The Beginning of The End: Our History with Harry Potter

Julyssa

HP helped me get out my inner nerd. It was the first step to my liberation. I had always been the hugest nerd, I was just closeted. HP broke that closet because there was no way I could contain that huge fandom in it, so me being myself is thanks to HP and I am incredible thankful.

Growing up, I was really not allowed to be myself. Yadda, yadda all that growing up too early stuff. Then at school, I was always the odd one out because I preferred other things to my friends. I have always been a bit introverted, loved books and been hungry for knowledge. Me liking Popeye as a child was considered weird.

This didn’t become better once in middle school and then junior high, there it was even worse because I was sadly part of the “cooler” crowd. Everyone was put into a category, had I been myself I would have been labeled as a freak (because I preferred rock over pop, books over boys) — something that didn’t appeal to me.

I’ll admit it, I was a coward. In junior high, one of my then-friends had been given the first HP book as an assignment. She hated to read, her teacher, trying to encourage her, gave her HP sometime during 1999 when the HP craze was on a roll. This girl had just thrown the book in her locker and dismissed it.

I was intrigued by the colorful cover and the name, took the book and read the very first page. I still can remember the moment in great detail. I remember what I thought as I read that page, I remember how I was blown away with that cheeky and comical introduction to the Dudleys “thank you very much!“. My eyes grew big, I smiled and I fell in love. One page and I was a goner.

But that girl took the book from my hands, threw it back in to her locker and dragged me from there. Two years later, when I was in high school and finally allowed to be myself (because I went to a different school than all my old friends), I spotted the Philosopher’s Stone lying on a book shelf in the English class room. I picked it up, recognized the name, read the first page, screamed a little from joy and I ran home.

I read the book that afternoon, got back to school the next day and borrowed the remaining three books from a class friend. I needed book five and I needed it stat, that was when I googled “Harry Potter,” found all the sites, the fanfics, the forums. A whole new world was open to me. A world that I had long to be a part of, a world that was perfect for me. I still kept it hidden, yet slowly but surely HP allowed me to be more and more myself.

I allowed myself to breathe, to be proud of who I am. Picking up that first book was the first step in me becoming who I am today. Without Harry Potter, I would have never stumbled upon Portkey.org, I would have never stumbled upon Amy’s cute little avatar, and then me and Amy would have never been friends.

Who knows? Maybe YAM wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Harry! HP allowed me to get back a little piece of the childhood I lost. I had stopped believing in magic such a long time ago, but that little lonely orphan with the scar on his forehead gave me a little hope back. But also, that little boy gave me strength as I went through some bad years in my life. His story became my anchor and I had a safe heaven where to hide when I needed to escape reality.

I guess that instead of drugs and alcohol, I read Harry Potter. I think that my parents should be really thankful for that.

5 Responses

  1. Julili says:

    “U have this cute little picture there (i don’t know what they are called) I just wanted 2 tell U that it’s so cute! Hahahaha

    Yeah his face expression was priceless! Lol!!”

    “Thank you for saying that the avatar I’m using is cute, because I did it! :D I love his expression in that shot~ ;)

    Keep in touch, will ya? I’m off to japanese class now… I need to review my lesson before my teacher beats me up, LOL”

    xD

    • amy says:

      @Julili, LOL – I was studying Japanese at the time. GOSH! I don’t think my Japanese has improved much since…

      by the way, the Swedish covers for the series are AWESOME.

  2. Rodrigo says:

    I forgot to mention that the POA film at the time was the one that I loved the most and pissed me off too at the same time, lol.

    • amy says:

      @Rodrigo, I had an interesting experience with PoA. It’s my fave book, but also my fave movie. I think it really struck a good balance of the book, movie and being fun and fresh. I mean, besides from the lousy werewolf (poor professor Lupin, indeed), it still feels like I haven’t watched it more than twice.

      • Rodrigo says:

        @amy, There was some things the film didn’t translate from the book that I valued a lot. Eventuallly, I did thought of POA as the best Potter film (until DHP1)… but a few more tweaks, a bit more of extra time and it could have been easily above the 4-star rank.

        Maybe I got enraged too at the time ’cause POA was the first Potter book I ever read. So amazing that Cuarón had to deal with an amazing book and adapting those was a hard task. Speaking of Cuarón, I wished he directed Deathly Hallows along with Iñárritu.

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