On Friday night, July 21, Harry Potter parties were everywhere, in every state in the Union, and many countries throughout the world. Chain bookstores held a host of events, including a huge one at Barnes & Noble in NYC's Union Square, featuring HP narrator Jim Dale. And the indies rose to the occasion, drawing hundreds—in some cases, thousands—of customers in celebration of Harry, and of independent bookselling. Here we present a photographic sampling of the many festivities.

Harry Potter's American publisher Scholastic pulled out all the stops, turning the block behind its headquarters in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood into Harry Potter Place. An estimated 12,000 people visited Harry Potter Place during Friday's celebration.

Fans of all ages flooded the streets around Scholastic, dressed as their favorite characters.

Scholastic CEO and chairman Richard Robinson held aloft a copy of Deathly Hallows.

Winding up a seven-week national tour, the Knight Bus pulled up in front of Scholastic to herald the arrival of HP7.

Attendees kept on their guard near the 20-foot tall Whomping Willow that loomed overhead.

Up in the northeast corner of the country, Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, had a turnout of more than 300 for its Potter Party, which featured an Acromantula cake, in honor of the Order of the Acromantula, a fictitious rebel group created by store owner, Kenneth Brechner.

Here, Ministry officials threatened to seize copies of Deathly Hallows, though the Order won out in the end, to onlookers' delight. Party guests could take aptitude tests in Antidotes, Potent Herbology, Dark Object Identification, Rune Breaking and other subjects. Brechner called the event a "stupendous success."

Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., had more than 800 people at its Potter Party. At midnight, Dumbledore's Army descended an iron staircase with the long-awaited book, making them a target for a group of Dementors and Death Eaters. Happily their efforts were thwarted, and the store sold out of all 750 copies.

Northshire staffers joined in the fun and turned up in costume.

Hundreds of mini-clad Hermiones, long black-robed Harrys, a Dumbledore or two and even one woman with a "Not a Muggle" sign pinned to the front of her T-shirt were part of the Friday night extravaganza as Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., was transformed into Hogwarts Square.

According to police estimates, between 15,000 and 20,000 people passed through Hogwarts Yard between 7pm and the witching hour, when books officially went on sale at the Harvard Coop, Harvard Book Store, Curious George Goes to WordsWorth and Newbury Comics. One junior at Boston Latin High School holding a snow-white Hedwig told PW, "I went to the movie opening at midnight. I'm wicked excited about the book. I don't want Hermione to die, but if Harry has to die, the story's still awesome."

Harry and Hermione look-alikes posed for a photo on the T heading to Harvard Square.

Thousands came out to experience Harry Potter Day in Sandwich, Mass., beginning with opening ceremonies conducted from the Ministry of Magic (aka the Sandwich Town Hall). The town's gristmill became a Shrieking Shack and area museums, schools, restaurants and businesses all got in on the action as well. Titcomb's Bookshop featured courses in Divination and held a midnight party, of course, as did the local library.

After midnight, stacks of books awaited eager readers at Titcomb's.

At Creekside Books & Coffee in Skaneateles, N.Y., the store's coffeehouse became a Forbidden Forest, complete with trees, lights, spiders—and a few Dementors.



The store itself was transformed into Hogwarts Academy, and around 350 people turned out for wand-making, fortune-telling, a host of games and activities—and of course, for their long-awaited copies of the book.



Back in New York City, Scholastic's event wasn't the only game in town. Barnes and Noble's Union Square location hosted a Midnight Magic Costume Party that included a costume contest, stilt walkers, magic shows and a reading by Jim Dale, narrator of Listening Library's Harry Potter audiobooks.

Denise Lyles, manager of the Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem, said, "Over the weekend we sold 112 copies—full price at $37.93. I'll never forget that price." She said that on Friday night, some customers left the lines at Scholastic to take the subway uptown to buy copies at her store.

Books of Wonder sold 1,500 copies of Deathly Hallows during its Harry Potter Festival on Friday night, including 300 copies of the deluxe edition. The event featured jugglers, magicians, tarot card-readers and more, prompting store owner Peter Glassman to say, "In my 27 years of running events, this was the best we'd ever had."

Further down the East Coast, Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, N.C., had over 2,500 customers turn out for their Harry Potter bash, where 1,000 prepaid copies were distributed in 40 minutes. In addition, Carol Moyer, manager of the children's department, reported that sales of non-Harry Potter books throughout the weekend were "gratifyingly high."

Professor Sprout (winner of the costume contest) painted faces. In addition to humans, animals made a strong showing, with a miniature horse (Harry Trotter), a snowy owl and a bevy of snakes in attendance.

The party at Spellbound Children's Bookstore in Asheville, N.C., "featured face painting, wand making, a sorting ceremony, and a game-show style trivia contest," according to store owner Leslie Hawkins. "We also had costume contests for kids and adults, door prizes, NEWTs for the students to take, and a local gelato stand offered Potter-themed flavors of gelato for sale, butterbeer and pumpkin juice."

A Potterphile dressed up as photog Colin Creevey.

A sorting hat was used to choose teams for Spellbound's trivia contest.

More than 10,000 people descended upon Hudson, Ohio for the town's Harry Potter Extravaganza. The Learned Owl Bookshop became Flourish & Botts for the day's festivities. Events included a scavenger hunt, magic show, live animal demonstrations and a Grand Parade of Lanterns. The event raised money for First Book in Akron, a nonprofit organization that distributes books to lower-income families.per the Learned Owl site. Above, costumed fans gather 'round Hagrid.

Chocolate frogs were among the Potter treats to eat.

Staffers at the Learned Owl, in costume.

At Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Pittsburgh there was a huge turnout for a Friday night Deathly Hallows release party that included broom making, balloon art, face painting, divination, trivia and costume contests, a custom Nimbus 2000 giveaway and visits from both a live Barred owl and an authentic-looking Dementor that thankfully was not the real deal. "Just seeing this many people in the store is so energizing!" said book manager Chris Rickert. "We sold well over 500 [prepaid] vouchers. Tonight we planned for 1,000 people and we're running out of Polyjuice Potion!"

River Solowitch of Pittsburgh donned the garb of one of his favorite Potter characters, Mad-Eye Moody.

Joseph-Beth staffers used a sorting hat to place customers into their school houses. Members of each house earned points for good behavior throughout the party.

There were many Harry Potter celebrations in the library world as well. Saturday, July 21 was "Potter Pandemonium" at
Mt. Lebanon Public Library in Pittsburgh. Librarians served up Potterific crafts, games, snacks and activities. Festivities included a thorough de-gnoming of the library; a exciting round of Quidditch practice; Bertie Bott's Bingo; Chocolate Frog origami (with Cockroach Cluster snack); quill, wand and spell-pouch making; concocting oozing oobleck; edible pretzel wand decoration; and butterbeer floats. County-wide, the library system registered over 1,000 holds for Deathly Hallows.

Just outside Chicago, fans arrived in droves to Naperville, Ill., for the Party That Shall Not Be Named, spearheaded by Anderson's Bookshops. Over 70,000 people came out for a day's worth of activities that took place across the city, ranging from live chess games to a tattoo station and more. Store manager Kris Nugent said that at least 2,000 people received copies of Deathly Hallows on Friday night.

In Naperville, a duo were decked out as fan favorites Dumbledore and Snape.

Over in Oak Park, Ill., a day-long celebration included a recreation of Azkaban in the basement of a local church, a Quidditch tournament and events at stores city-wide. At the Magic Tree Bookstore, fans were treated to fortune-telling, courtesy of Professor Trelawney, as well as a moving portrait of Dumbledore and the Weasley family's examination of Muggle artifacts.

MuggleNet.com creator Emerson Spartz spoke at Magic Tree just before midnight.

In the land of 10,000 lakes, Northern Lights Books & Gifts in Duluth, Minn., led fans on a railroad trip—with Harry, Hermione and Ron taking on book-thieving Dementors in a pyrotechnic battle—before returning passengers to Union Railroad Depot, which had been converted to Hogwarts for the evening's festivities. Anita Zager, owner of Northern Lights, said she sold 640 copies of her 700-book order on Friday night, with the rest sold on Saturday.

Here, Harry hands out rescued copies of Deathly Hallows.

Rachel Sipress, age nine, and Laura Erickson, author of 101 Ways to Help Birds, and her owl, at the Potter party. Of the party, Sipress said, "This is bigger than the Millenium!"

Down in the Lone Star State, Brazos Bookstore in Houston hosted a marathon reading of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, leading up to the midnight delivery of HP7.

Here one Harry fan proudly shows off her brand-new copy of Deathly Hallows.

Up in the Rockies, Tattered Cover estimated that more than 4,000 Potterphiles flocked to their two Denver locations.

Youngsters were treated to face painting, potion mixing, wand making and other activities.

Doug "Dumbledore" Dutton, owner of Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore in Los Angeles, presided over his store's festivities. He cautioned visitors about various store rules, including "No apparating to the front of the line" and "The use of exploding money is strictly prohibited."

Moving portraits (here, Luke Goldstein, age nine, as Dumbledore), trivia contests and refreshments that included butterbeer and firewhiskey kept patrons entertained as a group of more than 500 anxiously counted down the minutes until the book's release—and celebrated with jubilant cheers at midnight.

And lest anyone think that only Americans know how to throw a Potter Party, London proved to be the epicenter of Potter-dom in the U.K., with epic bashes, one of which counted author Rowling in attendance. In the hours leading up to midnight, the party began as London was besieged by wizards, Deatheaters, werewolves, Hogwarts pupils and anything else that might pass as a Rowling character. Waterstone's in Piccadilly celebrated in style with a couple of owls alongside Harry, Snape, Hagrid and more. Copies of the book were stacked in piles but shrouded under black covers.

J.K. Rowling herself was in the dramatic setting of the Natural History Museum, where Bloomsbury created an event described as a "return to the beginning." When Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published 10 years ago, first novelist Rowling did a signing in a Waterstone's in Edinburgh with a tiny handful of readers. This time, the signing was a seven-hour marathon for 1,700 children, including seven from the U.S., who were chosen by ballot out of 100,000 entrants to an online competition. All were given a book and the first 500 got to hear Rowling read the first chapter of the new title.

Elsewhere around town, Potter fans celebrated in costume at Muswell Hill Children's Bookshop in North London.

British actor Joss Ackland participated in the festivities at Walter Henry Bookshop in North Devon.

In Dublin, a crowd of 150 gathered at Dubray Books, which had fans lining up as early as 10 AM. Lines were divided between those who wanted the "adult" cover or the "children's" one (Bloomsbury, the book's U.K. publisher, released two editions), and the winner of a raffle snagged a copy signed by Rowling.

And Down Under, the Wizard Express took over 200 Australian fans through the Blue Mountains, in an event arranged by Sydney bookstore Better Read Than Dead.

Showing off costumes and brand-new copies of Deathly Hallows in Sydney.

At the Tel Aviv port, more than 3,000 Israeli Potterphiles attended an event sponsored by local chain Steimatzky. According to store buyer Nancy Ayalon, this was the only public Harry Potter event in Israel. "We had acrobats to amuse the audience, as well as human statues dressed up as Harry Potter and Dumbledore," Ayalon said. "Thousands of balloons were released to mark the end of the long wait. It was an incredible event when you consider that the book is not yet available in Hebrew."

At 2:01 AM local time, Israeli readers plopped down with their new copies of Deathly Hallows.

No matter what part of the world they call home, or what time zone they were in when HP7 finally went on sale, millions of fans went home happy— most likely to a weekend filled of reading.