I read and re-read the books until the books' binding came undone. The foundation of most of my friendships was the fact that we could talk about Harry Potter for hours, speculating on how the books could possibly end. I attended the midnight book releases for books 5, 6 and 7 and saw movies 4 through 8 on midnight the night they were released. In costume.   

My sister (left) and the greatest Halloween costume I (or anyone) has ever worn (right)

And on the internet, I learned there were millions of people just like me. All my online screen names were Harry Potter related and I only visited Harry Potter fan forums. Mugglenet was my homepage and the first podcast I ever listened to was Mugglecast. I discovered the internet through Harry Potter.

I am the target audience for this new entry into the Harry Potter canon. But when I first heard about the play, I wasn't sure if I even wanted to read it. I finished Deathly Hallows completely satisfied. Sobbing but satisfied. I didn't know if I needed more. Of course, once I had The Cursed Child in my hands at the local Barnes and Nobles midnight release party, I couldn't not read it. I was instantly drawn back into the wizarding world.

Overall, I did enjoy reading The Cursed Child. Regardless of the conflicting time travel theories or the questionable fan fiction friendly characters, I enjoyed hearing new stories about the characters I love so much. However, I keep coming back to my initial hesitation over this new addition. I keep asking myself why this play was written and whether we needed to revisit Harry at all.

As a continuation of the series, I was hoping The Cursed Child would deepen my understanding of the wizarding world and the characters who inhabit it.

I found, however, that the original novels communicated everything we needed to know about these characters. Deathly Hallows especially took the time to wrap up the complex relationships between these characters in a satisfying way. For example, Harry's attempts to reconcile the Dumbledore he knew with the conflicting reports of Dumbledore's past is one of the more mature and nuanced through lines of the series. Harry's realization that his mentor was not infallible is a moment of lost innocence as important as Hedwig's death. Later, after Dobby's death, Harry's decision to prioritize the horcrux search over the hallows reaffirmed his trust in Dumbledore. Additionally, Snape's memories and Harry's postmortem conversation with Dumbledore help Harry and the reader understand Dumbledore's love for Harry.    

However, The Cursed Child revisits Harry's relationship with Dumbledore with an emotional conversation between Harry and a portrait of Dumbledore. Fans of the series already understand how these two feel about each other, we don't need to be re-told with clunky dialogue.

Additionally, although Snape is characterized throughout the series as morally ambigous, in Deathly Hallows he is ultimately revealed to be heroic, culminating with Harry naming his son Albus Severus, after "the bravest man [he] ever knew." The Cursed Child gives us the opportunity to revisit Snape in the alternate timeline where Voldemort has gained power after Harry's death.

The darkest timeline?

Scorpius meets Snape at an Umbridge-run Hogwarts. Snape reveals that he, Ron and Hermione are part of the resistance against Voldemort's new world order. In The Cursed Child Snape is an unambiguously heroic figure. Although he still maintains his patented Snape snark, it is clear that his resistance efforts are for "good" and not for the murky personal reasons that initially motivated him to switch sides. In The Cursed Child Snape ultimately sacrifices himself to help Scorpius repair the original timeline, even though he knows he is dead in that timeline. This death scene would be poignant if we hadn't already seen Snape's similar sacrifice in Deathly Hallows.

Did we need Harry's emotion conversation with Dumbledore or Snape's alternate-universe heroics when the purpose of these moments was already so beautifully communicated in the books? The play seems to be drawing on nostalgia, rehashing what we already know rather than moving the story beyond the book series.

I don't consider The Cursed Child canon and I wonder if any fans do. Haven't we all crafted our own versions of the character's lives after Hogwarts, whether or not we've written fan fiction? I have related to these characters and understood these characters in a way that's unique to me. In my head they have taken on lives of their own. My version of these characters probably differ from yours. For years fans have created stories, art, music, and musicals based on the work and have taken the story in all different directions. Fan didn't need to know what was happening to these characters because we already know.

Is it fan service if it doesn't serve the fans?

A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccaaleida) on Jul 15, 2016 at 6:17pm PDT

The wizarding world has taken on a life of its own beyond the pages written by J.K. Rowling. There are eight movies, a studio tour featuring the sets and props from the movies, and two theme parks. Rowling's, along with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, attempt to reclaim the world that has already outgrown her, feels like moving backwards.    
This attempt to reclaim and revisit the Harry Potter series fits perfectly with the recent #tbt trend, if you will, that we've seen recently in pop culture. Buzzfeed highlighted this trend in their article, In Case You Haven’t Noticed, 2016 Is Basically The ’90s but the trend has been around for longer than 2016. Netflix has introduced Fuller House and new seasons of Arrested Development and Wet Hot American Summer. Fan support and a kickstarter campaign got us a Veronica Mars movie. Disney has launched a new Star Wars franchise with a movie that drew many parallels to New Hope. People are running around in crop tops and overalls of our youth, attempting to catch Pokémon.


But, as much as we may want to, we can't go backwards. While it can enjoyable to look back at the things we used to love, it's important to understand what we're doing. Our nostalgia allows us to be sentimental about feelings we may have had but it can't recapture the original feelings themselves. As Dumbledore reminds Harry in Sorcerer Stone when Harry couldn't tear himself away from the memory of his lost family, “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” And I think realizing this is part of growing up.
   

Comment below and let me know what you thought about The Cursed Child