Guest Blog from Cindey
Truth and Beauty
A few weels ago in a dark movie theater watching the last Harry Potter movie, I remembered why I love to write, I wasn?t one of those who made it for the midnight viewings. I?d promised my niece that we would watch it together. (We?re both very bookish and deeply devoted to all things JK Rowling.) The promise was a bit hard to keep, as she wouldn?t be coming to visit ?til July 18th. But a couple of days after the premiere (and taking advantage of cheaper matinee pricing) we marched down to the local Cinemark.
I knew I?d be sad. I?d read a tweet by Cheryl Klein (continuity editor on later HP?s) where she compared her night at the premiere to watching your best friends getting beaten up for two hours. So, yeah, I knew it would probably be a tear-jerker. For some people.
But I wasn?t prepared.
Like many readers, I feel an intense connection to Severus Snape every time I read through the second half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But I seriously wasn?t prepared for the effect that his story would have on me when presented on a really, really big screen.
Oh, my goodness, from the moment Alan Rickman first walked on the screen, and without his having uttered any words, you could feel Snape’s inner turmoil. It was painful, hearing him deliver that initial warning about not sheltering Harry Potter. If you?ve seen it, surely you felt what I?m talking about. How conflicted Snape was as he made those demands of all of the Hogwarts students? I got shivers.
And then the pensieve scene. Oh my. Oh I so did not see my reaction coming. Liquid just started gushing from my eyes and nose. I was shaking with tears. And, of course, trying to do it quietly so as not to disturb other people near me. But I couldn?t stop. I think the tears started the moment I heard young Severus? voice. So small, so earnest. So obviously over-the-top in love with Lily, his one friend in all the wide world.
And Snape?s anguish when he comes to Dumbledore knowing Lily?s been killed? ?They put their trust in the wrong person, just like someone else I know.? Which brings us to the on-screen moment when Snape weeps over the dead body of his best friend, his compass-star, his one true love.
That was the moment when I leaned into my husband, took his hand, and whispered, ?I want to tell stories like this?the kind that make you ache because of their beauty and truth.? He squeezed my hand back. I think he might have been crying a little, too.
