Harry Potter, I hate you

"What? WHY?" asked Vince, shocked. "You'll find out later, when I post my blog." I replied.

So just cuz I was bored and stuff I decided to re-read Harry Potter books 1-6 in preparation for the movie coming out in 82 days. I dont want to read the last one because I dont want to be mentally comparing it to the movie as Im watching it, I just want to appreciate it for what it is. NAH MEAN?

Any-who, I dont hate HP as the title suggests, but I used to.

FLASHBACK

It was the summer if 2000, I was 14 years old and an avid reader. I decided it was time to get into a new series of books so I wandered into a shop at the mall called IMAGINARIUM. The first thing I saw was a table full of books with some nerdy looking dude with glasses on the cover. I picked one up and thought to myself, "WELL, this looks popular maybe I should read it... but then again, Walden Books is just across the way so I'll take a look there before I make any purchases." So I browsed more books and I found a series called Dragonlance that sounded WAY cooler than Harry Potter, which looked like a little kid book anyway.

The following summer of 2001, I was browing the internets and my then favorite site Newgrounds.com when I noticed that there were a lot of videos of people hating on Harry Potter. They were all hilarious and I had some good lols and since all these people hated Harry Potter, I decided that I too hated Harry Potter. You see, back then, I had this habit of hating things because they were popular before checking them out first. Yeah, I was THAT person. So as the summer progressed I hated on HP and the more I hated the more intrigued I became with this character... and then the more I wanted to know about him. So I decided that I would read those books, even though I wanted to be a hater like the cool kids. I asked my mom to buy me the books and she said no. So then I asked her boyfriend and he said yes! And he bought me books 1-4 hardback at CostCo.

When I brought the books home I remember Rosanna was like, "EEWWW why are you reading that? HP is sooo lame" And I was like, "MAAN WHATEVER!" I read the first one and LOVED IT. I spent the rest of the summer reading the remaining three books and then I became obsessed. In between books 3 & 4 I forced Rosanna to read the first one and she got hooked too! So we were both crazies for the series from then on. We bought everything HP related and talked endlessly about the books and then when the movie came out??? We practically peed our pants.

I remember the day we watched the first movie like it was yesterday. It was in the fall and Rosanna and I went to San Marcos to watch it. I don't think we saw a midnight of it... we just went one day after school. I remember the music the most because it captured the magic of the Harry Potter universe. It was just so cool! Ive never been so fanatic over anything ever since Harry Potter it was just such a phenomenon! And it was because of HP that I told myself I would never judge or hate on something until I actually checked it out. And it was because of HP I wasnt ashamed of liking things that were different and I wasnt ashamed of being different. YUP. I love Harry Potter!

Im really excited for the movie but also sad because its finally coming to an end... but we will always have the books... so when we feel like we need a little bit of magic in our lives all we have to do it open the pages and be lost in the corridors of Hogwarts once again.