Fantastic Beasts and WHERE Do I Get a Niffler??

It was about a month ago. I was in the kitchen when I heard it. That beautiful, magical theme song from Harry Potter coming from my living room television. I bolted into the other room like a crazy lady.

Harry Potter? Where?! 

To my disappointment it wasn't my favorite boy who lived, but a trailer for J.K Rowling's new movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. At first I wasn't pleased.

This isn't Harry Potter. They can't use the same theme song! 

But after some research, I soon discovered that Fantastic Beasts takes place in the same magical world, with connections to Harry, just seventy years prior in New York. Needless to say, I had to see it, and this week I finally got to the movies to feed into my wizarding world obsession.

While the original Harry Potter series will always be my true love, I thoroughly enjoyed Fantastic Beasts. The story centers around Newt Scamander, a British wizard who travels to New York and accidentally sets his suitcase full of magical creatures loose on the city of Muggles, or No-Maj's as the American wizards call the non-magical community.

Eddie Redmayne plays Newt, and he is absolutely adorable and charming (despite his Hufflepuff colored scarf...). His mission in life is to rescue various creatures in the wizarding world who most deem to be dangerous, not unlike our old Hogwarts friend Hagrid with his love for dragons and hippogriffs.

Many of the creatures that find their way out of Newt's case are actually taught to Harry and his friends in Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures classes. These include a rather clingy bowtruckle and a fuzzy little niffler that you can cuddle with AND set loose to collect gold. Think PetSmart has any??

In addition to the creatures, Fantastic Beasts has a few more links to the world of Harry that fans have become so familiar with. Many times, Rowling mentions how Dumbledore defeated the powerful wizard Grindelwald years before. It has always been a sort of fun fact about the headmaster that no one elaborated on until now.

In Fantastic Beasts we see Grindelwald (played by Johnny Depp) firsthand, masked as another wizard, trying to control the young Credence who just learned about his magical abilities. In one scene, Grindelwald places a necklace upon Credence's neck with a triangular pendant symbol on it - the Deathly Hallows. I guess Krum was right in wanting to fight Xenophilius Lovegood for wearing the symbol at Bill and Fleur's wedding.

Voldemort's loyal supporter, Bellatrix Lestrange, is also touched on in the film, or rather her ancestors. Spoiler alert, the leading female character Tina, played by Katherine Waterston, starts to fall in love with Newt. However, a picture of a young woman is spotted by Tina's friend, Queenie, in his room. When asked about her, Newt explains how she is a Lestrange, and how she was a friend of his at Hogwarts. Queenie warns him that the Lestrange's aren't the best wizarding family to be involved with, so it's clear that they supported the dark arts years before Bellatrix even existed.

For me, Fantastic Beasts had everything - action, comedic relief, a love story, subtle connections to Harry, and a cute British lead. Rumor has it that Rowling is creating a series of movies, and if it's going to consist of another eight, I'll need some time to track down a niffler....

Grammy's 2016: Best Moments

Last night, I nestled in front of the TV for three and a half hours of music, fame, and much deserved recognition. As usual, the 2016 Grammy Awards did not disappoint - there were unbelievable performances, touching tributes, and of course, the yearly beef between two stars.

It's safe to say that one particular female dominated the night - Taylor Swift. First, she kicked off the show with an intense performance of "Out of the Woods," powering down the stage in a stunning, glittery pants outfit.

But the first five minutes weren't the end for her. Taylor received "Album of the Year," one of the most coveted awards, for "1989." While her win wasn't that surprising, her speech definitely was. She spoke about how females need to take credit for their accomplishments. Men will try to take the spotlight away, but they must stay strong while fighting for their dreams.

At a first listen, it's a very touching, empowering speech. Dig a little deeper, and it's clear she was referring to the wonderful Kanye West and the lyric in his new song - "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that b**ch famous." Lovely, right? Props to Taylor for standing up for all her hard work.

Possibly my favorite performance of the night was surprisingly, Hollywood Vampires. I'm not too familiar with Alice Cooper, but I love Johnny Depp. From Edward Scissorhands to Sweeny Todd, we've seen Depp in all sorts of makeup and costumes. But in my opinion, he never looked better than at the Grammy's, with his tattoos and guitar *insert swoon face here.* It should go without saying, he was one of the most talented artists in the room last night. The guy can literally do it all.

Justin Bieber had a great night, winning his first every Grammy award and performing the song that got him back on the charts, "Where Are You Now" with Skrillex and Diplo. After Adele's snoozefest of a performance, Bieber was a breath of fresh air. His voice was on point, he had a ton of energy, and wore the sharpest cheetah print jacket. I was probably the only female in America who was sad when he took it off...

This was a solid year for the Grammy's. Lady Gaga paid tribute to her idol David Bowie, Sam Smith looked cooler than ever with his weightloss and newfound beard, and The Weekend slayed the stage with his flawless vocals. But the best part? Taylor giving it right back to Kanye.