I must be the last person on earth to have never read or seen any of the Harry Potter books or films, but I must say, all of the hype surrounding the final book has me rooting for the fella to live.
I think you are. A couple of months ago that statement would have been false, but I just then saw half of a Harry Potter movie at a friend's place over dinner. Don't know which part. I would try describing by mentioning invisible cloak, spiders, an escape in a car from the spider place, a huge serpentine animal towards the end, a ghost girl with amnesia, a dwarfish slave etc etc, but I am sure all the parts have all these stuff
