mischief managed

My childhood, essentially, is over. It died on July 15th.

I'm the tail-end of the Harry Potter generation; a nineties kid and proud of it. My father started reading me the first book when I was in kindergarten. I remember being curled up in bed, listening to the creak of the rocking chair and the steady pitch of my father's voice, pouring out these magical words (he mispronounced Hermione's name until the fourth book).

I always, always begged for him to read just one more chapter.

It became tradition, these nightly visits to Hogwarts. My dad would have me read a page occasionally, and I tripped over the big words. I became a better reader with each book; by the fourth I was reading entirely on my own, relishing the words and proud of my reading abilities. In the third grade, I gobbled up The Order of the Phoenix in less than a week; fast forward five years, I read Deathly Hallows in seventeen hours.

I remember the day I bought DH. I couldn't persuade my parents to drive me at midnight, so I woke them up early as revenge and forced them to drive me over to New England Mobile Book Fair (which, by the way, is not at all mobile). I snatched the closest copy and immediately began reading it; I refused to let go of it for the cashier, so she was forced to awkwardly bend my arms to scan the book.  I didn't eat for the next day and emerged from my room at eleven pm, sobbing.

It was over. Harry Potter was all growed up.

I went to the midnight premiere of HPDH2 at Chestnut Hill with some of my friends. By the end of the movie, I was a sobbing, hyperventilating mess. It hit me that it really was all over. No more anticipation. No new adventures. Nothing. Nothing left to look forward to. My childhood was dead.

But Hogwarts will never be dead.

Harry Potter taught me how to read out loud, how to pronounce difficult words. But it has also taught me some of the most important lessons in life. It has taught me how to love, how to stand up for yourself, how to fight for what you believe in, how to do the right thing.

So don't tell me he's not real. Don't tell me it's just a book. It's not. It never will be. They are more. Harry is more.

I don't wanna say goodbye but it's not forever, not forever...and even if it was you know that i would never, i would never let it get me down. ~A Very Potter Sequel

Someday I will read Harry Potter to my children, and fall in love all over again. Someday they will discover Hogwarts and magic, just like I did.

This is not goodbye.