rHodas: 'Harry Potter' World Cup: Muggles Target Robert Pattinson

Friday, July 1, 2011

'Harry Potter' World Cup: Muggles Target Robert Pattinson

Keep voting over on the MTV Movies Blog to determine the best 'Potter' character of all time.
By Eric Ditzian

Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
Photo: Warner Bros.

The second round of MTV News' "Harry Potter" World Cup — the fan-voted tournament to pick the greatest character in the fantasy franchise — is already under way, but we'd like to pause for a minute to say how damn impressed we are. We offered up this momentous task to you, and you came through in a big way over the first round, voting more than 1.2 million times to make sure your favorite wizards and witches, heroes and villains, owls, elves and werewolves made it through to the next round.

Magical stuff! And it's only just beginning. Round two is shaping up to deliver us some blowouts, some neck-and-neck competitions and one upset that could have fans of another supernatural series up in arms.

On that last point, we're talking about Mr. Robert Pattinson. Before RPattz got mixed up in the "Twilight" madness, he took on the role of Cedric Diggory, a wizard who was only featured in "Goblet of Fire" but whose death changed the course of Hogwarts history and earned the character a #3 seed in our tournament. Cedric coasted through the first round and seemed to have a path cleared for him in future rounds by "Twilight" fans, who knocked Luna Lovegood out in a shocking round-one defeat.

Yet "Potter" fans seem to be fighting back in round two. Cedric now finds himself in a fierce battle with Narcissa Malfoy, the Dark Lord ally who squeaked by Lovegood in round one and could make it two upsets in a row. As of this writing, Narcissa leads the voting 53 percent to Cedric's 47 percent. All this makes for one of round two's most exciting matchups.

And a lot can happen before voting ends July 1 at 12:01 p.m. ET. Will the throw-down between brother/sister tandem George and Ginny Weasley, for example, go down to the wire? Right now, they're locked in a virtual tie. And can Professor Minerva McGonagall, the head honcho of Gryffindor, maintain a razor-thin margin of victory over timid-yet-ultimately heroic Neville Longbottom? Don't count that dude out yet.

Other matches seem already decided. Ron Weasley holds a commanding lead over Quidditch top dog Oliver Wood. Ron's gal pal Hermione and best friend Harry Potter, meanwhile, have each also raced out to nearly impossible-to-overcome leads. Big shock there, right? The big three are going to coast safely into the Sweet 16.

There they'll no doubt greet Severus Snape, the is-he-really-bad-or-maybe-kinda-good wizard who is deservedly a fan favorite. He's far ahead in his face-off with itty-bitty Professor Flitwick. We'll go ahead now and call it: Snape for the win! And let's cross our fingers that Dobby the House Elf, he of the adorable voice and self-sacrificing worldview, maintains his hefty lead over Kingsley Shacklebolt, who honestly is on borrowed time after a round-one upset of Mad-Eye Moody.

So that's where we stand about halfway through the second round. Don't let your personal fave pull a Mad-Eye Moody. Make sure he, she or it gets your support. With millions of votes coming through, it's up to you to vote and vote and vote. And then vote some more before we anoint the greatest character of all time in MTV News' Harry Potter World Cup.

Who is the best "Harry Potter" character of all time? The "Harry Potter" World Cup will find out! Voting is going on now over on the MTV Movies Blog, and you can also get the debate going on Twitter with the hashtag #mtvpottercup.

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