A magical evening for Potter fans

A coven of Wellesley’s witches and wizards gathered downtown last week to celebrate Harry Potter’s final adventure.

Starting at the Wellesley Free Library and moving gradually down to the Wellesley Booksmith on Central Street, adults and children alike dressed as their favorite Potter characters and paid tribute to the popular books that have sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide.

“A whole generation has been turned on to reading because of these books,” said Marian Ossman, a Wellesley children’s librarian who greeted Potter fans at the library entrance dressed in full wizard garb. “They have wonderful characters, and most of the children are able to have at least one character to relate to. Is there a child anywhere who hasn’t dreamed of performing magic?”

The library set up several Potter-related activities for partygoers to enjoy, including a costume contest, a crafts section where children could make their own paper owls, and even a real live magic show performed by Rhode Island-based magician Bruce Kalver. Librarian Jan Drake, meanwhile, served bewitching treats, including English trifle, Scottish shortcake, doughnut holes and several sugary “potions” that looked suspiciously like Kool-Aid. Despite concocting the potions herself, Drake said she had no idea what their magical properties were.

“One child said he thought the blue potion was unicorn blood,” she said. “But I’m not sure. You’d have to ask the Kool-Aid company what exactly is in their potion.”

In between creating paper owl puppets and munching on enchanted doughnut holes, many Potter partiers reflected on their favorite book series and speculated on what they thought would happen in the final book. Nine-year-old Ann McDonald of Natick, who came to the party dressed as Professor Sybill Trelawney, said she was “very excited” to read the final book and predicted that “Harry will go searching for [chief antagonist] Voldemort and probably kill him.”

McDonald’s mother, Rebecca Goodman, praised the Potter series for making her daughter passionate about books.

“It’s created a real enthusiasm for reading,” she said. “She’s very interested in fantasy books now.”

Many children at the party said that they had had read the Potter books not only once, but multiple times. Seven-year-old Avery Wickersham, who dressed as protagonist Hermoine Granger, said that she had read the fifth Harry Potter book 18 times. Eleven-year-old Eliza Klenk, meanwhile, said that she had read the first Harry Potter book more than “1,400 times.” Her mother, Kate Klenk, cautioned that Eliza’s estimate was a little high, but acknowledged that she had read many of the books multiple times.

The Harry Potter series, which has also spawned five successful blockbuster movies so far, is a seven-part coming-of-age story for about a young wizard and his struggles to defeat Lord Voldemort, an evil wizard who years earlier had murdered Harry’s parents. The final book in the Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was released just after midnight on Saturday.