Harry Potter Week! {T-5 Days}

Please join me on the blog for Harry Potter Week! I have a series of really excellent fans, friends and bloggers (sometimes all 3!) lined up to guest post and share some words and insights into the world of Harry Potter and what it has meant to them. Check back in every day for a great post and share your own thoughts in the comments!

I sat anxiously drumming my fingers against the computer desk. I stared at the computer screen, willing it to process faster. The photo was taking an eternity to load. Sure, in 2011 that might sound like a drastic exaggeration for something that might take a minute at most to load...but this was 2000 and I'd been waiting for ten minutes only to see the tops of heads. Our big boxy family computer whirred away trying to handle the large and flashy WarnerBros website. I begged it to just load already—the suspense was killing me.

Maybe it was an advantage, the bit by bit revelation. It gave me a chance to process one feature at a time. Wasn’t her hair a little light in color? Shouldn’t his hair be sticking up a bit more? Red hair…ok, check. The glasses were a nice touch. His sweater actually looks like Molly might’ve knitted it. I could see a know-it-all behind that smile if I squinted just right.

There they were, after much waiting and speculation amidst the fandom and, ok, I admit, a few hopeful “audition” photos and letters sent in by 11-year-old-me (in case they decided not to cast all British…I could totally have been Katie Bell!)

There they were.

{I would never have guessed that one day I’d be meeting that young boy in the middle.}

I have been a dedicated, obsessed, at times overly-involved Harry Potter fan for over half my life. It wasn’t terribly long after I entered the Wizarding World that the movies were announced. I hoped for them…and then I quickly grew suspect of them. I was entirely devoted to this world and what if the movies just messed it all up? The truth is, there are many times I’ve felt the movies have messed it up; gotten something important to me incredibly wrong (see: leaving out the Marauders plot; casting Bonnie Wright; etc.) The books will always be very much more important to me, but I can’t deny that the movies are a part of the whole Harry Potter culture and I have enjoyed the hype and extension of my beloved fictional world just as much as the next fan. My Harry and Hermione and Ron will never really be Daniel and Emma and Rupert, and yet they have done an admirable job and I can applaud their portrayal. Not every actor or set or page-to-screen maneuver has been to my liking, but some have been genius. For example, Evanna Lynch as Luna.

I’ve heard a lot of fuss and sadness about our childhoods coming to an end, about something being over. The movie ads themselves warn “It all ends.” I can’t say I entirely agree. For me, Harry Potter is never over. For that matter, it is also the key to preserving, not ending my youth. I will always have Harry to remind me of who I was at different points in my life. I got each book at midnight, beginning in July of 2000 when I was 11. I stayed up all night reading (as I did for each) and had delusions the next day—my tiny body couldn’t handle the sleep deprivation. When I pick up “Goblet of Fire” I remember being 11; I remember moving to Colorado and seeking comfort in my 4 Harry Potter books, reading them again and again until I could recite them.

I grieved to a certain extent when the 7th book came out—much more “the end” to me than the movies—but even then, I knew it wasn’t really over. Maybe I could no longer speculate and hold out hope that Harry and Hermione really would end up together (as it should be), but these characters weren’t abandoning me and I wasn’t abandoning them. I can pick up my book at any time and be right back at home with my beloved story and friends. Their world hasn’t disappeared just because JK Rowling has finished putting pen to paper to tell their story.

I’m not going to mourn, I’m going to celebrate. Harry Potter has changed so many of our lives and I don’t think he’ll ever be done. I will continue to grow and re-read my beloved tale and someday share Harry with my children or loved ones. We will meet new friends and want to talk about our Potter experiences or favorite characters. We will follow the actors as they grow and always remember those ten years they spent on our screens bringing our favorite books to life. Harry Potter lives on.

And for now, as we head into the final chapter of the movie series, I stand with Ron and say:

“We’re with you whatever happens.”

{Me, July 21, 2007.}