The clock struck midnight and the wait was over for hundreds of Harry Potter fans here this morning, as Hawai'i became the last state in the country to release for sale the seventh and final book in the mega-popular Harry Potter series.

Raz Levine was the first customer at Borders Books and Music at Ward Centre to get her hands on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," a 759-page book with an orange dust jacket.

"I'm going home and reading this and putting on a bit of Chopin," she said, smiling widely.

Levine, 60, of Kaimuki, said she was very excited about the new book and that "it's supposed to be like Star Wars, where everything ties together.

"I'll have to go back and read them all over again."

Nearly 1,000 people jammed Borders, employee Sousou Luteru said. About 800 showed up a year ago when "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was released a year ago, he said.

Luteru estimated that about 20 to 30 percent of the reservations wouldn't show, meaning everyone who shows up tonight is very likely to get a copy.

"It was kind of crazy," he said. "The air conditioning couldn't stand up to the challenge of so many people."

Much to the frustration of some in line, some people who had already purchased their books started thumbing through the top-secret final pages.

Standing in line for a book release was a first for Carmen Say, 18, from Downtown Honolulu, who was excited to get her copy of the book.

"I can't wait to read it," she said. "Although, my brother is first in line so I'll get it after him."

Say had been at the store at 10:30 p.m. She said she was surprised at how many people showed up.

She had also read one of the spoilers about the book's mysterious plot, and said, "I tried not to hear anything from anyone else. I'll definitely try to read it tonight."

Chris Raguindin, 21, of Kaka'ako, a fifth-year student at the University of Hawai'i, switched off with a friend who held his place in line while he was at work.

"There are spoilers everywhere. I just stay away from those,""he said, adding he might have to lock himself in his room to avoid finding out the ending before he reached the final pages.

"I might just stay awake and not sleep," he said.

"It's just one of those kinds of books where the whole world kind of stops," said Carolyn Abing of Diamond Head, who is a vice president of a computer consulting company by day and a Harry Potter fan.

Like untold others worldwide, Abing couldn't wait to tear into her copy of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" when it became available at 12:01 this morning.

In the children's reading section at Barnes and Noble at Ala Moana Center last night, Toa Lohe, 13, an incoming eighth-grader at 'Aiea Intermediate School, came dressed as Harry Potter, wearing a black robe with the Gryffindor crest, a tall brown hat and a red and yellow striped scarf, carrying a stuffed version of Harry's owl, Hedwig.

Like other Harry Potter wannabes, Toa also outfitted himself with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

"I like the story because it's more of a modern magic story than, for example, 'Lord of the Rings,' " he said. "The characters are more believable."

Lohe, who entered the Barnes and Noble costume contest, said the Potter books are great to read before going to sleep and couldn't wait to claim his copy just after midnight.

"I'm hoping that Harry Potter doesn't die," he said.

His sister, Raiatea Lohe, 12, prefers her favorite character, Hermione Granger, who she sees as a role model for young female readers.

"She's independent and a strong character for girls," she said. "And she's smart."

"Deathly Hallows" has a print run of 12 million in the United States alone, and Internet retailer Amazon says it has taken 2.2 million orders for the book. Britain's Royal Mail says it will deliver 600,000 copies today; the U.S. Postal Service says it will ship 1.8 million.

Shops worldwide were putting the book on sale at the same time — a minute past midnight British time (1:01 p.m. Hawai'i time yesterday). Readers in the United States had to wait until midnight strikes in each time zone, from 12:01 a.m. EDT today.

Even non-Harry Potter readers got swept up in the excitement last night.

Four-year-old Heather Elkind can't yet read and her mother, Adrienne Elkind, an attorney from Hawai'i Kai, feels the books are too scary for Heather.

Instead, mother and daughter stopped in at Barnes and Noble at Ala Moana to buy Heather "Dick and Jane" books.

Three hours later, after Heather voted in the store's Harry Potter costume contest, colored a cardboard Harry Potter picture frame and tried to join in on a Harry Potter trivia contest, Adrienne was calculating how late she could keep her daughter up.

At 10:30 p.m. — an hour and a half past Heather's normal bedtime — Adrienne wondered whether it was worth it to stick around until midnight to buy "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" for herself and her husband, Rick, who have both read the previous six books.

"We've tried to leave twice already," Adrienne said. "Now she wants to get Harry Potter's autograph. If we stay, tonight would be a real treat for her."

Danette Ngo of McCully stepped into Barnes and Noble after dinner at Ala Moana. Within minutes, her sons Matthew, 8, and Benjamin, 10, were on the floor of the store playing Harry Potter games with other children sprawled on cloth pads that employees had laid out.

Matthew has never read a Harry Potter book.

"It's scary," he said.

But Matthew nevertheless found himself mesmerized by a Harry Potter board game.

"We just stumbled in," his mother said.

"We received way more reservations than we thought we were going to be getting," said Monica Coldwell, spokeswoman for Barnes and Noble at Ala Moana.

Easily half of all the phone calls the store received on Thursday were Harry Potter-related, she said.

The series started in 1997 with the publication of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which Rowling wrote as a struggling single mother. The book became a New York Times and USA Today best-seller and won the 1997 National Book Award in the U.K.

"I'm a little sad because it's the last one," said Kaikai Higashiyama, a 10-year-old visitor from Pasadena, Calif. But "I'm excited to know about the story because it's the last book."

Earlier yesterday at Borders Ward Centre, nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for a few witches playing cards in the classical music section and another looking up book titles on a computer.

Next to the cash register were Chocolate Frogs, Jelly Slugs, Blood Pops and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans — staple junk food of the students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where Harry Potter and his friends learn the art of magic.

Borders Ward Centre alone had received more than 3,000 reservations for the book.

Two hundred people had showed up by 2 p.m. to get colored wristbands that would guarantee them a spot in line. A scavenger hunt, magic show and costume contest also were planned for the evening.

"It's not like any other story. It's original," said Haley Abing, 16, an incoming junior at La Pietra, who has read almost all the books and has seen all the movies.

Abing was only 6 when the first novel came out in 1997, and began reading the series with her mother until she was old enough to tackle them herself.

For her, the stories never lose their allure.

Like the books, Haley said, "I wish I was magic."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.