Ron Weasley threw a temper tantrum. Hermione Granger fell in love. Harry Potter escaped another near-death experience. And 700 Penn students were there to see it all.
Through the efforts of the 11 college houses and the Residential Advisory Board, the students were able to see the latest installment of the Harry Potter series in an unusual fashion.
The group of students was bused to the Franklin Institute in Center City on Friday night to see the opening two showings of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at the science museum's IMAX theater. IMAX theaters are equipped with higher-quality projection systems and larger screens than normal theaters.
Before the beginning of the film, students' excitement was clearly visible.
"I had never been to an IMAX for a regular movie, and I'm just a huge fan of the [series], especially at this time of the year," said College freshman Margaret Gammill, who was adorned with a scar on her forehead and Harry Potter-inspired thick-rimmed glasses. "I love the Hogwarts world."
The brainchild of Ware College House Dean Nathaniel Smith, the campuswide event was partly an effort to promote community across the college houses, a problem that has proved difficult to address with an on-campus population that approaches 5,500 students, he said.
Some efforts have been made to organize events for all the college houses but, Smith said, none has had the effect or excitement of the Harry Potter screenings.
"The creation of a sense of community across all the houses is a big goal for college houses and something that we want to continue to do as regularly as possible," Smith said. "The hard part is finding the right thing that you would get absolute participation across the board."
After initially planning the screening as an event only for residents of Ware College House, Smith negotiated the buyout of the theater for two showings once he discovered the extraordinary demand for tickets.
"When you get this many people together and they realize that 700 people share a strong and enthusiastic interest in doing something, that is how you build a community," Smith said.
While few people other than Gammill dressed in costume for the screening, most students were blown away by the high-quality images that the IMAX format produced.
"It was surprising how realistic it was," Nursing freshman Adrienne Hoving said. "I thought it was just a lot of fun seeing all these people that you would never expect to be [fans]."
