It’s time to board the Hogwarts Express to go back to Hogwarts!!! ✨🚂✨
And for the first time ever, it feels like I really am! 💕 We experienced so much Harry Potter magic while we were over in England. From passing by Kings Cross Station, to feeling like we were Muggles walking around London. The Lego store even had a few Harry Potter displays... it was cool to be surrounded by so much wizarding magic.
But the greatest experience by far was visiting 'The Making of Harry Potter' at the Warner Brothers Studio in London!!! ✨ I still can't believe that we were on some of the actual sets for the movies... it all feels like we were walking through a dream!!! 😊
Today, I wanted to share one very special memory from our tour when the donkeys, Eliot and I were in the Platform 9 3/4 area with the Hogwarts Express train.
Naturally, we brought the donkeys with us during our adventures. We also brought their Harry Potter wizarding robes from Build-A-Bear with us so we could take some photos of them. Right before you entered the Platform 9 3/4 area with the train, there was a luggage display. Most people were walking right by it, so we thought that might be a great place to take photos without being in the way of everyone else visiting the exhibit.
Eliot and I found a quiet bench behind a register in the Platform 9 3/4 room, and we set to work changing the donkeys into their wizard robes and scarves. After getting Meep Meep in Gryffindor, Brother in Hufflepuff and Eeyore into Slytherin, we were prepared to take them back over to the luggage display for their photo op. However, the cute little "donkey-sized" Hedwig plush that I brought with us had other plans and she fell behind the railing of the display directly behind our bench. She fell too far back for us to reach, so Eliot went over and asked the girl working at the register for help getting her.
She came right over, climbed over the railing and rescued Hedwig, chuckling at how cute she was. Then she noticed the donkeys sitting on the bench with me in their little wizarding robes. It was clear she thought that might quite possibly be the best thing ever, and she couldn't get over how cute they were. We held them up to give her a closer look and she said we needed a Ravenclaw. Then, I reached into our shopping bag and carefully took out the tiny fabric Ravenclaw robe Christmas ornament that we had literally just bought at the store around the corner. Eliot and I told her we've been looking for tiny Ravenclaw robes that would fit on Duffy for years, and now we finally had some. (I would probably have to adjust them a bit once we got back home to the states, but we thought they'd work.) She just about tripped over herself with giddiness.
Before I knew it, she came back from the register with two envelopes that looked like Harry's Hogwarts Acceptance letter. They were fake prop style letters with the little seal printed on the back and everything. She wanted us to have them since we were having such a great time at the exhibit. She told us not to open them because nothing was inside, but they were fun little keepsakes of our time at the Warner Brothers Studio.
Eliot and I thanked her over and over as she insisted that we have them. It was clear that she really enjoyed interacting with us and seeing the donkeys all dressed up. And truthfully, she probably sees all kinds of people while working there. It was probably refreshing to see people genuinely having a wonderful time and enjoying themselves.
And it was a wonderful moment of magic for us... ✨ I plan to put both of the envelopes in a scrapbook (with the photos) so we can always enjoy them and remember it. Plus, since we have two of them, I can display both the front and the back of them!
The rest of the story isn't quite as magical as that. Eliot and I packed everything up and headed back for the luggage display. After taking a few photos, the donkeys also got to pose with the Hogwarts Express and at the Platform 9 3/4 luggage cart. Some people weren't so kind while waiting for us at the train and luggage cart, but at that point, I didn't really care. The actual employees working there thought we were great, and I wasn't going to let anyone else ruin the magic that we had just experienced. After all, life is short so you might as well have fun and enjoy it.
And that's the story of our magical experience on Platform 9 3/4. ✨🚂✨
Happy Back to Hogwarts Day Witches and Wizards!!! ⚡️❤️💙💛💚⚡️
