To My Dear Old Friends Harry, Ron, and Hermione: Saying Goodbye to Potter

I'm going to miss you so. You three, Fred, George, Ginny, Mr. & Mrs. Weasley, the rest of the Weasleys, Neville, Luna, Dobby, Dumbledore, Snape, Lupin, Tonks, Sirius, even Draco and his family, and everyone else I'm forgetting... So many of you. You've all been such a great part of my life, my friends, for 10 years, and now the journey is over.

My heart is pounding in my chest as I write this, tears falling down my face. It's strange to realize after 10 years that you've become emotionally attached to a set of books and their characters, but I feel like a little kid who is, without realizing it, choosing on this exact day to stop playing with toys and to grow up. I'm 28, but this feeling I have, having finished the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is like a rite of passage into adulthood and it's strange and scary and unknown.

What will my world be, how will it be different, now that I know the whole story, now that your journey is complete? I don't know, probably not much different. They are just books after all... Just books... No. Dreams on paper. That's more like it.

But now, I know the whole story and it changes everything, puts it into perspective. Makes jokes a little more treasured, interaction a little more understood, actions a little more important and relevant, forgiveness a necessary thing. I'm completely entranced, enthralled, bitter, happy, sad and confused by the whole thing and I loved every minute of it, all 10 years' worth.

This is the end, no more books to be written, but Harry, Ron, Hermione, my friends... Your story will live on forever. I am sure of it. Good luck to those of you who lived and bye for now.

P.S. Thank you, JK Rowling, for sharing your dreams and visions with the world. I wish you many years of success and happiness.