Expecto Potter

Friday night at midnight saw the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Your Boulevardier had pre-ordered a copy at Hayward's The Book Shop and so attended its gathering; a formidable Hagrid, a woman in Renaissance garb carrying a picture frame, several impressive Professor Trelawneys (including mon ami K.J. and shop manager Renee), and myriad other magical creatures of all ages were in attendance. Your Boulevardier, not being an aficionado of amplified pennywhistles and high-pitched stringed instruments, forewent the pre-opening party with "Progressive Celtic & Medieval Rock" band Avalon Rising at the neighboring Bistro.

Meanwhile, a gathering at Jordan's Village Books in Castro Village was held, and my youthful colleague, Neveu de Boulevardier, submitted this report.

We arrived about 11:45 p.m. and noticed the energy level had apparently tapered off by then. Older teens and young adults were already looking a bit bored and had taken up posts near the bike shop across the parking lot, or wandering about looking in store windows. The doorway to Jordan's was packed, though. A few kids had capes, some had lightning bolts or moons painted on their faces, but many people in line were standard-issue adults. Several children tapped each other with magic wands to pass the time. Lord knows how long they had been there.

As we inched our way inside, a clerk gave us a ticket to trade in for our prepaid book at midnight. She had a yellow legal tablet with perhaps a hundred names on it, crossing each of us off as we arrived. As the minutes passed, people commented on how great it was to have a guaranteed copy waiting for each and every one of us. Someone mentioned that at Borders and other large bookstores they might let you in, but might not even sell you a book that night. Plus, it is hard to miss the fact that Jordan's hires good-looking employees.

The line snaked around between the bookshelves, finally returning to the center of the store where a table was set up to distribute the books. This technique worked on us last time, as we bought two additional books which attracted our attention during the wait. However, this time we arrived so late that we actually only waited a few minutes until the boxes were opened. We did have time to see two bizarre products: sets of three purposely-mismatched socks ("These socks don't match!" says the display) and stick-on colored window decorations which were so thick they appeared to be made out of Jello Jigglers.

Suddenly one of the employees led a countdown to midnight, everyone cheered, and the line rapidly advanced through the store to the disbribution table. Some people picked up more than one book but there seemed to be enough for everyone. During this mass exodus, we were carried along with a wave of people out the door. By 12:07 we were in our car and on our way home.