The Magic of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

NOTE: This is a post inspired by #FlashbackFriday, where I reminisce about my past experiences for nostalgia, and also to practice my (rusty) writing skills. The events, prices, and other details mentioned are not necessarily accurate when reading. It’s best to assume the events, prices, and other details are from my previous personal experience unless I state otherwise that it is accurate at the time of writing.

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Introduction and disclaimer

It’s a sad state of affairs, that to express love for anything Harry Potter-related these days, it needs to come with a disclaimer.

My love comes from a time & place before I knew about JK. Rowling’s abhorrent views and vitriol. While it has certainly dampened and even tainted my perception of the Harry Potter franchise, it can’t simply erase decades of influence.

I believe it would be disingenuous of me to disavow the entire franchise as if it never made a huge impact on my childhood. It was the Harry Potter books that led me to fall in love with reading, and later on, enjoy writing. I literally wouldn’t be the person I am, with the skillsets I have, if it wasn’t for that experience.

But if there’s anything that reading books & critical thinking has taught me, is that the world – and people – aren’t black and white. Sometimes, good things come from bad people.

Of course, the reverse is also true. Sometimes bad people can make or do good things. One doesn’t cancel out the other, because not everything we do or choose is equal. The impact we have – good or bad – hits differently, depending on the person.

With that said my inner child has always dreamed of feeling immersed inside the magical world of Harry Potter. I was a little too old to truly hope for my very own Hogwarts letter, but old enough to enjoy the video games and hope for a theme park someday.

Ideally, my perfectionist self would prefer the Warner Brothers tour in London. But sadly, that wasn’t within my budget back in January 2017. Plus, my then-boyfriend (now husband) gifted me with an annual pass to Universal Studios.

Exploring the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

My friend and I specifically planned to go on a weekday, so we would only have to deal with a smaller crowd of visitors.

What we didn’t plan on (obviously) was the weather. It was a cold, rainy day and the clouds loomed overhead and cast a shadow over everything. It was magical and perfect. I literally couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 

The cold, dreary weather reminded me of what I imagined back when all I knew about London and Scotland came from Tumblr users who complained about the weather. While I’m older now, the current memes about London weather still seem to have the same essence as those “ye olde Tumblr posts,” but please correct this if I’m wrong.

As someone who grew up in a tropical country, I don’t have the same fear of rain as those native Californians seem to have. Sure, rain meant to be cautious, but if I woke up to gray skies and rain, it usually meant a no-school day for me.

Most importantly, the weather was as far as it could get from the typical California weather. So it felt as if I traveled far, like magic! Plus, what little rain there was helped thin out even more of the crowd.

Luckily, my friend J is also someone who isn’t afraid of a little rain. We were both pretty thrilled to be one of the few people who braved the weather to walk around.

Of course, we had to try the “official” butterbeer. It’s something that the books always made sound so appealing and mouth-watering. I’ve seen some recipes floating around that varied wildly, as it was based on each person’s interpretation of the drink. The books themselves are rather…lacking in detail when it comes to what butterbeer actually is.

In my mind, it definitely has a butterscotch baseline. Plus, the texture is thick, or at least somewhat creamy since the books made it sound as if it was a comforting drink to have when it’s cold and snowing outside.

I mean, on one hand, I feel as if I can’t complain. After all, that’s on me for getting my hopes up at a theme park of all places. But I suppose I thought that if they put in all the effort for the environment to feel immersive, then specific food/drinks would also get that effort. 

Well, at least I got that lesson out of the way early into the visit. I was mostly annoyed though, since I wasn’t quite expecting a strongly-carbonated drink. I’m not usually a fan of carbonated drinks unless I’m in the mood for it. I don’t even like carbonated water at all – I call it angry water. Not refreshing at all.

After getting our overpriced butterbeer, we noticed a line to go into the wand shop. I’ve heard of the show they put on, so of course my friend J and I lined up as well. The line wasn’t that long, but I shuddered to think what it would look like if we came on a weekend. 

Inside, we enjoyed the little show that “Ollivander” put on, and clapped for the little kid who got chosen for a wand fitting. A little jealous, but the kid looked pretty stoked, if a little shy. The parents seemed a little less enthusiastic, but since they were the ones who were going to end up with the bill, I can’t blame them.

The rest of the crowd got to go into the “back” of the store, where they essentially had a Harry Potter gift shop. I had a blast browsing around, and there were a couple of items I thought about buying. But I ultimately decided to just save the money I had set aside to buy better quality merchandise another time.

The gift shop items were pretty much what you expect from most tourist-driven gift shops. Mass-produced with little care about quality control. Which sucked a little, as I was hoping to buy at least one wand.

But as it is, I’ve seen better quality pieces both from officially licensed stores. Some wands appeared to have a metal rod inside, or at least something under the plastic to give them more structure. Then of course there are the less official websites or Etsy stores that sell real wood replicas of the wands.

Sure, the options outside of Universal Studios’ gift shops were more expensive, but honestly, some were just about $20 more than what I saw at the gift shop. At that price point, I’m willing to save up more if I am really in love with a particular wand.

Thanks to the…disappointing butterbeer experience, it turned me off from buying any of the candy. Though I’ll be honest, the chocolate frog was pretty tempting. But all I had to do was look at the price tag and how small it was, and back to the shelf it went.

The rest of the candy I knew was just, well, regular candy repackaged into Harry Potter-themed shells. Especially the “Bertie Bott’s,” which were just Jelly Belly jellybeans. I already overdosed on that a few years before this visit, so I was able to skip that with no problem.

There weren’t a lot of people, but I suppose I still felt a little shy and cheesy so I decided against it. Looking back on it, I regret it. Honestly, I should’ve just leaned into the nerd in me and went in with a Hogwarts robe…maybe someday, after I’m able to knit my own Ravenclaw blue and BRONZE scarf. 

None of that ugly blue and gray official merchandise for me. For the life of me, I still don’t know why they had to change the Ravenclaw house colors for the movie. The “official” blue and gray look depressing and hideous.

Overall, we ended the Harry Potter portion of our trip on a good note. I wouldn’t mind coming back someday, though I’ll skip the butterbeer next time.

The personal impact of Harry Potter

Thanks to the Harry Potter series, I fell in love with reading and later writing. I’m not discounting the negativity and hate that it’s smeared by. But I also think it’s wrong to let it go and I can’t ignore how it inspired and shaped who I am today.

I’ve had to face the reality that I, and a lot of other people my age, fell in love with something that we thought was pure and empowering. We thought the message was courage in the face of adversity, wisdom in the face of ignorance, and ambition for a more accepting world plus the hard work to build it.

In a way, that was the message of the Harry Potter books. It just wasn’t until later that we realized that Rowling meant acceptance, just not for everyone. This is a huge blow, yes, but one I’m willing to fight back on.

The way I see it, in writing Harry Potter and touching the lives of so many impressionable minds, she created her own worst enemy. I still subscribe to the idea of finding the innate courage, wisdom, ambition, and hard work in all of us. We learned to choose what’s right, over what’s easy and that’s not something she can take back.