after all this time.
No spoilers, I promise you!
I was 8 years old when the first Harry Potter book was released in the United States. I read it with my 3rd grade Talented & Gifted class, called Hermione "Hermy-own," and chalked it up as a pretty good book.
I went to 4 midnight releases out of the 6 books that were released after that. I never dressed up, but I always read the book in one night (except for the last one).
I was 11 when the first movie came out. I fell in love with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. The giant chess pieces scared the hell out of me and Dumbledore was wonderful, and I left the theater with the feeling you get when you see someone you love do something great.
I was 13 when I found Harry Potter fandom and even if I'm not active anymore, I haven't left. It changed me in the best of ways and I am the person I am today because of the intricacies contained in that fandom, because of the people I met in it, because of the things I read--fic and non-fic--and the things I learned from all of that.
I was 16 when the final book was released, and I found it utterly perfect--those were my exact words when I finished it. I read it over the course of a couple of days because I didn't want it to end. In my head I was on that camping trip with the trio. I was screaming NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH alongside Molly Weasley. I was crying with joy when Harry wasn't dead. I was helping the Malfoys escape. I was hunting a snake with Neville. And even though I kind of hated the epilogue, I was still at Kings Cross at the very end.
I am now 20 years old, it is 2:57 AM and I just got home from the very last Harry Potter movie ever. I cried until my eyes got itchy and I had to wipe my nose on my cardigan because we'd forgotten tissues.
From here on out, there are no more new books. No more new films. No more midnight premieres. No more of this magical newness that I have looked forward to every year for the past 12 years.
In my life there have always been three constants: my family, Japan and Harry Potter. I'm always with my family, I've always followed a constant move-to-Japan-then-back-to-America-then-back-to-Japan routine, and I have always had Harry Potter with me. I grew up with those books, and their releases were like the birthdays of my friends, and the films were like extra prizes. No matter how old I was I could always count on another birthday or another prize and the wonderful, thrilling excitement that came with not knowing what that next book or that next movie was going to be like.
And now it's the end.
It's been 12 years. 12 years of a magic that has always been real to me because of Harry and Hermione and Ron, because of Hogwarts castle and every single class and Quidditch, because of spells and dragons and Puffskeins, because of Luna Lovegood and how she has taught me to simply believe, because of Dumbledore and Draco and Snape, because of the Weasleys, because of Patronuses and Lily Potter and Platform 9 and 3/4, because of 1000+ pages that I have read and re-read and re-read and re-read and re-read, because of 8 films, because of all the things from fandom that have shaped my love for Harry Potter and my self-image so fiercely and positively that it is hard to imagine myself differently.
So, finally:
Mischief managed....
....Always.
Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for everything.
I was 8 years old when the first Harry Potter book was released in the United States. I read it with my 3rd grade Talented & Gifted class, called Hermione "Hermy-own," and chalked it up as a pretty good book.
I went to 4 midnight releases out of the 6 books that were released after that. I never dressed up, but I always read the book in one night (except for the last one).
I was 11 when the first movie came out. I fell in love with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. The giant chess pieces scared the hell out of me and Dumbledore was wonderful, and I left the theater with the feeling you get when you see someone you love do something great.
I was 13 when I found Harry Potter fandom and even if I'm not active anymore, I haven't left. It changed me in the best of ways and I am the person I am today because of the intricacies contained in that fandom, because of the people I met in it, because of the things I read--fic and non-fic--and the things I learned from all of that.
I was 16 when the final book was released, and I found it utterly perfect--those were my exact words when I finished it. I read it over the course of a couple of days because I didn't want it to end. In my head I was on that camping trip with the trio. I was screaming NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH alongside Molly Weasley. I was crying with joy when Harry wasn't dead. I was helping the Malfoys escape. I was hunting a snake with Neville. And even though I kind of hated the epilogue, I was still at Kings Cross at the very end.
I am now 20 years old, it is 2:57 AM and I just got home from the very last Harry Potter movie ever. I cried until my eyes got itchy and I had to wipe my nose on my cardigan because we'd forgotten tissues.
From here on out, there are no more new books. No more new films. No more midnight premieres. No more of this magical newness that I have looked forward to every year for the past 12 years.
In my life there have always been three constants: my family, Japan and Harry Potter. I'm always with my family, I've always followed a constant move-to-Japan-then-back-to-America-then-back-to-Japan routine, and I have always had Harry Potter with me. I grew up with those books, and their releases were like the birthdays of my friends, and the films were like extra prizes. No matter how old I was I could always count on another birthday or another prize and the wonderful, thrilling excitement that came with not knowing what that next book or that next movie was going to be like.
And now it's the end.
It's been 12 years. 12 years of a magic that has always been real to me because of Harry and Hermione and Ron, because of Hogwarts castle and every single class and Quidditch, because of spells and dragons and Puffskeins, because of Luna Lovegood and how she has taught me to simply believe, because of Dumbledore and Draco and Snape, because of the Weasleys, because of Patronuses and Lily Potter and Platform 9 and 3/4, because of 1000+ pages that I have read and re-read and re-read and re-read and re-read, because of 8 films, because of all the things from fandom that have shaped my love for Harry Potter and my self-image so fiercely and positively that it is hard to imagine myself differently.
So, finally:
Mischief managed....
....Always.
Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for everything.