If you won’t have the chance to visit Times Square before September the first, when the Exhibit closes for good, and will never again be available in the United States, and you’d like to know what it was like, I’ve written everything I can remember from when I went much earlier today with my friend. :)

So today, July 5^th, 2011, Fiona (queen-ofclubs) and I went to the Harry Potter Exhibit in Times Square in New York City. :)

So we went and got our tickets (almost no line, btw) which were $30 after tax. Not nearly as bad as I had originally anticipated! But not cheap either way. We went and got in another line to get in, and were convinced to buy the audio tour part (which was $7). It’s this odd little handheld thing with numbers and volume, and you put in the numbers that correspond with the set up you’re looking at, and it tells you some behind the scenes stuff from the people who actually created those items. Interesting, I suppose, but not entirely relevant, and after a while we decided not to punch the numbers in any more, lol. But if you’d like to know background information, by all means, keep it. 

We got into a group of about 15 people, but usually the groups are bigger, I think, as the first guy we met was surprised that we were everyone, lol. So if you end up going, be prepared for a bigger group. We were herded into the first room, which was a sorting ceremony. It was dark, with a little stage in front with the Sorting Hat on a stool, and a guy with a loud voice and a fake British accent talking to us. He went through some preliminaries, etc, and then asked for some volunteers. Three Brazilians that were with us flipped a shit and got picked, so Fiona and I just watched. Basically they sat on the stool, and he asked them their favorite house. They all said “OH I DUNNO” at first, but the first girl picked Ravenclaw. The guy had a remote or something concealed in his other hand that didn’t hold the Sorting Hat, on which he probably pressed the “ravenclaw” button, because as soon as she said that, the Sorting Hat voice starting talking about how she had a strong, sharp mind, and a clever sense, and then said “RAVENCLAW!” haha. Cheesy, but cool. The second girl picked Gryffindor, as did the little boy who was third, and the hat did the same thing for them, except said how they were brave, or daring, or full of fierce loyalty, etc, and then yelled “GRYFFINDOR!”

That was all he could sort, and we moved into the next room. It was eight screens set up in a line on a curved wall, with all the posters of the movies, sans the final movie poster, it just had “Deathly Hallows Part Two” there, I believe. I was in awe because everything was pitch black except the screens. Once we were all inside and the doors closed behind us, the screens played an awesome visual montage with flashing images and scenes and clever use of the screen set up to show a video about the life of Harry Potter and how he’s grown and flashes of scenes from all his years, and the final part was the growth of the Dark Lord, and just as he’s screaming at the end, suddenly there are lights in a row, as a train, going across the screens while the Dark Lord’s face fades away and the train sounds get louder. Then, a huge door to the left opens like a lift, and steam comes out and it sounds like Platform 9 ¾, and the same guy from the sorting leads us into the next room.

Basically from here we were on our own, as everything was set up like a museum type, with various rooms and hallways and stage props from the movies. The audio tour thing helps a little for boring background info, but overall I wish I hadn’t gotten it, it got boring and I was far too fangirly to pay attention to what it was saying.

Some of the things I remember the most are:

• Gryffindor Common Room/Boys Dorm

They had several outfits of Hermione & Neville & Luna set up at the front, as well as their wands and plenty of Hermione’s objects. (it, Time Turner, etc) There was a station for Ron as well, as well as Harry & Ron’s four-poster beds from the movies, with Ron’s handmade quilt from Molly still on his. Each bedside had a glass case over it, a ton of personal items from both Harry & Ron. The Invisibility Cloak was there, on a mannequin of Harry’s Gryffindor uniform. The sizes of the mannequins are almost exactly the size of the actors at the time the movie was filmed. So the first Hermione outfit from Goblet of Fire is small, because she was like 14 or 15. Neville’s is bigger, because it’s from Order of the Phoenix, plus Matthew Lewis is bigger than Emma Watson.

• Professors/Classes

There was a partial section that had Snape, Trelawney, Slughorn, Lockhart’s robes and little stations for each of their subjects (Snape is in Potions with Slughorn, not DADA). Parvati’s robes are with Trelawney at her station (assumably because Parvati [and Lavender] loved Trelawney in the books). There’s a huge section for Lockhart, with the portrait from CoS in the DADA classroom of Lockhart painting a portrait of himself in a portrait, among tons of personal photos of Lockhart, as well as his entire collected works, and several of the photos from the “signing” detention Harry did with him. There was a place for all of the DADA teachers, as well, sans Snape, who was under Potions. Moody’s cloaks, and Lupin’s chest that had a Boggart in it. And Parvati’s fucking ridiculous transformed Boggart. You know what I’m talking about. That scary ass Jack-in-the-box that was a hundred times more fucking scary than that snake. Ugh. That thing was creepy as hell. There was also a section for Sprout’s robes as well as a section in which you could drag your own Mandrakes from their pots, screaming horrible noises. That was fun :P

• Quidditch

The Quidditch section had TONS of Quidditch robes actually used in the movies. Such as several of Harry’s, one of Draco’s, Cedric’s, Krum’s, the Irish team’s from the World Cup, Ron’s, OLIVER WOOD’S. YES. I WAS MERE INCHES FROM FABRIC THAT TOUCHED SEAN BIGGERSTAFF’S FLESH. Anyway, there were also a bunch of video montages on the walls of Quidditch games, etc, and at the end was a sort of…game. I dunno if any of you have played the little basketball games, where there are a few hoops to shoot at and the ground below the hoops is tilted so everything rolls back at you…but that’s what it was. Three Quidditch hoops, and like six Quaffles to throw through them. C: That was fun, and I made all my shots like a BOSS, YEAH. and uh I think that was it, there.

• Hagrid’s Hut

Hagrid’s Hut was really cool, albeit a little small. It was a pretty great model, with Hagrid’s clothes on a huge ass mannequin. Hagrid’s chair is actually really damn huge, I discovered, when Fiona and I could sit side by side in it comfortably, and when my back was up against the back of the chair, only like six inches of my leg were hanging over. I couldn’t have reached the floor if I tried. xD Norbert’s egg was there, rattling like it should, and there was a huge fireplace with a pot that was boiling over and shaking! The walls and ceiling were appropriately littered with things just like in the movie version. Very cool. :D

• Forbidden Forest

After we went down some stairs, there was a section that had some things from the Forbidden Forest. There was Bane the centaur, the baby thestral that Luna feeds, as well as a smaller-scale replica of an acromantula, as the head of a dragon. I didn’t see the acromantula at first, because it was the same color as the trees roots it was on, but when I saw it I literally almost died of fright, it looked real as fuck, and really huge. and I have a terrible fear of spiders, so…NO. We moved on quickly.

continuing the creature theme, they had Buckbeak as well as the trio’s clothes from PoA during the entire scene with Buckbeak/Sirius. There was also Sirius’ robes/clothes from that scene as well. Oh, and Macnair’s executioner robes as well (who was much smaller than he seemed in the movie haha).

• Dark Arts Section

There was a section for the Dark Arts, that branched off into a Death Eater section too. It had Lucius’s robes as well as young Draco’s, both from CoS I believe, both of course actually worn by the actors. There was a case with a few of the Horcruxes in it as well (The diary, the cup, and the locket). There was Quirrel and first year Harry’s clothes from the underground Battle Royale, lol. Harry’s trademark scarlet sweater from that scene. There was also robes of the Death Eaters from the GoF scene at the World Cup, with their scary masks. But more importantly were Bellatrix’s robes right at the forefront, looking beautiful and terrifying and amazing. Fiona and I almost died at being less than a foot away from where HBC’s skin had been. SO UNWORTHY. AHHH. But we kept it together enough to see her and Narcissa’s wands. Narcissa has a kickass wand, btw. So cool. And the Dark Lord’s wand as well was there. They also had the Azkaban robes that HBC wore when Bellatrix is seen being broken out of the prison, where she licks her Dark Mark :D

After that section there was a hallway with the Death Eater’s wanted posters from OotP as well as many of the Educational Decrees Umbridge instilled. Both the posters and the Decrees were from the actual set use. The little wooden hanging boxes and all with the decrees. They moved down the hall and moved up and surrounded a huge vaulted entrance that led to a mini replica of the Great Hall on the right side of the hallway. And the end of the Hallway, however, were Xenophilius and Luna’s robes from Bill & Fleur’s wedding, including Xeno’s necklace that he wears in the movie :D

• Great Hall

There was so much going on in here Fiona and I literally almost burst into tears of fangasms immediately. On the right were the robes from the Yule Ball. the actual dresses and robes that Cedric, Cho, Harry, Ron (whose robes are far more hideous in person ew), Hermione, and Viktor Krum wore. So close to so much secondhand famous people clothes omg. The background was also gorgeous. On the far side of the Hall were two of Dumbledore’s robes as well as McGonogall’s green robes she so often wears. There were also the robes that Tonks and Sirius have in OotP, I’m fairly sure, as well as a case with all of their wands. Including the Elder Wand. :O On the left side of the Great Hall was the Goblet of Fire itself, as well as the case it was originally put in that Dumbledore vanishes. There was also a set of robes that almost looked like twins…lol. Fred & George’s robes were there as well, from OotP. In the middle was a huge display of many people’s wands and random artifacts from the movies. In the far right corner was Fawkes, sitting on his perch. MUCH larger than I expected, though looking exactly as he did in CoS when he cries onto Harry’s wound.

And, lastly, in a case against the wall with lights on it, was the sword of Godric Gryffindor.

And right after that, through the doors was the gift shop :) All of the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw merchandise was full price, but my Slytherin things were marked down considerably. Apparently no one wants to buy Slytherin things, so I got my scarf for $20, and my beanie for $10. Gryffindor scarves were $45, and beanies were $20 :D

SLYTHERIN FTW.

(Source: thebloody-baron)