I recently went with a friend to see Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, the latest addition to the magical world of Harry Potter, further known as the Wizarding World, created by the genius who is J.K. Rowling. I went into it with a mix of excitement and trepidation - what if it wasn’t all that I had hoped it would be? I remember feeling that way about the original Potter movie series, after the books had come out. The books are always better than the movies, no matter which series you’re talking about. There are a lot of movie series that do their original material tremendous justice, but I will always love a book more than a movie. This time around, with Fantastic Beasts, we didn’t have a book to fall in love with first and to play out in our minds before seeing the movie. What we did have, however, was Jo, as fans affectionately refer to Rowling as. Rowling wrote the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and was on hand for the filming, so as a fan, I knew it would be great and true to the Wizarding World.

Sitting there and watching this movie felt like going home. The setting wasn’t 1990’s Hogwarts, but 1920’s New York. The spells were familiar and the vernacular was the same. There were callbacks to the original series, especially if you paid close attention. New fan theories popped up almost immediately after the first people saw it on opening night. The easter eggs all over had me jumping in my seat and wishing that I had re-read the series before I watched this new movie.

I grew up with Harry, just like the rest of my classmates from sixth grade on. I was 11 when the first books came out. Obviously I aged a bit faster due to the time it took to write, edit, and publish all seven books. The thought of someone at 17 doing the things he did (yes I know it’s just a book) was unfathomable to me, in my world. I wish the wizarding world really did exist. He taught us lessons about friendship, loyalty, bravery and doing the right thing no matter what it took. Those are as good of lessons as any we will ever learn and they certainly showed through in Fantastic Beasts with the new set of characters.

When I read the final Potter book and watched the final movie, I thought that a chapter of my life had closed. Thankfully, it’s become legend and I don’t think I’ll ever truly be done with the Wizarding World. It’s continued on with more short stories and the implementation of Pottermore. Yes, I joined and for those of you asking, I’m in Ravenclaw and my wand is maple wood with a Phoenix feather core and is 12 ¾" in length. Also, my Patronus is a hummingbird. A whole new generation of children are discovering the series now. Recently, I nabbed all of my books from my parents when I visited for Thanksgiving and my roommate is reading the first book with her daughter each night. Now, with the first of FIVE Fantastic Beasts movies, I can’t wait to see what’s next. Thank you J.K. Rowling for creating a whole world and bringing such *magic* into our lives.