on Harry, on the Weasley twins. In any case, the phenomenon had reached a pitch unlike anything we've seen.

And so, to commemorate the all-important, long-anticipated release of the final chapter of the series, that same group of Harry Potter scholars decided to reunite on the near-anniversary of that night 2 years ago. A road-trip to Philadelphia was planned. Each of us chose our favorite quote from the books, and I proceeded to design screen-prints for our very own t-shirts. It was going to be a weekend to tell our grandkids about. It was going to be the most amazing weekend in a very very long time.


Then, things started to go wrong. It was like a subtle hand--a force that shall-not-be-named?--was interfering, was preventing us from reading the final book. In order:

- After a successful trial run, 2 t-shirts failed to transfer. New t-shirts and transfer paper had to be purchased.
- With new supplies and newfound motivation, I discovered that the printer was broken. More specifically, the ink cartridge would not be recognized by the printer. Nothing seemed to help. I decided to take a flash drive of the files to Kinko's, along with transfer paper, to have it printed elsewhere.
- At Kinko's, I discovered that I couldn't print the transfers correctly because the Kinko's computer didn't have the special Harry Potter font.
- Back to trying to troubleshoot the broken printer. I opened her up, using a compact mirror and my penlight (usually used in the "Open your mouth and say ahhh" sense) to look for defects. Nada. Finally, Canon informed me that replacing the cartridge would probably be all that was needed. A new cartridge had to be purchased.
- Costco did not carry the proper cartridge.
- I finally found the cartridge at Best Buy, and completed the shirts at 11pm the night before the voyage to Philly.
- We made it onto the road by 1pm, only to find that the back left window was open a crack. It wouldn't shut. So we tried opening it... and it stayed open. The "moderator" was broken. We had no choice but to drive 65mph on the PA Turnpike with the window wide open.
- We stopped at 3 different AutoBody-type places, who simply verified that the "moderator" was broken. Everyone recommended a "glass specialist" down the road.
- The window was put back into place, but was not fixed. (I should note here that the glass guy was AMAZING and didn't charge for putting the window in place. He just asked us to come back to repair it. If we could've, we definitely would've...)
- After a smooth drive 95% of the way to Philly, we hit a wall. of. traffic. It was nightmare. It took >1 hour to go all of 10 miles. We were remarking how it was still bright out, but it was pretty dark by the time we actually parked and got in.

So it was an exhausted Jess & Eric that finally trudged up to Angie & Sarah's. But awaiting us was not apartment 1614, but 1614 3/4! And inside was a construction-paper fireplace, to Floo in and out of! And Hedwig! And happy faces and hugs, and excitement all around. So, re-energized, we went to Monk's in our new t-shirts, and onto the bookstore, where we put on our Harry Potter glasses and became the 268th people to be proud owners of Hizzle Pizzle and the Deathly Hallows. And boy, was it worth it.

The backs of the shirts had the quotes, the fronts had a "Dumbledore's Army" logo with the date (07.21.07), and the right arm had a Gryffindor logo. I know, pretty darn geeky. What can I say? We're geeks. And on what other occasion in my lifetime am I going to have the excuse to embrace the geekiness so thoroughly? Never. And now we have something to wear to the 6 & 7 movie premieres!

Mischief managed.
The end.