Getting Into Harry Potter
By Allison Jennifer Black – al427 (Venezuela/Spain)


I would have to publicly confess I was a late HP fan, and this was due to one of my greatest faults: stubbornness.

When I studied at University there was this big Harry Potter boom. People started to say how great the book was and so on, but meh, one of the greatest landmarks of this country is everything here is just a fashion. Since a child I have made it my way not to follow the crowd. One of my closest friends at that time came to me overexcited, saying how great the story was, and that I must read it. I remember clearly replying her “why am I supposed to read it? Because everyone does? No way, not meâ€Â￾

Time went by and Chamber of Secrets and then Prisoner of Azkaban were released. And I stayed firm in my position of “not reading the Potter thingâ€Â￾

Some time later the first movie was released, and alas, me going to see that? It was quite funny because I was bombarded by the media, my friends and cousins, all saying how cool it was. I even saw one of the previews, and one of the scenes caught my attention: the one of the chessboard. But no, not me. I was not going to see it.

Everything those days was HP: paraphernalia in stores, the posters, the bookshops putting the books in their windows, Harry Potter was just everywhere. I felt like there was this battle between me and the world. But I could endure it. I could, until one day. I visited a cousin of mine and she had the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for PC Game… And it didn’t look so bad at all. But her computer was very old and the game seemed to be played in slomo, so she lent it to me.

I went home, got there at about 9:00 pm and played till 3:00 am next day.
I swallowed my pride and tried to see the movie in the theatres, but it was no longer on.

At that time I was finishing my thesis for my BA degree, so I had to go hermit and forget all about work, friends and fun. (In one word, everything) After I handed the thesis and id my oral defense I started being social again (not that I’m much of a social person, but that’s not the point) and discovered the movie had been released in DVD. I bought it over the Internet, and I enjoyed it very much, but still not to the point of being a huge fan.

A few weeks later a friend of mine and I were talking about web pages in our country and he told me of a portal where things were not so expensive. In the past he had tried to lure me to reading the books, but he desisted after several years of reluctance on my part. I visited it that day and saw there was a link to books, and being the bookworm I am, I went directly there. Harry Potter. There was a super sale, all four books by a very extremely cheap price.

I smiled, it was me and the world again, measuring forces

I lost ... and I’m glad I did.