Joey Bear and the Pretty Awesome Trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I am a nerd. Unrefined and unapologetic. I've been this way for a long time—I would daresay since Jurassic Park. One of these days, I'll tell you all about my history in nerding out. Until then, you'll just have to settle for my Harry Potter history.

Sometime during the summer of 2004, I was out to lunch with my girlfriend at the time. We were on Wendover, so I figure we were at the Steak N Shake. We get a call from her mom, who's at the theater (all of five minutes away) with her little brother, in line to get tickets to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm not one to turn down anything free, let alone a movie, so we go meet up with them. This is the first time I meet Harry Potter. He seemed all right, and so did his friends, but I couldn't get behind the design of the werewolf, or a couple of super-cheesy moments on that crazy tree (yes, I know it's called the Whomping Willow). And that was that.

By the next year, I became one of those nose-in-the-air haters. To me, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars did it first and did it better. Who the hell was this J.K. Rowling, with her unoriginal stories and stereotypical characters? Pretentious doesn't cover it. And I managed to carry this attitude with me until the release of book six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Curiosity overcame me and I discovered the big moment. More than anything, this intrigued me. Dumbledore filled the role of old, wise mentor, and it's hard to argue against those characters being fascinating. My mind was made: I would read the books.

Read them I did. Between frying french fries and mozzarella sticks, grilling burgers and making BLTs at Ridgewood Swim & Tennis, my head was buried in one of the books. The first four fell in four straight days. Five and six took a bit longer, but it was clear: with each new page, I ate my words just a little bit more. By the time I finished, I couldn't have felt like a bigger ass. Yes, the stories have a similar feel, but so does nearly every epic adventure. Isn't there some saying that there's only seven original stories in the world? J.K. Rowling put her stamp on one of those, and I had been a little punk about it. I remember going to see Goblet of Fire that summer with all the friends I just graduated with. I still won't forgive Mike Newell's inability to properly capture the tone of the graveyard scene, or the frantic pace of the entire movie. Then, two summers later, we all went and saw Order of the Phoenix (which I will gladly argue as the second best in the series, behind Prisoner of Azkaban). I don't remember if it was high school friends, Ridgewood friends, or a mix of both. Ten days later, I was at Barnes & Noble at Friendly to get book seven at midnight. I had work in the morning, but I read until 5 a.m. I felt Dobby more than Fred, pained at Lupin and Tonks, but most of all, I was astonished at Severus Snape.

Two years prior to Deathly Hallows, I wrote a paper about Anakin Skywalker as this generations great tragic hero. I couldn't have been more wrong. J.K. Rowling crafted one of the most heart-breaking characters I'd read in popular or literary fiction. That simple, but not at all. This sort of forethought (no, I don't think she had it all planned out when she started. But definitely by book three) and patience was astounding. And now, I get to watch it all unfold on the big screen.

The integrity of both the books and the movies can be called into question. Readers literally see J.K. Rowling improving and maturing as a writer throughout the series. The movies are touch and go, depending on director (which is pretty accurate, since the screenwriter has been the same on all but one of them). These are the sort of books that your literary stiffs will balk at. But when they hold up a Pride and Prejudice, I will gladly respond with any one of seven books. The hell with Mr. Darcy. I can't connect with Elizabeth. But I cried for Sirius. I wanted to lash out at Umbridge. These were characters that I met, ate with in the Great Hall, and studied with in the common room. And it's sad to see that the end is so close.