It should be no surprise to anyone here that I made a point of going to the midnight release party for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It might surprise you that HP is the only form of cosplay I’ll engage in. My trip to Universal Studios in February added socks, a scarf, and a Slytherin pin to this ensemble. The rest is a time turner from a purchase at Barnes & Noble, a cape left over from one of my husband’s old Halloween costumes, an old black skirt (with running shorts underneath because man is that thing short!) and a t-shirt my sister-in-law made for me that says, “My Patronus is a Bookwork.” I added green eye shadow and was good to go. Thankfully, I was walking around Ann Arbor in a cape and not another city where this might be weird. Seriously, no one stared at me. Really.
We went to Literati Bookstore for the event. This is probably my favorite independent bookstore in existence for many reasons that I’ve articulated before. It was raining that night so my good friend Kristine (my partner in magic for the night) and I didn’t explore AA too much before the event. We picked up some ice cream (and I Instagrammed the image on the left while in line of my awesome lip-liner scar) before heading over as fast as we could to Literati. The party started at ten but we got there at nine to look at books and grab a cup of tea. I’m glad we got there early because we got to talk to the staff about their amazing costumes and watch them set up, getting a good idea of the different things they’d set up around the store. There was a guest list of those who had registered so the store wasn’t overly crowded and we could get around easily which was great. You were handed a vial of ‘Liquid Luck’ (green tea) when you walked in and I’ll likely save the bottle forever. The basement had a sorting hat quiz. I surprisingly got Gryffindor for my results, with Slytherin second and Hufflepuff third. For consistency’s sake, I still took a Slytherin pin.
There were some incredible costumes. The staff was Fawkes, Draco, Harry, Luna, Trelawney, Moody, Dumbledore, Bellatrix, and Rita Skeeter. There was a costume contest for those not on staff and the winner was a girl dressed as Moody with an amazing staff and scars on her face. My second favorite were two moms who dressed as the Weasley twins. Their daughters were so proud. They were serving Butterbeer from the Espresso Bar and there was a birthday cake for everyone to take a slice of. The first movie was playing in the cafe all night except for the costume contest. There were stations for wand making and temporary tattoos. I was surprised to see a few girls get the ‘I must not tell lies’ tattoo on their wrists. Come on, people! My favorite was a young 10-year-old who walked up to her dad and put a lightening bolt right on his hairline and he didn’t flinch. Dad of the year right there!
At 20-till we lined up on the first floor in front of the registers. I was so excited! Kristine took a few pictures of me and I think it’s pretty obvious how excited I am! We counted down to midnight and I immediately led the crowd in a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ for Harry. I didn’t exactly cry when I was handed my copy, but I was darn close!
It was late and I had a long drive so Kristine and I parted ways and I headed home. Due to some lovely construction (thank you, Michigan Department of Transportation), it took me about an hour to get home. My plan was to read until I feel asleep, but the drive alone was rough so I didn’t want to push it. I read 40 pages before falling asleep.
I picked it right up in the morning and was half-way through before church. I finished it that afternoon. I don’t want to talk too much about the book here because I’ll post a review post next week.
Huge shout out to Kristine for going to this event with me! I had so much fun. It was 2007 the last time I went to a midnight release for a book and that was Potter as well. I doubt I’ll ever go to a launch for anything different. The magic is real and it never ends!
Until next time, write on.
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Taking On a World of Words 