I open at the close

As a little girl, I loved when my dad would go on business trips throughout Europe. Of course I missed him while he was gone but he always came back with gifts for us.

When I was six, he returned from London with a book for Kristin and me. What he found was a freshly released title from a no name author. J.K. Rowling.. sound fimiliar? My dad brought home a first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

I still remember him reading aloud to us in a room lit soley by flickering candles. I remember crawling into bed with my big sister, the night he read the chapter about the mountain troll because I was too scared to sleep alone.
I remember my friends at school discovering the story I had already fallen in love with, a year later when it was released in the US and feeling proud that I had read it first.

Since then, my life has been filled with Hermione Granger dress ups, a Harry Potter themed birthday party, and wishing a letter in emarald green writing would turn up in my mailbox when I turned eleven; with crushes on the stars and with later realizing that they are not very attractive yet still finding them endearing; with high anticipation and longing to read and to see what would happen next; with midnight book releases and movie premieres.

Last night, I attended the last of those premieres and of course it didn't disappoint. I soaked up every second of the beautifully done finale. As the end credits began to roll, my tears did as well. It was all over. A series that has been such a vital part of my childhood has come to a close.

But really.. that is a ridiculous thought. These books and movies will always be around to whisk me away. More importantly, all my great memories marinated by my imagination of the wizarding world will stick with me.

Someday I'll read to my children in a dim room by the candle light, watching them venture off to worlds of their own and allow the whole process to begin again



"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"