I am joining this party late, I thought it was better late than never.:) While this isn't very original, I am extremely thankful for the Harry Potter series (as, I'm sure, are many others). I always loved to read, and I assume I'd be a reader today without HP, but I'm not sure if I'd be married or not (at least to Dan).
Of my few boyfriends in college and in high school, I never dated someone who loved to read or who, more importantly, loved Harry Potter — until I met Dan. One of the very first things that connected the two of us (as the majority of our interests are very different), was this love of HP. Wow, I sound corny. But really — it worked!
I told Dan that I loved HP when we first met in September 2009, that January Dan came and picked me up and told me he had a song to play for me — The Harry Potter Romance — that he wrote and sang.:) I remember being exceptionally jealous throughout the whole song — thinking all of these nasty things about the girl he wrote this for and wishing it was me. It wasn't until after we started dating (over six months later) that I finally asked who he wrote that song for and found out that it was me!
Who knows — if it weren't for that song and my subsequent jealously (and the innate human nature of wanting what you think you can't have)... would my last name be different?