WTHR |"Harry Potter" mania hits central Indiana

"Harry Potter" mania hits central Indiana

Phil Scott/Eyewitness News

Crawfordsville - Hoosiers are already laying their hands and eyes on the newest and final Harry Potter book. Millions of copies are here in Indiana while fans wait for the release.

The fifth movie started at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, but the seventh and last book doesn't come out until July 21. Everyone wants to know how it ends and it turns out hundreds of people in west central Indiana may already know.

For weeks, one of the world's biggest secrets of the black arts has been quietly held in a rural western Indiana town.

While readers young and old count down the minutes until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows goes on sale, Crawfordsville resident Sally Lynch has been counting the late night trains running in front of her house. The RR Donnelley publishing plant is her neighbor.

Lynch says there has been a measurable increase in rail traffic.

"Usually there's only about three carts on the train at night. But lately there's been about six, seven carts at night going through every 15 to 20 minutes," she said.

Ed Short says something is obviously going on.

"Well, I know that it was supposed to be a real secretive thing," he told Eyewitness News.

Short says those trains Sally Lynch is referring to are carrying out copies of the seventh and final installment in the smash series by J. K.  Rowling from printing company RR Donnelley.

Crawfordsville's biggest employer was about to institute drastic security measures when Short's temporary work ended there 12 weeks ago. 

"They were talking about blacking out the windows. They have armed guards at the doors. (They) check your lunchboxes and stuff when you go in and out. You couldn't have a camera phone or anything like that."

Indeed, these days RR Donnelley's 1500 men and women get checked as they leave. They even get written up if they're caught pausing to read. They're forbidden to speak to the news media, but many told their families. And some of those family members told Eyewitness News.

Donnelley sent us away without saying anything. And the book's publisher, Scholastic, in New York, said it can't reveal where the book is being printed for security reasons.

At the Crawfordsville Public Library, assistant Linda Brady has heard from patrons all about the publisher's intense efforts to protect Harry's final secrets, speculating herself what they may be.

"Harry and Hermione perhaps getting together romantically," she said. "Others are saying that Harry and/or other important characters may not make it through the final book."

Important questions that will be answered in less than ten days.

Meantime, Donnelley's men and women in Crawfordsville should be used to the high security measures. They also printed, packed and shipped at least some, if not all of the books in the Harry Potter series.

The midnight showing of "Harry Potter the Order of the Phoenix" attracted large crowds of loyal fans in central Indiana and across the country.

In San Diego, 4,000 people lined up, many dressed up in full costume. Both professional movie critics, and the first Hoosiers to view the movie are giving it very good reviews.

"Oh my Gosh, I don't even have words. I loved it, it was wonderful. The fight scenes - everything - and that girl, the crazy girl. She was fantastic," said fan Jen Taylor.

"On a scale of ten, I give it an 8.5. It was really good," said another fan.

"I thought it was awesome," echoed another fan."Cuz the special effects and all of that."

"It has a lot more action in it than the other ones and they're a lot more grown up so it's a lot better. Keeps you at the edge of your seat."

People in Indianapolis told Eyewitness News it's the best movie of the five so far. The reasons - the special effects, it follows the plot well, and with the characters more grown up, the film is more mature when it comes to fight scenes, rebellion and drama.