As I await Deathly Hallows Part II....
Speaking from the line at Cinemark, less than 6 hours from the Deathly Hallows release, I can say that it is definitely worth it to come well in advance and camp out. There is such an immense feeling of camaraderie and love, anticipation thrumming like lightning beneath every conversation and languid fanning hand. I’ve seen every character get some love in the costume department – among them Quirrel, Flitwick, the Grey Lady, the Golden Snitch, and even a mandrake. I’ve met some fantastic people, including yet another person with my same name. I’m roasting alive in my Hogwarts uniform, but it’s utterly worth it.
At less than 2 hours to go, I’ve actually been seated in the theater itself – the place where my childhood will well and truly end. I can’t tell if I’m excited or devastated for this final movie, because it means that Harry Potter really will come to an end. There are no more books (as far as we know), and there are no more movies. This is it. It’s been a good run.
Harry Potter has defined my life in ways that it is impossible to describe. I met my oldest friend through our mutual love of it, experienced fandom for the first time, learned what it was to be among my own kind, fellow obsessees that revere this saga to a religious level.
More than that, though, Harry Potter changed the world. How many billionaire authors are there, where their life story is nearly as famous as their books? What series inspired millions of children to shut off the television and pick up a book? What series inspired millions of parents to shut off the television and pick up a book? Which books were so popular, the New York Times had to create a separate children’s list so that they could stop dominating the main one?
And yet, beyond changing aspects of the real world, there’s the story to consider. Many of the plot devices (the Chosen One, Gotta Catch ‘Em All keys to defeating evil, a wise old mentor) we’ve head before, but not quite in this way. They’re put together into a masterpiece of a puzzle, filled with real, honest-to-goodness characters and jut plain great writing. Hermione was an icon to my friends and I as children, and continues to be a role model for us. She is smart, not necessarily pretty, able to have a platonic friendship with a friend who’s a boy, emotional, obnoxious, terribly afraid and strong despite it, badass, and overall real. It’s rare for me to see such a well-written and inspiring character. It’s rarer still for her to be as recognized as she is. And how about Dumbledore? He began as an eccentric, brilliant, wise wizard that was an authority figure and to Harry, and yet someone who understood him deeply. He became a very deep friend, someone to trust in though perhaps he didn’t tell one everything, and a mentor. Come the fifth book, Albus Dumbledore is made very sharply human, for all his wondrous abilities. Come the sixth book, he is mortal. And come the seventh, he is a tragically flawed, troubled youth that managed to turn out well despite everything, to be repulsive and yet wonderful, and again, overall, real. Snape, McGonagall, Ron, Ollivander, Dobby, Voldemort himself...the list goes on.
It’s beautiful.
There is little to compare to this moment for me. It is more momentous than my high school graduation, for this feels like a more solid closing of a phase of my life. It is more definable and more important. High school taught me information, but Harry Potter gave me an education.
Less than ten minutes now….I hardly know what to do, or think. I expect to be blown away. I expect to be lost for a time, and deeply saddened by the end.
Our time of discovery in this area has come to an end.
Farewell, Harry Potter. May you live in peace.
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