1. Spelling-bee winner Molly with her family. 
2.  Best Female Costume winner, Meghan
Atchison.  3.  Best Male Costume winner,
Dwight Giles.  4.  Laura, Bob & Joanne wait for
the midnight hour.  5.  Gayle enjoys the
costume contest.  6.  Signed poster winner,
Kevin.  7.  Lexy receives the first copies of
Deathly Hallows.  Photos by A. Dailey.
 

BY 11:30 P.M. THE MOOD of the crowd had changed to anxiousness.  They had had their fun at Borders’ Grand Hallows Ball on Friday night, and now they simply wanted to get home with their copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 

I had expected the atmosphere to be charged with bitter-sweet emotions.  Of course, we all were dying to find out how Harry defeats Voldemort and what Snape’s true motivations are, but I also thought I’d find a little sadness for the end of an era.  I was wrong.  Evidently Charles County Potter fans are not a mopey lot.

When the party started at 9 p.m., the excited crowd seethed among Borders’ aisles and common areas, joining in the Potter-themed games or just pleasantly whiling away the time until the midnight book release.  The most coveted prizes for winning the games were places at the front of the line at 12:01 a.m.

11 year-old Molly of Charlotte Hall received the second place in line when she won the Potter-themed spelling bee with the word “Wizengamot”. 

Meghan Atchison of La Plata was awarded the Best Female Costume for her portrayal of prim Hogwarts’ Headmistress Minerva McGonagall.  It was also Meghan’s 19th birthday, so she reveled in her prize of 3rd place in the book line. 

Dwight Giles of Waldorf earned 4th place in the book line when he won Best Male Costume for his rendition of notorious Death Eater Rodolphus Lestrange.  Dwight only became a Harry Potter fan one year ago, but has devoured all the audio books. 

Waiting in the wings for the midnight hour were Bob and Joanne of La Plata and their adult daughter, Laura.  They fell in love with the series shortly after the Sorcerer’s Stone appeared in the U.S. in 1997.  Although midnight book release parties have been common in the Harry Potter fandom since the release of the fourth book in the series, this was Bob and Joanne’s first Potter Party.  They felt they just couldn’t stay away from this moment given how much they appreciate the world author J.K. Rowling has created.

“She made it believable