Okay you have to watch this first.
Right. So, Harry Potter was my whole childhood. I remember climbing onto my parents bed and asking what mom was reading. She told me about it and then let me snuggle up to her while she read it out loud. This is the first book I remember reading. My mom read it to me and I watched the movie. We bought the tape and I watched it until it was destroyed. The music enchanted me, and the story just swept me away. For the first time I could understand why a person would want to learn how to read. As much as I struggled, I wanted to read that story. It stole my heart and my imagination. I read every one over and over until the next one came out. The world of pretend was never the same for me. In third grade my friends and I bought sparkly pencils from the office so we could use them as wands during recess. I wanted to be Hermione every time. I dressed like her, I tried to talk like her. Dress up meant cloaks and wands. We played the Harry Potter computer games with a passion. We knew the books inside and out. When we made up our own business it was called Draco incorporated. My pen friends and I wrote to each other as Draco (me), Voldemort, and Snape. We had our own homemade dark mark stamp. I knew it was just a book, but some small (big) part of me wanted it to be true. I hoped that when I turned eleven, I would find a letter on my door, addressed in spiky green handwriting, beckoning me to join this bigger world where children crowded around shop windows with magic brooms and staircases moved through giant castles full of ghosts and moving pictures. I'm twenty-one. I'm still waiting for that letter. Every year I tell myself, maybe next year. And I know it won't come, but I won't say it out loud either. The child inside of me can't say it and I never will.
Last week I went to the Harry Potter Studios outside of London. I loved it. All of it. Maybe it wasn't Hogwarts, but it sure was incredible. I got to ride a broom and see myself fly over Hogwarts a green screen (I did not buy the picture, which would have translated over to about $33) so you will have to take my word for it that I was pretty awesome. I sat in the Ford Angela and wore quidditch robes. In every room, the music was playing. I saw every major set and costume. I even saw my greatest desire in the Mirror of Erised: myself at Hogwarts.
Wands were about 30 pounds, so I will keep making my own. That doesn't mean I didn't try out every one in the gift shop though!
Hermione's wand. It is actually very similar to the one I imagined for myself.
Bellatrix Lestrange's Wand
The Cupboard under the stairs, no. 4 Privet Drive. Little Whinging, Surrey. (Which by the way, is also where the temple is, just so you know).
The doors to the great hall. This was one of the greatest moments in the first movie when as a child you see the doors opened to Hogwarts for the first time. We came the very first day it was decorated for Christmas.
Yes, the Christmas trees have little wizards and witches flying around them...
Someday I want McGonagall's job. She is one of my favorite teachers. She was tough, but she also made sure her students did well. She didn't take any nonsense and when it really mattered she stood up for her students. Probably the only teacher better was Lupin, who showed his students that he genuinely cared about them and their learning. He made a huge difference for students like Neville who needed just a little more support than they were getting at home.
The Gryffindor boys' dormitory
Shhh. I'm not supposed to be on the boys' side!
The Goblet of Fire. I got to see it light and produce a name. It was never like I imagined it in the books, but it was still pretty neat.
All the major wands (aside from the copies actors broke or snuck out in their pockets)
Mirror of Erised
And there I am. You can see the Leaky Cauldron and Hagrid's hut behind me.
The Fat Lady
This piece is an illusion. Standing right there, you can see it isn't actually 50 feet long, but from the picture it makes the Leaky Cauldron look huge.
Me in the Leaky Cauldron
Lupin and Snape in Neville's Grandmother's clothes
The Invisibility Cloak
The Gryffindor Common Room
The Great Clock
Lemon Sherbet! Cockroach Cluster!
The golden dragon egg and the Triwizard Cup.
Dumbledore's Office, also one of the most magical spaces for me as a child.
The sword of Godric Gryffindor
Dungeons, complete with a self-stirring cauldron (really).
Each of these pictures was one of the animals that played characters in the films. It was fun to read the descriptions. Some were easier than others. Of course the good actors also were the hardest. Divas.
This Crookshanks says he would rather be carried than do any work. Apparently the one next to him had a little much fun chasing Scabbers.
Hagrid's Hut
The door to Hogwarts
Hiii-ahssss-ee-eth!
Gringotts Vault door
The Firebolt
The self packing suitcase. The suits, books, and shoes actually all slide in and out at the wave of your hand.
Inside the Burrow, where you could see the knitting needles, iron, knife, and scrub brush still hard at work.
One of the coolest statues in the movie.
This hand will give light only to the holder, in any darkness.
Death Eaters and Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher.
The Riddle Family Tomb
The Ministry of Magic
Okay, as an American I just didn't understand how creepy this is. The Ministry statue that is crushing people was installed under Voldemort's rise. The top part is exactly like the Cenotaph by Whitehall Palace that commemorates the men and women who died in World War One. Every year on Armistice day the Queen and everyone who can get close enough places wreathes and crosses of red poppies in remembrance of them. For the British, seeing a memorial to the people who gave their lives for freedom corrupted would have given them the chills. I never understood why they made it this way until now.
Umbridge's Office
Notice the detail, every broach has its own cat.
Entering the Chamber of Secrets. Watch out! (It is another illusion that a nice guy volunteered to take for me).
Educational Decrees. I wanted to get one of these for Dad for his classroom, but no luck.
I made it to Platform 9 3/4! Yeah the picture is fuzzy, but so what? (I've also been to the real Kings Cross Station, it's pretty cool).
Close your eyes and run the first time. It makes it less disorienting.
First scene on the train.
Last scene with the train.
I totally doorbell ditched the Dursleys.
On the bridge to Hogwarts
The Potter home in Godric's Hollow
The Chess Pieces. Yes, they really are that huge!
Bathilda Bagshot, the scariest old lady to ever set foot on the earth.
Inferi
I remember seeing Griphook slowly curl his long goblin fingers over the counter to look at Harry in the first movie. I still can't replicate that movement. It was just so perfect.
Fawkes!
Mermaid
Two people played Hagrid. The guy whose face we know, and a really big rugby player in a giant suit. This is the animatronic head that went with that suit.
Animatronic werewolf
Kreacher
Aunt Marge!
They actually had a lot of dummy replicas from the scenes where people died. It was cool and horrifying at the same time.
Poor Dobby. I'm sure he is in House Elf Heaven. I can't believe I forgot to bring a sock to leave at his shrine!
Animatronic Monster Book of Monsters. It will try to bite you. Just stroke the spine.
Thestral momma and baby
Hungarian Horntail
Aragog
Basilisk
Buckbeak
Welcome, to Diagon Alley! (In case you were wondering, if I couldn't go to Hogwarts, I wanted to be an extra on this set).
These footsteps slowly appear in the snow.
My friend Rachel in front of Ollivander's
They might listen if you offer a very charitable donation though. For research of course.
Florean Fortescue's ice cream shop. He's also the person to ask if you need help with wizarding history.
Yes, the Weasley boys have a perpetually puking statue in front of their shop.
Pygmy Puffs
Remember these bricks? They're just the most magical bricks ever.
They never got to use this statue. It was supposed to be the Architect of Hogwarts
When I walked into this next room my eyes filled with tears. It just summed everything up so perfectly. Almost all of my favorite shots were made using this castle that was built brick by brick. This was the place where I spent most of my imagination exploring. I still find myself exploring it in my dreams, all these years later.
I laughed and I cried with these books. I experienced the wild rush of riding a broom for the first time with Harry and the heartbreak of losing a brother and son with the Weasleys. I can only hope that my future children will find as much joy in these stories as I did.
P.S. I love you.
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