Harry Potter — No Spoilers

Saturday morning at 1am, I acquired our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. John and I had read all the other books aloud together, and we wanted this one to be no exception…except we had two problems:

1) We have a house guest arriving Wednesday.

2) Spoilers

Last time a Harry Potter book came out, John was at the barber, with his hands under a cloth and a razor at his head when M-TV announced the identity of the Half-Blood Prince, who killed who, and who hooked up.  Unable to raise his hands to cover his ears, the surprises were spoiled for him.

Another friend had an even worse experience. John could have covered his ears had he been free to move his arms…M-TV gave a moment of warning…but another friend was at a convention where people where wearing shirts that said who killed who and on what page. No warning. No chance to cover his eyes.

Our friend Nancy was the first one to alert me to the danger. She mentioned that she was afraid to leave the house this weekend. By Sunday morning, the same thing was happening to me. I dreaded going to the grocery store or out to the park, in fear that a newspaper would blurt something out on a headline or that a passerby would make a comment that would ruin the fun.

And after so many years of carefully piecing the clues together, I wanted to be able to make it through the book and see what I could figure out. I didn’t want anything to ruin it.

So…we stayed up until 5am.

I cannot even recall the last time I stayed up until 5. Maybe I did it once or twice in college. I’m unbelievably lucky that the children have been content to watch TV and play computer games by themselves this morning. I slogged downstairs to feed them breakfast, but immediately went back to bed and left them on their own after that. Many a morning this would not have worked…but God has been merciful.

I won’t say anything else…except that I feel it was worth it. ;-)

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14 thoughts on “Harry Potter — No Spoilers

  1. Um…wow. That’s terrible. Though to be honest, I pretty much had the HBP figured out somewhere around chapter 3. Still, I’d be pretty ticked off anyway. That’s just not copacetic.

    I remember the worst spoiler I ever had, sitting in a theater getting ready to watch a movie with my friends. One of whom had picked up the tickets for us all earlier that day. What we hadn’t realized was that he chose to not just pick up the tickets, but since he had the day off, sit and watch the movie. So he’d all ready seen it, and kept talking about what was going to happen soon before it showed up.

    Come to think of it, I’m not sure why he didn’t end up stuffed into a garbage can for that.

    Now I have to wait for my wife to finish. I hope she will finish soon, so I don’t explode or accidentally come across spoilers.

  2. Death to spoilers!!!!!!!

    I had all the surprises in Star Wars spoiled for me, and I have passionately hated spoilers ever since.

    I got my book at 11:30pm Saturday night, and finished it at 2pm Sunday (yes, I did sleep, and yes I went to church that morning.)

    I loved this book. Huzzah for a coming of age story in which the main character actually becomes a man! (YA fiction is so full of anti-heroes, it’s annoying.)

    I cried my way through the last third of the book, laughed in unexpected places, and finished satisfied.

  3. Um…wow. That’s terrible. Though to be honest, I pretty much had the HBP figured out somewhere around chapter 3. Still, I’d be pretty ticked off anyway. That’s just not copacetic.

    I remember the worst spoiler I ever had, sitting in a theater getting ready to watch a movie with my friends. One of whom had picked up the tickets for us all earlier that day. What we hadn’t realized was that he chose to not just pick up the tickets, but since he had the day off, sit and watch the movie. So he’d all ready seen it, and kept talking about what was going to happen soon before it showed up.

    Come to think of it, I’m not sure why he didn’t end up stuffed into a garbage can for that.

    Now I have to wait for my wife to finish. I hope she will finish soon, so I don’t explode or accidentally come across spoilers.

  4. Death to spoilers!!!!!!!

    I had all the surprises in Star Wars spoiled for me, and I have passionately hated spoilers ever since.

    I got my book at 11:30pm Saturday night, and finished it at 2pm Sunday (yes, I did sleep, and yes I went to church that morning.)

    I loved this book. Huzzah for a coming of age story in which the main character actually becomes a man! (YA fiction is so full of anti-heroes, it’s annoying.)

    I cried my way through the last third of the book, laughed in unexpected places, and finished satisfied.

  5. I dislike spoilers, too! I had just finished lecturing my mom about spoiling a Harry Potter detail to a friend who hasn’t read the latest book yet… and my father turned around and spoiled the ending of Lord of the Rings for me. :(

    (I gave up television and movies for three years – and am now ‘catching up’ on the things I missed).

  6. Thanks for not posting spoilers–I ordered my copy from England and it won’t be here until at least Wednesday. And since I’m driving to Boston on Friday that’ll give me less than 48 hours to read it and pack. But I’m sure that’ll be worth it.

  7. I dislike spoilers, too! I had just finished lecturing my mom about spoiling a Harry Potter detail to a friend who hasn’t read the latest book yet… and my father turned around and spoiled the ending of Lord of the Rings for me. :(

    (I gave up television and movies for three years – and am now ‘catching up’ on the things I missed).

  8. Thanks for not posting spoilers–I ordered my copy from England and it won’t be here until at least Wednesday. And since I’m driving to Boston on Friday that’ll give me less than 48 hours to read it and pack. But I’m sure that’ll be worth it.

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