There is no such thing as a happy ending, because nothing ever ends.

A mere sixteen hours ago, I was a different person.  Then, the copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had never touched my hands.  But now it has passed through my grasp, an experience unique as only the first time can be, and in as best a way as feeble words can work, I strive to immortalize the experience.

( WARNING: Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! DO NOT READ if you have not finished the book! )

It is hard for me to part with the boy who, along with his friends, has been my childhood, plain and simple.  But as I realize this feeling, I also remember something I once wrote, years ago, as an intended end to a story I had barely even begun to write:

 

And with this, the telling of the tale is done.  But do not be disheartened, for the tale itself goes on, and you never know when you may stumble onto a piece of it within your life.  Know that the story told within these pages is only a small part of the story of the characters that have lived it, and know that, while this appears to be an end, many ends are merely mistaken beginnings.

 

Then, by my own words, I must celebrate this day—not as the end of something great, but as the start of something even greater.