"Of course it is in your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
I originally meant to do this HP-appreciation post before the last movie came out, but in a way, I think it's actually more cathartic to do it now...that I've already seen the movie three times. Yep. I'm that person.
(The title of this entry, btw? Was totally my senior quote. By coincidence, a friend of mine chose the line just before it for hers: "Is this real, or has this all been happening inside my head?" Yep, we are those people.)
Don’t you ever wonder what
Will happen when it ends
How can we let go of the
Ones who we call friends
And I know, it’s only a story, but
For so many it’s more than that
It’s a world, all on its own where we
Want to put on the sorting hat
I will miss the train ride in
And the pranks pulled by the twins
And though it’s no where I have been
I’ll keep on smiling from the times I had with them
Could there ever be again
Another one like this
One that’s brought us together and
Started its own music movement
Soon we will see it closed
The final chapter exposed
It’s an end of an era
And I’m seeing clearer
That nothing will ever be the same
Harry Potter changed my life, as it changed so many others'. I don't know who I would be today or what I would be doing without it. When I first read Harry Potter, I was a seven-year-old girl who loved fantasy and imagination and reading: it was practically like the books were made just for me. Harry Potter taught me to love to write, too. Harry Potter got me writing fan fiction, introduced me to fandom when I was only 11. Harry Potter was the first fandom I was ever in, and one of the most amazing ones. I met my first fandom friends through Harry Potter, people from all over the world who loved the same things I did, and that one year of my life in particular--2007--was one of the best summers and best years of my life because of Harry.
We got these days of summer to,
remind us of each other!
The time we have to spend apart,
Will keep us in each others hearts!
I'm hoping that the good old days
are something that I will dream about at night.
Don't matter if it's soon or later,
I know that it's gonna be alright!
I don't wanna see you go,
But it's not forever,
Not forever!
Even if it was you know,
That I would never let it get me down!
You're the part of me,
That makes me better,
Wherever I go!
So I will try,
Not to cry,
No one needs to say goodbye!
Four years ago, the seventh and last Harry Potter book came out. I remember swearing off the Internet in the days leading up to it, telling all my fandom friends I'd "see them on the other side". I remember holding that book in my hands for the first time, both wanting to know everything immediately and wanting it to never end. I remember that sense of bereavement when I finally did finish, that knowledge that it was really the last one. That there was never going to be another Harry Potter book whose secrets I did not know. An era of my life had ended.
Now, another era of my life has ended. When the book Deathly Hallows came out, it ended something, but something began as well. I tend to date my life as before 2007 and after. I knew at the beginning of 2007 that it would be an amazing year, because a) I love the number seven and b) the last Harry Potter book. A similar thing happened at the beginning of 2011: a) 11 is totes my favorite number and b) the last Harry Potter movie. But even more auspiciously than that: the summer of 2007 was for me the summer between middle school and high school. High school was, unsurprisingly, 10 million times better than middle school. High school was where I met my wonderful real life fandom friends with whom I've gone to every movie's midnight premiere with, who make butterbeer cupcakes with me and ask me to rec them fan fiction. Now, the summer of 2011, is for me the summer between high school and college. Which I have been told by everyone is about to be 10 million times better than high school. Where I may well meet friends who will be with me for life.
Something just occured to me as I was reading
Another book I'd heard was the next big thing
I thought what would I give, if it could be true
If I could ever feel again the way I felt when I read you
I'd pay a million Galleons
Or dress up like I go to Beauxbatons
I'd tattoo my head with a lighting bolt
I'd pawn my wand and Firebolt
But no matter how many good things I'm told
Everything I ever read turns out to be leprechaun gold
It's been so many years no matter how I try
To read more Young Adult fiction
I keep coming up dry
It's like water water everywhere and not a drop to drink
My frustration and my agony have pushed me to the brink
I keep tilting back the glass but I never taste the water
It seems no matter what I read I think, "This is not Harry Potter."
I was pretty impressed with Frankie Landau-Banks
But compare saving the world with a few epic pranks
There is no monoploy on non-human people
There's fairies, buggers, talking cats and nac mac feegle
And Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes
Was fantastic but my sneakoscope
Would be flashing and spinning if I said
That it was the best book I've read
And you gotta know that this is no joke
When I also read books that my own brother wrote
And in the darkest hours, of my darkest nights
I found myself curled up with Twilight
And I couldn't help but wonder as I ravenously read
Can you Avada Kedavra the undead
'Cause Edward Cullen totally has it comin'
And if he saw Voldemort he'd better start runnin'
Cause there's not much that the Dark Lord and I
Could agree on but I think that we would both hate that guy
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington
Is a character name that, all by itself, is better than anything in Breaking Dawn
It's been so many years no matter how I try
To read more Young Adult fiction
I keep coming up dry
President Snow is no Voldemort
Diagon Alley is cooler than Ankh Mor Pork
And Lyra Silvertoungue is Mrs. Coulter's daughter
That's a good plot twist but it is not Harry Potter.
When I say this last Harry Potter movie represents the end of my childhood, I'm 100% completely serious (or Sirius, haha...um). I turned 18 this year. I'm leaving home to go to college. This is it for me. Harry Potter defined my childhood for, fittingly, the last eleven years. I'm not ready to say goodbye, but that's okay, because I don't have to.
But imagine how totally awesome going back's gonna be. Until then, we gotta go back to the Muggle world, and they're gonna try to tell us that none of this was real and that none of this happened. But you know what? It was real, and it did happen. We spent time here, we made friends here, and that's a part of us. Because Hogwarts is bigger than any of us, it's bigger than any of its founders, and it's gonna be around long after we're gone. Maybe we'll see our kids come here one day. That's the thing about Hogwarts: no matter long you're away from it...well there's always a way back.
Harry Potter has given me so many things. It's given me the books itself, the wonderful characters and magical world they contain. It's taught me so many things about love and respect and tolerance and friendship. It's inspired me to love writing. It's introduced me to friends I could not live without and would never have met otherwise. It's given me experiences which have been some of the best of my life and which I will never forget. It's laid the foundation for other stories I will never forget--from The Shoebox Project to A Very Potter Musical. It's defined me and so many other people, and we defined it.
"When I am eighty years old I will be reading Harry Potter. My family will ask, "After all this time?", and I will answer, "Always."
The most wonderful part of this, in my opinion, is how very commonplace my story here is. Harry Potter shaped a generation, became a cultural movement, and changed the lives of millions in millions of wonderful ways. Everybody has their own story, and one of the most wonderful parts of the last week or so for me has been seeing everyone else's expressions of love for Harry Potter here on LJ, and on Facebook, and in real life. People who I didn't even know liked the books all had their own goodbyes to make to the series that has touched so many lives. The books and movies may be over, but Harry Potter lives on, in the hearts and minds of all who have loved him. Always. Until the very end.
Goodbye, Harry Potter. I'll miss you.
(The title of this entry, btw? Was totally my senior quote. By coincidence, a friend of mine chose the line just before it for hers: "Is this real, or has this all been happening inside my head?" Yep, we are those people.)
Click to viewDon’t you ever wonder what
Will happen when it ends
How can we let go of the
Ones who we call friends
And I know, it’s only a story, but
For so many it’s more than that
It’s a world, all on its own where we
Want to put on the sorting hat
I will miss the train ride in
And the pranks pulled by the twins
And though it’s no where I have been
I’ll keep on smiling from the times I had with them
Could there ever be again
Another one like this
One that’s brought us together and
Started its own music movement
Soon we will see it closed
The final chapter exposed
It’s an end of an era
And I’m seeing clearer
That nothing will ever be the same
Harry Potter changed my life, as it changed so many others'. I don't know who I would be today or what I would be doing without it. When I first read Harry Potter, I was a seven-year-old girl who loved fantasy and imagination and reading: it was practically like the books were made just for me. Harry Potter taught me to love to write, too. Harry Potter got me writing fan fiction, introduced me to fandom when I was only 11. Harry Potter was the first fandom I was ever in, and one of the most amazing ones. I met my first fandom friends through Harry Potter, people from all over the world who loved the same things I did, and that one year of my life in particular--2007--was one of the best summers and best years of my life because of Harry.
We got these days of summer to,
remind us of each other!
The time we have to spend apart,
Will keep us in each others hearts!
I'm hoping that the good old days
are something that I will dream about at night.
Don't matter if it's soon or later,
I know that it's gonna be alright!
I don't wanna see you go,
But it's not forever,
Not forever!
Even if it was you know,
That I would never let it get me down!
You're the part of me,
That makes me better,
Wherever I go!
So I will try,
Not to cry,
No one needs to say goodbye!
Four years ago, the seventh and last Harry Potter book came out. I remember swearing off the Internet in the days leading up to it, telling all my fandom friends I'd "see them on the other side". I remember holding that book in my hands for the first time, both wanting to know everything immediately and wanting it to never end. I remember that sense of bereavement when I finally did finish, that knowledge that it was really the last one. That there was never going to be another Harry Potter book whose secrets I did not know. An era of my life had ended.
Now, another era of my life has ended. When the book Deathly Hallows came out, it ended something, but something began as well. I tend to date my life as before 2007 and after. I knew at the beginning of 2007 that it would be an amazing year, because a) I love the number seven and b) the last Harry Potter book. A similar thing happened at the beginning of 2011: a) 11 is totes my favorite number and b) the last Harry Potter movie. But even more auspiciously than that: the summer of 2007 was for me the summer between middle school and high school. High school was, unsurprisingly, 10 million times better than middle school. High school was where I met my wonderful real life fandom friends with whom I've gone to every movie's midnight premiere with, who make butterbeer cupcakes with me and ask me to rec them fan fiction. Now, the summer of 2011, is for me the summer between high school and college. Which I have been told by everyone is about to be 10 million times better than high school. Where I may well meet friends who will be with me for life.
Something just occured to me as I was reading
Another book I'd heard was the next big thing
I thought what would I give, if it could be true
If I could ever feel again the way I felt when I read you
I'd pay a million Galleons
Or dress up like I go to Beauxbatons
I'd tattoo my head with a lighting bolt
I'd pawn my wand and Firebolt
But no matter how many good things I'm told
Everything I ever read turns out to be leprechaun gold
It's been so many years no matter how I try
To read more Young Adult fiction
I keep coming up dry
It's like water water everywhere and not a drop to drink
My frustration and my agony have pushed me to the brink
I keep tilting back the glass but I never taste the water
It seems no matter what I read I think, "This is not Harry Potter."
I was pretty impressed with Frankie Landau-Banks
But compare saving the world with a few epic pranks
There is no monoploy on non-human people
There's fairies, buggers, talking cats and nac mac feegle
And Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes
Was fantastic but my sneakoscope
Would be flashing and spinning if I said
That it was the best book I've read
And you gotta know that this is no joke
When I also read books that my own brother wrote
And in the darkest hours, of my darkest nights
I found myself curled up with Twilight
And I couldn't help but wonder as I ravenously read
Can you Avada Kedavra the undead
'Cause Edward Cullen totally has it comin'
And if he saw Voldemort he'd better start runnin'
Cause there's not much that the Dark Lord and I
Could agree on but I think that we would both hate that guy
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington
Is a character name that, all by itself, is better than anything in Breaking Dawn
It's been so many years no matter how I try
To read more Young Adult fiction
I keep coming up dry
President Snow is no Voldemort
Diagon Alley is cooler than Ankh Mor Pork
And Lyra Silvertoungue is Mrs. Coulter's daughter
That's a good plot twist but it is not Harry Potter.
When I say this last Harry Potter movie represents the end of my childhood, I'm 100% completely serious (or Sirius, haha...um). I turned 18 this year. I'm leaving home to go to college. This is it for me. Harry Potter defined my childhood for, fittingly, the last eleven years. I'm not ready to say goodbye, but that's okay, because I don't have to.
But imagine how totally awesome going back's gonna be. Until then, we gotta go back to the Muggle world, and they're gonna try to tell us that none of this was real and that none of this happened. But you know what? It was real, and it did happen. We spent time here, we made friends here, and that's a part of us. Because Hogwarts is bigger than any of us, it's bigger than any of its founders, and it's gonna be around long after we're gone. Maybe we'll see our kids come here one day. That's the thing about Hogwarts: no matter long you're away from it...well there's always a way back.
Harry Potter has given me so many things. It's given me the books itself, the wonderful characters and magical world they contain. It's taught me so many things about love and respect and tolerance and friendship. It's inspired me to love writing. It's introduced me to friends I could not live without and would never have met otherwise. It's given me experiences which have been some of the best of my life and which I will never forget. It's laid the foundation for other stories I will never forget--from The Shoebox Project to A Very Potter Musical. It's defined me and so many other people, and we defined it.
"When I am eighty years old I will be reading Harry Potter. My family will ask, "After all this time?", and I will answer, "Always."
The most wonderful part of this, in my opinion, is how very commonplace my story here is. Harry Potter shaped a generation, became a cultural movement, and changed the lives of millions in millions of wonderful ways. Everybody has their own story, and one of the most wonderful parts of the last week or so for me has been seeing everyone else's expressions of love for Harry Potter here on LJ, and on Facebook, and in real life. People who I didn't even know liked the books all had their own goodbyes to make to the series that has touched so many lives. The books and movies may be over, but Harry Potter lives on, in the hearts and minds of all who have loved him. Always. Until the very end.
Goodbye, Harry Potter. I'll miss you.