August 17th, 2007 by jeorav
"Something wicked this way comes…" (A song from the Movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
As usual, I am late again. Late to post my tribute to the boy from Privett Drive. Last month, JK Rowling ended the saga by concluding the seventh installment. She did well (she became a billionaire in a matter of ten years and beyond and iam wondering how she and her family will spend the money) in terms of letting me feel sad yet relieved at the flip of the last page.
I was introduced to the boy with round glasses in between my readings of anne rice’s mayfair witches. I needed to focus on a lighter story after the chronology of Julien and Rowan Mayfair. A friend (with braces and a chinese boyfriend that time) told me of a boy studying witchcraft and wizardry. Wow! I am into research and practice of the craft and that ignited further curiosity on a certain harry. I hurriedly went to my favorite bookstore (National Bookstore Avenida — a bookstore with a big collection and few readers) to purchase. I got hold of a soft-bound but soon finished the first chapter before going to the counter. I decided to go for the hard bound and i saw the second book. Would two books hurt? on my allowance perhaps.
After four days, i went through Hogwarts and Diagon Alley. I finished the second book after two sleepless nights. This author is good! While she might be good in prose, i am able to imagine what a boy that age in awe with all the magical things around him. I was able to relate, but i was enjoying more! The twist at the end will always be the least guess one would imagine, the chapters would intertwine at the end. Books after books, curse after curse (Snape wears Prada!), and thousands of pesos after another, the story is finally on its last leg.
The movie last month is special. I was with the same friends (the girl with braces was still there minus her chinese) i have while i was starting with the first book. To make the experience on the next level, we watched it at I-Max (Mall of Asia). When they say the biggest screen in asia, they really mean it. With colored 3D goggles, plastic bags of popcorn and endless picture taking on the side, four hundred pesos is surely worth it! The movie ended promising to be better.
A week after, the last book was released. Again, i went to my favorite bookstore and as if the book on top of the pile has my name on it. Twenty minutes after, i was on a bus reading the first chapter. Twenty hours later, i smiled and put the book with the other volumes. I am sad because the story that was a universal favorite was put to finish, yet relieved because i was not disappointed on its closing.
After reading the book and before taking a sleep which was hours overdue, i thought i am somehow lucky. I took a minute and ponder, what does these books offer that made them so "special"? Was it its prose and its execution? Was it substantial subject matter? Was it magical imagination?
Harry POtter is a good thing that happened during my lifetime. Others might see him as a wizard, a bully, an outcast, a hero — i see him as me. He is a person who acknowledges the fact that he cannot beat the enemy by himself. He needs luck. He needs courage. He needs friends.
Cheers to you my imaginary wizard! If there is one spell i would cast to remember the boy who lived, my cheer would be: "PRIORI INCANTATEM!"
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