Chapter 19

Bond, James Bond

Within the first three minutes of the movie Harry knew he was going to love it. He sat on the edge of his seat as James Bond stole a Russian jet fighter with nuclear weapons and was able to fight his way out of the enemy's camp and fly to safety. He was blown away by the visual and special effects. As the opening credits played, Harry sat there holding Cassie's hand thinking about how he was going to get Ron to a movie theater to see James Bond.

As the credits ended and the new scene opened, Harry was drawn immediately into the story about the MIG fighters and the British ship. He groaned as the ship sunk and all the men got dumped into the water and then were machine-gunned by an evil-looking blond guy. Harry thought that his hair color was a perfect match for Malfoy's ice-cold blond hair. He thought to himself that if it wasn't for the fact that Cassie had beautiful sunny-yellow blond hair and did not seem to have a mean bone in her body, he would renounce the hair color as completely indicative of evil. He asked Cassie, as he was reaching for yet another handful of popcorn, to explain a little bit more about what the villain (he thought his name was Carver) was really up to. He could certainly understand her answer of "I think he's manipulating the news so that people will notice his new media empire." Harry, who had been the subject of many manipulated news stories, had an immediate hatred toward the villain. When that scene ended and a new one began, Harry stared open-mouthed at Bond in bed with a gorgeous blond woman who was barely concealed under a sheet. He turned to Cassie and whispered, "I can't believe they're showing this on screen. It's embarrassing!"

He heard Cassie give a soft chuckle. She turned and whispered, "The scene is almost over. They're not going to show any more than this." She paused and then said in a light-hearted way, "What kind of a school do you go to anyway? A monastery?"

Harry leaned toward her and said, "Well, close, although we do have girls there. But I've never seen any of them looking like that!"

Harry heard Cassie give a louder chuckle. He stared straight ahead at the screen thinking to himself, "I can't believe I just said that." He could feel the heat rising to his cheeks and was glad they were in a dark theater so Cassie couldn't see the shade of crimson his face was turning.

Cassie again turned and directly looked at Harry. Barely concealing the laughter rising in her throat, she said, "Well, I should hope not!" Harry was about to hide his eyes in his hands when that scene fortunately ended and he was able to enjoy the story once again. He liked M immediately. She reminded him a lot of Professor McGonagall, smart and sharp-tongued, fighting incompetence wherever she found it.

Harry absolutely loved the main character, Bond. He thought that his cool actions under fire were very impressive. He also loved the fight scenes. He had been in his share of fights where he was completely outnumbered and should have died. He liked the way that Bond was able to throw his entire self into the fight and use whatever weapons he could find at hand. Harry felt like if he were in Bond's position, he would act the same way he did. Harry glanced occasionally at Cassie. She seemed to be enjoying the movie as much as he was, covering her eyes in some of the scary parts, laughing out loud when it was funny, and holding her breath during the fight scenes. When there was yet another scene where Bond was kissing (and doing other things to) Carver's wife, Harry tried not to blush this time.

He had to admit that this movie thing was very pleasant. Sitting next to Cassie, holding her hand sometimes, eating popcorn and candy, even drinking through her straw when his drink ran out early in the movie (and she didn't mind at all), combined to make him think that taking a date to a movie was a good evening's entertainment. He was very glad she had suggested it.

He was very engrossed in the movie and realized one time that he had said more than he should have. At one point, the bad guys were trying to break into Bond's car which apparently had all sorts of weapon-repelling abilities. Harry, used to objects being charmed in order to do that sort of thing, noticed as the scene ended that he was muttering "Impervious, impervious," apparently trying to supplement the charm Bond had put on the vehicle. He allowed his voice to fade to nothingness when he realized, hoping Cassie had not heard anything unusual. However, since she had a bit of a strange smile on her face as she handed him her drink once again at the end of that sequence, he thought he probably was not that lucky.

When Harry was watching the scene where Bond jumped out of a plane in order to scuba dive to the downed boat, he thought jealously of how it would be to be out there in the sky, flying. He missed his Firebolt and missed flying terribly. Cassie's thoughts apparently ran parallel to his because she leaned over to him and said "I would love to sky dive. I think flying through the air like that would be incredible." Fortunately, Harry caught himself before he said "Oh, it is! It is!"

Like everyone else in the theater, Harry was completely entranced by the long chase scene on the motorcycle through Ho Chi Minh City. Everyone ooh'd and aah'd as Bond and Mei Lin, the Chinese agent, were handcuffed together and escaped from the bad guys by riding a motorcycle through the streets. Harry thought he had never seen something that incredible on a motorbike. He knew Sirius had owned a flying motorcycle once and he decided right there and then that someday he would ride a bike like that. Harry listened carefully as Bond and Mei Lin discussed the villain's plans for the cruise missile. He thought he understood the general idea of what Carver wanted to do. It had something to do with causing trouble in one place, causing the British to assume that the Chinese had started that fight and then they would retaliate against the Chinese while he, Carver, just enjoyed the chaos. He thought that this probably would have worked (if it hadn't been for Bond, of course) although he did not really understand all the political stuff surrounding this. Muggle politics were not something he knew a lot about.

The final fight between Bond and the villain also really impressed Harry. He knew how it was to fight like that, to be just trying to stay alive when everything was blowing up around him. He watched it with mixed emotions, though. The exploding noises and fires exploding all around brought back too many reminders of so many battles he had fought. He tried to keep his mind on the fact that this was all make-believe but it was not easy. He also did not like the scene with the Chinese agent in the water, chained and drowning. It reminded him too much of how Cho Chang had looked in the lake during the Tri-Wizard Tournament two years before. However, he pushed that depressing thought to the back of his mind as the closing credits started scrolling up the screen and Cassie stood up. Harry stood up, too, still in a bit of a daze from the excitement and emotional rush that he had experienced in the last couple of hours.

"Well, what did you think?" Cassie asked him, studying his face.

"I thought that was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen!" Harry answered truthfully.

"And that's not even one of the best Bond movies according to the critics, you know," Cassie said as they walked through the crowd toward the exit.

"You're kidding! You mean there are others out there like that?" Harry was truly surprised. But then, he thought, he really did not know much about movies.

"Yeah, I think that's like the 18th or 19th Bond movie."



"Amazing!" Harry thought that he would enjoy seeing all of them.

Cassie then asked what to her was probably a perfectly normal question. "Why don't you rent some on video to watch at home if you enjoyed it that much?" Maybe it was the completely blank look of confusion on Harry's face, but somehow she realized that renting a video was a totally new concept to him. "I swear, Harry. I do not understand what rock you have been living under for your entire life. Maybe someday I will."

Harry shrugged, smiling as they exited the theater into the cool darkness. "Maybe someday I can tell you. But not tonight."