Blog Post #1 Response: Growing

Harry Potter, for me at least, is a huge part of my childhood. I started reading the books in 4th or 5th grade in my schools FOCUS class. There were about 20 of us and we had been in this class together since 2nd grade, so we were pretty good friends. At first my classmates did not seem particularly interested in the story, but about when Harry got to Hogwarts I stopped waiting to find out what happened next. I asked my mom to buy me my own copy of the book. I read it between classes, on the bus, on the playground, anywhere I could tuck myself away for a chapter or two. Hogwarts swam around in my head, and where ever I was became my common room. The FOCUS group got into it too, and together we urged the teachers to start the second book once the first had finished. I lent the book to my friends outside of FOCUS when I finished it, and they burned through it just as I had.

My friends and I eagerly awaited the release of each book. We would stand in a clump together in the middle of the store, dressed in black bathrobes with sticks in our hands, for hours before midnight. Our expectations soared when we found out they were turning Harry Potter And the Sorcerer's Stone into a movie. After all the movies we would emerge ranting about how "they" took our favorite parts out, or that vital information was missing. After the 6th book, one of my friends and I started writing, not about what we thought would happen in the 7th book, but about the next dark lord. What they would be like, how they would succeed where Voldemort failed.

Other books have not captured my imagination the same way Harry Potter has. Hogwarts has become a very real place inside my brain. I thought it would fade into the background of my mind once I went to college, but I was dead wrong. I want more. Not more Harry though. I want to know about the Grindelwald wars and how that wizarding war may have affected Muggle history of World War II. I want to follow James as he goes to school and meets Lily. I want to know more things that relate to things I can't post here yet because we can't give out spoilers.

I don't want it to be over. I'm not ready for it to be over.