Why Should That Mean It's Not Real?

      It all started with a boy. A boy with a scar. A boy with a gift. A gift he didn't understand until the phenomenon all started on his eleventh birthday. The day a giant beat down his door to take him to the life he has belonged to since birth. The day the boy's life began to make sense, and a piece of my childhood began. I often devote blog entries to my love for all things Disney. I describe it as a piece of my childhood that will follow me through adulthood. In a way, the phenomenon I'm speaking of is similar. The phenomenon of a boy wizard. An entire world was created at the hands of a woman. A quaint housewife in England began and ultimately shaped millions of childhoods all over the world. I am writing of the one and only Harry Potter.
       Please don't get me wrong, I am NOT one of those absolutely insanely obsessed people like some. I liked the books and the movies, but it's never been a HUGE thing for me. However, the world of Harry Potter has always just been around since some of my earlier memories in life. The first book came out when I was just three years old. My Mom and older sister reading them, I not even able to read Good Night, Moon yet. We all have our first Harry Potter memories. Mine was when the first movie was released. I didn't know anything about it when I entered the theater. Only that everyone seemed particularly excited for it. But, from the moment Hermione fixed Harry's glasses with a swish of her wand and the simple spell: "reparo" I knew I was hooked. The world of wizarding: flying on broomsticks, goblins, "TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!", "he who must not be named", the boy who lived, the chosen one. These are things I continued to hear well after the first movie came out, and ultimately for the rest of my elementary, middle, and high school years.
       If you've seen the movies and/or read the books, tell me you didn't experience a tightening of your throat when Harry said "I'm not going home...not really..." Tell me it didn't bring a smile to your face when Harry freed Dobby the house elf with the gift of a sock. And then wanted to cry when that same House Elf was buried in the sand...marked with the headstone: "Here Lies Dobby: A Free Elf". Laugh at Ron's fear of spiders, and die inside when the fifth in the series was so disappointing. Cover your mouth in awe when Dumbledore is murdered, and love when Harry and Ginny finally kiss, regardless of their scary height difference. Cheer when Mrs. Weasley called Bellatrix a...witch....give or take a letter, and then again when Neville slayed Nagini.
      Dumbledore tells Harry: "of course it's happening inside your head, Harry, but why on Earth should that mean it's not real?" Yes, Harry Potter is fiction. Yes, the closest thing to a real world of wizarding is the replica theme park built in Universal Studios. Polyjuice potion will not turn you into anyone you want to be and no matter how hard you search, you won't find any of the three deathly hallows. But why should that mean it's not real? Harry, Ron, Hermione, Snape, Dumbledore, Neville, Draco, Luna, Ginny, Fred, George, Cedric, all the way to Moaning Myrtle...these are the imaginary friends that we've grown up with for the past dozen years of our lives. Who cares if it is all make believe? The magic that J.K. Rowling created needed no spell. Adults wonder what the big deal is with Harry Potter. They're actors. Characters that are just made up out of some woman's head. But it's become so much more than that. Now that the final movie has been released, Harry has defeated Voldemort, Hermione and Ron are married, Harry's children are Hogwarts bound, it feels like a piece of my childhood has ended.
        No, even though I'm sure this blog has convinced you otherwise, I am not obsessed with Harry Potter. I do feel that it is a part of who I am though. It's a part of my generation, and it always will be. When my children are old enough to appreciate it, I will give them Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, telling them that it's a bit dated...they may not like it, and that's okay. But it was a part of my childhood, and I want it to be something you know about. Something that I hope they can find just a bit of magic out of, awaken the magic that everyone in that theater felt last night when the credits rolled.

"Of course it's happening inside your head, Harry, but why on Earth should that mean it's not real?"


-J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Albus Dumbledore.


Thank you J.K. Rowling, you have truly changed my generation forever.