Community Corner

Last Installment of "Harry Potter" Movie Series "Like Graduating" for Fans (VIDEO)

Bellevue Patch talked to a few of the hundreds of fans who flocked to the midnight and early morning showings of the last of the Harry Potter movie series "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."

The last of the Harry Potter movie series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," debuted nationwide early this morning and hundreds of fans flocked to midnight and early morning screenings at Lincoln Square Cinemas in downtown Bellevue and Regal Crossroads Stadium 8.

The books, which were published in 1997 to 2007, are about an orphan named Harry Potter who discovers that he is a wizard when he gets an acceptance to a private school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The seven book series, and eight-movie series, follows Harry and his friends as they grow up, and Harry learns about his destiny to face the wizard who killed his parents, Lord Voldemort.

Grant Nash, 18, who went to Regal Crossroads Stadium 8 with his friends, including Jeeves Dusara, 17, and Kevin Lind, 18, said that he was introduced to the books when his dad brought the first book home when he was in grade school.

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"My mom wanted to force me to read," he said. But the JK Rowling series was so compelling, she didn't have to force him to read all the books.

Daniel Nguyen and Lauren Richards, students at the University of Washington, went to Lincoln Square Cinemas dressed in glasses and with Harry Potter's distinctive forehead scar, to join other fans, many of whom dressed for the occasion.

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Nguyen, 19, said he has been dressing up to the movies since he was 13, when he broke off a tree branch to make a "wand."

"Real wizards make their own wands," he said.

"It's kind of sad, because the Harry Potter saga is ending, but at the same time, I'm just excited to watch the movie," Richards said.

Nash and his friends, who recently graduated from high school in Snohomish, prepared for the screening at Crossroads, with Hogwarts-style ties, and T-shirts proclaiming their membership in the "Cho Chang Club," named after Harry Potter's first girlfriend.

Nash said that the last movie would be the best one of the series, but reaching the end is bittersweet.

"It's the end, it's over, it's like graduating high school," Nash said.

Going through Potter-withdrawal?


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