Millions of Muggles now know fate of Harry

The sign outside Easons in O'Connell Street asked the question that all Harry Potter fans have been pondering: "Will Harry Live?"

Millions of Muggles now know the answer following the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Through all the hype, the Harry Potter series has cast a compelling spell on those who have read the books, not least the hundreds who queued in the summer drizzle outside bookshops across the country for their copy.

Among them was student Ciarán Connell who clocked up 14 hours of patient queuing.

He believed JK Rowling would not sacrifice Harry in the cataclysmic battle between him and Lord Voldemort in case she wanted to write another book.

"She can hardly do a Shakespeare and bring him back to life. It might be a magical world but even she doesn't have the power to do that."

Easons expected to sell 50,000 copies by first light this morning.

Across the Liffey in Waterstones, the queue wasn't the only thing snaking through the bookstore.

Grainne Gillespie (29) brought her three-year-old Royal Python Jasper and two corn snakes - snakes being a recurring theme in Harry Potter.

Hannagh Cagney (17) took along her pet rat Algeron and vowed to beat the seven-hour speed-reading epic she clocked up for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

"I have been looking forward to it for so long. It's going to be horrible when it is all over," she said.