For Harry Potter Fans—The End of an Era

It’s the end of an era, Harry Potter fans say.

The parking lot was full Thursday night as fans showed up at the theater for the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, the movie based on the last of the beloved series of books.

“It’s our childhood ending,” said Andrew Clemens as he waited in line for concessions before the midnight showing. Clemens, who is 23, said he remembers reading the books as an eighth-grader.

“As they grew up in the book, we grew up with them,” said Clemens’ friend Brian Seaton.

Devin Sweeney, who graduated from this year also said the series’ conclusion marks the end of childhood.

She said the movie was “amazingly awesome,” but bittersweet. Sweeney won tickets through a local radio station to see the show a day early, on Wednesday night.

She credits the books, which she started reading as a sixth-grader, with turning her into an avid reader.

Before she started reading Harry Potter books, she struggled in reading at school. She hadn’t ever read a book on her own, she said, but one evening the power went out in her house and so she started reading her brother’s copy of the third book in the series due to a lack of entertainment options.

“After that, I was hooked,” she said. “It was the thing that put my foot in the door to reading.”

By high school, she was taking Advanced Placement English.

“If it wasn’t for Harry Potter, I wouldn’t have been able to do that, or go as far in life as I hope to go,” she said.

Sweeney said she’s sad about the end of the series, but that there are lots of other opportunities for fans to keep Harry Potter alive such as the HP Alliance, a group of fans who support social justice causes.

“I know I’m going to cry, but there’s so much more,” she said. “Whether you come back by book or by movie, Hogwarts is there for you.”