The Magic of Harry Potter

Friday, July 15, 2011

Page 11

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

The Magic of Harry Potter

By J’AMY PACHECO

My earliest memory of the boy wizard Harry Potter is one of controversy.

My daughter was a toddler when “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” made news because people argued over whether the popular series promoted witchcraft or simply encouraged children to read.

A couple years into the controversy, curiosity motivated me to pick up a copy of the book to read aloud with my daughter. Frankly, neither of us was interested, and it went back on the shelf only partially read.

Over the years, relatives who knew my daughter was a voracious reader gave her the latest installments, and seemed surprised that she hadn’t read any of them. Consequently, she ended up with most of the set gathering dust on the bookshelf.

One summer, however, I found myself with nothing to read and picked up the first book. I read it through, pronounced it “cute,” and read the second. It was, I felt, better and more complex. I kept reading and before I knew it, I was hooked.

I’ll never forget getting to the last book on our shelf, rushing to the Internet to find out when the next one would be out, and discovering it was still being written. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

It took that reaction to get my daughter to give Harry Potter another try. Her friends had read it, and I think she felt sort of left out. She ended up liking it.

Since those days, we’ve ventured out at midnight to pick up newly-released Harry Potter books, and to be among the first die-hard fans to see his films.

I write this with tickets in hand to see Harry’s final film at midnight. I’m going with a large group of friends, and we’re all dressing as characters from the Harry Potter films.

Racing to finish the emerald green robe that will transform me into Professor Minerva McGonagall, I’ve had time to reflect on how the story of Harry Potter has affected my life.

If not for Harry Potter, I likely never would have discovered the joy of waiting at a local shopping mall on a warm summer night, anticipating the clock strike of midnight when I could legally buy my very own copy of a book. I doubt I’ll ever forget that first occasion, when hundreds of people with one thing in common formed a kind of camaraderie while standing outside Gottschalk’s Department Store at 11:45 p.m.

I’ve repeated the experience a few times, for books and movies, but I suspect I would never have tried it in the first place if I hadn’t been so desperate to find out what was next going to happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

I might have gone my entire life without ever dressing as a witch if not for Harry Potter. I managed to avoid dressing up for the second-to-last film, even though I was part of a group that dressed to extreme. My everyday clothing fit in perfectly because I wore a t-shirt that proclaimed me a “Muggle”—the Harry Potter designation for a normal human who is unaware of the magical world that surrounds them. My daughter even made a badge for me to wear that said, “Somebody had to be the Muggle,” which made it look planned, and made people laugh.

My friends, however, threatened a curse to ensure I made more of an effort this time. The yards of green fabric on my dining room table tell me it must have worked.

My daughter and her friends live and breathe Harry Potter. They all have declared allegiance to one house or another, and have robes, ties, shirts, shirts, beanies and scarves that reflect that allegiance. My daughter belongs to a Potter-themed community service organization.

A Harry Potter-themed birthday party at my house in February caused it to be transformed into a wizard’s paradise with Platform 9 ¾ on my front door and tons of letters addressed to Harry Potter hanging from the porch. Candles ‘floated’ above a dining room table piled with chocolate frogs, butter beer and pumpkin pasties. We left a Nimbus 2000 broomstick suspended from our upstairs balcony for weeks because we liked the way it looked.

I’m going to miss Harry Potter. The story has given my daughter and I something to share. She has grown up with Harry and his mates, and I know we’ll all shed some tears tonight when we have to say “good-bye.”

It’s been fun having a bit of magic in our lives, even though my daughter’s “accio” spells never work. It’s been a great experience to have together. In fact, I think it would be fair to say it’s been positively magical.