When I first heard the song The Weapon, I was at the Toms River public library attending my very first wizard rock concert.  It was May 13, 2006.  I had just received my driver’s license the day before and it was my very first taste of having the freedom of driving all by myself.  Of course I wasn’t exactly all by myself; my best friend since kindergarten, Melissa, rode shotgun in my recently acquired, slightly used black Jeep.  

We arrived late, having followed the wrong van and due to my co-pilot’s knack for announcing each turn after said turn needed to be made.  We had missed the opening band and entered in the midst of Harry and the Potters first song, Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock.   Perfect theme music for Melissa and me.  There we stood: two green and sliver clad girls, Slytherin ties strung around our necks, and dark marks painted on our forearms.  The very embodiment of pure, Death Eater-esque evil.  Awkward.

The tune, however, was catchy and the round spectacle wearing crowd was already riled up and dancing, belting out lyrics about not letting the Dark Lord ruin their party.  We immediately spotted Jose, our long-haired, flamboyant friend having a seizure up front.  Upon further inspection we realized he hadn’t suddenly become epileptic, he was simply ‘dancing’,  and he was also with Lauren, the Mexican hippy, Meghan, the shy comedian, Carly, the self-doubting artist, and Superhero Alex, the awkward gay… superhero.  

Now, from earlier experience attending concerts in New Jersey, I knew that it was not possible to get from the back of the crowd to the very front without having to put up a fight.  I, wearing my steel toe Docs, was prepared for our expedition to our friends who had noticed we had arrive and were bidding us to the front.  I stepped up to the crowd, got into my fighting stance, and the crowd parted.

I stood with my friends that day and danced and sang and cheered and rocked it out with the wizards.  When the bubble machines began to expel bubbles into the hyper crowd, I heard the lyrics that made me want to continue attending wizard rock shows.  

“And the one thing we got is enough to save us all.  The weapon we have is love.”

Lauren was our ride to Philadelphia, or as us Harry Potter fanatics call it, Potterdelphia. She bailed on us to go see some mother fucking snakes on a mother fucking plane. I still had my provisional driver’s license and therefore could not drive past midnight or with more than one person in the car.  Megan still did not have a car and Jose’s lovingly dubbed grandma mobile was not capable of making the long journey.  After much begging and pleading and, I’ll admit, some bribery on my part, I was able to convince my mother to drive me to my second wizard rock concert.  

The three of us stood outside of the tiny church wondering how all of the people waiting with us were going to fit inside of the miniscule basement.  We layered in Order member by Death Eater, Slytherin by Gryfindor.  We ended up in the very front, so close that I received a sweat shower from Harry Potter (Joe) and nearly had a guitar-face collision with Draco Malfoy’s (Brian’s) guitar.  

This was the night I was introduced to the Hungarian Horntails, way back when it was just two little boys screeching on a stage and pretending to play guitar.  Draco and the Malfoys played after the Horntails and I immediately fell in love.  No, I did not swoon.  I simply enjoyed their head banging, evil wizard rock.  I had nearly concussed myself by the end of their set.  Then the Potters took the stage.  They, as always, ended their set with The Weapon.  Hands formed into the shapes of hearts rose within the crowd.  We became one.  Especially my friends and me.

That was the night we first met and spoke with the bands.  The Malfoys, Brian and Brad, loved my “Voldemort is Awesome” shirt and were more than willing to autograph it and start a conversation about art.  Joe and Paul, the Potters, were exhausted from their tour and excited about heading home that night.  Yet they still took the time to talk to us.  We drove home feeling immortal.

Jose, Meghan, and I decided to take another trip to Potterdelphia to see our favorite wizard rock bands sans the Malfoys once more.  The Horntails had gained another member, a female singer, and had improved greatly.  The Potters also had a new addition to their band.  Baby Hagrid now played drums for both Harrys.  On songs that did not require drums, he would come out to the audience to dance with us.  

Again, The Weapon was sung by the Potters as well as the entire crowd.  This time, however, instead of throwing our arm into the air we threw them around each other, hugging one another as if we were a group of stoned hippies during Woodstock.  It was a beautiful night.

After the show Baby Hagrid, also known as Andrew, told us that we must attend the Hogwarts Square Festival in Boston in two days.  We had been planning the trip for weeks.

It was going on nine-twenty and we were still packing the van with supplies we would need for our trip.  Jose, the normally fashionably late one with every strand of hair sculpted into place, was complaining that he wanted to leave by nine and Lauren had brought so much food that the six of us could barely squeeze into the van adorned with inside jokes, such as “This van is a horcrux!” and “Toy Story 2 was ok!”   Meghan started off driving Lauren’s parent’s van donning the pink cowboy driving hat and releasing her goofy laugh into the back seat.  Superhero Alex Quinn was already nodding off and Carly was reading.  It was a mellow journey for a while until Meghan and Jose exchanged places and Meghan unleashed the video camera.  That’s when we began to sing the Pokémon theme song, start a man driving with a cigar count, make fake reservations at our friends work (we’d like to reserve a table for Rufus Scrimgeour party of fifteen for five o’ clock), and getting hyped up for the concert we were about to attend.  We were ecstatic just being ourselves and being with each other.

It wasn’t until I had been driving for almost two hours that we got lost for the first time.  We had finally made it to Boston and my co-pilot, the Superhero, decided to inform me that he doesn’t understand the directions.  Finally, after many wrong turns and a call to the band, we made it to our hotel and were informed that you must be twenty-one to check into a hotel in Boston. None of us were.  Finally, the hotel let us in with a faxed consent form from Jose’s father and we went to search for the infamous ‘Hogwarts Square’.  

When we made it into the park, tired, a little nauseous from Jose’s driving ‘skills’, but altogether excited, the band greeted us by name.  We all migrated up to the front row, dead center and rocked out with the wizard rock bands that we had come to see while being videotaped and having pictures of us taken by numerous cameras as the Hungarian Horntails, Draco and the Malfoys, and Harry and the Potters played their sets.  It wasn’t until the last song of Harry and the Potters set that I realized that I’d be moving in less than two weeks and that I would hardly ever see these people again.  But in that moment while the crowd and band shrieked out the cheesy lyrics I realized that these people were my family, that I could be myself around them, and that if they loved me despite my quirkiness, than I can be myself around everyone else.

As thousands of people sang “the weapon we have is love!” - I danced, jumped, sang, and hugged my friends as well as complete strangers.  

It was in these moments that the six of us realized that we’d never let anyone get in the way of our friendship.  We were a group that would stick up for one another, always be there for each other, and understand that sometimes you just have to let loose and dance like a five-year-old to songs about books.  We were Dumbledore’s Army.  

After that amazing event, I had one more chance to attend a wizard rock show.  Meghan was heading to Rutherford, New Jersey to meet up with Danii Dinosaur, the merch girl for the Potters and a good friend, and see a Whomping Willows and the Remus Lupins concert.  From Danii’s house, we took a train into New York and then the Metro to get closer to our destination.  Never again will we trust google maps!  We had been led in the wrong direction.  

After walking for miles, we arrived at our destination to find Matt a.k.a. Whompy and Alex of the Remus Lupins selling t-shirts and cds on the sidewalk.  We had missed the show.  

Alex and Matt were so upset that we had missed the show that they decided to play for us on the streets of Manhattan.  We danced while they sang and played guitar for us.  It was one of the best nights of my life.  

We were asked to attend the library show in Princeton which would also include The Moaning Myrtles.  Meghan and I had to work and Danii didn’t have a ride.  Alex is a very persuasive man.  A hug and a plead later and Meghan and I were calling out of work; Danii was scheming a way to come with us.

After a night of deceit, lying to work, my mother, Meghan’s parents, Danii’s father, and possibly a few strangers, we ended up in Princeton.  The show was amazing.  We named flavors of Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans, danced on the stage, and I even bargained a shirt off of Whompy for seven dollars and a hug (because Whompy is not a socialist).   

As I was leaving, my heart sank in my chest.  This was my last wizard rock show that I would be attending with my New Jersey friends and it was over.  It was strange to think that a few people singing songs about a book series could bring a group of people so close together; this was my family now, my wizard rock family.  As Alex says in one of my favorite Lupins’ song, “The wizard rock show you make new friends, you talk about how you hope it’ll never end.”

It’s true.  I never wanted it to end but it did.  I left for college in North Carolina a few days later in my slightly more used black Jeep.  My mother moved to Indian Trail a few days later.  I wasn’t going back to Jersey for a long time.

A few days into freshman orientation I realized that I had been searching for someone to spread the weapon of love around the school, to form a new wizard rock family.  And finally it clicked; I realized that that meant me so I began to introduce new friends to wizard rock.  We formed that wizard rock family bond.  It was like being home again.

I still miss my Jersey friends a lot.  We call each other often, talk online, message on facebook and myspace.  It’s very reassuring to be able to maintain those relationships because I have my new family at school but…

“I’m glad I have my army.”