Because it needs doing! I, along with every other individual it seems, will be spending some time in the cinema this weekend watching the final Harry Potter film with a mixture of glee and sadness.
This, clearly, is a pre-viewing blog. So, other than simply exlaiming my excitedness, I thought I'd use this as a recap of my years with Potter, the books first and the films which naturally followed after.
Age 10 - The year I discovered the Harry Potter Books
To be fair, when I found them in the shop on the ferry to France, the second and third books had also been released, Rowling was writing the initial books in a year each. But, there I was, little 10 yr old me, holding the book which would lead to many years of Potter fandom.
That book I picked up on the ferry, I have since lost, which sucks because it was one of the original editions, with the minister of magic on the back cover, not Dumbledore. I also lent it to a friend, who scribbled all over the outside of the pages. I don't know if that copy would be worth anything now, in mint condition, but I am still peeved off about it.
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It was probably because I was the exact age that Harry was in the first book that made me go Potter crazy that summer. Now, you must realize that I have a vivid imagination, and a slightly obsessive personality. So when I get the idea in to my head that I wanted to go to Hogwarts too, I had some fun. I spent hours typing up the appropriate letters and shopping lists that any new student would receive -thank you, J.K. for including them or I'd have spent even longer creating my own. I fashioned myself a school uniform, and this being the days before the big manufacturing companies were involved with HP stuff, that included printing of the Gryffindor/Hogwarts badges for my clothes. And this is where I get really nerdy- I even wrote up my own timetable and 'attended' classes.
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I think two pieces of information would make this slightly more acceptable, first, I was an only child until the age of 7, and, so, had learnt fast how to entertain myself very happily. The second is that I was also a huge fan of Enid Blytons books, Mallory Towers and The Twins at St Clare's, so boarding school life was very attractive to me- it seemed like the place kids went to to have fun!
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*picOK, so, moving on from that initial summer of maddness, in which I read the first three books countless number of times (obsessive, like I said), and on to the following summer.
*picIn the interim, I had began karate lessons, in a church hall near our town center. I attended every Saturday morning. And, once a year for two years, a day would come along that would make me long to finish even earlier than normal weeks. That's right, Harry Potter 4 and 5 release dates! Mum would head into town once the class had started and return with a shiny new copy of the book I was desperate to read.
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So desperate, I began to read them the instant I was in the car and wouldn't stop until I'd reached the end. It was lucky, I guess, that I'm a fast reader. A speed reader, really. It took me less than four hours to read each of those books. Of course, I read them over, and slower, I just wanted to be the first to finish.
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There was, of course, many an hour spent on the fan sites, and RPG games. The Internet, for me, had finally reviled its true purpose :-) I spent far too long on various sites, learning and chatting and generally accessing a fantasy land that I loved.
It was in year 10, that I had many of my previous dreams come true. For an English Department open day, my teacher declared it Harry Potter themed- and I was allowed to be involved with the planning! We had a whole day, pretending to attend Hogwarts, in my very own school. Far to much fun to be allowed:-)
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The following year, or was it two years later, for book 6, I, along with a couple hundred others, lined up in Borders, to pick up the latest book at midnight on the day it was released. This was fun, but strange, as at this point in my life, staying up late really was a oddity. But there I was, feeling right at home in a book store, with 200 other people with whom I had one, giant, nerdy thing in common.
*picThe last book came out when I was in sixth form, so I had to be a little more mature about it then, but, there I was again, at good old Borders, waiting at midnight for funny little staff members, dresses in school cloaks, to pass me the final instalment of the beloved series that has truly dominated my pre-teen and teenage years.
4 years after that, hear we are. Waiting patiently for my chance to watch WB vision of a series that is so important to my transition from child to adult. Which is all very apt, as I was following the same, if much less turbulent path of Harry. Harry Potter party dream has became a reality, I too, have left school, and made some wonderful friends in the process and, I hope, I've learnt to be brave in the face of certain danger.
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I have no doubt I'll love the film, and I'm terribly excited, and If you have read this far on such a long post, I thank you, and hope you have a great time at the cinema this week end too.
Freya May
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