“I love Harry Potter because it’s so adventurous and dif-ferent from anything else out there. The movies have been great, and I can’t wait to see the new one. I think a couple of my friends and I are going to dress up like the characters

and go to the midnight showing. If I’m lucky, we’ll get to do it again when the second half comes out.”

Mary Catherine Thompson, freshman

“At first I never really was into the Harry Potter books, or any books for that matter. In sixth grade I fell in love with read-ing. The Harry Potter books played a part in that. The suspense and mystery of those seven books led me to the joys

of reading. My favorite Harry Potter book is the fourth book because it’s amazing, just the way everything is described.”

Vlad Siedlecki, junior

“I’ve read the entire series of Harry Potter books at least six times. I love the fact that there is so much hidden symbolism behind the literature. On the contrary, I think the movies are lame becuse the actors really suck. I’m mad that they

are making the last movie into two parts because it’s just another way for them to make more money off of ‘Harry Potter.’”

Rachel Farmer, junior

“I started reading the novels when I was in first or second grade. They were the first re-ally big novels that I read, so I always think of them fondly. They really drew me into the plot with how J.K. Rowling writes. You get very attached

to the characters, and it’s very exciting to read. But I don’t like the movies. They don’t even fol-low the plot of the books.”

Ellie Gillon, sophomore

8feature wingspan • october 28, 2010

1994: J.K. Rowling writes Harry Potter on sticky notes and napkins

1990: J.K. Rowling fully imagines Harry Potter and Hogwarts

1999: New York Times places the first three books on best seller list

2000: Goblet of Fire sells 5million copies

Students anticipate final movie in Harry

Potter seriesDiane GromelskiAsst. Entertainment Editor

2007: Deathly Hollows becomes fastest selling book in the world

2003: Books burned when a Michigan church oppos-es message of “evil”

2008: Harry Potter sells more than 400 million copies

2011: Part 2 of Deathly Hallows will be released in June

Answers: 1) b; 2) d; 3) c; 4) b; 5) a

4) How many points is the Golden Snitch worth?

a) 100 b) 150 c) 300 d) 500

1) Who teaches Tom Riddle about Horcruxes?

a) Snape b) Slughorn c) Dumbledore d) Hagrid

3) What musical group plays at the Yule Ball?

a) Wands and Brooms b) The Wizards c) The Weird SIsters d) Bewitched

2) Who is the Knight Bus con-ductor?

a) Roger Towner b) Sam Mitchell c) Rubeus Hagrid d) Stan Shunpike

A band of wand-yielding, robe-clad witches and wizards sit in a dark room, awaiting midnight.

They have been anticipating this mo-ment since they cracked open the first tale of the Harry Potter saga. They hold their breath, edging up on their seats. For some, the impending conclusion is a sorrowful experience; for others, it is an exciting adventure.

Warner Brothers Studios will re-lease the first of two parts of Harry Pot-ter and the Deathly Hallows, the sev-enth and final film in the Harry Potter series, on November 19th. The movie is based on the book of the same name by J.K. Rowling, released in 2007.

In Deathly Hallows, Harry, Herm-ione and Ron drop out of Hogwarts and go in search of the four lost Hor-cruxes, Lord Voldemort’s source of im-mortality. The trio must destroy the Horcruxes to have any chance of de-feating Voldemort.

In their travels, they come across the story of the “Deathly Hallows,” three powerful objects supposedly cre-ated by Death.

“I think HP is really about the battle between good and evil that we face ev-ery day,” English teacher Lisa Burrell said. “Sometimes we feel like we’re never going to overcome whatever our

evil or our problem is, but Harry is an example of someone that has nothing, but yet can overcome. We can all iden-tity with him because he’s a universal character.”

David Heyman, producer of Death-ly Hallows, said the movie needed to be split into two halves in order to ac-commodate the complexity of the sto-ryline. However, he and screenwriter, Steve Cloves, had difficulty finding a place to divide the movie.

“Deathly Hallows is so rich, the story so dense, and there is so much resolved that, after discussing it with J.K. Rowling, we came to the conclu-sion that two parts were needed to do it justice,” Heyman said in a public statement. “We’ve played around with a couple of places to split it and ulti-mately settled on a place that we think is very exciting, and I think quite bold, in that it is not necessarily where one might expect. You want to give a sense of completion, on one hand, but a sense that there’s more to come.”

There have been mixed reactions to dividing the final book. However, Burrell said it is necessary to honor the story. “The last book is so critical to tie up so many loose ends, and Rowling wove the story very tightly, so you need more than just one movie. I don’t think it could go on for three hours, because that’s way too long to sit. It was great to make it into two parts. ”

5) Who is Harry’s first girl-friend?

a) Cho Chang b) Hermione Granger c) Ginny Weasley d) Luna Lovegood

From napkins to multibillion dollar phenomenon

2009: Total domestic gross for first six movies reaches $6 billion