Spoiler alert: most Harry Potter fans only dress up for the midnight premieres of the movies. After that, the best costume is to simply wear a red and gold scarf.

Meghan Garby, a freshman special education and elementary education major, brought her own wand to the University Board’s showing of the most recent movie, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1,” Friday and Saturday in the Buzzard Hall auditorium. Garby’s handmade wand was made of oak and unicorn hair, or, in non-magical terms, a rod with pipe cleaners wrapped around it.

Aside from attire, everything else was generally the same as a midnight showing, from the gasp as the Warner Bros. logo appears and the music eerily plays, to the giggles at character’s jokes, to the fear of what the Death Eaters are up to, and to the tears as a loved character dies.

Before the movie, guests listened to the humorous tunes of the wizard rock group, Harry and the Potters, tested their Potter trivia with “Harry Potter Scene It?” and had their pictures taken in front of a brick wall with the Hogwarts crest on it.

Ash Elkins, a sophomore journalism major and the UB’s movie coordinator, said she tries to make the raffle baskets related to the movie.

For Harry Potter, this meant wine glasses filled with Hot Tamales: “Goblets of Fire.”

Other items in the baskets were Harry Potter glasses, small “Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes” magic kits and “colored wands,” or glow sticks, each with a different spell.

To add to the Potter excitement, the EIU Quidditch Team, nicknamed the “Flying Panthers,” “flew” in on their brooms before the movie started, prepared to share information and recruit more members to the team before its first intercollegiate match at Illinois State University this spring, said Brandon Heller, the EIU Quidditch team coordinator.

The team was supposed to have a match against University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, but “U of I couldn’t get off the ground,” said Liz Surbeck, Harry Potter Club president.

“It’s the sort of game you can’t take too seriously- you have a broom between your legs,” Surbeck said. “And yes, you do get bruises between your legs if you run too fast.”

For many audience members, this was not their first time seeing the movie.

Erin Adam, a sophomore kinesiology and sports studies major, said she read the book two times, but only saw the movie once.

“It’s too expensive to see twice (in theaters),” she said.

Andrew Lilek, a sophomore art major, and Michelle Bird, a freshman accounting major, had both seen the movie three times.

Molly McNamara, a sophomore elementary education major, said Friday was her first viewing of the latest Harry Potter movie.

“Normally I see every one with my family, but I didn’t have any time to over winter break,” she said.

Emotions run high when it comes to Harry Potter movies, especially as the end of the global phenomenon is in sight.

Morgan Gardner, a freshman biology major, admitted to crying during the movie, despite seeing it multiple times.

The final movie in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” hits theaters July 15.

Ashley Holstrom can be reached at 581-7942 or alholstrom@eiu.edu.

Kaitlyn Gabric, a freshman special education major, twirls a broomstick Saturday before a showing of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” in Buzzard Hall. Gabric is part of Eastern’s Harry Potter Club and is a member of the EIU Quidditch team. (

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