The witching hour is here.

Thousands of would-be warlocks, sorcerers and ordinary, non-magical Muggles lined up outside bookstores from Sydney to Seattle on Friday, eager to get their hands on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final volume in the boy wizard's saga.

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An assortment of wizards, witches and at least one house elf, from as far afield as Finland and the United States, staked out their places on the sidewalk hours -- in some cases days -- before the midnight opening.

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"Deathly Hallows" is the last book in a series that began a decade ago with "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the story of an orphaned boy who learns on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard.

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Since then, Rowling's books have sold 325 million copies in 64 languages, and the launch of each new volume has become a Hollywood-scale extravaganza.

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