Cheers and tears as Harry Potter fans say thanks for movie magic

Published on Thursday 7 July 2011 17:42

JK ROWLING wept last night as she attended the premiere of the eighth and final film of her hugely successful Harry Potter series.

Wearing in a pale green dress with pink flowers and accompanied by her husband Neil Murray, the Scots author joined the cast of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two on the red carpet in London's West End.

She thanked the actors for "the amazing things they did for my favourite characters" before turning to the thousands of screaming fans who greeted her.

She said: "Thank you for queuing up for the books for all those years, for camping out in a wet Trafalgar Square."

The author then pleaded with the fans who were chanting "thank you" to her to stop, saying: "No, no, I'm already crying."

Many of the fans had been camping since Monday to secure the best possible view of the author and cast.

First to arrive on the soggy red carpet, which stretched the mile from Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square in central London, was Rupert Grint.

• Film review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the films, said it was "emotional" to be arriving to see the final film. He said: "Every film has been just so special."

Asked to pick his favourite moment from his time in the hugely successful films, he said: "I think it's probably this."

Other stars walking up the red carpet included Alan Rickman, Dame Maggie Smith and Helena Bonham Carter.

But fans reserved some of their loudest screams for Emma Watson as the actress, who plays Hermione Granger, embarked on a marathon autograph signing session.

Daniel Radcliffe got one of the night's biggest cheers when he said the stories would never end.

He told fans: "Each and every person, not just here in this square but around the world who has watched these films for the last ten years, they will always carry the films with them for the rest of their lives."

Hours before the premiere, groups of girls screamed with excitement as they painted each others' faces in the red-and-yellow colours of Gryffindor, one of the four houses of the wizarding Hogwarts school in the Harry Potter books. Many dressed as characters from the films with others waving placards reading "Potter 'til I die" and "Harry Potter is over. See you in therapy".

Some fans had travelled from as far as South America. Most were young adults who grew up with the boy wizard and his adventures, and could not pass up the chance to say goodbye.

"It's our childhood - we made friends because of Harry Potter," said Luis Guilherme, a 22-year-old graduate student from Sao Paolo, Brazil."I don't know how my life would be without it. I would be less imaginative, for sure, and less adventurous. I would never be here in London.

"We'd never forgive ourselves if we didn't come, one last time."

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 depicts Harry's final confrontation with the forces of evil Lord Voldemort - an epic showdown rendered, for the first time in the series, in 3D.

The eighth and last film in the franchise was given a lavish premiere, with huge screens and banners in Trafalgar Square and a nearby street transformed into the magical shopping thoroughfare Diagon Alley.

No-one, however, could magic away the London rain. "Every single time it's like this," said Zoey Lewis, 18. "Some people say the Death Eaters (Voldemort's followers) make it rain."

Ms Lewis, a student from Brentwood, east of London, sheltered behind a handmade "We Love Helena" banner - her tribute to Helena Bonham Carter, who plays witch Bellatrix Lestrange in the movies.

"I love Harry Potter," she said. "It's been such a big part of my life. I don't know what I'll do without it."

The premiere marked the end of an era that began when the then unknown Edinburgh-based writer JK Rowling published Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997. The book blossomed from a well-reviewed children's tale to global phenomenon, launching a seven-book series that has sold 450 million copies around the world.

It also marked the end of a movie institution that has employed dozens of British actors and hundreds of crew since 2001.