How Harry Potter Almost Ruined My Marriage

Praise Dumbledore! The Cap'n is finally finished with Book 5.

The Cap'n and I have been late arrivals to the Harry Potter phenomenon. We only started reading Book 1 to each other in the car on the way to NYC in June. We finished it just before he left for Iraq.

I read Book 2 and Book 3 in a day each before he left, so he took those with him to Iraq.

I was no better than him...when the boys and I traveled to Indiana to visit my family, I took full advantage of the free babysitting and devoured Book 4. Before I even finished, I sent my stepdad out on a mad hunt for Books 5 and 6. I ended up finishing Book 7 in a night (9:00pm to 4:30am).

I still miss reading the books. I am glad that I was able to read the series in one go and not have to wait in between installments. I really thought they were marvelous, a tad overwritten, but a wonderful story with great characters. I wish they had been around when I was going through my teenage angst. I thought she did a great job of capturing what it means to grow into oneself.

The Cap'n remained a skeptic through Book 3. "They're okay," I believe I heard. When we got back from Ocracoke, he started on Book 4.

And that's when Harry Potter almost ruined my marriage.

For the last three weeks, the Cap'n's preferred bedtime companions have been those not-so-little volumes of Books 4 and 5. He finished Book 4 sometime after midnight one night and immediately cracked Book 5.

His schedule has been staying up to 2 or 3 in the morning to read, and sleeping in late. We do recall, do we not, when the children wake up? Let's just average it out to 6 a.m., to take into account those 5:30 mornings and those 7:00 mornings.

Some of those mornings, the Cap'n was very lucky that I couldn't make the Avada Kedavra work.

So back on the Grand Tour of 2007, I left Books 6 and 7 in NC so my dad could read them. They are still there, and are going to stay for a while. Maybe the Cap'n can have them around Thanksgiving and Christmas, so he has a few days to dedicate to them.

We're going to have to parcel out the remaining Potter.