I’ve loved the Harry Potter series and J.K. Rowling for over 10 years, but now, for the first time, I feel disappointed with her – and it hurts.
I’ve been a fan of the series since 2002, when I watched “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” on the big screen.
When the final book was released in 2007, I was just out of college and dragged my friends to the midnight release. Standing in line, I relished the magic of being around 200 other people who were as excited as I was.
It took about two days for me to finish “Deathly Hallows,” and I found myself in tears. Not just because of the characters we lost, but because it was over.
Never again would I experience that sense of community, the batting theories back and forth, because the case was closed. Mysteries solved.
Or so I thought.
I have to admit that the idea of a play versus another novel was not what I had wanted. Plays, after all, are meant to be performed, not read. Not only that, but the fans would not be experiencing the story at the same time. Instead, only small groups of people would get to see the play first.
Initially, there were no plans to release a script version of “Cursed Child,” but sometime last year that changed. So I pre-ordered the book online, but in my impatience, I also went out and purchased a copy.
I did not need to rush, though. The play was not as I expected – and not in a good way.
SPOILER ALERT - STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK YET.
It was heartbreaking to read characters acting in ways I would never have expected, and the plot progresses in ways that just make no sense if you know the books.
You don’t make a trolley cart lady on the Hogwarts Express into a clone of a villain from “The Terminator” movies.
You don’t turn a beloved character into a Death Eater, even if it’s in some alternate universe. You don’t make one of the best-written female characters of all time into a bitter shrew because she doesn’t end up with her best friend.
You don’t take your big bad villain, Lord Voldemort, who has been repeatedly described as being incapable of love and even friendship, and give him a secret child in a timeline that doesn’t add up with the events of the last novel.
I’m sorry, J.K. Rowling, but none of this makes any sense.
I know she doesn’t owe her fans any more than the gifts she’s already given us, but that won’t stop me from feeling a profound sadness that this is the final time we will get to read about Harry and this is what we are left with. Yes, we are living in a world with much larger problems. But this was supposed to be a rare moment of joy in our crazy world.
Over the years, I’ve had childish fantasies about taking a Time-Turner back to a period before I’d read the first Harry Potter book, just for the pleasure of discovering them all again.
At this point, I’m finished with Time-Turners. They should’ve stayed smashed in the Department of Mysteries.
