Fairwell Harry Potter

It’s time to say “goodbye” to an old friend.

Actually, make that several friends. This Friday, July 15, audiences worldwide will have the chance to bid farewell to Harry, Ron, Hermoine and Hagrid. Appropriately, the movie posters promoting the film say it best: It All Ends.

J.K. Rowling’s novel, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” was first published in 1997. Over the next decade, Potter fans (and I count myself among them) have immersed themselves in a world of wizards, witches and whomping willows. We’ve watched young Harry Potter grow from an 11-year old boy living in a cupboard under the stairs to an adult taking on the most powerful and evil wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort. We know that the spell “lumos” illuminates the tip of a wand, that Berty Bott’s Every Flavor Beans include flavors like vomit and earwax, and that good eventually triumphs over evil, though at a price.

Three summers ago, I wrote a column both hailing and lamenting the final Harry Potter novel in the series: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. At the time, I was excited and apprehensive about the novel’s release. At last readers would know the outcome of the long battle between Harry and Voldemort. Was Severus Snape really evil? Would Ron and Hermoine finally acknowledge their feelings for each other? Would Harry continue to be The Boy Who Lived or would he pay the ultimate sacrifice to free the wizarding world from tyranny?

I could not read that final book fast enough, and yet I tried to savor every word, knowing there would be no more to follow. Once I was finished I passed it to my husband and when he was done we took turns reading it, chapter by chapter, to our children each night before bed. As sad as I was to bring that final epic story to a conclusion, I consoled myself with the fact that there were three more movie adaptations to enjoy.

And now, in less than 48 hours, the last of those three films, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” will be unveiled. Once again, Potter fans will line up, this time to buy tickets instead of books. Some will don 3-D glasses (not me), some will stay up way past their usual bedtime to be the first to see the film when it premieres at midnight (again, not me) and nearly all will breathe a final sigh of satisfaction tinged with sadness when the end credits roll for the last time. Since the first film premiered ten years ago, audiences have watched each adaptation with baited breath, hoping the filmmakers could do justice to their beloved story. In my humble opinion, each film successfully achieved that goal.

The first movie captured all the wonder and wide-eyed magic of Harry’s unexpected entrance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Following the tone of the novels, each film has grown progressively more dark and ominous. Looking back I realize that the film version of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was released a mere two months after the events of 9/11. As America battled her own dark forces of evil, Harry began his cinematic journey to fulfill his destiny as “the chosen one” and bring down Lord Voldemort.

My children were just three and six months when the first film premiered and now with the final chapter just hours away, they are thirteen and ten. As audiences have watched the characters of Harry, Ron and Hermoine grow into adulthood before our eyes, I shake my head and wonder how my own son could possibly have grown as tall as me. My husband and children have shared my passion for Harry Potter over the years and I look forward to experiencing this final chapter as a family. Or to quote Harry in one of the film’s oft repeated trailers: “Let’s finish this the way we started it…together.”