Harry Potter was my childhood. When I think of the books, movies, and toys I needed (not just wanted), most of them are Harry Potter related. I waited in line for the last book, and I’ve gotten tickets for both of the book 7 movies. It is nearly impossible to believe that the era is almost at an end. My kids, my grandkids even, might know what the series is. They might read them, just like we’ve read C. S. Lewis and they might even like them. But after this weekend, the magic and energy every Harry Potter fan experienced will be gone.
Call me dramatic if you will, but I have been caught up in the phenomenon. I collected the collectables, I played the board games, and I even read the websites. Nothing was enough. I could not get enough of the new material. Going into the movie this weekend, even though I know what happens, it becomes real up on the screen. I knew kids who thought Hogwarts would send them an owl on their 11th birthday. Those kids have grown up. They are in high school (hopefully not watching Twilight) and though they might still be fans, they stopped thinking one day they’d be learning from Professor Flitwick.
For just a night, I want to believe magic is real and that Hagrid exists. Evil can be defeated by a 17 year old boy and his awesome friends. For a night, we should be those kids who were so excited we stayed up all night with a flashlight under the covers reading those books (no? Just me? Really? Moving on then…). Harry Potter was new, and fun, and as I got older, so did the characters and they grew up just like me. J.K. Rowling made me want to read and know all the little details that made those books so interesting and intricate.
I am obsessed, but not like I used to be. Staying on the phone for hours just quizzing friends on the smallest details (Hermione’s eye color?) was the height of my day when I was younger. I haven’t been so excited about that kind of stuff in years. I haven’t wanted to stay up all night to read, or known about a book weeks before you could even pre-order it. Was it the book, or was it just how kids are and as you grow up, things like that fade away?
I don’t want my excitement to fade away with my years. The depressing thought that I might never be as excited for a movie as I am for this movie is astounding. I was bouncing up and down the day the first movie came out and haven’t missed out on an opening weekend since. The anticipation right when the lights dim, the deep breath everyone takes when the lightning bolt like name pops up on the screen- I can’t imagine never wanting to see a movie so much that I hold my breath beforehand.
I hope everyone has something in their lives that has been so exciting and obsessive as Harry Potter has been for so many people. The idea might be silly (a book series making me so excited), but sometimes it’s the light and fluffy things that give you the biggest rush. Beating the Angry Birds level and seeing a new movie with an actress you really love can be the most fun part of the day.
Everyone needs to go into this weekend believing in the magic of a group of people so excited by a story, so inspired that they’ve spent 11 years of their lives watching and reading. They should appreciate the people who spent years and years of their lives trying to figure out what was going on in J.K. Rowling’s head. This weekend, the last movie comes out and Harry Potter will slowly fade away into another amazing series, but to our generation, it wasn’t just a series. For many of us, it was the first chapter book we read by ourselves, our first brush with magic, and the first time we were left wanting more.
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