Like so many Harry Potter fans of the 80’s and 90’s generation, many of us could remember a time where we saw the first glimpses of the Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone on a trailer on TV while watching Saturday morning cartoons. Now with the final chapter of the series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 out in theaters I could not help but notice the whirlwind J.K. Rowling has created; a whirlwind of the greatest books, movies, and greatest theme park ever created.
If anything would mark the 80’s and 90’s generations it would be: Apple Computers, Twilight, 3D (reborn), Lady Gaga (and many other artists), and Harry Potter. And my experience has been no exception. I remember the day when I first finished reading the first book of the series. I had started after watching the trailer for the Sorcerer’s Stone and seeing the “awesomeness” of the movie, decided to read the books. And yes like many who have been hooked, I was playing around the house with a chopstick and a blanket around my neck pretending to be Harry Potter and being admitted to Hogwarts. I was even convinced I would be able to go up to my twelfth birthday when I assumed that Hogwarts may have forgotten to invite me when I turned eleven. I even went far as to beg my parents for a Gryffindor Halloween robe so I could dress up to be a Hogwarts student; complete with a plastic wand, cauldron, and a plush cat. So yes Potter has invaded our lives and he is warmly welcome to stay.
And like other die-hard fans, I could not help (despite high prices) going to see the final movie for myself. The movie brought tears to my eyes seeing the sacrifice Snape (despite the fact that we all once hated him), the death of Tonks and Lupin as they held hands for the last time, and the realization that Harry was about to die. Those emotions were exactly what I wanted and wished in for the movie. The movie should not only settle in the hearts of the fans, but it should be settled as a movie that rivals other movies of the generation, next to The Lord of the Rings and Avatar. No Potter fan should duck out of this movie.
Now with the final Harry Potter movie out, the Potter magic will not necessarily fade away. Although the books are done, Pottermore gives us another chance to relive the books and the theme park allows us to see Hogsmede and Hogwarts at last without going to Hollywood to do it. Harry Potter has become a defining point of the 21st century. Maybe a century later, children will browse their book store and find a book that they call ancient, but it houses the story of a wizard with a scar on his head trying to save the world and struggling to find himself in a world that many of us encounter: a world that is sometimes unfair, cold and cruel even. But if lessons should arise from Harry Potter; one would be the fact that the world can be cruel, but with the power of friends and family, we can truly find “happiness in the darkest of times.”- Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (movie)