Muggle's Potter-Themed Proposal Almost Thwarted

In the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore finds Harry at Surbiton station in Surrey, England, and whisks him away to Budleigh Babberton—a scene meant to depict the promise of new beginnings. So when Samuel Goetsch of Houston took his Texan girlfriend of four years Stephanie Dodd to England over the holidays to meet his parents, he decided to pop the big question en route, at Surbiton station. "I had a plan to take the train to Surbiton and have my family waiting in the background to take pictures," he tells the Houston Chronicle. (It has a photo of the couple at the site.)

Unfortunately for the romantic, logistics got in the way. The trains weren't running to Surbiton from London because of routine maintenance, so Goetsch had to resort to a two-hour bus ride instead of a quick train and come up with an excuse about having work to do in Surbiton. Fortunately, they made the trip, and station workers let the couple onto the platform, where Goetsch got down on bended knee and proposed. And yes, he had a copy of the book with him, reports the Daily Mail. A wedding is planned for late 2015 or spring 2016. (Meanwhile, JK Rowling can't put her pen down.)