Back in 2007, my local Barnes & Noble hosted a midnight book release party for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." I had read the other six books and my then-7-year-old brother Ben was just getting into the series as well, so my dad took the two of us to the event.
I also got to see four of the movies in theaters with my dad -- "Order of the Phoenix" at the beach, "Half-Blood Prince" at IMAX, "Deathly Hallows Part I" at the local movie theater, and "Deathly Hallows Part II" at the drive-in.
Harry Potter was a big part of my childhood, as it was for a lot of people all over the world. Because of this, I was super excited to find out that there was going to be a new Harry Potter book.
Even better, my local library was doing a book release party for the teen program. I had aged out of the program since I'd graduated high school, but I was asked to be an adult (or older teen, I guess) helper -- an auror -- with the event, which went from 9 p.m. to sometime after midnight.
Walking into the library at 8:30, before the teens arrived and everything turned into the chaos of a Harry Potter party, was kind of like walking into Hogwarts. The library has this high ceiling in the main area and that plus the Harry Potter theme was, no pun intended, absolutely magical.
The night was filled with food (including sorting cupcakes: your house was revealed by the color of the frosting inside; however, they were not quite as good as the Sorting Hat, given that I, a Slytherin, got a Ravenclaw cupcake), lots of noise and excitement and, of course, Quidditch.
The best part of the night was the last 15 minutes leading up to midnight. With the teens on one side of the (opened) sliding doors and the adults who were also getting books on the other side, we held a sing-along of the Hogwarts song (everyone to their own tune in a form of complete chaos and Harry Potter joy), and then lined up to get books as soon as the clock turned to midnight.
The countdown to midnight was the most exciting thing about the entire night. We had been checking times off people's phones (we had decided that iPhone time was official time) since 11:30, and the level of excitement that grew in the last five minutes was incredible.
Once midnight hit we tore open the boxes and started handing out books. I was working with the adults, giving them their book tickets and specially commissioned bookmarks so they could go pick up their copy from the boxes.
Much like when I went to the "Deathly Hallows" release, it became pretty much dead silent after midnight, the only sound parents coming to get their kids. Everyone else was reading.
It was amazing to see the first taste of Harry Potter in five years, if we're counting movies, or nine years, if we're going by entirely new material. Harry Potter means so much to so many, and it's incredible to be able to step back into the magical world that so many of us once inhabited when we read the books for the first time.
