Hogwarts Crest Tee, purchased late 2000 or early 2001
Talk to Me Tuesday watchers will be familiar with this wall. That’s me and my bad self standing on a table. That’s also the infamous ticking clock that can be heard in many of my videos. The time? Just a little bit earlier today. The lanyards are from Lumos and Phoenix Rising, and you can see a wee bit of a cross-stitch from the fabulous Shae.
This Hogwarts tee is the first Harry Potter item other than a book that I ever purchased. My family and I were fans from the fall of 2000 on. I’d recently heard that the first book was going to be made into a movie. It never occurred to me that there would be Harry merchandise. Yeah, duh, I know, but I just wasn’t thinking in that direction. Then, one day, we walked into a store (I think it was a now-defunct WB shop) and there was one Hogwarts tee left on the rack. Just the one. It’s actually a child’s XL tee, but I did not care. There weren’t any adult sizes, or any other sizes to be had. This was it…and it was mine.
I wore this shirt to opening night of the first four movies, along with my hand-crafted HP earrings, towing my kids along in the costumes of their choice. Wearing this tee, I watched Harry discover that he is, indeed, a wizard, saw he and Ron crash into a very angry tree, saw Harry and Hermione rescue Sirius, and watched Cedric Diggory die. I broke this shirt out once again for Deathly Hallows part 1, and once again, inundated it with my tears. You know when and you know why.
Could I have known in 2000 what this fandom or this journey would mean in my life and the life of my family? No…I could have never dreamed of such a thing.
Because I was not able to get tickets to the midnight release at my favorite theater, my family and I will be going to see DH2 tomorrow instead. In some ways, I hate to miss going to the midnight show when so many of the people I know will be snuggling down with with tissues across the country. The anticipation, the caffeine, the solidarity are all reasons to go to the midnight show and reminds me very much of a conference-like atmosphere. Everyone is there for the same reason and we all know it.
Even so, I’m also okay with waiting just a little longer. I’ll be with my family for the final movie, and that’s just as it should be.
Since I’m not seeing the movie tonight, tomorrow will be the last day of my t-shirt countdown and I will share with you the shirt that I’m wearing to the final battle. It’s been a blast revisiting some of my favorite Harry Potter shirts, many of which are now retired. It’s the end of an era for the fandom, but I have no doubt, that we, the fans, will continue to carry Hogwarts in our hearts.
Whether it’s by page or screen, Hogwarts will always welcome you home.
~Jo Rowling, July 2011
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