Cupboards and spiders,
Screaming and fighting,
All of a sudden, I’m eleven,
There’s magic.
A big scary man and a secret train station,
A red headed boy and a little know it all.
Four houses to belong to,
A talking hat that decides my way,
My history unfolding,
My name, a symbol.
The wind in my hair,
As I take flight on my broom,
A teacher who hates me,
A little more than a little hate?
A secret door with a guard dog,
Many attempts to break in.
Saving the school,
Saving the world,
Little Harry Potter,
Saving since forever.
~thryaksha
You do a really good job of honouring how this work impacted you. My children loved this series, too. At first I loved them, too. How did you reconcile with her transphobia? I probably won’t be reading her work to my grand daughter when she’s old enough.
Rowling is not a deity and one should not expect flawlessness form her. The books are still wonderful and so well written. You can choose not to purchase them but nothing’s wrong with reading them. There won’t be much left to read if we stopped reading books written by people whose social justice positions are abhorrent to us. The talent is still there, the themes are worthy, and the story turns kids on to reading. And people generally don’t stick with one moral stance forever.
You included far more details than I did in my poem. Still, you captured the wonder of it all.