The Harry Potter Generation

Every time I login to my Facebook account, I discover my homepage flooded with Harry Potter related posts and stories. Some of them are extracts from the original books. Some are facts revealed by the author while some are just fan made facts. But most of them are fan fiction stories written by the Harry Potter maniacs also called “The Harry Potter Generation”.

There are hundreds of pages and discussion groups related to Harry Potter on Facebook alone. The content of most these pages are fan made stories. They are also swarmed with lengthy conversations about the characters. People, mostly youngsters, discuss the various happenings and characters from the books, mould them the way they want if they don’t see to agree with the author, generate quizzes and point scoring activities just like the original series etc. Their loyalty to the books and their author is really intriguing. I mean I myself am a huge Harry Potter fan. I love reading the books over and over again, I so love the movies but this is nothing relevant to what these Potter fanatics are. Even though there will be no more Harry Potter books or movies, these fans don’t want to end their Harry Potter experience. Thus, they have taken refuge in writing HP fan-fiction to fulfill their thirst for magic.

The whole Harry Potter series is stretched over almost a decade comprising of seven books and eight movies; the last part being split into two separate movies. This generation actually grew up with it. It occupied the childhood of millions. These ten years were like a Harry Potter era to these HP lovers. They queued for hours, even whole nights outside the bookstores to get the books as soon as they were released or outside the theatres to get tickets for the movies. July 2011 officially marked the end of this magical story. But for these fans, there is no end to it, not yet. So to fill up this gap, many of them have started writing on their own as to what happened next in the story. What became of the series’ golden trio? Apart from extending the story, some have even written about the past events leading to the story, which were not much elaborated in the books. It is astounding.

Realizing this huge fan following, the author of the series, J.K. Rowling, launched a website called Pottermore. This website serves as a unique online experience of the magical world of Harry Potter. The site also publishes author’s notes, e-books, and audio versions of all the seven books along with a number of additional features.

It is almost impossible to find such a massive fan following and loyalty elsewhere. And it is these passionate and crazy fans that have made it the biggest film franchise of all time. It is not just a book, it’s a legend. It is not just a story but a moral inspiration as well. It proves that nothing is more powerful in this world than love and friendship. Money and power always have an end but love and friendship is eternal. It lasts forever.