After watching the final Harry Potter, I felt like I should go back and watch the first again. It has been years since I have seen it. I remember seeing it with my kids when they were probably far too young to remember it. We've had the DVD forever and the kids have watched it many times in the first couple of years we had it. But during all that time, I never really watched it with them. It was just on in the background while I puttered around cleaning or something. I'll guess that we picked up the DVD when the kids were 3, 4, and 5.
I was surprised that watching the original would make me think so much of my own kids and how they've grown. It felt very much like Harry, Hermione, and Ron were old childhood playmates of our own kids and we had a 2 hour film of them in our collection. I thought a bit about parents of the actors and how these films will be like the best family vacation films ever. I can imagine how much I would love a two hour film of my own children as they grew up... one a year for 8 years. Even if they were playing characters totally unlike themselves. There is just something about seeing the look in my children's eyes when they are happy and playing. Oh they were all so young.
They grow up too fast. Time slips by too fast. There will always be new stories to tell. But I do feel a real sense of mourning for the stories that end. All too soon my own children who are now 11, 12, and 13 will race through their final years of school. Hopefully there will be less danger in the world than poor Harry and friends had to face! But the story my children write will be more precious to me. I am afraid to start it. I don't want it to end.
