Exciting news for Harry Potter fanatics: you’ll soon have the chance to hop on board the Hogwarts Express, the very same 78-year-old locomotive which took Harry, Ron and Hermione from King’s Cross to Hogwarts.
Original crew members from the Harry Potter films teamed up with an Oscar-winning special effects artists to recreate the Hogwarts Express in painstakingly accurate details. Platform 9 3/4′s glass roof, yellow brick walls and luggage racks have also been reassembled.
The train is the latest addition to the Harry Potter Studio Tour, a must-visit for fans of the wizarding world. To commemorate the occasion, we’ve compiled a list of the ultimate life lessons we learned from the wonderful world of Harry Potter.
1. With great power comes great responsibility
We could all learn a lot from that iconic moment Harry snaps the Elder Wand and lobs it off the bridge. Inspirational stuff. Even if we did secretly kind of wish he’d kept it and gone on to be the most powerful wizard of all time.
2. Being nerdy is the best
Hermione buries herself in books, always puts her hand up in class and turns her homework in on time, every time. But without her endless magical knowledge, Ron and Harry’s lives would be a shambles.
3. Hermione is the best feminist role model
JK Rowling said she’s very proud of Hermione from a feminist point of view, because she refuses to “play the game” and doesn’t sacrifice parts of herself as she matures from girl to woman. She doesn’t dumb herself down to make Ron “feel better”, she stays true to her own character and waits for Ron to catch up. Plus, she can look all snazzy in a party dress but still remembers to pack a change of clothes, a tent and a bunch of important books just in case Death Eaters turn up on the scene. You go, girl.
4. Never trust a rat
Your family’s beloved pet rat Scabbers might not be the innocent snuffling rodent you think he is. He could secretly be the man who betrayed your best friend’s now-deceased parents. Beware of rats.
5. Don’t judge people based on their background
The muggle-born “Mudblood” Hermione proves intellect is less about genes and more about hard work. Lonely orphan Harry ends up with the most loving set of friends and adoptive family ever. Dobby the House Elf is the most loyal friend of all time.
6. People are not always as they appear – middle-aged women who are obsessed with cats and pink things can’t always be trusted
A little middle-aged lady who wears fluffy pink cardigans, owns a collection of twee teacups and is totally obsessed with cats might look totally harmless, but don’t be fooled. Put a foot wrong around Dolores Umbridge and she’ll have you writing lines in your own blood quicker than you can say “Fizzing Frizzbees”. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
7. Ugly ducklings can turn out to be very handsome swans
Let’s just all take a moment to appreciate grown-up Neville Longbottom.
8. There are worse things than a stroppy 12-year-old girl. Namely a dead stroppy 12-year-old girl
Imagine Moaning Myrtle popping up every time you needed to dash to the toilet between Divination and Muggle Studies. Nobody wants to deal with a crying ghost when they’re trying to go to the loo.
9. There’s a good reason girls always go to the toilets in groups
In their first year at Hogwarts, Hermione makes the rookie error of visiting the bathroom on her own and meets a troll. Another time, she discovered Moaning Myrtle lurking in the first-floor loos. The girls’ toilets are a dangerous place to be.
10. Pronunciation is important
It’s “LeviOsa,” not “LeviosAR,” OBVIOUSLY. If only Harry had heeded Hermione’s advice over the importance of pronunciation, he wouldn’t have said “Diagonally” in the Weasleys’ chimney and ended up in a Floo powder catastrophe. Pronunciation is everything.
11. Just because Voldemort is trying to kill you, there’s no excuse for poor grades
Come Dementors, Death Eaters or Draco Malfoy, Harry and his pals managed to maintain a decent work-life balance without the assistance of Red Bull OR a Time Turner. That’s some seriously great time management skills right there.
12. “The ones that love us never really leave us”
This is one of the most heart-breaking quotes from the film, said by Mr Sirius Black in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Our late relatives and friends might not appear in magic mirrors or materialise when we’re holding a special stone, but they are very much alive.
13. Listen to your teachers
…Even if they’re total douchebags 90% of the time, a la Snape. Our three favourite Hogwarts students used spells, charms and potions they learned at school for everything from fighting off Dementors to breaking into a bank.
14. Literally everyone experienced an awkward hairdo moment during their teenage years
From Hermione’s unmanageable bushy locks to Ron and Harry’s terrible overgrown mullets, Hogwarts had its share of adolescent hair mistakes. It happened to the best of us. We envy the wizarding world, where there’s no Facebook to constantly remind everyone of that “pixie cut” you tried out in year nine.
15. Just because you’re not blood-related, doesn’t mean you’re not family
Why can’t the Weasleys just adopt us all?
16. Surrey is for muggles
Privet Drive, Little Whineging might be the work of JK Rowling’s imagination, but sadly Surrey really is full of muggles in real life too. Real life, home-made hummus and lots of 17-year-old girls driving Mini Coopers.
17. Sometimes it’s okay to break the rules
The Golden Trio frequently broke the rules, not because they were badass rebels without a cause, but because it was very much necessary. Despite the occasional dreaded deduction of five points form Gryffindor, Harry, Ron and Hermione, it was all worth it.
18. Some forests are forbidden for a reason
Especially if you’re not a fan of: giant spiders, dark wizards drinking unicorn blood, dragons and hiding giants. As tempting as forbidden fruit may be, there’s usually danger afoot.
19. Sport is much more interesting when played on broomsticks
Let’s face it, Chelsea kicking a ball around against Spurs is pretty dull compared to heroic Gryffindor team mates whizzing passed the pesky Slytherin team. If only “accio broomstick” were real.
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