This past week I started reading "Harry Potter"...for the first time.
I know, I know, please try to stay calm. My friends have been begging me for years to start, or to at least watch the movies, but for some reason I never really got into them. Thanks to a week-long beach trip, though, I'm hooked. Since I'm a little behind on the trend, it has taken me a while to get fully up to speed. But now I think I understand some of the most important aspects of being a Harry Potter fan.
1. Houses
Everyone knows that there are four houses at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (you don't even have to read the series to know that). On their first day, students are sorted into each house based on their qualities and abilities. Harry Potter himself and his two closest friends are in Gryffindor (which some would argue is the best house). The fans of the series, naturally, created their own ways of finding out what houses they would be in, if they were also witches and wizards. I, personally, am in Hufflepuff, and damn proud of it.
If you want to find out where you are, take this quiz! http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Reviews/HarryPotter...
2. Pop Culture References
The "Harry Potter" franchise has become so embedded in popular culture that it would be difficult to not know somethings about it. The "Boy Who Lived," Muggles, and Hogwarts are all elements of the series that even people who haven't read and/or watched the movies understand. However, there are a ton of other references that I didn't know were from "Harry Potter." For instance, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," is a phrase I've seen on posters, sweatshirts, and have heard people say a thousand times. I didn't know that it is in fact a reference to "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," the third book.
Even though I haven't gotten there in the series yet, I know that that triangle with the circle inside and the line inside the circle is a "Harry Potter" reference, and simply knowing that is what I call progress.
"Harry Potter" is very similar to "Star Wars," or "Indiana Jones," or some other Harrison Ford movie, in that it is so revered, even people who don't know it, know it.
3. Diagon Alley in Universal Studios
Last summer I had the great opportunity to visit Universal Studios, and therefore Harry Potter World and Diagon Alley. Unfortunately, this was before I had read or seen any of the movies, so I really didn't appreciate everything I saw. Now I'm wishing I had gone to the bathroom to see Moaning Myrtle, or gotten my own butterbeer.
I was so clueless actually, that I didn't even know what Diagon Alley was when we got there. I remember texting my future roommate, because I knew she loved Harry Potter and telling her where I was. "Are you going to Diagon Alley?" she asked. And since I had never heard of such a thing and thought that "Diagon" must be a typo, I sent back, "Oh yeah, I think we're going to Dragon Alley." I figured Harry Potter = wizards, wizards = dragons, it made perfect sense! My roommates held that over my head for a while.
So now I have to catch up on all of the Internet jokes, YouTube videos, and buy myself Hufflepuff clothes.
To all the "Harry Potter" nerds I made fun of over the years, I'm sorry.
I get it now.
