This time I didn’t mean to write Harry Potter lyrics.
The plan was to personalise Ed Sheeran’s “Castle on the Hill” with nostalgic memories from my own childhood. Because most of these lyrics were Harry Potter-related anyway, I just went with it.
Hogwarts Castle on the Hill
When I was eight years old I met some friends They were living in a book and in my head I tasted the pumpkin juice through the pages that Jo wrote down I was younger then, take me back to when I Found my letter, broke its seal Made magic spells with wizard peers I can’t believe it’s twenty years, so long since Sorcerer’s Stone But Hogwarts is my real home
I’m on my way Flying my Nimbus down those Hogsmeade lanes Humming to Hedwig’s Theme And I miss the way you make me feel Magic’s real We watched the books end over the castle on the hill
Fifteen years old and writing my own Daily Prophet Reading through the debates and the fan theories and defending Snape to my friends Had my first book release at midnight, I got most of the trivia right But I was younger then, take me back to when We found magazines with clips to save We’d buy the chocolate with cards to trade My friends and I have not dressed up in so long in robes we’d sewn But Hogwarts is our real home
I’m on my way Flying my Nimbus down those Hogsmeade lanes Humming to Hedwig’s Theme And I miss the way you make me feel Magic’s real We watched the books end over the castle on the hill
One friend’s into Game of Thrones One likes Hunger Games the most One makes unboxing videos One wears superhero clothes Most have Hamilton memorised One left us for Twilight but These people read with me and Hogwarts is our real home
And I’m on my way, I still remember Those pre-book 7 days When we did not know what hallows were And I miss the way you make me feel, magic’s real We watched the books end over the castle on the hill Over the castle on the hill Over the castle on the hill
A funny thing I’d like to share
Everything in the lyrics is true, except that I wasn’t 15. I wrote The Daily Prophet when I was 9, and attended my first book release at age 12, but 15 sounded better rhythmically.
A little while after writing these lyrics, I saw in print in the Guardian magazine, an article about Harry Potter superfans, featuring…me!
As the lyrics suggest, I did save magazine clippings, and wallpapered my closet with them. Not just of movie stills, but of literally anything Harry Potter related. It occurred to me that as a child I would have probably cut out the picture of me and put it on my wall.
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