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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Release Party Report : Waterstone Book Store, London

By Nina Hannson

Pictures: 1 | 2 | Videos

We showed up at the Waterstone store in Oxford Street, London at 6pm, Friday July 16th. There were already a handful of people there, and the line was about a block long already. We found a spot and sat down like everyone else. After a while, around 06:15pm, we got a bit bored of just sitting and me, Hege (geedunk) and Stine went to check out the people further up the line while my mom held our place. We saw that many of them were in costume and they were more than happy to let us photograph and video tape them. We chatted a while with the handful of witches who was lucky enough to be first in line and they had been there since 5pm! We also talked to some fellow Norwegians, which was very comforting as it meant we weren't the only ones obsessed enough to go to London for a "stupid book". After practicing our English for a while by chatting with people in line, we got back in our spot again to chill. We started talking to the people next to us and they had come all the way from America! And we thought WE had gone a long way!

When we had settled down nice and cozy, people from the Waterstone store came around and gave out free stuff! We got balloons, drinks and chocolate. After shoving all that sugar in us, we again felt the need to move. So, again we ditched my mom, but this time we went to the end of the line instead. Since we got there 1 and a half hours ago, it had grown rapidly! It was about 8 or 10 blocks long! We hung around at the back for a while, filming the people in costumes. There was also this dude in purple robes doing magic tricks with help from his stuffed monkey, spanks (or something like that) and he was really funny! As time went by, more entertainers started to show up. There were face painters, clowns and more magicians. We had now been in line for 2 hours and hadn't been bored once! But now we had to get back in the queue to get our safety number (everyone needed it so they could see how many people were actually here), and of course, they started giving them out at the back of the line, so it took some time to get to us (as the line wouldn't stop growing). Then Stine got the brilliant idea of drawing scars on each other's foreheads with lipstick! So the twins got their Harry Potter style scar and I got "I'm a Ron and Hermy Shipper" all over my face! We (and everyone around us) got a laugh out of that one!

After receiving our safety ticket we went towards the front again. We videotaped some girls and when they saw we were from TWWN they literally FREAKED OUT and started yelling: "OMG! I LOVE THAT SITE!!" We were a bit taken aback, but it was cool that they'd heard of it! And they were not the only ones! Random people started shouting after us stuff like: "TWWN ROCKS", "Wireless Wizarding Network!! AWESOME" and "I LOVE YOU TWWN!"… We were feeling a bit like celebrities at some moments.

Later, some Waterstone people came around with the sorting hat. It was like a lottery; you pulled up a note and one of them said "VIP". There were also various prizes, the people next to us won a Harry Potter Lego set! When we didn't get into the VIP Party (it was why we were in the line, as well as to get the "show"). When the release was getting closer, the line started moving forward and people were starting to scream of excitement. Some people in cloaks and some with some sort of animal costume started parading down the queue and things livened up fast! However, we got out of the line at this point (we were waaaaay away from the store itself), filmed some of the paraders and people and headed over to another bookshop down the street and got the book at 12:14am! (As well as some every flavour beans as we left). One of the most memorable days of my life! Things were happening all the time and everyone talked to each other like we were old friends who went way back. It was great and I highly recommend that you go to some sort of "Potter Party" for the release of the 7th book. I know I am!