Harry Potter

One night during the vac, after a lot of begging I managed to make time to convince my friends to go watch the last Harry Potter movie. For some reason I was more excited than the rest of my friends, despite the fact that we are all fans. I jumped out of my skin; I got goosebumps; I laughed and I cried as it ended…

Now as a lover of the book series I naturally don’t love the movies as much as I love the books. I KNOW the acting is not that great! I KNOW that they changed things from the book, but I DON’T care. It’s more about the story than the movies.

Harry’s world is beautiful, filled with amazing creatures, interesting spells and heart-racing adventures. I wanted friends like Ron and Hermione; I wanted to be in Gryffindor; I wanted to play Quiditch and as the years went on I even developed a crush on bad-boy wimp Draco Malfoy and brave-hearted Neville Longbottom.

The story of Harry Potter is about loyalty, love, friendship, bravery despite the odds and the fact that good always over comes evil. A little magic in air is exciting…

 When I was 11, I read the first Harry Potter when Harry himself was 11. I grew up with Harry and I was 18 when the last book came out. I remember how, before I had read the books, my friends laugh at me for messing up the details. I remember racing my sister to the door when they delivered the latest Harry Potter book to our house. I remember sitting in the living room reading one of the Harry Potter books while my mother and my sister each read another one. These are parts of my childhood that I’ll never forget. Even to this day my mother will burst into my room with one of the books in her hand; reading a piece to me that I’m already very familiar with just so that we can enjoy it together again. 

J.K Rowling was just a poor, struggling housewife with a great imagination, who changed the lives of so many children across the globe. It’s going to take many years for another book series to make such a huge impact to young readers. Thank you Jo for my childhood. Harry Potter played such a large part in my childhood and now it’s over. What now?

So as the last few seconds of the last EVER Harry Potter movie faded to black so did the dying embers of my childhood fade to ash… From this point on there is no going back. I am official no longer a child. We spend most of our teen years trying to act older than what we actually are, but a part of me still wishes that I was still that little 11-year old hoping that I might one day get my letter from Hogwarts…

(PS I watched it again the other night with a close friend of mine here in Grahamestown and for those who don’t know, Grahamestown has a tiny cinema which can accommodate about 30 people and only three movies at a time. People may complain about this small cinema, but when you get so many students and Harry Potter fans together in one room hilarity ensues. We clapped when Neville killed the snake, laughed with joy when Ron and Hermione kissed, cheered when Harry conquered Voldemort and choked up when it ended. Jess and I got to nerd out and it was nice not to be the only ones. Wow, I love living in a student town…)

(PSS- I'll be doing character anaysises over the next couple of blog posts so watch this space...)