HOGWARTS SQUARE

It is now Monday morning and not being the voracious speed-reader that my son is (who finished the book late Saturday afternoon and handed it to me with a sly but sad grin) I am only 160 or so pages in. Savoring is my style and so as I trek Southern California on a business/crazy Comic-Con adventure - I am reading and smiling at my own pace.

But FRIDAY NIGHT...ah, what a magical evening my family and I had. Being in Boston we had many choices to make and I had a list of parties to attend, all cross-referenced by time, location and "what if it rains"?

Turns out the evening was beautiful and cool and the choice of where to go was then easy - to Cambridge and their Hogwarts Square party. Yes, the Harvard Yard itself was taken over by muggles, magicians, wizards and curious onlookers. The very spot where even I attended a graduation was decorated in a swirl of twinkled lights and a stage where DRACO AND THE MALFOYS then HARRY AND THE POTTERS played to an enthusiastic, singing dancing fan base.



My 13 yr old son, dressed in Death Eater robes had a blast - singing outloud and even "dancing" (slightly). We didn't know the songs - but it seemed everyone around us did - and all those "Save Ginny Weasly" t-shirts were so cool.

My own favorite song-lette that was repeated often: "Hagrid is fun to hug/ Hagrid is full of love/ Just don't get stuck in Hagrid's beard!"

I know they played all the songs everyone who knows them would want o hear - and the last song had people jumpng up and down and cell phones glowing in the air - the excitement was surreal and wonderful!

10pm then off to get ready for the book release. The Harvard COOP was offering the huge discount - and the line-up was massive. Harvard Square had many great options of booksellers (CURIOUS GEORGE, NEWBERY COMICS, et al) and I mean no slight to any of them by saying we chose the HARVARD BOOK SHOP (I wanted to go independant and our choice couldn't have been better.)



Costumes were everywhere: two of my faves, the Snitch Girl and the giuy who was "Hogwarts".



Inside, my son found a comfy spot to read -


Activitives inside included drawing your own petronus, tarot reading and lots of wonderful store employees with stacks of trivia cards, who seemed to spot groups of bored people and swoop in with questions.



It was orderly (Okay, there was almost one fist fight with some dude who was drunk - but that was it). They had people pre-pay and then as midnight got closer, we were seperated by groups to different locations. Our goodfortune (M-Z) was to have the line outside the store at their "Platform 13 and a half" which meant it was fun to just be able to watch everyone and enjoy the cool air. It was a wonderful, perfect, outdoor magical evening; exactly the memory I wanted to savor and one I hope my son will always remember.

It is a special time growing up with these books - and at the stroke of midnite (well, about half an hour later for us) he eagerly received his piece of History (that's his arm) - then opened the book and started to read.

It could not have been better!