Mischief Managed

For those of you who know the series, you would have figured out just from the title of this blog that this is about Harry Potter. Being in the home of Harry Potter, it is only fitting that we would take a trip to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios just outside of London. For any Harry Potter fan who comes to the UK: GO SEE THE STUDIOS. It was the most amazing thing. My face was frozen in a perpetual smile, and I think I even cried. Seriously, go see it.

I went with three friends to see the studios on Friday. Naturally, since there were four of us, we all had to dress up as a student from each of the four houses. I was the only one wearing green, so I ended up being from Slytherin. We completed our ensembles with chapel robes borrowed from Westfield House next door. We had people stop and take pictures of us because of how dressed up we were.

Our first stop was King’s Cross Train Station, where we stood in line and took pictures at Platform 9 3/4. Since I was from Slytherin, they let me wield the wand of Voldemort. I felt quite powerful, and I’m pretty sure that I cursed a lot of other people in our line. Oh well.

The studios themselves were fascinating. There were so many different sets to see. They had sets from Harry’s bedroom, the Gryffindor Common Room, the Ministry of Magic, Harry’s house on 4 Privet Drive, and so many more. They saved a ton of props and costumes from the movies and had them on display as well. My favorite had to be Dumbledore’s office. It was a little bit smaller than I imagined, but other than that, it looked exactly like it does in the movies. Everything was there, including the sorting hat sitting on a shelf. We had a great time taking pictures in front of everything and reliving our childhoods in the days of our youth when we first read and watched Harry Potter. It was truly a magical (no pun intended) day.

I felt that the title for this blog was appropriate not only because of its reference to Harry Potter, but because our time in Cambridge is coming to a close. We are nearly through with this semester, and I have to say that I don’t know where the time went. It seems like yesterday that we were all meeting each other for the first time and getting on a plane to fly halfway across the world. I know that I speak for everyone in Cambridge when I say that this has been an unbelievable semester, and that we will cherish the memories we have made here when we return to Valpo.