Hi everyone!
Last night I attended a midnight release party for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child put together by a local bookstore at a library a few towns over from me. When we walked in there were employees and volunteers dressed up in costumes that ranged from a black witches hat, to full on Sibyl Trelawney. There was also a girl in a Gryffindor uniform who had traded out the cloak for a classic Order of the Phoenix cardigan, and I questioned all of my outfit choices. I had brought my wand and my Gryffindor robe, but had self consciously left them in the car. This is now one of my biggest regrets. I was, however, decked out in my Hogwarts alumni t shirt, my Gryffindor scarf, and my time turner. We checked in and got wristbands that corresponded to our houses. My mom and I got Gryffindor and my sister got Hufflepuff.
We were first directed into the children’s section of the library, which housed the face paint and coloring pages activities. There was a little boy dressed up head to toe like first year Harry, and I fully admired the little boy who had dressed full on Hufflepuff student with a prefect badge and all. Again, I was missing my robe.
The first order of business was trivia. We separated by house and had to choose five people to compete in the trivia tournament. This was a particularly tricky problem for us Gryffindors, as there was double (maybe triple) the amount of Gryffindors than the other houses. I stood back and let the twelve and unders duke it out for who got to do trivia, which I also now regret, because we lost pretty badly and I knew the answer to every single question that was asked. In the end Slytherin and Hufflepuff duked it out in a one on one battle, but surprisingly Hufflepuff prevailed and each member (there were only five people, one of which was drafted from Ravenclaw because there were only four Hufflepuffs in total) got a bag of muggle candy.
The rest of the night consisted in a costume contest, and a dramatic reading of the Deathly Hallows Epilogue. There was also butterbeer, which I appreciated.
When it came 11:58 everyone queued up in front of the counter. The energy was palpable. The Gryffindors got to get on line first, because we had somehow racked up the most points for our house. We all collectively counted down to midnight, and cheered as the official Scholastic representative cut open the special “Do Not Open Until 12:01 July 31” tape on the first box.
Having that book handed to me was the best feeling. I had never been to a release party for any of the other books and I was so excited to be there. The books were beautiful, and they smelled amazingly like brand new pages. Everyone got a poster as well, which was a long print of the cover of the Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s stone Illustrated.
All in all I had a blast. We all left with a copy of The Cursed Child, and we even managed to snag one of the special “Do Not Open Until July 12:01 on July 31” boxes. It was magical to say the least.
Happy Birthday Harry and Jo!!
Theresa
For All Things Book 