Finite liber: Potter fans unite for series’s end

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Even the threat of impending character death couldn’t keep “Harry Potter” fans away from the launch of J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final book in the epic series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

Fans were worried. Who would die? Who would fall in love? Would Professor Snape turn out to be one of the good guys?

But the thing that worried the Potterites most? It wasn’t character death — it was spoilers.

Robbin Furst, 39, of Towson, was one of the first people in line this weekend at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Towson to receive her copy, accompanied by her children Henry, 10, and Grace, 8.

Worried that someone in the parking lot might spoil the ending, the trio devised a plan.

Grace demonstrated, twirling in a circle as if trying to Apparate away from spoilers, her hands over her ears. “Yadda, yadda, yadda,” she said to block out the noise.

Henry said the family would probably argue over who got to read the book first.

“She thinks it’s going to be her,” he said, pointing to his mother.

Robbin Furst said they would read the first chapter before heading to bed.

“I’m not planning on going anywhere this weekend. I’m going to read the whole weekend,” she said.

Thea Mussman, 38, of Towson, attended the book release with her children and neighbors.

“I’m going to try to drag it out but finish it before people can tell me about it,” she said.

Eta Hack, 37, of Baltimore City, had a different approach. She said she planned to read the end of the book before the beginning.

“Too much goes on in a book that the end doesn’t make or break the book. It’s not the ending; it’s what goes on in the middle,” she said.

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