Thursday, May 10, 2018

Rereading Harry Potter

            I have recently reread the Harry Potter series. Over the years I have tried to reread them, I have even reread one or two of them. But never the whole series. I have just accomplished that. And I have some feelings.

First, I was so fucking happy I could not stop smiling. It took me weeks to reread the whole series and I had a smile on my face the entire time. As I’ve mentioned in a past blog, Harry Potter basically saved my life. Rereading it brought back so many emotions for me. My love for Harry Potter has not wavered in the slightest. I knew it hadn’t, but rereading the books and being reminded of that love was the greatest treat.

There were so many things I remembered about the books, and so many things I’d forgotten. Those books are so big and filled with so much stunning detail, it is hard to remember absolutely everything. But I did remember most things. The things I didn’t were great fun to read. There is a thing online where people say they could have selective memory loss so they could go back and reread their favorite books with fresh eyes. I would choose Harry Potter if I got that chance.

My favorite Harry Potter character, besides HP himself, is Fred Weasley. Now, I knew that the twins were featured proximately in the books, but I’d forgotten how much. I also forgot that Fred was so much more of a character than George was. Fred got three times more lines, and jokes, and actions than George. Fred was funnier, he was more loving, caring, protective. He was more important than his twin brother George. I had originally thought they were equally as important to the stories, had equal lines and actions in the books, but when I reread them, I realized JK Rowling’s love for Fred was far more than it was for George. And then she killed him. Reading Fred’s death for the second time was nearly as hard as it was the first time. The first time I read it I wept. This time was not as bad, but I was just as heartbroken.

And that’s the thing, I already knew all the deaths, all the sad things that happened, but that doesn’t mean reading them for the second, third times, wasn’t any less real or gut punching. Like my hatred for Dolores Umbridge. I might have hated her more this time around. Ugh. And Snape. I know he turns into a hero in the last book, or was one the entire time, but that doesn’t mean that I still hated the way he mistreated Harry, Rom, Hermione and everyone else. Well, all the other Gryffindors.

I had wanted to reread HP for the longest time. I was also in a bit of a reading pickle. I still loved reading, but I wasn’t exactly in a good place with my reading life. I was reading a lot of books, but it felt like I was just reading them to reach a reading goal, to get them done so I could move on to the next book. It was almost as if I wasn’t truly enjoying reading. But then I started rereading HP. I fell back in love with reading. I realized that I could take my time with books, take my time to fall in love with them and appreciate them properly. I didn’t need to burn through books. So not only did Harry Potter save my life when I was younger, HP has now saved my reading life. Harry Potter will forever be the best thing that has ever happened to me. Always.