Please Forgive Me, Harry.

The robes. The long lines to go to opening night movies. The crazed fans. These are a few of the things that made me stop loving Harry Potter.

I liked the Harry Potter books before it was the cool thing to do. I remember when the first book came out and my mom bought it for me. A girl in my class told me to read it since I loved to read.

"What's it about?"

"Well, this boy lives under the staircase and his uncle is really mean to him. Then he finds out he is a wizard, I think," the girl had tried to explain to me.

So I gave the book a shot and began to fall in love with the story about the nerdy wizard boy. I remember kids saying,

"Kelsey, you are reading that weird book?"

Yep. I read it. Then I read the next one. And the next one. And the next one. As years passed by, my brother and I started a system where we would pre-order the next book coming out, then switch off day by day on who got to read the book.

I also remember when the sick epidemic hit. When all the people who needed something to be a part of, decided to jump aboard the "Harry Potter" bandwagon. This irritated me. People that never read in their lives began saying how cool Harry Potter was. The book that was once laughed at was now the 'cool' thing to be reading.

Jace and I, again, pre-ordered the sixth book. I remember the happy excitement bursting from me when we got the book in the mail, but I did not tell anyone about that happy excitement. I kept it to myself. Because as much as I loved the Harry Potter books, I was getting dang sick of Harry Potter and all his fans. I read the story, finished it, and that was that. By the time the seventh book came out, Jace and I didn't even bother. I was done. I wanted to forget all about Harry Potter. I quit paying attention to the movies being released, and did not even know that they had made a fourth, fifth, and sixth movie until last summer (I must have done a great job at blocking out all things Harry Potter). And come on, JK Rowling!! Dumbledore is gay? I remember when that news was all over the media, I just laughed in disgust. She only said that for some more attention since her blessed series was over. Thanks for caring more about your popularity instead of Dumbledore's reputation. I had always hoped maybe he and Professor McGonagall would hook up. Oh well.

Over the summer, Dallin and Brian talked me into watching the movies that I hadn't known existed. We watched all three of them one night. I started to remember how much I had loved the Harry Potter books as I watched them. I tried fighting it off, but it was a hard feeling to make go away.

Then the first half of the seventh movie came to theaters. I refused to rush to the theater like all the fans I despised. Instead, I waited a couple weeks and then went. I went last night, actually. It was wonderful. There were only about twenty people in the theater, and I remembered the days I was the only girl who carried a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".

I also just want to tell everyone who my favorite Harry Potter character is.

Luna Lovegood is my very favorite. Sirius Black was once my favorite, but since he died, I decided I better find a new favorite. And at that same time I was looking, Luna came into the picture. I love her because she is fearless. She also is just her very own person. She does not care about what is in, she just does as she pleases and lives in her own happy world. She is polite and smart. She is often overlooked because she is a weird, eccentric witch, but I will never overlook her.

So Harry Potter, please forgive me. I am sorry I denied you for many years, but I could not stand all the fake fans any longer. I hope you will understand. Plus, I have came back, and that's really all that matters. I will finish the rest of the 7th book soon. I promise.