I feel the need this morning to write down a few thoughts about last night.  I am in Orlando, Florida at LeakyCon, the Harry Potter Conference put on by The-Leaky-Cauldron.org.  Last night was a very emotional night, and if I don’t write this right now, I won’t do it at all.  A full review of the Con and movie will be coming next week.

Last night I saw Deathly Hallows, Part II.  The movie was absolutely amazing, beyond my wildest expectations.  I know that so many Potter fans have been thinking about this day, the day after it is all over.  The day there is no more Potter.

I wasn’t thinking about it until recently.  I had a new Transformers movie to focus on, many toys to buy, and that franchise’s movie future to contemplate.  There are four Fandoms that I feel are a part of who I am, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Marvel Comics, and most especially, Transformers.  TF came first, from the time I was eight years old, I have been a fan.  Strangely as I left the theater last night, I found myself comparing seeing DH2 in a theater full of fans to the first time I saw Transformers at Botcon in 2007.  I must give that experience the edge.  After all, it’s not every day a 31 year old gets back the hero he looked up to when he was eight years old, and feels like he did when all that mattered was the school bell ringing, so he could go home and watch Transformers (among other things).  So, while I give that experience the edge the finality of DH2, made it something all together different.

I have something I’d like to say to J.K. Rowling.  If by some chance (there’s no chance actually) you read this, I hope you understand the spirit in which it in intended.  I’ve only been a real Potter fan since summer of 2007 when I saw Order of the Phoenix.  I admit to being a movie first person, but had to read the rest of the books then.  By read, I listened to the audio books with my dad.  We spent an awful lot of time together, especially in the summer.  He was a bilateral amputee (lost both his legs) and he and I spent most of the summer at home since we both had to work, while my mother, brother and sister were on Cape Cod.  We listened to all the books together, but I digress.

I can’t imagine what it is like for someone who has been there since the beginning to have it all end.  See, I feel a bit betrayed.  I feel like JKR was a drug dealer, and having given us a taste so long ago, had us knocking over liquor stores to get more for so long, and then just decided to stop providing.  I can’t begin to comprehend what it is like to do what she did.  I’m working on a novel and its utter crap, not to mention 1% (maybe) as complicated as the story of Harry Potter.  So I do understand why she isn’t going to write Albus Severus Potter and the Mystic Kettle of Nackledirk and it’s six sequels.  I just feel like we deserve it.  I feel like we’ve earned it.  I mean, there must be some writer somewhere in the word that could de her vision justice who she could collaborate with and leave them the bulk of the work.  I can’t imagine any writer turning her down.  I guess what’s really bothering me is that it doesn’t have to be the end.  She just decided it was.  And, while I admit, she is the only person with the power to do it.  I really do wonder if it isn’t a little selfish.  (Sorry, Jo.  I’m clearly an ungrateful jerk, but that’s how I feel.)

However, I didn’t really feel that this was the end until a couple of weeks ago, and the reason had nothing to do with Jo.  As soon as I saw Alex Carpenter’s Tweet asking us to read about the future of The Remus Lupins, I, as I’m sure many did, knew what was coming.

My first Wizard Rock show was in Boston in 2008.  It was just a month or so after my dad died.  The Mudbloods, The Remus Lupins, Draco and the Malfoys (I think, my memory fails me), JFF, and Whompy were all playing that night between Potter Cast segments.

I’ve never told anyone this, and lord knows, I don’t know why I am now, but I really wasn’t doing so well after I lost my dad.  I think in a lot of ways, I was searching for something to fill a void, at least as much as it could be filled.  That night I found it in Wizard Rock.

So, you can imagine, the announcement that The Remus Lupins were, to borrow a phrase from Dumbledore, boarding the train and going…on…was kind of a big deal to me.  My first thought was, first The Mudbloods, now the Lupins…who’s next?

I thought of this a lot last night, as I sat watching epic performances by MC Kreacher, The House of Black, Lauren Fairweather, JFF, and of course, Ministry of Magic.  I have been waiting so long to see MoM live.  The acoustic set at LC2009 was awesome, but nothing like last night.  (Though I will admit to mild disappointment that they didn’t invite Evanna up on stage and sing Lovegood, but we can’t have everything.)

Then came the final performance of The Remus Lupins.  I can’t even describe the energy in the room, my mixed emotions that this was it.  As 2000 people chanted in unison, “one more song”, “one more song”, and a teary eyed Alex Carpenter plgged back in his guitar, I couldn’t help but think that five or ten years from now, new Potter fans will be coming to Cons for the first time, and probably listening to The Remus Lupins on their iPods and talking about how amazing it must have been to see them in concert, those of us who were there last night can say.  “Yeah it was.  I saw there last show.”  And when they excitedly ask, “Wow, what was it like?”  We can just smile and say.  “Sorry.  Not even Jo would have words for it.  You just had to be there.”

Long live Harry Potter!

Long live JK Rowliing!

Long live Wizard Rock!

And long live The Remus Lupins, if only in our hearts and minds!

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows