Mourning Harry Potter

I feel like a huge part of my childhood is over now that the last Harry Potter movie has been released. There are so many bits of my past that I can relate to Harry Potter.

It all started in the 3rd grade. My class in California started reading the book together as a class. I remember a huge debate over if Hermione's name was "Her-my-own-knee" or "Herm-y-own". Honestly, reading the book out loud ruined it for me. It just didn't seem that interesting.

I remember finally giving the series another try when the 4th book came out. I was 9 years old. I remember reading the first chapter of the first book and thinking "Really? This is lame." After I made it through the first chapter, I'm pretty sure I read it within a few days. I was quite the book worm at that age.

By the time the 1st movie had come out in November 2001, I had read books 1-4 over and over again countless times, most likely 10 times each. I remember they featured a girl on the Today show who had read each book 10 times and my mom thought that was nothing because of how many times I had read them! My favorite book is still Prisoner of Azkaban because it has the least to do with Voldemort.

When the first movie was announced, my dad and I (who I had gotten hooked on Harry Potter as well) went crazy. We found the picture of Harry, Ron and Hermione in their costumes online and went nuts. I remember we thought that those glasses were really what Daniel Radcliffe wore every day! These were the days before midnight premieres, so my parents took me out of school early to go see the movie the day it came out. I remember thinking how special it was because I was 11, the same age as the 1st years.

When the 5th book was released, my dad and I decided to pre-order it through Amazon, but then realized it probably wouldn't be delivered to us the day it came out. Much to our surprise, it DID come that day! I think my dad and I made a deal that I could read the book during the day and Dad could read it when he came home from work. That really didn't work out, I still finished it WAY before he did.

When the 6th book came out, I begged my dad to take me to a bookstore at midnight to buy it. He wasn't convinced. So guess how surprised I was when he came into my room at 11:30 and announced he couldn't sleep? We hit up Walmart at midnight to buy it. We are so classy.

When the 7th book came out we planned ahead to go to Walmart at midnight to get it. We debated buying two copies so we wouldn't fight over it! I definitely read the epilogue way before I finished the book. An epilogue is just too tempting sometimes...

I used to frequent J.K. Rowling's website frequently, looking for easter eggs that she would put up. Sometimes they would be sketches, sometimes they would be original pages of the manuscript. Sometimes it would be a sneak peak for the next book to come out. My family also got the two short books that J.K. wrote for charity that were the "textbooks" that Harry used.

My first midnight premiere was the 5th Harry Potter movie. I still have the ticket. But I have seen every movie either at the midnight premiere or the first day it was out. Talk about a die-hard!

Sadly, I was not as enthused about this last movie. Maybe it's because I haven't read the books in such a long time. I only read the 5-7 books twice each. I think I was mostly in denial that the era was almost over. Half of my life has had Harry Potter actively in it... I can't imagine my childhood without anxiously waiting for that letter from Hogwarts on my 11th birthday.

My "nephew" who is 7 is just finishing the 1st Harry Potter book. I can't wait for my kids to hopefully devour the Harry Potter series like I did. I will make them read the books before they see the movies. I really hope that they can experience the magic like I did.