Harry Potter at 12:09am

Yesterday we joined Ashley for the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was the first time I'd been to see Harry Potter at midnight and, more importantly or as a result of, it was the first time I'd been in "the club." I'm a convert to "the club". People of "the club" have read all the books, know exactly what's going to happen (and sometimes complain when it doesn't), and simply go to watch because they love Harry. or Ron. or Hermione. maybe even Dudley.

Josh took me to see the first Harry Potter when we were in high school. We thought it was a very good kids movie. But then he read the books and converted instantly. I wasn't converted until I married Josh. A month after we got married the seventh and final Harry Potter book came out. We went to the midnight release at the BYU bookstore. We waited in line for hours, got sorted by the sorting hat (Josh into Grifindoor, of course, and I into Slytherin--the hat was running low on magic, I think), and bolted with everyone else to grab the book and plop down on the nearest piece of anything to indulge ourselves for the next 24 hours. Actually, I'd say that a good 30 hours of the next two days were spent reading the seventh book out loud. Reading the book to Josh was my way of showing that I loved him and accepted his fanaticism. But I had no qualms about reading the end of the book and teasing him with bits of information. It was maddening to him but very enjoyable for me.

All that to say, this was an important stepping stone in our relationship together with Harry Potter. We joined the snaking line outside of the Riverwoods movie theater, enjoying our doughnuts and playing fun games. Ashley--Josh's sister and convert catalyst, Josh, and I played UNO but with a Haycock sibling twist. Whenever someone called out UNO on someone else, they had to have a wizard duel by casting spells at each other. I got smoked. Once, Josh and Ashley threw spells at each other for a good five minutes. I only knew three spells. I think there were some made up spells, though, like "Bladdercus Explodicus" and Josh's infamous "Abada Cadabra".
Once 11:30pm hit everyone started standing up, getting anxious to rush the theater for the best seat. The three of us continued to kill time by challenging each other in the bubblewrap popping game and bowling on Josh's iTouch.
We were able to find great seats in our small theater. And our group of Harry Potter fans were wonderful. The movie was fabulous and beautiful and funny and (shh..) sad. But we had a great time sharing it within our Haycock club!