Bewitched and Besotted by Book 7

A woman with a stuffed vulture on her head and black makeup drank a cup of Butterbeer, and a magician made balloon brooms in yellow and brown for children. A Death Eater, wearing a mask, carried a sign that said, "The end is nigh."

"It is a turning point in my life," said Gardi Royce, 14, of Silver Spring, with hair dyed white and the long cape and solemn garb of Draco Malfoy, Potter's Hogwarts antagonist. "I am in love with Draco."

One of the organizers of the block party, Megan Linehan, 23, of Silver Spring, wrote her senior thesis at American University last year analyzing the battle between Harry and Voldemort as a conflict between different political and cultural systems. Harry stood for a heterogeneous society of Muggles and wizards that is more open to change, she said, while Voldemort represented a closed society structured by racial hierarchies and resistant to change. She got a B-plus, she said.

"I was, like, can I have this party? Please!" Linehan said.

Minutes before midnight, Temar Powers, 37, stood in line with her sons to claim one of the first copies from A Likely Story because, she said, the Hogwarts kids seemed like part of the family. "It's a concluding experience with these fictitious friends," she said. "You'd gladly pick up your friends at the airport in the middle of the night. Same thing."

Midnight: Screams erupted outside the Silver Spring Borders when the book went on sale.

William Winstead, 10, his twin sister, Talia, and his brother, Trenton, 9, of Vienna, held their "Deathly Hallows" aloft like trophies.

"It feels like I just won first prize at the Olympics," William said.

All three quickly opened up their books and dived in. They said they didn't plan to skip ahead and would read all night.

Staff writers Michael Alison Chandler, in New York, and Matt Zapotosky, in Alexandria, contributed to this report.