Harry Potter Craze Ends with a Bang!

At midnight, one the third Saturday of July, 2007, fans lined up around the world to get a glimpse and a taste of Harry Potter's grand finale.

The seventh book in J.K. Rowling's series takes young Harry through adolescence and the teenage years along with his friends. The looming question of the last novel is who will make it through the pages alive.

The gang of friends arrives at a showdown with Lord Voldemort who is the ultimate evil figure in the wizard world.

Fans of Harry Potter gathered at bookstores around the world, particularly in London, home of J.K. Rowling. Many of the fans arrived dressed in their favorite characters' costumes and stood in long lines in the rain.

It was reported on CNN that some fans actually waited for three days and had come from Iceland and the Netherlands.

In the United States, several people camped out Thursday night outside a Borders store in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania willing to wait the two days for the book to be released.

Similarly, in Atlanta, Georgia, approximately 50 people were lined up at 5pm to get wristbands for the Potter festivities following the book sale.

Several people had called to reserve places on the waiting list as early as February of 2007.

Interestingly enough, there were several people who ended up with copies of the book earlier than its said release date. This was largely in part due to online retail mix-ups.

So far, the Harry Potter series has sold 325 million copies worldwide. Retail stores are taking advantage of the book's popularity, with good reason. Festivals, magic shows, contests and musical performances are all being incorporated into bookstores to enhance the profit of the book sales.

The popularity of Harry Potter has also led to billions of profit from the movies, games, clothing, trading cards, journals, T-shirts, calendars and more.

Harry Potter products have not brought in quite as much revenue as the books or movies themselves, however.

The movie version of the 5th Harry potter book came out this month as well, bringing in an easy $200 million in box office sales within the first two weeks of the movie's release.

The movie titled, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was produced by Warner Bros.

The series was born from a character created by Rowling on a train ride from Manchester to London. In 1994, Rowling finished the first book which was largely inspired by the deep emotions Rowling experienced after the death of her mother.

Rowling began writing mostly in coffee shops in Edinburgh, Scotland.

It took two years for the book to land a publisher and another year before it was released in Great Britian (cnn.com).

Harry Potter is currently much more than a children's series, it has infiltrated into pop culture and into the educational realm in many ways.

While the series is not allowed in certain schools, many children enjoy reading them anyway and Harry Potter is even taught in some places of higher education. At the Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, for example," Harry Potter and Twentieth-Century Fantasy" is currently a course offered.

The professor of the course has a goal of bringing students who are already familiar with the fantasy and excitement of the books to the point where they can appreciate the series as an exceptional literary work.

The Potter craze has also infiltrated into the tourist industry with a resort in Orlando, Florida. The 20-acre theme park dubbed, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, is scheduled to open in 2009.

While the series has officially ended by Rowling who wrote the last chapters years ago, there is a little room for future adventures.

According to CNN.com, finishing the series was very emotional for Rowling. The author stated it was a combination of relief and sadness.

The Potter series will of course live on and it is likely to even increase in popularity over the years to come. As the generation of readers turns into young adults and passes the legacy onto their children, Harry Potter will continue to lure readers into the fantasy world created by Rowling.