All of my life I have had a funny relationship with Harry Potter.
I remember the exact airplane trip when I was 5-6 that my dad started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to me. I was hooked. Every book release was like discovering a delicious new flavor of ice cream. I had a Harry Potter bedspread, two journals, figurines of all the characters, a signed photograph of Daniel Radcliffe, a candy potion maker, a Sorting Hat pillow with attached house crests in its mouth, a Hedwig plushie, and a wand. When I was 11, I waited for my Hogwarts letter. That was the same year I accidentally hit my head on the edge of my dresser and obsessed over what appeared to me to be a scar-shaped scratch on my forehead. Began to draft a letter to J.K. Rowling about this tremendous coincidence. Changed my mind. Then I hit book five, right in the midst of an age where assigned readings in school made reading for pleasure not so pleasurable anymore. Also, I was annoyed with Harry for being such an angsty, whiny little fifteen year old. So, I stopped following the books and was content with just watching the movies.
As you know, last week was the release of the final movie. Kena (loyal to the end, she was!) and I decided we had to go all out. We dressed up, she as a Hufflepuff student and me as Moaning Myrtle. We baked Pumpkin Pasties from a recipe in her Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. The premiere was a blast! When those end credits rolled, I knew it wasn't over. I mean, the series was over (and our childhood) and everything, but I still have a job to do. I have to finish those books.
What kind of friend would I be if I deserted Harry just because I thought he was being obnoxious! It's not like his parents died or had powerful dark wizards out to kill him or anything...
So, that's my current mission. Reading the entire series, beginning to end. Right now I'm on book three! What an incredible story. I loved the movies and everything, but I can't wait to truly finish the adventure that I started so many years ago.
If Moaning Myrtle had a Facebook... haha! She'd be really attached to her toilet.
I hope you like my costume! It was entirely thrifted except for my stockings, which I found in Walmart. My Ravenclaw tie was DIY, just used a normal blue tie and a silver sharpie.
/geek out
