Written by Lara Walker

Finally, we arrived in Heathrow Airport after a long 12 hours in the sky. Finally, we were going to the place I have been waiting to go to forever since we planned this trip. The Making of Harry Potter Film Studios. Dad had booked the tickets over 6 months ahead, and, like a perfect dad, he stayed behind to look after the boys while my mom and I went to the Studios. He drove us (a screaming me and a laughing mother) up to the entrance and dropped us off. I was so excited that I literally couldn’t keep still. We waited in line to get the tickets and it took roughly 5 minutes but at the time, it seemed to take an hour.

When we walked in the first thing I noticed was not the info center or the audio guide counter, but the walls. There were hundreds of owls with letters in their beaks painted on the wall. Each letter said Mr. H. Potter, Cupboard Under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey on the front and had the Hogwarts wax seal on the back. I was still staring at the owls while unconsciously walking with my mom towards the audio guide counter. I zoned back in to hear my mom say ‘audio guides please.’ I tried to act cool like I hadn’t just missed 3/4 of the conversation. I don’t think it worked. After that, my mom and I walked (aka. skipped in my case) over to the wall to take a photo before walking over to the main room.

High up on one side of the wall was Harry, Hermione and Ron. Next to them was Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape. Across from Dumbledore were Voldemort, Bellatrix and Lucius. Across from Harry was Malfoy, Narcissa and a masked Death Eater. Hanging from the ceiling was a giant Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon which Harry, Ron and Hermione escape from the Lestrange Vault on in the last book.

On the near end of the room was a Starbucks and on the far end was a cafe called the Chocolate Frog. The whole cafe was shaped and colored like a chocolate frog container. On one side of the wall, down low, were the costumes for Newt Scamander, Tina Goldstein, Queenie Goldstein, Jacob Kowalski, young Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald from the newest Harry Potter movie, the Crimes of Grindelwald. Opposite that was the entrance to where they filmed scenes in the movies and where the props and costumes they used are. We spent around 10 minutes getting our guides ready and another 5 walking around and taking photos.

At 9:30 (A.M) we stopped looking around and walked over to the entrance. There we saw the cupboard under the stairs, aka Harry’s bedroom until the age of 11.

If my dad was here, there was no doubt that he would say to me ‘you better behave or I’ll lock you in there’ and there was no doubt that I’d reply ‘ha, you wish’ We walked down a hall that was covered in a bunch of gadgets from the movies into a small movie theater where we had a brief of what we were about to do.

Next, we walked into the holding room. Right in front of us were the doors to the Great Hall. I was so excited that kept wringing my hands to stop from running up and throwing the doors wide open. Sadly (for me) the doors were opened by 2 people whose birthday was that day. The Great Hall was smaller than I expected but still beautiful. At the far end of the Hall were the costumes for Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Filch and Hagrid.

Above us were the floating candles hanging from the ceiling by wires. Around us were the costumes of the uniforms for each house. Each one was similar but not quite the same. There were also costumes of what the first years wore to the Sorting behind the Sorting Hat. The Hat would sort you on your first night depending on what house attributes you display most. Hufflepuff for the kind and just. Ravenclaw for the witty and wise. Slytherin for the cunning and ambitious. And last but not least Gryffindor for the brave and loyal. After looking around, taking photos and me explaining everything so fast that mom could barely understand me we left the room and went into the artifact room.

There were loads of props facts and side rooms. Some of my favorites were the Triwizard Cup,

the circle of wands,

and the Mirror of Erised. The Mirror is not a normal mirror. The inscription on the top says ‘Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi’.

Backward, with the spaces rearranged, says ‘I show not your face, but your heart’s desire’. I think you can guess what you’d see in the Mirror. The next thing we went to was the Quidditch area. There were stands where you could sit on the broom and have a green screen behind you to make it look like you were flying, and I did it. It was so awesome and funny that I was laughing half the time. We also had a photo taken of us in Gryffindor robes which turned out to be really nice. We walked over to the last Quidditch station and waited in line for about 5 minutes. At that station, the broom was on the ground and I had to say up, then it would rise.

I thought it was very funny. We walked through the hall that had a bunch of side rooms on the side. My favorites were the Burrow and the Potions Classroom.

Some of the other ones were the room were the Death Eaters and Voldemort met in the last book,

Hagrid’s Hut

and the Forbidden Forest. The Forest was slightly creepy because it was really dark, misty and there was a ‘storm’ going on.

When we were halfway through the forest we had 4-5 acromantulas (giant spiders that like to eat people) jump out at us, which made me jump like 5 feet in the air. We walked out of that section laughing at each other before practically running to platform 9 ¾.

Platform 9 ¾ was awesome. Wait. No. Awesome is an understatement. Others may not think so, but to my mom and I, it was beautiful. It was my mom’s favorite place, and if it was not mine, it was close to the top. We got to walk through the Hogwarts Express and see the compartments that Harry sat in each year. When we exited the train we went and look at the Platform store for a little bit before I bought a red 9 ¾ lollipop that was huge and tasted delicious. At the exit that led to the cafe that was ¾ of the way through the studio, was the first costumes that they wore and the last costumes that they wore. Above them was a video of their first time together and their last time together. We stopped at the cafe to get a drink.

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I had a butterbeer and my lollipop while my mom had veggie sticks.

When we finished our snacks, we walked over to one of the larger props called the Knight Bus. It’s a purple almost blue in color and it had 3 deckers. It moves super fast and no Muggles (non-magic people) can see or hear it.

Next, we explored the bottom floor of 4 Privet Drive. In the hall in front of the door were framed awards that Harry’s cousin got. They were all silly things like ‘Award for Eating All His Lunch’ and such. Next to that house was the house where James, Lily and Harry lived before it was blown apart.

For the next part of the tour, no food was allowed. So that meant I had to put my barely dented lollipop away before going and seeing the models and plaster casts. First, we went to a room that had models of herbology items and other things like that. Second, we went to a room filled with different models of goblins, elves, dragon heads and other models like that.

When we were looking at those items we heard a roar from 2 rooms over. It was very unexpected so, naturally, my mom and I both jumped at that. I walked into the next room and looked around. Everything was normal in here. Here being Gringotts Wizarding Bank. I loved it. There were about 6 counters down each side of the room and at each counter was a goblin handling money.

I was very suspicious when I walked into the next room. It was Gringotts, only destroyed. We heard the roar again, but as I looked around, I found I could hardly see anything because there was mist everywhere. The roar came again and I saw the familiar shape of the Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon emerge. He looked around then saw us. He moved forward so fast that it was unexpected. Then came the fire. Oh, the pain of the flames which I couldn’t feel. It burned…!

We ran half laughing half screaming out and into the Lestrange Vault.

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We found it very funny to try and act like we were using the sword to try and get the cup of the pile of treasures. And as you can see, we failed. We walked out laughing not really paying attention where we were before I saw the Weasley’s joke shop at the end of the ‘cobblestone’ road.

We were in Diagon Alley! I looked more closely at the shops and recognized them on sight. Flourish and Blotts, the book store, Ollivanders, wand shop, Madam Malkins, robe shop and more! We took our time examining everything before heading to the last exhibit. There we saw a small model of the whole of Hogwarts.

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I loved it. It made me so happy yet at the same time, I was sad that it wasn’t real. I thought it was so amazing. Later, when we were waiting for dad to pick us up, my mom asked me how much I would have spent to visit there. And I replied ‘every last penny.’

To check out all the photos, click here.