"After all this time?"
"Always."
Another Brit gone, but certainly not forgotten. If your a twenty-something individual that was lucky enough to pick up the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the summer of 1997, then you know. Thank you for all the rare tender Bohemian romance and the ubiquity of villainous characters from Hans Gruber to...the legendary... unforgettable.... Professor Severus Snape.
It was released on my birthday in 1997, so from there on out, I would pre-order the books every year at my local bookstore, Moonraker Books. I would open it up with my best friend out on the town green in front of the main stage at Choochokam Arts and Music Festival every summer and start reading.
Along with book releases, the film adaptation would be cast, our fandom grew to which Brit heartthrob we would stalk in the media. I claim to be Gryffindor, of course, shipped the Harry/Hermione relationship that would never happen...and loved the enemy, the Slytherin Aryan, Draco Malfoy, (Tom Felton).
I later would travel across the pond to London upon high school graduation. While all of my other 2007 cohort were on quintessential Euro-trips to the Mediterranean and most of the EU, my best friend and I packed our Rick Steve's backpacks and made our way to England. My cousins lived off the Finchley Road tube line in London, which is where we luckily stayed (and saved money!) for the duration of England.
Photo: James and Lilly Potter's cottage in the village of Lacock, England, aka Godric's Hollow
The whole trip was primarily revolved around the fifth movie release, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the last book, which we read before anyone else in the world. HA! Time zones. During the flight we both turned 18 in the air, somewhere between the Ireland and Great Britain, and had our first in-flight booze with some fun Jordanian gals that were on layover to England.
Photo: Stonehenge in the English countryside.
We dined, we drank, went to the theatre to see classics like Monty Python and Mamma Mia!, shopped at our first H&M, Harrods, and relearned history in the British Museum, Tate Modern, and the National Gallery. We met up with some of our USA friends at the pub, got blitzed again, missed the last tube, and wandered around all night... to stumble upon Abbey Road at about three am. We luckily survived downtown London at night, though the next day felt like jet lag all over again.
During our travels up north, we stopped in Bath, Stonehenge, Isle of Skye, Glasgow and Inverness to search for the Loch Ness Monster...
Photo: Glenfinnan Viaduct, which our BritRail train traveled over. Just over the hill, Hogwarts would have been in sight.
Anyway... I'm getting off topic and just leading you down a never ending nostalgia trail. Finally, in Edinburgh, we both read the book cover to cover, all night and all day until we finished it. Both teary eyed, neither of us spoke... because we thought, well shit. This is the end! Almost, I mean, we have the rest of the films, but the series was DONE. The magical world of Hogwarts was a huge part of my life and continues to be. I mean, The Deathly Hollows is tattooed on my arm.
Alan Rickman, along with the rest of the A-list Brit cast would continue to carry the story on for 10+ years on the screen. Slimy Professor Snape will surely be one of the most missed of his characters...
xoxo,
a fellow Gryffindor turned Slytherin.
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