At around 10:30 p.m., I headed over to my local Barnes & Noble for ?Midnight Magic? and the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It?s true that I?ve been growing weary of Pottermania, but I thought the experience might be good for shits and giggles. Plus I didn?t have anything better to do tonight.

As I neared the shopping center, my mouth dropped open when I saw all the traffic. Awe turned into annoyance when I realized that parking was going to be hard to find. Being a native New Jerseyan and regular mall shopper, I quickly shifted into stealth parking mode. When I found my target, a guy carrying two large take-out bags, I slowly eased my car into position and stalked him at 2 m.p.h. all the way to his vehicle.

Inside the store, I kept looking for the ?Midnight Magic? but didn?t find much going other than Hogwarts fans occupying every inch of floor space and a decimated table which was once home to a display of the boxed set of books one through five. I passed on the goodie bag containing Harry Potter glasses and thunderbolt tattoos.

Up in the fiction section, I asked a clerk how many copies they expected to sell tonight. ?Well, we?re not supposed to talk about it,? she began. ?But I?ll tell you anyway.? The store handed out 2,000 yellow advance reservation wristbands. By the time I walked in, they had already gone through an additional 600 orange walk-in wristbands and estimated that they would sell 3,500 books by the time the last customer left somewhere around 3 a.m. All 8,000 copies in their inventory are supposed to be sold out by Monday.

Hmm? 8,000 times $29.99 less the 40% discount offered to the customer, oh, but then you have to figure that they probably got a 55% trade discount off list, and um, it comes out to be? Whoa! Was that an actual prisoner of Azkaban? ?a huge freaking sum of money for one store for one book in one weekend.

The PA system clicked on at 15 minute intervals to let everyone know that midnight was nigh. I thought about leaving before the madness began, but the friendly clerk suggested that the grand unveiling would be exciting. Oh, okay.

At just about midnight, I was pleasantly surprised at running into fellow blogger Riss of Tequila Shots for the Soul. Although she lives closer to another Barnes & Noble in an urban area, she decided on a suburban location because of the enormous parking lot. She sent her husband, Geo, out at 4:30 p.m. for her wristband, and he landed her lucky number 48. When the books went on sale, Riss let out a cheer and double timed it over to the registers since she was in the first group of buyers.

Some couldn?t even wait to leave the store before they started reading. Some took pictures of their children proudly holding the book, wearing their Hogwarts uniforms and huge smiles. Others jumped up and down and excitedly chattered about finally having Harry?s next adventure in their hands. The buzz outside the store was infectious.

During the drive home, I thought about how my bad attitude toward Harry might be unfounded. Before I arrived, I expected the whole scene to be pathetic. Sure, dressing like a wizard or drawing a thunderbolt on your forehead or getting into a 3500-person line might seem kind of silly from a distance. Being there and watching all of the excitement over a book made me wish my current reading selection contained a little magic.

But do you know what?s really pathetic? I didn't even buy it.