One Woman Book Club -- I'm Not Going Home, Not Really...

I think its something of a gift to be reading the Harry Potter books for the first time after years of religiously binging the movies, dreaming of Hogwarts, obsessively collecting every bit of fandom paraphernalia, researching the back stories on tumblr for hours, reading the fan theories, rushing to Pottormore every time a new quiz is released, playing and then replaying the old Harry Potter PC games with the horrible graphics (how good is The Prisoner of Azkaban though! #mychildhood); it's overwhelmingly satisfying.

Some people might claim that, you aren't a real fan unless you've read the books. Codswallop in my opinion. They shouldn't be so...Riddikulus.

I am one of the biggest fans of the movies you'll ever meet and due to the level of my obsession, I believe I know a fair bit more than your average HP movie fan because of all my late night excursions down the rabbit hole of the Potterhead community online. For example, I once went on a walking tour of Harry Potter destinations in London and I was the veritable Hermione Granger of our group never having read a single one of the books. But I don't like to talk about that, I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by knowing all the answers to the trivia questions 😜

I think the wonderful thing about reading the books for the first time now, with a deep, well established devotion to these stories and this world, is that it feels like, after all this time (*cough cough* "always") I've finally got my letter to Hogwarts 😭😭✉️🔮✨ I've only just read the part where Harry pulls out his school shopping list and I was reading all the book titles and I recognised some of them, god knows from where, but I was smiling and getting excited and then I saw "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander" and my heart just expanded in this beautiful, fulfilling moment and I really felt like I was there, in this world that I love so much and it was really touching. The magic was tangible for me then and I realised that I wasn't just reading Harry Potter's school book list, I was going to Hogwarts with him. I've read a similar adage like that before, fans of the books talking about their experience reading the last one when it came out; feeling like they had been right there with Harry through everything. It's something really special to me, to have that foresight, to know that I am standing at the very beginning of something so great and magical. Knowing how incredible this adventure is and that I'm right at the start. My heart is very happy tonight guys. I don't think I'll be sleeping until I've finished it 😜 x