This Blog is Property of the Half Blood Prince

Yesterday was so unreal. I was ACTUALLY in the presence of ACTUAL J.K. Rowling, for REAL. I can't still hardly believe it, but there you go.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince had its world premiere yesterday in Leicester Square, which is only like four tube stops over. Apparently there were people already camped out in the queue on Monday evening, ready to get places inside the square for the stars' arrivals at 6pm yesterday.

Well, another girl from UF and I got there really early Tuesday morning (she at 5am, I at 8:30-ish... yeah, lazy.) and had a pretty good place in the line to get in. At around 9:30 they opened the gates to the... well, corrals, basically, that fans could stand in.

Everyone rushed to line the barricades to be "in front." Where we were standing was, apparently, too far down, so we hustled to one end, where there was basically one row of people between us and the barricades. It was awesome!

Although, it was only 9:30. Meaning we still had over eight hours to wait. And it was supposed to rain.

But I was prepared. I had on jeans, my toughest sneakers, hoodie AND rain jacket, plus an umbrella. And sandwiches, apples, a book of puzzles, textbook, and my iPOD. With all that, the time went by pretty quickly.

It didn't rain too bad for most of the day, just drizzled off and on; I didn't really even need the umbrella for most of it, just put my hood up.

Waiting around with all the people was OK, too. Everyone was pretty nice, chatted with a few people around me, but everyone there was pretty much like us, just genuinely excited and happy to be there.

At 4pm they closed the gates and didn't let anyone else into the corrals (I keep calling them that, but it's what they were, haha.) At 5pm, JUST before all the famous people started arriving, London decided it would be OK to hurricane all over everyone, complete with HAIL.

Yes, freaking HAIL.

Granted, it was small hail, but still, seriously? And I was standing behind these people with a statue of Dobby (which was pretty cool) but they were trying to protect him from the rain, but when they put their umbrella up it was poking me in the face so I offered to hold it for them, meaning that only my front half was covered so my butt got drenched from a combination of straight rain and runoff from other peoples' umbrellas.

The only lucky thing was that we were under this giant tree, so it could have been much, much worse.

At this point, the press people were setting up, getting establishing shots. (I'm on TV in pretty much every country going "WOOOOOO!" probably. They had my section do that a lot.)

Then, around 6 (still raining), Daniel Radcliffe arrived! Basically, he rain through the rain with a useless umbrella, up the stairs and into the theatre. Lame.

But then the rain started to slow and he came back out, started in the press section giving interviews. He didn't make it over to my section (right by the theatre entrance) until basically right before the movie started (I assume) because he was there for about 20 seconds. But I got good photos so it was alright.

In the meantime, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) came by. Girls around me swooned; I didn't find him all that attractive, but whatever. He was quite nice and signed basically everything within reach.

Oh, by the way, I did not get any autographs because I did not try. I did not try because a) I wanted to get good photos and I needed control of my camera, and b) what am I going to do with a signed piece of paper? I've never been thrilled by that, I guess.

I saw so many people, I can hardly remember. Alfie Enoch (Dean Thomas; much taller than you would think), Oliver and James Phelps (the Weasley twins; they have dark brown hair!), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood, totally adorable), Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan), Natalia Tena (Tonks, super friendly and wearing an insane dress.)

Uhhh, who else? Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy, who I don't think is actually in this movie. But still, awesome!), Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore, didn't really sign anything, but he can do whatever he wants... he's Dumbledore!), Alan Rickman (Snape, looks sooooooo old in person.)

Just to let you know, I had to look up about half these names because I forgot/didn't know who plays whom, but the cast is huge so sue me.

Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom, signed pretty much everything, was really nice and kind of hilarious, much better looking in person.

Dame Maggie Smith just walked by, again, looking much older than you would assume, but she is allowed to do whatever she wants because she's a Dame and she's also an amazing actress.

Gordon Ramsay was there. No, he has nothing to do with the movie, but he brought his kids, and he was looking all angry, just like on TV!

Tim Burton was also there, dressed like Bob Dylan and looking cool/insane (which he is.) Although he wasn't with Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Bellatrix Lestrange. I thought they were married, but IMDB says they're just dating (and they have a son together...?) Still, weird that they weren't together.

Helena looked like a crazy bag lady meets Dolly Parton meets every character HBC has ever played, which is why everyone loves her. She's like this adorable goth sweetheart. So cool.

Rupert Grint (Ron) was there, looking quite sharp and not at all like he just got over the swine flu. When he got to our section he was still really upbeat, though I would be exhausted if I was him. I said "Hi," and he said "Hi" back. Success!

Emma Watson didn't have time to go to our section since she arrived basically last and had to go right into the theatre. But she was looking quite pretty; I loved her dress and her hair. And, actually, I was amazed at just how skinny she was! Her upper arms looked about the size of my wrists (and I have really skinny wrists...)

Actually, I was amazed at how small everyone was. Dan Radcliff is like a toddler, y'allz. He is about 5'5 and doesn't look a day over 15. So much for that "sexy grown-up wizard" all the magazines are trying to push. He is miniature. And Rupert isn't much taller. 5'8, maybe.

This one news crew (made up of two women in identical floral dresses, black leggings, and brown leather calf-high boots) came up to us asking about how "the movies are getting darker, but the wizards are getting hotter" and who we all preferred out of the cast. They put the microphone up to this girl by me and she was all, "Actually, I find Snape rather sexy," and well all just about died laughing.

Anyway, last of all was J.K. Rowling! She didn't come up to us, and from the people near me who had been to several of these things, she rarely signs anything. She did take photos with some people in wheelchairs in a special area by the theatre walkway, and I got some faraway pictures of her, but she never came up to us. I think if she did, though, I might have cried a little. Not to be dramatic, or anything, but I was feeling a little overwhelmed when I saw her to begin with, like, "Oh, my gosh, it's her. She's the one who came up with all this. I should say thank you, or something." But she didn't come over, so I didn't have to worry about making an ass of myself.

So all the stars went in to watch the movie, and all us riff-raff went home. The back of my pants were still drenched, and once the throng of people was gone from around me I realized how cold I actually was (it was kind of painful) so we rushed home as fast as we could on the tube, and when I got back to the dorm I got in the shower faster than I think I ever have.

I survived! (Nice hair... not.)

Today I'm trying to finish up my Media paper, but it's slow coming. It's due tomorrow at 10pm, but I'd like to finish tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest.

I also went to High Street Kensington to Wagamama, which supposedly has delicious noodles for cheap, but it wasn't so cheap so I got some dumplings instead. Then, on the walk home I stopped by Buttercup Bakery (which is legendary and has beautiful cupcakes and is painted all lime green and yellow and it is adorable!) I had a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing (my favorite flavor combo) and it was absolutely amazing.

I'd love to finish my work tonight, but I know I won't. Plus, the internet has been sucking so getting all my research has been a pain.

I'm leaving for Wales on Friday! Three days of hiking, swimming, jumping off cliffs, kayaking, etc. I'm so excited!

Lots of love,
Amy