There are a couple times each year when the activity in the Harry Potter fandom flares up again even now. Years after the last film and even more years after the last book, Harry Potter still appears seemingly out of nowhere. On the second of May, to remember and commemorate the Battle Of Hogwarts, with tributes to the fallen and praises to the heroes. On the thirty-first of July, to celebrate Harry's birthday. On Hallowe'en, to remember the deaths of Lily and James Potter and the Boy Who Lived.
And, like now, around the first of September, when the Hogwarts Express leaves King's Cross at eleven o'clock in the morning to take the students to the castle - some going for the first time, nervous and excited. Others feel like they are coming home. Older students, and, well, we. The people who for a large part have grown up in the wizarding world, we who have followed Harry from his cupboard under the stairs all the way to the final battle. Although it seems to be over, we are still there, and still in love with the world J.K. Rowling showed to us all those years ago.
I first read Harry Potter in fourth grade, it was December and I was nine years old. There were only six books out at that time, and I read all of them over the course of two weeks. I stayed up way past my bedtime - in case of the Chamber of Secrets, until two in the morning. (Now that I think about it, that may have been the point where my parents gave up trying to give me a bedtime.) I used every free moment to read. I read in bed, in the car, on my way to school, in school... I had never been captured by a book this much. I've always been a passionate reader but I had never been this intense.
I made my best friend at the time read it. For the rest of the schoolyear, we acted out scenes on the playground, using pens as wands and parallel bars as broomsticks. When the Deathly Hallows came out in 2007, I had never been this excited about a book release. I cried in the theatre when the last film was over. Finding out my Hogwarts house was a much more important discovery than almost everything else I learned about myself (Hufflepuff and proud!). Harry Potter has shaped almost my entire life, influenced my personality, helped me meet people who are now my closest friends.
And the wonderful thing is, I'm not the only one. There are millions of people like me out there. Some are older than me and read Harry Potter when it was first published, some are much younger and only discovered him two days ago. But even though 'it's all over', it will never end.
Year after year, our love for this story flares up anew. Many of us appear to have moved on to other things, other stories. But we always remember and every once in a while we return to the halls and corridors of Hogwarts to look back and feel all warm and fuzzy, because Hogwarts will always be there to welcome us home.
And yes, for many (including me), these times don't only mean happiness. There's a very real emotion called Post-Potter-Depression, that feeling of vast emptiness when you realize that there is nothing more to come. Even though by now we know that that is not entirely true - there are fan films being made, music is written, there's an official film project happening at this very moment - it's still kind of over.
Every year on September 1st we regret that we cannot take the Hogwarts Express. We regret that we live in the Muggle world and cannot learn to do magic. And that makes us incredibly sad sometimes.
But you know what? Screw that feeling. Because as long as there's people like us, it will never be truly over. The world of Harry Potter lives on, welcoming everybody who wants to enter.
So I say: Welcome back. Take a seat. Have some pumpkin juice. Here's to another amazing year, and all the years yet to come. Here's to the Boy Who Lived, and the heroes who didn't. Here's to us, who keep the story alive. And here's to all the love and friendship that still comes from this community even after all these years.
Love,
Jojo
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