The Generation Who Lived.

**Note: This could be the nerdiest post you will ever read. Also, if you have yet to see the final Harry Potter movie or read the book, this might contain unwanted spoilers.  Consider yourself warned. **

                  Harry Potter Is OVER!!!
                                                      


Last night I had the joyous experience of attending the midnight premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with my brother and some good friends.  We got to the theater around 5pm (the more extreme fans in our group got there at 1pm....yikes) and sat in line for a good four hours, eating pizza and playing cards.  My brother and I dressed up, of course (it's the last movie!), as a random Ravenclaw student and Draco Malfoy

We also spent the morning baking Pumpkin Pasties and Cauldron Cakes which we brought in great quantities to the theater and ate during the show.  

To top everything off, when we got to the theater we got these sweet wristbands because we had tickets to the double feature, which meant we got into the theater at 9, watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, followed by a brief intermission, and then the midnight premier of Part Two. 

Peace

Yes, ten hours is a long time to spend at the movie theater.  But it was sooooooo worth it! It's Harry Freakin' Potter! What a great experience! Last week I reread the seventh book and then this week Michael and I watched HP 1-6 (minus three because it's not our favorite and we've seen it loads of times).  Then we finished off our marathon with the midnight premier.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Now...I do have some thoughts to share about the movie and the fact that the series is now completely over:

Movie:

I loved the movie, of course, but I couldn't help comparing it to the book, seeing as it was fresh in my mind.  I thought that they did a pretty good job, all things considered.  However, I didn't really like how when they showed the Imperius Curse being used on the goblin at Gringotts a rainbow of colors came out of Harry's wand and it looked like he was getting high.  What's up with that?  Also, I was a little sad that they didn't go into any of the controversy with Dumbledore...but I can see  how that could have been hard and a little tedious to display.  It just seemed a little contrived when Harry told Aberforth that he "trusted the man he knew" and was basically going to follow him unfailingly.  The "19 years later" part was funny.  I liked that they stayed true to the book on that scene, but it came across really cheesy and none of them really looked older.  Harry just got some facial hair, Ginny got a old lady wig, and Ron just looked fatter. I'm almost done ranting on trite details, I promise.  I really thought that the final battle between Harry and Voldemort could have been so much better.  First of all, Harry didn't get to give his awesome speech to Voldemort and totally throw him down verbally. Secondly, the scene was supposed to be in the Great Hall...nuance really.  And lastly, what's up with Voldemort's death? His face contorted and then all of a sudden there was Voldemort confetti flying through the air! Random.  Anyways....despite all of the little irksome discrepancies here and there.....it was totally AWESOME!

Goodbye Childhood:

It's bittersweet to think that Harry Potter is finished! I mean, we grew up with the series.  We followed the saga of the Boy Who Lived from our days in elementary school and grew older with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they clambered through their years at Hogwarts.  By the time we were the same age as first years the books became movies and we were mesmerized as our dreams of the wizard world were visualized on the big screen. Now, the series has reached it's end with the release of the final movie and I can't help but feel a small pang of sadness as I reflect on the wonder years that I will from this point forward in my life refer to as the Potter Years.  Harry Potter has been the staple of our generation's childhood.  As I the books and movies reach their denouement so does my childhood.  It's weird to think about.  I know I'm twenty, but it's like the ending of the Harry Potter series finally closed the door to that chapter in my life.    

Even though the splendor that was last night functioned as a goodbye to being a kid, it's not a farewell to Harry Potter for me, because I'm going to share the favorite part of my childhood with my children, and hopefully, they'll share it with their children.  Seriously, my kids are going to be the biggest Harry Potter nerds.  I'm going to teach them how to read using Sorcerer's Stone, and our family is going to have tons of Potter movie marathons as we drink butterbeer and eat pumpkin pasties, and we're even going to dress up from time to time and play quidditch out in the backyard.  You think I'm kidding.   So, while the Harry Potter series is technically complete, the magic will continue to live on.