HARRY POTTER!!!!!

AHHHHHH!!!!

Ok, before we start the official freak out, I have to remember that in the morning, we went to the Tate Modern. It was ok...I'm not really big into modern art, but it was fun to walk through. I saw one or two that I liked, but I didn't write them down. Ah, well.

Here's the view from the museum. St. Paul's on the left! 

They also had touch screens that you could make your own pictures on! So we played around on one and made this beauty! It's the one above the "AP." A group effort and a beauty, I must say. :]

Here was one piece I liked, Picasso's sculpture "Head of a Woman."

 

Depending on where you are, her expression changes. See in the video!

 

 

 

Look! WE are the art! (The piece was a mirror hung on the wall)

 

Then we went home for lunch and to get ready for Harry Potter!! (!!!) It started POURING outside. It was awesome. :D

 

Important Preface:

Harry Potter is a huge part of my childhood, which I know everyone claims, but its true. I've read the books countless times (literally, although I think I'm somewhere around 15 times through the series?) and my mom (hi Mom!) had to take them away from me, proclaiming that "there are other books out there." I've seen the first and second movies a million times and can quote them word for word. When I go back now to read the books, the words and phrases are familiar to me. Harry Potter is my comfort zone, my inspiration, and my passion. I wanted Hogwarts to be real so badly that it physically hurt me at times somewhere in the chest region. I made my own wands, I picked apart the movies, I watched all the special features, and I've listened to the all the books several times. Had a puzzle to do or a room to clean? Pop in book 6. Walking to school? Agonize as I listen to Harry learn how to aparate. Just moved to a new room and need some comfort? Listen to Jim Dale read those familiar words. Working as a custodian and cleaning for hours into the night? Listen to Harry Potter. I've officially been sorted as a Ravenclaw and my wand is 12 1/2 inches, elm, dragon heartstring core, hard. I just wanted to emphasize how important and ingrained this book series is into who I am and what I love, so that the excessive amounts of exclamation point and all caps font doesn't come across as superficial "oh-my-gosh I love Harry Potter!!" Because I love Harry Potter, in the way that people love their mom's pb&j and going through old photo albums.

 

Anyway...back to the story!

 

We had to wait at South Kensington for 10 minutes for a Piccadilly train. Bit longer than we expected, but we were still on time to catch our train. One of our group forgot to write down their ticket confirmation number, so Malori and I stayed behind to help her sort it out. Some stressful minutes later we printed her ticket and got on to the platform. Some train hopping later we were finally on the right train and on our way!

 

So I was all hopped up on stress and travel anxiety and excitement adrenaline by the time we got to Watford Junction. I may or may not have gotten short with one or two people as we made our way, and I apologize. But then we saw the Harry Potter shuttles and I was happy once again! AHHHHH!!!

 

The bus had a Harry Potter video that played music but mostly talked about Warner Bro.'s history, which was cool. I was in full squeally mode by this time and SO EXCITED!! Because it was rainy the windows fogged up. I wiped a peeky hole and lamented that we couldn't see where we were going. No sooner did I finished complaining when the bus turned a corner and THERE IT WAS. IT WAS RIGHT THERE! AHHHHHHH!

 

 

 

INSIDE. AHHHH!! Just the photos of the cast on the walls were incredible.

 

This is blurry, but I don't care. It was the cupboard under the stairs. It's blurry because it was next to the line, and we had to move quickly. Snap shot!

 Those faces are expressing pure excitement and happiness and anticipation. The line couldn't go fast enough!!!

Once we were in, we stopped in a big room with projectors. A guide gave us the usual spiel and then we watched a cool short video about the films--the process of how it got picked up, made, and received. AWESOME. Then more doors opened and we entered a theater and watched another introductory video. I kinda want to put a spoiler alert for this next part because it was so incredible to experience. So if you're thinking of going, just skip right to the pictures. Really, avert your eyes though because I have to use all caps. :] -----At the end of the video, Emma, Rupert, and Daniel went through the doors of the Great Hall AND THEN THE SCREEN LIFTED UP AND THE DOORS THEY JUST WENT THROUGH WERE RIGHT WHERE THEY WERE ON THE VIDEO!!!! The REAL doors to the GREAT HALL!!! AHHHHHH!!!! Honestly, I was shaking. It was so magical.

That's the Great Hall. THE REAL GREAT HALL. Actors sat here! They wore those EXACT costumes. Everything there were REAL pieces used in REAL life in the REAL movies!! :D

WOO!! RAVENCLAW!!

 

Moaning Myrtle's costume!

(I know Neeko took some group shots on his GroPro, so check back on this post later. Or just check the facebook...)

 

!!!!!

 

Can you identify the wigs? :]

 

The famous greasy hair!!!

 

A miniature of the Great Hall roof. Have I mentioned how much I ADORE miniatures? Pretty much they are the coolest thing ever.

Luna's dress is on the left and Gilderoy Lockhart's gloves and cape are on the right (and below)!!

 

All of Umbridge's (YUCK) proclamations!!

Ok, I love costuming for this reason. People don't realize that there are sometimes dozens of the same costume in increasingly dirty condition. For example, Harry in the 7th film.

 

The boys' dormitory. *siiiiiigh*

So I was staring at these wands for a long time (because they're INCREDIBLE), and then I decided to move on and I literally looked 3 feet to the right and THERE WAS THE MIRROR OF ERISED!!!

 

A forced perspective miniature for the Leaky Cauldron. SWEET.

Guys, the Common Room. THE COMMON ROOM. It was a permanent set. And, oh look, Azkaban costumes. One of my favorite things about the studios was they would sometimes have monitors playing clips from the films so you could see it on screen and then RIGHT THERE IN REAL LIFE. It was incredible!!

AND CHRISTMAS SWEATERS

Oh, its just the INVISIBLITY CLOAK. The COOLEST and most magical visual effect any child of my generation appreciated on screen.

 

Tonks, Sirius, and Lupin

Hermione, Ron, and Harry (obviously)

Dumbledore's office. Honestly, at this point in the studio I was on sensory overload. Every second I was seeing something amazing and incredible that was blowing my mind. I don't think I've ever been so happy for so long...and we weren't even half way through the first sound stage!

Sleeping portraits and Godric's sword.

 

THAT'S THE SORTING HAT!!

 

PENSIEVE

 

Yes Amy, that is how we all felt when we saw the Triwizard Cup and the mermaid egg.

 

I spent so long looking at this case. Because look at all the incredibly important things they just threw together all at once!!! AHHH!! TIME TURNER! DELUMINATOR!! SORCERER'S STONE!! REMEMBRALL!! :D :D :D

A bunch of extra props (from the trophy room?). These weren't even really on display, they were in a cage to section off different exhibits. What?!

The Potions Classroom!!

 

This board made me extremely happy. Look at the Fangs! And the Crookshanks! And the Ms. Norrises! And the Hedwigs!!

Hagrid's hut!! Everything was oversized and perfectly perfect.

Haha! So story--Neeko was looking at it, then flared his hand and said "Open!" All of us immediately corrected him and said "open" in Parseltongue, surround sound style because he was in the middle of the group. He was officially creeped out and forbade us from saying it ever again. :D Fun fact: the snakes on the door are mechanical!

Gringott's cart!

 

All of these are the actual rigs they used to film the actors. They had AWESOME behind the scene's videos playing on an alternating playlist. Yes, we stayed and watched all five of them.

Also, right next to this room was a room where you could ride a broom (!!!) in front of a green screen!! They had different backgrounds and they blew wind in your face!! AND they had robes for you to wear!!! :D :D It felt like a dream come true!! SOO cool!!

The Burrow!! Only where every child wished to spend the summer.

 

This picture doesn't do the Death Eater's masks justice. They were AWESOME.

 

The Black family tree. Complete with burn holes!! :D

 

 

Eeehee!! Polyjuice costumes!

 

*throw up noises* Umbridge...YUCK!

Ok, so the guy bellow's name is Adrian Getley and he was a props guy for the brooms, wands, and death eater masks! AND he did Christian Bale's Batsuit, the suits in Gravity, and is working on the lightsabers in the new Star Wars which is filming RIGHT NOW at Pinewood (that's here in England!!). Although he wasn't supposed to talk about that last part...top secret and all that. :D Amy got his autograph. :D

Then after 2 hours we hit the half way point! Cue butterbeer and refreshments! This is one of three places in the entire world you can get official butterbeer and GUYS it was DELICIOUS!! MMMMMMMM.....

 

 

Behind us in the above picture is the Night Bus and the crooked bridge that goes out to Hagrid's house. :D :D

I saw that the food stand had hotdogs AND ice cream so in the name of Harry Potter day, I splurged and got BOTH. :D :D I was so freaking happy. We ate at the base of Tom Marvolo Riddle's grave. Cheery. :D

 

So the first sound stage was J and all interiors, and now we moved on to stage K (get it?!) for the exteriors and prosthetics and animatronics.

 

Ok, the Dobby head is officially creepy. :D

 

Remember how Marissa had nightmares about werewolf Lupin?

 

That Grawp head is full sized.

 

Dead Dobby! D':

 

Also, I turned around and two people parted and I SAW GROSS VOLDEMORT. AND HE WAS BREATHING AND MOVING. It was disgusting, but also really really awesome. :D

 

 

Aragog was HUGE!

 

Just when I thought THAT was awesome, we stepped into Diagon Alley!!! EEEEEE!!!

 

Ollivander's costume!

After Diagon Alley came the concept art rooms. All the concepts for all the movies were hand drawn. Yep. Amazing. And they had all the originals for us to look at!!

 

 

They had a ton of papercard models, which are used for blocking and big picture conceptualization.

 

 

 

Hogsmeade!

 

I was sooo excited to see these and I spent a long time ooo-ing and ahhhing over them. Then I sighed and moved on to the next room. I casually turned the corner and saw this.

 

I immediately hugged the nearest person. Luckily, it was Amy. This is what I was waiting the whole time to see, and it did NOT disappoint. The music was incredible. I stared at it, misty eyed for a long time. Then the lights turned blue and tiny lights came on inside Hogwarts. Guys, I had full-body chills. Ahhh....I love miniatures. The whole school was sitting in front of me and I could identify each tower, each bridge, each house. It was so nostalgic and perfect and amazing.

Here's a video that gives you a tiny taste of what it was like to be there. It's kind of crappy because I didn't want to move away from the rail, but here ya go:

 

I don't know how long we spent in there. It was so incredible. But eventually we moved on and stepped right into Ollivanders!

Then we walked out of there and saw the gift shop. I felt like a kid who is told it's time to go home. The end was so abrupt! We group hugged at the exit, and made our way into the gift shop. Which was almost equally cool. Hold on, let me go take a picture of my stash....

I included that hedgehog I bought at Dove Cottage because I want you all to see how adorable it is!! :D I only bought a t-shirt because Neeko did research and thinks you can only buy this one in the store and not online. And the book is reading material for the flight back since I told Marissa to take my Alloy of Law (how far are you, by the way??), and the chocolate frog is because how could I not?!?!

I think this photo of Daniel Radcliff adequately expresses how we all felt walking through the studios.

 

 It was, dare I say it, more fun than a day at Disneyland. We spent a little over 5 hours there, but it didn't feel like it at all. It was pure bliss. It was the two things I love most in one place--Harry Potter and behind the scenes film. It was education and indulgence mushed together into one perfect happiness package.

We stood outside in the line for a shuttle back (after taking more pictures, of course) and the sky was absolutely beautiful.

 

Also, this song was still pouring out of the entrance. Hopefully you can hear it...

 

 

So magical. Here's the shuttle/bus I was talking about!

 

And that ended our perfectly perfect day. I'll never forget it, or at least how it made me feel. We were all on a high and, frankly, emotionally exhausted. But so, so happy.