What Are Your Favorite Uncommon Harry Potter Ships?

The Harry Potter fandom presents a small conundrum for me: I'm not an avid shipper of any one couple. This is one of the cardinal rules of fangirling in general: ship or don't ship, there is no try.

When it comes to the wizarding world, I love every ship - what both the books and movies provided. I don't know if that makes me a little less of a hardcore fangirl, but sometimes I feel like it is: I'm not exclusive to ships and like to think of the What Ifs and love a little outside of common canon. There are a few Ships I Just Can't Help But Ship, that don't adhere to the relationships set up throughout the books by author J.K. Rowling. Are there any relationships that you can't help but love? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

Warner Bros Studio Tour London Expanding With Gringotts Bank

The wizarding world keeps getting bigger every day. By wizarding world, I mean the legendary Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter is added a major new addition to the ultimate experience for Potterheads.

Since 2012, the Warner Bros Studio Tour has been the interactive home for fans, inviting Hogwarts students to walk the grounds from Privet Drive to Hogwarts and the Forbidden Forest and see thousands of costumes and props up close and personal.

From learning about wizarding money before his first year at Hogwarts to the golden trio escaping on a Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon after confiscating one of Voldemort's horcruxes, Gringotts Bank has been one of many influential landmarks within the Harry Potter series. This Spring, fans can unlock the magic with an immersive tour of Gringotts Bank.

Here is a full description of the exciting new experience:

Lined by towering marble pillars, the grand banking hall will be decorated with three magnificent crystal chandeliers and finished with real brass leaf. Inkwells, quills, ledgers and piles of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts will complete the goblin tellers’ desks as seen on screen. The Prop-making Department, led by Pierre Bohanna, created over 210,000 coins for the final two films alone.

Gringotts Wizarding Bank is famously run by goblins. Walking through the imposing marble columns, visitors will discover the costumes and prosthetics belonging to Bogrod, Griphook and many other goblin bankers. Each prosthetic mask took weeks to create, with every hair individually inserted and veins painstakingly painted by hand. It took four hours to transform actor Warwick Davis into Griphook in the films which included him wearing black contact lenses and dentures with extremely sharp teeth to complete the goblin look.

Once through the banking hall of Gringotts, visitors will enter the depths of the Lestrange Vault used to store the treasures of Bellatrix Lestrange including the Sword of Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup, one of Voldemort’s many Horcruxes. During filming 38,000 pieces of rubberised treasure were created the for the Lestrange vault including 7,014 Hufflepuff Cups. Here, visitors can try out a unique photo opportunity allowing them to step inside the Lestrange vault and surround themselves with treasure.

Fans can now book tickets in advance as well as enter to attend the opening ceremony. Check out the official website here for more details.

10 of the Biggest Harry Potter Events From 2018

Another year of magic has come and gone. As we continue to celebrate the Harry Potter series and experience J.K. Rowling's universe reach new heights, 2018 was full of exciting events for both the original series and its spin-offs. From the Cursed Child expanding its reach to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald revealing controversial revelations, let's rewind our time turner and take a look at some of the exciting Harry Potter events that rocked our world. What were your favorite Harry Potter moments from 2018? Feel free to share in the comments below!

This post contains spoilers for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Holiday Traditions That Could Be Easier With A Little Magic

The Christmas season is always so busy for us Muggles. From buying presents to decorating the tree and cooking a great big holiday feast, there's so many things to do over the holidays. But what if we had a little magic to help us out and make our festivities the best they can be. Here are some traditions we wish we had to use magic and make Christmas a little easier.

Making Presents

Molly Weasley is beloved throughout the series because of her motherly touch to everything she did with her kids and husband. She was famous within the tight-knit wizarding family between the Weasleys and Potters for her handmade sweaters. If you love to make your presents, it sure would be nice to be able to use magic to put the finishing touches on your DIY projects.

Decorating the Tree

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, there's a brief moment of Professor Flitwick using his wand to decorate the massive Christmas tree in The Great Hall. For anyone who has had to organize the branches of plastic trees, or tended to real ones, decorating your tree can be a tricky task, especially for placing things as high as possible. We could definitely use a little swish and flick with decorating Christmas trees.

Throwing Awesome Parties

When all of the witches and wizards walk into The Great Hall for the Yule Ball, it has been completely transformed into a winter wonderland. It's wonderful to be able to Pinterest our favorite ideas for our dream parties, but wouldn't it be amazing to be able to change your house or office inside and out with ice sculptures that don't melt, fake snow, and dazzling centerpieces?

Hanging Lights Outside

Christmas light wars is a popular Muggle pasttime, where families compete to dress up their houses with thousands, sometimes millions of lights, and all kinds of lawn decorations. Could you imagine the type of lightshows that could be created if you could string up hundreds of lights at once? Or if Hogwarts had been light up for the holiday season? That's something I'd love to see.

Playing in the Snow

Christmas isn't the same without a little snow to play in. Outside of Prisoner of Azkaban, one of the most surprising things we never read about in the Harry Potter series is any of the characters making bewitched snowmen/women, snowangels, or having epic snowball fights. I know for one if I had a magic wand in a tow, I would love to be outside making as many epic magical decorations as possible.

Is Hagrid Inspiring A New Ride at Wizarding World of Harry Potter Orlando?

The Ministry of Magic at Universal Orlando has been hard at work constructing a new ride at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida. Set to open in Summer 2019, the mysterious attraction is starting to come together this holiday season.

The former Goblet of Fire inspired rollercoaster Dragon Challenge closed in 2017. Construction wizards have been transforming the space into a new thrill ride promising to be one of the most innovative attractions in the theme park landscape.

With only a few months left before the grand opening, a major development can be seen looming near the Hogsmeade Station entrance and exit. Does it look familiar? Perhaps, the home of our old friend Hagrid?

While there has been no confirmation of what element the ride will be based on from the Harry Potter universe, speculation has been mounting over the attraction's track so far.

Earlier this year we may have been given a decent clue from a 'Coming Soon' poster for the ride which features a flying pixie, and a rollercoaster track that dives in and out of the Forbidden Forest.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade already contains a Hagrid-inspired ride where Buckbeak observes witches and wizards as they are whisked around his hut. If another attraction based on the Forbidden Forest or Hagrid's Hut proves out to be true, it'll be interesting to see even more new plans develop if Universal Orlando transforms Flight Of The Hippogriff into another ride.

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The addition of trees for the Harry Potter coaster has begun. - #universalstudios #islandsofadventure #dragonchallenge #duelingdragons #orlando #florida #intamin #intamincoaster #harrypotter #hogsmeade #rollercoaster #thrillridesphotography #RPSrepost #TPIrepost #accessairtime #instaacn #lovedragonchallenge

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One missing piece of the ride's layout is the formation of another central building located in the far back of the attraction, where the old Dragon Challenge's queue existed. Even though there's no nearby-buildings around Hogwarts as we know it in the books and movies other than Hagrid's Hut, there's a few loose theories of what the new building might eventually turn into: The Boat House surrounding Hogwarts, The Shrieking Shack, or perhaps another Hogsmeade Station. Some speculate that it might be The Great Hall from Hogwarts, which seems a little far-fetched since Hogwarts is located right around the corner.

Nevertheless, the new ride at Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade could easily take the form of a “Care of Magical Creatures” class taught by Rubeus Hagrid (with Robbie Coltrane reprising his role) and plenty of lovable creatures from the series for fans to come across. We'll have to wait and see as more developments take place in the upcoming months!

Is Hagrid Inspiring A New Ride at Wizarding World of Harry Potter Orlando? We're definitely looking forward to what Universal Orlando Resort will conjure in Summer 2019.