Broom to move ... Erica Crombie, a fan since she was nine, with her collection of Harry Potter memorabilia.Broom to move ... Erica Crombie, a fan since she was nine, with her collection of Harry Potter memorabilia. Photo: Craig Sillitoe

When Erica Crombie's parents bought her a book about wizards to alleviate the boredom of a wet week in a Queensland holiday park, little did they know what they had let themselves in for. Between the covers lay a story so compelling, it drew the nine-year-old into a parallel world where she would spend the next half of her life.
From the time she turned the first page and met Harry Potter crouching in a cupboard under the stairs at No. 4 Privet Drive, the young Crombie was hooked. Then followed a decade of adventure in which she has spent close to $20,000 on Potter paraphernalia and trips to the US and Canada for conferences, where lecturers gave earnest talks such as Not Just Good and Evil: Moral Alignment in Harry Potter.

On July 13, the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, will come to a cinema near you. ''It all ends,'' say the posters ominously. But for fans across the globe, it is not just the end of the series, it's the end of their childhood. Like Harry, they have come of age, and are entering the workforce or university.
''It's time to grow up,'' concedes Adam Shelley, 20. ''But I don't think I can imagine my life without Harry.''