Michelle Trahan has been a Harry Potter fan since the first book was published in the early 1990s. She's now 19 and was one of about a hundred people at the Iberia Parish Library until midnight Friday to get one of the first copies of the seventh and final book of the series by British author J.K. Rowling.

It was only fitting that Trahan's number was the last called for door prizes and that she won one of two of the 759-page novels given away as the library celebrated the much-anticipated release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

"I am definitely excited," Trahan said, clutching the newest addition to her personal library just minutes after the books went on sale at midnight.

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Asked if she was going to cheat and flip to the back of the book to see who dies - Rowling has said that two of the series' main characters would perish in this final chapter - Trahan calmly replied that she already knew. She said she had visited all the "spoiler" sites on the Internet in the past couple of days and was 90 percent sure that she had accurate information.

She ticked off a list of more than two characters she believes die in this book.

Trahan said she was going straight home and "dive into the book, probably finishing all 759 pages by sometime Saturday.

Bradle Moore, 16, hadn't visited any of the "spoiler" sites but had her own ideas based on having read all six of the previous books - "two or three times each."

Moore, who admitted she is "obsessed" with the Harry Potter series, was certain that Harry would live and that he would "get together" with Hermione Granger. She was also sure that the evil Lord Voldemort would die, as would Snake, but not before the latter helped Harry in some way.

She vowed not to sneak a peek at the back of the book.

Jackson Beach's interest in Harry Potter was evident the moment he walked into the library. He was dressed in full robe, had Harry's trademark lightning-bolt "scar" over his right eye and his own "magic" wand.

Like nearly everyone else at the library Friday night, Jackson, 10, had read all six of the previous books and said he was "disappointed" that Rowling had decided to end the popular series, "but you do what you gotta do," he said philosophically.

Jackson said his favorite to date was "Goblet of Fire," the fourth of the series. All he knew about this latest chapter was "two people die." He figured it would be Hermione and Ron Weasley, "just because."

Asked if he thought he could read all the way through the book without skipping to the end to find out who dies, Jackson said he could. Then, when his father turned away, he winked.

Mitch Gilfoil stood in the middle of the library flipping through the pages of his new book - pages toward the back.

"No, I'm not trying to see who dies," Gilfoil, 40, smiled when asked.

He said he and his wife are longtime Harry Potter fans and first started reading the books, coincidentally, on a plane flight to London.

"It was our honeymoon and my wife had picked up a couple of the books to read on the long flight. She gave me one because I didn't have anything to do," he said.

Gilfoil admitted that he enjoys the storylines and plot twists, but said he also enjoys the intricacies of Rowling's style of writing. "There's always a 'development' in chapter seven and chapter 13," he said by way of explanation.

He, too, said he had scanned a few of the Internet "spoilers," but that wasn't going to stop him from enjoying the book.

Sarah Boatman, children's librarian, said attendance at Friday night's event was pretty much on average with the previous two such celebrations. The release party was free of charge to all participants. It featured games, a trivia contest, refreshments, crafts and a photo op for all inspired by the Harry Potter books.

The event was sponsored by the Iberia Parish Library, Books Along the Teche and the Friends of the Iberia LIbrary.