On 11/11/11, the final Harry Potter film was released on DVD.
The amount of Harry Potter nerd-ery that followed was almost unbelievable, though expected.
I am not a huge Harry Potter nerd.
Don't get me wrong, I love the books, and like the movies.
When I say "huge Harry Potter nerd" I'm mostly referring to people like my roommate's fiance.
Who has every single book nearly memorized.
Who knows everything about each character;
And the actors that portray them.
Who will pull random, nearly obscure facts from the books, or the companion books, or "Wizarding Guides."
That is what I mean by "huge Harry Potter nerd."
Though to be honest, for a while I regarded the movies with a certain amount of...distrust.
Because I'm not someone who would dress up in a black robe and paint a scar on my face for a movie premiere.
But also because, as my mom reminded me this last weekend, I have much different memories of the beginning of one H.J. Potter.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was published in the US in 1998, when I was 7 years old.
Back then, J.K. Rowling was just another children's-fantasy novelist.
No one knew much about her.
There was no "Potter-mania," no Hogwarts-themed parks, and no one had any idea who Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, or Rupert Grint were.
But my mom--probably not the only, but definitely the biggest reason my siblings and I love and devour books--had a hunch.
She's good with stuff like that.
I remember her offering the book as a potential bedtime story one night. Saying she'd heard it was good and thought we'd try it.
We were 4 & 7. Agreeable, easily excited. And a book about magic and adventure will hook just about any little kid.
I remember reading that book, one chapter--sometimes three if we were in a really good part of the story--a night.
I remember falling in love with the characters.
I remember coming to know them as "Hay-grid" and "Hermy-own."
I remember almost dying in anticipation, waiting for the next book to come out.
I remember pre-orders on Amazon.com, and haaaating that mom made us wait to finish the books together as a family.
I remember that even when we were older, she always made sure we read at least the first chapter or two together.
As she put it the other night, it was "magical."
I know, I know: it sounds like a corny pun, but it's absolutely true.
There was something so wondrous and beautiful about reading a new series for the first time.
About sketching the characters out in your head and feeling like they were your best friends, too.
About seeing Hogwarts as you thought it would be.
There was something about being young and believing in a world where magic was real.
Where unicorns existed and paintings spoke.
Where best friends were loyal and witty,
and darkness was always, in time, destroyed by light.
I am absolutely a book-first, movie-later girl.
(again, blame--or thank--my mother)
As I said, I like the movies.
They, for the most part, do a very nice job of portraying the magic Rowling painted on the page.
But...
I am so grateful to my mom for discovering the book and for introducing it to us the way she did.
I will always have good memories about Harry Potter.
In a certain way, it was really like magic, reading the books before any movies came out.
You can guarantee that my children will read the books before they watch the movies,
so they can experience a bit of magic themselves.
That made me teary. Thanks for the props. I truly have such wonderful memories of those first three or four books that we read together up in the room with the two matching beds Dad had made for you (in which Connor slept in more than he slept in his own room, probably) and just never wanting those stories or those sweet times to end. I guess it is time to put a ban on the movies for a time and read to the littles. Even if they have some preconjured concepts of the characters, there is still so much to the books. #'s 5, 6, 7, well, turns out I'm glad you were older when those arrived. You both pretty much grew up with Harry. i love you. You are an AWESOME writer; I love to read your posts!
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