Unless you've been under a rock, the last Harry Potter movie has been released.
I have been both eagerly anticipating and dreading the end of this magical tale because it's not just goodbye to the series, but a lingering goodbye to my son's childhood.
Harry and Scott grew up together. When Harry discovered he was a wizard, he and my son were the same tender age. We anticipated each new book's summer release as eagerly as Harry awaited his return to Hogwarts School.
When his brother turned six, Scott could not wait to introduce him to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Each morning, Scott would read aloud to his brother as we traveled to school. I enjoyed the read aloud almost as much as his brother.
We had to share "Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince." Scott would keep the book with him during the day, and I would read it at night after he went to bed. When he finally discovered I was reading it too, he made me promise not to read past him. I got so caught up in the story that I finished the book three days ahead of him and never breathed a word.
We have always gone to see the Harry Potter movies together. When Scott went away to college, we planned our premiere of the each movie to coincide with his visit home.
It's fitting that Harry's final chapter is coming two weeks after Scott turned 21. They both reached the end of childhood together.
My kids dressed up for the premier of the first movie! (as a lot of other children did) They would have been about 6th grade and 4th grade. I sure wish we had gotten a picture!
ReplyDeleteAnother Harry memory had to do with one of the new books coming out. My daughter had to get it at midnight from the local book store. The hospital where I worked let me off early from the 3-11 shift so I could go get her and head to the bookstore. When I got home and tried to wake her up, she wouldn't budge. I tried everything. Finally I went all by myself and braved the bookstore crowd. There were LOTS of people, about half of them were dressed up. It took quite a while. The next morning my daughter was mad that I hadn't tried "harder" to wake her up! After that, we had Amazon deliver the newest book on the day it came out. Cherie