My favorite Harry Potter memory was going to the final midnight release party with my best friend. We waited all night to get our hands on that book; we played games, drank potions, had a costume fashion show, stood in a very long line until finally, FINALLY, we got to the front of the line. By then we were so excited (and hyped up on Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans) that the second those books got into our hands, we knew we would tear open the first page and start a marathon reading session.
But while we waited in line, we noticed those magical books had actually arrived in magical boxes. The shipping boxes were decorated with Harry Potter symbols and the words “Don’t Open Until Midnight, July 21, 2007.” Of course we had to have those boxes. As the books were passed out to each customer, the boxes they came in were tossed to the side in a heap, so we figured, who’d care if we each took one home? When it was our turn to pick up our books we boldly asked the cashier if she’d give us one. She happily obliged. Delighted, we took our brand new books and our super cool shipping boxes and started to march out of the store to begin our voracious reading. But then we heard a manager tell off the young lady who’d given us the boxes, saying there weren’t enough for everybody so they couldn’t give them away. We RAN out of the store before he could take our boxes back and laughed about it the whole ride home. To this day, that box has been sitting in my bedroom, housing some of my other favorite childhood books. I look at it every so often and remember what an amazing time I had that night, and how I almost didn’t end up with my favorite piece of Harry Potter memorabilia.
