Why We Can Stop Waiting for Book 8
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Why We Can Stop Waiting for Book 8

Hogwarts is back to welcome us home, but the fandom never left.

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Why We Can Stop Waiting for Book 8
Me and Harry and the Potters at the Black Cat this past April

I remember back in July 2007 when the summer of Harry Potter took place. Pottercast had their summer tour. Wizard Rock bands were touring and putting out new music constantly. iTunes had numerous podcasts on Harry Potter which had everything from discussing the fandom to "wrock" to a chapter-by-chapter literary analysis of the books. Fan fiction was being pumped out constantly. Everyone was trying to guess the ending. After Dumbledore’s death, everyone was trying to figure out which of our beloved characters we would have to say goodbye to.

Finally on July 21, 2007 Deathly Hallows was released. This was back when Border’s was still around (I miss Borders so much) and they had a wicked midnight release party. Everyone has a sticker saying if they thought Snape was friend or foe in the Great Snape Debate (I was convinced he was a foe). Throughout the night random debates would break out among fans. Mom and I waited in a line for almost 2 hours to get our book. I fell asleep reading between 5-6 am and then finished around 2 on the morning of July 22.

The next few weeks was fall-out. We had to come to terms with character deaths, with how it ended, the idea that it had ended, and maybe the idea that it was all over.

Back then, those words made me so angry. It could never be over. We the fandom were still producing music and podcasts and fan art and fan fiction and having conventions. We still had two, later three, movies to be made.

By the time the last movie came out I was no longer worried about the fandom dying. I knew many may have left it and it was not an intense anymore but it would always be around. Jo herself gave us a promise that the magic would always exist since “…by book or by movie Hogwarts would always be there to welcome you home,” which I love and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. But as much as I love Harry Potter, it would have never have been a wonderful of an experience without the fandom.

Growing up I did not exactly have a lot of friends and the fandom was a makeshift one. I had a host of nerdy older adults who made it through my age. I had a ton of people telling me it was okay to be a nerd, it was okay to be passionate about something, it was okay to be an intellectual human being and care about something in the world bigger than yourself. It did not have to be forced down my throat, rather it came from people just living their lives and when you’re a 10-year-old which feels like there is something fundamentally flawed with who you are as a person that means everything. If it was not for the HP fandom existing I would not be the person I am today.

What I do not want anyone to get wrong is that I love the books. My dorm room is HP themed, I am writing this wearing an HP shirt with a Slytherin backpack next to me. But as Cursed Child comes out I want people to know that we are not rediscovering the magic and I find it offensive that Warner Bros keeps insisting we are. The fandom has carried on the magic through the HP alliance, wrock music, podcast, conventions, quidditch, the Hogwarts Running club and most of these groups work with some sort of charity to make the world better. Most importantly it is not Book 8. The fandom took that title a long time ago. So yes like everyone else I am excited for all the new developments in the story I love so much, but we the fans are Book 8.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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