The Pre-Snape days...

So, letter 7 of the 30-day, 30-letter challenge is written to an ex-crush.

Basically, you'll get to see what my life was like before I became Snape-obsessed.

--

Dear Sir Neal of Queenscove,

So, I kinda sorta maybe use to have a huuuuuuge literary crush on you. Like, so crazy my friends drew pictures of what they thought you should look like for me so that I could drool over them in science class*.

But anyway. You inspired me! I actually broke away from my dress-as-a-Harry-Potter-character Halloween tradition one year to dress as your best friend, Kel!

I suppose for the sake of backtracking, I should explain your history:

In the middle of the release of all the Harry Potter novels, I became attached to another female novelist (this one was very pro-feminine protagonists) called Tamora Pierce. She wrote mostly medieval fantasy fictions where women were the strong characters (female knights, powerful half-gods, etc.). My favorite series, The Protector of the Small, chronicled the story of a noble girl, Kel of Mindelan, who decided to be the first publicly known girl to train to be a knight after a law passed allowing for that.

Anyways, it follows her throughout the years and more importantly...FEATURES NEAL! Yayyy. He plays a good-guy in this novel, Kel's best friend, who is actually 4 years older than her because he went to healing school first and was then like "Aw fuck it! Knight time!"**.

So that's the back story.

Back to Neal.

I loved you. Seriously. You were awesome and magical and sarcastic yet witty! THE PERFECT COMBINATION!***And I was really, REALLY into you. Back when it was cool to be into fictional knights of a fictional kingdom and fictional time.

But, you know, then Harry Potter started getting big again, with more movies being released, the books getting longer, more intricate, and better.

And, I kind of gave up on you. Tamora Piece had basically finished with Tortall (the kingdom) and I was never going to hear from you again.

And so, being the wishy-washy 12 year-old that I was, I just, gave up. Discovered fanfiction. Fell in love with Cassandra Clare and Draco Malfoy--

Oh whoops. That's a whole 'nother story!

--Me

--

And that's an abridged version of my obsession with my pre-Snape crush. I mean, I could go into more detail about the drooling in science class, or the way I doodled his name everywhere, or how he inspired my yahoo email****, but, I won't.

Tomorrow's Letter: Your favorite internet friend. Teaser: "And the whole reason I joined, really, was to make sure that these people I barely knew hadn't been killed. Or arrested. You know which one is worse."

Yep. I'm going a bit broad with tomorrow's letter, but I feel like it'll work out better that way!

--R.

* Under-exaggeration. Seriously.
**Except maybe not quite as profane
***Guess who ELSE is awesome, magical, sarcastic, and witty. Go on. Guess.
****I still use this email to this day! Also inspired a huge fan fiction that exists only in my head. Sigh.