The Harry Potter dilemma

Unlike most people my age, Harry Potter was not a part of my formative years. My father has never been much of a reader, so instead of sending me to sleep with tales of the wizarding world, he would make up his own stories. I knew the books and films existed and what the main characters looked like. I saw my peers draw circular glasses and Harry’s iconic lightning scar on their foreheads with eyeliner for last minute Halloween costumes, but more than anything, as an aspiring writer from the age of three, I was always told the rags to riches origin story of J. K. Rowling.

I didn’t truly grasp how much Hogwarts meant to so many until I started university and met the members of the Harry Potter Society, who were mostly also part of the LGBT+ society. Eventually, I tired of people’s shock upon finding out that I’d never read or watched the