'Harry Potter' Fans Line Up for Hours, Awaiting Finale's Premiere

It takes a diehard fan to wait 12 hours in line for a movie, and Thursday’s midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 proved what most of us already know—Harry Potter has a lot of diehard fans.

All five 2-D showings and both 3-D showings of the saga’s finale sold out at Woodinville’s AMC Loews, and some fans arrived before the theater even opened to ensure a good seat.

Siblings Ellen and Alex Yancey arrived at 8:30 a.m. to secure first place in line, and they were soon joined by friends. Several members of the group played acoustic guitars, while stacks of board games, bags of Doritos and DVDs of—what else? Harry Potter movies—were ready to help pass the time at a moment’s notice.

Alex, 15, took the opportunity to exercise his entrepreneurial side.

“I make wands,” he said, displaying a model made out of a dowel wrapped in twine and brown tissue paper. The short-term business venture saw him make 40 wands in one day, which he planned to sell for $15 to any interested aspiring wizards waiting in line.

This wasn’t Alex’s first Potter midnight premiere, but he went to more extreme measures for the finale.

“I was always in the middle of the pack kind of,” he said. This time, “I wanted to be here first.”

His sister, Ellen, dressed in her Hogwarts finest, complete with sweater, tie and cape, was also inspired by the series’ end.

“I just recently completed this outfit,” she said. “I had to go all out for this one.”

For Ellen, the final movie marks the end of an era in a way.

“I’ve been into this since, like, first or second grade,” she said. “It’s like the end of your childhood.”

Farther back in line were 17-year-old friends Ashley Martin and Sara Ryser. Ryser was the devoted Potter fan of the two, with Martin only recently coming to the series out of support for Ryser.

“She’s been so excited to come see it, and I was her only hope to come see it,” Martin said.

Martin caught herself up by watching the movies at home, and didn’t look anything like a Potter neophyte Thursday, camped out early with a lightning bolt drawn on her forehead.

With the finale, Ryser was expecting conflicting emotions.

“I don’t want it to end, but I’m really excited to see the last one,” she said.

“I know there’s going to be a lot of people crying,” Martin chimed in.

With the weight of the entire series on its back and the added anticipation of hours and hours spent waiting in line, could any movie live up to the pressure?

“I’m just going in with an open mind,” Ellen said.