This was it, the moment Chelsea Gallaway had been waiting for since the beginning. But she knew with certainty what would happen; she was scared.
Gallaway, 20, sat in the Lethbridge movie theatre on opening night of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 on the edge of her seat as the beginning credits began to roll and the sound of familiar theme music started up gradually. The sounds of excited whispers and squeals echoed throughout the theatre.
Harry Potter has been a popular series since the first novel was released in 1997 and the first movie in 2001.
Now that the franchise is finally coming to an end with the release of the first half of last movie, fans are finally completing the journey with the trio Harry, Ron and Hermione.
How is it that fictional characters have such an impact on people when they are nothing but words in a book or on a script? It seems they are more than that.
For millions of people, Harry Potter has been there since the early days of their childhood. They’ve watched the young wizard and his two best friends grow from adolescent kids to mature young adults. This is something many can relate to.
“My cousin and I liked pretending that we were the characters Ginny and Hermione,” says Gallaway. “We had given everyone in our families names from the books and even a few of the people we knew at school, although we didn’t tell them we did that.”
“I sometimes wish it was real and at times it makes my life just so much simpler.”
She’s not the only one.
J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions, who will never be the same without their friend Harry James Potter. She has created a whole new world for a generation to escape to and with the last book and film released it is finally being concluded.
“It was hard to read at some points because I basically grew up knowing the characters, and I was scared for them, but I thought the book was incredible,” says Gallaway.
The books have created a world for the imagination; the films brought it to life.
Part one of the seventh and final film of the Harry Potter series is the beginning of the end for many.
For Potter-mania preparation in Lethbridge, The Galaxy Theatre initially opened three different theatres featuring the new flick to avoid selling out the first weekend. They organized fans into line-ups using masking tape marked around Park Place mall. Good thing they did.
The Harry Potter phenomenon in the last decade has certainly not diminished and if anything, is reaching its peak with the final story, told in two parts on screen. The number of people going to see the movie are staggering. In its initial weekend, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part one brought in an astounding $125.1 million in North America, totaling $330 million world-wide, surpassing all previous Potter films. Deathly Hallows Part 1 rode up the box office charts landing at No. 6 on the list of all-time best weekend debuts, just behind Iron Man 2 which was released earlier this year. The Harry Potter film franchise is the highest-grossing series of all time, which came as no surprise considering the numbers for the seventh and final film.
The film has remained No. 1 for the second weekend in a row.
On the day of the release, Facebook statuses erupted with the excitement of seeing the newest movie.
Instead of finishing her homework, Lethbridge College student Cassie Olson, 19, spent the week prior to the movie release re-reading the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
There was no doubt she was a fan considering the perfect and pristine condition of all seven collector’s edition books laying neatly stacked on the shelf behind her.
“I read all seven books in two months. I would come home from work and go into my room and read them for hours at a time I couldn’t put them down,” says Olson.
Olson and Gallaway both went to see the movie the opening weekend, ready for the end of the Harry Potter adventure they had been a part of for so long.
Harry Potter isn’t just taking over in Lethbridge. University of Calgary students had an entire week dedicated to the Potter succession.
Wizard Week took place on the U of C campus prior to the movie release to get students and fans enthused about the film.
The week consisted of different activities, one of which included a day of playing Muggle Quidditch, the wizarding sport featured in the novels and movie. The rules are closely based on the fictional sport written in the Harry Potter books–minus the flying, of course.
U of C students aren’t the first to play this “sport” however.
In a park in New York City this past month, more than 60 different teams from colleges and universities around the United States, including Yale and Harvard, played at the fourth annual Qudditch world cup. This is only a small portion in comparison to the 400 Muggle Quidditch teams found around the world.
Many post secondary institutions are still trying to have the sport recognized in the National Collegiate Athletic Association but have been unsuccessful so far.
University of Calgary student and Muggle Quidditch player Paul Hamnett told media this was a good time to start a team in Calgary during Wizard Week.
Olson and Gallaway said they would both want to get involved in playing if the sport was available here in Lethbridge.
Whether it’s in Lethbridge, New York City or even on Privet Drive, Harry Potter has come to life in the eyes of many and is not expected to cease anytime soon.
One quote in the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, concludes the way fans will remember Harry forever in their world and in his.
“It was his first real home, the place that meant he was special. It meant everything to him even after he left.”
To some, Harry Potter is real and will forever live in the minds and imaginations of generations of today and generations to come.
“He was the same age as me at the time so I felt I could really relate to him, and I grew up with him over the years. It was like he was my friend,” says Olson.