Returning to my life as a muggle

Well, we're just about six hours away from the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last installment in J.K. Rowling's brilliant series about a boy who not only finds out he's a wizard, but that he's a wizard that must save the world. My family has been reading the books together for nearly a decade, since we took a long car trip together and Dad starting reading aloud to shut us up. And shut us up he did, I remember being skeptical at first but mesmerized by the first scene in which Dumbledore, now my favorite character, snuffed the streetlights of Privet Drive with magic.

It does not escape me how amazing it is to be a part of a literary event on such a large, worldwide scale. I cannot imagine an analogue at any other time in the past (was Charles Dickens' next book as anticipated as this?) Today marks the end of something big for so many around the world. It's not a British thing anymore, not is it only limited to the English-speaking world. It's not even a kid thing anymore, not only because the kids that started reading about Harry's adventures 10 years ago have grown up, but because there are adults around the world itching to hear the end of the story as well.

I have spent the last couple of months re-reading each of the first six books, and I am still amazed at how clearly J.K. Rowling can see the magical universe she invented. She has shared her imagination and vision in such a tangible way that grief counselors are expecting a surplus of calls in the coming days seeking comfort after the death of at least two characters. Rowling herself has said she has been experiencing bereavement since penning the last lines of her 17-year writing project. As someone still mourning the death of Dumbledore, but understanding the literary purpose of his death, I will try my best not to hate Rowling's guts, as she said we might.

Before I leave for the bookstore tonight, I plan to finish "What Will Happen in Book 7?" a collection of theories and speculations on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I feel I've been thinking and speculating myself for so long that I can hardly believe all Rowling's secrets are about to be revealed. The authors of "What Will Happen?", contributors to mugglenet.com, have been as outspoken as Rowling herself about the spoilers already popping up. As my family reads together aloud and will not be able to finish in one night, I hope the speedy readers of the world will keep the secrets to themselves.

As I join readers all over the world in frenzied anticipation, I can scarcely believe, though I am in wonder of, how much magic can be created by words on a page.