The Then and Now

Harry Potter has just released the final movie. More than anything else, the reason I cried when that movie was over was because of the finality. The series is over. The wonderful, incredible, magical series is over. When I read Harry Potter, I am filled with excitement. With the thoughts that anything can happen, and anything may happen. That there are worlds out there where people are doing magic in order to save the world. The books are so artfully written, so engaging and shocking, shocking because every time I read them something new is happening that I seem to have missed the time before. When I watch the movies, I am filled with the music that plays in the background; the music makes the movies, in my opinion, and makes every one heart breakingly beautiful.
But it is not because all that is over that I cried at the end of the last movie. It is always good to remember that one of the best part about Harry Potter is, in fact, that nothing is stopping us from watching the movies and reading the books again, and again, and again. No, I cried because I find so often that while my excitement remains for this series, like it does for so many others, others will forget about Harry Potter. With nothing new coming out, no movies or books, it will fall to the back of their mind. Those of my friends who have never read the books, or who have read only the first few and stopped (a shocking amount of friends I have fall under this category), will probably never read them. They will think that there is no reason to, now that they know everything that is to happen after watching all the movies (of course I believe this to be terribly wrong, for most of what happens in the books is so much more incredible than that which goes on in the movies). Of those who have read the whole series, many I believe will not read them again, will not again open those magical pages to a world so readily available and so stunningly beautiful. This is what happens to me every time an era dies; I find that I continue on in a time which, to most, has come and gone.
I feel sure, at this point, that I am getting on my friends' nerves with all of my talk of Harry Potter. I have a habit of going on too long about such things. The problem is, unfortunately, that I'm secretly afraid that if I stop talking about it, people will much too soon forget. I'm not ready for that yet, I'm not ready to forget about the boy who lived.