Saturday, July 16, 2011

Until the End...

These words have been the very chant we are hearing from mouths of people all around the world. Even people who have not been part of the magical journey from the beginning know that the final movie of the Harry Potter series released worldwide on Friday, July 15. Most of those people, made it a point to see it. Till now, all my friends who have seen the movie find it great but they are quite taken with the ‘Post – Potter – Depression’ or what they are calling it. Yes definitely, it is heartbreaking to think that no more of the Potter movies… no visits to Hogwarts… no classes… no magic!

But only a true PotterManiac knows that the ‘Harry Potter – magic’ can never vanish. The characters, the stories, the magic within… will never die! Neither can it end.
With the release of the first novel, J.K.Rowling presented everyone with a world, an entire new world or you can just call it – a Parallel Universe. Since then, there have been people who keep joining the race but there hasn’t been a single person to know where this will end.



Remember when Harry boards the train back to the Dursleys after his first year? Even today tears roll down my cheeks reading that part or watching it in the movie. Again, Chambers of Secrets was no less. It took us more deeply into the wizarding world. We all will never forget, be it the ‘follow the spider…’ dialogue or when Dumbledore not only tells Harry but all of us, that it is not where we come from that determines who we are but it is our choices that make us.

Since always, I have believed that Disney has contributed huge to the upbringing of the children. Cinderella make us believe that the day will come even after the darkest of nights, Snow-white lets us know that no matter how powerful the evil is, your deeds will never go unpaid, Ariel tells us that it is not wrong to dream but the more important thing is to believe in the dream…
Similarly, for the children of this current generation ‘Harry Potter’ has contributed to the children being as they are. A lot of people all around the world connect to Harry Potter. The series teaches us the value of our family, our friend and biggest of all – to recognize our strengths. Imagine has Harry been the Goal Keeper and Ron been the Seeker…

To be honest, I hadn’t been a part of the journey since the start. Indeed, I remember that my school people showed the first movie in the school but I was so stubborn to not see it that I preferred studying that time. On insistence of a friend, later, I read it after the Order of Phoenix book and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie had come out in the market. At first I was reluctant, even to read. Seeing the Prisoner of Azkaban movie, I thought why did anyone even bother to make it. I read the fifth part first followed by the first and it has been since then… today it has been five years and my passion for more is ever increasing. I was not interested to read the third part at all, but when I did, I admit it has been my favourite in the entire series; it was the one where Harry gets the one he can call family, the one where the story starts to unveil. When I was bit by the Harry – bug, I did not use to like my school at first for I couldn’t walk through the walls and did they use wands in there nor were there classes like DADA.

Then three years back I found a group of people who had created a Hogwarts for themselves and played the roles. It was all very mugglish… but it never felt so. Every bit felt magical. Before then, I used to think am an ardent fan but meeting them, I knew I was wrong. They knew the recipes to the potions, the spells, the people beyond the main cast and lots more.

With them I realized, that the world that J.K.Rowling has created, is not just magical but it is highly irresistible. People relate to the characters, the incidents… Hogwarts is another school where things happen just a little differently, with a pinch of magic.

Remembering more, we all hate Pettigrew don’t we? And wish for friends like James Potter had – who stuck with him, even after he was long gone. The Triwizard Tournament was an event as grand as the Olympics are, atleast to the fans, yes! And the pain it caused with Voldemort returned. Since Order of Phoenix, who doesn’t want to join the Dumbeldore’s Army?? People have been supporting Snape and praised him as Snape has definitely shown us that as humans, we all do make mistakes, it matters if we can really feel the guilt. Finally with the last novel, it has been more magical, more powerful and definitely an edge over the rest. Not only, it takes a few of our very dear characters from us but it teaches us to face the dark times.

Coming back to the topic, it will never be good-bye. A PotterHead friend mentioned after seeing the movie, that when Severus Snape killed Dumbledore, he created a horcrux of his in her. Same ways, with every death of a dear character, we all fans have been a Horcruxes in a way and we won’t let those characters die till we live.
Good-bye to the series is out of question as I cant still have the heart to say goodbye to Sirius Black, Professor Dumbledore, Fred Weasley, Mad-Eye Moody, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and yes ofcourse Lord Voldemort himself!

These people are not mortals. They will always have a way of coming back to us, in our lives, as memories, as re reading of the novels, as incidents, as movies, as love, as feelings, as emotions but never leave us! Yes, with the final movie out, the wait Potterfans had for what never, is definitely over but the hope isn’t. It will never be the end, it is just going to be a beginning of something more!

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