"After all this time?" "Always," said Snape.

19th April 2012.. the day I went to the Harry Potter Tour at Leavesden Studios. It was possibly one of the most exciting and overwhelming experiences of my life. Warner Brothers have done a fantastic job of making sure their visitors definitely get their money's worth as every single prop and detail you can think of was there; and even the ones I hadn't thought of!! A visit is a MUST for any Potter nut like me as I loved every second of our five hour journey round!

The tour starts where we first meet the ten year old Daniel Radcliffe in the films, the cupboard under the stairs of course! It was good that you could have a good old gander at this while you were waiting for your allotted time slot. There were family pictures of the Dursleys, including Uncle Vernon outside Grunnings. Your smallish group then moves through to a cinema section that covers the story of the Harry Potter films from the 'low priority' shelf right through to the giant production family and fanship; it brings a tear to the eye!

The moment you step into the Great Hall you know that you are in for a treat for the rest of the day! I felt like I was really in a castle with the stone floors and the detail in everything, despite there not being a magical ceiling. My favourite part of the room was definitely the fire place, you just got lost in the detail when you were looking at it; the Hogwarts crest and the blackened stone.. every last inch of detail.

The costumes on the tour were absolutely gorgeous, the pictures definitely don't do them any justice. The designs were amazing so no wonder they looked so good on screen. There were costumes in every set for you to look at and there was even a huge selection of wigs and tattoo designs. You can see how excited Leah was to be hanging out near Snape, look at that face! :P I loved the Yule Ball costumes the best, as well as Snape of course.

If the costumes weren't enough for you then the sets would definitely take your breath away! It was impossible to take in all of the work that had gone into making the sets so life-like, they really did feel magical! Even though you couldn't go into the rooms, a glimpse into the world of Harry Potter was amazing, I just couldn't believe how much thought had gone into each set with the decor and the props; there was even an empty pack of Bertie Botts Beans in the Gryffindor common room.

The props... there were just so so so so so so so many props! Here are a few of my favourites as I would be here for a week explaining each and every prop section. The monster book of monsters and Dobby were in a really interesting room that told you all about the animatronics in the film. They showed you how they created Aragog, Buckbeak, Gringott's Goblins, Dobby, Thestrals and even the Mandrakes! The Cabinet of newspapers and flyers really shocked me because they were all so intricately designed and so beautifully authentic. In the main area there were plenty of glass cases with really important props in; I loved seeing the philosophers stone and the time turner as well as poring over the case of horcruxes, how beautiful is Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem? Not so lost any more.

There were plenty of photo opportunities in the outdoor part of the tour as you get to knock on the door of number four, jump onto the Knight bus and into the Ford Anglia or Hagrid's motorbike. Amazingly these were all FREE and had teeny tiny queues :) we just went over when they were a little quieter so we didn't feel too rushed. There was chance to have a professional picture indoors on a broomstick where they make it look like you are flying over Hogwarts; these are quite steep at £12 for one picture but luckily they offer three for £18, perfect for our trio!

The last section of the tour shows you how Hogwarts was created. There are literally paper models of everything where they still didn't slack on the details; each hole in the Owlery had a teeny tiny paper owl! The model of Hogwarts was breath-taking, the pictures don't do it justice by FAR! I had so much fun searching for the greenhouses, stone circle, Hogwarts bridge, the clock and the boat house.

Before you leave and spend hours in the gift shop you pass through a recreation of Ollivander's wand shop. Each wand case had a name of someone that worked on the Harry Potter films, not just the actors and J.K. Rowling though! There was the name of every architect, plumber, make-up artist, producer and so many more. It was an amazing way to end the tour as it makes you realise how many people contributed to my favourite franchise of all time and that isn't even including the millions of devoted fans that made it the phenomenon that it is.

Just in case you were wondering, I bought a replica of Hermione's wand and a Hogwarts book from the gift shop that I plan to fill with ticket stubs, photos and quotes!