A Long, Harry Night

Friday, July 27, 2007

Page 11

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

A Long, Harry Night

By J’AMY PACHECO

There aren’t many things for which I’d stand in a parking lot at midnight.

Exclusive use of the rides at Disneyland, perhaps; a free trip around the world, maybe. While I wouldn’t spend a night on asphalt for the chance to win an exotic European sports car, I could probably be persuaded to do so if I knew for certain I could drive that baby home.

Which makes it kind of hard to explain what motivated me to be sitting on a curb outside the local Barnes & Noble Booksellers when last Friday night became Saturday morning.

I’ve chronicled here my belated introduction to the adventures of Harry Potter, boy wizard. I’ve confessed that mild interest quickly turned to obsession, then dismay when I found out after reading the first six books back-to-back I’d have to wait two years for the final volume in the series.

You’d have to be an uninformed muggle to not know that it finally came out at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. In honor of its release, I read the entire series again, then parked my backside on a shopping mall curb to wait for the next one.

I’d been on the go the entire day, and had hoped to take a nap before the release party started at 8 p.m. That didn’t happen, though, so it was a sleepy mommy who accompanied her daughter into the store to have our palm read and pictures taken with Potter characters.

My favorite stop was one where we had to try to stump a magician. Frankly, I don’t think he was stumped OR a magician, but we received small, scarlet and gold Gryffindor tassels bearing golden charms for our efforts.

At 11:30, the store threw everybody out so workers could prepare for the midnight re-opening. At first, my daughter and I walked along the line looking for people we knew to say “Hi.” Since our city has only one bookstore and we know lots of readers, we were surprised to find only two, both girls from my daughter’s fifth grade class.

Before long, however, we stopped looking for friends and started looking for the end of the line. We went past the bookstore, completely around the anchor department store, and halfway down the backside of the mall before we found an empty spot of curb. At that point, waiting for the book seemed like a foolish thing to do.

I wondered aloud if we should leave and return when the store opened during the daylight hours. A young man behind us reported that an employee told him store officials expected to be able to get through the entire line in about an hour. Since I’d already received my “reserved copy” wristband, I decided to try to stick it out.

I’m glad I did.

It’s a fine thing to spend a warm summer night sitting on a curb with geeks…er, people with whom one has something in common. This is particularly true when that thing involves dressing as wizards, witches, assorted students from Hogwarts — and the occasional Star Wars misfit.

I suspect the pair of boys who ran all over the parking lot staging a mock battle with light sabers intended us to think they were the “Death Eaters” featured in J.K. Rowling’s books. But it was pretty clear to us they fought with light sabers and not wands, which made their performance hilariously funny.

“And you guys call us dorks!” the Hufflepuff girl in front of me yelled to them as everybody around laughed.

The wait went by very quickly as we struck up conversations with the strangers around us. People were in the mood to speculate on what would happen to Harry, his friends and enemies; on what mysteries would be solved and, of course, who would perish.

Shortly before the scheduled reopening of the store, the line took a giant collective step forward. Since my position was halfway to Arizona, I’ll never know what caused us to surge forward so much, but it was a positive sign.

Before long, people began walking past the line clutching Barnes & Noble bags. A mere 45 minutes after the store opened, I was one of them.

I spent the entire day Saturday reading the 2.5-pound, 759-page book – and loving every word of it. Most of my questions were answered; others were left hanging. I was a little bit sad that it was all over, but so tired when I was done that I immediately fell asleep.

Now it’s over, and it looks like I’m going to need a new obsession. I wonder how I’d be with a light saber…