I just get made fun of...a lot. Not in a mean way, but it still kind of gets to me. It just shows how close minded people are.

*Nat, Gryffindor

I'm in college now so I'm not that overly obsessed visibly to anyone... But in HS, my friends and I called ourselves the HP Trio because the three of us are soo like Harry Ron and Hermione [if Harry was female] personality wise... We got the scarves and all...

But no one really teased us. Our school was mad laidback.

-AUdra, Gryff

The most I ever get is my kids telling people what a Harry Potter freak their mom is. "She even wrote a 22 chapter long story about Harry Potter, and she reads other stories all the time online. It's so embarrassing." Deal with it! When I got cancer two years ago I decided to hell with acting like a grown-up all the time. Especially if being a grown-up meant doing only what people think is appropriate for your age. Life's too precious to deny myself living it fully just because of what someone else might think. So I went from being a fan of the Potterverse vicariously through my children, to being a full-fledged freak. And I'm having FUN.

Kelley, Gryffindor

I've never gotten any shit about liking HP. Most of my friends like the books and movies (I kept running into people from school at the OotP release party!), but, except for one friend, I'm the only one into the fandom-aspect of it. One of my friends sometimes makes fun of me for loving Sirius/Remus, but he eventually admitted that he sort of saw it XD
I never wore HP shirts to school or anything, though . If I had, though, I don't think anyone would have cared. They're all used to me being a crazy fangirl. I do have a ravenclaw pin on my purse, though.

~Sophia, Ravenclaw

Strangely enough, I get more flack from other HP fans giving me shit about wearing Slytherin regalia than I get from non-HP fans giving me shit about being an HP fan. But then again, I'm a recent college graduate, I still live in a college town, and I spend a lot of time hanging out at my old dorm which is full of...well...geeks.

The only HP hate I've ever been the target of is when some idiot Bible thumper was standing in the middle of campus and bitching about all sorts of random shit being an "abomination unto the Lord". I thought he looked like fun, so I stopped to heckle him. He took notice of my Slytherin scarf and immediately launched into this extended tyrade about how Harry Potter was a Satanic ploy to indocrinate the youth of the world into worshipping the devil and joining pagan covens. I told the guy he was full of shit, since most the pagans and witches I know don't believe in Satan, let alone worship him. He just looked at me weird and kept on ranting.

That's really the only HP Hate I've ever seen first hand. However, I'm sure I'd be on the receiving end of a lot more harassment if I fessed up to being involved with the online fandom, reading fic, and having any sort of ship preferences. Nobody I know would seriously hate me for it or anything, but I'd probably get teased into next century. ^_^;

I've never had anyone say anything negative to me about HP. I don't really know anyone in RL that enjoys the books or films very much. People know that I love anything HP related, so whenever I make a remark about something, they usually laugh or shake their heads.

Back in junior high, I used to have girls threatening to cut off my hair (I wasn't very concerned because I usually just laughed at the stupidity of that sort of threat), but that is as far as harassment went.

However, in elementary school, there was a boy named Jeremiah. The choir had their annual concert in front of the student body and one of the songs they sang happened to be Jeremiah was a Bullfrog. He didn't attend my school for much longer after that.


VagabondLivvy
Ravenclaw

I've never really had too much of a problem. People know I like it cuz I have HP clothes, school supplies, decorations, etc. I get looks though because I'm a freshman in college :\ Whatever it's not going to make me like it anyless. Besides they just played PoA in the campus center last nite :D

- Janelle, Hufflepuff

Never had much grief about it .. I read it, I play it, I have a bunch of fan stuff from it, but they don't really care too much. And if they did, I'd make sure they got over it, the insolent knaves. ;)

Patricia//Slytherin

I haven't really had problems...most of my friends either think I'm weird and too obsessed, and others love the books as much as I do. Of course, those were my high school friends. I don't know if any of my college friends like HP or not. I don't think they'd care much, because so far, people have been pretty cool and tolerant of things like that.

As for HP hate, one time my ex best friend's mom took my copy of SS to our pastor because she wanted to know what he thought about it before letting her daughter read it, and I basically got the whole 'reading the books is evil and you will become a devil worshipper' deal after it was returned to me.

Ashley, Ravenclaw

YOU HAVE A NECKTIE????

LOL, nice icon. You like the dirty screen animation, I see :)

I have the scarf (which is nice and thick and warm), which I made, and a green and silver cloak (not winter-warm, but as I'm going to be living in California soon, I think it'll be just warm enough for chilly nights...) The cloak, which I got for Christmas from my boyfriend, gets me some odd looks here and there, but I love it, and it's so comfortable.

I'm pretty fortunate. Most of my friends (and a fair number of my coworkers) are lovers of HP, at least enough to the point of being more than happy to talk about it, and not look at me like I have 10 heads when I tell them about my beloved cloak, or display the scarf that I learned how to knit just to make.

So...most people around me are used to my obsession and accept it as is :)

Becca, Slytherin

Well, this girl called me lousy names like "SLYTHERIN WORSHIPER!" when I wore my Slytherin shirt to school, but that was probably because she believes she's a hard x core Gryffindor, but whatever.

Um, other than that, nothing, really. I can talk to some of my friends about the books, since they've all more or less seen it, and I can drag some of them with me to watch the films, but that's really where my obsession offline comes to an end. *shrugs*

Jocelyn / Gryffindor

I can't say I've been the target of hate, but I work at a university in Canada, and I ran into more than a dozen people in my choir who are all university students who were reading HP, so that was pretty positive. However, I'm the army and most people are smart enough not to say stupid shit to my face, even if they thought it was stupid.

Melissa, Gryff

Yeah, why DID they do that? I've always wondered.
But that is sweet. =)

In response to the question, most of my friends aren't really into HP, so I don't really express my love for it outwardly (unless they happen to visit my Livejournal). And even if they knew, they wouldn't say anything about it. I wish they weren't so indifferent though; but at least I get to meet HP fans on LJ!!

- Yen, Ravenclaw.

For a modern lit class, I was required to read Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone. In general, lit majors don't care what you read, because the coursework itself tends to be brutal, so any outside extra reading you take on yourself is A-OK.

Anna - Ravenclaw

You don't get to choose? Beyond the 1000 courses (expository writing) and required 2000's (survey American Lit, survey British Lit and a couple comp classes), with the exception of various Lit Crit, all our classes have specific time or thematic designations. The HP book was for modern lit, alongside stuff like the Black Mountain school, Toni Morrison, Catcher in the Rye (HATE RAAAAYS!) and my absolute FAVORITE book, Written on the Body, by Jeanette Winterson. I've taken Jacobean Shakespeare and Elizabethian Shakespeare, and though they were taught by the same person, they're very different courses. Same with Restoration Drama as opposed to Restoration Lit. Have you read Oroonoko yet? The differences between the play and the book (YAY APHRA BEHN!) are astounding.

Anna - R-Claw, dawg

yeah so im another college kid obsessed with harry potter. all my friends know it too muwahahha if people make fun of me, its not gonna stop me from wearing one of the three harry potter shirts i got from the sal to class. its not my problem that theyre afraid to express themselves and show what they like. on my back window i have a "Harry for President" sticker muwahah. the one kid i work with thought it was great and he doesnt even like hp. as soon as i get my scarf done, im wearing that thing everywhere! i like to relate things to hp even if people dont know what im talking about. theres a sign not too far from here that i need to take a pic of considering it says something like "transfiguration elementary school"

at times i like to quote the books and movies for no reason. my aunt and cousin told me they hated hp and i told them i would disown them ahahha they never gave him a chance!! the other day i took both movies over to their house for them to watch. i hope they like them...and if not...ill just keep telling them quotes anywayz

|H|A|R|R|Y|P|O|T|T|E|R|
my anti drug

All of my friends know, but not very many people at school do. The people who know and don't like HP either don't say anything, or shake their heads and/or lightly tease me and say stuff like "you're such a nerd." It's not that big of a deal. I don't really care what people think.

I asked my friend Nicole to knit me a Gryffindor scarf for my birthday that's coming up on Columbus Day (*grin* I'm finally going to be 16) and I know I won't be afraid to wear it to school. As I always say- my reputation most likely can't get any worse, so screw it.

All my friends at school, either don't know about my obsession or are cool with it. My best friend loves the books, and we talk about them sometimes, but she despises the movies. She likes to keep her own vison of Hogwarts. I respect that. One of my good friends is as equally obsessed as I am, so we take out all our HP obsessiveness out on eachother. :) I get the most flack from my brothers about it. My oldest brother thinks it's gay to be "obsessive" about anything. He's a movie watcher, but that's it. One of my other brothers laughs at me so much saying "you waste your time on that children's book that is for like 2 year olds!" How wrong he is... I live with it. I let the ignorance from my brothers slide. They no not what they say. I mean even the newspaper said, "Harry Potter isn't a Children's book no more" or something like that about OotP. I was like RIGHT ON NEWSPAPER!

At my HS we also get some kids called Harry Potter on a physical apperance, but what are ya' gonna do? At Halloween so many people dress up as Harry Potter characters! Last year two teachers were Hagrid and Hermione. It was so cute 'cause my choir teacher was Hermione, and she used the conductor's wand for her..well..wand.

Really good Question, btw.

Austynne, Hufflepuff