Harry Birthday 2015! (updated)

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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:

IMG_1983Dianne 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!

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Additional159___071Potter mania!

IMG_2006Additional1Wall 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.

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We also had a potions bar (which gradually filled up as more guests arrived with, erm, their poison potion of choice):

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We made butterbeer, of course!
IMG_1990And had a Golden Snitch cake.

IMG_1999Family reunion. Lily, James and Harry!

The guests seemed to be having fun:

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We had a little photo booth set up

IMG_1981Coloring sheets — Hermione (Alexis) colored in this page!

159___073and we had a Horcrux hunt!

Here’s a collage by Alexis, who came as Hermione Granger:
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And another by Jewel, who played Sirius Black:
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Our lively cast of characters didn’t seem to have any trouble being left to their own devices:

11822476_10153518432731649_4619374882351158571_nParty like a wizard!

11825154_1879259322299099_6160277763319319111_nHermione and Harry

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Mad-Eye Moody

IMG_1988Snape in the Potions corner

11754606_1879258892299142_502808157190002485_oKingsley, Lily and James, Hermione and Sirius

IMG_1973cousin Dudley and Harry

IMG_1991Rita Skeeter with a pint of Butterbeer

IMG_2008More butterbeer! Moody, Snape, Tonks, and Penelope Clearwater

IMG_2003Maybe a little too much butterbeer?

11794217_1879266732298358_4859335444215797671_oOur Hogwarts faculty shaking things up!

IMG_2016Fawkes and Dumbledore

IMG_2018Professor Trelawney divines some tea leaves

159___074Professor McGonagall transforms into an Animagus

IMG_2031Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour

IMG_2069and the Order of the Phoenix!

IMG_2002Even Moaning Myrtle had her bit of fun!

It was definitely a night to remember.

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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? :)

2 thoughts on “Harry Birthday 2015! (updated)”

    1. 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 :)

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