BOOKWORMS have been proving they are potty about Potter.

With a night of magic and mayhem on the cards more than 200 fans queued in the dark outside a Carlisle book shop waiting eagerly to be spell-bound.

Waterstone’s brought the world of Hogwarts to life as part of the national celebrations for Harry Potter Book Night.

Visitors enjoyed seeing owls, taking part in quizzes and other magical activities.

Olivia Marsden, 10, of St John’s Terrace, Keswick, was among the first in line outside the Scotch Street store, accompanied by her parents Christine and Richard.

She was dressed as witch Bellatrix Lestrange, the character played by Helena Bonham Carter in the Harry Potter films.

“I love Harry Potter so much. I got into the books because of my sister Jessica, she’s 19 now.

“I love the fact it is fantasy but it seems so real. I want to go to Hogwarts.”

Friends Zach Graham, eight, from Houghton, and Pranjal Bhat, seven, of Stanwix in Carlisle, were dressed as their young wizard hero.

Pranjal also brought along his own toy Hedwig owl.

“I’ve read the first three books,” he said, “but I’ve watched all the films in order. I think they’re brilliant.”

Libraries across Cumbria also hosted their own Harry Potter Book Night events.

Staff dressed up as characters from JK Rowling’s famous series of books, including Voldemort, Hagrid, Professor Dumbledore and the boy wizard himself.

Caroline Lunny, a librarian at Carlisle Library in The Lanes shopping centre, said: “It’s the first Harry Potter night we’ve done but I think we’ll be doing it again.

“We’ve had 12 children with us tonight which is a good turnout for our first time.

“We’ve had fun and games. We used a Sorting Hat to split the children into teams and they had to go around the library to find the snitches hidden around the place. They also were writing their own spells.”

She added: “The books are still phenomenally popular. I think they fulfil every children’s dreams of wizards and magic. I think every child probably wants to go to school at Hogwarts.”

Harry Potter Book Night was first held in February last year when there were more than 10,500 parties worldwide.

Clare McMullen, a library assistant, led Workington Library’s events dressed up as Professor Umbridge.

The 10 children who attended got the chance to have a treasure hunt, learn about potions from the novels and get divided into Hogwarts houses.

“Some of the children were asking if it would be on again next week,” said Clare. “We are a library and Harry Potter is the perfect way to get children into reading.”