Escaping the Muggles

Warning: This post is a little bit disorganised. It is full of pictures though! :)

There is a Harry Potter theme running through my life.

In summer of this year, I worked at Harry Potter: The Exhibition, where I met some of the best friends a person could meet. If I don't say so myself, Potterheads are an amazing group of people - people from all walks of life who get together with nothing but the uniting love of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry binding them.

I currently hold a job at the Elephant House. In Edinburgh, the Elephant House promotes itself as the 'birthplace of Harry Potter' - JK Rowling was known to have sat in the back room of the cafe and written a bit of Harry Potter there. This isn't the only place Jo wrote Harry at, though; the former Nicholson Street Café was also one of the places it is known that Jo used to sit down and write Harry Potter at.

And most recently, I went to the Snow Ball in Edinburgh.

Siriusly Hazza P, Riddle™, The Pumpkin Pasties, and Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons

Now, this is a bit of an obscure genre, so I'll explain it a bit - wizard rock is pretty much rock music, but with a wizard slant. Or any other kind of music - acoustic, folk, you name it. You may have heard of Harry and the Potters, who started this whole crazy wizard rock phenomena more than 10 years ago.

One hilarious thing about wizard rock is how much they really don't care about you goofing off - you'll get 30-year-olds alongside 13-year-olds dressing up as fictional characters, and that's all part of the fun! I present, exhibit A: Harry and the Potters.



And they were just the final act in a five-band (sometimes one-person-band) concert. All this, alongside a giant group of people dancing and singing together over screams of:

Hagrid is fun to hug
Hagrid is full of love
Just don't get stuck in Hagrid's beard!
SNOW BAAAAAALL!!!!!

I warned you when I said it was a non-judgemental group of adult Harry Potter fans. I used to listen to wizard rock years ago, so it was really fun when they'd play a song and I'd know the tune and lyrics of it!

By the way, get a load of the costumes some people dressed up in:



I present, Lord Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange. Because, you know, Voldemort and Bellatrix. No further explanation needed.

The Snow Ball 2012 was held in Edinburgh University's Teviot Debating Hall, and it was held in conjunction with the Harry Potter Alliance which uses the forces of magic and good to make the world a happier place. The Snow Ball targets Cancer Research UK as the charity of choice, so every time you come to a wrock concert you're also giving money to help someone with cancer.

As part of the charity fundraising efforts, the Snow Ball often includes raffles as one of the night's events. And this baby (in perfect condition, mind you) was one of the things which was on the raffle table. Someone actually donated a copy of the limited edition Tales of Beedle the Bard, and someone won this by buying a raffle ticket.
 

Whoever won this: you lucky bastard.

So in order to soothe the aching hearts of those of us who saw this beauty fly away from us and into the hands of some other (I'm sure extremely deserving) witch or wizard, we ended the night with - what else? - cake. An extremely impressive cake, shaped and frosted to look like Hogwarts Castle - with the right number of towers and everything. That is dedication in the extreme!




Now if that cake isn't impressive, I don't know what is.

After the Snow Ball I decided to join Harry Potter Society here, because as cheesy as it sounds I really do love Harry Potter and I find my kindred spirits when I'm with fellow Potterheads. In fact, I'm so much of a Potterhead that I've got a ton of Ravenclaw things, because I'm a Ravenclaw and Luna Lovegood is my idol (by the way does anyone else think that Sylvia from The Pumpkin Pasties reminds them of Evanna Lynch?)



Yes, back to Harry Potter society: my first meeting ever was also sadly the last meeting of the semester, but I had so much incredibly great fun anyway. This amazing video pretty much sums it up:



Harry Christmas, everyone.