On Victoria Street, I watched people line up to photograph themselves in front of a location widely promoted as the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter novels. What fascinated me was that J.K. Rowling has publicly denied the connection. Nobody in the queue seemed particularly concerned. The goal wasn’t to verify the story. It was to participate in it.
That tension—between the Edinburgh that actually exists and the one people come to find—followed me through the entire city.
