Lolua's Footlocker O' Funny-Looking HP Avatars

The Avatars

The Basichick: I adore chickens and poultry/fowl in general, so when I found a well-PhotoShopped image created by Andrew the graphics editor on MuggleNet, where the basilisk from the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie was changed into a chicken, I was so excited I decided to make my first-ever avatar out of it.

Snowy Ron: This is the first screen capture from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that moved me to make an avatar. The expression on Ron's (Rupert Grint) face is priceless. There's supposed to be text at the bottom that reads "I'll be there when the storm is through," but I was still experimenting with adding text to pictures, and, well, it didn't work very well. Eventually I will re-do this one from the source image and put the text in some garish color and a much more legible (if less pretty) font. The caption is drawn from the lyrics to the song "At the Beginning With You" from the Anastasia soundtrack. Dedicated to Snoopy, from Woodstock. *sniff*

Jeremiah 5:6: I wanted to make something deep and meaningful for a Lupin avatar, preferably dealing with themes of revenge and (twice now) being robbed of all his friends by the forces of Darkness. I waited so long for a decent picture of David Thewlis as Remus Lupin that I wanted to do one of my favorite characters justice. So after rooting around and doing a couple of searches, I came up with this revenge-oriented passage from the biblical book of Jeremiah. I thought since Remus Lupin is both a Gryffindor (represented by a rampant lion) and a werewolf, the passage was perfect. Other translations render "desert" as "evening" for some reason, and while I think both are appropriate, "desert" seems to contrast better with "forest." I also like that half is face is in shadow, hinting at the dark nature of the wolfy part of him.

Hour of the Wolf: I got this caption idea from an episode of the TV show Babylon 5 called "The Hour of the Wolf," which apparently refers to the dead hour in the middle of the night where there's nothing to do if you can't sleep. But anyway, I like the idea of it now being Lupin's "hour," to defend Harry and guide him in an avuncular way, and possibly to die trying (though I don't think Lupin will be killed off, it's much sadder if he continues to be the sole non-traitorous survivor of Harry's parents' generation/group of friends. And I imagine there are plenty of nights where Lupin can't sleep. :(

MWPP as Men: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are always a problem. If you're going to make an avatar or a piece of fan art and call it "The Marauders" or "MWPP," you have to include all four of them. I'm aware that no one likes Peter, but all four of them were friends at one point, and not just the three that we like (when they're not being bullying little toerags, that is). My original intention was to make an avatar using Harry's stag Patronus instead of the incredibly blue picture of James but then 1) I thought it looked strange that way, and 2) I read that Adrian Rawlins was actually coming back as James in the third film, which he had said last fall was unlikely. As a result, I now have the idea to do an avatar of MWPP as beasts, but I'm waiting for a decent screen capture or publicity still of Padfoot. A new one of Wormtail would help, as well, since I am seriously dissatisfied with the image I have.

Fangurl Squee: So I'd like to think that *squee*-ing like a "fangurl" is beneath me, but sometimes... you just have to *squee*. When I saw this screen capture from the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban film on a trading card, I had to save it and make a new avatar. It makes me think of the line he says to the dementor in the book, "None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks," which always makes me giggle like a little girl for some reason. Perhaps it's my perverse sense of humor, or that at that moment Ron probably has "Scabbers," the real villain, in his pocket.

Arms of Love: This was a *squee*-worthy moment from the French trailer released in early May for the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie. I lack the software to make screen-captures, so I was ecstatic when a screen capture from the same scene was made available on one of the trading cards. It's not as Ron/Hermione-centric as I would have hoped for a shippy avatar like this one, but it'll do. I'm led to believe that Hermione is seeking comfort in the face of the coming execution of Buckbeak the Hippogriff. I imagine this as her initial reaction to the news. The caption was inspired by a Martina McBride song about being "Safe in the Arms of Love." In the source image, that's Rupert Grint as redheaded Ron Weasley, the back of Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, and Daniel Radcliffe supplies Harry Potter's hand.

Face Your Fear: Ah, two of my favorite Harry Potter characters in a single avatar: David Thewlis (again) as Remus Lupin and Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom. (Does anyone else find it creepy that these two actors have almost the same letters in their last names?) In this scene, Professor Lupin teaches his class, beginning with Neville, how to repel a boggart, a magical shape-shifting creature which assumes the shape of whatever you fear the most. Neville, unlike most of the class, faces his greatest fear on pretty much a daily basis, and I admire him for being able to carry on in the face of that. The source image is a screen capture from the teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Dedicated to Dragonsbane, for reasons that should be obvious to her. :)

'Claw Pride: I'm a Ravenclaw and proud of it, though I must say that we Ravenclaws, particularly the girls, have kind of a bad reputation for being silly and giggly and stuck in our own worlds. While some Ravenclaw girls *coughChoChangcough* are like that, not all of us fit that description--at least not entirely. I fully admit to being stuck in my own world a lot of the time. Anyway, I pulled the source image off of MuggleNet again, but I'm quite certain it's in numerous other places. I'm getting better at adding text, though I think I might go back and make the blue in the word "pride" a bit brighter, as it got swallowed by the black once I shrank it to avatar size.

The Bookmarks

Book Five: When one of my friends who had just gotten into Harry Potter started reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I promised her a bookmark without knowing what kind of bookmark I wanted to make. After thinking for a bit and looking at a couple of existing bookmarks online, I settled on this. My friend loves the color blue, and the dust jacket of the US version of the book, published by Scholastic, Inc., is blue, so I decided it was appropriate. The illustrations are by Mary GrandPr� from the US edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I used the images available online at MuggleNet because I am too lazy to scan them in myself. The illustrations used:

	The Fountain of Magical Brethren. For Chapter Seven, "The Ministry of Magic," p. 121.		Albus Dumbledore. For Chapter Thirty-Seven, "The Lost Prophecy," p. 820.
	Arrival of the Advance Guard. For Chapter Three, "The Advance Guard," p. 42.		Harry's Revelation. For Chapter Twenty-Six, "Seen and Unforseen," p. 570.
	Snuffles Escaping 12 Grimmauld Place. For the book's title page.		The Reception Committee. For Chapter Thirty-Eight, "The Second War Begins," p. 845.

The titles are arbitrary; I have no idea what Mary GrandPr� or Scholastic title them, or if they bother at all. After I printed out the two sides of the bookmark, I colored in the pictures a bit with some colored pencils, then put the two sides together and covered the finished bookmark in clear packing tape to protect it. I'm considering doing a series of these for all five Harry Potter books when I get the time.

Book Four: This took me exactly 45 minutes to make. I'm getting pretty good at cranking these things out. The illustrations used:

	Harry Awakens. For Chapter Two, "The Scar," p. 16.		The Goblet of Fire. For the book's title page.
	Viktor Krum. For Chapter Eight, "The Quidditch World Cup," p. 95.		Voldemort's Eyes. For Chapter Thirty-Four, "Priori Incantatem," p. 659.
	Tickling the Pear. For Chapter Twenty-One, "The House-Elf Liberation Front," p. 363.		Scenes of Terror. For Chapter Nine, "The Dark Mark," p. 117.
	"Mad-Eye" Moody. For Chapter Thirteen, "Mad-Eye Moody," p. 193.		A Lovable Stray. For Chapter Twenty-Seven, "Padfoot Returns," p. 509.

Perhaps more will come after finals are over. Ta-ta for now. -- Lolua

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