The Beginning – To An End!

Have you ever loved a series to death? Literally, to death? And found you couldn’t let go if your life depended on it?

Well… I finished reading ‘The Half-Blood Prince’, book 6, in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling a while back and I’m stuck. You see, I want to read the next book. It’s sitting on my bedside table. But if I read Book 7, I’ll be closer to The End of the book and the series.

And I don’t want the series to end.

It’s been a joy-ride reading all 6 books, living and growing with Harry, Hermione, Ron, the Weasleys, Dursleys and of course studying and lodging at Hogwarts. I re-lived being a student in class, whining over the overload of homework with the trio and rushing from one end of campus to the other to make it to the next period on time. From classes on Potions, Magical Creatures and Herbology to Divination, Astronomy and Defense Against The Dark Arts (the class where the professor changes every year), reading Harry Potter has taken me back in time to my own past as a kid and forward to a whole new world of fantasy.

If I close my eyes, I can see, hear and feel the presence of Professors Dumbledore, Moody, Dolores Umbridge, McGonagall and of course Hagrid. I’m still wondering if Severus Snape is on Harry’s side or not? What will happen to Dumbledore’s Army, which lay dormant in book 6? And why did Dumbledore have to die at the end of Book 6? (I think I’ve figured out the answer, but I’ll know for sure when I read The Deathly Hallows).

The thrill of watching the corresponding movie after reading each book in the series was an additional treat. Not only did I get to visualize what I’d read, the characters, worlds, fine details and magic sprung to life.

Then a trip to Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida, 2 years ago knocked my socks off. I walked – ACTUALLY WALKED – along the cobblestone paths of Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, visited Olivanders, drank Butterbeer, saw a fire-breathing dragon atop a building, watched visitors wave a wand and make magical things happen behind shop windows. The eerie soundtrack of Harry Potter played in shops selling robes and Tri-Wizard trophies, to candies, souvenirs, quills and parchment. I could go on and on about a roller-coaster Hippogriff ride, a magical water fountain and people dressed in costumes reflecting the fantastic world of Hogwarts, but I won’t because I’m sure you get the idea.

I will say that a good story with an army of strong characters has the power to bring a world of fiction to life. J.K. Rowling didn’t just create a story, she created a world within a story that has so much potential readers, viewers and producers were able to carve out in stone the fictional world of Hogwarts and Diagon Alley.

Now that’s the power of true story-telling.

I recently heard and read that J.K.Rowling is releasing 4 more books and I AM ECSTATIC – to say the least.  Is that reason enough to justify why I should read the last book in the series, ‘Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows’ to finally get to The End?

Because now there’s a new beginning!!