My Journey with Harry Potter

 As a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter, I wanted to update you guys on my adventure into Harry Potter as an adult. I had never read the Harry Potter series as a child because I grew up in a very strict, Christian household where my mother insisted that these books were witchcraft and most definitely of the devil. (Yet, I watched a lot of horror movies with my mom as a child? That's a story for another time.) So I went through my life up until now in a Potter-less state.

In the past few months, I was persuaded by many of my friends to read them. Thanks to the hubby buying the beautiful paperback set for me for my birthday, I set off on my adventure. Ashley and I set up a plan: read a book, watch the corresponding movie, etc. Right now, I am currently at 30% in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have read five of the books and watched five of the movies.

Before picking up the novels, I was 100% spoiler-free. I had gone my whole life with being spoiled on the single most important series of novels of our time. The moment I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, my Facebook news feed was full of quizzes titled "What dead Harry Potter character are you?" and photo collages reading "Which one HP character would you bring back to life?"

I did all I could to avoid such things. I scrolled rapidly and I exited out of anything remotely about HP. No matter what I did, spoilers would find their way to me. I'd be sitting in a class discussing a novel, when someone would speak up and say, "this was like when so-and-so died in HP!"

How did I manage to avoid 22 years of spoilers only to be overcome with them once I touched that first book? I'll just blame it on bad luck. The moral of this tale is that as I complete the HP books, I would say I know 80% of the huge deaths and events of the final two books. This, however, does not stop me from being completely and totally immersed into the story. Rowling's writing is at an adolescent level, yet speaks to the child, teen, and adult in all of us. There is no one who wouldn't enjoy the tale of Harry Potter.

Now, the question everyone asks me: who is your favorite character?

Now fundamentally, I am a lover of villains and all things evil. Therefore, my truest answer to this question is Lord Voldemort. I do, however, love Snape as well. (This character is only somewhat spoiled for me so don't ruin it!) He is such an ambiguous character and I know that he is most likely going to be a good character in the end, but I love the way you just never know with Snape. I may also love him because he's the head of my house but let's not pretend I'm one without bias.

💜 Crystal

What else are you interested in knowing about my experience with Harry Potter as an adult? Drop your questions and comments in the comments section!