Harry Potter and the 10-year-old Crayon Artist

July 31st is not only the birthday of Harry Potter, but the birthday of his creator, J.K. Rowling. To honor this fabulous woman and her fabulous creation, I'm posting some of the pictures I drew when I was a cute little nine-year-old who hadn't yet seen the movies and based these pictures off the descriptions from the books and the Hermione Granger action figure I'd seen at Kroger. Enjoy my crayon-and-puff-paint drawings--God knows my dad still finds them amusing.

 My imagining of the Gryffindor Common Room, with the Fat Lady facing out (in my fourth-grade brain, I assumed that since she faced OUTSIDE the portrait hole, from the inside you'd only be able to see her back).

Lord Voldemort, as I imagined him before I saw the films/read the fourth book and discovered that it isn't his body that's green, but the light from the Avada Kedavra curse...oops!

 Ron Weasley, getting sorted into Gryffindor.

Ginny Weasley waking up in the Chamber of Secrets. Note the worms snakes on the pillars surrounding her.

Harry Potter with his oddly-proportioned Nimbus 2000. Look closely and you can see the scribbles on the reverse side of the page, when I attempted to draw his face and crossed it out because I wasn't happy with the results.

 Hermione Granger, based on the 2001 action figure from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Ginny Weasley pre-Chamber of Secrets, awake and alert--and with blue eyes. This was based off my assumption that if Ron had blue eyes, so did Ginny. (Remember, this was before I read the seventh book.)

Harry's cupboard under the stairs. The left half is the outside, the right half (divided by the straight diagonal line, not the stair line) is the inside. Note that I depicted the entrance as an oven door, not the normal door that it is in the movies--I'm not sure why.

I'd like to say I've drawn better fan art since then. But I'd be lying. I've cosplayed Hermione (and done a damn good job, I thought), but I haven't actually drawn or photographed anything Harry Potter-related that I'd be willing to show the internet.

But this isn't about my artistic skills, or lack thereof. It's about showing my appreciation for the Harry Potter books, and the kick-ass woman who wrote them.

So to you, Ms. Rowling, I raise my glass. You changed my life with these books. You gave me something that helped me transition from the Baby-Sitters Club to the delights of Salinger, Tolkien, and Kerouac (among others). You showed me that I could handle "scary" books and movies. You gave me heroes to look up to and anti-heroes to admire, villains to hate and jesters to mock. You gave me more with one book series than most authors could with three or four (yes, I'm looking at you, Ann M. Martin).

Most importantly, you showed me that a frizzy-haired bookworm could change the world. You showed me my future self. You showed me a heroine that I could emulate without changing who I already was. And I will never, ever forget that.

Happy Birthday, J.K. May every book you write be as inspiring, as amazing, as the one that started it all.