#i'mstillcrying

[piecesofthebamboome]

I'm a mess right now because I just watched In The Flesh and it's beautiful and I want a Season 3 now.

[suchalovelywaste]

Harry Potter.

I went to my last midnight Harry Potter premiere last night. That means that it was the last time to dress up in costume outside of Halloween season. So, of course, I went with the most insane option possible that suited my looks-Luna Lovegood. And I must say, it was damn fun.

This isn't just a book and movie series. This is childhood. Harry Potter was staying up past my bedtime even though it was a school night, just to find out who was trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone. It was having to sleep with my lights on because the basilisk was so terrifying in the Chamber of Secrets that I had nightmares. It was becoming overjoyed after discovering that Harry had family other than the wretched Dursley's, and being heartbroken when that family was ripped away in the Department of Mysteries right before his eyes. It was being 17 years old, entering my senior year of high school, and sobbing until the pages were wet over the death of Dobby.

It was a way of bonding after moving from elementary to junior high, and junior high to high school, and inevitably from high school to college. It was Harry Potter marathons with old high school friends, and more marathons with new friends in college. It was having my mom stay up with me to see the first midnight premieres and watch my face light up at Harry catching his first snitch, even though she had to be at work early the next morning. Eventually, I became too "cool" to have my mom go with me to these premieres, but the fact that my mother was able to find a connection within the series in order to bond with her daughter is one of the most beautiful things she could've done for me.

Whether you like to admit it or not, the Harry Potter franchise was a phenomenon, and it was an era in it's own right. J.K. Rowling created an entire world for us to escape to, and a variety of characters that allowed us to relate to someone in this world, making us feel more and more at home with every book that was written. She invented houses inside of this world for these characters that we all could eventually see ourselves in once we became our own person (I personally am a Gryffindor, but barely. I'm almost a Ravenclaw. Which I would prefer).

Not everyone was apart of the Harry Potter generation. Therefore, not everyone understands our obsessions with this story. And that's okay. For those of us who were, we mutually understand that this is a confirmation of adulthood. The story that followed us since we were ten-or whatever age you came across it-has come to a close. I was entering junior high when I first read Harry Potter. Now that it's over, I'm legal to buy alcohol and I'm graduating college in December. This story has literally been with my for over half of my life. It feels as though I'm laying a good friend to rest. As they say, all good things must come to and end.

Thank you, Harry. For everything.

"Of course it's happening in your head, Harry. But why on Earth should that mean that it is not real?" -Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.