Waiting with their wands ready

Blood may be thicker than water, but Hogwarts house loyalties ran strong in the McSherley sisters as they waited in line for the midnight showing of the newest movie in the wizardry series, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

The sisters identify with opposing houses Slytherin and Gryffindor, which have a notorious, age-old rivalry in the Harry Potter series.

Amy McSherley, 22, proudly proclaimed her Slytherin pride in full-length black robes with the house crest’s green and silver emblazoned on her chest, a serpent-green tie and a black wand, as she booed a fan who joined the queue for Gryffindor — the house her sister, 24-year-old Whitney McSherley, identifies with.

In the series, students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are sorted into four houses based on their personality traits — Hufflepuffs are loyal and hard-working, Ravenclaws possess intelligence and wit, courage and chivalry are valued in Gryffindors and Slytherins pride themselves on being cunning and ambitious. For true devotees of the series, the deep hatred of the two houses is no laughing matter, but fellow Potter fan Trista Berkey, 23, said it is all a part of being family.

“It’s all a part of sisterly rivalry,” Berkey said.

The three friends were the first people in line to see the new film Tuesday at the Century 20 Theatres at Bella Terra. They arrived at the theater at 8:30 a.m. for the first of five showings in the early hours of Wednesday.

“It’s like the new ‘Star Wars.’ People dress up and hang out together,” Amy McSherley said. “It really is about interacting with other fans.”

The McSherley sisters and Berkey are seasoned veterans of the midnight showings. They prepared for the release by rereading the entire series and have all been to the different movie and book midnight releases and said they wait in line for the “romanticism” and enthusiasm of the crowd.

“It’s part of what makes a midnight showing special,” Amy McSherley said. “We are already making plans to go to the next movies.”

Armed with “Potter Puppet Pals” on DVD, and working on a cross-stitching project of Slytherin’s crest, the three friends sat in wait with a few dozen fans, who were anticipated to swell to a few hundred as the night progressed, Century 20 employee Devon Garcia said.

Other fans lounged around in various states of fandom wearing Harry Potter shirts, full wizard robes and the main character’s signature round glasses as they tried to pass the time.

Edison High School students Kelsey Brookfield, 15, and Katie Metzger, 15, passed the time looking beyond the Harry Potter canon and working on their fanfiction on pads of paper.

“I was wondering what happens after the epilogue,” Katie said.

Katie said she started writing her own stories after the seventh and final book came out. Looking beyond the Harry Potter franchise is something fans are going to have to start facing as the final book came out in 2007 and the final two movies are drawing to a close.

Kelsey said she will “freak out” when the movies are over, but doesn’t anticipate it being the end of the world’s favorite wizard.

“We’ll still have our fanfiction and mugglenet.com,” Kelsey said, “and we’ll always have the books.”