I remember I was in elementary school but I do not remember what age or grade I was in. I do know however that I was becoming an avid reader and loved going to the library at school or the field trips we would take to our local library with our teachers. I was always isolated by my classmates so I took refuge in fantasy worlds in the books I’ve read. I recall one trip to the school library, I saw “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” book on the shelf. I would see some kids at school carrying the book around so I wanted to know how good it was. The cover of the book also intrigued me. When I checked it out and brought it home, my mother saw it and forced me to return it back to the library the next day. As her being a strict christian, she said I shouldn’t be reading books that talk about wizards or witches. It also didn’t help that in that moment, I would keep seeing news segments in Spanish of how dangerous reading those books can become and that they had to do with Satanism. I became angry because growing up, I know Spanish news is always exaggerating and I felt sad that my mother became influenced by that. As a good daughter though, I did return the book to the library without reading it. After the years I would feel left out when the series became bigger. As the years passed by, however, my mom became less strict and would even watch the Harry Potter movies that would come out on Spanish television. She then understood that series wasn’t what she thought it was. By then though, I felt like it was too late to catch up to the series, especially when there was a huge fan base following the series. It felt like I was in elementary school again so would not dwell too much. Nevertheless, I would still get curious every time I would hear about it, see the ads of Universal Studios and hear people talking about what houses they belonged in. That is when I decided to take this course so I can finally become a fan like I always wanted to be but also get to study different sides of the series that I wouldn’t get if I read it on my own.
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