I woke up this morning and studied the book lying beside me. I’d fallen asleep reading Order of the Phoenix. I am on a quest to reread all the Harry Potter books (thanks to Karly Kirkpatrick’s challenge) before the midnight viewing of Deathly Hallows Part Two. The closer we get to the end of an era, I get more emotional. I’ve always had a “Harry Potter” movie to look forward to. The thought of that ending is a little hard to deal with. Yes, I am aware I have issues.
This past October my family and I took our annual trip to Disney World. However, for the first time ever I drove off Disney property and took my family to another park. What could possibly drag me away?!?!?! The chance to walk through Hogwarts and drink Butter Beer, that’s what!
When Islands of Adventure opened I sprinted to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Heck, I didn’t even look back and check on my kids. I knew their Dad would keep up with them in the mad rush. He was prepared for my insanity. He’d been living with it since I picked up the Sorcerers Stone years ago. Even with my Olympic worthy sprint I still wasn’t the first one to hit Diagon Alley that morning. I reached back for my son’s hand (he was the only one as excited as me to be there and had kept up with me easily) and we jumped in the line at Ollivander’s Wand Shop. The park had been opened for only five minutes but the line for the wand maker was already an hour long. We did not care! We had a mission on our hands!
When we were close enough to the door that we knew we’d be in the next group of twenty people allowed inside, I reached in my back pack and pulled out my son’s Gryffindor robe. I remember saying, “trust me, put this on.” He didn’t question me. He quickly put it on. He had already been wearing a short sleeved white button up shirt with his Gryffindor tie. The doors opened and we were ushered into a wand shop that was identical to the movie. Mr. Ollivander had his back to us and slowly turned to gaze over the room of people. His eyes stopped once they reached my son. I was silently cheering for my forethought to bring his robe. When he said
“Ah yes. Yes, yes. I thought I’d be seeing you soon.” My eyes got so full of tears I had to wipe them away before I made a fool of myself! (Note for those of you who don’t know. When you visit Universal’s ‘Ollivander’s Wand Shop’ they only pick one person out of the twenty they allow in at a time to experience “having the wand choose them”)
My son was called to the counter and he killed a pot of flowers with a wand, he caught some things on fire with a wand, he sent wand boxes flying out of the shelves with a wand then finally when Mr. Ollivander placed the right wand in his hand his blond hair flew back and a glowing light surrounded him. I will tell you at this point I had tears streaming down my face.
Even though the wand that chose him happened to be a Slytherin wand, my son kept it. He wanted the one that chose him. It was a moment I will never forget. The words and imagination of J.K. Rowling have made such an impact on so many lives. Harry Potter put the love of reading into my sports minded son. The kid who lives for football season and basketball season also curls up in his room and reads 800 page books. If I had to pick a hero then J.K. Rowling would, hands down, be my hero!