Experience with spoilers: a fun way to play prank on people
As I started to pore thru the first pages of Harry Potter 6, I casually asked my roomate Nguyen Phi Long about something that just struck me.
“Long, I heard that someone died in this book…”
Long’s attention turned towards the book in my hands.
“Hm?”,he glanced from his computer monitor, “Oh, Harry Potter! Yeah, of course someone died. J.K. Rowling said so.”
Then I rhetorically asked myself, “Who died, huh?”
He replied curtly,“Dumbledore.”
My whole world seemed to collapse.
“WHAT THE…….!!!??”
If there was a bucket of water beside me, I would’ve splashed it onto him and his computer mercilessly.
My heart screamed,“Long, you just spoiled the whole fun I was just going to get!!! You shouldn’t have answered my question, it was rhetorical, dammit!!!”
But instead only these words came out of my mouth,”Are you sure?”
I still half-hoped that he lied to me.
“Yeah, of course. You still reading the book?”
“You mean you’ve finished reading it?”
“Ya lah… Why would I lie to you..”
He seemed unapologetic. Oh, great.
But hey, it was me who asked him in the first place, I should partially blame myself for that!
The green book “Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince” I purchased a few days before was laid bare in front of me. My own roommate just spoiled main key of the whole plot.
Over the next couple of days, I was reluctant to touch the book ever again, let alone picking it up.
I finally finished the book a month later, after I got over that spoiled-story-aftershock.
Two years later in
Despite having promised myself to avoid discussing the book with anyone else this time, I incidentally talked about it.
It was a lovely morning in my Japanese class when my classmate Rizki asked me,”Toshi, what time did u go to bed last night? U seem kinda insomniac!”
“Hm?” I yawned, “2 o’clock. I simply couldn’t stop reading Harry Potter, man…”
“Yeah? You read Harry Potter too? Never imagined that Harry and Ginny Weasley would marry in the end, do you think?”
My languor disappeared at once and immediately my whole body stiffened.
I stared at him.
“Rizki…. ARE YOU SURE??! You mean, you’ve finished the book?”, I half-bellowed at him.
“Not yet, though. Just reached page 300 something”
“Then how do you know about Harry and Ginny getting married?”
“Well, in the middle of the book –you know— it gets kinda boring in the part where Harry and Hermione moved their tent here and there. Then, out of curiosity, I flipped thru the last chapter of Epilogue… And –you know— Ron and Hermione got married too!!”
Just like my ex-roommate Long, Rizki also seemed unapologetic.
He didn’t realise how grave the “sin” he had commited.
“WAAAA…… I wish I didn’t come to class today…..”
I ended up spending the rest of the class sulking towards everyone, not just Rizki, but everyone, my teachers included.
When they asked me what the matter is, I just answered that I was feeling kinda lethargic that day, but of course only Rizki himself knew what had happened to me.
I really wanted to avenge Rizki that time, but what story could I spoil to him in return?
There is no longer Harry Potter book 8th –you know— J.K. Rowling has told us that the story is finished once and for all.
Oddly enough, a tantalising temptation came to me:
“If I have gotten my Harry Potter reading spoiled, then I should spoil other people’s reading as well. That way, justice is served.”
I gave in.
Then I smsed my all of my friends who are fans of Harry Potter… about the ending of the book, like “Dobby and Hedwig died” or “Harry and Ginny got married”
Those who replied returned angry messages like “Go to hell” or “Just go and die”…
Those who didn’t reply refused to speak to me for days.
I kinda regret that decision –you know— because those friends I just smsed were simply victims of spoiler abuse like me.
I even almost strained a friendship with the girl I liked because of that.
Fortunately, she forgave me and eventually everyone came out fine.
Lols.
