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Life/Style: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
By TheStyleEditor | July 14, 2007
Well, the time has finally come. Book 7 of the Harry Potter series will be making its debut around the world on the very first moment of Saturday, June 21. Midnight parties are scheduled, children of all ages are primed to find out what happens to Harry.
Except in our household.
See, I am a rabid, full-fledged Harry Potter fan. You know, the kind that knows every spell in every book, all of the backstory there is to know, one who is on JKRowling.com and Mugglenet.com much more frequently than I would tell an acquaintance.
I was a late comer to the series; four books were out before I started in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Once I met Harry and the gang, once I got sucked into the magical world, it was all over. I ripped through all four bookd in five days (come on, Book 4 was pretty big!).
I bought tickets for the midnight showing of each of the movies, accompanied by my understanding best friend who always obligingly drew lightning-bolt scars on our heads before we went into the theater, just because it was fun.
I waited patiently for Book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I was third in line at the midnight party, but first out the door with my copy because I had calculated exact change for when they let the first ten customers up to the ten registers in Borders.
Book 6 seemed to come relatively quickly on its heels. I was out of town, on last-minute business in New Jersey, and found myself at a random Borders, toward the back of the line this time because the reservation I had made in Los Angeles for my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the instant its release date was announced was no good on this side of the country. But it was fun to stand with hundreds of other people, green wristbands connecting us to our group obsession.
Last summer, I decided that the time had come to get my kids in on my Harry Potter mania. They had seen all of the movies, but at ages 9 and 7, had yet to really get into the books. After my son broke his arm, it was clear that the summer would be whiled away mostly indoors, so we picked up the Jim Dale book on tape of Sorcerer’s Stone, and alternated between the tapes and between each taking turns reading.
It has been a year, and we are only up to Book 5, about 200 pages in. I love that their out-loud reading has improved so much, and I love when my son asks me complicated questions about the characters’ backstories. I’ve seen them go from very mildly interested in reading chapter books to asking when we’re going to sit down again, “because we really need to make some serious progress in the book!”
The three of us went to see the Knight Bus tour at our Los Angeles Central Library. We stood in line, ooohed and aaahed over the cool, tricked out triple decker bus, and got on and made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 20-second video. My son explained that his favorite character is Tonks, because she’s so cool. My daughter said her favorite character is Sirius, because he’s so nice. (I didn’t say who my favorite character was, but I’ll tell you. Don’t get me wrong, I love Harry, Ron and Hermione (and relate a little too well to Hermione, actually), but other than the primary characters, I have come to love Neville. I really hope he doesn’t bite it in Book 7, because I will cry for sure.)
As the time was arriving for Movie 5 and Book 7, I looked at our progress in Book 4, then 5, and thought I would try to hurry the kids up so we could get through Book 6 before 7 came out. I wanted to read Book 7 as soon as humanly possible, after all. But then it became clear that we weren’t going to get there. Well, then I would read Book 7 and they could read it when they got to that point.
But then I realized that maybe I didn’t want to read Book 7 so soon. With my schedule (kids, work, grad school), I haven’t been able to enjoy all of the fanfare and anticipation as much as I usually do. And now, it was even that much more fun that it had become a group activity with my kids. Why rush them through the books? Why hurry up to get to the end?
Because it is the last book. The last cover released on Mugglenet. The last countdown downloaded to my desktop. The last round of theories and predictions. The last midnight party. The last word on Harry.
Time seemed to be going too fast. The release dates were approaching too quickly. That was weird. For all the years I’ve been into Harry Potter, I just. Could. Not. Wait! For the next book or movie to come out. And here I was, having this strange, low-grade anxiety about the movie and book coming out within a week of each other. Too soon! Too soon!
I let my kids see the Order of the Phoenix movie the day it came out, and it was great fun. I don’t compare the movies to the books too much, because both are completely different mediums and enjoyable for their different reasons. We went to the first show on the first day it was out. And even though there are two more movies, even there I felt that the end was nearing. Only two left.
I will take the kids to the midnight party. It will be their first and last. They will bring their Allivan’s wands and we will all draw lightning bolt scars on our heads. But when we get up to the counter and pay for our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we will ask the person at the register to put it in a bag, where it will stay for a while.
While we finish Book 5.
While I take them through Book 6 (which I know they will love! Come on–Ron and Hermione, Professor Slughorn, horcruxes and Felix Felicis? What’s not to enjoy???)
We’ll read Mugglenet’s predictions for Book 7.
We’ll talk about ideas and themes and characters and if anything is too scary and where it is all going.
And then, when we are good and ready, long after the rest of the world knows Harry’s fate, then we will read Book 7.
Because we just aren’t ready for it to end yet.
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