London - Harry Potter creator Joanne K Rowling looks as if she would like to disappear under the cloak of her boy wizard.
Author J.K. Rowling attends a news conference before a charity reading event in New York-REUTERS/Mike Segar
'I've loved writing about Harry,' Rowling said shortly before her last volume of the Potter saga was due to be released. 'But now I need some time out.'
From the beginning the 41-year-old British woman, who has fans from Alaska to Australia, has been suffering the hype about her own person only reluctantly.
So she took her leave from Harry celebrating with a rather 'intimate circle.'
Some 500 fans were lucky to get the privilege of listening to Rowling reading from the first chapter of the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, at London's Natural History Museum one minute past midnight on Saturday.
'I absolutely howled' when writing the last chapter, Rowling said, and asked her little and grown-up readers to be prepared for some terrible things to happen.
Melancholy was in her eyes when she sat down on a large red velvet chair in the night of nights to read out the first words of her long- awaited last Potter volume.
For a total of 12 minutes fans outside the museum walls were able to follow Rowling's reading live on the internet, then her special guests were among themselves again.
Afterwards, the author signed many copies of her book.
Potter fans who wanted to see their idol Rowling for real could barely believe their luck.
'For me, a dream has come true tonight,' 22-year-old Kathryn Longwill said. Her signed copy was her treasure, she said. For reading she wanted a second copy.
The last volume of the saga marks the end of an era for many Potter fans.
'For the last ten years Harry Potter has been a large part of my life,' reader Cahina Lewis said.
'Together with my friends we've always come up with new Potter theories. That's over now. What shall I do with my life now?' she wondered.
Also Rowling, who through Potter has become wealthier than the Queen, now intends to reorganize her life.
'I can't promise anything to anyone,' she said to speculation about a possible continuation of the Potter series. First of all, she needed a break now, Rowling said.
But even if she was going to miss Harry, the story was not yet over for her.
'My two youngest children don't really know yet who Harry Potter is. I'm so looking forward to share the book with them, when they're old enough - it helps me not to feel too sad that it's all over now.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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