November is finally here, and as the days turn blustery and the leaves tumble through the air, I can feel the excitement building. I can almost hear the swelling of chords echoing on the wind and before I go to sleep, visions of red and green sparks dance before my eyes. My heart leaps every time I think about it. I’ve started listening to the music nonstop already, and I’m counting down the days. On November 18th, 2016, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them will be released in theaters, and we will once again be plummeted into a world of magic and infinite possibility.

I have loved the entire Harry Potter franchise since before I could read. My fondest memories from my childhood feature my father adopting a really terrible British accent while he read the books aloud to my brother and I before bed. I spent my free time wandering around outside in a wizard robe leftover from Halloween, casting spells and pretending my bike was a broomstick. By the time I turned eleven, I’d realized that the world I loved so passionately probably didn’t exist, but that didn’t stop me from casually checking the mail every day, secretly hoping beyond hope that there would be a letter calling me out from the world of the mundane and into an adventure in sorcery. Packing for college this year, I was very conscious of the fact that this is when I’m supposed to become a mature responsible adult. Even so, I was inappropriately excited about being able to buy a trunk, live at school in a dorm, and eat in a huge dining hall with my friends for every meal. I will even admit that I, a self-respecting adult, own a full length, adult size wizard robe. Because of all these things, I am so unbelievably excited for this movie.

There is so much promise in the Fantastic Beasts movie. Eddie Redmayne (Of Les Mis fame) plays Newt Scamander, a overly-curious adventurer seeking to document every magical creature in existence. He’s traveling with a magically expanded case full of live samples of these creatures. Things get messy, however, when he arrives in 1920’s New York City and some of the most dangerous magical beasts escape into the streets. The audience is once again whisked from their seats into a world of dire peril and tremendous feats of daring.

I’m also a little wary of this film precisely because of how much promise it has. There is so much that could go right, but I’ve invested myself so much into this cinematic universe that I can’t help but fear things that could go horribly wrong. I hold the world of Harry Potter so close to my heart that the failure of this movie to meet my expectation would feel like betrayal. I have put so much trust and hope in the possibility of this work that I have also given it immense power to crush my dreams. I really hope it won’t. And with Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald, what could possibly go wrong?