The End

Last night, i was lucky enough to go to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2. While I'm still sleep deprived now, I really feel the need to express my thoughts at the series finally ending.


I remember when I first started reading the Harry Potter series. The fourth book had just come out. And my family was making several long car trips that year, so they bought it for me to read in the car. And I remember being so confused at what was going on. In my mind, the house tables were all on clouds (don't ask me how i imagined that.), Harry and the other charaters had a lot of stuff going on that I didn't understand. Who was this Voldemort person? Why was Harry calling Sirius Snuffles? and how was he even related to Harry anyways. Why was he living with his jerkish relatives?


So after much persuation, and finishing the book with little answers, I read the first three books. And it finally all made sense. At last I understood why Harry hated the Durselys, who all these characters were, and it started to strike a chord with me.


and then the first movie came out. I became convinced, in my nine year old mind, that Hogwarts was real, and that in just two years time, an owl would be coming for me. Harry and his friends had to be real. A world as wonderful as this just couldn't not exist.

The gang as I remember seeing them the first time

Time went on, and I found myself dealing with the darker parts of the wizarding world. No one believed Harry. Everyone, it seemed, turned against him. The very people who should be protecting him, heck, honoring him, were all ignoring him. and then Harry lost someone so dear to him. The one person he had no right to lose...he lost.

By the time the sixth book came out, I had come to the very sad conclusion: Hogwarts, Harry, and all the other people of the wizarding world, only existed in my mind. And yet, there was something so very real about it. This was the first series where I laughed out loud (courtesy fred and george), where I almost cried...never before has reading been so powerful. it was so powerful, that a part of me was convinced...it still was real.


And then came the realization...I had only one more book. One more book to stay up until midnight to get. One more book that would end it all. And I remember, sitting in the bookstore, convincing myself, it wasn't the end quite yet. There were still two more movies (the seventh book hadn't been released yet, and I had no idea they were splitting it into two parts).


And unlike the previous books, where I skipped over the parts where Harry and co got in trouble (Looking at you, chamber of secrets!) i couldn't put it down. Every word was important. I couldn't miss a single detail. I couldn't stop reading. I had to force myself to slow down so I wouldn't finish it all in one sitting.


And then I read the final sentence, "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well." And I was full of mixed emotions, like any good person should be. Happy for the journey I had been on, but sad that it was all over. But, i reminded myself, there were still two more movies.


Fast forward in time, and I'm in line for the last midnight showing of a Harry Potter movie. I was surrounded by people, costumed and uncostumed alike, all of us united by The Boy Who Lived. We all were there because of Harry. In my theater, the audience cheered when the good guys pulled off awesome stunts...and I heard the famliar strains of music from the first movie, which started to really bring the feeling that it was...over.


But it's not over. People still love Harry Potter. We always will. And if you have that small thing in common, you can always make friends. I met two girls who were standing next to me and my friend in line. There was a bond already there, because of Harry. Even though i only knew their first names, I was still thrilled that in the space of two hours (ish) we became friends.


And now, I need to thank the woman who brought us Harry. Thank you, JK Rowling, for having the courage to push through failure, to push through your struggles, and to write the story of a young boy who was a wizard. Thank you, for inspiring me to read, for inspiring me to write. For inspiring me to become like you. That gift alone is something I cannot repay you. and you'll probably never read this, so you'll never know.


But, as one little boy said to George Lucas when the Star Wars series ended, "Thank you." Thank you, for showing us that love, friendship and loyalty are more powerful than power, greed, hatred, envy, and even death.


My favorite line from all the Harry Potter books is, unsurprisingly, a Dumbledore one: "Of course it's happening inside your head, Harry. But why should that mean that it's not real?"