The end is nigh and I doubt I’m the only one who feels a bit lost. Now that the Harry Potter series is really coming to an end, we Potter fans need to find something to keep us occupied (and obsessed). Sure, we had to go through this a little when the final book came out and we promptly read it overnight, allowing a terrible sadness to descend because we’d just finished the series too soon, but this is really the end. We can’t even look forward to any more reincarnations of our favorite books. It’s really over. So what the heck do we do now?
Well, there are two routes. We can either find something new and move on or we wallow in Harry Potter-dom FOREVER. Let’s explore option one first.
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Getting Over Harry Potter
Sometimes, it just hurts to keep hanging on to something once it’s over. If you’re the sort of person who can’t stay friends with an ex, it’s probably best if you just sever ties now that the series is truly reaching its end. Here are a few helpful suggestions to help you move on.
Become Obsessed With Other Fantasy Series
Now that Potter (and Lord of the Rings) has opened the door for other fantasy series adaptations, we have things like Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games popping up on our radar. With The Hunger Games, you’ve got time to read through the series before the Jennifer Lawrence-starring movie hits theaters in 2012. And especially for those of us who (shamefully) only picked up a Harry Potter book after seeing the first magical movie, now’s the time to do the same with Game of Thrones which grabbed quite a few of us with those first 10 episodes on HBO; and not only can you read The Game of Thrones, but you can read the four other existing books from the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and there are still two more on the way! There’s plenty of geekdom ready to be devoured out there, so get cracking.
Take Up Online Poker
Well, sometimes the only way to kick one habit is to start another. Sure, this is gambling and we shouldn’t be endorsing it, but who knows? Maybe you’re a secret online poker champion and you’ll make millions all thanks to this little suggestion. Of course, that doesn’t happen to anyone ever so don’t go in expecting anything.
Catch Up On The Original 26 Seasons of Doctor Who
I hate myself a little for putting this on here because I’m not exactly a huge Doctor Who fan, but hey, if you can’t get addicted to a show that lasted for 26 seasons in its original form and for 6 seasons and counting as a reboot, you may not be human. You’ll get wrapped up in it, let’s just hope you have the time it takes to fully commit to something of this magnitude.
Watch all of Lost Backwards And Look For Backmasked Messages
Lost left so many questions unanswered when it exited our pop-culture obsessed lives and you know what? It just wasn’t fair. Sure, we spent a whole year trying to get over that show ending, but with that whole theory of staving off old addictions with new (old) ones, try watching all of Lost backwards – actually backwards, like you can with an old Beatles records to hear the gibberish at the end of “Rain” – even if you don’t learn anything, I bet by the time you make it back to season 3 you’ll be so delusional your brain will fill in the missing pieces for you.
Actually watch and rate every single movie on Netflix Instant
Now this would keep you busy. For some reason, there’s a little bit of pride that goes along with seeing the number of films I’ve rated on Netflix – but mostly because I only rate movies I’ve actually seen. It’s a dumb little rule I have, but since we’re looking for new obsessions, why not try this one on? What if you took it one step further and you HAD to watch every movie Netflix asked you to rate, no matter what. Of course the beauty in this replacement addiction is that you will actually NEVER run out of things to do. There will always be a next one. You’ll never be left wondering what to do next ever again. Granted, thanks to this new plan they’re introducing, you’ll have to pick a side: Instant Catalog or Disc Catalog. It’s not exactly Harry Potter and friends versus the Death Eaters, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Never Gonna Give You Up: Keep the Potter Magic Going
While there’s no new Potter coming our way, that doesn’t mean we necessarily have to give it all up. Some of us are perfectly happy letting the legacy live on through other mediums. Which mediums? How about these ones?
Record Covers of The Songs on Tom Felton’s YouTube Channel
No, he’s not aiming to be a rapper like many folks on the interwebs reported. Felton does, however, have a YouTube channel, feltbeats, where he records original songs on an acoustic guitar. Now, if this is your first encounter with the real Tom Felton, strap on some headphones, relax and enjoy what the kinder, gentler former Draco Malfoy can offer. If, however, you’re way ahead of the rest of us and you’ve already seen these videos so many times you can sing every last line, put your money where your mouth is and create your own Tom Felton Music Tribute Channel on Youtube and post covers of all those songs. Bonus points for the dude who does hip hop covers of the Felton tunes.
Read the whole series in another language
While perusing a gift shop in Bath, England, I found something quite perplexing: Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis. That’s the first Harry Potter book translated into Latin. What could be nerdier or show more devotion than rereading the entire series in the language that bore all other languages? I actually can’t think of anything nerdier – this is the scale, folks. As of now, there are only two translated into Latin, but the full series has full translations in a host of different languages including Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Polish, Norwegian, Mongolian, and list goes on and on… and on and on.
Start writing the scripts for the remakes (because they’ll happen eventually)
You’re a giant Harry Potter nerd or you probably wouldn’t be reading this. Why don’t you put all those years of obsession to good use? Why not make up for all those moments that didn’t make it into the series of films by righting those wrongs yourself? Why don’t you spend the next 10 years penning the reboots for these films, because they will be made whether we like it or not. You may as well try your trustworthy hand at the task, right?
Get a job at Harry Potter World
This is for the ultimate clinger; if you can’t beat the obsession, at least turn it into something that you can get paid for. For those who want so badly to be a part of Harry Potter forever that they would give up all other hopes and dreams to happily shill Butterbeer to other obsessive Potter fans while living in sunny Florida – wait that doesn’t sound nearly as bad as I thought it would – this job would allow you to spend most of your time in the closest thing to Hogwarts you’ll ever find in real life. No one will ever tell you to stop talking about the characters like you know them personally or tell you they don’t want to hear your hair-brained theories about what Hagrid’s beard looked like in the 80s. In other words, it’s Potter paradise.
