Ok, I’m just going to come out and say it: I’m not just a fan, I’m in love. With Harry Potter that is. No, no. Not with the character himself, with the books. The whole Potter universe Rowling created had me in its claws the very minute I heard my first sentence of “The Philosopher’s Stone” (and yes I know that’s the British title and some expressions in the original version are just so weird but man, I wouldn’t have it any other way!).

Yes, heard. Because I didn’t actually read the first few chapters by myself. It was fall, probably around early October, when my aunt and uncle took me and my cousin on a weekend trip to a small youth hostel somewhere in the mountains. While the first night was dominated by the dog of her friend who had joined us peeing on everything, my aunt had to find a way to entertain my cousin and me for the rest of the trip – because the weather was simply dreary and we were starting to make, ahem, nonsense. (Like wanting to make coffee for everyone in the hostel and just leaving the pot of milk on the stove. Unattended. On high.)


Well, it just so happened that my aunt had taken the first Harry Potter book (and also the only one available in German at that time) with her to read to us. And as soon as she opened with “Mr und Mrs. Dursley im Ligusterweg Nummer 4 waren stolz darauf, ganz und gar normal zu sein, sehr stolz sogar.” (Which translates to “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” in the original version) I was hooked. This world, this fantastic and entirely magical world had reeled me in. I think to me the most fascinating thing about the books to this day is the fact that this wizarding world is so seamlessly integrated into our world it becomes almost real.


Now, back to our trip. Since there wasn’t much else to do with all the rain and fog going on my aunt just kept on reading to us. And when my cousin got bored I continued reading by myself. I just couldn’t stop! And my aunt, she was the sweetest. You know, this was the time people still had very huge cell phones and hers was constantly blinking in this green hue. Now if you’re not acquainted with Harry you should know that green flashes are a very dangerous thing in his world. And my aunt got up in the middle of the night to hide her phone because she was scared we’d wake up and freak out.

Now, so much for my love letter to Rowling’s work. There’s also a love letter to pie. This right here, stuffed with the most delicious pumpkin filling and nicely spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Just like Harry and his best friend Ron shared on their first journey to Hogwarts. Only they wouldn’t call them pumpkin pie cookies but pumpkin pasties. And theirs were probably a lot bigger than those cuties right here. But it’s the inspiration that counts.