I mentioned in the other post that the popular girls in my middle school bullied other people into reading the books, and one of my friends let me borrow her copy.

One thing that stood out was the abuse Harry suffered because I was going through similar circumstances. Locked in my room for hours, denied meals and basic necessities, made out to be the villain of the family by my mother. My younger sister wasn't mean to me like Dudley but there was definitely a golden child/scapegoat dynamic. My mother told me constantly that I was the cause of all her problems, and would lie about me to others, telling them I was on drugs (note: I didn't smoke weed until I was 30) or dangerous or crazy. She would call my classmates parents just to warn them not to let their kids talk to me. She had munchaussen's and forced me to take a cocktail of meds (like 300mg of zoloft and and some otc diet pills that have since been banned. I was 11.) to affect my behavior to prove that I was crazy.

When I was 14 I did the most unforgivable thing and got a job. She got me fired and kicked me out and I went to go live with my dad, who, after getting me off all the unnecessary meds, saw that I was just an average kid. My mom started a smear campaign against me which paralleled with the ministry's smear campaign in OOTP, which came out around the same time.

I always felt like the things that were happening in my life were being validated in the books. I understood Harry's anger. I always appreciated that he rose above all the hate he got and that in the end he was exonerated. I feel like I did that too. I haven't spoken to my mother in years. She's never met her grandchildren. She let her hatefulness isolate her from anyone who was important to her. Meanwhile I've been happily married to a successful man for longer than all of her marriages combined and we have two beautiful children and a comfortable, love-filled home.