3:08 am, Cambridge, United Kingdom: PPSD (Post-Potter Stress Disorder) sets in as I contemplate the symbolic end of my adolescence...

I wanted to write this post last night after getting back from the theatre, but I just couldn't do it.  I'm not really sure as to how I'm feeling right now, but there's a definite kind of hollowness to it.  For thirteen years, I spent my time reading these books and watching the movies, speculating as to what would happen and anxiously awaiting the next one.  And now there's no more.

As I sit here, I realize that my friends back at home in California are in the theatre right now, and it's coming to an end for them, too.  I don't know why it makes me so sad to think about it, but it does.

Despite how I'm feeling now, though, yesterday was great.  I had an awesome time with my friends, and it was definitely a worthy ending to an era.

The night began with a Harry Potter pub quiz in the Cambridge Union bar.  We had assembled quite a dream team, and we were so ready to WIN!!!

We also had some lovely cheerleaders who came to support us in our butt-kicking endeavors:

Of course, Linda and I were getting wayyy too into it.... We had our game faces on.  We wanted to win, and we were not about to let ANYTHING stand in our way!!! (By the way, we're trying to make a 4L with our hands, as in Harry Potter 4 Life, but I'm on the wrong side and it just didn't work.)

It started out well... we had all the answers.  The only question that even came close to stumping us was the name of the actress who played Madame Hooch, but we pulled through in the end.  By the end of the first half, Harry and the Quizards (our very clever team name) were tied for first!!  We has 19.5 out of 20 points, and we only lost that half-point on a triviality (grrrr, I don't even want to talk about it).  We were super pumped at this point, and I couldn't help doing my best Hermione impression:

Unfortunately, after the halfway scores were tallied, the people running the quiz informed us that they had run out of Harry Potter questions, and so the second half of the quiz contained questions of everything from modern art and British freedom fighters to nuclear physics and German literature, which was, in my opinion, really quite stupid.  Needless to say, we did not do as well in the second round as in the first, and ended up coming in fourth.  We were a little peeved, but none of us felt as strongly about winning once we realized it wasn't a TRUE Harry Potter pub quiz.

Afterwards, they started a screening of the seventh movie in the pub and we watched most of it, but we had to leave before the end in order to get to the theatre on time.  And once we got there, the excitement really started to set in...

We didn't have too much time to kill before the movie started (we had assigned seating, so we didn't need to get there very early), but I wanted some more pictures.

Here we have the whole gang, anxiously awaiting the start of the film...

And then, of course, me and my future husband:

Finally, it started.... and I was mesmerized.  I don't even think I blinked for those two hours.  It was so fast-paced and action-packed, and I loved every minute of it.  Except that part when Voldemort gave Malfoy a hug.... that was just awkward.  But I cried (and I mean CRIED) though the vast majority of the film, partially because of what was happening on screen and partially because it was finally coming to an end.

After the film, Linda and I just couldn't resist posing with the cardboard cutouts:

And then we headed home.  The whole way, we were all blabbering on and on about what we liked, what we hated, and how much of a BAMF Professor McGonagall is (once you see the movie, you'll understand).

But once I got to my room and was all alone, the sadness set in.  I took off my costume and flung it on the chair in my room without thinking, but when I looked over at it later, it was kind of neatly laid out:

My prefect badge and S.P.E.W. button, which really make it obvious that I was supposed to be Hermione:

Looking at it lying on the chair, I realized I wouldn't really have anywhere to wear it again, and I just felt a little sad.  I was literally feeling nostalgic about something that had happened an hour ago....

And that was my glorious last night of Harry Potter.  I feel a little sad right now, but it's never really over.  I still have my books, and nothing will ever stop me from reading them ad nauseum.  I have so many memories that all began with those first words: "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." It's been a great thirteen years.