"I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.... At these times... I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure." (Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, 2000).
Well. I just finished watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. The final movie in the Harry Potter series.
It was an amazing thing to see, and I was fortunate that I got to go see it with my family. We were all there in the theater together when the first Harry Potter film was released, way back in 2001, and it seemed only fitting that I got to see the last one with them as well.
When we went to see it back in 2001, we were living in Tokyo, Japan. I was ten years old. We went to see it in the Virgin theater, and it had Japanese subtitles up the side. Seeing it was pure magic, and I remember sharing my fascination and love for the wizarding world with all the other Japanese theater-goers that day. For that moment, culture didn't matter. We were all there at Hogwarts together. That was my first experience with the idea that "Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open." (Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000).
Half my life has passed since then. We've all grown up, Harry, Ron, Hermione and I. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, who feels that special bond with this series and those characters. The years I've spent waiting for each book, and then the accompanying movie, to come out have been the most definitive and difficult years of my existence. In a way, Harry Potter has shaped the way I've grown up, and maybe even shaped some of the person I am still in the process of becoming.
Some people may say that Harry Potter was a fad, a brief craze, and that it's all over now, but it was sure fun while it lasted. These people, sad to say, are dead wrong. For those of us growing up in the first decade of a new millennium, Harry Potter was a whole lot more. Because there is power in stories, and even more power in a story well told. J. K. Rowling has harnessed this power for good, and with it she has inadvertently shaped an entire generation. There are millions of children, now, who believe in magic, who are inspired to create, who have grown to love reading, who are uplifted and strengthened and taught to believe that "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." (Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (screenplay)).
I should know. I'm one of those kids. I was already taught to believe, but upon discovery, Ms. Rowling's world provided a proving ground for the principles I was learning; that wisdom is to be valued, hope springs eternal, our morals do matter, friendships are a source of great strength, self-sacrifice is eventually rewarded, death is not the end, good will triumph over evil, and that "It is our choices who make us who we are, far more than our abilities." (Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1999).
It is for this reason that Harry Potter will literally become "The Boy Who Lived," for many, many generations yet to come. It is for this reason that he and his story have become so famous to begin with. And it is for this reason that my feelings are so bittersweet, now that the final film has finally made its debut. I feel like I'm saying farewell to my childhood along with the series.
Of course, with every ending, something else begins, and I have a strong feeling that the next decade will be very like when Harry realizes there is a much bigger game being played and starts hunting for the Horcruxes. There is a lot of work to be done. Harry's adventures are officially over, but mine? Mine are just beginning.
"There was no point in worrying yet.... what would come, would come... and he would have to meet it when it did." (J.K. Rowling, "The Beginning," Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000).
And as soon as my children are old enough to be read to, we'll start with the Sorcerer's Stone.
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" (Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 2007).
