As you all know, the Hogwarts Express pulls away from Platform 9 3/4s at exactly 11:00 a.m. on September 1st. Now, most of us are alumni at this point (as we are reminded every four months when the owls arrive with requests for donations to the school), but that doesn’t mean we’re any less excited for the start of the new term! This year we decided to get together and grab some pictures at our local train station and the adjacent park, some in our favorite robes and others in their old Hogwarts uniforms. A great time was had by all – we studied, dueled, listened to a lecture on Herbology, climbed a tree, made friends with a squirrel named Peter, and even found some Hogwarts alumnae that may join our group!

Traveling from place to place is always more fun when you have a large group of wizards trying to discreetly navigate muggle areas of the city. I think (I hope!) we managed to make it through without unintentionally violating the International Statute of Secrecy.

While taking the pictures in the park, we had that awful reminder that we are, in fact, NOT in the United Kingdom. While other areas of the Northern Hemisphere are settling into autumn, here it was… well, Florida. It was Florida. An hour outside in robes is really the max that anyone can handle. (This was fun, but we promise the next cosplay day will be in a “winter” month.)

Once we were done in the park, the cosplay group went to Fiddler’s Green, a fantastic Irish pub in Winter Park. It’s not quite the same as grabbing food in Hogsmeade, but the brunch was amazing and service was fantastic! There were a fair amount of muggles there, but they proved to be friendly and open-minded towards the wizards invading their territory. (Anyone who took Muggle Studies in school knows the key to acceptance in the muggle world is copious amounts of liquor… both for them and us.)

At the pub we played some Pottergories (congratulations to Angelica of Hufflepuff and Adam of Slytherin on their victories!) Every time we play that game, I’m always struck by the creativity and memory of some of our members! People kept thinking of answers that I probably never would have come up with if I had twice the amount of time they did.

All in all though, our first cosplay day was a success! Thank you to all who attended, whether it was for the cosplay day, the brunch, or both! We’ll see you all on Wednesday at the Mellow Mushroom in Winter Park for Harry Potter trivia night! (In the meantime, check the Facebook group for more pictures from our cosplay adventures!)