Talk to You Soon, Meghan: Never Tickle A Sleeping Dragon

Come July 15th, 2011 The End Will Come.

The Big One.

Yeah that one.

No not the end of the world silly.

It's bigger than that.

Its a magic that all began with one lady by the name of

Joanne Kathleen Rowling.

and what would be this little (HUGE) thing I speak of?

It all began with the First Book.

HP and the SS was published in the US on September 1st 1998.

At that time I was barely four. So at the very beginging can I call myself a fan?

No, I guess not.

""So light a fire!" Harry choked. "Yes...of course...but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands. "HAVE YOU GONE MAD!" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT!"
"Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march."
"Harry left the locker room alone some time later, to take his Nimbus Two Thousand back to the broomshed. He couldn't ever remember feeling happier. He'd really done something to be proud of now - no one could say he was just a famous name any more. The evening air had never smelled so sweet. He walked over the damp grass, reliving the last hour in his head, which was a happy blur: Gryffindors running to lift him onto their shoulders; Ron and Hermione in the distance, jumping up and down, Ron cheering through a heavy nosebleed."

Released June 2, 1999, let's see, I wasn't even 5 yet and couldn't read, so no wasn't reading yet.

Harry learned quickly not to feel to sorry for the gnomes. He decided to just drop the first one just over the hedge, but the gnome, sensing weakness, sank his razor sharp teeth into Harry's finger and he had a hard job shaking it off until - "Wow, Harry - that must have been fifty feet!"
Fred and George, however, found all this very funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through..."

September 8th, 1999. I had just started Kindergarten. Still didn't know about theses things.

George looked up in time to see Malfoy pretending to faint with terror again. "That little git," he said calmly. "He wasn't so cocky last night when the dementors were down our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?" "Nearly wet himself," said Fred, with a contemptuous glance at Malfoy.
"Well...when we were in our first year, Harry-young, carefree, and innocent-" Harry snorted. He doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent.
(Harry, just being greeted by Percy) "Harry!" said Fred, elbowing Percy out of the way and bowing deeply. "Simply splendid to see you, old boy-" "Marvelous," said George, pushing Fred aside and seizing Harry's hand in turn. "Absolutely spiffing." Percy scowled. "That's enough, now," said Mrs. Weasley. "Mum!" said Fred as though he'd only just spotted her and seized her hand too. "How really corking to see you-"
Trelawney: "Would anyone like me to help interpret the shadowy realms within their orb?" Ron: "I don't need help, it's obvious what this means: there's going to be loads of fog tonight."
"Where is Wood?" said Harry, suddenly realizing he wasn't there. "Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."

July 8th, 2000.

The Summer after 1st grade.

Well we're getting closer, but still not yet.

(Although this is my seconded favorite one)

"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" said Fred. "That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" said Percy, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!" "It was," Fred whispered to Harry as they got up from the table. "We sent it."
"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!" Harry spun around. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret. "I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret..."
"Don't be prat, Neville, that's illegal," said George. "They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing... maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower, Harry."
"You’re joking, Weasley!" said Malfoy, behind them. "You’re not telling me someone’s asked that to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?" Harry and Ron both whipped round, but Hermione said loudly, waving to somebody over Malfoy’s shoulder, "Hello, Professor Moody!" Malfoy went pale and jumped backward, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew. "Twitchy little ferret, aren’t you, Malfoy?" said Hermione scathingly, and she, Harry, and Ron went up the marble staircase laughing heartily.
"An excellent point," said Professor Dumbledore. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery..."

November 16th, 2001.

This is the date that changed history for me.

(Well maybe not this date but pretty close to it)

My Mamaw decided she was taking all of her family to go see this new movie that was out.

So here I was, this little 2nd grader walking into see this movie about magic that I didn't have a clue about.

The movie that started it all.

I walked out obsessed!

I remember quoting lines with my friends on the playground.

Playing Hogwarts with my cousins at my Grandmothers.

I remember picking up those books for the first time and struggling to get through them with my mother.

I had the first four read within just a few months begging for more.

November 15th, 2002.

The time had come for the second step toward the greatest movies of all time.

June 21, 2003.

Exactly one week after my 9th birthday.

I remember my grandmother ordered these specially from England just so we'd get them as soon as they came out.

The biggest one. One of the saddest.

A week after Fred and George's departure, Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn he heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, "It unscrews the other way."
"Well, we were always going to fail that one," said Ron gloomily as they ascended the marble staircase. He had just made Harry feel rather better by telling him how he told the examiner in detail about the ugly man with a wart on his nose in the crystal ball, only to look up an realize he had been describing the examiner's reflection.
(After Lupin goes through a list of all the things they've done to discredit Dumbledore) "But Dumbledore says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," said Bill, grinning.
"Well, I had one that I was playing Quidditch the other night," said Ron, screwing up his face in an effort to remember. "What do you think that means?" Probably that you're going to be eaten by a giant marshmallow or something," said Harry, turning the pages of The Dream Oracle without interest.
A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said, "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode." "Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," said Hermione.
Malfoy glanced around. Harry knew he was checking for signs of teachers. Then he looked back at Harry and said in a low voice, "You're dead, Potter." Harry raised his eyebrows. "Funny," he said, "you'd think I'd have stopped walking around..."

June 4th, 2004

(Personally my least favortie movie)

July 16, 2005.

I begged and begged and begged to go to the midnight release of this one.

Sadly, it was a no go.

"Do you remember me telling you we are practicing nonverbal spells, Potter?" "Yes," said Harry stiffly. "Yes, sir." "There's no need to call me 'sir,' Professor."
"And that's Smith of Hufflepuff with the Quaffle," said a dreamy voice, echoing over the grounds. "He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him, I think probably on purpose, it looked like it. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor, I expect he regrets that now he's playing them - oh, look, he's lost the Quaffle. Ginny took it from him. I do like her, she's very nice..."
[Talking about Inferi in DADA...] "When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we're going to be having a look to see if it's solid, aren't we? We're not going to be asking, 'Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?'"
"But you are normal!" said Harry fiercely. "You've just got a-a problem-" Lupin burst out laughing. "Sometimes you remind me alot of James. He called it my 'furry little problem' in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit."
"An Unbreakable Vow?" said Ron, looking stunned. "Nah, he can’t have.... Are you sure?" "Yes I’m sure," said Harry. "Why, what does it mean?" "Well, you can’t break an Unbreakable Vow..." "I’d worked that much out for myself, funnily enough."

November 18, 2005.

The tag for this was "Everything's going to change now isn't it."

And change it did.

July 11th, 2007

I think this might have been my first midnight showing but I'm really not sure.

All I know is that I was more excited for what came just 10 days after this.

July 21, 2007

I remember very clearly going to the Barnes and Nobel Midnight Party with my Daddy and the fact we ended up leaving early and went to Wally World to go get my book.

This is my favorite book. Ever.

Pg 625 still gives me chills.

I still cry when I read Dobby's Death.

I cheer when Harry wins.

And the Epiloge makes me smile.

But before [Uncle Bilius] went loopy he was the life and soul of the party,” said Fred. “He used to down an entire bottle of firewhisky, then run onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his—" “Yes, he sounds a real charmer,” said Hermione, while Harry roared with laughter. “Never married, for some reason,” said Ron.
"What are you doing with all those books anyway?" Ron asked. "Just trying to decide which ones to take with us," said Hermione. When we're looking for the Horcruxes." "Oh, of course," said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. "I forgot we'll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library."
“Do ghouls normally wear pajamas?” “No,” said Ron. “Nor have they usually got red hair or that number of pustles.” Harry contemplated the thing, slightly revolted. It was human in shape and size, and was wearing what, now that Harry’s eyes became used to the darkness, was clearly an old pair of Ron’s pajamas. He was also sure that ghouls were generally rather slimy and bald, rather than distinctly hairy and covered in angry purple blisters. “He’s me, see?” said Ron. “No,” said Harry. “I don’t.”