Final Harry Potter Movie Bittersweet for Young Fans

It was a hodgepodge blend between prom and Halloween at Sonoma Cinemas Thursday night, as kids, teens and yes, young adults, gathered for the midnight release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II,” the final movie adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s seven-part series.

Ticket lines for the sold out show snaked around theater – a fatigued clerk placed the numbers at just under 800 – as fans prepared to say their farewell to the little wizard who could.

"I think I've read [the books] each two times,” said Meagan Durfee, 17, who donned a full white-beard and cloak for her Dumbledore costume, to complete, along with friends, the full Potter cast: from Bellatrix Lestrange to Professor Trelawney.

"It’s been, like what, 10 years of movies," said Durfee, who said she felt sad as she faced down the final epic.

"I wanna cry, I'm going in there expecting to cry," said Lucia Tinajero, 20, who, along with fellow Potter-fanatic Jennifer Barnes, donned Gryffindor colors for the screening. "It's just bittersweet,” she said.

(Would Twilight serve to fill their fantasy void? “No way,” said both girls.)

"Just the whole idea of it: being able to escape to someplace where you can do magic, and it's not just, like sparkly vampires," said Barnes, 20.

Moreover, the timing of Rowling’s novels and film adaptation spanned both girl’s childhood.

"All the actors in the movie are exactly the same age as us, exactly," said Barnes.

For others, the symbolic entrance into adulthood was welcome.

"I feel like it's as if I grew up with the actors, so we can look at it as something that happened in our lives,” said Lauren Upton, 21. “But it doesn't have to continue into our 20s and 30s.”  

The finality of was lost on Upton’s boyfriend, Tim McKinnon, 23: “"Eh, I'm just coming,” he said, stuffing hands into pockets.

So, what does a post-Potter world look like? Fans said they’d flock to the fan chat site Mugglenet while they wait for J.K. Rowling’s hyped up release of “Pottermore” a virtual reality version of wizard-land.

Still, there’s no substitution for the real deal.

"I'm just gonna miss it, I just can’t believe we're never gonna get to dress up for this again," said Tinajero