The Magic Of Harry Potter

Lumos

Something tells me there will be a few blog posts on here like this since Harry Potter is such a big part of our lives and our friendship.
Now this is a little late if we're following that Harry Potter publishing birthday trend but this would have been published birthday or not.

Harry Potter is something that changed so many people's lives, it certainly changed mine. Without Harry Potter I probably wouldn't be friends with some of the people I am, the series introduced me to new people and brought me closer to others, some of my best memories with my friends have a connection to the franchise that I hold so dearly to my heart. I thought I could share some of these favourite memories here for you all to enjoy as well.

Now I was 2 when the series came out so I wasn't going to be on the bandwagon but I was around 6 when the first movie was released and from that moment I fell in love with the magic that was Harry Potter.
Now at 22 I'm a proud Hufflepuff with too much Harry Potter knowledge than I know what to do with (if only there was a job out there for someone with my level of Harry Potter knowledge).
My first memory of the series that has stuck with me is sharing something with my brother. Growing up me and my brother had very little in common, we didn't have many shared interests, so when I started to like Harry Potter it was something that we had in common. At age 6 I still wasn't up to reading a novel on my own so every night my brother would read me 1 chapter before I went to bed. It was probably one of the few times we didn't fight with each other. I can remember snuggling up with my favourite stuffed animal as my bother sat next to me and told me that Mr and Mrs Dursley were perfectly normal.
Another great memory I have is my 16th birthday. Still utterly obsessed with the series and with the final movie only a month away from release I was super excited, it may have been the only thing I was talking about at that moment in time, (realizing this now I apologise to my friends) I decided to have a Harry Potter themed party. I decorated the house with home made banners of the Hogwarts houses and everybody dressed up as their assigned characters (not that anyone would know of these costumes cause those photos are never being released) and we marathoned all the 7 released movies. We had sugary snacks like bertie botts every flavour beans (limited of course to the muggle variety of jelly beans), licorice wands, chocolate frogs (or freddo frogs but they're pretty much the same thing). We all attempted to stay awake the whole night but I'm pretty sure everyone had a snooze at some point, I know I am guilty of drifting off during movie number 6. It was a fun thing to organise and everyone had fun. It was amazing to watch the films bring people together, some people at the party had never talked to each other or hadn't spoken since primary school and yet every group and individual had fun and there were some memorable moments for everyone who came, me and my friends still talk about them to this day.
My final memorable moment is the premiere of the final movie, or at least the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. As already mentioned I talked about nothing but Harry Potter up until this point and probably for months after, to say I was excited was an understatement. Me and one of my close friends brought tickets to the midnight double screening, part 1 and 2 of The Deathly Hallows back to back. Upon arrival we discovered that the cinema we chose were selling Harry Potter 3D glasses which we had to have so we brought a pair each along with some snacks and settled in for the night. It was exactly what we expected and I remember sitting there after for a few minutes to process the end of such an influential series in my life. I was sad it was over, from 6 to 16 Harry Potter had provided me so much enjoyment and it felt weird to think that no new movies of Harry's journey would be coming out, no more adventures battling Voldemort would ensue, but after the wave of sadness the excitement of what we'd seen sunk in, we spoke of nothing else but Harry Potter in art class the next day, we wore our 3D glasses at school and by the end of the day the fact that we had watched it at midnight sunk in as I struggled to stay awake but I knew it had been worth it.

Of course the Wizarding World that JK Rowling created continues to provide many more magical moments in my life with Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them and the rest of that movie series still to come the magic continues even after Harry's journey ended which means many more magical memorable moments to come.
I know that while it seems the journey is over there is still so much for the Wizarding World to provide and many more memorable moments to come in the future (I'm yet to visit any of the Wizarding Worlds but I know that when I do it will be nothing more than magical) and I hope that I continue to meet people who love the series as much as I do and continue to live and experience the Wizarding World and the joys it provides.

-Georgia