Losing the love for Harry Potter

I must confess that I am no longer in love with Harry Potter. I was eleven when I read my first Harry Potter book. It wasn't a big phenomenon back then. Few people in India even knew that the series existed. I chanced upon the book in cousin's house and started reading it. And then I fell in love with it. As simple as that. I was madly in love with the nook even before I had finished the first chapter.

Well that began my obsession with the series. I drank the second book when it came out. By then the books had become famous and more kids and secretly their parents as well were reading the awesome adventure of a boy called Harry Potter. But I still wasn't supremely crazy about the series. And then Sirius Black happened in the third book. He was my first real love. I loved him more than Heathcliff, more than Laurie from Little Women and more than (dare I say it?) Mr Darcy. I could not go anywhere without the with at least one of the books tucked under my arms. I cried when Cedric Diggory died and fell even more in love with Sirius when I read that he lived on rats to be close to Harry. By then the series had become a major phenomenon and it seemed all that people talked about was Harry Potter and with that came the inevitable backlash. All of a sudden it was uncool to love the series... but I continued to love it.

Sitting with my friends (who were also at this point HP fans), I would sit and analyze every sentence and every word in the series. I stood in line at three in morning to get the copies of the last three books and I have always attended the first show of every HP movie. So basically one can say that HP was a major part of my life for more than half my life. It became part of my identity. People went as far as associating me with the series.

But this weird thing happened - I could no longer talk about the books. I hated the ending of the last book (come on how cheesy is Albus Severus Potter????? JK totally sold out on that one) and hated even more the fact the series had become predictable. And slowly surely I couldn't talk about Harry.

Is it because I grew up? Or is it because I found other things to love... I shall never know. Maybe it is a combination of the two. Today I would still go to the Harry Potter movie premier but I highly doubt if I would shell out good money to buy another tiny supplementary books (the ones that JK always seems to be writing for charities for exorbitant prices)just because I can't wait to read it. In fact I know for a fact where ever I go next I would probably not even mention the books. I will always love them but I don't think I can ever read them again with the same emotions and feeling as before. Maybe that is ok. Maybe it simply means that a part of my childhood is irretrievably gone and there is no way to bring them back. With Harry, my childhood came to an end. Time to say goodbye to Ron, Hermione, Harry and the whole gang at Hogwarts. I feel like I am standing in the King Cross station and the train is pulling away but I am not running to catch it... I am merely waving goodbye... It is time... Sirius Black alone gets to stay by my side. What can I say? I still love the man.