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Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
All of your favorite characters came to the launch party, including Professor McGonagall, Moaning Myrtle and — surprise! — Luna Lovegood’s Patronus (a hare, if you didn’t know). Kayla Glander, who dressed up as McGonagall, is a math teacher at Warwick Valley High School, where she co-started Dumbledore’s Army and a Harry Potter Alliance.
“[The books] are a good escape from reality, but has a lot of realistic themes that you can actually relate to,” Glander said.
Her co-worker, Noreen Hanson (Moaning Myrtle), is part of a Harry Potter superfamily. She traveled from upstate Warwick with her daughters specifically for the launch party. At home, they have a “Ministry of Magic” sign above their toilet.
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Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
The night was long, so nobody can blame these Hogwarts students from Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor for taking a break. They said the “Cursed Child” release party reminded them of previous midnight book launches, except everyone was older and “our parents aren’t here,” said Kourtney Bernard-Rance, 25.Her sister, Nicole, added that “it’s about time” for another Harry Potter book to come out. They don’t mind that the book is formatted as a play rather than a novel. Regardless, it’s new material.
“The parents are who we grew up with, and now they have kids,” Nicole, 27, said of the original main characters in the books, including Harry, Ron and Hermione.
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Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
On the third floor, a Cornish Pixie flitted about as witches and wizards enjoyed a Harry Potter coloring activity.
The Cornish Pixie — also known as Lesley Stevenson, 22 — said she knew exactly what she wanted to dress up as for the launch party.
“I ran around New York City today and found some pieces that would work,” said Stevenson, a superfan who wrote her academic thesis about the Harry Potter movies and “visual authorship.”
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Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
Photo Credit: Wendy Lu -
High schoolers at the Bronx High School of Science and Queens High School for the Sciences at York College were all smiles with their fresh new copies of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” What a night! Now, we can only hope J.K. Rowling comes out with a ninth book.
We can dream, right?
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Photo Credit: Wendy Lu
Unless you’ve been living in the Muggle World, you probably knew that “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” — the eighth official installment of the much-beloved book series — was released in bookstores nationwide at midnight Saturday night. The “Cursed Child” is co-written by J.K. Rowling, playwright Jack Thorne and theater director John Tiffany.
The Strand Bookstore had one of the largest launch parties in the city Saturday night, selling nearly 1,000 preordered copies of the book.
The Strand transformed into a buzzing world full of magical creatures and wand-brandishing witches and wizards. Here’s who (and what) we spotted at the launch party.
