Retrieving Harry Potter

We arrived back from vacation just in time for the release of the last Harry Potter book. Harry Potter is a VERY big deal in our house, and I had never been to a Harry Potter Release party before, so at 10:30 p.m. last night I zipped off in my car to Barnes and Nobles. Barnes and Nobles is at the mall, and there were so many cars I had to park at the other end of the mall! There were so many people in the store that it was nearly impossible to walk! I watched people of all ages, shapes and sizes, in various costumes and normal muggle dress sit under the sorting hat, design their own wands, and take part in a variety of other activity stations. The lines for each station wound around the store like intertwined worms. Excitement crackled the air. At midnight, it was a louder and more boisterous affair than I personally have ever witnessed on New Years.

The most hilarious thing I witnessed while wandering around the store was in a quieter corner of the stationary and journal section, where I overheard a mother with a ten year old daughter:

Mother: Now, I want you to know, you cannot stay up all night reading this book. It’s already late, and if you don’t sleep everyone else has to deal with your crabbiness tomorrow.

Girl: But I can read the back of the book, right?

Mother: (with a long sigh) Yes, you can read the back of the book. And you need to understand tomorrow, that you cannot bring this book to the table to read. We will NOT be reading at the dinner table.

Girl: OK. . . Ok.

Mother: (walking away from me) I don’t mean to be grouchy about a book, but really . . .

Oh, I laughed and laughed! It was so reminiscent of my parents stealing my homework so that I’d go to bed when I was living at home.

I was number 574 to receive my book, and there were several hundred people after me. I had Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in my hand at ten minutes to one o’clock, and I was back home handing it to my husband (I got to go to the party, he gets to read it first) at 1:20 a.m.