A Chapter Closed. Quite Literally.

Tonight I finished something that I've been working on since the 6th grade.  (That's 12 years, ya'll!)  I completed the Harry Potter series.  I started reading these when I was 12 and instantly fell in love.  I was the kid who begged, and succeeded in persuading, her parents to take her to the bookstore the morning the new book hit the stands.  I would then proceed to read all day, stay up all night, and finish the 400-700ish page books within 36 hours.  I was a nut.  And I loved it.

But soon I got busy and the timing between book releases lapsed so inconveniently that, given I had read the previous book in such little time so retained hardly anything, I soon couldn't remember where in the story I had left off.  This frustrated me.  I considered picking up the series again in college but knew I wanted to read them straight through from beginning to end and, let's be honest, given the opportunity to read Harry Potter, or the book assigned for my Middle English class or Chaucer Senior Seminar, HP would easily win out.  So I neglected to re-engage this series.  Point for Responsible Ashley!

Alas I graduated and decided it was time to dig in to this long-shelved treasure.  I started last February and, with only a pause to read 'Water for Elephants' (and start half a dozen other books), have read the series straight through.  I don't even have time to explain what I thought of it all...

...what I do know, however, is that throughout the series I've laughed, I've cried, I've loved, and when I finished that last chapter and turned that last page tonight, I felt a little piece of my childhood drift away.  Call me dramatic and cheesy (I won't deny it; I am both!), but it was a really sad moment!  I usually get a little nostalgic when I finish a good book; a novel that's really done a great job of drawing me in and connecting me with the characters.  But don't even get me started on how lonely I felt while saying goodbye to the people that, after hundreds of hours and thousands of pages, I kinda wish were my real friends.  Now don't think I've jumped off the deep end or anything; I didn't get sucked into this fantasy world quite as bad as some World of Warcraft addicts out there, but I'm not gonna lie, it was probably pretty close!

So, sigh, now I must set out to watch all 8 movies, in order, beginning to end.  I'm sure I'll cry at the end of the 8th movie, as I did during the last book.  If the last few movies are as alarmingly close to the picture created in my mind as the first few were, it is shaping up to be a great (and lazy) Christmas break for me!  Oh, and after the movies?  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, of course!  Anyone else on board for an Orlando vacation?!  You bring the 'Any Flavor Beans,' I'll bring the 'Butterbeer.'

Cheers to you, Harry Potter!  And cheers to a childhood chapter closed!