Journey through the Harry Potter series

Hello, chaps!

I'm sure that all of you are familiar with the wildly popular Harry Potter series. In fact, the last film is to be released in July 2011. Whether Harry Potter will die slowly or quickly after this demise, I cannot say, but for now, I'm going to be looking at Harry Potter with brand new eyes, (and possibly the eyes of six years worth of HP obsession).

Yes, I am a Harry Potter dork. Perhaps not as dorky as some, but I do love the series, and spent first, second, and third grade reading the series over and over again in a continuous loop. Of course, back when I was in thirdish grade there was only Harry Potter 1-6, so I had to make do with that. I think I read all the books about five times, at least. And that's not including all the nights I spent having Harry Potter being read to me. Harry Potter. It was ridiculous. It was extraordinary. It was like elementary school crack. (Pardon the drug reference. But it really was.)

Unfortunately, after I lost someone who shared my Harry Potter obsession and guided me through my Harry Potter experience, I avoided the series, not intentionally, I don't think, but there was something in my subconscious mind that didn't want me to read it. I was probably too young to really identify the series with that person, and be desperate to avoid the emotional pain to come with reading it again. But alas, I saw the movies that came out after that, and enjoyed them, (sort of).

A year later, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out.

The damn thing was everywhere. Every bookstore you walked into had a six foot poster of the gangly, mussy haired, lightning bolt scarred boy-now man-who's story we all had an obsession with. As the summer neared closer, more and more kept popping up. Get the Harry Potter book at midnight. Harry Potter here! Get it at Midnight! Harry Potter? Yep, it's here! It was like I was in a horror movie.

But I really did want to read it. The addictiveness of Harry Potter crack was seeping through my veins, and indeed, I needed to go get this book at midnight. Dad, I seriously need to go get this book at midnight. Dad? Hey dad? Ever heard of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Yeah, I kind of need to go to Barnes and Nobles at midnight and get the book, otherwise I will be in so much pain, it'd be like I was under the Crucius Curse.

"I would take you, but I think you're going to be in Cincinnati when the book comes out."

As you can guess, compromises simply had to be made.

So I dragged my aunt, who had no interest in reading Harry Potter, to a supermarket in Ohio so we could wait in line for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She was puzzled to see many middle aged men dressed in Hogwarts cloaks and I could see her checking her watch every couple of moments. I was in no Harry Potter heaven, either. It was a supermarket, so there were fluorescent lights buzzing, and the polished white floors and walls and ceiling made me feel like I was in a spaceship, about to be probed. I thought about how nice it would be to be at Barnes and Nobles, where the floor was carpeted and there were books surrounding me, keeping my company. The highlight of the evening, though, was winning a raffle and getting a free copy, as opposed to paying the 40$ they were charging.

So we drove home. I tried to make out the lettering of the first chapter through the glints of passing street lamps, buried my nose in the book all the way up the stairs and into the loft that was in my little cousin's room. I read five chapters, then fell asleep. I woke up the next morning, refused to socialize, and read, nonstop, up in my room. I read in the car on the way to my grandparents. I read in my grandparents room. I finished all thirty seven chapters in ten hours. I read the epilogue, buried my face in the book and cried because it was over, wiped away my tears, put the book away on my shelf, and never touched it again.

Now here is where all my rambling and storytelling and reminiscing ends. You may be thinking,
"Wow Hannah. Is there a point to this story?" Why no, my friends! Quite honestly, if you wanted to get to the point of my post and skip over the mumbo jumbo, you could have just scrolled down to right about here.

I am on a quest. I am going to read one, yes only one, chapter a day of every single Harry Potter book. I want to look at the book with the eyes of a more experienced and mature person. I want to feel the same delight and wonder as I did when they were first read to me. Also, I felt like an idiot when I sat down after the ELA classes went to see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part I, was grouped with the people who had read the book before, and had absolutely no clue what anyone was talking about, considering I read all 700 and something pages in ten hours five years ago.

I did the calculations (because that's just what I do in my spare time), and I will be able to finish all seven books before the final movie comes out. And I need you, yes you, to help me. (No, I actually don't. That just seemed like the cliche thing to say. I'm doing this completely by myself.) But, after I finish each book, I will blog post about it. Yay! That is all. Go back to your facebook pages now.

(P.S.- I finished the first book, and since I'm afraid Ms. Robbins won't believe I'm doing independent reading since this post isn't technically about my independent reading book, I'm going to write about Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone here.)