A PensieveIt’s been nearly 25 years since I first curled up in my grandfather’s easy chair as a 10-year old and was mystified by Mr. Dursley’s strange day. It was the start of Christmas vacation when I picked up Harry Potter by chance at a small bookshop in Pompano Beach. This was at the start of the mania in the U.S and only books 1-3 had been published.My mother and I arrived at my grandparent’s house around 3pm and I had finished the book by 11pm that night. My grandparents arrived home from a church function around 6pm and I barely acknowledged them. Which was wholly out of character for me. My mom explained to my grandmother that we had picked up a book on the way over and that it must be really good because of the expressions I was making. Around 9pm I remember my mom asked me how much I had left to read because she was going to bed. She told me to hurry up which was impossible because I was already turning the pages faster than my fingers could go. I finally finished a little before 11pm and my mom asked jokingly, “How was it?” I was beaming and I launched into the details immediately. My mother stopped me. “Don’t tell me anymore, off to bed so I can read it!”For a few days after that, my mom and I thought we were some of the few people who knew about Harry. The way the first book ends especially if you’re a child and don’t have a lot of experiences by that age with series. You might mistakenly think book1 is all there is. So I spent weeks of my Christmas vacation playing alone in my grandparent’s overgrown backyard pretending to be Harry Potter blissfully unaware more was yet to come. Christmas morning came and I don’t remember anything else I got that year. Because my grandma and mom had realized it was clearly a series. I still remember sitting on my knees in front of the Christmas tree and my grandmother saying “There’s a special gift from Santa just over there…” It was heavy and quite large. I ripped and saw bright green letters glinting. I saw two thick books. I jumped up from the floor (because I was a low-key kind of kid) book in hands and screamed, “Is this Harry!” I also received audiobooks 1and 2 as well. I ran to the guest bedroom with the old tape player and opened up Chamber of Secrets and hit play. I read along with every word. I skipped Christmas lunch and to my mother’s shock pumpkin pie as well. I finished Chamber of Secrets in the same day and read Azkaban over the rest of vacation since it was a good deal larger.My grandmother had preordered Goblet of Fire back when she bought my other two books. She relayed to my mother that her friend who ran the bookshop told her that it was expected to sell fast. Neither my mother or grandmother quite believed or understood the level to which Harry Potter was sweeping the nation. They made little comments like, “must be popular or something.”I always visited my grandparents for every break so when summer rolled around we were once again at the little mall food court above the bookshop. This tiny mall was nearly always empty and went out of business a few years later. My grandmother wanted to get something from JC Penney and my mom said “I’ll take her to pick up that book.” My mom and I walked a little past the escalators and my mom paused. “Let’s move past all these people” An elderly couple with grey hair wearing black robes turned around to look at my mother with a pleasant smile. “ Line starts here.” “Oh, I’m just taking my daughter to pick up her book.” The woman smiled. “Yes, Harry Potter?” “Yes!” I interjected. The elderly woman smiled at me. “But we preordered?” My mom said slowly. The elderly man laughed “Yeah so did we.” It started to dawn on my mom all at once. “You mean all these people are here for Harry Potter?” The elderly couple in front of us started discussing with other adults wearing cloaks the trip they had planned to the UK to see all the landmarks. My kid brain was overwhelmed. “Mom can we go to London too!” I said excitedly.My mom was now actively trying to discourage me from talking to the adults in cloaks. My grandma met up with us confused which was uncommon for her to be. She always knew what do and in this situation she charged forward toward the entrance (dinner was at 6 there wasn’t time for all this) and made a motion at her friend who owned the book shop. She returned quickly with my book and said, “Hide it let’s go!” And we left the line in a hurry! The rest is history as they say. It’s so nice to go back to my 10 year old self. Harry Potter still managed to suck me right back in after all these years.28
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