Before each book came out, I'd read the predecessors. Again. (By the time Deathly Hallows came out, I'd read Philosopher's Stone at least seven times.)
I saw all the movies in the theater (at least one at a midnight showing), and watch them on cable (even the dorky ones) whenever I notice they're on. ABC Family's PotterTuesday is a most excellent way to start my week.
I've dressed up as Molly Weasley for Halloween*.
We call my sons the Weasley Twins.
I have sermonated on the subject. (The Five Smooth Stones of Harry Potter)
Hopefully that's cause enough for those not interested in Harry Potter to clear the room. Because there's some serious geekitude ahead.
And spoilers.
The aforementioned Weasleys and I were watching the last movie this weekend and I was thinking aloud about the fact that when Bellatrix and Voldemort die, their bodies explode into itty bits. This is remarkable because generally in the Potterverse, killing curses and whatnot leave a remarkably intact corpse.
Concepts are made physical in Rowling's world. Despair is personified by dementors, ghoulish things that float around, sucking the joy out of the world. (No worries--you can protect yourself with patronuses, and heal the damage with a good chunk of chocolate.)
Evil, we are told, can split your soul-especially something as bad as killing another person. In Voldemort's case, he chose to take these splittings and embed them in objects--a horrible partitioning called horcruxes.
Last time I checked, we do not live in the Potterverse.
And yet.
Who hasn't felt despair as a physical presence? Something that seems to make life colder and utterly without hope?
And our world is full of a thousand kinds of evil--from choosing not to care about another, to deliberately destroying things and people. Surely this must erode our souls. I think of the PTSD of troops, called to do horrible things and witness still more.
Oof.
Sometimes it seems a miracle that people are as intact as they are.
Thank goodness that there is healing in this world.
And experts and loved ones willing to help.
And that our world still contains hope.
And chocolate.
*Spouse went to that Halloween party as Undead James Potter.
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