Harry Potter

I just finished watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with my children. It was the first time they had seen the last movie, as I thought it was a bit too intense to see in theaters for them. It's extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary that these movies have spanned an entire decade. I was thinking as the credits were rolling and Lysander was high fiving me saying "we won we won!" about how the past decade of my life I've read the books and seen the movies, and how different my life was ten years ago when all of this started.

I started reading the books my junior year of high school. My etymology teacher, Miss Burrell at the time(now Mrs. Carson) had a Harry Potter movie poster in her classroom and told us all we should read the books. So I started reading the first one and then my mom bought me the first four in hardback for my birthday. I remember going to see the first movie with my mom and two of my best girlfriends. I think the second movie I saw with my mom and those same friends. By the time the third movie came out I was in college and I'm pretty sure I saw it with the guy I was dating at the time. The fourth movie was the first one I saw at a midnight showing. It was right before I turned 21 and I had just started dating the man who would eventually be my husband. I saw the 4th one three times in a 24 hour period because I had that many different friends I was asked to go see it with.

The fifth movie I also saw at midnight... and I was also 8 months pregnant with my first son. I saw it with a girlfriend of mine because Grover, who had become my husband between the fourth and fifth movies, had also become a Soldier in the United States Army and was away at Basic Training and AIT. The longest stretch of time between movies was between the fifth and sixth  movie, and that's easy for me to remember because by the time the sixth movie came out, I had already had Isaac, and Lysander was old(ish) enough to go see it in theaters and it was his first "cinematic adventure"(which is a Dane Cook reference and I kept saying that for like a month before we went to see it and I was totally bummed because the only person I know who would have thought that was really funny was my brother. I couldn't tell him because he was away at boot camp. He had joined the United States Marine Corp).

Having already read all the books, I knew that there was no way I was going to take the kids to see the last Harry Potter in theaters. It's a lot darker, but really that is the point of the series. It starts out very lighthearted, and very easy for a younger reader to get into. I was a bit old, admittedly, when I started reading the first one, but there's something about all of these books, that no matter what age you are when you start, you can identify. JK Rowling somehow manages to take you back to when you were the age of the main characters. She writes so in depthly and the story flows so effortlessly that it just envelopes you in her magical world. Of course, if you've read the books before seeing the movies, you can't help but be critical of the movies, but I learned to look at them as two seperate entites. The movies are just what they say, an adaptation.

So the book, what turned into two movies. Grover and I and my sister saw the first part together. This was the first movie I had drank before I watched. We were a little tipsy... but we had a lot of fun. This was also the last movie I would see in theaters with Grover because a few months after it came out, he went on his first deployment to Iraq. So when the second part of the movie came out, I saw it with my mom(which was fitting because we started this journey together) and my sister and my aunt and cousin. We went to a  midnight showing as per usual by this point. It was fun and I was happy, though a little sad, as I always am when I do something fun, that Grover wasn't there to see it with me. Also I should add that I wish I could have seen it with the two girlfriends, Lindsey and Chelsea, who I saw the first movie with, but unfortunately we've all got these stupid "adult" lives going on now and it's really hard for us to all get together. I really wanted to see Britney Spears with them when she was in concert this summer too, but days before that happened Lindsey had to go off to law school and Chelsea lives out of state now too, sothat didn't happen either.... but I digress ;)

Tonight as I watched the movies, partly through myself and partly through my children's eyes, we laughed and I cried a few times and I thought, what a powerfully good message this has for my kids. How grateful I am to JK Rowling for imagining this world and these characters, so I could read them and learn from them and love them, and then pass that along to the next generation, my sons, who now love the movies and when old enough, will adore the books. Even at the end of the movie, when it was the "19 years later" scene, I could still identify with the characters. They had grown older(older than I am now though, I just want to make that very clear) and had children. In the books she beautifully wrote the epilouge and transformed the characters from their teenage selves to their adult parent selves. In the movie, it was amazing to see these actors aged through makeup but also really bring to life the love that parents have for their children and how watching them go off on their own is a bittersweet thing to do.

It may sound corny to say that a book series and a movie series has effected your life, or been a big part of your life. However, I know I am not the only person who feels this way, I'd say the billions of others who have seen these movies and read these books and stuck with it from beginning to end have very similar feelings to mine. I am positive that it will continue to be a big part of my life as my children grow and read the books and watch the movies, and their children do the same. It will stand the test of time, undoubtedly. I'd just like to end here and one more time say, Thank you JK Rowling for giving me and my sons and the world seven amazing novels set in such a magical world.