Locals visit author J K Rowling at Winter Gardens
By Leigh Forster

October 23 - a day that should have been like any other day. People of all ages sat squirming in their seats at the Winter Gardens, gripped with anticipation. They laughed nervously, clutching their hands in their laps, and holding their breath.

Why all of this fuss? Who were these audience members so eager to see? The answer; J. K. Rowling, world-renowned author of the Harry Potter books.

A nation-wide contest determined who would attend the event.

The audience was made up of bookstore employees/ owners, librarians, and many lucky young contest winners and their parents. So we of Forster's Book Garden - Donna, Paul, Leigh Artemis Forster, and three friends of mine (Sarah, Bea, and Matthew) were up at 5:30 a.m., preparing to see our favourite author.

Hours of being stuck in traffic were well worth it when Rowling stepped onstage. She began by reading an excerpt from the latest book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The audience loved it, laughing as she went from calm narrator, to portraying a very angry Hermione Granger.

"She got really into it," says Sarah. "She portrayed the characters as only an author can."

Afterwards, some of the audience members asked JK a few questions, (which had already been approved by Raincoast) and she was happy to answer them. She revealed that she thought Quidditch could only have been made up by a woman, as women are "better multitaskers," explaining that Quidditch required the players to be aware of more than one ball at a time during play.

During the release of the seventh book, Raincoast had given bookstore owners large parchment pages which they wanted fans to sign. The pages were then shipped back to Raincoast to be made into a leather-bound book containing more than 1,000 pages of personal thanks for JK.

The look on her face when she was presented with not one, but two enormous leather-bound books was enough to warm even the coldest of hearts.

The most exciting part came last; the audience was called up row by row to receive a signed book, straight from the author herself!

Matthew Shoalts, being only four rows back from the stage, was the first of us who got opportunity to actually see the author. Matthew is probably one of the biggest fan of the books that the world has ever seen, but even we were surprised when Rowling stood up and hugged him.

As it turns out, Matt had given her a replica of Marvolo Gaunt's ring as a present. He left the stage crying. "She hugged me! She hugged me!"

"I am looking into the mirror of Erised right now," he told me later. "Nothing is different."

We were among the last to go up, not that we minded. We each exchanged a few words of congratulations with JK, and my father even high-fived her. "I am never washing this hand again!" he proclaimed on the ride home.