I got the chance to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two this weekend. Wait, that sort of makes it sound like a chance thing. A better way of saying it might be I demanded to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two on opening weekend because I am that sort of fan. No, not the type that dresses up like one of the characters and camps out for three days on the sidewalk. I've got kids and besides, isn't that what Fandango is for? No, I bought my tickets the minute they became available online and blessed technology for getting rid of that whole camping out for tickets thing we used to do when I was a kid.

Either way, Friday night was date night and that meant buttery popcorn and a movie with my hubby. And that movie was the end of the Harry Potter saga. A movie I've been waiting to see since it came out as a book. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. It was brilliant.

It was every bit as subtle and as nuanced as the books. What really shined through for me though was the way the secondary characters were handled. Yes, yes, Harry Potter was amazing. Daniel Radcliffe can chew through scenery in a way that many older actors never learn. And when he faces Hermione at the end and confesses the secret they've both kept from each other and accepts what they both know has to happen? I knew how the end came out and I still got misty eyed.

But what really blew me away was how the secondary characters evolved as well. Yes, it's a sign of JK Rowlings mastery of the art of storytelling that she managed to make them real, living breathing people in the books but it's a sign of how much the movie makers cared about the story they were telling that those characters stayed three dimensional on the screen.

The end of Severus Snape was something I'd worried would be clichéd but it wasn't. It was tragic, it was layered, and I can't help but think Alan Rickman may have earned angsty hero sex god status with line "it's always been her". Suddenly, I wanted to go home and rewatch all the movies, looking for the hidden subtext in all of his scenes.

And McGonagall. Can I say how much I love McGonagall? I've always loved Minerva. She's that teacher I think so many of us started out wanting to be. I may joke that Severus Snape was my teaching model when I taught college but Minerva McGonagall was the woman I always wanted to be. Smart, funny, compassionate, and she totally whipped Severus Snape's ass when the time came. The best part though? Minerva McGonagall would call up a battalion of stone statues to defend Hogwarts, prepared herself to go into a death match with Voldemort, and then turned around to giggle with Molly Weasely "I've always wanted to use that spell."

But the best part? The best part is a little scene at the end with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. It's not in the book but I wish it would have been because for me it's now canon. I won't ruin it for anyone by telling you what happens but let's just say it's subtle, it's sweet and I think the way those two young actors managed the scene shows them to be some of the finest character actors of their age. So, while I'll give full props to Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson for bringing their characters to life it's Evanna Lynch and Matthew Lewis who I think made the movie the piece of cinematic art it is.