How and when did you get in to Harry Potter?
I was twenty and I had just separated from my fiance. I was thoroughly depressed and had moved back in with my parents, and had nothing to do all day but mope. In an effort to cheer me up, my dad suggested I try reading The Sorcerer's Stone. Up until that point I wasn't sure about Harry — I thought they were kids' books. But my dad and I have always shared reading tastes, and I respected his opinion enough to give it a try. Within the next forty-eight hours, I read all three books nonstop, and then ran out and bought the fourth one. Over the next week I reread them all (a little more slowly this time!) and realized I was hooked.

Which Harry Potter book is your favorite?
The Prisoner of Azkaban. It introduces my two favorite characters (Sirius and Lupin), and the general tone gets much darker. It was the book that made me truly realize that these books are not written for children alone. And all the plot twists line up so neatly that I was mad that I hadn't figured out who Scabbers was on my own!

What character can you relate to most?
I think Ron. I always had the feeling that I was following in somebody's footsteps when I was a kid. Plus, he reminds me of my husband a lot.

What do you think of the inevitable boy/girl stuff coming in book 5?
It doesn't really bother me. So far, JKR has done an amazing job of depicting high school life down to the little grievances, so I know she'll treat her readers to the same sort of approach with the lovey-dovey stuff. But I think Harry's going to have his heart broken in book 5.

Who do you think Harry will "hook up" with in book 5? What about Ron?
I think Cho is going to disappoint Harry, so I'm hoping for Ginny. I think Ron and Hermione will hook up, but not until book 6. However, that doesn't mean they won't flirt like crazy through this one.

What character do you think will die in book 5?
There's a lot of really good theories out there. I believe Hagrid makes the most sense, though, because he's around Harry constantly at Hogwarts and would definitely risk his own life for Harry. Either him or Sirius (a convicted felon hiding out with close personal connections to Harry? I don't think Voldemort could resist!).

Which school house would you want to be in? Do you think the Sorting Hat would place you in that house?
I think Ravenclaw. I had a reputation in school for being too clever for my own good some days. I think I would get placed there also, because I'm simply not cool enough to be in Gryffindor.

Do you have any interesting HP stories to share?
I work at a school, running the before- and after-school program for a total of eighty-eight kids. A few days after the announcement had been made about book five, one of my students told me about MuggleNet. I checked it out when I got home, and decided to print up a copy of the Facts and Theories page to show to some of my HP fan students. I had a nice hour-long round table discussion with about five boys, arguing over our favorite theories until they went home. The next day, they all wanted their own copy of the pages, so I Xeroxed a few more. Then more kids wanted them. So I made more. By the end of the morning, I had made over forty copies and was having them ripped out of my hand while they were still warm from the copier!

I also had my favorite date at a Harry Potter movie. A few weeks after the first movie came out, my boyfriend and I went to a small theater that had just reopened after some extensive remodeling. We bought our tickets and went to get our seats when we noticed the entire theater was empty. My boyfriend went to buy our snacks, and the management waited to dim the lights until he was seated again. We had the whole place to ourselves, our own private movie theater.

Do you have anything else you'd like to add? Maybe a theory you've concocted, a shout-out?
I think I would get killed if I didn't say hi to all my kids at Olive-Mary Stitt Elementary. So sitdownbequietstoprunningpickuptheperlerbeadsonthefloorstophittingeachotherand

HI!