“Potter” on Birthdays Past

This happens to be my birthday weekend, so I was being a bit reflective this morning and was thinking about what past birthdays have brought. One that stood out in particular was my twelfth birthday. One year after I should have gotten my Hogwarts letter, I celebrated my birthday by going to see MuggleNet’s own Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen at a nearby bookstore where they would be talking about MuggleNet.com’s book What Will Happen In Harry Potter 7.

It’s funny to look back at this for a few different reasons. First, I forgot how young I was when book 7 was coming out. Twelve, really? In some ways it feels like an eternity ago, but when I picture that year, I picture me there as I am now, not as a twelve year old. Second, I love reading the predictions that were made by both MuggleNet and the fandom back then. We were all so off at times, but so convinced we were right. It’s weird thinking about the time when we had no idea how the series would wrap up. Third, and last, that twelve year old girl in the bookstore would have never thought she would be writing for MuggleNet eight years later. It’s funny how things come full circle sometimes. After book 7 came out and after the last movie came out, I knew that my time with Harry Potter wasn’t over. I’m so glad I found this outlet to continue being a Potterhead.

Now, I have a gem of a photo from that day, but I can’t put it up here because my sister, who is also in it, would kill me. Let’s just say, back in 2007 we weren’t all too trendy. I can, however, share what was written in my book by Emerson and Ben. As you can see, Emerson tried to draw me a birthday cake. The stick figure with “Bother” written over it is because I was sporting my Potter Puppet Pals t-shirt with Ron on it that day.

As a Potter fan, a lot of birthdays were surrounded by Harry, whether it was receiving movies or books as presents, or taking little field trips like this one to hear predictions and have discussions with other fans. I guess this is my Potter themed thing for my birthday this year, making this post. Mostly, this page in this book reminds me that no matter how old I get, Harry Potter will always have a piece of me and whether I’m celebrating my twelfth birthday or my one hundredth, I will always make time for Harry somewhere in the festivities.