User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4147653-20110714182753

What does Harry Potter mean to me? Harry Potter means a cherished friendship that has lasted twelve years with no end in sight (contrary to the last movie's marketing "It All Ends"). Harry Potter has never left my side since I turned to the first page of Sorcerer's Stone as a child. When I was bullied, Harry empathized with his torturous years in the Dursley home. As Harry dealt with the tremendous trauma of the loss of his parents when the dementors came, I was suffering from my first painful loss when my grandmother died. Even when I had to jump into a trash dumpster to retrieve my book when a neighborhood bully said "reading is stupid" and threw it into the trash, I still had Harry by my side and I knew it would be okay because I got to be on CBBC news for seeing the first movie seven times and reading the first four books over one hundred times each. Twelve years later, Harry Potter has brought me midnight release parties, an impressive record of seeing the first seven movies a collective fifty-four times in theatres, an A on one of my first college papers on the phenomenon of Harry Potter, and the story of how I was first in line at eight in the morning for the last book and won the raffle to get the first place spot. Most of all, Harry Potter has brought me friendship, memories, laughter, tears, and indispensable life lessons on unity, freedom, love, acceptance, and friendship. When Harry found me, I was a quiet, bullied child and now I am a happy, successful student, devoted to Harry as ever. Jo said it best: "All was well."