Alighting The Hogwarts Express

NOTE: I have written this essay around 2007/2008, sometime after the last Harry Potter book was published. I first posted this in my Facebook notes. After reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I knew that after 10 years, it was time to say goodbye even though I'd still go back in years to come. This was my way of saying thank you to the wonderful years I had spent reading, travelling, laughing, crying with the characters. I edited this a bit for whatever mistakes - grammar, spelling, punctuation - I may have made or to update it a little.

The book series recently celebrated 15 years since its first publication in the United States with a set of new covers by Kazu Kibuishi, replacing those of Mary GrandPre's.

This doesn't include the movies. It is also fitting that I will bring this up here in my Blogger account on the first day of the new year because of how the books became a part of my life.

Ten years have passed since the books were published yet nobody knew then it would be the phenomenon it is today.

I have been reading the Harry Potter books since I was about 16, a year or two after they were published and some months before they hit the shelves here in the Philippines. I had read an article in Newsweek Asia about why this book, this Harry Potter title is fast becoming a household name. Around that time, Charmed had just started its second season and movies about witchcraft were showing here and there. I told myself that I had to have a copy of the book. Fortunately, my aunt and godmother who is based in the US came home for, ironically, a wake for a grandfather. I told her that the books were not yet sold here and I wanted to read it to confirm why it was such a hit. Several weeks before Christmas, the owl found our home. I had to restrain myself; I asked for books about witches so I decided to read them first before I go on to Harry. Lo and behold! I could never put the book down. I had never read a book cover to cover then go back to the first page. So thus began my journey aboard the Hogwarts Express.

That first book brought me to a place where I can imagine myself learning magic with Harry, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and their classmates (it did bring me closer to United Kingdom, a place I really wanted to go to). It made me want to brew potions along with them. I was scared to finish it because that means my adventures with Harry and the rest will end but that first book by owl post has a note from my aunt/godmother written on the inside cover: Enjoy! 2 & 3 will be coming, too. And come they did, and not just 2 and 3. She gave me the adventure of a lifetime by giving me until the sixth book (I was employed the time the seventh was released so I had the joy of buying it). The rest took me to imagining that I could fight dragons and other beasts, be friends with elves, stay in an "invisible" house, that I could even fight Lord Voldemort. It also made me want to psychologise him because there was so much hate in him. That was answered in the sixth book.

For ten years, I had journeyed with Harry and his friends but now that journey has come to an end. Like other fans, I would have not wanted that journey to end but all things must come to a close. It's time to alight the Hogwarts Express, go through the barrier at Platform 9 3/4, and back to King's Cross, to the bustling Muggle world.

I have written to Miss Jo Rowling telling her that we should be the one to thanks her because if not for her, where would Harry be? Because of her, people who gave up leisure reading read again. Because of her, people believed in the power of love, friendship, and bravery. Because of her, people built bridges that enabled us to connect with each other no matter the distance.

For ten years, Harry made Jo Rowling wealthier than England's Queen but in those ten years, Harry created a special bond that united children and adults alike. With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows published, it was a great way for Harry Potter and his gang to bid us farewell.