User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4195149-20110724114733

I remember the day I got my first Harry Potter book. It was back before I had even started school I was barely 4 years old. Harry Potter was probably the first proper book I had ever read for myself, a book without pictures and pop ups. I was dazzled by Rowling’s language it’s fluid and easy-to-read it was perfect for a child with basic English skills

Our hero Harry, was easy to relate to. He wasn’t the biggest, cleverest, or strongest, but he had a heart and hope and ambition that spoke to a child like me. If 11 year old Harry could do all this stuff, what could I do. Although I related more to Hermione, I was the nerdy girl who always had her hand up and had little friends, I had big front teeth and slightly ginger hair. Hermione was my very first Idol, when most children my age wanted to be pop starts, I wanted to be Hermione. I wanted to be smart and brave and funny. I wanted to not care what people thought about me and have two friends that loved me so much I wouldn’t be able to live without.

When The Goblet Of Fire was released I knew that these books would change me forever, the fourth book has always been my favourite, I never wanted it to end. People I know complained about how dragged out the grave yard scene was but I wanted it to go on longer, I was fascinated by Voldemorts speech and when they began to fight it was so intense and dramatic. The Goblet of Fire was also when everyone, who hadn’t already, realised Ron and Hermione were meant for each other. Every chapter where Ron and Hermione weren’t fighting I prayed this would be the part where they got together.

By the time Order of the Phoenix came out my entire family had become Potter obsessed and we had started attending Borders at midnight to get the next 3 books as soon as they came out. One night me, my brother got picked up at 8 from a school disco, got dropped of at Borders where my mum was like 4th in line and waited until half 12 before we had successfully bought our book.

When Deathly Hallows came out, I must have terrified all the people in my class, I came in and read it during all the free time we had. When I read all the deaths and the Ron/Hermione kiss I’m pretty sure I had a slight emotional break down. The last chapter, broke my heart in to a thousand pieces, it wasn’t until that last paragraph that I actually realised it was over. There were three more films left to be released and I hoped that it would be years before the last one.

And now it’s 2011, its 11 years since I first picked up a Harry Potter book, its 10 years since I sat at the Warner Brothers cinema in Cheshire Oaks waiting for the series I love to be on that big screen. It’s 10 years since I fell in love with Rupert Grint and 10 years since I decided that I wanted to be Emma Watson. Its painful to know that in 7 days practically two thirds of my life will be over in away, the ending that I have anticipated for so long is now so close and I don’t want it. I don’t want it to end.

I have grown up with Harry. J.K Rowling taught me that there was no need to be afraid of being different, nerdy, ginger. I had people that loved me, and they were all I needed. J.K.Rowling is the reason I am the person I am today, without her I don’t think I would have loved reading so much, I don’t think I would have the strong feeling I have to become a writer, I don’t think I would have gotten over the bulling I faced for the majority of my life.

Tonight, while watching the last ever premier, I realised that my child hood is over, my childhood was spent waiting for a book release, waiting for the latest film adaptation to reach the cinemas. Now in 7 days that will be over. I have my tickets booked, my tissues bought and my Hermione outfit hung up ready and like all the other Harry Potter fanatics in my home town, I will be in line from the moment those cinema doors open to see the series off with a bang.

One day, I will read Harry Potter to my kids, I will watch the films with them and I will hope that they are touched by it as much as I was. I will tell them of the great times that my generation had with Harry. I will tell them how this humble book started a phenomenon and generated the largest film premier the U.K has ever seen. And I will tell them about how these books got me through some of the hardest times of my life. And for that I will love them forever.

Thank you J.K Rowling. Without you, I would still be that nerdy little girl in the back of the class room too scared to make friends.