Nate Oldham did his best to ignore Harry Potter.

The young wizard was too popular, too mainstream for Oldham’s punk-rock tastes. Clearly, he figured, the books couldn’t be any good. Especially if people were willing to mill around in bookstores until midnight, wearing robes and witch hats and big, round glasses, waiting to get their hands on the latest title.

Then Nate met his future wife, Jennifer, in 2002. And she was all about Harry Potter. Nate was all about Jennifer, so he decided to give “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” a try. After devouring the next three books, he started watching the Harry Potter movies and going to “wizard rock” concerts by such bands as Harry and the Potters.

“It’s just like in the book, where Harry has to use the power of love to triumph,” Oldham, 24, said wryly.

Tonight, the couple will mill around Planet Toys in Rockland, wearing regular clothes (some things never change), and waiting for their coveted copies of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the last installment in J.K. Rowling’s series, which will go on sale at midnight.

Like many in eastern Maine, the Oldhams, who live in Belfast, feel a bittersweet sense of anticipation about “Hallows.” On the one hand, they can’t wait to read it. On the other, it marks an end of an era – and a cultural phenomenon that Jennifer Oldham, 23, likens to the Beatles.

“If we have children, I think it will still mean as much to them [even though they won’t have to wait between books],” Jennifer Oldham said. “It will be interesting trying to explain to them what it was like waiting outside a bookstore at midnight.”

According to Associated Press reports, the initial printing of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is a record-breaking 12 million copies, while 100,000 copies of a deluxe, illustrated edition will be available for $65. At press time, fans already had begun lining up in front of bookstores in California and Alaska. In Bangor, Borders will start giving out line placement wristbands at 9 this morning.

Gibran Graham, who will be the master of ceremonies at Borders’ Grand Hallows Ball this evening, wouldn’t reveal how many copies the Bangor store had received, but he was confident it would be enough to meet demand.

As a sales account representative, Graham has eaten, slept and breathed wizards and witches for weeks. Every other phone call, every other customer wants to talk “Hallows.” He’s spent countless hours preparing for the ball and right about now, he’s one harried Potter.

“It’s very busy – it’s like Harry Potter Christmas,” Graham said.

The same could be said for independent bookstores throughout the region. At Port in a Storm Bookstore in Somesville, Potter party emcee Laney Correa has plans for a grand thank-you letter to Rowling. Partygoers will decorate an elaborate scroll and express their gratitude for the books.

Left Bank Books in Searsport will forgo the midnight madness and have a Harry Potter breakfast party Saturday morning. And in Belfast, Mr. Paperback’s own Jacob Fricke, 28, will take on the persona of Snape, the Hogwarts professor who is Harry’s nemesis.

“He’s right on the line,” Fricke says of Snape. “I think it’s more interesting that he’s someone to guess about, whether or not he turns out to be good.”

That moral gray area – the fact that nothing about the characters and their actions is as clear-cut as they may seem – is a huge part of the books’ appeal for many readers. Though literary experts will admit that there’s nothing particularly new about the themes or archetypes in Rowling’s series, it has embedded itself in popular culture in much the same way as Stephen King’s novels and Charles Dickens’ tales.

“In the academy, we’ve learned to stop holding our noses over popularity,” said Margo Lukens of Orono, chairwoman of the English department at the University of Maine. “That’s been a real bugaboo since the 1930s, when things weren’t allowed to be popular anymore. That’s just silliness.”

Lukens speaks from experience. When “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” first came out, she read the book to her daughter, Sarah Harrington, who is now 15. By the third book, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” Sarah was old enough to read it on her own, but her mother continued the tradition of reading aloud, so they could share the experience.

“It helps to mark moments,” Lukens said. “We tell our family history by what we were doing during a certain Harry Potter book.”

Sarah read the fourth, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” alone, in the car during a family trip to Nova Scotia. And she’ll read the final book alone, as well, because she’s spending the summer in Japan.

“It’s funny, because there’s always a feeling of sorrow and nostalgia when you come to the end of something fun,” Lukens said.

Anne Campbell, a 17-year-old from Belfast, shares that sense of nostalgia. She saw her own life reflected on the pages of Rowling’s books, and now that the finale is near, she feels like she’s saying goodbye to her friends.

“You’re growing up with it and after years, it comes to an end,” Campbell said. “In a sense, it’s like a new beginning, but it’s an ending, so it’s sad. It’s kind of exciting, too, because I know I’m going off to college soon and they’re going off to another point in their lives, too.”

In Bangor, Miriam Kates-Goldman and her friends meet regularly to discuss Potter-related “conspiracy theories,” trolling the Internet for answers to the burning “Hallows” question: Who will die? And are there clues in the other books?

“It’s just such a culture now, and I’ve really immersed myself into it,” Kates-Goldman, 17, said.

She adores fan fiction – Harry Potter-related stories written by readers, rather than Rowling. She, like Nate and Jennifer Oldham, is a big fan of Harry and the Potters and other wizard rockers, who dress up like characters from the books and sing lyrics inspired by the goings-on at Hogwarts. She even organized a grass-roots campaign to get all of her friends to order advance copies of “Hallows” from The Briar Patch, an independent bookstore in downtown Bangor.

One thing she doesn’t do?

“I boycott the movies,” she said. “I don’t support them. I have images in my mind of what the characters look like and I refuse to give up those images.”

That’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Though “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” marks the end of the series, it will continue to live in the minds of readers for years to come.

“It’s more than just a book, it’s an experience,” Graham said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever see another book like this again.”

Potter parties

Bangor

The Briar Patch, 27 Central St., 10 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday: locally written Harry Potter songs, drawings for Hagrid and Harry Potter figures, games and refreshments.

Borders, Bangor Mall Boulevard, 9 p.m. Friday: Grand Hallows Ball, other related events.

Belfast

Mr. Paperback, Renys Plaza, Route 3, 9 p.m. Friday: costume contest, live owls from Birdsacre, wand-making, a screening of ?Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.?

Camden

Planet Toys, Main Street, 8 a.m. Saturday: readings, muffins.

Rockland

Planet Toys, Main Street, 11 p.m. Friday: Quidditch, games, costume contest, Hogwarts class.

Searsport

Left Bank Books, Main Street, 8 a.m. Saturday: breakfast, other book suggestions for those suffering ?Harry? withdrawal.

Somesville

Port in a Storm Bookstore, 11 p.m. Friday: mass thank-you note to J.K. Rowling, Quidditch, door prizes.

Stonington

Mr. York?s Book Shoppe, 9 p.m. Friday to 12:01 a.m. Saturday: costume contest, food, games, prizes.

On the Web

The Bangor Daily News will be giving away two copies of ?Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? on Monday, July 23. To enter, visit www.bangordailynews.com and click on ?Enter the Contest? on the Harry Potter icon. There, registered users will find a secret word. Send an e-mail with the secret word in the subject line to: contests@bangordailynews.net. Be sure to include your name and daytime telephone number. Winners will be announced online at noon Monday.

Potter pictures

Share your Harry Potter party pictures on the Bangor Daily News Community site. After you get your hands on the hallowed ?Hallows,? visit www.bangordailynews.com, click on ?Post party Photos? on the Harry Potter icon and upload your digital images.

Potter predictions

What do you think will happen in book seven? More important, who?s going to die? Share your predictions with other Bangor Daily News readers at www.bangordailynews.com. Click on ?Share your Predictions? on the Harry Potter icon.