Yer a Wizard, Harry

When I was twelve, my neighbor handed me a paperback book and said, "I think you would really like this." I looked at the cover - a colorful display of a confused looking boy riding on a broomstick. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in bold, lightning bolt letters arched over the top. I said my thanks, and put it down to read later. I remember my family was having a potluck and there was a thunderstorm outside when I snuck away from the noise and opened the book. After that, my life changed. I fell into the world of Harry Potter, waited anxiously for the next book, counting down the days. I remember completely freaking out when my cousins told me that they were turning it into a movie - both excited and scared that they might ruin it. I remember walking three miles to the video store (long before I was able to drive) just so I could purchase the first movie on VHS (because that was still a thing). I cried when my favorite characters died, I cheered when Harry got sassy with his professors ("I'm sorry, Professor. I must not tell lies." OH SNAP!) and I tried, unsuccessfully, to read Deathly Hallows slowly because I really didn't want it to end.

But end it did. The movies continued for a while after the books were finished, and I was able to draw it out a few more years, and Pottermore was an okay distraction for a day or two. But I knew I would never have that same experience again of living so greatly inside a fictional world as rich and warm as the Harry Potter world (Because as awesome as Game of Thrones is, I sure as hell do not want to live in that world... I'd be dead in a week! Not to mention the wait time on the books is much longer than a year at a time, sheesh).

Visiting the Making of Harry Potter Studios brought all of that right back. The introduction to the studios was a compilation video showing all the best parts from the movies, and aside from suddenly wanting to marathon all eight movies, I felt like a little kid again, amazed by my favorite books coming alive before my eyes.

For the next three hours, I wandered around the sets and props; I stood by the Hogwarts Gates, was practically inside the Gryffindor Common Room 

and the Potions classroom

and sat inside the flying Ford Anglia

I drank butterbeer as well. Very tasty stuff. Moving on to the creature department, I was able to see mandrakes, Fawkes, and life-size thestrals and Buckbeak. 

All of this was amazing, but my breath caught when I turned into a new room and saw this:

The whole thing was absolutely astounding. I walked around the model slowly, taking it all in. I know it's cliche, but there really isn't any better way of describing my experience at the Harry Potter Studios than to say it was simply magical.

Joke of the Day:

What kind of cereal do they serve at Hogwarts?

Hufflepuffs.