Fear not – this isn’t a rant about over-commercialism, but more of concern that I don’t think many have considered!

Fast-forward, if you will, to July 18th, 2005…

Most of us genuine HP obsessives will probably have just finished reading Book 6 in the Harry Potter series. We’ll be at that moment happy, relieved, and temporarily sated.

And then it will hit us. We are now waiting for the end.

I wanted to point out in this editorial quite how painful this next wait will be. Sure, in the mean time Goblet of Fire will be released on DVD, and there’ll be the release of Order of The Phoenix at the cinema too probably. But none of these will really help us, because we’ll be waiting for the climax to the series, the explanation of explanations. If Harry or The Big V will triumph, what will happen to all of our characters we love? How will the characters cope with the latest deaths (though they have yet to happen as things stand, but will without a doubt take place in Book 6)? How much more can Harry take? Can Harry save Wizard-kind?

And this is where it’s going to get painful. We’re in for a long wait. It makes sense to leave us at the end of Book 6 not being able to guess the contents of Book 7. I think we’ll have answers to a lot of things, but not any hint about whether or not Harry can defeat Voldemort in the final showdown because to give us a hint by showing us Harry is becoming more powerful than Voldemort would be for us to be able to draw conclusions, and I don’t think this will happen.

I think the past will be cleared up – most people have come to the conclusion that the opening chapter, which has been in the making for 13 years, is a full account of Harry’s parents’ demise (apologies if you don’t agree with me, but I’m really sure that this is the case!). I think we’ll find out a lot more about Harry’s family tree, see what various people did for a living, what Harry looking like his father but with his mother’s eyes actually means, and we’ll be sure about what magic it was that protected him.

Whatever Book 6 holds, it’s important to realise that it’s the beginning of the end. As JKR herself says “…I doubt I’ll be doing any sustained writing on HP7 for many months yet” and although I cannot for the life of me find the quote, I definitely have read something from JKR herself which states she loves the books so much she’s bound to be a long while completing Book 7, because to complete book 7 will mean saying goodbye to the series, which will be hard for her to do. I think that’s totally understandable myself, so I don’t think “Harry Potter And The Insert Final Book Title Here” will be in our greedy hands for a long time yet!

So please don’t be wishing the time away until HBP comes out, because after that you’re in for the longest wait of all.

5/22/05

Posted by: Rachael