The end is finally here, my fellow muggles. As many of you already know, today marks the beginning of the end for our boy wonder Harry.

At midnight, while many of you were undoubtedly sleeping, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One was released (along with many a fans’ unbridled tears).

Now before you grab your licensed Gryffindor hankie to start bawling, let me reassure you that you are not alone in your sorrow. There are many of us out there who feel the exact same way you do. To prove my point, I interviewed several fellow Harry Potter fanatics on campus, just to see how Potter-obsessed people really are.

For the sake of continuity let’s start back at the beginning of the Harry Potter phenomenon.

“I was first introduced to Harry Potter in the fourth grade,” said Amanda Schaffer, sophomore art education major. “We were reading it for class and from the very first paragraph I was hooked. Ten years later and I’m still obsessed. Everything about it captivated me. I could imagine this world full of magic and adventure and I could never put any of the books down once I started. Reading about this outsider boy being a hero in a magical world just made my heart melt.”

When asked whether she was “obsessed” with the series, Scaffer responded with a resounding “yes.”

“Oh yes! I couldn’t honestly say anything but yes!” she said. “It shows from owning the books, movies and not to mention t-shirts, scarves, trivia games, and even reading fan fiction online!”

“When I was younger I loved the books and wanted to be a wizard so much that I bought my very own wand,” said Caitlin Giles, a freshman engineering major also infatuated with the series. “Harry Potter is so captivating because the characters are so realistic and everyone wants to be that little eleven year old heading off to Hogwarts. The classic struggle between good and evil is also something I really like, you can’t help but hope that Harry will win.”

In order to understand the huge emotional Harry Potter distress that many of us are facing, I asked Giles to describe how she felt about this being the second-to-last film.

“I’m both sad and really excited,” she said. “Sad because it is so close to the end and it is hard to let something that you love go. Excited because I’m sure this one will have tons of action and drama. I just hope the movie stays relatively true to the book.”

But perhaps Schaffer sums up many fans’ feelings (and my own) the best.

“I want to cry almost,” she said. “It has been seven amazing years and at least there is one more movie or I would be a wreck.”

Now, if any of you feel the need to hide your sorrow about the epic saga’s almost-conclusion, you shouldn’t; and if you feel the need to shed a few (or a lot) of tears at the movie theater this weekend, don’t worry, you’re in good company.