Thursday night, Emily Heck and her friends sat before a feast of butter beer, pumpkin pasties and cauldron cake and watched the most recent Harry Potter movie before flying off to see the midnight showing of the series' last installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.”

“I've been a huge fan of Harry Potter my whole life,” said Heck, who is going into her senior year at Summit High School. “I know a ton of people who are huge fans too.”

Heck is such a huge fan, in fact, she created a Harry Potter Fan Club at Summit High her sophomore year. Expecting only her group of friends to participate, the club ballooned to almost 70 members. Even guys from the football team and track teams were signing up to discuss the books and watch the movies. Everyone in the club was separated into a different Hogwarts house: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

“There was a ton of random kids who you wouldn't think are big fans of Harry Potter,” she said. “It was the biggest club in school. You don't realize how many people are fans of it.”

The stories are especially appealing to people Heck's age, she said, because they're the ones who grew up alongside the characters.

“When they were 11 we were 11, and now they're entering their senior year and we're entering our senior year,” she said.

Heck's personal draw to the stories is the realm: Rowling created a whole new world, rather than just basing the setting off modern day, she said. Her favorite character is Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster, because he's noble and so accepting of everyone, no matter the flaw. Heck cited a press conference a few years ago, when Rowling was asked if Dumbledore was ever married or hiding a secret woman.

“She had a realization that he's always been gay,” she said. “That's pretty cool.”

Stephanie Katz, who was the children's literature expert at the Dillon Borders before it closed down, said the stories appeal to both young and old. Katz oversaw numerous Harry Potter book release parties, and said both parents and children would come in dressed up as Potter characters. At the last one a few years ago, there was a costume contest and parade around the store, and a debate on whether Snape is a good guy or a bad guy. They eventually decided he was evil.

“I think there was an enormous joy in the fact that the parents were reading the same books the kids were,” Katz said. “It brought families together, and brought a lot of people who weren't normally readers together with their parents to have something they could share. I think that's the most lasting result of these books.”

On Thursday afternoon, Trans-Lux Skyline Cinema assistant manager Shane Meister said they had sold 360 tickets out of a possible 600 for the midnight showing. He didn't think they would totally sell out. The cinema set aside four theaters: Two for 3-D and two for 2-D.

Meister's worked there for a few Harry Potter premieres, and said people love to get in the spirit. Employees dress up, and attendees come decked out in Potter paraphernalia. And of course, the biggest fans show up donning full Hogwarts robes.

The film is also showing at the Speakeasy Theatre in Breckenridge.