If you were “in your bedroom, making no noise and pretending you don’t exist” this past Friday, you spent your night the wrong way! Almost every Honors student knows about our infamous annual Harry Potter Movie Night event, and since it was my first year attending, I had some pretty high expectations. I am happy to report that this event completely surpassed my expectations and was such a memorable moment in my Honors experience.
This year, we watched the second movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This movie is chock-full of ghosts, diaries, and spooky spiders, not to mention a lot of love for Hagrid. Any fan of Harry Potter knows that the actor who played Hagrid, Robbie Coltrane, passed away a few hours prior to our event on Friday, and this movie was the perfect way to pay our respects to him. The reunion of Hagrid, Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the end of the movie really warmed the hearts of all who were mourning the loss of this influential figure. Getting to experience this movie and event with so many people from Honors really helped to solidify the Honors family feel.
The Honors staff and student volunteers did a fantastic job decorating and setting up for the movie viewing, and everything they did mimicked the actual experience of entering Hogwarts. Not only was there a sign immediately upon entering the second floor that perfectly resembled that of the writing on the walls in the movie, but Lecture Hall North was completely transformed. Best of all, the bathroom was decorated to look like the Chamber of Secrets! Lecture Hall North was decorated in spiderwebs and movie memorabilia, complete with potions, wands, and mini brooms. The women’s restroom even housed a certain ghost, Moaning Myrtle. Attendees got to experience not only the ambiance of Hogwarts, but also the snacks of the Wizarding World. We had “Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans,” chocolate licorice, chocolate frogs, Butterbeer fudge, witches hats, and so much more. It truly felt like we were transported from Pace University to Hogwarts for a few hours!
What really helped this event build more of a community feeling was the entertaining games we participated in before the movie started. We played a Kahoot full of Harry Potter trivia (which I only got two questions wrong on… not to brag). We also did a timed “treasure” hunt where we searched for mini snakes hidden around the lecture hall and the hallway. We all left with at least one souvenir from this event since we got to choose between Harry Potter glasses and a lightning scar tattoo. These activities and the camaraderie formed by them are what made this event so unforgettable.
As you can tell, Harry Potter Movie Night is hands down one of the most important annual Honors events. It is such an exciting event to be a part of and adds to the connectedness of the honors college as a whole. So honestly, “where HAVE you BEEN?” if not at the annual Honors Harry Potter Movie Night!