Saying goodbye

Summer, 1998. While we were visiting my godmother in Chicago, she pulled out a copy of "this great book about a little boy who finds out he's a wizard and he goes off to wizarding school." It came highly endorsed by her fifth-grade class.

I, as a soon-to-be-freshman in college, wasn't all that interested, but my youngest sister (a.k.a. the non-reader) took it and read it. When I came home for fall break, she followed me around the house to explain Quidditch and Hogwarts. She'd never gotten excited about a book like that before, and I read it because she was so enthusiastic.

And I was hooked. This Harry Potter kid was a new King Arthur or Luke Skywalker. I recognized this story and I loved this new storyteller's way of framing it with imagination and wit and humor.

Now, almost ten years, four midnight release parties, five movies, seven books, and one elective course later, it's time to close the books. The story's over. No more speculation about the characters' ultimate fates or unanswered questions. A new generation of readers, one that knows the ending and likely will have seen the movies first, will enjoy the books in a completely different way.

For most of us who've loved Harry and his pals, the end is bittersweet. Sure, I wanted to know how it all turned out, but seeing the series end is like closing any chapter in one's life: you might return for a visit, but you can't go back and live it over again.

What made it so great? I don't think it's the vividly imagined and richly detailed world Rowling invented for her characters to inhabit (although it's certainly a draw), or the fun of seeing adolescents with magical powers. I believe it's the epic struggle between good and evil that only, ultimately, can be won by love and self-sacrifice. That's why Harry, Charlotte, Aslan, Frodo, and other heroes and heroines involve our emotions so deeply -- their stories, no matter how seemingly fanciful, are powerfully true.

As I closed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at a quarter past four this morning, I wiped away a few tears. I'm looking forward to the fall term to see what my newest crop of fantasy lit students thinks about how Rowling chose to end the series.

And I wrote a small note of thanks to my godmother, who gave my sister the book, and my sister, who gave the book to me.