I remember watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with my family when it came out, I was amazed. But my parents didn’t like the whole idea of a magical place so they forbid me to watch or read anything about it.
I was so ashamed of saying that I couldn’t watch or read Harry Potter that I told my friends I thought it was silly and stupid and that I had no desires of knowing more about the magical world of Harry Potter. It was only when I was around 18 years old that I had a re-encounter with Harry Potter. My best friend kept telling me how the books changed his life and how I would love to read them. But by then I was used to not knowing anything about it, so it took him about a year to convince me that I should take on this journey.
I borrowed the first three books from a friend at work. São Paulo is a big city, and it took me two hours to get to work and sometimes two hours and a half to get back home, so I found out that those 4 hours inside public transports were the best hours for reading. With that I finished the first three books within four days.
The weekend came and I was without the fourth book to read, I was so excited and anxious to know the rest that I could hardly wait till I got back to work to get the other books. But my friend didn’t have them, so I had to search for someone else who did (at the time me and my best friend weren’t talking, so I couldn’t borrow his books). I finally got to borrow the next three books from another colleague. I read them as fast as I could, but sometimes it was impossible to read in the transportation, trying to hold yourself up, your things and read a book at the same time can be a big challenge.
I watched all the movies only after I read the books (at that time the Order of the Phoenix was the last one released), I really didn’t know anything about the stories (and could barely remember anything from the first movie, besides the Hogwarts Express and Ron charging the horse in the Wizard’s Chess). So a new amazement came with every chapter. Sometimes I would get home late and would finish the chapter I was reading even before eating, and I have to say: not many things keep me away from food.
The wish to talk with (at the time not so) best friend kept growing stronger and stronger, but unfortunately I couldn’t. I finished the sixth book before the seventh had come out in Portuguese, but fortunately (as you can tell) I speak, read, write and understand English very well. So at the same day, on my lunch break, I ran to the book store and purchased the Deathly Hallows, the English version. Forty two days had passed by from the day I picked up the first book to the time I read the last sentence of the seventh book. It was the most life changing forty two days of my life!
My life, thoughts and conversations were all surrounded by Harry Potter, and it was so nice to meet so many people excited about the story as I was! Just a little while after that my best friend and I got back to talking. We spent weeks just talking about every single Harry Potter detail possible.
That was around 5 years ago, and up to today I feel just as excited about Harry Potter as I did on the day that me and Harry found out he was a Wizard. Today I got the opportunity to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, two days before the world premier. It does not all end here. It will never end; at least not for those who remain faithful to him.
Ellen B., 24, Gryffindor, Brazil (but currently Denmark)
