Borders employee Rebecca Kershner, left, dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange, stumps Beth Carter, dressed as Helga Hufflepuff, center, in a battle of wits while role-playing Friday night while awaiting the newest Harry Potter book at Borders, 700 New Hampshire St. I

Finally, the mysteries of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series will be solved. The final book about the wildly popular young wizard, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was released today.

Amy Connolly, 21, of Lawrence, was the 16th person – in a line of more than 60 people outside The Raven Bookstore, 6 E. Seventh St. – to pick up a reserved book at 12:01 a.m., the official release time. She shouted out a countdown several times saying, “Soon we’ll know everything.”

“I’m reading all night long,” she said.

Connolly started the series when it was first released in 1997.

“I think my whole world will be turned upside down when I’m finished reading it,” she said.

Kelly Harper Berkson, of Lawrence, was the first person in line. She rushed out of the bookstore, which had 205 copies on hand, hoping to avoid any shouts from passersby who might spoil the ending. Such was the case two years ago at Lawrence’s Borders bookstore when the sixth book was released, she said.

“I think J.K Rowling is a genius,” she said. “She energized a whole generation of readers.”

Fans of all ages, swept up in the magical spirit of the series and launch parties, filled several other Lawrence locations that were selling the book.

Harrison Feldt, 10, was dressed as Harry Potter for the “Grand Hallows Ball” costume contest at Borders , 700 N.H. His mother, Marsene Feldt, of Lawrence, used lipliner to draw Potter’s infamous lightning-bolt scar on his forehead.

For two years, Marsene Feldt, a fan herself, said she urged her son to read the books because she knew he would love them. Apparently she was right. He read all six books in six weeks this summer.

They came to Borders at 10:30 in the morning when the lengthy line of eager fans waiting to pick up reservation tickets had diminished.

Borders had no information available on how many of the books it expected to sell, but said numbers would be available later today.

Kaity Melvin, 13, also at Borders, was dressed as the main female character, Hermione Granger. She wore a long black cloak that her grandmother made for her when she was 8. On it was a Gryffindor patch, Harry Potter’s house in the imaginary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

“She is really into books and so am I,” Kaity said about the character.

Kaity said she planned to finish in just two days the book she reserved in April. She said she couldn’t choose just one aspect of Rowling’s series she appreciates, but she did learn a lesson from them: not to judge people based on appearances.

“They do have a lot of life lessons that are kind of hidden,” she said.

At Dillons, 1015 W. 23rd St., sisters Mikaela Shelton, 13, and Mariah Shelton, 8, who are fans of the Harry Potter films, made wands and hats. As they watched people participate in a cake walk, their mother, Toni, of Lawrence, also a Potter fan, said she was going to Wal-Mart at midnight to pick up her reserved copy. She said she’s ignored spoilers that have appeared recently, but since she’ll know the ending before her daughters, she’ll have to fight off their pleas to reveal the ending.