So, I've been watching the Harry Potter movies while I'm here at my sister's. They have most of them, except Deathly Hallows 1.

I watched The Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince first. I also watched the deleted scenes from HP:HBP.

I was surprised how much I liked about the HBP on this, my second viewing. I got very nostalgic realizing that that was the last we see of Qidditch. My favorite part of any HP movie is the interaction between the children punctuated with brilliant flashes of the excellent adult actors. This is the last movie where they have any fun at school.

In the deleted scenes there is a beautiful montage of Hogwarts before the final confrontation. There is also a hysterical scene of Emma Thompson just being Prof. Trelawny at the first banquet of the year.

I then went back and watched HP: And the Sorceror's Stone. The kids were such little babies! So cute and wee! Seamus blowing everything up, even the twins had higher voices, Zoe Wanamaker teaching broomstick flying! Everything so detailed and shiny and new!

Daniel Radcliffe's performance is much better than I thought it was the first time I saw it.

cereal:

I realized I was burbling on like a loon.

I have a question for those who have read the books, and I'll ask in white-font in case I'm accidently stumbling into a spoiler: After re-watching The Tale of The Three Brothers I have a question about the "gifts" they received from Death. The wand we know was Dumbledore's and the Cloak of Invisibility is what Harry inherited from his father, but the stone is the one I'm wondering about. While I was watching the first movie over I convinced myself that the Sorcerer's Stone was the artifact, but then Dumbledore says he destroyed it. Did he really? Or is it some other thing that we've seen before but not realized the importance of? Or is it something that is found for the first time in the last movie? I don't need a detailed answer, just whether any of my guesses is near the mark.

Heartland is the movie that is being shot in DeKalb County, IL. (i.e., where I live.) Zac Efron has been spotted in the local Walgreen's.

But not by me.

If you do see him, be sure and count his nipples, mkay?

quester, the Resurrection Stone was the stone in the ring we saw in HBP, the Horcrux that Dumbledore destroyed before the beginning of the school year and the reason he was already dying from the poison it produced in him before Snape aimed that Avada Kedavra at him. It's not something we've seen before HBP, though .

Ummmm, suuuuure, ita. I'll get right on that.

Thanks, Kathy! That means it's out of play already? Or does it factor in the last movie somehow?

That means it's

I haven't seen the last movie yet, but it does in fact reappear in the last bit of the book.

It does appear in the final film.

In the deleted scenes there is a beautiful montage of Hogwarts before the final confrontation.

The scene set to the choir singing? Yeah, that's gorgeous.

Quester, it's a little confusing because Dumbledore destroyed Marvolo Gaunt's ring - which was a horcrux - but did not destroy the gem set within the ring - which was one of the Hallows. So the Resurrection Stone survived the ring being destroyed. Voldemort didn't know the ring was one of the Hallows, only that it was important to the Gaunt family.