For Well Organized Minds and Golden Snitches

What a journey! The last novel finished, tucked safely away for another day, and the story of Harry Potter come to an end for me once again. As in the first time I read them (and I assume the last time I read them), I cried, I giggled, I felt all the emotions that I do when I read a good novel, and particularly strong for this particular set of them of course. I loved remembering all the great little tidbits here and there about Potions class and Hagrid's love for the trio and the utter bits of lunacy characters spout from time to time.

If you knew me better, you might think to say my heart grew 3 sizes in the great time I had reading, and as LeakyCon approaches just hours away, I expect the swelling won't go down for some time. No matter what I say about the books and Harry in general it's probably all been said before, but there isn't a time when he doesn't inspire me. One word describes my experience with him and that will forever be adventure. It is so cliche a word to hear, but it is never truer than with this series. It's not just a book, it's words that speak to our souls, it's not just a bunch of movies, it's our imaginations brought into startling reality, it's not just a bunch of fans getting together, it's a family coming home to share with one another their hardships and cherished turns over an inviting feast and warm fire. Whatever it's been, whatever it is, and whatever it will be, that's what I will always know it to be, an adventure. I know 20 years from now, as the words are now the same as when we first saw them, that this fact will never change and no matter how much we say it's the end, when J.K.R. said that death is only the beginning, so this is just the start of a grand new chapter in our lives that we carry on with heavy hearts.

Just one last note before I'm off to try and "sleep" (whatever that is), the question every muggle asks us when they see our scarves, or interrupt our favorite chapter with their mugglish intrusions. The reason we all love Harry Potter? SImply put for me, and you can find it glaring at you in the very first novel without looking too hard, are the moments we share in each of them. The moment we feel our first regret, the moment we find that one thing which we soar above others at, the moment that suddenly fills us with anguish and great triumph all at the same time, the single moment when, above all odds, our hearts and minds and souls all get the chance to do what they seem to be made for and fill to the brim with all the courage we will ever need in life. For that simple reason, we don't live through Harry, Harry lives through us, and as our lives go on, even if we forget him, his moments are never really forgotten, because they were never really his to begin with…they were ours all along.