![\"hil_in_garb.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/hil_in_garb.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI hadn’t meant to stay. But the crowds built, the excitement mounted, and we spectator types, both empathetic voyeurs as well as wry connoisseurs of irony, lingered. And at the stroke of 12:01, a velvet drape was whisked off the waiting cases of tomes, and the first happy customer headed off for some long-awaited closure.<\/p>\n
It was pretty calm. Some folks in costume, most not, the first customer but a putative adult in street clothes, and yet many a witch or specific character impersonator — even one Death Eater in a Scream mask — surged down the rapidly flowing line to claim their own reward. I shot a few images but was too shy to capture the most salient result — big smiles on young and not-so-young alike. The sense of disbelieving rejoicing was widespread. So I leave you with this image of two happy campers with their freshly-minted magic carpet ride, me sidling in on their dad capturing their moment before joining the flow outta there.<\/p>\n More Photos\u00c2\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I hadn’t meant to stay. Actually, I had meant to miss this by hours — Michael hinted that Hil B would be in appropriate garb at the one-minute-after-midnight Sudbury Paperstore long-awaited sale of the last in the Harry Potter series, … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n