Cues No. 22 & 23 part 1

A favorite cue that we wanted to see return to the series is the Christmas at Hogwarts music. It plays here over the shot of the castle, and follows the excitement of Christmas Eve at Hogwarts (from a series standpoint, the last time that this will happen). Students arrive for the Yule Ball, while up in Gryffindor tower, Ron’s disappointment and embarrassment is highlighted by the return of the amusing music originally used for the scene in which he takes Polyjuice potion. The antics of Harry and Ron continue as they prepare to join the rest of the students for the ball.

Christmas at Hogwarts resumes once more as Harry and Ron walk into the entrance hall. The music continues throughout their conversations with the Patil twins and Professor McGonagall. As things settle down, Harry sees Cho, and can’t help but think about her; a fragment of Harry in Love plays and then trails off into wandering chords. The orchestra builds to the moment where Harry turns around and witnesses Hermione descending the steps into the entrance hall, accompanied by her theme playing in all of its holiday glory. Wandering chords from before her entrance return and lead to a new use of Through the Doors from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001). This version has more dancing woodwinds and sparkly percussion to emphasize the Christmas decor in the Great Hall. The music calms down as Harry realizes he has to dance with Parvati.

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This cue does not need much description: with Hedwig’s Theme being in 3/8 time, we once again wanted to utilize it for when the ball attendees are dancing. This time, we had the ability to choreograph the music to the dancing so that it aurally shows each leap and turn of the characters. A big finish of Double Trouble then takes the spotlight. The cue is quickly interrupted by the Weird Sisters band, which we’re treating as diegetic source music in this particular instance, so all that is heard is the abrupt cutoff of the score.