Hello. My name is Mehvash, and I am a Potter-holic.
(I feel like I should include this foreword): SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read/watched all of the books/movies, but intend on doing so, you probably shouldn't read any further.
Over the past decade or so, Harry Potter has been a huge part of my life. I have anxiously awaited the arrival of each book, been one of the first people at Crossword on the day of the release, stayed up into the night in a bid to finish it in one sitting. I have cried and cursed Rowling when she killed off some of the best characters, I have been furious when Pettigrew escaped, overjoyed when Sirius did. I have wanted to punch the daylights out of Malfoy on more than one occasion. I have felt Harry’s fear grip me when Voldemort rose in the graveyard, I have felt absolute disgust when Nagini emerged from the decaying body of Bathilda Bagshot and I have laughed merrily along with Fred&George. I have lived the books, with every fiber of my being, with each reading.
I’ve never been a huge fan of the Harry Potter movie franchise. They are not always true to the books, and considering the geek I am, that is just blasphemy. But even then, because it is Harry Potter, I have watched them all. I have watched them and tsk-ed and tchah-ed at the parts where the creators took their liberty, I have marveled at the few scenes they included in the movie that aren’t in the book but should have been, I have laughed at Rupert Grint’s perpetual quizzical expression, and I have sighed about how pretty Emma Watson is. And slowly, I have learnt to disengage the books from the movie. Once I did that, the movies were as epic as they could be.
I pride myself on knowing all seven books like the back of my hand, having read and reread them multiple times. And I know there are many like me. There is an entire generation of people who have lived and breathed and swallowed the books. They have grown up with the boy, rooting for him. And transcending all differences, the Harry Potter franchise has touched everyone.
Today, my belief in the magic of the franchise was reinforced. I was watching the last installment, and seated next to me was a kid no older than maybe eleven. I didn’t know the kid, she happened to be another Potter-holic just like me. But we gasped together, we laughed together, we shuddered together and even reminded each other of minor details that the other couldn’t recall, and right at the end we hooted and clapped together. I still don’t know the kid, we didn’t ask each other for names, and when the lights came on we didn’t even really look at each other while exiting the movie hall.
Because in the real world, we were two very different people and part of two very different worlds.
But when the lights were out and the magic was unfolding, it didn’t matter that she was a whole decade younger than I am or that we had entered the movie hall with two completely separate groups. In the dark, we were the same, her and I. Just two Potter geeks, knowing that this was the last thing we had to look forward to in the Potter franchise for the time being, knowing that this was what it all came down to and knowing that we were both tied together in this wonderful, magical world.
