All butter-beer'ed up

No Harry Potter fan can truly say they've lived in England until they've done the Warner Brothers Studio Tour London. So, with a fellow Harry-Potter-obsessed cousin in the UK for the moment, we scheduled our trip, but things didn't quite go as planned. After she and her friends arrived an hour ahead of schedule, and traffic put us an hour behind, Nicolas and I didn't exactly see the people we'd planned the trip around. Nonetheless, we did get to take a peek behind the curtain of the Harry Potter films. To say this tickled one of us much more than the other is a massive understatement.

A bit of Cupboard Under the Stairs action to whet your appetite while awaiting the tour.

Having barely made it into the second-to-last tour of the day, we shuffled along the snaking queue that led us into a mini cinema. The guides worked (some of) us up over a promotional film featuring many of the films' stars and then, finally, they raised the screen and pushed open a set of double doors to reveal the Great Hall, home of the sorting hat's fateful sortings and countless Hogwarts feasts. So began the tour of the making of Harry Potter.

The Great Hall of Hogwarts! Admittedly somewhat less magical sans Enchanted Ceiling. Still, I wouldn't turn down my owl if it brought my admissions letter tomorrow.

Winding past scenery, props, and costumes, we got to learn about the real-world wizardry behind the big screen magic.

And the behind-the-scenes studio tour begins! You've got your Gryffindor Common Room, Snape's Potions Classroom, Dumbledore's Office, the Triwizard Tournament Yule Ball costumes, and more.

One of my favorite tidbits were the feature on the animals of Harry Potter-- who knew there'd been so many for each animal character? Apparently owls are dreadfully hard to train, nothing like the corvids who'll happily get behind any new tricks the training crew had up their sleeve. And all those Fangs and Mrs. Norrises were to die for! Each with their own skill sets and personalities. I wish I had the patience to be an animal handler!

A wall of Animal Actors of Harry Potter 💕

And then there was the bit on making Hagrid. When it came to creating a half giant on the big screen, the crew had an idea or two. They started with a 6'6"? rugby man and built from there. He was put in a costume with stilts and an entire interior ventilation system. Seriously.

Any tour through the magical wizarding world of Harry Potter has to be washed down with a sip of butter beer. And despite warnings to the contrary, it wasn't horrible. And I just couldn't wrap my head around the drink's head-- a frothy, ice-creamy set of bubbles perched atop of a caramel-flavored cream soda.

So. Excited. For. Butterbeer. Can you tell?

Of course, Nicolas was not in luck: the tour did not end after the cafe stop. No, we were only getting started. (Or really, half way there.)

Dragged my husband down Diagon Alley, and got the photo to prove it! Life achievement unlocked.

4 Privet Drive inundated with Hogwarts letters, Olivander's shelves stacked with boxed wands, the Weasleys' Burrow, Dolores Umbridge's office, the Ministry of Magic, a hippogriff, and more. My high-school-nerd heaven.

Successfully dragging me through the gift shop without my picking up a single wand or magical set of earrings was probably Nicolas's greatest victory of the day. After one last admiring look upon the statues of the wizards from a world where I'd much rather belong, we tucked ourselves back into our decidedly unenchanted Ford Fiesta and made the long ride home.

Farewell, my Harry Potter Wizarding World.