The Book behind the Scenes

By Anything77

The Extent of my Love

Everything I know I learned from Harry Potter. Everything I am, I am because of Harry Potter. I am not a lunatic, I do not run around looking for Platform 9 ¾ or walk down the street in a cloak muttering spells. My love for Harry Potter goes deeper than pretending it is all real; it is that feeling that I get when I am sad and all I want to do is curl up with a Harry Potter book. All my life friends have come and gone, but Harry has always been there, the ultimate companion, more comforting and warm and familiar than anything else. I have said many times that Harry Potter is like my oldest friend, and I know many people have tried to explain this exact feeling, so I am going to try a different tactic. I am going to tell you my story, the story of a nine year old girl and how a simple book gave her hope and helped her believe in the extraordinary…

My Story

I will start my story when I was nine years old. It is important for you to know what my life was like at this time. I had long hair, though I often wore clothes intended for boys. I was also continually presumed to be a boy (which, as you can probably guess, resulted in many awkward situations and caused me a great deal of annoyance.) I was in third grade at the time; I had friends, a great teacher, and a life. I was also very talented.

This was when my mother and her boy-friend (not my dad) decided that we should all move to Guatemala for seven months and volunteer at an orphanage. I won’t lie, though this experience seemed to have a very positive affect on my brother, for me it was terrible. Suddenly I was uprooted from everything I knew and sentenced to seven months away from my wonderful, beautiful home and everybody I loved and forced to live in the most un-homelike place I could think of.

While I was there I was depressed and much paler in the bright sunlight than I had been in the winter at home. A month or two after arriving I came down with a sickness much like malaria called Dengue Fever and I was sleeping, sweating and seeing things for a week. At night I would huddle up under my blanket, depriving myself of sleep, for fear of scorpions, snakes and something curiously like a tarantula that we had found right next to my bed. When no one was near I would cry and ask God why he would do such an awful thing to me. I would plead for a miracle, that we would have to suddenly go back home.

My family learned Spanish; I almost completely refused to listen to it, let alone speak it. I cut my hair short and didn’t bother myself with personal hygiene. I dreamed of home. I spent a great deal of my time writing plans about what great All-American foods I would eat when I got back, things I would do and even making escape plans in case my mom ever tried to make me go anywhere like that again.

When I wasn’t writing, I was reading anything and everything that they had at the orphanage, which included a very battered copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There I was, lonely, depressed, without hope, and angry at the world. Then I started thinking. Thinking about how when I read Harry Potter I was actually happy. I laughed when Fred and George played their pranks on Umbridge¹ and I thought long and hard about many of the wise and truthful things that J.K. Rowling wrote, not knowing that her words would help a nine year old child through a very hard time.

After reading and rereading Order of the Phoenix several times I formed a new resolve: I vowed that every day I would try to be the best person that I could because Harry Potter had given me hope, and because of that small little thing, my life began to change. Like Harry at the end of Order of the Phoenix, I knew what it would take to get things heading in the right direction, but I was ready for it, and I was going to hit the ground running. Instead of sitting around at the house we had all day I volunteered at the Pre-K classroom and helped the teacher keep the kids in order. I opened a breakfast business at my house and every day I would prepare pancakes smothered with chocolate and eggs with fried vegetables. I was hoping to use the money I earned to buy fire-works to bring home for my birthday. I talked a lot with volunteers from different, exotic countries such as Belgium, Austria and Italy, and I also gave tours to new-comers. When we left the orphanage to begin our journey home I took many pictures of the ancient Mayan ruins that we visited.

By the end of my journey I had read the fifth Harry Potter twelve times. I was a much more serious and, for lack of a better term, tough person when I returned than when I had set forth. While I was in Guatemala I learned endurance, creativity, logic, emotional strength, courage and, beyond all else, I learned to hope and see light even when I am surrounded by darkness. When Harry, Ron and Hermione fought back against Umbridge by creating Dumbledore’s Army² instead of stepping back and letting her have her way, I felt that I should fight back too. Like I could do better with the hand I was given, and I just hadn’t realized there was another way to look at it before. I didn’t know that I could do more than just fold. The amazing determination that Harry’s friends used to escape Umbridge³ drove me forward. All this would have gone to waste and my journey would have left me a sad wreck believing that the world is a dark place if not for Harry Potter, who helped me through, and who has taught me to be the amazing person I am today.

After the Journey there’s Still More

Yes, after the journey there’s still more. Harry Potter never stopped being a part of my life and is still influencing and guiding me. I’m still facing problems and Harry Potter is still helping me have hope and make the right decision.

As I type these words I am a twelve year old who dreams of becoming a writer, a professional soccer player or a chef. I got my love of writing from reading the books, my love of cooking from all the mouth-watering descriptions that Jo puts in them such as Mrs. Weasley’s sumptuous cooking, and my love of sports from the thrill of imagining playing Quidditch. I skipped sixth grade this year and am having a blast adjusting to middle school.

I am smart, athletic, happy, funny, responsible and successful and everything I am and everything I know I learned from Harry Potter.

Not many people know how much Harry Potter has helped me, it is the book behind the scenes, like the author who writes the story, or the crew that lifts the curtain and lets the audience see all the wonder that is to come…

Notes:

1. Rowling, Order of the Phoenix, 631-6, 673-5.

2. Ibid., 339-47.

3. Ibid., 760.

Bibliography:

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic Press, Arthur A. Levine Books, 2003.