As I watched the last instalment of Harry Potter movie, it left me poignant. It’s absurd to understand how a movie and its characters became a part of my life as I grew up. I still remember I was in class 8th when I had gone to watch Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone for the first time. My friend told me about the book. Initially, I took no notice of the book but when this friend of mine kept on raving about it, I decided to read it. So I got myself a copy of The Chambers of Secrets and fell in love with the characters of the book and the magical world it had created. It was considered to be a book for children but later I got to know that Harry Potter had cast a spell on everybody and age was no bar to fall under its enchantment.
Children, teenagers, elders, they all were Harry Potter fans. The second book enticed me to buy the next one in the series and so I bought it. This is how I too joined the Harry Potter fan club. I read the books and watched the movies to get transported to the magical world. This was one book which had so many characters and as the story unfolded in layers, we got to know more and more about each one of them. The troika of Harry, Ron and Hermione was of course the soul of the book. Harry was the one who always endangered his life to save people around him and his friends stood by him through thick and thin. The characters of the book have been etched out in our minds forever. Then there was Harry Potter’s vocabulary. Words that were never heard before. Words which had no meaning in the outside world. Words which are beyond a person’s comprehension who has not read the book. This vocabulary added to the persona of the magical world and made everything seem real.
On the surface, it may look like any other children’s book but it had something for everyone. I loved it because it had all the elements- love, hatred, friendship, betrayal, mystery, suspense, drama, thrills, adventure and loads of action. Harry, Ron and Hermione were always in the middle of action chasing something to put the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together.
It meant something to me. It became a part of my growing up years. Since it was written at the backdrop of a school, Hogwarts, I became more fond of it. Hogwarts was the place where most of the action took place. So Professor Snape being the most dreaded teacher around, the Malfoy and Slytherins acting as bullies all the time, Quiditch match bringing out the house rivalry thing etc. struck a chord with me. This was something we experienced at school so it was easy to relate to it.
Whenever I read the books, I felt like watching the movies too. I always wanted to see how the story had been adapted visually. There was also a curiosity to see the new characters which were introduced in the books from time to time. The new characters raised the level of excitement. Harry Potter movies gave the feel and experience of the fantasy world. I was in love with the Hogwarts castle, the other sets built and the dark treatment given to the story on such a grand scale; it all added perfectly to the mystical aura.
It took some time to absorb the shock that J.K.Rowling won’t be writing Harry Potter anymore. Movies, however, provided some solace but they have come to an end too. Now I will have to make peace with the fact that Harry Potter’s time is up.
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