Jesus! I was just reading EW and Helena Bonham Carter perforated Matthew Lewis' eardrum by accident with her wand.

Eek! (Also, does he have a really straight ear canal or something? Because just about every time I've heard of something like that happening, the object has been rather thinner and bendier than those wands look.)

I think the HBC and the eardrum incidence was in a couple of issues ago -- it was the one with Daniel Radcliffe on the cover and was mostly about OotP the movie.

Talking about Matthew Lewis: someone on my FFlist posted this pic of ML, which kind of made me boggle. Not that I don't love Neville and think he's adorable, but ML, errm, cleans up pretty well?

Oh, my. He does clean up well. Wow.

That's Neville? Yum!

someone on my FFlist posted this pic of ML

Shit, he looks like Clive Owen's prettier brother. I wonder if he's using prosthetic teeth as Neville.

As for his ear, HBC was (in character) poking at his ear with the wand like it was an abusive Q-tip and he moved into it just as she poked.

She was very sorry to have injured him, but in true cheeky fashion once she learned about it would yell at him, "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW, LUV?"

A friend I know on LJ has stated that the epilogue feels a little different because it was written years ago by JKR and kept under lock and key. She only made minor tweaks to it for publication.

God, I couldn't stand Bonham Carter in the movie. Between the OTT cackling (which is canonical, but is SO much more risible and jarring onscreen) and the comedy teeth, not to mention the fucking vocal work and accent choice, my eyes just about rolled out of my head. She's not even a little bit scary or badass, she's just a joke. Which is a shame. (And I don't dislike Bonham Carter in general - I'm quite fond of her.)

Holy mother of blimey, yes, Neville Actor Guy cleans up nicely. Good job.

wrt school, education at Hogwarts does indeed seem to be modelled quite closely on the UK system, with the 2 years' worth of work culminating in GCSEs OWLs and then a further 2 years' worth of work culminating in A Levels NEWTs. And, no, we don't have all this Graduation Kerfuffle. You graduate from University, not from High School. (And you aren't 'promoted to the next grade' either - you just get a year older. Different mindset.) Our GCSE = US Grade 12, pretty much, whilst A Level is 1st year University standard.

But I agree that I can't conceive of Hermione failing to go back and sit her exams. I'm sure she must have done.

....I'm increasingly unsure how I feel about all this noncanonical canon of Rowling's. It's a bit irritating, from a fanfic point of view. Hmm.

Oh! Patronuses - I did the test thingy. My Patronus is a peacock (or an Eagle). In honour of which I think I'm going to go and get a lifesize tattoo of a feather on my back right n..... oh. Huh. Too late.

Meanwhile, anybody have any use for a Small white T-shirt with 'Neville Longbottom: BIG DAMN HERO' painted on it? See, I bought fabric paints with the intention of HP-ifying my workout T shirts, but the box came with a free T shirt included, so I practiced on that. 'Course, since I'm in Thailand, and the average Thai person is about a size 8 (no, seriously, SO not joking), this T shirt is quite emphatically too small for me. It claims to be size 'F'. After consideration, I have concluded that this must stand for 'Frodo', as only a particularly slender hobbit would be able to fit into it.

So - any slender readers, or readers with medium-sized children (who wouldn't mind a 'damn' on said child's T shirt) fancy said T shirt? I'll try to post it to the first person who expresses an interest.

I did the patronus test and came up with tiger.

Not that I don't love Neville and think he's adorable, but ML, errm, cleans up pretty well?

Holy cow.

Brits:

Might someone sit their exams without the second year of study?

I mean, under normal muggle circumstances you'd likely fail by studying only one year, but they were off saving the world with magic so that might have been a pretty kick-ass independent study.