After seeing the last Harry Potter movie last night (yes, it involved many tissues), my best friends and I wondered: How are we supposed to move on with our lives Post-Potter? The books have been all written, the movies have all been made. What’s next? What can fill the gaping hole?
Muggle-Born’s Advice for Coping with Post-Potter Stress Disorder
1. Read lots of fan fiction. Fan fiction is a great way to immerse yourself back in the Potter world. There are hundreds of thousands of fan fiction out there waiting to be read. I admit most is utter crap, but if you know how to find them, there are some gems worth the attention. Browsing through some livejournal communities for recommendations are a great place to start. Other archives such as the Harry Potter Fan Fiction archive has a list of recommended fics.
If you know me well enough, you’d know I’m a die-hard shipper of Draco/Hermione. The ship has a really strong fan base – enough for them to hold yearly (or is it even bi-yearly) awards highlighting the best fan fiction and fan art out on the Internet. If you’re interested in Draco/Hermione, feel free to ask me for recommendations. Hawthorn & Vine is also a fantastic archive for Draco/Hermione fan fiction only.
2. Reread the series and watch the movies all over again. Marathons are fun. Reliving the magic once more can never get old.
3. Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I actually haven’t been there yet, but trust me, I will get myself there soon.
4. Play some quidditch! Or watch. After seeing last year’s Quidditch World Cup, I vowed that I’d go again this year. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and it felt great to be surrounded by other Potter fans. Because they will understand exactly what you’re going through.
5. Try a new recipe. At home, we love to experiment with food and try Harry Potter inspired recipes. I don’t have the recipes off-hand but there are lots of great recipes for butterbeer online (alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike) as well as these awesome Cauldron Cake recipe that my brother tried out. (I will try and ask him to find the recipe! It was to die for.) For my 18th birthday, my brother even went out and made me a snitch shaped birthday cake! The possibilities are endless.
6. Play videogames. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and buy LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 before Years 5-7 come out in December. It really is a lot of fun and it takes you through Harry’s journey.
7. Go camping. My family and I are going camping this weekend at a place where they have old-fashioned tents. It reminds me of Harry Potter. I’m going to pretend I’m on the search for Horcruxes this weekend. If you don’t see me much this weekend, you’ll know why.
How are you coping with Post-Potter Stress Disorder?
What a great list – Harry Potter FF.com is my favourite HP FF site – and Fanfiction is a FANTASTIC way to get over Potter stress
I actually don’t read much on HP FF. I guess I go on more fandom specific sites.
Ha! This is great! Of course, we can always hope that Rowling will take a chance and write some more (maybe in Harry’s world…his kids perhaps?). I did Potter movie trivia on my site today — guess we’re all a bit nostalgic! Thanks for the list. And your site looks adorable — love the colors and the font choices.
Happy reading,
Mary @ Book Swarm
Thanks for stopping by! Hm, while I would love to never let go of Harry, I don’t think I’m all for a spin-off series.
Love this post. Almost had a similar post. I was going to talk about my friend who decided not to read the 7th book, as her way of coping for the series not to end, can you believe that?
Anyways, I loved the Wizarding World. I hope you get there soon!!
Oh geez! I can’t imagine not reading the last book! That’s insane.
Awww, such a sweet list! <3 But I'm in a state of denial until I watch the last movie. NO. IT'S NOT OVER YET.
Haha! I hope you read it soon.
I totally meant *watch*.
You should totally get the Harry Potter cookbook, if you haven’t already. :]
Yes! I’ve been thinking about it but I haven’t actually gone out and gotten it.
It’s pretty nifty.
I LOVE this post. Thanks for the help. I can use it right about now
No problem.
I haven’t seen the last movie yet and right this second I had to endure blasphemous words from a Harry Potter hating co-worker. It hurt my ears to hear such cruelty. -weeps internally-
Anyway my friends and I are going to have a HP movie marathon this weekend before we see the last movie on Sunday. We’re actually making plans now of what food to have and drinks and things to take to keep us going for 17.5 hours.
You’ve just reminded me that we need some sort of dessert and I might try making butterbeer!
Ugh, I can’t stand Potter-haters. They must have a gaping hole in their hearts.
Haha.
Good luck with the marathon! I find them really difficult to sit through!
We all did start feeling it by the third movie.
We watched the first 2 one night and the rest the next day.
My little brother couldn’t last, but I saw that coming but the rest of us made it to the end xD. We made the butterbeer for the last movie and I couldn’t even finish mine because each sip was slipping me into a sugar coma. It was delicious though :).
I might go check out some fanfiction I certainly haven’t read any in a long time.
Have a Harry Potter themed party is always a good way to do all of these. Dress up, make lots of HP themed foods (I made Chocolate Frogs, licorice wands, jelly beens, butterbeer, rock cakes, and so on). Though I am feeling really lost today. I can’t believe it’s all over!!!!!!!! *cried*
Yes! Great idea. But I do wish we had magical chocolate frogs in real life.
I am definitely re-reading the books and am re-watching the movies. I love this post
I saw the last movie last night! Cried like a little girl in the theater. I can’t believe all the movies are done now.
Actually having a marathon right now of the first five movies. I’ve made butterbeer before and it was pretty awesome.
Haha, I think we ALL cried. I can’t remember any other time when I went to the movies and heard so many other people sobbing around me.
Oh my gosh, I’m pretty sure the girl behind me was crying during the opening scenes!
I just got my mom to read the first book! She’s about halfway through and enjoying it. I’m jealous that she’s getting to read them for the first time! 
Oh man! I wish I could get my mom to read the books.
hehe, i might have to take you up on some recs! I was really into fanfiction after finishing book 6.. not so much anymore but still.. it was quite a phase :p I love this post
Teehee. Okay
I think I will be sending you an email then.
I just bought the full HP collection from Bloomsbury so I’ll most probably comfort myself by going on a reading binge.. ^_^
Oh SWEET! I am actually missing books 1 and 3 from my collection. *hangs head in shame.*
I see..
I never got the chance to own them, so this is my first time really.. 
But now, they look so good just lying in the box that I feel bad for reading them. 
LOL!
You’re a fan of Draco/Hermione fanfiction, are you? Have you read Sarah Rees Brennan’s D/Hr fanfic, “Draco Malfoy, the Amazing Bouncing… Rat?”?
WOW. I had no idea she wrote fanfiction.
I don’t think I actually read that one since based on my research she took it down way before I actually started reading fic. Maybe I’ll check it out eventually though! That’s so funny to hear that authors started out writing fan fiction. 
I definitely have to read her books now.
Heh, yeah. I used to be a fan of both Sarah’s and Cassandra Clare’s HP fanfiction back in the day before they were published authors and had to remove their stories. As far as fanfiction goes, theirs was very, very good compared to the usual. They both featured Draco in all of their fanfics too. Typical that they would be into the snarky badboy given the characters that they write in their novels now.
Sarah put out a pdf download of all her fics years ago for a limited time right before she was published and I managed to snag it. They’re pretty much all Harry/Draco. If you’re interested, I can email it to you, just let me know.
^ Yes! I saw that she had posted all of her fics up. Haha, I’m really not that into Harry/Draco so maybe I will pass. But thanks for the offer.
You know, I always said that if I were to write a novel, I would base my bad boy off of Draco Malfoy. I guess I won’t be the first. Darn!
I’m going to be going the marathon route. I’ve been wanting to reread the books for ages now.