Fans Line Up to Snare Latest on Harry Potter

At last! Faster than a turbo-powered broomstick, Harry Potter is flying off the shelves.

Bookstores across Britain flung open their doors at a minute past midnight Saturday, London time, to admit hordes of would-be witches, warlocks and muggles -- Potter-speak for non-magical humans.

All were eager to get their hands on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the latest volume of the boy wizard’s adventures. Shops as far afield as Singapore and Australia put the 600-plus page book on sale at the same time.

“I’m going to read it all at once. I don’t think I could stop once I got started,” said Katrine Skovgaard, 18, who traveled from Denmark and waited in line for six hours before collecting her copy at a London bookstore.

In Edinburgh, author J.K. Rowling emerged from behind a secret panel inside the city’s medieval castle to read an excerpt from the sixth chapter to a select group of 70 children.

Millions of Harry’s fans can now solve the mysteries that Rowling hinted at for months: Will Harry’s teenage friends Ron and Hermione find romance? Which major character will die? Who is the half-blood prince?

With brief interruptions, “Half-Blood Prince” has topped the charts of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com since December, when Rowling said that she had completed it.