Dear J.K Rowling

Dear J.K Rowling,

I cannot deny what I am about to say, and I know that you probably hear this a lot. Your books have been my obsession for the past seven years of my life and continue to be to this day. The world of Hogwarts has been my escape for so long. I finally feel like the time has come for me to let you know of my unrequited love towards your characters and the world you created seventeen years ago.

 Although your books were published a long time before I actually started to devour them, I still feel like a part of the original ‘Harry Potter family’. I didn’t receive my own first copy till many years later. However, I do remember my first ‘Harry Potter experience’ quite vividly. I borrowed it from my best friend’s brother, who was a complete Harry Potter fanatic; he even had a snitch painted on his wall; I was so jealous. My so called ‘best friend’ was extremely anti-books, I however was extremely not. Poor little 10-year old Lily found herself with no one to talk to about this new magical place she had discovered. This lead my first read through to be unfortunately uneventful.

I intensely tore through your books, so, naturally, when I reached the end I was utterly distraught. Harry Ron and Hermione (but especially Harry) had become my absolute idols. When the books ended it was like my three best friends had all simultaneously moved far away. “There is NO life without Harry Potter” my past self originally thought. I don’t think I even picked up another book for at least another week after I had finished them. But then, not long after this reading spree, like all the other ‘cool kids’ in my year at school, I gave in to peer pressure and discovered cringy, girly teen fiction such as Jacqueline Wilson among many others. I fell head over heels down the rabbit hole into another world full of fall outs, breakups and makeups where every day was like a soap opera and everything was forgotten about, until the bomb that was secondary school blew up beneath my feet.

Now, dear J.K, I will not waste your time with my pretty average sob story of a ginger nerdy teen who gets picked on by her peers for having the wrong hair colour and liking the wrong things, an unfortunate example being your books. I was then forced to repress my ultimate desire to read just so I could fit in. But I shan’t bore you with that now, that is a whole other tale for another letter. I will, however, move on to my second read through of your series. It came around quite unexpectedly, yet, unlike the first time, it definitely was eventful; I met my best friend through your books.

It was late 2011, I had moved schools to somewhere more excepting of my reading habits thank goodness, and I had completely run out of books to read (since this occasion, I should mention that I always now have a surplus of books on my shelves) so I decided to go through some of my old favourites, Harry Potter being my obvious first choice. On the top of the pile was my very own set of your books that I had received at Christmas the year before and immediately discarded because I was too ‘cool’ for those childish stories. So, I picked them up, and once again, began to read.

I was immediately reminded of Harry and his whimsical world that had entranced me a few years previously. Despite me being a little older, it was certainly no less wonderful.  However, as I progressed through the series, something seemed different this time. Or rather someone, in this case. As I described earlier, Harry was my absolute idol throughout read-through-number-one. Yet after reading all that ooey gooey teen trash, Harry seemed somewhat arrogant and much darker than I so fondly remembered him. Especially after reading the last book, I actually grew to really dislike the character. He seemed to ignore his best friends as he was too engrossed in his own importance. It was clear that he was trying to play the hero by saving his friends thus sacrificing himself. This however made me think the exact opposite; he was not allowing his friends to help him on his seemingly impossible mission, even though they were more than willing to assist. In hindsight, I can see that this is the beauty of his character. It shows us that not even heroes are faultless and that everyone has their imperfections. Yet back then, I homed in on his flaws and never took his strengths into consideration. I won’t lie to you dear J.K, I was furious with you. In my eyes, you had ruined mine and Harry’s friendship, despite nothing actually changing.

I intended to keep my Harry Potter readings quiet, just in case it sounded childish and a little strange to some. Yet, one day, I needed to vent my fury of this character my brain had been tricked into loving and oh boy did I vent. This poor girl who I barely even knew just stared into space as we walked and I ranted until I had finished and she laughed at me. Turns out she felt the same way too and we spent the rest of the hour just talking and ranting to our hearts content. This was the beginning of a long and happy friendship.

This day lead to many more happy readings, each from which I took new things and learnt more and more about Harry’s world. The characters were no longer characters; they were my brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles. To say I was obsessed was an understatement. Lupin taught me that being different isn’t such a bad thing at all; Hermione taught me that reading can literally save your life and of course, the Weasleys taught me that it was actually pretty cool to be ginger.

I feel that this book has influenced my life to an extent that no other book, or series of books, can match. No matter how clichéd or popular it is. Harry Potter taught me the rules of life: how to act, how not to act, how to be the hero and how to not to be the loser. Although your books may have been closed long ago and cinemas across the world have emptied of your people, your stories, I feel, will live on forever.   I have followed Harry and his stories for a long time now, and I will continue to do so, right “until the very end.”

        

Signing off till next time,

Nin :-) x