User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4150927-20110715150438

Harry Potter is my life. I was introduced to it when I was about 9, by my friend, who liked Harry Potter. When you’re eleven, and you read a story like this, it’s amazing and it’s everything you could ever wish your life to be. I grew up with the series and it has helped me through so much. Without HP, I think I would be just another boring angsty teenager, so I'm am forever grateful to JK and this fandom. I could really go on forever about how well the characters are developed. I'm so into Harry Potter, I put it in reality sometimes, like going outside, getting a stick, and shouting "Expelliarmus!". I cannot put into words the things I've been through with HP. I can remember being ten years old, reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I had just moved in with my “evil” aunt after my parents passed away. These books gave me hope. In the back of my mind, I told myself that there was something else out there, that one day someone would come and take me away. Each year I grew with you, truly experiencing the emotion written on each page. I had hope that a long lost relative would show up and ask me to move in with them. While standing in front of platform 9 3/4, I could feel your apprehension. When you were looked at as an outcast because of your abilities, I could feel your sadness. When Sirius died, I truly felt your pain. When you fought Riddle and the Elder Wand, I felt your confidence. For the seven books that kept me company and the world I could escape to when normal life is too much for me. You have no idea how much these books changed my life- how I cried and laughed during the adventures, how I cried when Harry lost someone dear to him, how the books gave me a whimsical place where everything (except resurrecting the dead) could happen, and made me believe in magic-not exactly your kind of magic, but the kind I could make happen in my own little ways. Since then really, it’s been a love story pretty much. I loved going to midnight releases and snatching a copy as quickly as I could. I loved perfecting a British accent-for a while there, right when I discovered the books, all I did was talk in a British accent. Now, this is the only series I have read cover to cover, book one to book seven, repeatedly. I have the attention span of a fly. I could never put down these books. I love them. I love the lessons, the magic, the creatures, the morals, and the fight between good and evil, but most of all, I love the characters. I feel like I know these people, and they know me, better than anybody in the real world. It’s been a guide, almost, this series, as I navigated my way through the rest of elementary school and all of junior high and high school. I’m graduating in three days. I expect these books will be not only a huge comfort, but continue to answer all my most difficult questions, simply be the examples set and the mistakes made and the messages broadcast. Even though the last movie comes out today, Harry Potter will always remain in the hearts of those loyal to him. LONG LIVE HARRY POTTER. Thanks.