Allie McCoy | Daily UniverseThe end of the wizarding world
And so we reach the end of a magical era.
No, I did not cry at the thought of the movie being over — though I know many people who did.
Instead, I elected to stretch my soon-to-be-history childhood a little longer and wait 37 whole hours beyond the much anticipated and well-attended midnight showing to watch the movie on Saturday.
Blasphemy, I know.
Here’s the truth — I love Harry Potter, I do, but I’ve attended one midnight showing (dressed as Ginny Weasley — my brown locks changed to red) and it was enough.
I’m not a night person.
As this movie approached, I looked forward to it with a healthy amount of hesitation.
I desperately wanted to see what the masterful director David Yates would do to the book I had learned to love so dearly.
I desperately feared it would come out different than my over-active imagination had fabricated.
It did, but not disappointingly.
Of course, I didn’t like the fact that Harry broke the Elder Wand before fixing his own. Actually, I didn’t think the Elder Wand was even breakable.
But I digress.
The truth is, I loved the movie.
It doesn’t rank as my favorite (“Goblet of Fire”) but it also doesn’t fall to the bottom of my list (“Order of the Phoenix”).
It acted as the perfect conclusion to a wonderful, whimsical series where our generation could forget the real world for a while and enter a place where anything is possible and good always prevails over evil.
Every premiere, whether for a book or movie, received hype and excitement.
There were lines, fans and parties.
We created book shortages, movie sellouts and collectibles.
J.K. Rowling provided us with the story, but we made it magical.
Now, however, it has come to an end.
It’s over. Done. Avada Kedavra.
Harry Potter may have won the final battle, but Voldemort seems to have won the war.
He wanted no more Harry Potter, and that’s what we’re left with.
Sad, I know, but it’s the truth.
But, buck up Cougars!
We don’t need more books to remind us what Harry Potter tried to teach us all along.
Dumbledore put it perfectly (as he always did):
“Do not pity the dead, Harry,” he said while in the heavenly version of Kings Cross Station. “Pity the living and above all, those who live without love.”
Isn’t that the point of the series? Isn’t this what J.K. Rowling, David Yates and every other member of the Harry Potter Team wanted us to know?
We must live with love toward our family, even if they’re crazy.
We must live with love toward our friends, even if they’re know-it-alls.
We must live with love toward those we love, even if they’re our best friend’s kid sister.
We must live with love toward our enemies, especially when they’re about to be killed in a cursed fire.
Cheesy, I know, but still true.
Harry Potter will always be more than a movie to our generation.
I’m not saying it created who we are. We did that — we are the writers of our own destiny — but this series will always be a foot of parchment in our well-bound histories.
So, to all you Harry Potter fans with the now retired robes and magic wands, do not mourn for the end of Potter, instead look brightly on the world you have before you and make it as magical as you made Harry Potter.
So, Masters Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs:
Mischief Managed.
Allie McCoy is the opinion editor for The Daily Universe. This viewpoint represents her opinion and not necessarily that of The Daily Universe, BYU, its administration or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
