If I were younger, and didn’t have two children, I might have attended a midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night, but I do have two children. I’ll be seeing the movie tonight with Liam and six of his buddies. You’ll see us all in the lobby of the Harvard Square movie theater, ready to get through the door as soon as they open to grab nine good seats in a line. We might even pack a picnic. A pack of boys and me, Molly Weasly forsooth!
Almost every boy in Liam’s pack is just about the age young Mr. Potter was on that dark and stormy night when Hagrid busted down a door and pulled Harry into the world where he belonged. None of these boys have the faintly phospherescent pallor of the very young Harry Potter. They don’t look like the vunderable kid that some parents in the audience may have wanted to bundle home and care for. I’m attending the movie
Emma stays home tonight; that’s the way it is. If we hadn’t found a babysitter last night, Jamie would be staying home while I’m in Harvard Square watching over the boys. Emma has been counting the days with me; she knows she’s not going to the movie, but she anticipates an interesting night. She’s not getting some extra time with Oliver ( we’d considered that when we thought we’d go to an afternoon showing) or having Daddy to herself, but she is meeting somebody new who might be up for some Chutes and Ladders. When Emma is in grade-school, I would like Warner Brothers to do what Walt Diseny used to do; to re-release into theaters so young kids can see them. I would love it if she could see the films on something bigger than a very big telivision; just not now, just not this movie.
Emma saw Beauty and thw Beast last weekend, and it was almost too much for her. The Beast, tusks paws and all, was pretty scary at first, but she did conclude he was alright. I think what got to her most was the angry, torch-waving mob and the sense that something awful was about to happen to someone good. I don’t know if all little kids sponge up all the fear, drama, and high emotion that they see on the screen and feel other people feeling; I just know that Emma does.
There are people now lining up on the sidewalk to go into the theaters and watch a kid fight Evil; snake-faced absolute Evil with a big E. People ( myself included ) have waited a year to savor the dread this churns out on the screen. You don’t have to have spent years with Harry and his friends to fear for their safety; but if his world is part of your world, you know that he’ll be safe. Emma doesn’t know that.
And another reason nothing would make me take Emma tonight; let’s face it folks, a kid’s pet dies, probably within the first thirty minutes of the movie. The one living thing that travels with Harry between the world he wound up in and the world where he belongs, the one who has been with him since he was that scared little kid is gone. Even if that is the only thing Emma could take in, that’s overpoweringly sad. I may be passing around a box of tissues as soon as that happens. I can’t go picking up the pieces for Emm until I know that I can stand it.
This Winter, I’d love to start reasing Harry Potter and the Saucerors Stone to Emm. Someday, I hope we can see these movies together in a movie theater, as big as they are supposed to be. Tonight just isn’t the night.
Besides, all things Harry Potter have always been Mama / Liam things. My boy turned eleven last a week ago Monday, I’ll enjoy these things while I still can.
