This is my third time and I can say this with more certainty than ever before: I love the “Harry Potter” books, I just hate Harry.

Underneath, I always kind of hated his little butt, but now I am certain.

Over break, I needed something to do. I thought that a trip down memory lane would suit me well. I own all the “Harry Potter” books so reading the series over again was an easy choice.

So the first book opens up by describing the state of Harry’s life. Granted, it sucks, so naturally this makes you cheer for him. His aunt and uncle are terrible in a cartoonish fashion. Dudley is basically everything wrong with children ever. The jerks would not even give Harry a proper birthday.

What happens next kind of ruins my cheering for Harry. He gets told he is special by a hairy giant in a hut on his birthday. It is all downhill from there.

Harry turns into the rich kid who flies on a broom slightly better than other people. Who, for some reason, always talks about himself.

If he was quiet about his being special it would not be obnoxious, I mean take a note from Longbottom, Potter.

With that being said, the other characters are just so much better.

Hermione works very hard all the time and seems like a worthwhile friend to have. She is always trying to help the group with research or her superior smarts.

Ron is sweet, although dumb sometimes. He is at least endearing. These two characters engrave themselves in your heart, Harry is just there to be the hero.

No one wants a friend like Harry.

Hell, even though Draco kind of sucks I still like him more as a character than our scar-faced 11-year-old hero.

The same goes for Snape. The teacher that treated you like crap, but secretly had your back the whole time? Yeah, that is amazing. Snape is a hero for crying out loud.

The only character in the first book that I really don’t care too much about, other than Harry, is Voldemort. Granted. the Dark Lord has not come back fully yet, give him a few books, he’s going to be good, wink wink.

Reading the first book was fun, but take my advice, cheer for anyone except Harry. Cheer for Longbottom, cheer for Ron, heck, cheer for Dumbledore or Snape. These characters are way more deserving of your love and affection than, cough, “the boy who lived.”