Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

One of my favorite days of all time: July 21, 2007.

If the HP 5 and HP 6 releases were a fun and exciting, then the HP 7 release was THE MOST FUN AND EXCITING THING EVER.

I literally took 150 pictures, screamed so much I lost my voice, set up a Harry Potter shrine to shame all others (see pic above. Yes, 98% of that is MINE.), threw 2 book 7 preparation parties (the second of which was on July 16 to celebrate book 6 and to play a final jeopardy game to determine preparedness level for book 7), made HP7 T-shirts and bookmarks for all my friends and family, organized a binder full of editorials from Mugglenet that added to my ideas about book 7, made a schedule and re-read books 1-6 in June and July, made 2 different countdowns 100 days out (one was a chain and the other a little box with cards in it), spent hours and hours on Mugglenet and JKRowling.com to study, prepare, and check out new theories, rumors, and updates, recorded my own theories in detail, worked on a 3x5 HP character file system (complete with a note card giving details for each character in the series, and let's just say there are a lot), listened to Mugglenet's Mugglecast podcast everyday at the gym, collected more Harry Potter stuff, and so on.

I showed someone part of my Harry Potter collection the other day and they said, "wow. You have shown me a new way to be a fan." I think she got it. The enormity of the situation. The fact that when I am a fan of something, I am the biggest fan of something that you have ever come across. I am devoted.

And so, I once again spent the release with Nicole. And Judy and Shawn. My cousins and aunt who lovingly refer to me as "Potty." It originally came from "Audie Potty," but morphed into just "Potty" when the whole Harry Potter thing happened in my life.

We got our wristbands at the Bountiful Barnes and Noble at 3am on Friday morning (somehow we missed the wristbands at the Layton store- they did it a day early and didn't tell anyone. See picture on left with the green shirts), but still went to the Layton Barnes and Noble that night. Nobody cared. They did the bands in groups of the alphabet. We sat securely in line with our "A" bands. "A" is for "Audrey," "Awesome," and "Absolutely the most devoted Harry Potter fans ever because they came to get a wristband earlier than everyone else." We got our books at 12:01am, then rushed home to take even more pictures and read a ton. (picture below: Nicole and I being more excited than is probably healthy.)

The experience of reading those books for the first time is hard to describe. It just is. It. is. so. fun. so great. We laughed and cried and finished and then cried because we were done, and it was over. I mourned by joining the facebook group, "After page 759 in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, my childhood ended."

But I love Harry Potter.

PS, I listened to HP7 all day at work today. It was magical. (picture to right: the gang. Those of us in festive Harry Potter shirts are obviously the coolest)