I stood in the midst of hundreds upon hundreds of anxious children, teenagers and adults shoulder-to-shoulder, dressed in their best wizards’ robes and witches’ hats, with magic wands by their sides and yes, a love of Harry Potter in their hearts. And I thought to myself – what am I doing here?
O.K., so I’ll admit it. The famous Harry Potter has cast his spell on me, though I was probably one of the last people to jump on the magical bandwagon. And you know what? I’m glad.
I only got to know J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard in the past few months, flying faster than a Nimbus 2000 through the first three books, finding myself in the middle of the fourth, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” I’m not much of a person for fads, so I didn’t want to believe I could get sucked into Harry’s Chamber of Secrets. But sure enough, I did.
Since I’ve entered the world of flying brooms, bubbling cauldrons and magical creatures, I’ve endured the occassional ribbing from my friends and co-workers about my love for Harry and his friends. On Friday night, I reached a defining moment in my time in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Yes, I attended Barnes & Noble’s Midnight Magic Party to celebrate the 12:01 a.m. release of the fifth book in the best-selling series, “Order of the Phoenix.”
But I began to doubt my commitment to Harry Potter as I waited in line after line with my 8-year-old sister – a line to get a wizard hat, a line to get a pair of Harry’s round spectacles, a line to get a Harry’s famous lightning bolt scar painted on our foreheads (yes, I got one too).
And I wondered just how powerful of a wizard Harry was – how he was able to enchant so many people, including myself. I saw two grown women with cash in their hands, ready to explode toward the checkout counter as they squawked about how they had waited for three years for that moment. I saw college students in costume, perhaps more giddy than their younger counterparts, as they did impersonations of their favorite characters. Then I found myself in an argument with my sister about the proper way to cast a levitation spell (“Wingardium Leviosa!” she told me.)
Perhaps I had been under a Confundus Charm, because it finally dawned on me. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a fan of the series or not; it doesn’t matter whether Harry Potter fans are on your “dork list” or not. What matters is that people of all ages are united in their admiration for a book.
I’ve witnessed fanaticism before (let’s just say my friends and I were big fans of a certain boy band while we were in high school – don’t worry, those days are long gone). I’ve known people to line up overnight for concert tickets or cover their walls in soap opera-star pinups.
But I’ve never known a piece of literature that could get people so excited about reading. As a big sister with some motherly tendencies, I want my younger sister to share the love of novels that I had when I was her age. So it thrills me to think of her and other children enveloping themselves in a fantasy story, expanding their imaginations.
If Harry Potter is what it takes to get kids, teenagers and even adults to turn off their televisions and computers and get into a book, then I say cheers to the best Quidditch player Hogwarts has seen in years. Keep casting your spells and enchanting us all.