11 years ago, a friend walked up to me and asked, sounding excited : "Sherin, have you read Harry Potter?" I had not, and told her so. She continued : "It's a great book, I'll lend it to you." The next day, as I walked home from school holding Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 12 year old me had no idea that I was about to begin a journey with countless others, a journey which will end, for all of us, tomorrow.
I devoured the book. So taken was I by Harry and Hagrid and Dumbledore and He Who Must Not Be Named, I made my brothers and all my other friends read it. I was hooked. Hungry, I scoured my friend's list for people who had the other books, after finding out that three of them had been released by then. Like most people my age, until the fourth book, I did not read them in order, I read them as 2,4,1 and 3. And by the time book 4 had released, I had become one of the millions of children who pre ordered the book months in advance, spent hours discussing what would happen, got to the store the minute it opened and fought with my siblings over who would read it first.
By book 4, Harry Potter was a legend. Pottermania was a recognized english word. There were debate groups, book forums, websites, chat rooms, book clubs and predictably, a movie franchise that has by now spawned unreported earnings, transforming the "Potter children" into multi millionaires before they were even old enough to sign on the dotted line without parental permission.
Harry and I lived and loved through our teens, faced different demons and learned that in the end, if you walk out with your head held high, ready to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences, victory can be yours. The last book released 4 years ago. But there was still the movie to come. Still a reason to wait. And tomorrow, that will be gone too.
The frenzy surrounding the release of the 7th and final book was unprecedented. It holds the wold record for most books sold in a day, the figure being as high as 15 million copies. In one day. Not since the days of Beatlemania, or a certain Moonwalker has the world seen a phenomenon that gripped its imagination so completely, leaving even adults camping on the sidewalks to buy the books on opening day.
No matter how old I get, I will always be a Pottermaniac. And if I get a chance, I will be one of those who introduces a generation yet to come to the world of Harry Potter. But for now, and for ever, it's over. A part of me ends tomorrow, a part that has lived with Harry, for 11 years. It began when we were both 12. I am now 23. And it is time.
Thank you J.K. Rowling, for creating a memory which defines my childhood. Thank you Schez, for being the one who handed me that book all those years ago. And Harry? Goodbye.
