Harry Potter: The End of an Era — ‘Deathly Hallows Part 2′ Featurette

After watching this featurette for Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2, my inner wizard started casting the Avada Kedavra curse, trying to kill its way out. That’s right kiddos, my inner wizard is a Death Eater for sure!  I became extremely excited, but soon after, the melancholy set in. This is it folks. After Deathly Hallows Part 2 we will all be left with a dark expansive void which no amount of magic could ever be able to fill. Check the break for my thoughts on the end of an era as well as the Deathly Hallows featurette.

*** This may contain SPOILERS, so if you haven’t read all the books skip down to the bottom for the video***

The majority of us grew up with Harry Potter. We followed along with his adventures as if they were our own. We learned what it meant to be different. We learned what it meant to be faced with harsh adversity that one day we would all have to overcome. We learned of good, evil, destiny, and friendship. I was 11 years old when I first read Harry Potter & The Sorcerers Stone and I’ll never forget how it happened. I was in 6th grade and our homeroom teacher would read us chapters from the book. We all thought it was stupid, I mean really? A kids book about wizards and magic… LAME! But as the story progressed I found myself drawn into this beautiful world packed full of detail and imagination. Up until that point I hated reading! You’d never catch me with a book in my hand.

Thanks to Harry Potter I developed a passion for reading that I can’t pull myself away from. If I hadn’t experienced the world J.K. Rowling created I doubt I’d be sitting here today writing this piece. Hell, I probably wouldn’t be writing in general. But here I am at the age of 24, sadly, watching it all come to an end. I’d been forced to accept the fact there would be no more new HP a few months after the books ended; but Deathly Hallows Part 2 is the definitive end of Harry Potter all together (for now). As silly as it may seem to some people, the end of Harry Potter is a pretty emotional experience for most of us.

I’ll be the first to admit that I get teary eyed many times throughout the series. Readers become so invested in these characters that, even though they are fictional, when they feel pain you feel that pain right along with them. You can’t tell me that the death of Dumbledore wasn’t a world changing event for you. Harry had just lost his godfather Sirius Black, the closest thing he had to a loving family thanks to Bellatrix’s well placed Killing Curse. Then his mentor and father-figure, gone; Harry is left alone to face Voldemort with nothing but a sixth year’s experience with magic.

That is such a daunting task to know that it is your destiny. Knowing that neither one can live while the other survives. Damn, I get goosebumps just thinking about it. Dumbledore’s death was tragic. Already weakened by Voldemort’s horcrux potion and his attempt to guide Draco to the right choice ultimately lead to his death.

The worst part of his death is that he was killed by that greasy, crooked nosed, weasel, Severus Snape. Harry has to watch all this remaining secretly frozen underneath his invisibility cloak from Dumbledore’s previously placed body-bind spell. Dumbledore’s lifeless body fall from the Astronomy Tower and the spell breaks; Harry is able to move again, knowing that this could only happen if the one who cast the spell had been killed. The kicker of it all, the horcrux isn’t even the real one. R.A.B. broke down the Dark Lord’s fortifications years ago and had taken the real horcrux. To Harry, Dumbledore’s death was for nothing.

We can’t forget Dobby! Wow, if you would of asked me after reading Chamber of Secrets if I would have been sad to see Dobby go, I wouldn’t have hesitated with my answer — “Psh Dobby? Nah F that house elf. He only brought trouble to HP.” Strangely, his death is the most tear jerking part of any of the books. This house elf had done so much to try and help Harry; granted the majority caused more problems, but he comes through in the end. If it wasn’t for Dobby, Harry and company would be dead. Dobby saved them from the clutches of Voldemort’s lackeys at Malfoy Manor just in time, sacrificing his life in the process.

The hardest part of his death is when Harry decides to dig the grave himself. He could have used magic, but to Harry, that would of been an insult. Harry changed Dobby’s life. There was no greater person on earth in Dobby’s mind than Harry Potter. He was set free by Harry years earlier and never forgot, but reveled in the opportunities he now had before him thanks to Harry Potter. By digging the grave, Harry shows just how much Dobby meant to him, while also contemplating just how much he’d truly lost during his 17 year ordeal with Voldemort. He wants to feel the pain, the sweat, the tears. That is the brilliance of Harry Potter, he doesn’t take advantage of magic. He knows what it can do but there are still things he knows only compassion and love can conquer in the end.

For 13 years I have immersed myself in the world of Harry Potter. Having read each books so many times, my copies are all falling apart at the binding. While there are many more reasons we are all saddened by the end of Harry Potter, these were just a few. It’s hard to imagine that any other book series will ever be able to capture the imaginations of its readers like HP has done. With one final movie coming our way, Potter fans will once again unite under a common banner and celebrate the ending of an era; the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Gryfindor Quidditch team won the House Cup!

What Do You Think? Discuss.