Getting Into Harry Potter

[Kitty Parsnip]

I got into Harry Potter almost by accident. I just needed to have something to read as I was waiting to read some test results at work. I went down to the University Bookstore and was looking for a book that was not guaranteed to put me to sleep. There was a small rack of fiction (at last!) near the checkout counter and I picked up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The girl at the checkout saw the book and started to tell me all about it. She asked if I had read any other Harry Potter books, as there was a new one out and the one I had was not the first in the series. I didn't have the money at the time to get all of the books, and the first one was sold out, so I had to start with the one I had.
Needless to say, the boring afternoon I had envisioned turned into an adventure of epic proportions. I finished reading the Chamber of Secrets in 2 days flat. I then had to read it to my daughter every night before bed. She would get to read a chapter, then I would read a chapter and we finished that book in about 3 nights. We had to stay up pretty late, but we didn't care!
The next chore for us was to find the rest of the books and read them in order. Then start over and read them again. As we waited (none to patiently) for the latest book to finally come out, we read them all again. Now that we have finished the latest book, it is time to start from the beginning and relive Harry Potter from the first day he was introduced to us all-one more time!!
Kitty Parsnip Hufflepuff ki616 U.S.A.

[Illiah Black]

Well a friend of mine, Eline, gave Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to my best friend, Helen, as a birthday present when we were in year seven. Helen had read the blurb and decided that it wasn't really the type of book she liked to read, but her mother made her read it, saying that it would be rude not to at least read it.
When she finally started the book, she stayed up till about one o'clock in the morning to finish it. She came to school the next day absolutely raving about it. She told all of our friends that we just absolutely had to read it. Depite this excellent report on the book, i still didn't start reading it. This wasn't because i didn't believe my friend, it was really because i just didn't like reading. Anyway, I told my mum about the book and what Helen had said and she bought the book for my brother's birthday. He read it and said that it was great, so i finally decided that as i had easy access to the book, i should read it. I imediately fell in love with the book and also stayed up till the early hours of the morning finishing it. We then proceeded to beg our mum to by the next book (the second book had already been released when Helen was given the first one) and she did. I have since read and re-read the books many times and am so grateful to Eline for getting me started on it. I am now a complete Harry Potter nut and even went to a Harry Potter party at Helen's house the day before the 6th book was released (i'm 18 by the way). I also love to read now and owe my countless hours of enjoyment in all kinds of fantasy books to J. K. Rowling and her brilliant Harry Potter books.

Illiah Black (Gryffindor ke640 Australia)

[Lianna Syanne Travers]

hmm getting into harry potter huh? I suppose I got into harry potter because of the movies. my sister dragged me to the second one and I fell in love with draco malfoy almost instantly. I mean sure, he's a complete jerk and obviously ego-maniac and has a HORRID family, but he made the movie enjoyable for me.

after that I was mightily bored with my inu-yasha fanfiction stuff, my sailor moon fanfiction and even my roswell fanfiction that I needed something new. while searching out draco pics I stumbled across an archive devoted to draco/hermione fanfiction, read a story called 'A night at the movies' and became obsessed with that pair being together.

to make it clear I did try to read the books, numerous times, but JK's writing irks me for some reason so I can't get very far very fast (i've taken to having my friend write out long long synopsises for me instead).

now though since i'm in a 'war' with a hufflepuff from my job i'm trying to read the series and prove to her that Draco is NOT evil and that his home environment merely made him the way he is (combined with lost hopes, failed glory and jealousy issues to name a few more). anytime we argue she'll cite this or that chapter and i'll be like...'uh...no!' and she'll ask why and i'll merely stomp away without a clue. I need backup to my arguments!

though reading the books still makes me get migraines (I can't tell why though! I mean I tried the uk version, no dice, I tried the american, even worse...)

Lianna Syanne Travers, li616, USA

edited for language.

Hi /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> I can't add this to your yearbook or for the contest, because you refused to use any proper capitalization (names, 'I', beginning of sentences etc.) and I have no time or fun to edit that for you. If you want the 10 points please resubmit that with halfway decent spelling and capitalization. Thank you, Rames.

[Jennifer Reed]

How did i get into Harry Potter? Well i recieved my first harry potter book for my birthday.I was really into the whole wizardry, genius, and magic thing. So I read the first book. It was so good. It may have taken me a while to read the first one but i got quicker and quicker. Then i waited and waited (very impatiently) for the second, third, fourth, fifth, and finally sixth. I realized how much i liked the whole wizardy thing so i started reading more and more books like harry potter.My next choice was TWitch, then Harry Potter 2. I would different books into in between each harry potter book. The third book was my favorite because J.K Rowlings introduced Sirius, which in doing also created a little bit a hope. Then in the fourth Harry got accepted into the Tri-wizard tornament. The fact that Moody was the bad guy was a real shocker. Then came book five. I did not like five as much because all the hope dissapeared. I cried when i read five. Then there is book six which i also did not like as much. Again the hope was lost. Now i see only a small amount of hope. Now i can't wait till seven comes out. I believe that in seven voldemort will die but take harry with him when he does. That would just make sense. I may cry about harry dieing but if he died he would be able to see his parents again. Then he may also see hermione, ron, and ginny again if they die trying to protect harry. I really liked the boks, but i did not like the movies as much.


removed spoilers.

[Harriet Black]

Harriet Black, Gryffindor, ha640, England.

My father bought me the first three Harry Potter books when I was about 7 years old. I found the text hard to read, so I left the books lieing under my bead for about two years.

When I was 9, I decided to take a challenge and read a slightly harder book. I searched the house thoroughly, but the only book that looked interesting was Harry Potter and the Philosipher's stone. It took me three weeks to read the book (Hey, I was a slow reader!)

After I'd finished reading The Chamber Of Secrets, we moved house to England, and I loved to read The Chamber of Secrets over and over, because it gave me really nice memories of the happy times back in Wales.


Ever since then I've been absolutely HOOKED on HP. I adore the Harry Potter series and I wish it would continue forever.

[Christina Jones]

What made me get into harry potter?I was 9 and my mom were at target and my mom saw the sign for the 4th book or harry potter coming out soon. My mom asked when they would be selling it and the cashier said tomorrow.

I didn't hear of harry potter at all before. Actaully I didn't even know at that time at the store what my mom was talking about. So my mom was so excited about getting me this book that she went at 6:30 a.m. to buy it for me, probobly earlier. When I woke up that morning not seeing my mom I asked my dad where she was and she said she went to target to buy a book for me. Confused I said, ok.

This had never happened before. My mom would have never gone out so early to buy a book for me? Realizing later that once my mom came home she would expect me to read it. She had 2 perfectly good reasons as she explained once she came.

"I woke up and left so early for you to get this book and the whole series, your going to read it!"
"Its that good of a book, I almost didn't even get a copy"

Sighing I told my mom fine. I had nothing to do that saturday morning (seeing as I didn't have the internet at my house at that time) I flipped through the whole tv begging to find something to do other than read that book.the books were at the end of the coach so I went and picked it up and read the first chapter. I was still a bit confused about what I was reading and didn't really like it, but than the second chapter came and I absolutly loved it! I kept reading and reading until than my mom said that it was lunch time. I had no choice really but to obey her angry, I left to eat lunch. I continued to read the books and it seemed like 100 years tell the 5th book finally came out!

To this day I am so suprised to remember the story myself you can't look at the books now and not have one doubt about the books!!

Christina Jones ( Gryffindor, ch654, USA )

[Isabella Astiar]

I have a rather unfortunate tendency to disdain anything that becomes too popular - I try my best to avoid being categorized into the "masses". So when I got into Harry Potter, naturally, it was already in the throes of its massive popularity. I decided that it was overrated to the extreme. But at my friend's urging, I bought a copy of Sorceror's Stone at the nearest Borders, and left the book stashed in the closet. (I mourn my ignorance now - the Harry Potter books are now the most prominent series in my library)

But as fate would have it, I became quite ill within the week - I was coughing, shivering, and mumbling. I had a high fever and later began munching Advils like popcorn. So as soon as the fever subsided, I was confined to my bed. Within a day, I became extremely bored. I had gone through my meager DVD collection, my books, everything. Out of pure desperation, I remembered the Harry Potter book in the closet, and began to read.

It was love at first read. Jo's magic just wove this beautiful story, and even the dulling throbbing in my head subsided enough for me to immerse myself into Harry's world. I still fondly remember that day, and as soon as I finished reading Sorceror's Stone (I still find the revelation of Quirrell as Voldemort's agent to be one of the most shocking things I've read in my lifetime), I forced my mother to run and buy me Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban.

And I've been an avidly obsessive Harry fan ever since...

Isabella Astiar, is600, USA

[Prof. Sandra Bloomwicks]

In middle school, I never used to read fantasy books. I usually stuck to books that were recommended to me by close friends or books that we had to read for school. However I soon heard of this hot new book that seemed to be very popular. I had envisioned a lame page turner because of all the hype. I could not imagine a book that popular being actually that good to read, so I was determined to stay away from this fad. Later the Chamber of Secrets came out, again. The title of the book was plastered all over bookstores and the media. Finally I gave into reading it, when a paperback edition of the Sorcerer's Stone came into my hands. That was the end of my personal ban on Harry Potter books. I swallowed that book instantly, and was lucky enough to read the Chamer of Secrets right after the first one. Ever since then, I have bought the new book, the day it appeared on the market, and pore over it until I have finished it. Never again shall I reject a book because of it's popularity or because it is classified as a children's book.

Sandra Bloomwicks, Ravenclaw, sa610, United States

[Keaira Filan]

Well, since I haven’t posted here before...
-------------------------------

I’m not a big fan of fantasy or the like. Nevertheless, I still read Harry Potter out of curiosity because I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Harry Potter was causing an uproar in many countries. I was reading the local newspapers one day when I came across yet another article on Harry Potter. The facing page also had a lengthy review on Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. Of course, I knew that all the CoS books would be loaned out. So I made a casual trip to the library with the intention to borrow Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone that afternoon. I was fortunate to find one on the shelf and after reading it, I found the book to be rather interesting. I loved the way the author portrayed her characters and the creativity and imagination she used to write that book. I was especially delighted about the Quidditch bit because it reminded me so much of muggle football/soccer.*g* On my next library trip, I made a book reservation for CoS since my mum refused to let me buy it. The fact that Harry Potter was a book series also contributed to my willingness to borrow it because I somehow enjoy reading books that come in series, in my favorite genres (mysteries, crime, adventure etc.) *hintAliashint* /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> In other words, Harry Potter is one of my favorite series in a genre that I don’t normally enjoy.

Keaira Filan (Hufflepuff, ke504, Singapore)

[Elganorus Oakbark]

The story started in 2001 or 2002, I'm not sure. I was 22 (23) years old, my younger sister was 14. I was a book fan since childhood, read a lot (about fourty books a year), but my sister differed from me and the family average. She usually watched Tv instead of reading. So, my parents decided to buy the Harry Potter books, in order to persuade my sister to read. At the time the first four book were translated into hungarian, so we bought Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. We did not buy Goblet of Fire, still son't know why.
You must know, in those days there were a lots of argument about the books in the media, everybody, and I mean everybody said something about it. Some said HP is good, a fairy tale which means nothing. Others, some narrow-minded people, stated that HP is a work of the Evil, must not be read by children, but by adults, who are able to see thruogh the lies.
So, I was full of expectations, I can't wait to see it with my own eyes, but I didn't want to buy it myself, because I was afraid of my parents opinion. For example: How could you read tales in your age? etc.
Anyway, we got the books, and my sis started to read SS. I had no choice but to start reading PoA. Why not CoS? It looked funnier that way.
It was confusing. All the characters, all the events, the atmosphere. First, I did not understand it at all. Maybe that is why I like PoA the less.
Then I jumped to CoS, and after reading the two book at one night, I waited for my sis to finish SS. During this pause I bought GoF.
So lets finish this.
I bought Order of the Phoenix as a birthday present to my sis, but couldn't wait her to read it, I read it the very night of the day I bought it. (Do you understand me? Maybe my english is not as good as I tought.)
HBP. It took me 11 hours to read, but considering it was in english, that is not a bad time.

And now I've found HOL! Almost better than the books!


Elganorus Oakbark (Gryffindor, el661, Hungary)

[Adam Dangerfield]

How did I get into Harry Potter? Well, it's an easy enough answer, but it's a long story. And like all good stories (I hope I'm not ripping off Spider-Man too much), it's about a girl I used to know. Back when I was in the 8th grade and still getting into liking girls, there was one girl who really stood out in my mind, and her name was Safiya. Now, Safiya like the rest of my 8th grade crowd had to scramble from class to class, but we had two classes together - Spanish and Science. *lover's sigh* Anyway, getting back to the Harry Potter side of it. One of those days before I left the Maryland neighborhood of the United States for where I am now, I happened to be looking at her in Science class when I noticed a book that she was reading. On the way out of class I asked her, "Hey, what's that your reading?" and she said, "Oh, it's just Harry Potter." Not being the avid reader that I am today, I had no clue what any Potter was, let alone Harry.

When I asked her what it was about, you wouldn't believe how she went on and on until we got to Spanish about wizards and spells and the secrets Harry Potter went through. I was like, she really must like this book. And since I was beginning to like her I figured I might as well really try to get into the book, too. So a few days later, she lent me her copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. When I first brought it home, I read the inside cover, looked at the front and thought "Who would ever read something that looks so corny?" But since I liked her, I began to read the book. Well, the first chapter was okay - it got me interested. The second chapter was better - it got me wondering. The third chapter was crazy - which REALLY got me wondering. And by the fourth chapter I was already started to flip pages with interest, really taking the stuff in. Before I knew what was going on it was midnight, I had hardly finished any homework, but I had finished Sorcerer's Stone. It had me riveted! The next day, I was thinking about nothing, but Quidditch and Harry Potter and mountain trolls and HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT COMING! I returned the book to Safiya, more love-ful than ever, and then I found out there were more.

"More? You mean there isn't just one?" I asked. "Of course not," she said with a grin I'd never forget. "There's seven years he has to go through." Seven? There's going to be seven books about one person? How could anybody keep something interesting for that long? And then I borrowed read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and my protests were put to rest. But not yet was I a Potter-Fanatic! Sure, I liked the books and liked Safiya, but there was no huge hook to hit me into the ultra-mega-super-Potter-mania until I borrowed my last book from her - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Now, my longing for Potter was beginning to grow strong for the third book, but Safiya hadn't finished the darn thing herself yet. So I had to wait another three pain-staking days for her to finish it before she lent it to me. The twists - the turns - the mayhem ending that I never saw coming even if I was keeping notes on the side! That was the point when I became an all-out Harry Potter fanatic. Sadly though, before the end of the school year, I had to move. But I still have Safiya's memory in me every time I read the first three books!

Now, I've got all six books right in my bottom desk drawer ready for reading whenever I'm bored. And that's my story of how I got into Harry Potter.

- Adam Dangerfield (Slytherin, ad600, USA)

[Thoth Van]

Thoth Van (Ravenclaw, th605, Brazil)

My wife bought the first book and started reading it. I was disregarding it as just children literature and I didn't even look for information about what on Earth colud be "Harry Potter". She was trying, almost everyday, to convince me to read it, telling me about Hogwarts and witches and wizards and magic, but I was not interested in the issue.

On Movember, 2002, I had to take a trip to Chapada Diamantina (country region of Minas Gerais, in Brazil) due to my area of work and my wife finally convinced me to give a try to Harry Potter.

I started reading in the airplane. In the next two days, I could read just in the hotel, at night, because, during the day, I had to take bad roads and to walk in wild regions. I stayed out of home for just 3 nights, but I have read the book completly!

When I arrived at home, I get into my car with my wife and my son and we went directly to a bookstore to buy the three other books already published in Brazilian Portuguese.

Recently, I could not wait for the Brazilian Portuguese translation of the HBP and I bought it in English and I "ate" it in four days... Now, I'm reading (translating) it for my wife.

[Sirena Serephina]

The reason I was stumped with the question 'How did you get into Harry Potter?' was because I can hardly imagine that there was a time in my life without Harry Potter. But after taking a trip down memory lane, it all came back to me.
Being the book lover that I am, one time when I was eleven my mum was shopping at Kmart and I asked her if I could have a look at the book section, she said yes, so as I was skimming the shelves a book caught my eye, it was (you guessed it) – ‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone’. But before I could take a decent look at it, my mum found me and told me it was time to go. That was the first time I saw Harry Potter. But it wasn't the last! My school's library had picked it up, and insisted that my teacher read it to our class. As soon as I found out this book was a fantasy book, I was immediately interested. I love fantasy of all kinds, I’ve watched Charmed since it first began, my bookshelf holds mainly fantasy books and ever since I was little I pretended to be magical and to have powers. But as soon as my teacher finished chapter two, I knew I was hooked - as was most the rest of the class. As soon as we finished the first book, all the students (me included) were asking if we were going to read the sequel, sadly we weren't. But as my birthday began to draw near, I made it very obvious to my mum that I wanted the entire Harry Potter series. My wish was granted, and since then I have read the first four books three times, the fifth book twice and the sixth books once (but I plan to read it again as it is my favourite of the series). The books are amazingly addictive, I have collected numerous amounts of merchandise, discussed it to death with my other Harry Potter friends and
to be perfectly honest, feel kind of special in a way to be apart of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Sure, next generation will have heard of all the hype, see old footage of the release of the fifth book - but they will never know what it was like to actually be there. The excitement and suspense of awaiting the next book. The frustration, yet, excitement of not knowing what's going to happen next. I've enjoyed the Harry Potter years so much, that it almost makes me a little sad to know that in a few short years - the mystery will all be over. It’s a little sad isn’t it?

Signed: Sirena Serephina (Ravenclaw, si608, Australia)

[Jessica Summers]

How did I get into Harry Potter? Well, I was actually one of the few people who paid attention to it once the first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, came out. My mom has always wanted for me to read all different kinds of books and one day while she was at the bookstore, she just happened to pick it up. She brought it home and at first I really didn't want to read it because many of the books my mom picks out for me are long and boring. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was definitely the exception. I read the inside cover and I was already somewhat hooked. "A school of magic?" I thought. "This could be cool." And then I began to read. It was amazing. I loved the book so much and I was so sad once I had finished it. I began looking up information on it online. That was when I found out that it would be a seven book series. I told my mom to get me the other books immediately but she said that they hadn't been published yet. I was mad but I waited a long time for Chamber of Secrets. Now, I have read all six of the published books and I can not wait to read the seventh book. In the meantime, I have been telling all of my friends to read the books. I also have been playing a lot on HOL because it really is such a good simulation of the school. I have always wished that I could go to Hogwarts instead of my school. I have become more and more addicted to the series over the years and I am sure to cry once I realize that it is all over.

Jessica Summers (Gryffindor, je641, USA)

[Rames]

All stories up to this point have been added to the Yearbooks and 10 points have been awarded. All but those one-liners of course, and the one I marked.

Please... to make my life a bit easier, try to comply with the most basic rules of spelling and capitalization. From now on I will NOT make the effort to edit completely careless posts anymore.

Basic rules:
1. A sentence begins with a capital letter
2. The word 'I' is _always_ capitalized.
3. Names and locations are _always_ capitalized. All of them!
4. After any punctuation signs (full stop, comma, etc.) there has to be at least one space. I have to manually add spaces all the time, because if I wouldn't the text looks awful in the yearbook as spaces are used for line breaks in the column.
5. No endless rows of dots and exclamation marks, and certainly not with additionally no spaces (hey...............harry potter rocks!!!!!!!!!!!). From now on, I will just ignore contributions that look like this.

Do not worry about misspellings or bad grammar etc. - it does not matter if you have some mistakes in your text. Just the most basic rules of writing anything should be respected. It is not a matter of English or if English is your mother tongue or not, the text you submit must be readable /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Thank you all.

[Aubrey Lynch]

I got into Harry Potter some time in elementary school. Our class visited the school library once a week and the librarian would always read to us. One of the books she read was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I fell in love with it instantly! I talked to a friend of mine who owned several of the books and begged her to lend them to me. I took them home and read like crazy, from morning till night, with very few breaks. I really wanted to buy them, but I wasn’t able to right away because I didn’t have the money. It took several weeks of saving until I was finally able to order the first four Harry Potter books from a catalogue I received from school.

I became completely obsessed. All I could talk or think about was Harry Potter. Everything in my room was related to Harry Potter; I had a Harry Potter comforter, stuffed animals, collectible figures, school supplies, posters, and more. I read the books over and over again, each time feeling the same as the first time I read it. I could not get enough of it.

I have read the books a total of six times, and I am still not tired of them! I don’t think I ever will be.

Aubrey Lynch (Gryffindor, au600, USA)

[Padme Undomiel]

How I got into Harry Potter? It must have been in the beginning of 2000, when I was 12 years old. I have always loved to read, and every week, when we were allowed to borrow books from the school's library, I would borrow several at a time. I became quite popular with the librarian, and she helped me find good books. One day I had run out of books I wanted to read, I simply couldn't find any in the library. For me something like this is a bit of a disaster, I don't know what to do if I don't have a book to read. Even if I don't have time to read, I need to know it's there, ready for when I do get the time again. Naturally I went to the librarian, she'd managed to find books for me before.

Straight away she went over to the 'R'-shelf, said she had just the right book for me and gave me Philosopher's Stone. I read the back of the book, it was nothing like the books I normally read, and honestly, I thought it sounded immensely boring. I simply refused to read it. This frustrated my librarian quite a bit and she tried to persuade me for weeks, but to no avail.

Then I got sick and had to stay home from school a few days, when I came back our Danish-teacher had given us a book report assignment for next week. The rest of my class had been to library to find books two days earlier, so my teacher sent me there to find a book fast. One of the demands was, that I had never read it before. The librarian said she had this book we had talked of before, I could read that. I felt a bit trapped, but gave in and borrowed the book. I started reading it that afternoon and finished late in the evening, I simply couldn't put it down, so the next day I went to the library to borrow Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. I got all the books for Christmas, and I have read them over and over again, I don't seem to be able to get enough of them. When Order of the Phoenix and Half-blood Prince came out, I couldn't wait for the Danish translation to come out and bought the books in English.

I don't know if I ever thanked the librarian for her persistence, but I can relate to her frustrations when my family refuse to read the books, because they feel like they've already had an overdose of Harry Potter from me. Or when one of my best friends, who is completely into everything witch and wizard related, and likes the movies, simply won't read the books because they don't sound good to her.

Padmé Undómiel (Ravenclaw, pa610, Denmark)

[Niniel Sanders]

I got into Harry Potter in quite a strange way actually. I was in 7th grade, and 13 years old. At that time I shared a table with a girl I really didn't like, she seemed to take pride in being horrible to me, so naturally I didn't spend any time with her when I could avoid it. I was intimidated by her though, and I realize now that she was in reality bullying me.

Anyway, our school had this tradition with sending all the student's to the schools library once a week and at that point I read a lot, at least a 1000 pages a month, for we had to account them. This particular day in December my table-mate had to hand in a book which she hadn't read because she found it too boring, but for some reason she asked me if I wanted it. At first I refused, but odd as it sounds that day yielded no other books for me and I didn't have any I was in the middle of reading, and I had to have something to read for the following lesson. So I got the book and went back to class and sat down reading. I didn't have time to really get into it though, but I brought it home with me anyway, and then it lay on my shelf for little less than a fortnight until I decided to give it another go as I was now seriously out of new reading material and my table-mate kept prodding me about it.
I opened it again and actually managed to get past the first couple of pages this time, and then... I was hooked.

The next day I went to the library and got The Chamber of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban. Unfortunately Harry Potter was very popular and there was a many people waiting in line to get them, and I subscribed to the end of that line as well, and settled in for a loooong wait, and I actually thought I could manage, but the next day I realized I couldn't and went to get the books from the local bookshop instead.

They too were read within the week and The 2nd Sunday of December was on us and I was almost bouncing on the walls because I had to wait for Monday before I could get The Goblet of Fire. Now in Denmark we have a tradition about giving children gifts every Advent, and I was so exited to see what my gift was. i opened it and... There lay The Goblet of Fire. My parents had gotten it for Christmas, but they were smart enough to realize there was no way I'd wait two weeks to buy it no matter how much they'd try to persuade me, so instead I got it for the 2nd Advent in December. That too disappeared within no time and I was hungry for more.

When The Order of the Phoenix came out I had already ordered it in advance, but fate would that because of a belated shipment from England the book arrived a week late and during that time I had called my local bookshop, which was now the place I worked as well, to ask if they had gotten it yet. As soon as they had I bought it and read it during that weekend. When it came out in Danish I of course picked up my Danish pre-ordered copy and went home to read.

Then when the Half-blood Prince came out it was once again late. Again this was due to belated shipment from England, and once again i had to wait an entire week before I could get to read it, which I did in about 4 days. Then I read it again, and yet another time.

Still having not had enough I joined HOL and another Harry Potter group called HCR and this sort of brings us up to this date...

Niniel Sanders (Ravenclaw, ni637, Denmark)

[Sophie Prady]

How I did get into Harry Potter? Oh dear...I didn't get into Harry, I did get into Harrius Potter -,-* ...It was 2002, I was 13 and changed from elementary to high school. I started to learn latin and of course this time I was VERY fond of it. I enjoyed every lesson and in test I only got As. My teacher noticed that and she gave to me books in latin like Winnie the Pooh or Paddington Bear and of course 'Harrius Potter et Philosophie Lapis'. It took a long time till I was ready. This time the text was very difficult for me (hadn't all tempora modi usw yet) and I had to read it again and again. But I didn't get much more, so I decided to read it in german. I don't like it very much but I thing it's kind of funny and I'm courious how it will end. Well what I really gained with Harrius Potter is that I becomed normal, 'cause I'm not to keen on latin anymore. =)

[Jeanie Lam]

I first got into Harry Potter in the spring of 2001, I believe. My best friend at that time was always trying to persuade me to read the books. He always passed by me in the halls and said, "Have you read the Harry Potter books yet? You should. They're really good." I was, and always am, the last to join the bandwagon, sorrowfully. The books never really appealed to me so much because they seemed so lengthy and I was intimidated by thick books.

Eventually, I got tired of my best friend's nagging and borrowed the first two books from the library. I always did, and still do, despise the first chapter. I do not know why. But that never stopped me from continuing. Soon, I became addicted. I even bought my own copy of 'Quidditch Throughout the Ages' and 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'. When I still could not get enough, I would read fanfiction written by other people and posted on the internet.

Part of the reason why I was so easily dragged in was because I share the same name as Harry's mother, so I feel that I have a connection with Lily Evans Potter. I admire her bravery so much, and I think it is evident that Harry inherits that from his mother.

Jeanie Lam (Ravenclaw, je632, US)