We grew up with Harry Potter. S~E was the same age as Harry and his friends, so each new book, each new school year was eagerly awaited. We all read the books, with later editions my Aussie Mate and I sharing one book on day shift / night shift with two books marks in place.

We travelled numerous car journeys with Stephen Fry telling the stories from the audio books. Aussie Mate uploaded a book to an early ipod and couldn’t understand why the story made no sense whilst he was decorating, until he realised the ipod was on shuffle, so chapters were being played in random order.

As a family, we saw each of the movies on big screen at the cinema, with the video / DVD being a regular Christmas present and family treat.

When the final book was published in July 2007, C~M and I queued up in town for the midnight release. There was a big crowd, a wonderful atmosphere, many dressed up in costume, shop staff wandering along the queue with free sweets and cups of water. The police presence was lively, full of banter with the crowd, the kids, the parents. We bought two copies of the book so we could both start reading it at once.

I’m not ready to part with HP yet, so all those books, cd’s and dvd’s are still on our shelves. Thank you J.K. Rowling for sharing such wonderful characters, adventures and for taking us muggles to that amazing magical world….of howlers….the night bus…quiddich…spells and potions…house elves……………..