There's Nothing Quite As Lovely as Halloween in July

Guess who just stood in line for almost two hours...while being entertained by Hagrid, a flame throwing (and swallowing...extremely "talented" and most likely a stripper in her spare time) witch, and several owl handlers..... to get the new Harry Potter book from Blackwell's bookstore?

That's Right. My favorite part was the countdown...it caught me offguard. Panicking, I vainly scanned the room, looking for someone i could kiss when the clock struck 12---much like last New Year's Eve, my prospects were grim...do i go for the 15 year old boy dressed like Harry, or the 60 year old man dressed up as a mature and surprising Hermoine?

This has been my first experience standing in line for a book...and i'm pretty sure it's my last. There are some intensely creepy Harry Potter fundamentalists out there...its an entire world that's just asking to be bombed by G.W.

I haven't started reading yet, but here are my predictions on what happens in the new book:

Hermoine, the slightly bookish OCD heroine, matures into a promiscuous teenager who gets knocked up as a way of proving to the other kids that she's not a prude. The mystery that follows is the identity of her baby daddy: whiny Harry or goofy Ron. My money is on Ron...but only time will tell..

Questions remain to be resolved: Will Ron and Harry remain friends? Who else did Hermoine get it on with in the Quidditch field and why didn't she use protection? Will she keep the baby?

I love a good mystery.