“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” will be released to the salivating throngs Saturday at 12:01 a.m. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Harry Potter release without a late-night party.
InsideVandy tells you where to pick up your copy and have fun doing it. For the robe and pointy hat, however, you’re on your own.
Vanderbilt Bookstore
Marauder’s Map: Let’s hope you know where to find the bookstore by now.
Start of Term: 11 p.m.
Break Out Your Time Turner: From 11 to midnight, feast on refreshments and try your luck at the contests, including spell writing, trivia, guess the number of Bertie Botts beans and the omnipresent costume contest. Prizes will be Harry Potter-themed goodie bags and Vandy merchandise.
Extendable Ears Tell Me: This is, obviously, the only release party targeted especially to the Vanderbilt community. It’s not being advertised to Nashville at large, so if you hate little kids, this is the place to avoid them. However, about 100 high-achieving junior-high schoolers from the Vanderbilt Summer Academy will probably pack the store. Make sure you reserve your book before midnight to get the 40 percent discount; afterward, it drops to 30 percent off.
Barnes & Noble
Marauder’s Map: Opry Mills
Start of Term: 6 p.m.
Break Out Your Time Turner:
6 onward: Arts and crafts flashbacks to when you were in third grade and life was good. Make your own wand at Ollivander’s, or get your picture taken with Harry and then decorate the frame.
6-11: Take the Bertie Botts Bean-Counting Challenge and win the whole jar of Every Flavor Beans (winner announced at 11:30) or freak out the kiddies with a face-paint job.
7:30-9: Trivia time! Unfortunately, the contests are separated into three age groups so you can’t destroy a pack of 9-year-olds. On the other hand, there’s no chance for the 9-year-olds to show that you’re not smarter than a fifth-grader. 18+ trivia starts at 8:30.
9: Muggle magician John Pyka shows off his wizardry.
Extendable Ears Tell Me: This place is going to be packed, so get there early and bring anti-claustrophobia potion. Competition for the obligatory costume contest will probably be tight. So you can stay up the rest of the night to actually read the book you stood in line six hours to buy, check out Snape’s Apothecary in the cafe for a frappucino with delectable Potter-themed toppings such as troll boogers and flobberworms.
Borders
Marauder’s Map: Corner of 25th and West End Avenues
Start of Term: 9 p.m.
Break Out Your Time Turner: If your dress robes are better than Ron’s, Borders invites you to the Grand Hallows Ball from 9 to midnight. Enjoy costume contests, trivia, games, prizes and more as you rock out to wizard music.
Extendable Ears Tell Me: If only there were a spell to reserve parking spaces. Walk the short distance from campus, come early and expect crowds. Don’t worry about getting hungry as you wait for the stroke of — the cafe has you covered with Hogwarts-themed refreshments.
Davis-Kidd
Marauder’s Map: The Mall at Green Hills
Start of Term: 10 p.m.
Break Out Your Time Turner: The unofficial award for Most Unique Harry Potter Activity goes to the Care of Magical Creatures class here, which will feature honest-to-goodness live owls, snakes and a falcon. Hagrid would approve.
10 onward: Get your fortune told by resident batty old fraud Professor Trelawney, and learn the Science of Magic with the Mad Scientist. If you’re feeling like a kid and the airbrush tattoos and face-painting don’t satisfy you, try your hand at the Quidditch Pitch or Pin the Nose on Snape.
Extendable Ears Tell Me: Davis-Kidd’s is the only party guaranteed to be literally a zoo. In addition to the live animals, management expects more than 1,500 people to jam the store, so that anti-claustrophobia potion could come in handy here, too. If the parking lot of the otherwise closed mall manages to fill anyway, don’t despair; just head over to the garage on the left side of the movie theater.
