Melanie sent me this Stephen King article that sums up how many of us are feeling as July 21 draws near. Non-Harry Potheads have a difficult time understanding why the release of a book can trigger such deep emotions. After all, they are just fictional characters. But these are the same emotions that drew us into the series, caused us to shed tears when Dumbledore died, or cheered when the Weasley twins made their great escape from Hogwarts. After experiencing seven years of classes and growing up with these kids, how could we not feel sad about saying goodbye?

Stephen King writes, “And I’m a grown-up, for God’s sake — a damn Muggle! Think how it must be for all the kids who were 8 when Harry debuted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, with its cartoon jacket and modest (500 copies) first edition. Those kids are now 18, and when they close the final book, they will be in some measure closing the book on their own childhoods — magic summers spent in the porch swing, or reading under the covers at camp with flashlights in hand, or listening to Jim Dale’s recordings on long drives to see Grandma in Cincinnati or Uncle Bob in Wichita.”

My cousin, Traci, mentioned how the ending of this series is like the end of her childhood. And, going back to what King wrote, the kids who were 8 years old when the series began are in their teens now! They were elementary school students when they first met Harry and the gang, and now they’re going off to college. For me, the equivalent would be if the Babysitter’s Club had grown up and moved on while I was still reading the series (the series began in 1986 and ended around 2000–way after I had outgrew the series, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t read the later books if I came upon them…).

I didn’t pick up my first Harry Potter book until 2000, and by then, I was several books behind. I was in my first “real” job out of college, and one of my co-workers had bought “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” out of curiosity, just to see what this Harry craze was all about. After she finished it, I borrowed it and enjoyed it. At the time, I had made a new friend who had just moved to the Bay Area from Toronto for med school. He was a friend of a friend and didn’t know anyone, so I offered to pick him up from the airport and show him around. He found out I was starting the Harry Potter series and offered to loan me his books so I could continue reading. Later that year for Christmas, I received in the mail the box set of the first four books (all that was published at the time) with a note thanking me for being his “first American friend.”

And as I went through the series, I became even more hooked. The series was right up my alley. Among my favorite childhood books was “The Girl with the Silver Eyes” by Willo Davis Roberts. The book is about a girl (and other kids) with silver eyes, which meant they had telekinetic and could read one another’s minds. While some parents at church would have made claims for demon possession and sorcery, I let my imagination run wild (which is part of the purpose of books, right?) and wished I, too, had silver eyes so that I could float objects around the room.

So the opportunity to return to an alternate world that defied any sort of reality and to have a reason to return to my imaginative childhood was welcomed. After a day of sitting in front of a computer or commuting in a car, I could turn in my dress slacks for a Hogwarts robe and imagine myself climbing through a portrait hole, eating dinner in the Great Hall while storm clouds blew overhead, or riding a Hippogriff. I also could relive my childhood and adolescence by growing up (again) with all the Hogwarts kids and wondering who I would be friends with, who I’d most relate to, and what classes in which I’d excel or fail.

But the time has come where I can only reread the books, but will no longer be growing and developing with the gang. We won’t be experiencing new adventures together, and there will only be two more movie openings that I can count down to with my fellow Harry Potheads. Over the most recent years, my Harry Pothead-ness reached a new peak, starting when Melanie, Abby, and I collaborated and created our Hogwarts costumes for our church’s Halloween event a few years back. Since then, we’ve exchanged many e-mails, phone calls, and discussions about the series, lined up for movies, and played Scene-It. But will the excitement continue even after the last movie is released? With nothing new to look forward to, what will happen?

There will be other books and series, but I suspect it will be awhile before something like this comes around again. Single books will allow us to get attached to characters and alternate worlds, but a series that spans years and brings people closer together may be harder to find. With that, I get excited every time I spot the “HP7!!” that is scrawled in lime green highlighter on my calendar. But I also feel like putting it off as long as I can because I know that at the end of the book, Harry will not be going back to the Dursleys’ home for summer break before another year at Hogwarts. It truly will be a sad farewell.