My family and I just finished The Making Of Harry Potter Tour on location at Warner Bros. studios in Leavesden, England, which is outside of London. If those structures in the photo look familiar, they are 1/24 scale model of Hogwarts. It’s the showstopper at the end of the tour, and more personally, it feels like the end of childhood.
My children are now 12 and 16, and for the 16-year-old and I, Harry Potter was one of our great shared joys, which like so many parents, I came to through her. She was an impossibly precocious reader and when she was little we’d basically share the books, as I’d read them after she went to sleep. Years later we’d go to the midnight book releases together, and of course to the movies.
For Harry Potter fans, this setup in England is a remarkable experience, with so many of the original sets, costumes, and iconic objects on display with lots of fun facts about them. Elena is having a great time, but at 16, she’s no longer a wide-eyed little kid. Coming into her junior year, she has her own stressful adventures ahead.
But meanwhile, here we are nodding in understanding and fond remembrance of so many things that once meant so much to us.
I didn’t, but I was very tempted to, buy a doll of Doby, the brave and tormented elf who was such a good friend to Harry. I settled for a postcard of him instead. But I’m still conflicted about it.
It occurs to me that, soon enough, if not already, I may well be a bigger kid than my daughter.
Eric Messinger is the editor of New York Family. He can be reached at emessinger@manhattanmedia.com
