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The first round of the Harry Potter World Cup has drawn to a close, narrowing the playing field down from the original 64 wizards and witches to a smaller pool of 32 heroes and villains. For the most part, the people you expected to move on have moved on — with some notable exceptions, of course — and as we step forward into Round 2 today, I think you'll find that there are some very, very difficult decisions on the horizon.

But before we look forward, let's look back at what happened in the first round. Get the highlights from Round 1 of the Harry Potter World Cup after the jump!

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Tags Harry Potter, Harry Potter World Cup

Welcome to MTV's Harry Potter World Cup! We've selected 64 of the best "Harry Potter" characters and matched them up in a series of duels for a chance at magical glory, but it's up to YOU to decide who the greatest "Potter" character of all time is in this pool of wizards and witches. Will the Death Eaters destroy Hogwarts, or will good triumph over evil? In the end, the choice is yours, so keep voting at MTV Movies Blog and make your voice heard!

Wands at the ready, wizards and witches! All of the voting for the first round of Harry Potter World Cup is now open, so it's up to you to vote and decide which of your favorite characters will advance to the next round. Voting ends at 12:01 AM EST on Monday (June 27), so there's no time to waste. Will we see early favorites like Harry, Hermione and Ron advance to their next duels as expected, or is there room for an underdog — say, the surprising push-back that Narcissa Malfoy is giving to Luna Lovegood, or the epic battle between old rivals Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour, for example — to apparate their way into round two? We'll find out once voting closes, won't we? You can view all the match-ups below, or you can go here to see all of the polls individually.

Privet Drive

» (1) Harry Potter vs. (16) Professor Quirrell

» (8) Lucius Malfoy vs. (9) Gilderoy Lockhart

» (5) Professor McGonagall vs. (12) Cornelius Fudge

» (4) Neville Longbottom vs. (13) Fenrir Greyback

» (6) Dobby the House Elf vs. (11) Dean Thomas

» (3) Mad-Eye Moody vs. (14) Kingsley Shacklebolt

» (7) Professor Trelawney vs. (10) Professor Flitwick

» (2) Severus Snape vs. (15) Vincent Crabbe

Godric's Hollow

» (1) Hermione Granger vs. (16) Rita Skeeter

» (8) Nearly Headless Nick vs. (9) Fawkes

» (5) Ginny Weasley vs. (12) The Dursleys

» (4) George Weasley vs. (13) Dolores Umbridge

» (6) Hedwig vs. (11) Seamus Finnigan

» (3) Remus Lupin vs. (14) Argus Filch

» (7) Gellert Grindelwald vs. (10) Mr. Ollivander

» (2) Albus Dumbledore vs. (15) Mundungus Fletcher

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Tags Harry Potter, Harry Potter World Cup

Turns out we've been in the dark about all those awesome "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" posters we've been ogling over the past month.

Paramount Pictures announced today that there is a new app for the movie, TF3: Defend The Earth, that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to scan the posters and convert them into an augmented reality experience. The app allows users to track down their nearest posters and, once they activate the augmented reality, participate in an exciting immersive game. So we'd suggest heading to your nearest IMAX or AMC to find out more!

In the news after the jump, find out which director is planning to reboot "War Games," see the new poster for "Brave" and surprise yourself at what fourth dimension is being implemented for "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World."

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Tags Annie, Blood Wars, Brave, emma thompson, ron howard, Seth Gordon, Spy Kids 4, Spy vs. Spy, transformers dark of the moon, War Games

Button up your overcoats, because winter is coming back already.

Though the first season of "Game of Thrones" just ended, casting on season two has already begun. Entertainment Weekly has the news that "Tudors" actress Natalie Dormer has landed the significant role of Margaery Tyrell in the show's second seasons. Though she initially has a smaller role in the books, Margaery becomes a crucial character in "Storm of Swords" and "Feast For Crows," presumably the basis for seasons three and four.

In the casting news after the jump, find out who replaced Michael Fassbender in Danny Boyle's "Trance," which "Thor" star has been cast as the lead in "Pacific Rim," and what two exciting films Ryan Gosling has lined up.

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Tags danny boyle, Game of Thrones, idris elba, james mcavoy, Joel Courtney, Logan's Run, Natalie Dormer, Only God Forgives, Pacific Rim, Ryan Gosling, The Healer, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Trance

There's no question that Fred and George Weasley are two of the most popular characters in the whole wide wizarding world of "Harry Potter" — just see how they're doing in their Harry Potter World Cup match-ups for further evidence— but are they the most popular characters? We'll find out soon just how much affection you have for the on-screen alter-egos of James and Oliver Phelps when they (inevitably) move onto their second round match-ups.

But with George likely to face off Ginny and Fred against his father Arthur, we're rapidly moving towards an important sub-question: which Weasley is the best of the bunch? It should come as no surprise, of course, that both Phelps brothers think their Weasley twin is the best of the red-headed clan.

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Tags Harry Potter, Harry Potter World Cup

The raunchy comedy “Bad Teacher” opens today in theaters, reuniting former Hollywood power couple Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake. Unlike their first meeting at the 2003 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards (the two began dating shortly thereafter), sparks decidedly aren’t flying between Diaz and Timberlake in the film – at least as far as we can tell from the red band trailer.

Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey – an unorthodox junior high teacher who clearly cares less about the education of her students than she does about wooing Scott Delacort (Timberlake), the wealthy new substitute at her school. She takes a new interest in academic achievement, though, when she finds out there’s a cash prize in it for her if her class outperforms that of a rival teacher (played by the hilarious Lucy Punch), all the while spurning the advances of lovable gym teacher Russell Gettis (Jason Segel).

Halsey’s abysmal practices – which include pummeling her students with dodgeballs and smoking pot in the school parking lot – got us thinking: have real-life teachers worked with similarly inappropriate colleagues? As it turns out: there are plenty of bad teachers among us – check out what they had to say!

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Tags Bad Teacher

Back in April, we got word that Neil Gaiman's award-winning novel "American Gods" was being developed as an HBO television series by Tom Hanks' production studio Playtone — the same production house that developed "Band of Brothers" for the network.

This week marked the ten-year anniversary of "American Gods" hitting shelves, so when Gaiman dropped by the newsroom to talk about the new, "author's preferred text" edition of the book, we also managed to get in a few questions about the much-anticipated HBO series.

"From my perspective, I'm worrying about it one episode at a time, one season at a time," said Gaiman when asked about a recent report that suggested "American Gods" will be a six-season series, with 10-12 hour-long episodes each season and a $35-40 million budget.

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Tags American Gods, anansi boys, neil gaiman

First round voting in the Harry Potter World Cup remains open until Sunday at midnight, but unless they make a big turnaround in the coming days, it looks like the game's already over for Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley Dursley. Harry's mean-spirited muggle caretakers are up against the magical might of the Boy Who Lived's lady love, Ginny Weasley, and their cruel intentions and self-centered actions have proven no match for Ginny's wand.

Is there hope for the Dursleys, not just in life, but in the World Cup? It doesn't seem like it, frankly, but that doesn't mean you should rule them down for the count — and it doesn't mean you shouldn't consider casting a vote in their direction, either.

MTV News chatted with actress Fiona Shaw at the red carpet premiere of "True Blood" earlier this week, and the erstwhile Aunt Petunia laid out her argument for why you should consider changing your attitude towards the Dursley family.

"You would have no story without the Dursleys," the actress argued with conviction. "Without normality, there can be no magic."

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Tags Harry Potter, Harry Potter World Cup

MTV Movies Managing Editor Josh Horowitz is currently traveling in Moscow, but this isn't any ordinary excursion—it's more than meets the eye, as he braves cultural confusion and borscht by the bowlful in an effort to cover the world premiere of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" in Russia. These are his stories.

Much like the film I’m here to cover, yesterday was awash in loud colorful sensory concussions. But it didn’t start that way. It started with me wide awake at 3 in the morning watching Piers Morgan on one of the few English language stations in my hotel room. However once the afternoon came around events more than made up for the mundane beginnings.

Last night was a double header of promotional ambition. Paramount certainly pulled out all the stops for their summer juggernaut, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” It kicked off with an opening night red carpet at the Moscow Film Festival. Moscow has a film festival? Sure, why not. And so the dozens of journalists Paramount assembled from around the globe boarded glorified school buses from our posh hotel to head to the green carpet for the big gala.

I assumed my plum window seat literally rubbing legs up to Entertainment Tonight’s Mark Steines. I know… what do you say to that? There’s something endlessly fascinating to me about grown men and women assembling on a bus in a foreign land, not really knowing where we’re going or what the hell we’re doing. We all reverted back to our nine year old selves until the bus driver told us to scram or whatever the Russian equivalent of that might be.

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Tags transformers dark of the moon

We'll be the first to admit that any "Harry Potter"-related news is cause for attention and excitement. After all, our love affair with J.K. Rowling and her magical wizarding world has provided us with so much entertainment over the years — seven books, eight films — her creative brilliance even inspired us to host an online wizard tournament, the "Harry Potter" World Cup.

And on Thursday (June 23), we received another Rowling-oriented gift, by way of the official unveiling of "Pottermore." Some of what we initially speculated about the site is true; plenty is not. Pottermore.com will offer fans a free, online reading experience including, according to a press release, "extensive new material about the characters, places and objects in the much-loved stories," plus an expanded digital capability in which "the storyline will be brought to life with sumptuous newly commissioned illustrations and interactive 'Moments' through which you can navigate."

So, given this new information, and the fact that our five fantasy elements were just that, it's time to reassess our feelings, pro-con-pro style.

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Tags Harry Potter, Harry Potter World Cup, Pottermore