It's Time To Write, Right?

Harry Potter books have always been an important part of my life. They taught me how to read, how to write and I like to think that they inspired my love for adventure. I bought the sixth book in London with my family. That’s when I found out that in Europe there is a different edition called “the Adult edition”.
In June of 2007, I was a seventeen years old girl going on her first solo trip to Italy. I was going to take the Art History and Human Relations courses my school offered in its study abroad program. This trip was really exciting for me for two reasons: the amazing opportunity of studying Art History in Florence; and that the seventh, and last, Harry Potter book was going to come out while I was there. I wanted the Europe edition of the last book and apparently I was going to be able to get it. It sounded too good to be true. Unfortunately, it was.
I decided I was going to be smart and save money for my book. Little did I know that saving money in Europe is a huge challenge. Additionally, we were told that our first exam would be on the very day Harry Potter was coming out. I was not worried about studying, the lessons were interesting and I had all my notes in order. However, all the notes in the world would not get me my Harry Potter book if it was sold out. I devised myself a plan that, with the risk of sounding too much like Johnny Cash, should be the envy of most any Harry Potter fan.
I started looking around for bookstores that would let me reserve my book. My Art History teacher, Giulia, was Italian, told me of a few bookstores she knew and told me that I should look for the word: “Riserva”. I thought I was all set. However, when I went out to look for a bookstore, I found none. I was almost about to give up when I decided to check one last place. It was a store with a red door and they had a “Reserve Your Harry Potter book” sign (if Giulia had not told me about “Riserva” I would have passed it by).
I went to the cashier and asked Ale (the cashier): “Libro de Harry Potter? Riserva?” She understood and gave me a list where I signed my name. Oh! Something worth mentioning: this bookstore did not charge me anything for my reservation. A few days later, it was 11 am and I was handing in my test. Then, I ran to the bookstore (with a couple of my friends running behind) and as they went to look for their books, the cashier smiled at me and gave me mine. Oh! And I got 95/100 on my test. Not bad for a teenager in Italy!
Would I go through all this again? In a magical heartbeat!