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07/19/2007
Wands at the ready!Harry's final chapter means party time for Potter fansTRAVERSE CITY — So, how's it going to end for Harry Potter? Victory over Lord Voldemort? Defeat? Death? Flip to the end and find out if you must at one minute after midnight Friday, when the long-awaited final chapter in the Harry Potter saga goes on sale. It will be celebrated in grand style in downtown Traverse City for the summer's first Friday Night Live block party and at other locations around the region. "We've been planning (to attend) this since the sixth book came out,” said Kerrie Kornexl of Traverse City. With son Silas, 6, and daughter Maegan, 9, the Kornexls will be attending their first Potter party — a national tradition of sorts to celebrate a Potter book release. That's after sitting out the festivities for the past few years while in Kodiak, Alaska, where husband/dad Robert Kornexl was stationed as a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter pilot. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is the seventh tome in the wildly successful fantasy series by author J.K. Rowling. It bookends the story that fans — casual, costumed and otherwise — around the world have been waiting to learn a resolution for since "Sorcerer's Stone” landed in 1998. "We knew that we would be leaving the island and we knew then and there, that regardless of where we were going, we'd make a Harry Potter party,” Kornexl said. There will be several in northern Michigan on Friday night, but none as elaborate as the downtown Traverse City extravaganza. In fact, the annual Friday Night Live block party kick-off was advanced a week to coincide with the book release. 
Tristen Roman, 11, as Draco Malfoy
Lauren Bensley, 13, as Professor McGonagall
Mariah Bensley, 9, as a Ravenclaw student
Katilee Bensley, 14, as Pansy Parkinson
Josh Roman, 9, as Harry Potter
Mikayla Roman, 6, as Hermione
Bekah Bensley, 8, as Ginny
Jack Bensley, 11, as Headmaster Dumbledore
Horizon Books and the Downtown Traverse City Association are expanding the scope of the largely successful party for "Half-Blood Prince” in 2005. "There were about 4,000 people downtown (last time),” said Susan Pine, party organizer at Horizon. "And that was only with Front Street closed from Park Street to the theater.” Like last time, stores will be re-named as locations from the wizarding world. There will be a scavenger hunt, Wizard's Chess in the street, music, juggling and more. Costumes are encouraged. The bookstore will feature live owls from the Wings of Wonder raptor rehabilitation center, Quiddich practice in the lower level, and a Harry Potter quiz bowl and costume contest. Pine said the store ordered enough copies — out of the record-breaking 12 million initial print run in the U.S. — that anyone who did not pre-order should be all set. The six books published to date have been translated into more than 63 languages. Collectively selling more than 325 million copies, the series spawned a massive industry of merchandise, video games and feature films — the fifth, "Order of the Phoenix,” opened July 11. "Everyone's really excited,” Pine said. "The big worry is, 'who's (Rowling) going to kill off?' — there's a lot of speculation.” The author dispatched a beloved character in the last book: Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore died at the hands of Professor Snape in a surprise twist ending. Katilee Bensley, 14, of Schoolcraft, who will be attending the party with her cousins, Josh and Tristen Roman of Traverse City, doesn't buy it, though. "I don't think that Snape is a bad guy,” Bensley said. Instead, she thinks he's a double agent of sorts and the assassination was a ruse to gain trust with Lord Voldemort. It sure surprised her, though. "Dumbledore's the guy I thought would pull it all together — the good guy who sets everything right,” she said. Tristen Roman, 11, has a somewhat more fatalistic view for the book's ending. "I think Harry is going to die,” he said, "because he's the main character.” Tristen's mother, Karie Roman, said their household is having its own Potter party before heading downtown with nine kids total, cousins included. They pre-ordered the books. "Everyone wants to read it right away,” she said. "My one niece who's 19 — last time she got it at midnight and was done with it by 3 in the morning — she reads really, really, fast.” The Romans ordered four copies, and Karie figures about 10 will be floating around the family. "We're making a pact: nobody tells anybody what happens,” she said. The festivities begin downtown at 5:30 p.m. Friday, July 20. The book goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
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