Potter fans spellbound by Rowling at book signing

LONDON: Braving darkness, exhaustion and chilly evening air outside a London museum, where Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was signing books, Jess Ciroi was realistic about her chances of getting an autograph.   

"Probably slim to none, but hey, one's always got hope, right?" said the 20-year-old, who cites Rowling as her inspiration for becoming a writer.   

Inside the Natural History Museum, Rowling was staging a reading of "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows" for 500 lucky fans before signing books for a further 1,200.   

But this still left dozens of fans queuing up outside in the vague hope of catching a glimpse of the author as she launched the seventh and final novel in the best-selling series.   

Minutes after its release at 2301 GMT, Ciroi and her mother Wilma, visiting from Canada, raced from a nearby bookstore to the museum in the hope that they might get in, and were prepared to wait through the night, if necessary.   

Dedication was in no short supply elsewhere in the queue. Students Ani Meehan and Emine Houssain, both 17, were sitting outside the museum entrance with a pizza and soft drinks to keep them going until their allotted 1:00 am entry time to get their copies autographed.   

"We go to college, and nobody else we know likes it at all, but we don't care," Houssain said.    "We think we're cool," she added, with a hint of self-deprecation.   

Asked if they would be going home to sleep after receiving their novels, Meehan was straightforward: "Of course not."   

The latest book in the series is slated to top the popularity of each of its predecessors, which have sold a combined 325 million copies in 64 languages.   

The books have also spawned a successful film franchise, the latest of which, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was released from July 11.   

Rowling's seventh novel, however, has been marred by leaks in the global press of its contents and, in particular, its hotly-anticipated ending.   

Cassie Chatwin, a 19-year-old holidaying in London from Canada, said she had intentionally not read any news to do with the book in recent days, and insisted she would not skip to the book's final pages.   

"I'm not sleeping.... I read the last one in six hours, so this one should be about the same," she said, before heading off to continue devouring the novel.   

There were similar frenzied scenes at bookseller Waterstone's Piccadilly branch in London, which attracted 5,000 fans for the tome's release at just past midnight.   

Dressed up as characters from the book, Potter buffs mobbed the store after a countdown from a mock Professor Dumbledore, head of Harry's wizard school Hogwarts, where the books are set.   

Though dressed-up fans were decidedly fewer at the Natural History Museum, the excitement was palpable, evidenced by three Potter fans sitting in a row with their backs to the museum's outer wall, not even glancing up for a moment from their copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".   

Among those who attended the reading was 12-year-old Monica Gill, who emerged from the museum's exit unable to stop smiling.   

In the United States at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Bethesda, a Maryland suburb of the capital Washington, nine-year-old Emily Schwager wished she had been in London to find out first-hand what will be the fate of the series. 

"It's sort of like I really want her to make another book but now that it's over it's like everything's ending," she said.   

Zenata McGaha, the community relations manager at the bookstore, echoed the girl's comments.    "I obviously don't want the series to end. I loved it, I'm a big Harry Potter fan.

I love the books and I'll be very sad if this is the last one. But I'm really excited, I can't wait to read it," McGaha said.