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Saturday, November 17, 2001
Young readers transform themselves into Harry Potter and his friends
By BETH JONES
We got eight Hermione Grangers, three Ron Weasleys and two Draco Malfoys. One inventive soul even dressed up like Moaning Myrtle, the ghost who haunts a girls' bathroom at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter books. As you may have guessed, however, the majority of our contestants dressed up as the boy of the hour. That's right - the orphan with the lightning-bolt scar on his forehead - Harry Potter! We got tall Harrys and short Harrys. Chubby Harrys and skinny Harrys. Six-year-old Harrys and pre-pubescent Harrys. We even got a couple of girl Harrys. We hope all the Harrys received permission from their parents before using black spray paint to transform the family broomstick into a Nimbus 2000. A number of fans included letters with their entries, like 10-year-old Bethany Meyer of Dublin, who wrote "Harry Potter is the coolest!" and added a postscript to let us know she's been practicing her spells. Picking winners of the lookalike contest was tough. If only we'd had a Sorting Hat to help us. Our contest judges deliberated over the entries for hours. Rumor has it, they traded a number of punches and no less than six Wet Willys before settling on the victors. In no particular order, here are our winners: William Steele, 7, grade 2 at Lincoln Terrace Elementary School, as Harry Potter. William is very, very excited about seeing "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on the big screen. "Whenever I see a movie, I stare. I don't even blink," he said. Although he's a dedicated fan of the Potter books, William couldn't decide whether to dress up as Harry Potter or Zorro this Halloween. In the end, he settled on Potter. Each night before bed, William's mother, Crystal Steele, reads two pages from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" to William. He never falls asleep before she finishes. "It's too interesting," he said. During a photo shoot at the newspaper, William seemed to go into a trance while pretending to cast a spell. That made his grandmother, Eileen Harrison, laugh out loud. "You can give me a spell to win the lottery," she told him. Josh Eakin, 7, grade 2 at Raleigh Court Elementary School, as Ron Weasley. Like Ron Weasley himself, Josh has gorgeous red hair. Also like Ron, Josh has a pet rat named Scabbers. Since real rats can be kind of messy, though, Josh's pet is made of plastic. Josh borrowed it from Roanoke City Councilwoman Linda Wyatt. She teaches at West Side Elementary School, where Josh's father, Randall Eakin, is a guidance counselor. In order to look like he was wearing a British school uniform for the contest, Josh had to wear an actual tie rather than a clip-on. He was much too polite to complain about the noose around his neck but, when pressed, did say he preferred his own school uniform: jeans and a T-shirt. Nick Bondurant, 6, as Harry Potter. Nick would like to attend Hogwarts for two reasons. First, he thinks it would be super cool to ride on a broomstick. He also would like to meet Fluffy, the three-headed dog who guards the sorcerer's stone in the first book of the Potter series. Sadly, Nick's own dog -whose full name is Alphie the Big Yellow Dog -has only one head. For his Harry Potter costume, which he also wore on Halloween, Nick carried a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. He gave his costume another authentic touch by wrapping duct tape around the bridge of his round glasses. In "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," Harry's glasses were always broken because his cousin Dudley frequently punched him in the nose. Nick's mom, Bert Bondurant, dressed up as Hogwarts' Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall for Halloween. Nick was cool with that, but his 10-year-old sister Kate was mortified. "It's weird enough that you still dress up," she said to her mother. "But if you would have gone trick-or-treating, I would have died." Ben Batzel, 7, grade 2 at Raleigh Court Elementary, as Harry Potter. Ben Batzel loves two things: Harry Potter and "Star Wars." This Halloween, he dressed as a Jawa from "Star Wars" instead of Harry Potter because he was afraid next year he might be too tall to be a Jawa. But Ben didn't have any trouble digging up a Harry Potter costume for the lookalike contest. When he was 3 , he dressed like Mickey Mouse as the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" in "Fantasia." He wore a red robe that covered his ankles. Ben used the same robe for his Potter outfit, only now it reaches just past his knees, making it perfect for a game of Quidditch. When asked what he would do if he could be Harry Potter for a day, Ben didn't hesitate for a single second. "I'd fly," he said. In the photo he submitted for his entry, Ben looks like he's flying through the air. Just beyond his reach is the Golden Snitch. Achieving this effect was no small task for Ben's mother, Donna Batzel. It involved cardboard wings, a rubber ball, fishing line, a stick and a Polaroid camera. She said it would have been easier if she'd had another grown-up to help her. A magic wand might also have come in handy. Samantha Sedivy, 11, grade 6 at Cave Spring Junior High School, as Hermione Granger. Samantha is a self-described "Harry Potter addict." She has read all four books in the series; the fourth she finished in a single day. That's why Samantha feels a connection with legendary bookworm Hermione. "I think she's a lot like me, because I like to read and so does she," Samantha said. If she could do spells like Hermione, Samantha said, her first act of business would be to turn her 9-year-old brother Matthew into a ferret. "It's one of those long furry things," Samantha said, somewhat apologetically, to her brother. "It's not a weasel. Ferrets smell better than weasels." Beth Jones can be reached at 777-6493 or bethj@roanoke.com.
In Tuesday's Extra, our winners will review "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." For cutlines: Runners-up: Joshua Cunningham as Harry Potter Age: 9 Fourth-grader at Cave Spring Elementary School
Pierce Humphry as Harry Potter Age: 8 Third-grader at Clearbrook Elementary School
Eric Wice as Ron Weasley Age: 10 Fifth-grader at Cloverdale Elementary School
Mitch Fisher as Harry Potter Age: 10 Fourth-grader at Grandin Court Elementary School
Abby Barnett as Hermione Granger Age: 8 Third-grader at G.W. Carver Elementary School
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