Harry and his world have been a part of my life since July 25th, 1999. I received the second book in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as a birthday present. Mom had read the first book and liked it, so she bought me the second one, not realizing that they were a continuous story. That was the summer I turned 13. We visited Dad in Philly, then hopped in the car and brought him home, by way of several major American landmarks. And I read Harry Potter the whole way. I can still see Amy and I on either end of the backseat, listening to Backstreet Boys cds and swapping them out every once in a while, all while I was reading this book. It was a long trip home, with stops at Hershey Park, Monticello, and Gettysburg (not to mention all the sights in Philly). We were still in Virginia when I finished the book. I remember this clearly, as I begged my parents to stop and buy me the first one. My wonderful parents, always willing to encourage my ravenous reading habit, managed to find a Borders in a day and age when your cell phone, if you had one, couldn't possibly tell you where the nearest ANYTHING was, let alone hold the e-book. And the rest is history.
Since then, I've celebrated nearly every birthday in conjunction with the release of a Harry Potter book and/or movie. The books always came out right before Amy's birthday, so she'd get a copy and I'd have to wait the week and a half until I got my own copy. I remember going to The Open Book with my mother at 7am the day the book came out to get our books, which she had them gift-wrap. I could touch it, but I wasn't allowed to read it. We even picked up the British editions when we went to London. It was a feat to find copies a few times, with my parents driving to Easley and back the summer after my freshman year of college. They'd come for dinner on my birthday and hadn't produced a copy of the book, so I was sadly without reading material that night. Until they showed back up later that night with a copy. I finished it at 5am. All of the books were overnight reads. I couldn't possibly be prevailed upon to put it down.
J.K. Rowling fed my imagination like no other author before or since has been able to do. When the first movies came out, I was worried. I was afraid they would take away my ability to imagine that world, just the way I wanted it to be. Instead, it was a wonderful supplement to my imagination. The movies started coming out in 2001. On Thursday night, I'll be in line by 10pm to see the final movie. Many folks immediately start looking for the differences between the book and the movie. All I've ever wanted to do is savor every last minute of it.
If there's one thing that can be said about Harry Potter fans, it's that we're loyal. Most of us grew up right alongside these characters. They're in our hearts and part of our lives. I commented to Chris that I don't know what to do when it all ends. There's no more books, no more movies, never anything new again. It's not likely that I'll spiral into an emotional pit. More likely, I'll look for something to replace it. But there's nothing out there. From the intellectual standpoint, Harry Potter is incredibly well-written, with wonderfully researched characters. Many of the peripheral characters draw their names from myth, folklore, etc. It's a kind of creativity I envy. J.K. Rowling has talked in interviews about the fact that she's known how it would end since the first book. She's had these major plotlines all stored up in her head, just waiting to be put to paper.
So. Instead of lamenting the end of a long 12 years with Harry Potter, I'm going to appreciate the impact it has had on my life, helping to make me the reader I am today. It's been with me all these years, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. Jo Rowling herself put it quite eloquently at the premiere of this final movie: "the stories we love best do live in us forever...Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."
