Getting Into Harry Potter

Post by **Hermione Smith** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:41 pm

how i first got into harry potter? i first started to read the sorsures stone when it first came out. i was a little to young to read it, and i got lost about the chapter where harry found the mirror. i desided to give up and put the book down. Then in 2001 the first movie came out. i saw it in theaters and loved it so much that i wanted to read the books. So i started to read the sorceras stone. then i went straight into the chamber of sectrets. and the read the rest of the current series. and by the time the fiveth book came out i had read all the first four books multable times, and seen all the movies more then once.

just last summer when hbp came out, i decided to join hol, because it looked interesting.

Post by **Orick Excalibur** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:30 pm

To tell you the truth, I didn't know anything about Harry Potter until the first movie came out! Yeah...I'm a loser I know. Anyway, I loved the movie and decided to look into the books. I started with SS, but I had already seen the movie. So I went ahead and started reading C.S. Then the movie came out before I could finish. I saw the movie and loved it. Then I beggan reading P.O.A, but the movie came out before I could get a copy. Now I had started G.O.F, but the movie is out now! I'm just going to quit trying to read the books because I never have time to read the books before the movie comes out.

I like Harry Potter though. I love the whole Hogwarts idea, thats why I'm here at HOL. I wanted to experiance the Hogwarts lifestyle in some way, so I was happy when I came accross HOL. I think I could very easily become a big fan. I know there are some crazier Harry Potter Fans here at HOL, and thats cool. Well that was my little history on how I started liking Harry Potter. Now I believe I get some House points?... /rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />

Orick Excalibur ( Hufflepuff, or605, USA )

Post by **Neeli Aracrylor** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 2:14 pm

While everyone was into something (a band, a movie or a book) I always tried to keep myself out of it. I never wanted to be one of the crowd who would get knocked out if someone of the Backstreet Boys would stand in front of me. So it came, that when the Harry Potter fever began everywhere (involving my school and classmates) I didn't have any intention to read it. But one of my friends read the first book over and over again to find every piece to create her own "head movie" with hints to everything that would happen.

One day she was standing in front of me telling me that Harry Potter will be a classical one day and that everyone knows already what muggles and all that stuff means, except of me. She went on that HP is now on our "tryout list" is.

A short introduction to our tryout list: If one of our friend read a book which is he things is very special and worth for more then one bad discussion, he puts it on the tryout list. Everyone (who wants) will read just the first 100 pages and write a short essay to the friend who put in on the list.

Of course I couldn't stop reading and I didn't even noticed when I passed page 100. Since then I loved the booksread the 1-4 in german and english. Which is very interesting! After a while everything calmed down and it started to get me again when I came to the USA to find out that one of the children who I watch here is interested in magic and myths so I introduced her to the magic world of HP while watching the first, second and third movie and for christmas she will get the Scene It game and the first book.

Post by **Sam-Thomas Woodbark** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 2:21 pm

How Did I First Get InTo HP ?

Before I read the first book I thought it was just another stupid nonsense. I really didn't know a lot about it, but one craxy way it was a kind of famous. One day I was bored and I got nothing to read, I risked and took the first Harry Potter book I ever read: The Goblet Of Fire. Well I started to read and I read... And read... And Read etc. I read it at lunch, in the garden, in my room, late at night. It hooked me up and when I finished it I bothered my mother to death to buy me other parts of that fantastic serie. Soon after that I read ''The Magical Worlds Of Harry Potter'' by David Colbert. Then I got them: ''Sorceres Stone'', ''The Chamber Of Secrets'' and ''Prisoner Of Azkaban'' were in my disposal. I don't remember how much time it took to read them, but when I finished all three, I was eagerly waiting the 5th book. After some time, 1-2 years, ''The Order Of PHoenix'' came out and I instantly started to read. I was utterly sad when Sirius died. After another 2 years of waiting I got ''Half-Blood Prince'' and I went watching ''Goblet Of Fire'' movie. I forgot to write, that I've seen the first 3 movies too, but books are the best. Anyway, I finished HBP in ~2 days. And again, I was sad when Rowling killed another beloved character. Now, I'm already waiting the final, 7th book, trying not to think, that it will be the last. Too bad that Hogwarts hasn't got High-School or something like that.

HP is an amazing Sci-Fi/Magic book. Ofcourse not anybody adore it, but I do. I like magic, I like the characters. Kudos to Rowling, for writing that book.

Sam-Thomas Woodbark
Gryffindor
sa710

Sorry for the typos, I'm sure there are some.

Post by **Cira Paw** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:33 am

A long way to a great love

I thought it was annoying, all that talking about a wonder boy. I just thought not another hero in this world don't we have enough?
So I really didn't wanted to read it. I never read the newest bestsellers. I wanted to catch up with the classics, but when my friend (same one who told Neeli) told us it would definetly become one I was curious. If someone knows about books, she does!

Well, I could stop reading at page #100 and I wrote my essay. I have to tell that it wasn't all positive even if I did like the book. It was just not what I thaught it would be. There were too many questions which I had.

So I put the book away and my mom read it. She was fascinated! She loved every book and she is looking forward every single one of them. When the fourth book came out I had read the second and the third one in german and the first one in english and german. I had a lot of discussions about the translations of books and it got more and more fun.(Even though Neeli was already in it at that time). It took me when we went to the overnight special at the common house in our hometown. Almost everyone had costumes on and the man who read the first chapters looked just like Dumbledore, kids where running around in their robes and with their wooden wands. That was the first time I had the feeling that this is something special! I never either way before and after this I saw over 300 people between 5 and 70 years of age listening like that to the reading of a story!

Post by **Chelly Raymond** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:42 am

I first got into Harry Potter when my Auntie sent down the first book down for my birthday in the year 2000. I read it and as they say 'the rest is histrory'. I can't actually remember how i got the other 4 books. it seems so long ago. But i know i was in desperate await for the Order of The Phonix and half Blood Prince. I was totally obbsessed! I would scream and hide if someone said You-Know-Who's name, and correct anyone who said any fact from Harry Potter that was wrong. I am getting better now, i still shudder whenever someone says You-Know-Who's name, and i still correct people.

HARRY POTTER ROX MY SOX!!!!!

Chelly Raymond

Gryffindor Newbie

Post by **Lily Rose** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:24 pm

How did I come across Harry Potter? Well it started out innocently enough. It was the first day of school and I had just sat down in my new homeroom class. Since I got there a little early, I was reading my favorite book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, for the sixth time. Suddenly, I heard the classroom door slam. I looked up to see my best friend, Jenn, standing above me holding a book. She looked down at me, breathless and excited. â€œLily! You HAVE to read this book! I know you donâ€™t usually read fantasies and stuff but...Lily...it is just SO good!â€ Interested, I took the book gently from her hand. I looked at the cover, disappointed to see a black haired boy riding a broom. â€œI donâ€™t know Jenn. I donâ€™t like this kind of stuff.â€ I tried handing the book back to her but she stopped me. â€œListen, just keep it. You donâ€™t have to read it but...here.â€ she shoved the book into my backpack. â€œJust read the first page.â€ Then she walked away. Slightly annoyed, I took the book from my backpack and examined the cover again. J.K. Rowling? A new author....certainly not worth my while. Planning to give it back to Jenn tomorrow, I put the book back into my backpack. That night, I reconsidered. â€œShe said just to read the first page....why not?â€ I picked up the book and started reading. To my surprise, I couldnâ€™t put it down! I finished the book in three days, much to Jennâ€™s excitement. I have since read all of the Harry Potter books. I now love stories about magic and enchantments and am hooked on everything Harry. (And I now appreciate JK Rowling for the genius she is /rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> )

Lily Rose, li640, Ravenclaw, USA

Post by **Amiray Florence** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 12:05 am

How my obsession began

I remember when my family started reading Harry Potter. I didn't really want to read them. I liked reading, but these books just sounded boring to me. You can imagine how ashamed I am now. Anyways, my brother borrowed some of my toys and made a "castle" to play Hogwarts in. It was my toys for people and my doll house for a castle. I remember that Hermione was a little toy that didn't have moveable arms and legs. She was wearing a pink bath robe, and had straight, dirty blonde hair. I played along, but didn't really know what to do. I made all the characters different and my brother got mad and hit me. He never let me play again. Finally, I decided that it couldn't hurt to read them. I remember how abstract it all seemed. But I loved the books a lot, and so my complete and total obsession began. I started the first book, the American versions, even though I'm Canadian. The part that I remembered strongest is The Keeper of the Keys. I don't know why, but that was the part that stuck out from the beginning. Perhaps it was because I was most awake, as I read most of them when I was supposed to be sleeping. I stayed up for so long just reading it. I was seven years old when the obsession began. I'm still obsessed. Like the other day, my friend wrote a scene for language class, about a kid visiting a psychiatrist for a Harry Potter obsession, and she said "Oh yes, and I love visiting Diagon Alley, I love Florean Flortesque's. He gives out free sundaes every half-hour!" At this point, I stood up and blurted "No he doesn't! The only time that was ever mentioned is in the third book, page fifty, chapter 4, the leaky cauldron, where it says "finishing all his homework with occasional help from Florean Flortesque himself, who apart from knowing a great deal about Medieval witch burnings, gave Harry free sundaes every half-hour." I then went on to rant about how it was only specific to that one occasion. Yup, that whole obsession started with my family reading the books. Thank goodness for my family!

Amiray Florence
am665

Post by **Sara Mills** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:28 am

How did I get into Harry Potter? It all started in a movie theater. I was watching a preview with my grandmother about one of the Harry Potter movies. My grandmother asked me if I wanted to see it. I said it was two scary. Two weeks or so later my girl scout troop leader asked us if we wanted to see Harry Potter. I went to see it with my troop. I loved it. I wanted to see it again and again. That Christmas my grandmother gave me the first 4 books. I read them all in the first month. They were the best books I read (and they still are.) I even got my mom to read them, too. She read them quicker then I did. We both got my dad to read them, but he is still on the fourth one. /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

Sara Mills, Gryffindor, U.S.A

Edited slightly to remove other name ~Rai

Post by **Madolyn Moriarty** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:03 am

How did I get into HP?

Well to be frightfully honest, i'd never heard of Harry Potter until my English teacher told us we were going to read the Philosopher's Stone. I must have been around 11 or 12, in my first year of high school and i was more concerned about having to read aloud in front of people i didn't know, than about what we were reading.

When we first started reading it, i couldn't care less for it. However after a while, i began to love it and looked forward to the lessons when we would read it. Plus i found it highly amusing that hardly anyone in my class could pronounce 'Hermione' correctly.

Unfortunately after about a month or so, our teacher disappeared for a while and so the book was put aside. And being someone who has to finish things, i went and sought the book out in my local library. I found it, borrowed it and had finished it by the next day.

When i found out there was 2 other books in the series that had already been released, i almost ran to the shops to find them and read them as quickly as i could. At that point, i think my Harry Potter obsession had truly begun to take a hold of me.

Then GoF was released, and i had to buy it on the day it came out. The same happened with OotP and HBP too. I was, and still am, completely obsessed with them. And then of course the films came out too, which fuelled my obsession even more. Although i didn't like them as much as the books, i still couldn't keep away from them.

Now i can't wait for the final book to be released. I'm just upset that it's going to be an end of an era when it does.

Madolyn Moriarty (Gryffindor, ma785, UK)

Post by **Clare Granger** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:40 am

The reason I started reading Harry Potter was that really at the beginning I did not know that I would get that into it. When the first book came out I was only in third grade and did not really understand the words in it so my mom read it to me. I liked that one so when the second one got into the library I got that one and my mom read me that one, so on until the fifth. When the fifth one came out I got really excited and I actually bought it when it came out, a couple weeks later, it took me a while to read because it was so long but that was ok with me. Then when I found out that the sixth would be coming out I started counting down, my friends thought I was crazing for getting that excited about a book.The night it came out I went to my local book store for a Harry Potter party and stood in line for a half hour just to get the book. I read it in two days. That is by far my favorite. I also liked the movies although not as much as the books. When I saw the first one I was at my best friends birthday party. The second one I didn't see until it came out on video, and the third I saw in theatres. The fourth I haven't seen yet but am planning on seeing in the next couple weeks.The movies I did not really like as much because they were not always off the books. My friends and I always used to fight about what really happened and they did not really know because the had only saw the movies. That is how I got involved in Harry Potter.
Clare Granger, Hufflepuff, cl621

Post by **Hazreal Heanns** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:50 am

This recollection is getting rather blurred/ faded, so I shall record it before my teenage amnesia starts engulfing the whole memory. (haha this sounds like the pensieve)

Prior to 1999/ 2000, Harry Potter remained rather unknown to most of us here. Well, I did have a friend who brought along the harry potter book to class then, but we all dismissed it as part of his daily "bookworm digest".

Then the craze was alive all of a sudden, and perhaps partially because I was still younger then and struggling to differentiate between what my teacher identified as trashy or non-trashy books, I decided that I might want to try this book after all since it received such huge international/local acclamation. Well of course there were reports of the un-religious teachings, or so they call it, or the "evil witch spells", haha but I was glad because my school didn't ban it as some others did.

I remember I had to wait a rather long time till the december holidays before my mum could borrow the book from her school library. I took a whole full 1 month (or more? /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> ) to finish the Sorcerer's stone, because I was just re-reading every chapter/ lines to register them in my mind and fully comprehend the language. Mind you, I was a horribe reader a few years back. Despite all, I did enjoy the book. Yeps then as you may expect, there was anticipation for the future books, watching the movie etc. The normal response.. haha, maybe just not queuing up in the middle of the night for new releases.

My wish though is to get a full set of harry potter books 1-7, (Right now, I have to go around borrowing them, or stealing (shh..) my sister's borrowed books to read since my family doesn't stock them), and enjoy the great series over and over again.

Hazreal Heanns (Ravenclaw, ha658, S'pore)

Post by **Elavial Mirkwood** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:02 pm

How did I get involed with Harry Potter?

Well, I think it started off, when the 1st movie came out. I thought it was cool, but I thought it was the only one coming out, then the second one came out and I watched it with some friends. One of my friends got obssesed with it and started reading the books and stuff. She told me about the books but I didn't really pay much attention, when the thrid movie came out, i had to watch it and i love it also. But I wasn't still a HP fan. When the annoncments of the new book was coming out (Half Blood Prince) I never thought of buying it, until I saw on the news how much it was selling, in the bookstores, in the corner stores annoncing it. Then I was like "Wow...I need to read that book..." I got it, but at first it got too confusing....so I bought the 4th and 5th one....I read them both in a month (I'm a very slow reader...) and then I started reading the 6th, and I loved it. (To tell you the truth, I never read more than a magazine in my life...but the series of Harry Potter has made me look up diffrent kinds of books to read and I'm finding it quite interesting...)Then I started to get more involed and becoming myself a Harry Potter fan myself. But I really don't want it to end with the 7th. This series is too good to end...

Long story short: HP has made me less ignorant that I was. /laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

Elavial Mirkwood, Ravenclaw, el687, Puerto Rico

Post by **Silvio Dante** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 9:33 am

How did I get involed with Harry Potter?

I first got into the Harry Potter books just this year. I was one of the people who saw the first movie and fell in love with it. In one day i watched the first Harry Potter while i was on the computer four times straight. I had a lot of friends that had read the books but had just never had the motivation to read them as i was so many books behind when the first movie came out. It was this year i got into the books however because one of my new flat mates owned all of the books and i'd just seen The Goblet of Fire and thought "its time i read the books". I started the first book and before that week had finished had made my way through to the end of the goblet of fire. I found it a lot easier to read the books after seeing the movies becuase i had images of what they'd look like. I guess people who read the books before the movies would have had a different experience because i see all the characters as the actors in the movies. After finishing the goblet of fire i continued my reading and have now finished the entire series so far and i loved every minute of it. I'm really looking forward to the next book and will wipe my schedule clean for those first few days after i get my sweaty little fingers on it.

Silvio Dante (Ravenclaw, si641, New Zealand)

Post by **Lorna O'Shea** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:57 pm

I don't really know the exact time I got into Harry Potter, but I knew it was right before the first movie was going to be released in theatres. I was just getting sick when my dad came over with some medicine and a little suprise for me so I wouldn't be bored while in bed. It was a paperback book with blue covering and an image of a man running into the woods. It was Harry Potter and the Scorcerer's Stone. I've never really heard of this or any of the other books for that matter, plus I don't really like reading. I thought I might give it a try seeing that my dad told me it's about a boy who turned out to be a wizard. It made me wanna read it even more because I love stories about magic. /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />
So after he left, I started reading it, and couldn't put it down. I was sucked into the story. That's never really happened to me before! It took me 2 days to read it over and from there I was hooked. the rest, you may say, is history. /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /> haha

Post by **Moni Kess** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:33 am

I didn't really have any interest in the Harry Potter books, when they first came out didn't really know the series existed until Goblet Of Fire came out, then just brushed it off as a children's book.
Then The Sorcerer's Stone movie came out, didn't really think much of it either until I watched the first full lenght trailer, after that curiousity peeked I took my then 5 year old to the movies.
I liked the movie a lot, and also I'm a big fan of reading the books before the movie comes out, not sure why really, but once I read the SS book I was hooked, read the rest of the series at least three times. /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />
Now I'm already planning on preordering book 7 as soon as it's possible to do. just wished it wouldn't be the last book of a wonderful series.

Moni Kess, Gryffindor, mo628, U.S.

Post by **Lucienne Celeste** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:49 pm

How I Got Into Harry Potter

It all started with my mom, really. I was a little girl when Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came to Germany and my mom bought it for me.
She constantly kept nagging me about how the book was top on all bestseller lists and told me to read it. Normally I read everything I could get my hands on, but I thought the cover was really ugly, the text on the back sounded really childish to me (I was what? 9 years old? -.-""") and no one I knew was into HP.

Needless to say, I abandoned it.

Two weeks after she gave it to me, mom asked if she could read it. Happy that at least one of us would enjoy this "stupid book" I once again took it off the shelf.
Two days later mom wanted to have serious discussions about "why Voldemort was so much like Hitler"... And I had no clue what she was talking about.
Since I don't like to be clueless, I finally read it.
And was impressed. Alot.
So I started. By the time the 2nd book came out, I was ecstatic.
You can tell the rest...

To keep it short: Salazar bless my mom!

Lucienne Celeste, Slytherin, lu635, Germany

Post by **Bridget Malfoy** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:03 pm

I first go into HP when the first movie came on TV here in America. Before that I had hated it. When I heard it was coming on TV I decided to wacth it cause a lot of people I knew was into it. None the less I watched it and fell in love with it. The next day I went to to library and checked out the first three book and had them read in no time. Ever since then I've been obsessed with the series. I'm now a member of several HP sites and I get into every book and movie as if I was right there in the mists of it. That's how I got into the HP seires.

Bridget Malfoy, Slytherin, br659, Virginia U.S.A.

Post by **Faye Roderick** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:31 pm

I hate Harry Potter at first, I thought it was a childish book. Even after the first movie came out, and all people are going Hogwarts crazy, I still refuse to see the movie. And then out of curiousity I watched the VCD, and fell in love straight away! But I haven't read the books yet, and not until the third book came out, and after I watched the second movie in theatre, my cousin told me to read the books which she claimed is better than the movies. So during my vacation, when I had nothing to do, I started reading book 1-3, and finish it all in 3 days. /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /> That's how I got hooked up!

Faye Roderick (Slytherin, fa617, Indonesia)

p.s i forgot i must sign! /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />