Dear Friend,
I met you when I was in kindergarten. That was me, the bespectacled little girl who hadn't grown out of her "puppy fat" yet. I was quiet and shy. It's really not a stretch to say that you were my first real friend.
For two years, we were inseparable. My teachers called home to tell my parents that they might want to limit the time I was able to see you because you were all I could talk about. Thank goodness they didn't listen. They thought that the things you were teaching me was worth listening to an enthusiastic seven year old's babble.
When we moved to the new house, you and I fell out of touch for a while. Maybe it was because I started, for the first time, to make friends of my own. That made me so much happier than I'd ever been before.
But it didn't last for long.
The teasing started really badly in fourth grade. I'd always been on the outer fringes of my school's society, but never before had anyone ever made it so apparent. Up till then I had loved school - being a naturally inquisitive little thing, learning satisfied a natural craving in me. That changed when I started coming home crying. I started seeing you again. We spent hours together once again. When they called me fat at school, I cried to you. When they made fun of my glasses, I laughed, because they didn't know that you wore them too and you were so cool to me.
It would be melodramatic to say you saved my life, but I think that it's true on some level. At the very least you've changed me for the better.
I always looked up to you in one way or another. You were so brave, so loyal to your friends. I aspired to be like you. I came out of my shell and broadened my tween horizons.
But more than that, when no one else could see how much I was hurt, you were there to listen. Without you, it's entirely possible that I would have done something stupid with my life.
And now, nearly 11 years after I met you, I have to say goodbye.
I guess on some level, that it's not really goodbye. You'll always be around. Certainly I'll remember you for years to come. But tonight is the end in my head. Tonight I have to say goodbye to the boy who's stood by my side, given me courage, and held me up for years.
What am I supposed to say? That I'll miss you? I never really thought about it before. I never thought this day would come, to be honest. I know you'll always be there if I need you, just a quick flip of the page away, but tonight a line will be drawn in my mind.
Thank you for the support you've given me. Thank you for the times you listened. Thank you for making me believe that I could be a writer, and for pushing me towards that dream. Thank you for everything.
Now that that's out of the way, I guess the last thing I have to say to you is this:
Goodbye, Harry James Potter. Goodbye, my friend.
xoxoAlicexoxo
Author's Note: Written Thursday, 8:00 p.m. Potter Forever!
