Harry Potter – no spoilers ahead

I am so sad that the lives and times of Harry Potter have come to an end. Not so much because of the end of the story of Harry, Ron and Hermione and their adventures at Hogwarts but because of how much fun our family had riding the Potter gravy train. It started with chats about the books. Cupcake and I were always current with the first three and Mlle Jensaispas was working her way through them as well. They were a bit too old for Sir Talksalot and I would try to read to him, but it is difficult to get through such a weighty series when we only see each other a couple of times a week.  Mr. Husband decided to get caught up with the dinner conversation on our honeymoon. He bought, and lost Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone three times in five days. Fortunately we found one of the copies in a used book store so the financial hit wasn’t so bad.

A few months after getting married, we bought our first house together which had an unfinished basement with two bedrooms in it. We set those up for the girls and were planning on decorating a room for Sir Talksalot upstairs beside us, but he was determined to live in the closet under the stairs just like Harry Potter.  That crawl space proved a bit too small and too damp, but we did slide his bed into an alcove under the bathroom and hung a curtain around him to simulate the experience as best as we could. He lived there for three years until we renovated and built him a real room with walls and a door.

I believe there was a small marketing hoopla around The Goblet of Fire, but the advanced ordering and lining up for the midnight release began with The Order of the Phoenix. Cupcake and I made sure we had our copies as soon as they were available and generally sequestered ourselves somewhere on the cottage property until we were finished. I occasionally harboured a bit of envy for the young adolescent who did not have to cook dinner, shop for groceries or entertain other children while trying to figure out the secrets of mazes, maps and spells.

Cupcake was at camp and the rest of us were at the cottage when book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released. We had ordered our advance copies from Indigo but Mr. Husband was coming to the cottage before they would arrive. We were all disappointed that we would have to wait until I discovered that Mable’s Fables would be distributing the books by a marina in Port Carling on the Saturday morning. Sir Talksalot and I got up at 7 and arrived at the drop point before the sales people had even arrived. We were joined by two young boys, one of whom looked just like Harry himself. We got our books by 8 and were even given a bunch of book marks and lightening scar tattoos, one of which we put on our diaper-clad gaffer who looked quite magical with her marked forehead. To make our luck complete, it also happened to be visitors day at camp and I am not sure if Cupcake was happier to see us or the big fat book in my hands. This year, our little Cupcake was in England when The Deathly Hallows was released and she got to line up at Blackwell’s with the Oxfordonians at midnight and was about half way through the novel by the time we went to bed, eight hours before I could even drive to Brace bridge and buy my own.

We even had great traditions for the films. I snuck the kids out of school for the first 4 films. Each time I gave them no notice. I just showed up, told them they had a dentist appointment we had forgotten about, that Daddy had gotten off work unexpectedly early and wanted to go the cottage, or that Grammie was coming over and we had to get home early. In the appropriate age order, they started to see through my fabrications and expect my arrival at school on the release date. One year, a bunch of my students played hooky in order to see the first showing and ended up sitting right behind me. I was oblivious but they spent most of the show cowered low in their seats. Another year we took our teeny, tiny little Gaffer fresh out of the hospital and she graciously slept all the way through the loudest movie I had ever been to, snuggled deep in her Baby Bjorn. But my favourite part of each ritual was the dawning realization on my step-son’s face that I had duped him again and his assertion that next time he would be ready. I am sure there are grand marketing reasons for the summer release of Order of the Phoenix but I am greatly disappointed that on the heels of the knowledge that there will be no more Harry Potters, there was no chance to try and surprise a twelve year old boy one more time.

I thank JK Rowling for her imagination, her perseverance and her willingness to share Harry and his friends. But mostly I thank her for the family memories her series has brought to us. We have grown up with Harry Potter and our lives have been richer for the experience.