The Boy Who Lived

(WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE LAST OF HARRY POTTER BOOKS)

Juz finished reading it...and AAAAAHHHH.... This glorious feeling of having been in a most satisfying, though admittedly rather long journey! Of growing up together with tales of The Boy Who Lived..of spending time creating a Hogwarts of my own with what imagination I have...Of letting loose my inner child, enraptured and gripped by words so captivating they are almost magical....

I've never been a fanatic fan of Harry Potter, but having said that, I hold the opinion that J.K Rowling is one of the finest storytellers alive... oh my...not many authors can weave and link plots as good as her, and if there's one thing I have to say about the Potter series, it's that despite being churned out over a long, long timespan, having complex narratives and so many characters, Rowling's books have formed an unbroken thread that HAVE COME FULL CIRCLE. Who would've thought the way Harry caught his first golden snitch could play a part! Who would've thought of the 7th Horcrux! So that's what happened with Snape! So that's why!

As I walked through Harry's story, question by question was answered, doubt by nagging doubt resolved, no plot twist was left dangling, and a few pleasant surprises were encountered as well...by the end of the book I am immensely satisfied, positively beaming..Aaaahhh.....

Well, I'd have to say that though I don't call myself Muggle and queue together with legions of Potter-philes to grab hold of the book, I do have my fond memories over it.. The first Potter book - The Philosopher's Stone - I read with a great deal of difficulty..My copy is battered with plenty of highlighted words and definitions from Longman's Dictionary scribbled on it. The 2nd and 3rd copy were no better...But I remember starting from the 3rd my English is good enough to read Harry Potter in one sitting and not be exhausted by the amount of English it contained =) Hey, I was an amateur that spoke Javanese-English back then! (My accent was so thick you could probably slice through it...)

The books are amongst some that spurred my imagination to grow to the state it is right now...And back then when I still needed to sleep a 9 p.m. , Harry Potter was the only guy that could keep me awake till the wee hours of the morning.. (For the sake of reading him in one sitting...)

Took me just one afternoon to savour the last book though..what a pity, since it's not as long a journey as I've wished....but there's also a sense of achievement and wonder, as I remember the sheer difficulty I had reading the first books, and the ease with which I finished the last...

Just discussed the book with a hostelmate also..quoting her, "Now I can live in peace since I now the ending of the Harry Potter series.."
Hm....Whatever it is, I hope Rowling will not be resting on her laurels...Though admittedly it's difficult to fill in Potter's shoes (The size of Hagrid's?)

Here's to The Boy Who Lived..May he lives on in the hearts and imagination of the children round the world!