Mankato, MN — “He couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: ‘To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!’”



From “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”



Think you know your Harry Potter? Know your avada kadavras from your impedimentas, your hinkypunks from your hippogriffs?



Yeah, well stop thinking. However much you think you know, it’s likely a lot less than what Solveig Beckel knows.



She is a walking encyclopedia of Potter facts. She’s memorized page numbers of key plot movements, knows who was sitting by whom when, well, anything happened. She has irritated her friends with her trivia proficiency. And she’s read some of the books 13 times. THIRTEEN TIMES!



And, yes. She, along with millions of other kids and adults around the world, can’t wait for midnight Friday. That’s when the much-anticipated sixth installment of J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard series — “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” — hits stores. It is said to be the biggest book release in history.



“It’s so easy to get lost in it,” the 14-year-old Solveig said. “I just love the characters ... They’re funny, and meaningful.”



The series follows the life of Harry as he makes his way through the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.



Millions of readers have watched Harry grow up from an awkward-yet-famous first-year wizard to one of the most powerful and respected in the school. With trusty friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, the trio finds countless adventures — bullies, trolls, giants, dragons, wickedly strict teachers, etc. — as they navigate Life’s Great Adventure: growing up.



It is one of most successful literary endeavors ever. According to Scholastic, the American publishing company with the rights to the Potter series, more than 600 trucks are set to ship 10.8 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to bookstores across the country.



Many of them will be purchased at midnight. One of the buyers will be Micah Kronlokken, a Mankato East graduate who will attend Minnesota State University in the fall.



He said he loves the series because of the message it sends to young people.



“We all want to believe that we are special in some way,” said Kronlokken, who began reading the series before its popularity exploded. “And it’s wonderful in this day and age that so many people can get so excited about just a book.”



Kronlokken will be at Barnes and Noble that night, dressed up as the official “Harry” for the Harry Potter book release party. He’ll dye his hair black, don a pair of signature Potter spectacles and walk around in character.



One of the people he’ll likely encounter is Beckel, whom Kronlokken knows could school him big time in the Potter trivia department, spectacles or not.



Case in point: In several of the books, there is a scene where a talking hat recites a wacky — but long — poem. She told The Free Press she’d memorized them. The Free Press, assuming no one in their right mind would go to such lengths, challenged her.



She smiled bashfully, then began.



“Oh, you may not think I’m pretty, but don’t judge on what you see. I’ll eat myself if you can find a smarter hat than me,” she said. And kept going. And going. With inflection and enthusiasm and heart she recited the entire poem, all 182 words, occasionally giggling at the beautiful absurdity of it all.



“I used to be obsessed,” she said.



Used to be?



(The entire sorting hat poem from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” as well as sorting hat poems from books four and five can be read at www.harrypotterfanzone.com/?ID=info/sorting.)