July 31 marks the birthdays of both Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling, and it has always been a significant date for my cousin Dianne and I because the Harry Potter books have been such a huge part of our lives. This year, on July 31st, we celebrated over fifteen years of fandom with a redux of Harry Birthday!
We had gone back and forth on the idea of another Harry Birthday party for months now. For one, in the past decade and a half, I think we’ve already done at least half a dozen Harry Potter parties, among other crazy things for the love of Harry Potter. Also, for a while the party didn’t even seem like a possibility. July had been an incredibly busy month, with my involvement in the NCBD activities, and my cousin had just moved across the country (read: separation anxiety like I’d never known before). But because it’s Harry’s 35th birthday and JKR’s 50th, we thought the time was ripe for another Harry Birthday.
We gave a quick shoutout to our friends last week, and we’re glad they were only too eager to celebrate with us.
Here’s a recap of the party, in photos:
Dianne as Harry, and myself as Tonks.
The showcase is part of our combined Harry Potter collections.
The great thing about a fifteen year old fandom is that you accumulate a lot of items over the years (and over the multiple parties), so we only had to pull out our books, toys, and even decor from previous Harry Potter parties!
Potter mania!
Wall of photos. We realized we have enough milestones
to create a timeline of our HP fandom.
The grub was in theme — we had roast beef and chicken, Shepherd’s pie, quiche, scones, tea sandwiches, and a selection of sweets, including puking pastilles, cauldron cakes, Every Flavor Beans, and chocolate frogs.
We also had a potions bar (which gradually filled up as more guests arrived with, erm, their poison potion of choice):
We made butterbeer, of course!
And had a Golden Snitch cake.
Family reunion. Lily, James and Harry!
The guests seemed to be having fun:
We had a little photo booth set up
Coloring sheets — Hermione (Alexis) colored in this page!
and we had a Horcrux hunt!
Here’s a collage by Alexis, who came as Hermione Granger:
And another by Jewel, who played Sirius Black:
Our lively cast of characters didn’t seem to have any trouble being left to their own devices:
Party like a wizard!
Hermione and Harry
Mad-Eye Moody
Snape in the Potions corner
Kingsley, Lily and James, Hermione and Sirius
cousin Dudley and Harry
Rita Skeeter with a pint of Butterbeer
More butterbeer! Moody, Snape, Tonks, and Penelope Clearwater
Maybe a little too much butterbeer?
Our Hogwarts faculty shaking things up!
Fawkes and Dumbledore
Professor Trelawney divines some tea leaves
Professor McGonagall transforms into an Animagus
Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour
and the Order of the Phoenix!
Even Moaning Myrtle had her bit of fun!
It was definitely a night to remember.
Many thanks to everyone who celebrated #HarryBirthday with us: Iya, Joyce, Haze, Jewel, Alexis, Shani, Honey, Czar, Tin, Karen, Jeeves, Joko, Kaie, Angel, Jenny, Joy, John, Mika, Pao, TJ, Marie, JM, Guia, and Rayan! It’s fun to see the Harry Potter fandom live on, after all this time (always!).
Let’s do this again in five years, maybe? :)
Aw, I just realised I left my coloring page behind!
It’s probably with the rest of the party stuff we saved, though Dianne is out of town already. But if we ever have another Harry Potter party, it’ll be on display.
I don’t have a photo of you and Jewel in my cam, will update this post after Dianne and Haze upload their photos :)