and so it is done

*photo from ign.com

I’ve read a lot of posts today and the last couple of days, heard a lot of friends say the same thing about Harry Potter.  How when the books were done, this movie was over, they felt as if a part of their childhood died.  Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in 1997.  I didn’t read it then because I just wasn’t into ‘kid’ books.  But even if I had, I was no kid.  My childhood was over and done with and for goodness sake I was married!  It was just before the first movie came out in 2001 that I read the book.  I loved it.  I loved JK Rowling’s imagination.  It literally knew no boundaries. 

It was fascinating in a way that nothing was or has ever been since.  She created this world, this beautiful, magical world that you could completely immerse yourself in and get lost.  She created characters that at times we hated, but always, always loved.  She made magic feel real.  She made you believe.

Reading the books as an adult I had a much different perspective than the younger fans I suspect.  I was disheartened by Rowling when characters close to Harry began to die.  I felt that it was so unfair, being fiction, why can’t the boy have a bit of happiness in his life?  He’s already lost so much.  But in the end, I understood.  I was moved by the loyalty of his friends and teachers.  By the students who believed in him regardless of if he came through for them or not.

Most of all I loved Hermione Granger.  She was smart and bossy and completely unapologetic of it.  Harry could never have completed his journey, hell Harry couldn’t have survived if it weren’t for her.  She was scared, like the rest, but brave beyond her years.  She read books, tons of them and proved that half bloods were just as good, if not better than full blooded witches.  She was magnificent.

Ron made me laugh.  He was the unlikely hero.  The best friend who slowly grew into himself and gained the confidence he so greatly needed.  He always seemed to say the wrong thing at just the right time.  There was very little filter given to Ron.  But he too was brave, even if he didn’t know it at the time.

And so many others, besides Harry who colored the story more brightly than anything I have ever read or probably will read in my lifetime.  Neville and Luna with their clumsy attempts at life.  Cedric in his perfection, McGonagall and her rigid standards who was more like a mother to Harry, though he didn’t see it until the end.  Hagrid and his unconditional love.  Dumbledore and his wisdom.  Severus and his painful heartbreaking love for someone that carried on to the boy who lived.  Draco and his struggle to become who he should be and not who he was made to be.

And so many more.  Each character brought to the story something tangible and wove this tapestry of wonder that no matter how many times I reread the books covers me like the warmest of blankets.

And now the last movie has graced the screens.  We’ve waited in the last midnight showing line.  We’ve sat for the last time in a theater with other fans cheering and crying at a story we already know, but can’t help but relive on the big screen as if it were new.

Sitting there, tears pooling in my eyes, it dawned on me that at some point in time these movies became less children’s movies and more adult.  They matured as their audience and characters did.  Watching each movie from beginning to end you can see the progression.  Themes are darker, choices are more difficult and the brave begin to perish.  For a whole new generation of Harry Potter fans who might be opening the books for the first time right now, it will be a few years yet before your parents might allow you to watch these movies.

But oh, wasn’t it perfect?  David Yates you are redeemed in my eyes.  After the disappointment that was The Order of the Phoenix and the disaster that was the Half-Blood Prince I feared for the franchise when I saw you were chosen to direct the last two movies.  While some complained of the slowness of Part 1, I thought it was a much better offering coming from you.  And now, well after Part 2 I’m okay with you.  The only disappointment I felt at the end of this movie was that it was the last.

Thank you JK Rowling.  For the last 10 years of magic in my life.  For reminding me that there is always magic in books.  For quite simply being.

Now I must go and get my dad to watch all 7 of the previous movies so I can go with him to see this last one again (but in 3D this time)!