Harry Potter fans dressed up and waited in line for hours outside the Uptown Theater Tuesday night. Photo by Andrew Helms.

Written by DCist contributor Andrew Helms

Forget vampires. Harry Potter and co. stormed back on the scene last night in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, to the delight of would-be teenage wizards and witches everywhere. DCist checked out the midnight premiere at the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park, where Potter fans lined up for hours dressed in their wizarding best to welcome Harry, Ron, and Hermione back to the silver screen.

So, was it worth the (6+ hour) wait? In the end, it didn’t matter if the sixth HP film sailed or flopped (though most reviews have been positive). The midnight premiere allowed fans of the books to come together and celebrate their passion for Potter in public. Groups of friends dressed up together, from a family of quidditch balls (including one scantily-clad golden snitch – who would have thought you could make quidditch PG-13?) to dozens of bespeckled Harrys. Their willingness to arrive hours ahead of time to wait in line to see a film whose ending they already knew confounds reason and speaks to the power of the world J.K. Rowling has created. Maybe the HP craze isn’t so crazy after all.