I think the films coming out went a long way in helping a reader-character friendship that everyone felt when reading the series. It was even more personable to see a person playing those kids that you’ve grown up with. Probably a bit weird too! Strangely enough, even though I have actually seen the major actors in all the films, there were some characters I would still imagine as other people. I never make it a habit of casting people I recognise in my head, but as I knew it was already a film franchise, I couldn’t help it. Alan Rickman doesn’t strike me as the immediate description of Snape, but he’s such a good actor my brain kept him the same. Gary Oldman, what a hero! I’d have cast him as every character, but I got feedback saying that may have made it quite confusing, so they were probably right not to do that. For some strange reason every time Professor McGonagall spoke, Michelle Gomez (head Bad Education, Gatekeeper Dr Who) came into my head, and I’m afraid my Harry Potter was always Freddie Highmore (Charlie Bucket in Tim Burton’s Chocolate Factory). Given that he was only 8 when the first film was made, they probably cast the right one there too. Just as well I work in a Library and not on a casting couch cause whoo boy we would have problems. I’d never seen two people in my head so vividly before though and I was quite shocked, especially as they are very famously played by two very different people. I’m totally swept up in everything Potter from here on in and have many plans for my Hogwarts future. I made a Pottermore account before I’d ever read the books and got sorted into Slytherin. I read some of the books made a Pottermore account and got sorted into Gryffindor, read all the books and guess what? Those pesky Slytherin’s. When will these similarities between me and Harry end? Probably there actually. Despite all this confusing evidence and inconsistent housing, I think I should be in Ravenclaw because dark blue and black look much better on me. Maybe that statement is vain and Slytherin like, but I don’t know because we hardly ever learnt anything about any other houses! What a gip. The films, the studio tour, the theatre show, the list is literally endless. I have pictures in my head of me at 80 years old trying to finish this bloody series. Will they ever give us a break? We can joke but seriously, I’m so glad I started doing this, and hopefully I am 80 and till trying to finish this bloody series! It might just be magic and make believe, but as a wise old man once said, “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
Oh yeah, and Draco Malfoy’s a poo-head!
It’s probably really easy to be overly critical of the way it’s written (some say “poorly”) i.e. very short sentences repeated lines and so on, but the fact is, Rowling created an unbelievably detailed world with every micro detail connecting. She made something that is far bigger than even she could have imagined. It’s an open world, so it could go on forever and that’s such a clever idea. I’m not saying she’s the greatest writer I’ve ever read by any means, but she is by far one of the best story tellers. Regarding Harry’s role in the writing of the books, I really appreciated that for almost the entirety of the series, we only got the knowledge as and when Harry got it. If something happened when he wasn’t there, we didn’t know about it. There were some obvious exceptions a bit later on, but they were few and far between. It seems like an obvious thing to say ‘well of course, he’s the title character, it’s about him’, but I’ve read far too many books that try and describe how the main character knows what happened, even when they were nowhere to be seen. They seem to be able to tell someone’s whole life story by a look they have in their eyes, and it’s annoying and boring and takes you out of the story. It meant you understood entirely about his isolation, and isolation is a huge theme in almost all these character’s lives. The anguish that was shared between Snape and Harry was the one time neither of them would have had to suffer in isolation, but he was never able to divulge. Harry constantly being described as having his mum’s eyes, his Dad’s temperament, it was just one big confusing pot of emotions. The last thing Snape ever did was look into those eyes again…the ones that were so like the ones he loved. Almost like the last thing he wanted to see, even if it wasn’t coming from the right face. I obviously didn’t have any idea why “look at me” in the book was so important until the pensieve chapter, and at the time I thought he was going to confess something. That was me holding on to one piece of hope that he was the good guy. The reality was way worse.
I've Never Been to Hogwarts 