Harry Potter Fans Turn Out For Final Chapter

On a clear and cool summer night, a full moon illuminated lightning-marked Harry Potter lookalikes waiting their turn to enter the Clearview Cinema in Madison. It was opening night and moviegoers have come to see the final installment of the beloved Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II.

“It’s been sold out since Sunday,” Deep Patel, Clearview manager, said. “We are very excited about the premiere. A lot of people are coming through here.”

The theater has four screens, three of which are premiering Harry Potter.

“I would have done all four, but we couldn’t get another film print,” Pattel says. “Upwards of 250 people are going to be screening it tonight.”

That is a lot considering the small theater can only hold around 400 people.

The entire cinema is centered around the film: hallways are decorated to resemble the Great Hall at Hogwarts with floating candles illuminating the way to the seats, brooms and wands spread about, and even some of theater staff decked out in Gryffindor apparel.

“I’m so excited,” Rachel Massaro, a junior at Madison High School said. “This is my second time at a midnight showing, I did it for the last movie, too, Part I.”

Though the theater abounded with excitement, it was accompanied by the bitter realization that this is the final Harry Potter film.

“It is killing me a little bit,” Annie McCullough, a recent graduate of Oak Knoll, said. “Everything is ending—high school and moving away from home and my childhood, and now this, too. I’m going to enjoy it though.”

There was a certain camaraderie amongst the diehard Harry Potter fans. Groups of people cast spells upon one another, while others outside played makeshift Quidditch—save for the aerial maneuvers and winged Golden Snitch.

“It’s almost like a cult, all these Harry Potter fans,” Isobel Dagon said. “You can just sense how into it every one is. I am, too.”

The book series and their respective films continue to bring people of all different ages, races, and walks of life together. Parents filed in with their kids and friends shoedthe same enthusiasm, minus the painted lighting bolt on their forehead.

“I have an older sister, and we used to clash and have sister rivalries. But we would put that aside and she would take time to read me Harry Potter because we both loved it and wanted to know what happened next,” McCullough said. “You just can’t top Harry Potter.”

As the lights dimmed and the last of the patrons hurried into their seats, whoops and cheers broke out as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger took to the screen in their final adventure.