Harry Potter fans, rejoice! Warner Bros Studio Tours have just announced that you can enjoy Christmas dinner in none other than Hogwarts’ famous Great Hall this December. There’s only one slight catch – it’s a pretty substantial £230 per head. Oh, and you also have have to be over 18 to be allowed in (even though the studio’s Butterbeer is non-alcoholic!)
However, if you do happen to be an adult with £230 to spare, you can enjoy a two-course Christmas dinner, a selection of festive puddings, a cup of Butterbeer, and finish the evening with dancing and live music (although unfortunately not performed by The Weird Sisters). Although you’ll have to bring along your own Weasley Christmas sweater, you will be provided with your own replica wand to take away, should you fancy casting “silencio” on your family if they get too annoying over the holiday period.
After imagining how exciting it would be to have Christmas dinner in the same place that Harry and his pals did (and inevitably re-enacting some Great Hall scenes from the movies once let loose on the set), I began to think – what other Harry Potter locations would be interesting to visit?
There’s so many great scenes that you could re-enact in the Great Hall to begin with – finding out which House you belong in with the help of the Sorting Hat (in the meantime, try our sorting hat quiz!); groaning every time Dumbledore gives a billion points to Gryffindor if it’s not your house; and taking part in Professor Lockhart’s Duelling Club. There’s also some less enjoyable scenes in the Great Hall that I might choose to skip over, O.W.L and N.E.W.T exams being some of them! However, I would definitely be there for the Yule Ball – what better way to spend your Christmas evening!
I could spend years exploring Hogwarts, as the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has so many fascinating locations, although with all those moving staircases, I would imagine that it would be only too easy to get irrevocably lost! However, I’ve always wondered what I would find if I visited the Room of Requirement – hundreds of thousands of books, perhaps? And what would I see in the Mirror of Erised – myself surrounded by hundreds of thousands of books, perhaps?
Taking a walk around the Hogwarts grounds would be a must, as there are so many memorable moments that take place outside. I would be sure to avoid heading into the Forbidden Forest – it always bemused me how many of the characters kept venturing back into the forest in spite of the fact that nothing good ever comes from going there! Nevertheless, if I was feeling extra brave, I might consider going in as part of one of Hagrid’s lessons, so long as it wasn’t to look at Blast-Ended Skrewts or Knarls and Kneazles.
One of my favourite scenes of all time, and not just within the Harry Potter series, takes place in the Hogwarts grounds during The Prizoner of Azkaban. That’s right, you know what I’m thinking – the one where Hermione punches Malfoy square in the face. What a brilliant scene, and one that I would be more than happy to re-enact! Similarly, you couldn’t visit Hogwarts without watching heading down to the Quidditch pitch to watch a game. Although, on second thoughts, very few Hogwarts Quidditch games seem to end well, do they? I’d try to pick one that didn’t involve bones being removed from people’s arms, robes setting on fire, or Dementors swooping in and terrifying everyone…
Beyond Hogwarts, I would love to visit Diagon Alley, taking much more care than Harry to enunciate correctly if using the Floo Network. Having arrived, I would be sure to pick up all the necessary equipment for study at Hogwart’s, such as a wand from Ollivander’s, a magical pet of some sort from the Magical Menagerie (do they stock Phoenix’s?), and make sure to withdraw enough Galleons from Gringott’s to last me several trips to Hogsmeade.
Hogsmeade is definitely another place on my list of locations to visit, even if it did mean using an invisibility cloak to get there as my parents have not yet signed my permission form! After picking up a Butterbeer (which, having tried one at Warner Bros Studios, I can reveal tastes like warm Lucozade topped with double cream – surprisingly not that bad!), I would head to Honeydukes to fill my pockets with Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, and a couple of Fizzing Whizzbees.
In spite of all of these great locations, there are plenty of places within the Harry Potter universe that I would be more than happy to avoid. For instance, anywhere that giant spiders or basilisks call home, or places where my favourite characters die (this is for you Dumbledore and Sirius!) are definitely ones that I would leave off my list. However, there are without a doubt hundreds of brilliant Harry Potter locations to visit – now just to wait for my acceptance letter from Hogwarts to arrive!
Is having Christmas dinner in Hogwarts’ Great Hall something you would like to do? What are some of your favourite locations in the Harry Potter universe? Please share your thoughts by email at childrens.books@theguardian.com or on Twitter @GdnChildrensBks and we’ll add them to this blog!
Elizabeth, via email
Honeydukes – I have Type I Diabetes and, as a TID, I would love this place!!
Hogwarts
Quidditch Pitch
Quidditch World Cup – to see a great game and to see wizards and witches from all over the world.
These are just a few of the places I would love to visit!!
