End of an Era

Last Thursday, me and Dylan and two of my girlies went to see the midnight show of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Dylan and I had been preparing for it all week by watching the first seven movies. That would be the Ultimate Edition (super awesome extended version plus a lot of special features) for Sorcerer's Stone through Half-Blood Prince. We had to go out and buy the Ultimate Editions for Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince the Sunday before just so we'd be as ready as possible.

Granted I feel asleep about halfway through Deathly Hallows Part 1 when we watched it on Wednesday (I always fall asleep watching movies after 10pm) but I felt prepared and ready to go cry a lot at the last movie.


And I was right, I did cry. **Caution: Spoiler Alert**

The movie was absolutely amazing. Having not read the book since before the previous movie, I would dare say that there were parts that I thought the movie was better than the books. The main thing was the battle at Hogwarts just works better as a movie compared to the book being told mostly from Harry's perspective. I know there were parts that were different, but overall I felt the emotion and weight of Harry's decision was much better portrayed in the movie.

Even though I knew Harry was not going to actually going to die, I bawled my eyes out. The emotions just hit me with how everyone else was feeling about Harry dying. The whole battle scene was intense. It really was like an article I read that said it was like loosing your innocence by watching your childhood school fall to pieces.

I think it was a great success and fantastic ending to the movies.

Not that I really think Harry Potter is over... I still have yet to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I definitely want to go some time soon and get my wand, drink butterbeer and nerd out.

J.K. Rowling came out with Pottermore, an e-reading book of all of the series but with extra passages throughout. I will definitely have to look into that.

Then I will have my kids and I will hope they love Harry Potter too. I really don't think I will ever grow out of Harry Potter. I feel like it has so many great lessons to life and relationships and those can keep on impacting me, since we all need a little reminding.

It has been such a huge part of my life for the past 12 years. I got the Sorcerer's Stone in sixth grade through the book order and I read it on the way to Omaha for Christmas. I ended up getting Strep through while we were out there, so I received the Chamber of Secrets and the Prisoner of Azkaban as early Christmas presents. The fourth book came out shortly after. For the rest of the books I reserved my copy and picked it up at the store. Somehow I was always at camp, so I never got to do the whole midnight book thing. For the seventh book I took a week off of working at camp to read it and to go see my boyfriend at the time. (He asked me to spend time with him instead of reading the book, I would say that's potentially one of main reasons we broke up, I know Dylan would never make me pick him over Harry Potter, ha ha). My favorite book always changed too. For a good while it was PoA, but then it was HBP and I would probably say DH is my favorite now. I just love learning new things and those are the books where you learn the most.

The movies have always been great too. I would say the third movie was my least favorite, but all of them are fantastic. I cannot believe how great their casting was over 10 years ago to know how well everyone would turn out. It has been a great addition to the Harry Potter world to have the movies in addition to the books.

My sister and I also had some of the video games. Our favorite was definitely the Quidditch World Cup Game. Awesome.

I have a couple of pieces of HP memorabilia and was even called Hermione in middle school because we looked and acted the same. Let's just say I am a really big fan and it has infiltrated a lot of areas of my life.

All in all, a fantastic series that has had a huge impact on my life and will undoubtedly remain a favorite for years to come.

Harry Potter will always be on my bookshelf and in my heart :)