“Our parents had the Beatles, their parents had WWII, we have Harry Potter”

Although I knew it was coming, my heart sank when I turned the 607th page of the last Harry Potter book and found nothing on the other side. I was 18 then – roughly the same age as Harry like I’ve always been. So, for me, like I’m sure for many of you, last week was momentous. Upon finishing the books I still had hope for the sixth and seventh movies. But part one of the Deathly Hallows came out last week – the end is near.

The Regent Mall is a decidedly unmagical place. It’s a standard building with standard shops, but on Thursday night it was as though life had been breathed into the smallest cracks of every wall. A generation, clinging to the last strands of their adolescence was lined up from the theatre to the top of the food court, unsure of its destiny.

Ron Weasleys, a gang of Slytherins, and even a house elf showed up for the premiere.

The group at the front had been there since 10 a.m. to ensure good seats.

Anticipation hovered over the crowd of eager fans, but it slowly evaporated as midnight drew closer and a heavy feeling of anxiety rained down. It’s the beginning of the end and we’ve known it was coming. For some, it’s the end of a great franchise. But for us – we who grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermoine, who waited in the midnight lines to get the books, who had Harry Potter journals, who “sorted” all our friends, and knew what animal our “patronus” and “animagus” would be – this is the end of our adolescence.

“I feel like my inner child is dying and it’s time to grow up,” said UNB grad student Brittany Deveau who started reading the books when she was 12.

“I don’t know what’s next,” admitted Mitcheel Feero, a third-year student at STU. “What is going to make my adulthood like Harry Potter made my childhood?”

As much as I sound like a loser for saying it, Harry Potter was a defining influence in my childhood; as I’m sure, although you may not want to admit it, in a lot of yours. Our parents had the Beatles, their parents had World War II and we had Harry Potter. Harry united and defined a generation across the world.

I’m what you might call a fan. I’ve gone to every midnight showing. I started the series when I was 11, my Grade 5 teacher read The Philosophers Stone to my class and for a chapter’s duration every day, I was transported (or “apparated”) from the pale blue parameters of the classroom into the world of magic and possibility.

That magic, that possibility became a rallying point for millions. And come July, we’ll have to go on without it. Courtney Hill, a fourth-year science student at UNB, says the end of the movies brings great sadness.

“I will never do this again. I only have one more midnight showing. What am I going to do now?” said Courtney. “I will never read or be into another series like that.”

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For the most part the movies haven’t lived up to the books, but Deathly Hallows is another story. The film followed the book almost to perfection; it was full throttle for two-and-a-half hours.

For the first time I felt that the characters were portrayed like they were in the books (with the exception of Harry who’s still not quite the Harry created by J.K. Rowling in my mind), and no jumps were made in the plot. This film actually did the book justice; I left the theatre satisfied.

Which is what I can say about Harry Potter as a whole: I’m satisfied. Even though it has to end, and it does, I will know that in my life I understood the power of a story. The belief that a young boy and his two best friends managed to fight for what they believed in – for something that was bigger than themselves – is where the real magic lies.

For so many of us Harry Potter has been our escape from reality, but reality is coming for us. Where will we escape to when the bills need to be paid and responsibilities begin to take over?

We are moving into adulthood; it’s a definitive ending. But the good news is that we can take Harry with us. The magic doesn’t end with our childhood. The quest for the seemingly impossible, the hope that good will triumph, the ageless desire for something beyond ourselves and a world that is more than we ever dared hope for is the challenge of Harry Potter. That doesn’t end at the final credits.

In the timeless words of Rubeus Hagrid, “what’s comings gunna come, and we’ll meet it when it does.”