Tag goes to Hogwarts

This morning, an owl arrived with a letter addressed to Tag... sadly, not really, but Tag did go to Hogwarts.  The whole family went to The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Brothers Studios, just north of London and a little over an hour from our home.

Here are Tag and Ceri waiting outside with some of the actual chess pieces used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

We have to go school uniform shopping this week, as school starts next week. Ceri wondered whether her school would mind if she turned up in Hogarts uniform.

The sorting hat said that Ceri should be in ... Gryffindor! (For the record, Roderic and I are Ravenclaw, Hari is Hufflepuff and Gwen is Slytherin.)

There was an introductory film presented by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. Then the main doors opened and there was the great hall!

Ron Weasley's broomstick

These are the costumes used in the last two films.

I managed to get a sneaky photo of Gwen and Hari with Hagrid, Snape and Dumbledore.

The Gryffindor boys' dormitory

Ceri admires the Goblet of Fire. It's carved out of a single piece of wood.

This is the dramatic entrance to Dumbledore's study.

Here's Molly Weasley's kitchen in the Burrow. I was thrilled to see that she has the same plates as my grandmother!

 This is the monument from the centre of the Ministry of Magic, showing the muggles being crushed by the might of magic.

Outside, it was raining (there's a surprise!) but that didn't stop Ceri and Tag going to knock on the door of no. 4 Privet Drive to see if Harry Potter or Dudley Dursley wanted to come out to play.

Tag, Ceri and Dad tried Butterbeer. It tasted like caramel-flavour cream soda. 

Tag, Ceri and Dad pose with the Knight Bus, the entrance to the bridge, and the Potters' house at Godric's Hollow (although it was actually right next to Privet Drive!)

Some scary creatures - Aragog and a Dementor.

 Diagon Alley was fascinating. I had to stand in the doorway of Gringotts to take this picture.

Ceri thought about getting an owl, but decided a bear was enough.

These friendly Quidditch players offered to teach Tag to play, but they couldn't find a broomstick small enough.

We all agreed that our favourite part of the day was seeing Hogwarts. It's a huge model, very detailed, and was used for all the exterior shots in all the films.

We had a wonderful day at Harry Potter Studios, and it was fascinating seeing just how much detail and effort went into making the films. We all agreed that we wanted to watch them all back-to-back as soon as we got home.