I love Harry Potter. I like to think I’m not THAT into it, that I could see the Harry Potter New York store and keep walking, but that’s not the case. I own all the books. And the movies, which I re-watch every December. The holidays don’t really start until you see Harry and Ron saying “Happy Christmas” and opening homemade sweaters from Molly Weasley. (Harry Potter is something where I have to separate the art from the artist, however. It’s extra vexing that Rowling claimed her transphobic comments were in support of women. Irrational fear and hatred don’t help anyone, especially not women. Sigh. Anyways … )
So I went into the Harry Potter store (the security guard made me go around to the other door for crowd control reasons), and it was AMAZING. At first it was Disney store style with mugs and sweatshirts with Harry Potter logos printed on them.
And then you see it’s two floors.
“One can never have enough socks.”
There’s sections for each house.
Slytherin has the snake! And the Ministry of Magic tile!
Look at the elevator doors!
There’s a butterbeer cafe.
And books (framing the line for the bathroom).
There’s ALL the wands, just like Ollivander’s.
Look at this floor!
Hogwarts acceptance letters clogging the fireplace.
Diagon Alley.
They even had props from the movies. (Each prop had a note about which movie it was used in.) This is the Firebolt, Hermoine’s wand, and the basilisk fang in Tom Riddle’s diary.
I couldn’t believe all the stuff they re-created.
Even Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans!

I think I’m going to go back and visit again. (They have these candles that burn down to reveal a necklace or a ring, so clearly I can’t go on without something like that.)
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