Why did we start reading the books?

[Ebony AKA AngieJ]

No: HPFGUIDX 22430

Because I was teaching middle grades English/Language Arts at the 
time and a good teacher knows her subject and the cultural influences 
upon her kids inside out.  :-)

When I first heard of the Harry Potter series, I was nearing the end 
of my first flush of religious conversion... after being raised in a 
pretty secular home, I converted to evangelical Christianity in my 
late teens.  The first thing I heard was that there was a novel about 
witchcraft being promoted to little kids.  I can't remember being 
*very* strongly horrified... just maybe a *little* horrified, and 
completely disinterested.  "Harry Potter" didn't seem like all that 
interesting of a name or a title, anyway.

I began my teaching career in high school, so it wasn't until I got 
my own classroom in August 1999 (which, much to my disappointment, 
was primarily fifth and sixth grade) that I heard about Harry Potter 
again.  Someone brought him up...  "Ooh, I love those books!  Can we 
read that, Miss Thomas?" and I brushed it off.

Then one afternoon in January or February 2000 (cannot remember the 
exact week), I noticed something in my doorway.  Someone had left 
their CoS hardcover on the threshhold of my classroom.

I asked all of my students if it was theirs... everyone, even the 
Harry Potter die-hard fans (including then-seventh grader Jeff, who 
would unknowingly convert me to a shipper that summer) shook their 
heads, even though some eyed it and maybe considered claiming it.

I'll never know what possessed me after school that day... I really 
*was* going to take the darn thing to the school lost-and-found and 
think no more of it.  But instead I did something I never did before.

I pushed my gradebook to one side of my tote and stuck CoS in.

That night, after finishing papers and e-mail (back in those days, I 
was only online maybe 30 min. to an hour a day!  OMG!), I curled up 
with CoS... and a few newsmagazines, because I knew I was going to 
loathe it and want something else to look at soon afterward.

It took me until nearly midnight, but I devoured CoS.  The very next 
weekend, I purchased SS and PoA from Sam's Club.  Two weeks later, 
I'd reconfigured my semester plan to fit in a three-week long 
exercise on literature circles...using Harry Potter as the focus.

It's all been downhill from there, I think.  I got into fanfiction in 
March 2000, had a WONDERFUL time using HP in the classroom in May 
2000, but then was too embarrassed to go to any of the July 8th 
launch parties alone or with my teenaged sister.  But I had my 
reserved copy of GoF by 10 a.m. that Saturday morning, and it was all 
read well before six that evening.

A week later, I found Lori Summers' fanfiction "The Paradigm of 
Uncertainty"... up until then, I had NO idea that there were adult 
discussion groups online for the Harry Potter series!  By the end of 
July, I became a member here... and by last Christmas, I was writing 
Harry Potter fanfiction of my own.

It's funny, and I hate to admit it, but I think that I'm a different 
person because of these books.  I'm not sure if I would have had the 
courage to do several life-changing things over the past eighteen 
months if I had simply put those books back in the lost-and-found.  I 
could say more, but I'd be getting into some philosophical and 
religious ground that I'm not really prepared to tread on here.

Some may say that the CoS-on-the-doorstep was coincidence.

I say that it was a gift from God.  ;-)

--Ebony AKA AngieJ