Oh hey there

Literally nothing exciting happened to me today. I only went for one walk (I've been averaging two a day lately, sometimes three), slept, read some of my summer reading, moped about how I'm never going to college, and watched "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" with my mother. The movie was interesting, but definitely disturbing at parts.

In the blog I mentioned yesterday, Mark updated by posting an absolutely gorgeous review of chapter 36 of Goblet of Fire. I'd recommend reading it, but I will post an excerpt right here in which he describes one of my favorite moments in the entire series:

I cried during Harry Potter. I got a bit choked up during the scene where Dumbledore asks Harry to painfully recount what happened to him when he was with Voldemort. It was especially bad when Harry got to the point of the story about his parents and suddenly lost the will to speak. I've been there.

But I lost it at the end of the chapter, after Fudge denies Voldemort's return and Dumbledore sends both Sirius and Snape off on important tasks. Harry, after reliving the trauma of his infancy and the trauma of death, dismemberment, and pure evil, has a moment where tears are finally triggered, when Harry reacts to Mrs. Weasley trying to cheer him up by suggesting he think of what he'll do with the gold he won. 

• "I don't want that gold," said Harry in an expressionless voice. "You have it. Anyone can have it. I shouldn't have won it. It should've been Cedric's."

And the moment comes. He can feel the same burning in his eyes, the same stinging, and he wishes Ron would just look away from him, worried it might make Ron feel less of him, realizing he told Cedric to grab the Triwizard Cup too, and that's when Mrs. Weasley leans in and hugs him. Like a mother, like one he never had long enough to hug him just like that.

And Harry cries. 

There's a lot of amazing, infuriating, and shocking info in this chapter, but I want to eschew any sort of traditional review to use this entry to hopefully empower you as well. [...]

The thing I am growing to love about Harry Potter is that it empowers me. It empowers me to talk about bigotry, racism, transphobia, political fuckery, and why I love writing. It empowers me to talk about deeply personal things like this. 

I want you to feel empowered, too. Let's use the comments to talk about these things we fear, the things we were told to keep to ourselves, and the things this series has helped us come to terms with.

I think I'll go to sleep early tonight. Whoop dee doo