HARRY Potter creator JK Rowling put her best foot forward when contacted by a young fan…and sent her a pair of her old boots.
Now the well-worn footwear are to be auctioned to help fund Potter lover Emily Waldo’s university studies.
And the boots – worn by Rowling when she penned the first book about the schoolboy wizard in an Edinburgh cafe – are set to conjure up an incredible £20,000.
Emily, from Omaha, Nebraska, was just 10 when she wrote to the author as part of a school project where pupils asked celebrities to write about their lives from the viewpoint of their footwear.
And she was stunned when a package arrived containing the boots and a hand-written “shoe questionnaire” from Rowling.
Emily, now 22, said: “I walked into the school office where there was a package addressed from England with about eight stamps in the corner.
“I knew exactly what it was. I vividly remember skipping up the steps to my classroom with a smile from ear to ear.
“I couldn’t believe it. I had the author of Harry Potter’s boots!
“I read the questionnaire aloud but her handwriting was a little difficult for me to decipher. And it took me years to understand how witty it actually was. I am indebted to JK Rowling for providing me with an experience that has enriched my life.
“Now I feel they could do someone else more good than collecting dust, hidden in my closet.”
Emily, now studying for an MBA at Nebraska State University, will use the cash to help fund her studies but she will also donate some money to her old school –Harrison Elementary – and to a cancer charity.
JK – now a multi-millionaire thanks to the worldwide success of the Potter books and films – wore the size six, lace-up boots while she wrote Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone in Nicholson’s cafe in Edinburgh.
Emily says she has only tried them on once.
She added: “I crammed my feet into the boots, realising that they had definitely been used. The insides were worn and one shoelace was far longer than the other. That was the one and only time I tried them on, knowing that they were very fragile.”
Harrison’s principal Shawn Hall said: “What JK Rowling has done for education and children cannot be measured.
“We are delighted that Emily has been so generous to her old school.”
And Andrew Liakos of Blue Earth Benefit Auctions said: “We are thrilled to offer memorabilia from such an iconic figure to the millions of JK Rowling and Harry Potter fans across the globe. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
A spokeswoman for Rowling said: “The donation of the boots is authentic.”
