For These Harry Potter Fans, Too Much Is Never Enough

LINCOLN -- At first it sounds like quite the bargain: A chance to see every Harry Potter movie on the big screen for just $25.
 
Here's the catch: the eight movies played back-to-back, in a single 24-hour stretch.
  
That's how northern Rhode Island celebrated the arrival of the latest and last movie in the blockbuster series - with a day-long Harry Potter marathon at Cinemaworld in the Lincoln Mall. More than 125 of the teen wizard's die-hard devotees settled into theater seats at 3 a.m. Thursday, and most stayed there until 3 a.m. Friday. The event ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, which premiered across the country at one-minute-past midnight Friday.
 
"I got in my seat at 3 a.m., and I haven't slept since then," boasted Kathleen Bowler of Cumberland shortly before the final movie began. "Why do we do this? Because these movies make you believe there's hope in this world."
 
Fans enjoyed a brief break between each movie, and an hour long intermission at the mid-point of the marathon. About 20 hours into the event, Cinemaworld general manager Dino Pacelli pronounced it a success. "Those fans are looking tired, but they're still having fun," he said. "It's a long day."
  
Most of those tired fans agreed. "It's been amazing. Like watching my childhood," said Taylor O'Neill, 15, of North Providence.
  
“People might say I'm crazy, but I feel ecstatic," added Gifty Asamoah, 17, of Lincoln.
  
Preparation was the key to survival for Manuela Carmona, 14, and Justice Neri, 15, both of Pawtucket. They brought along blankets, slippers, and stuffed animals so they'd feel at home in the theater. To stay awake, they slipped out during breaks for Dunkin Donuts coffee.
 
"Some people cheat," Neri revealed. "They've already seen these movies again and again, so they pick the movie they've seen the most and sleep through it."
  
For less hardy fans, Cinemaworld offered something else: two Harry Potter movies a night, spread over several nights before the midnight premier. Diehard devotees of the series derided that option as "the marathon for muggles." In Harry's world, that's a derisive word for those with no magical powers. 
 
Like many other movie theaters around the country, Cinemaworld also hosted a one-minute-past-midnight showing to celebrate the arrival of the last Harry Potter episode. For the early Friday event, the movie played on all 16 screens.
  
Fans began lining up Thursday afternoon, and as midnight approached the procession grew to more than 2,000 people and snaked around the mall. And they were just waiting to get seats. All tickets had been snatched up days earlier. 

Most of those waiting in line were in their teens or early twenties. Many celebrated by wearing costumes. Some donned novice wizard robes or preppy uniforms like those seen at Hogwarts Academy, the wizarding school where the Harry Potter story takes place. Others opted to wear neckties or scarves in the Hogwarts school colors. Almost every other forehead was decorated with a zigzag squiggle, to recreate the scar that marks Harry's brow.  

"The midnight premier is an experience," said Justine Durvin, 20, of Scituate, who wore a school uniform. "If you go to the movie later in the week, and you're dressed like this, you'll just look weird."
  
Richard Stanley, 18, of Smithfield, stood out wearing a ghoulish mask inspired by freakish beings from the wizard world, the Death Eaters. "Harry Potter has been around since we were very, very young," he said. "Now we've reached the finale. There is talk of a pre-quel, but J. K. Rowling has gone on record saying it won't include Harry."
  
Fans insisted there’s nothing strange about waiting hours to see a movie when lines will be all-but-gone a week from now.
  
"There's nothing better than seeing the movie before everyone else does," said John Cruz, 17, a Woonsocket fan. "You're the one who gets to tell everyone how great it is."
  
"It will be a generation before we see another movie phenomenon like this," predicted Ryan McNelis, a Smithfield lawyer. "By then I'll be an old man."
 
Veasna San, 20, of Woonsocket found a spot near the front of the line for himself and several friends. "I've been watching the movies and reading the books since I was in fifth grade," he said. "That's 11 years of my life."
  
"He got me to read the first book when we were kids," added his friend Reggie Iv, 20, of Woonsocket. "He couldn't stop talking about it, so I had to check it out. When I did, I loved it."
  
Valentina Agudelo, 16, of Cumberland, and Shilo Lemery, 17, of West Warwick, wore tie-dyed shirts decorated with mystic symbols from Harry's world. "This is the end of the series. That's history in the making," Lemery said. "We'll never get to do this again."
  
"I could cry just thinking that this is the end," Agudelo added. "And the books are over, too!" 

Albert Larivee of Central Falls and his granddaughter Emily Gaboriauld, 10, of Lincoln, both donned costumes for the show. For her, that meant a Hogwarts robe; for him, an elaborate wizard's hat. "I've been doing this since the third book," Larivee boasted. "Harry Potter is absolutely not for kids only."
  
Halle Vanasse, 11, of Burrillville, wore a Hogwarts student robe. “When you're going to an epic finale, you have to dress up," she said.

Ten-year-old Angelo Campagnone of Johnston sported the best outfit. He donned a wrinkly mask and gloves that suggested long, boney fingers to portray Lord Voldemort, Harry's arch-enemy. "He's crazy about Hary Potter," said his mother, Tanya Campagnone. "He's got every wand from every story -- Harry's wand, Valdemort's wand, Dumbledore's wand."