Accio Potterheads: How I Became A Potterhead

Accio! Potterheads! 

The one fandom that responds! 

It is my world!

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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge 2020

My theme is Potterific A to Z

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Books, Movies, Parks, & Potter Universe!

✨ ••• All Heads Potterheads! No Head 🧠 Better Than A Potterhead❗️
Index is HERE
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--- How was I pulled into the Wizarding World? --- 

As if the first book that I touched was a Portkey, I spiraled into the Wizarding World and Hogwarts has been forever home ever since. 

It was the summer of 1999, my Dad (a frequent traveler) had arrived from a London trip. Very casually, he had handed me three books with cartoonish-looking covers. 

“Tutu!" he said excitedly, Tutu being my nickname he's kept, "They were the most talked about bestsellers there. Don't know what they're about. There was a craze it seemed. Everyone wanted these."  

An avid book reader himself, he'd stumbled upon them at a London bookstore where they had been all the hype. The Prisoner of Azkaban had released in July. The craze had not hit Pakistan's literature scene by then. I had always been a book fanatic! Not knowing what I was signing up for, I flipped open The Prisoner of Azkaban (the one that had specifically been gifted to me - the other two were each for my siblings) and realized it was a sequel and I had to go back to The Philosopher's Stone. 

I never stopped reading. As if the book was magic itself. I read and read and read, through meal times and while everybody watched television. I read like crazy and became a part of the Hogwarts halls and dormitories. I read through the sultry summers of Karachi city, laying on sofas and then in bed. There was so much that comforted me in those reads. It was welcoming, it was loving, and it was warm. After I was done with The Prisoner of Azkaban, I didn't know what to do with my life. Grade eighth had started and The Goblet of Fire was going to release in the summer. I could not wait! 

There was nobody I could have had shared my love for the books with because nobody else knew about the books.

The Goblet of Fire reached my hands, once again, through Dad. It was summer break and we were at the Changi International Airport, Singapore - headed to Australia - and he handed me a bag! There it was! Harry Potter, racing his broomstick, being chased by a Hungarian Horntail, in pursuit of the golden egg! I remember going crazy reading on that trip. I read throughout my time in Australia. I remember we stayed in Brisbane for a couple of days, saw the Blue Mountains, stayed in Sydney, and then stayed in Gold Coast. During my commute to the many wonders of the beautiful country, I was reading. On the tour bus to the Blue Mountains, I was reading. In shopping malls while Mom shopped, I was reading. By the time I returned home, I was stunned at the story and how magnificent it became before it got very dark. The Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament magnified the Wizarding World. It became more than Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The ending had left me shaken! 

Warner Brothers then brought the Wizarding World to reality on the silver screen! Such joy! I remember watching the first movie in eleventh grade! One after another the movies made an impression on the Muggle world. They were perfect, they were everything I had imagined. 

Order of the Phoenix was my last read before life caught me off guard. I am re-reading it now, having caught my balance. Through the movies, I have followed the story to its very end. 

In 2010, I moved to the East Coast and my new home - the USA  welcomed me with the gift of the Wizarding World materializing as a Universal theme park. 

*FAINTS*

The love story grew stronger and stronger as I went back to Hogwarts year after year (I have lost count how many times). Every Butterbeer is love. Each time I ride The Forbidden Journey, I come alive! Each year, new experiences are added. The Potterhead fandom has exponentially multiplied! Potterheads share an unspeakable bond. It is a cult following for sure! It knows no race, ethnicity, or boundaries. I wish the world could take lesson from Potterheads.