Aaaaaah! It’s Harry Potter day at last. I’ve got to make this post quick as I’ve got Book 7 waiting for me up in my room. Jill and I went to Harvard/Hogwarts Square for the Harry Potter extravaganza. After getting a bit lost and disoriented, we found a grand parking space and made our way into the bustling wizard scene.

We had planned to pick up our bracelets for the books we reserved at the COOP, but the line was outrageously long, outrageous! It was already almost 7:00pm (when the Wizard rocking would commence) so we decided to forgo our chances at the COOP (good thing we didn’t have to pay to reserve) and got very nice standing spots near the front of the Wizard rock stage in the Harvard yard.

Andrew from the Harry Potter Alliance was emceeing . First came the Hungarian Horntails with their blasting dragon-themed wrock. Then masters of evil wizard rock, Draco and the Malfoys, graced the stage. Cathy and Anjali found Jill and me at this time and we all wrocked out to the Dracos followed by the ‘originators’ of wizard rock themselves, Harry and the Potters! The concert was intense! It was so crazy to see hundreds of people in Harry Potter costumes bopping their heads, doing the wave, and the jumping up and down to that wondrous wizard rock. The themes of reading and love were heavily emphasized by the bands, especially Harry and the Potters, and drew quite the loud applause from the crowd.

On the subject of costumes: incredacrazy! Hogwarts uniforms, aluminum foil Deatheater masks, SPEW buttons, very detailed Dark mark tattoos, and lightning bolts galore. There were numerous times during the night that I felt a little embarrassed at my own wizarding costume, which consisted of my Gryffindor t-shirt on top of a red collared shirt, tape wrapped around the middle of my glasses, and of course the lightning bolt scar drawn with eye-makeup (A big thank you to my sister!) I felt a little embarrassed for looking like a dork while walking in the midst of muggles and a little embarrassed for not looking dorky or authentic enough in front of those die hard HP fans. A little boy did shout that he liked my t-shirt and I nearly tripped into Jill looking back to see who he was (I’m still contemplating whether or not that was a sarcastic comment).

After three exhilarating hours of Wizard rock madness, we got dinner at Felipe’s (it’s like Anna’s Tacqueria). On the way there, there was a huge tree adorned with bright colorful lights. Very magical looking. When we finished dinner, the subject of how to obtain books filled our minds. Seeing that the lines were outrageously long, we decided to head back home, lest we be in Harvard square until 2 or 3 in the morning.

We decided trying our luck at some nearby bookstores. With some calls to Rebecca and Kelton, we gleamed that Barnes and Noble and the New England Mobile Bookfare were indeed “pretty crazy too” (I don’t know who I’m quoting there, I think myself). Reasoning that New England Mobile Bookfare, while still likely to be extremely crowded, would probably be less crowded than the more mainstream bookstores nearby. And we were correct. After finding parking at store a block away from the bookstore, we got into the long bookstore line and got our color coded tickets. Luckily, we were able to find Harry Potter-incarnate himself, Kelton, with some trackies sitting near the registers. A few step stools made the waiting for the book much more bearable, as did a “better” colored ticket from James Vance (he had received the ticket from a girl who didn’t need it any more and managed to hold onto it after getting his book). After Anjali used the ticket to get her book, she gave it to Jill, who got books for the me and her. (I forgot to mention that Cathy went home after dinner in Harvard Square).

So here I am, in the study of my house, typing up this blog entry while I should be reading that glorious book! Oh yeah, and on the way home, we almost hit a possum. What was he doing out so late? He should have been reading Harry Potter.

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