I Graduated from Hogwarts but I Don't Want to Go

by Joan Baril

If it had not been for Ruth, I would never have  jumped on board the Hogwarts' Express.
It was 1997 and the members of the No Stress Book Club were discussing our recent reading. Ruth, who had just returned from a Florida vacation said, "I hate to admit it but I really enjoyed a children's book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Best beach reading ever."

I did a mental head slap.  How could a grown woman admit to reading a children book? So embarrassing. I did not know which way to look.  A stunned silence ensued before someone quickly changed the subject.  But that week my granddaughters enthused about the book and I asked to borrow it.

Nobody warned me.  No one told me that when you open the cover of the first Potter book, a magic hand appears, takes a firm grip on your imagination and pulls you in. You will never be the same. Great writing, amazing characters, crackling plot, vivid settings, pathos, humour, fun and, above all, the overwhelming originality of an alternative world have you sitting up reading on into the night.

Luna Lovegood  played by Evanna Lynch

I was tremendously lucky to have climbed aboard at the beginning and began the wild ride through seven books and eight movies.  Now, the end.