Four Day Weekend / Graduation

So does anybody else love that we have a four day weekend?! I love it. I know this is going to sound bad though, but I kind of want to go to school. If I miss too much of it, I will forget what teachers are telling me, then I will forget to do homework, and it never works out in my favor. I really wander what they are going to do for graduation. I mean we were supposed to end on June 7th then graduation is/was on June 8th. I have heard many different things; Graduation will be pushed back (I don't think so; they already had a hard enough time booking the coliseum on a Wednesday). For every three cancellations we have we only have to make up one day (I don't think so again, it has to be approved by Indiana school board first). We will have school on the 8th and then graduation right after (I don't think our school is stupid enough to do that, but I could be wrong). We will still have finals on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, then do nothing the rest of the following week and if seniors skip they cannot go to graduation (possibly). Then my favorite on of all... They make us go on Saturday’s. I do not know what they are thinking because we all want to sleep in and have fun on Saturdays’. None of us are going to school then. But I will have to admit going 3 hours on a Saturday does sound better then making up another full day of school. I wonder what the schools are going to do. Any other thoughts about it?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: pages 86-159

Harry has taken on a quest to destroy the Horcruxes(the objects into which Voldemort has placed fragments of his soul, making him immortal as long as those objects survive). Harry wants to discuss the quest with Ron and Hermione, who agreed to accompany him in the previous book, but Mrs. Weasley interferes, first by approaching each of them in turn and trying to dissuade them from leaving Hogwarts, then by keeping them busy and apart from each other by having them help her prepare the house for the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur. Finally the three friends steal a moment to meet in Ron’s room, and Ron and Hermione reveal the lengths they’ve gone to in preparing for the quest. Hermione has enchanted her Muggle (non-wizard) parents into changing their names, forgetting that they have a daughter, and moving to Australia so that Voldemort will not be able to find them. Ron has given the household ghoul a pair of his own pajamas and enchanted the ghoul with red hair and pustules, so that when Ron fails to return to Hogwarts, his parents can give out the information that he’s ill with an infectious disease called spattergroit, which would cause him to look somewhat like the enchanted ghoul does. Most important, Hermione reveals that she used a spell to steal the books on Horcruxes, which Dumbledore had removed from the library for safekeeping. She explains that Voldemort is unlikely to try to reassemble his own soul by destroying the Horcruxes himself, because doing so requires that the person who made the Horcruxes suffer the pain of remorse for their actions, which seems contrary to Voldemort’s nature. But for Harry and his friends to destroy them will be very difficult, because only very destructive and dangerous items, such as the basilisk’s fang that Harry used to destroy Tom Riddle’s diary (the first of the Horcruxes) can be sure to do the job.

Harry was muttering the name Gregorovitch in his sleep. Harry realizes that he was seeing through Voldemort’s eyes in his dream and he thinks he recognizes the name Gregorovitch. Harry perks up when he remembers that it’s his seventeenth birthday, and the Trace (a spell with which the Ministry of Magic can track any spell cast by an underage wizards) is broken, allowing him to practice magic freely. Ginny draws Harry into her room and gives him a passionate kiss, but Ron breaks in angrily and interrupts them. Rufus Scrimgeour, the Minister of Magic, who insists on speaking to Harry, Ron, and Hermione in private interrupts Harry's party. Scrimgeour has brought each of them a bequest from Dumbledore’s will. Dumbledore has left Ron a device called a Deluminator, a device that can suck all the light out of a room or turn the light on again. He left Hermione a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales familiar to virtually everyone raised by wizards. To Harry, Dumbledore bequeathed the first Snitch he ever caught, saved from his first Quidditch match. Dumbledore’s will also bequeathed to Harry the sword of Godric Gryffindor, but Scrimgeour maintains that the sword was not Dumbledore’s to give. Harry takes the snitch in his hand and it does not open. After Scrimgeour has gone, Harry reminds his friends that he caught his first Snitch in his mouth, though he avoided mentioning this fact in front of Scrimgeour. Now he places the Snitch in his mouth again, and though it does not open, words appear on it: “I open at the close.”

On the afternoon following Harry’s birthday, the Weasleys host the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. To keep secret the fact that he’s hiding at the Weasleys’, Harry takes Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself as a red-headed boy from the village, passing himself off as the Weasleys’ Cousin Barny. After the wedding ceremony, Krum takes a seat next to Harry and asks him about Xenophilius Lovegood. Krum is infuriated by the symbol Xenophilius wears, recognizing it as a symbol associated with the Dark wizard Grindelwald. Krum’s grandfather had been among those murdered by Grindelwald, and Krum had seen the triangular eye symbol at his school where Grindelwald had carved it into the wall. In his agitation, Krum takes out his wand and taps it menacingly against his own leg, prompting Harry to remember where he had heard the name Gregorovitch. It is the name that belongs to the famous wand maker who made Krum’s wand. Aunt Muriel had rumors of Dumbledore and got them from a woman who lived in Godric’s Hollow (the town where Harry was born and where his parents were murdered) at the same time that Dumbledore’s family lived there. Harry is shocked at these reports about his dead friend, not least that Dumbledore lived in Godric’s Hollow like Harry, and that they both have relatives buried there, yet Dumbledore never saw fit to mention these things to Harry. The wedding celebration is cut short by the appearance of Kingsley Shacklebolt’s Patronus, a silver lynx. (A Patronus is a charm that witches and wizards use to send out an animal-shaped manifestation of themselves. It can be used to send messages, and is also one of the only things that can ward off a dementor.) The lynx tells the guests that Scrimgeour is dead, the Ministry has fallen, and the Death Eaters are coming.

Reflection
Well I am glad Harry is safe and sound at the beginning of the chapter six. Hermione tells them all about what they have to do in order to kill Voldemort. I am glad that Ron and Hermione decided to stick next to Harry's side through out the whole thing. I mean Hermione basically fell off the face of the Earth just to protect and go with Harry. And then Ron made up a lie that he got a disease. But hopefully they can find all of the Horcruxes and kill Voldemort because I really do not like him. I also think that all of the gifts that Dumbledore has given Harry, Ron, and Hermione will come in handy. He was a very intelligent guy and always had reasons. I feel like their gifts will become very useful. Also, the wand thing, I still think Dumbledore has the most powerful wand and that both Harry and Voldemort want it. That is why Harry sees the wand maker through Voldemorts eyes. He is trying to find the most powerful wand. It really sucks that the wedding got attacked by Death Eaters. Would you like that to happen on your wedding day? I did not think so. My mom believes that if you have a good wedding, your love will not last, but if you have a bad wedding; your love will last forever. I guess theirs is lasting forever.

2.23 Diction Exercise

Cruddy
A. cruddy
evil
rain
kill
no take backs
shut up
crudded-out
bash
cruddiest

B. laconic impotence of literal connotation
vague repetitiveness of low elevation of diction
bleak monotonous of harsh sound
bland lethargy of concrete diction

C. The ambiguous monotony in the book Cruddy by Lynda Barry deduces an inane of bitter antagonism toward the authors approch to situations.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: pages 43-85

An unexpectedly large contingent of wizards arrives in the backyard to escort Harry to his new place of safety. Hagrid is there, as well as Ron, Hermione, Fleur Delacour, Mad-Eye Moody, Fred and George Weasley, Bill Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley, and Mundungus Fletcher. Moody announces that they’ve had to change plans because Pius Thicknesse has gone over to Voldemort and all Ministry-regulated means of transportation are dangerous to them. Moody’s new plan is to send Harry to Tonks’s parents’ house while six decoys go to other houses. Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur, and Mundungus will take Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Harry, and each of them will fly with one escort. Harry protests at putting his friends in danger by using them as decoys, but since everyone accepts the risk, he reluctantly agrees. Harry provides hairs for the potion, which the six designated decoys take, changing them into copies of Harry. Harry gets into the sidecar of a flying motorbike driven by Hagrid, and the entire party rises into the air. Almost immediately, Harry and Hagrid find themselves surrounded by at least thirty hooded Death Eaters. They flee, with the Death Eaters in hot pursuit, shooting Killing Curses at them, one of which kills Harry’s owl, Hedwig. Somehow one Death Eather identifies Harry as the real Harry Potter. The Death Eaters immediately departs, but quickly returns with Voldemort himself, who is intent on killing Harry personally. Hagrid leaps onto a Death Eater’s broom and crashes to the ground. Threatened by Voldemort at close range, Harry feels his wand hand come up involuntarily and deliver a warding spell he doesn’t even recognize or know how to cast, shattering Voldemort’s wand, then Harry crashes the bike into a pond.

Harry wakes up, the injuries he sustained in the chase healed. Hagrid and Harry find an anxious Mrs. Weasley awaiting them at the Burrow. None of the others who helped transport Harry has arrived yet. Lupin arrives with George Weasley, who has had his ear cut off by a curse from Snape, who was among the attackers. Realizing that they must have been betrayed, Lupin tests whether Harry is who he appears to be by asking what animal was in the room when Harry first met him in his office. Harry answers correctly that it was a grindylow. Kingsley and Hermione arrive safely, then Mr. Weasley and Fred, then Ron and Tonks, then Bill and Fleur. Bill and Fleur describe how they saw Mundungus Fletcher panic and disapparate, leaving Mad-Eye to die by Voldemort’s curse, right at the beginning of the chase. The entire party discusses how their plans might have been betrayed to Voldemort, noting that Voldemort apparently did not know of the plan to use the six Harry decoys. His scar throbbing, Harry goes outside to get some air, and as the pain in his scar reaches its peak, he can hear Voldemort berating and torturing his prisoner, the famous wand maker Ollivander, who had told Voldemort that the connection between Harry’s wand and Voldemort’s could be circumvented by Voldemort’s attacking Harry with a borrowed wand. Ollivander’s proposed scheme did not work, and the wand Voldemort borrowed from Lucius Malfoy is now shattered and useless.

Reflection:
I think that Harry and all of his friends are very courageous because I could never go up in the air dressed and looked alike some one else and risking my life for them. Well maybe if he was the "chosen one." But I am not in the magic world unfortunately. I am sad mad-eye is dead. He did scare me a little bit, but I just think he did because in one of the other movies he was actually a Death Eater pretending to be mad-eye. But now the real one is gone. I think something has to do with the wand that Voldemort and Harry are using because if Voldemort is worried about it, it must be important. I do remember reading somewhere that Dumbledore's wand was the most powerful, maybe one of them have it, or is out to get it. Does anyone else want to be in a magic world with me? I feel like that would be really fun but scary.

Birthday

So tomorrow is my boyfriends birthday and I am really excited for it. I am up at 11:18pm right now just waiting until midnight so I can be the first one to call him and wish him a happy birthday day. He did the same thing to me a few months ago on my birthday and it just made my day! Plus I am excited because I can not wait to give him his presents! I got him this really cute picture frame that says love on it and I edit this picture that we have (probably are only normal picture) and I put it in the frame. It is cute. I hope he likes it. But then, I also got him another present, well technically three other presents. I got him black, light blue, and a lime greenish spray paints.

He has been waiting to decorate the back of his basement for a long time now. It is where he keeps his x-box so it is basically his man cave. Well I called his mom first, to make sure it was okay with her, and she said, "Oh, of course!" So I got him that. Funny story, the next day, after I bought the spray paint, my boyfriend goes up to his mom and asked if he could use spray paint to decorate the basement. His mom told him no!! Out of the question!! Too messy! I would never let you do that! He started to get upset and asked his mom well can't we at least talk about it? Mom said maybe after I get back from Vegas maybe. End of argument. Funny part about it is that his mom already said yes and I already bought it for him and he is getting upset about it. YEAH go me and his mom!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: pages 1-42

Snape and the Death Eater Yaxley meet outside of Lucius Malfoy’s house and proceed inside, taking seats at a table where Voldemort and his followers are already assembled. Snape tells Voldemort that Harry Potter is to be moved from his place of safety. Yaxley claims that he has heard contradictory intelligence, and that Harry is to be moved later, on the thirtieth of the month. Voldemort indicates that he knows the source of Snape’s intelligence, and he makes it plain that he believes Snape rather than Yaxley. Yaxley, trys to seeks Voldemort’s approval by revealing to him that he has corrupted a member of the Ministry of Magic, a wizard named Pius Thicknesse. Yaxley reports that several Death Eaters are also positioned within the department of Magical Transport, making them better able to track Harry if he tries to travel by magical means. Voldemort announces that he plans to capture Harry while he is being transported. Voldemort makes Lucius Malfoy lend him his wand. Voldemort taunts Lucius and the rest of the Malfoy family, accusing them of being uncomfortable with his presence. Bellatrix Lestrange, Narcissa Malfoy’s sister, declares that his presence is the greatest possible pleasure, but Voldemort taunts all of them about the fact that Narcissa and Bellatrix’s niece (Nymphadora Tonks) has just married Remus Lupin, the werewolf.

Harry goes to his room where he has spent the morning sorting the belongings in his school trunk into things he’ll no longer need, and a smaller pile of things he will keep with him now that he’s left Hogwarts and is about to leave the Dursleys’. Harry reads two newspaper articles commemorating Albus Dumbledore. “Albus Dumbledore Remembered,” by Dumbledore’s schoolmate and longtime friend, Elphias Doge, describes Dumbledore’s brilliant career at school, despite his having a father imprisoned at Azkaban for attacking Muggles; his relationship with his younger brother, Aberforth; his struggles following the deaths of his mother and sister; his triumph over the Dark wizard Grindelwald in a famous duel in 1945; and his brilliant career as headmaster. Harry feels regret that he knew so little of what there was to know about Dumbledore’s life and wishes he’d asked Dumbledore about himself. The second article is an interview with the journalist Rita Skeeter, who has just written a biography of Dumbledore called The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore. In the interview, Skeeter indicates that her book debunks the supposed accomplishments that Dumbledore is famous for, reveals dark secrets about his family, and depicts Dumbledore’s relationship with Harry Potter in a sinister way. Harry then picks up a piece of glass on the floor and sees a flash of blue. The only time he has ever seen that bright of blue was in Dumbledore's eyes.

Harry’s uncle Vernon retrieves Harry from his room. Harry goes downstairs to find all three Dursleys sitting in the living room dressed for traveling. Uncle Vernon announces that he’s changed his mind: He doesn’t believe Harry that Uncle Vernon and the Dursleys are in danger, and he’s not going into hiding with the help of the Order of the Phoenix. Harry explains that once he turns seventeen, the protection charm that keeps them all safe will break, and Voldemort and the Death Eaters will torture and kill the Dursleys. The Ministry of Magic cannot protect them because the Death Eaters have already infiltrated it. Dudley breaks in and announces that he’s going to go with the representatives of the Order, so Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia have no choice but to acquiesce as well. Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle, members of the Order of the Phoenix, arrive to take the Dursleys into hiding. Dudley surprises his own family and Harry by inquiring where Harry is going to go. And they are all about ready to depart the Dursleys household.

Reflection:

I thought because the first movie was out I should probably read it so I can know what happens in the second half of the movie. I do not want to surprise my self in the theaters. I think the book so far is good. The action is starting off right away, which is what I like. I also enjoy how everyone is over at the Dursley's house all trying to free Harry and get him somewhere safe. Even his mean half brother Dudley is trying to help him. I just hope the Death Eaters will not take Harry or anyone else on while trying to get him out of the safe house. Maybe they will be wrong about the date and time. I sure hope so! Oh and I never did like Lucius Malfoy. Well I thought he was always bad until the sixth movie/book. He did not want to kill Dumbledore, but Snape had to go and do it anyway. And what makes it worse is that Dumbledore trusted him. I actually had know idea what side he would be on. Dumbledore trusted him, but so did Voldemort.

A Modest Love by Sir Edward Dyer

The lowest trees have tops, the ant her gall,

The fly her spleen, the little sparks their heat;

The slender hairs cast shadows, though but small,

And bees have stings, although they be not great;

Seas have their source, and so have shallow springs;

And love is love, in beggars as in kings.

Where rivers smoothest run, deep are the fords;

The dial stirs, yet none perceives it move;

The firmest faith is in the fewest words;

The turtles cannot sing, and yet they love:

True hearts have eyes and ears, no tongues to speak;

They hear and see, and sigh, and then they break.

I like love poems they remind me of the idea that everyday someone will find their true love. Plus they always make my heart beat a little faster and warm up just a degree higher. I believe this poem is talking about how even animals can love. Animals have hearts and therefore have the feeling to love as well. Also when it talks about the forest and the woods, I think it is saying that everyone has an opposite or a companion. Does anyone else think that there is at least one person out there for everyone? I sure do. You may go all your life search but not find him/her, you may search and find him/her, or you may not search and find him/her standing close by your side. However you find your love, there is always someone waiting for you to find them.