Saying that I was obsessed with Harry Potter as a child is a definite understatement. I lived and breathed the world around me framed by the lens of a Hogwarts student (and an eyepatch for around a year; I had a lazy eye). I was constantly reading the books, watching the movies, playing pretend with my friends, and devouring anything I could that had the slightest bit to do with JK Rowling's creation. Over the years my love slowly died down, but even when I started college I donned my childhood nickname of Harry Potter because of my short hair and round glasses.

Harry Potter had not been the center of my life for a long time, but one fateful trip to Wal-Mart changed all that. I stumbled into the store with my friend, drunk from happiness after seeing a movie in theaters. I was in search of film for my instant camera. We made our way to the electronics section and I quickly found what I was looking for and made to leave, but JK Rowling has always had a way with her magic. From the corner of my eye I spotted a familiar font and immediately gravitated towards it. After a few minutes of debate, my friend and I decided it was way better than some film, and I made a (surprisingly) good purchase.

I spent the next two days completely absorbed in the play, while at first I was disappointed it wasn't written by Rowling herself, I was able to push that to the back of my mind with how beautifully and accurate the characters were written. I quickly fell in love with the new ones, Albus and Scorpius. It was a quick, entertaining, and enthralling read that showed me just how dimensional my best friends growing up really were. They were adults now, with children and jobs and problems, they didn't really have the time to get up to their old mischief.

I won't be the first to say I was in love with Harry. I thought he was perfect in every way, that nothing could prove otherwise, but "The Cursed Child" showed me a different side of him. A side that works hard at his job and loves his children, but doesn't always know what to say or how to connect with Albus. To put it bluntly, Harry is actually kind of clueless. Looking back I now realize that he would be nowhere without Ron and Hermione (especially Hermione) and the wonderful teachers and a particular groundskeeper at Hogwarts.

The pride I felt when I found out that Hermione was the Minister for Magic was overwhelming, as there could be no one else as perfect for the job as her; she is the brightest witch of her age, after all. Her character was smart, strong, and witty, all of the things that make her so great. One of the best things, however, is that in the play she was played by Noma Dumezweni, a black actress. Fans have been disappointed over the whitewashing of the films for over a decade, and a popular creation among said fans has been Hermione rewritten and drawn as black. This has shown that the casting director really took fans' perspectives and the basic idea that, hey, not everyone is white, into consideration.

How could I live with myself if I didn't talk about the wonderful Albus and Scorpius? Their relationship is like the other side of Harry and Draco's coin. While they both suffer from their own problems and insecurities, they are the perfect pair, a friendship as strong as the golden trio's, yet deeper. Albus was, in all honestly, a typical teenager with an atypical life, and Scorpius had all the potential to be abrasive and mean, but he chose to be kind, quiet, and loving. Albus may lead him into a bit of trouble, to say the least, but Scorpius refuses to let his friend fight his battles on his own.

All in all, I, a Harry Potter fan since birth, fell in love with this continuation of the wizarding world. While many people seem not to have enjoyed it as much as I did, I think we all should do our part to make our own opinions and support the woman who to cast a lumos when our life felt like nox.