25 years of Harry Potter: going to bed with Harry, Ron and Hermione

From reluctance to fandom

I remember quite well the night my father came over with a book from the library to read to me before bed.

"Harry Potter and the Orphan's Stone" was the title, which of course I had heard of before.

My father had not read the book himself.

However, I didn't really feel like it and initially declined the offer.

"I'm not ready for this," I said, who was ten years old at the time.

My father was a little disappointed.

But also impressed that I wanted to wait with the book everyone was talking about.

Maybe it was the more than 300 pages of text that put me off rather than the actual content.

So my initial attitude was negative.

Had it stayed that way, we would certainly have saved a lot of money.

Because when I soon developed a certain interest, probably caused more by the popularity of the book among my contemporaries, reading it aloud in the evening became routine.

Unfortunately, there were unforeseen financial side effects.

Fan articles were always desired as Christmas or birthday presents.

I wanted courage like Hermione, friendship like Harry and Ron, and subjects like Hogwarts.

Harry Potter seemed like a world of its own that fascinated me.

With their writing style and individual characters, the books offered me a certain escape from reality.

In any case, I have no regrets about giving up my opposition to Harry Potter.

Unfortunately, there were unforeseen financial side effects.

Fan articles were always desired as Christmas or birthday presents.

I wanted courage like Hermione, friendship like Harry and Ron, and subjects like Hogwarts.

Harry Potter seemed like a world of its own that fascinated me.

With their writing style and individual characters, the books offered me a certain escape from reality.

In any case, I have no regrets about giving up my opposition to Harry Potter.

Unfortunately, there were unforeseen financial side effects.

Fan articles were always desired as Christmas or birthday presents.

I wanted courage like Hermione, friendship like Harry and Ron, and subjects like Hogwarts.

Harry Potter seemed like a world of its own that fascinated me.

With their writing style and individual characters, the books offered me a certain escape from reality.

In any case, I have no regrets about giving up my opposition to Harry Potter.

With their writing style and individual characters, the books offered me a certain escape from reality.

In any case, I have no regrets about giving up my opposition to Harry Potter.

With their writing style and individual characters, the books offered me a certain escape from reality.

In any case, I have no regrets about giving up my opposition to Harry Potter.

Wait until it finally starts

I knew Harry Potter before I read the books.

On the one hand through stories from my sister, but also through the visit to London's Harry Potter Park, which also took place because of my sister.

Unlike them, I already knew a lot, but not everything.

My parents always told me to read the books before the movies.

I even told my then English teacher in first grade that I didn't want her to play the film because I hadn't read the book.

I think I just annoyed the rest of my class with that.

We watched the film anyway.

But in English, so I didn't understand him either.

I probably asked my dad every week when we could start reading the books, but I had to wait until I was nine.

When my father said, "Now let's start reading," I remember being very excited and telling everyone.

But then, in the first chapter, I realized that I was going to have trouble remembering names.

I still remember getting Snape and Filch mixed up the whole time.

In any case, I didn't like the first chapter at all and I thought everything would be written in such a complicated way.

I still gave the book another chance, and suddenly I felt a new world surround me.

I waited every day for the evening for my father to read to me.

I became the biggest fan and talked about it with the kids in my class.

Sometimes I found out earlier who was going to die or who was getting together with whom.

After reading each book we watched the film.

That went on for half a year.

Eventually we got to the last chapter of the seventh book.

I cried because I knew that an important part of the evening for me was about to end.

I now know every film by heart and have read every chapter several times myself.