My Friend, Harry

Dear Caroline,

Another summer dies in less than a week, I have thought about how I want it to go out. As another Harry Potter movie marathon weekend is currently in progress on ABC Family, it has occurred to me that I haven’t visited some of my dearest friends in a couple of years. While this certainly can apply to my college friends, I am talking of Harry, Hermione, and Ron. There is something magical (no pun intended) about those novels. Every time I make a visit to Hogwarts, it is always like going home. I always find something new. I always rediscover the relationships and the layers that make it amazing. I always marvel at how amazing the books are and how impeccably well they are put together. I am currently beginning book four, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and hope that I can finish them all before I go back to work on the 2^nd.

I hope to read them to you as a bedtime story to watch you discover these friendships for the first time. I read them to my sister Leah when she was too small to read to herself. I remember her gasping with excitement, crying at shared loss, and living with Harry for seven years of his life. I hope to read them to my class when I finally move out of pre-kindergarten! I hope that we can share them together and share in the love felt in these pages. I cannot wait to be re-surprised that Quirrell is working with Voldemort in Sorcerer’s Stone. I cannot wait to kill the basilisk with you and Harry in Chamber of Secrets. I cannot wait to find out Harry has finally found his family with you in Prisoner of Azkaban. I cannot wait to share the profound loss of Cedric and of innocence with you in Goblet of Fire. I cannot wait to find out that love is the key to defeating darkness in Order of the Phoenix. I cannot wait to re-realize that family is not always who you’re born with, but that family is who you love and will die for in the Half-Blood Prince. I cannot wait to journey to defeat Voldemort in The Deathly Hallows. I also hope to watch the movies and criticize and compare them to the books with you. Maybe I’m a dork, but those stories are every bit as real as some of the relationships in my own life.

As the book begins, “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” We are just beginning.

Wish #89: Oh Caroline, to borrow from Jo, I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls! Be a Hermione.

Love always