“Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”
In elementary school, there was this giant oak tree I used to sit under during recess to read my Harry Potter books. It was perfectly placed so that I could sit hidden from both the kids playing, and the lunch aides who stood outside watching over us. Being the introvert I've always been, it was my little haven. I would prop my back against the thick, solid trunk, occassionally feel the sun on my face, and enjoy a blissful 25 minutes of freedom. If I was lucky, most days nobody noticed me.
Most days.
I remember to this day the inner groan of despair I uttered when I heard the lunch aide discover my hideout. I never thought I was doing anything wrong, but she took my book, and from that day forward, I was checked before recess for any printed contraband, and told to play with the other kids and "make friends."
I already had friends, lady. And they could've turned you into a newt.
Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of children building ties with their peers and learning how to communicate with others. But it doesn't stop me from feeling a bit nostalgic when I think back to those golden days of childhood and reading one of my favorite books under that magnificent tree.
Saying goodbye to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Hogwarts when I finished the last book in middle school was saying goodbye to friends I cherished since I was seven years old. I ruined my eyesight reading those books with a flashlight under my bed--I took them everywhere in my backpack--shopping with mom, bike rides, school, vacations, etc. I mourned their loss, and for the end of my childhood. I, and millions of other kids around the world had to learn how to traverse life, and grow into adulthood without them--I don't think any of us were ready to say goodbye.
“'After all this time?' 'Always,' said Snape." –The Deathly Hallows
In the fall of 2014, I was in my sophomore year of undergraduate school, studying Creative Writing to someday become an author. Ever since childhood, I was inspired by the world of Harry Potter and how this universe of magic, and all it's inhabitants came from the single mind of one person: J.K. Rowling.
Anyway, life was going great for me -- I had amazing friends, a boyfriend (now fiance) who shares similar tastes, and interests as me, and I was loving college. The girl who hated school because it took away from reading time, was going to school to both read fiction and write fiction.
I was walking to class one day when a poster caught my eye, "British Isles, Spring 2015." I walked up to it, saw that there was a meeting coming up with more information, and wrote the date and time down in my planner. No hesitation. No doubts. I went to the meeting, and knew by the end of it that this was something I needed to do.
Throughout my entire life I craved adventures like the ones I read in between the covers of books, like the ones Harry, Ron and Hermione had taken me all throughout my younger years. And, despite all the fears of lost passports, stolen money, and getting lost on the other side of the world, I wanted to experience the magic of Harry Potter for the first time all over again--with shaking hands and bright eyes over the glorious unknown and yet-to-be-seen. I'll never open another Harry Potter book for the first time ever again, but for the first time, I was going to find my long lost friends.
Scotland: beautiful in a way that goes beyond mere conventional beauty. There's no blue lagoons and white sand beaches. It rains a lot in Scotland, and the people there are resilient. The rain does not bother them a bit. There, the dark rolling hills are covered in sky and yellow gorse, and the shadowy closes (alley ways that are dark and narrow) wind beyond sight throughout the streets of Edinburgh, otherwise known as the Athens of the North. It's beauty lies in mystery, windy mornings, and wet cobble-stone streets.
In the above picture, I'm standing in the very graveyard (known there as a kirk) where J.K. Rowling found the inspiration behind the names of Tom Marvolo Riddle and Minerva McGonagall. Greyfriars kirk is in old town, and if you recall the scene of Cedric Diggory's death and Voldemort's return in the creepy graveyard in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, I think you'd agree J.K. got inspiration for setting from Greyfriars. If you ever have a chance to head over to see the gravestones where she found these characters, be sure to stop at The Elephant House cafe (below) on your way, or take a peek at George Heriot's school located directly behind Greyfriars. It's rumored that the house system of Hogwarts was modeled after George Heriot's.
Here was the "birthplace of Harry Potter", the mecca of the Harry Potter fandom, the very cafe where J.K. Rowling would scribble away in her notebook all the fantastical ideas that would someday evolve into the magical world we love present day.
With well-worn furniture, fantastic comfort food, and warm daylight basking in through the windows of the cafe, I couldn't imagine a better place for a writer to grab a coffee/tea and get to work.
Fun fact, if you go into the bathroom, you would find thousands upon thousands of handwritten notes, messages, and quotes from Harry Potter all over the walls, sink, toilet, and even the lightbulb (which appropriately has "Lumos" written on it).
(I had ordered a toasted pineapple, ham and brie cheese sandwich with a fresh cucumber salad, and a hot cup of mocha.)
Sitting on top of a 700 million year old extinct volcano called Castle Rock, Edinburgh Castle has been occupied since the Bronze age, and the oldest part of the castle was built in the 12th century, called St. Margaret's Chapel. From breathtaking views of the city, to walking through the infamous Edinburgh Castle prison (now a museum), visiting this place was fascinating.
All over the castle grounds are pieces of Hogwarts borrowed from this ancient fortress overlooking the city of Edinburgh. Towers, dungeons, spiral staircases, (the forbidden third-floor corridor of Hogwarts?), and the feeling that at any moment, Harry could pop around any corner was pervasive throughout my entire visit there.
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?” –The Deathly Hallows
While I'll never find Harry Potter in real life, I can find traces of him in the places that inspired his making. Edinburgh is a city teeming with history, art, and for Harry Potter fans, is alive and full of the magic we felt when we first opened the Sorcerer's Stone and read: "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive..."
I didn't visit all of the important Harry Potter sites of Edinburgh, but what I did see was enough to hold me over until I someday go back to revisit. And while Harry may not be real, millions of people around the world were dramatically changed because of these books. They found comfort in the ultimate message that good will triumph over evil, that true love defies death, and friends can be found in the unlikeliest of places (a book, for example). Harry was my childhood friend, real or not, I owe it to him that I went on this fantastic adventure to find him.
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