Late last night, Lacy Schumacher left campus at the witching hour to continue a tradition she started in high school.

The global studies sophomore, who was thinking about disguising herself as a wand or a broomstick, said she planned to go to a midnight showing of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

She was likely joined by other University students who had waited a year to get their next film installment of the “Harry Potter” series.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who are really excited for the movie to come out,” Schumacher said. “I think the movies do a really good job of capturing the books.”

Economics junior Seth Neuschwander said he has reason to suspect Professor Lupin (a half-werewolf who taught at Hogwarts in the third book) was modeled after his dad.

Neuschwander said his father was a student-teacher in England and had J.K. Rowling, the series’ author, in his class.

“My dad said she modeled some of the teachers after teachers she had in England,” he said. “I always thought my dad was Professor Lupin.”

The fourth movie’s main plot centers on Harry being mysteriously entered in the challenging Tri-Wizard Tournament, a sometimes lethal competition that challenges young wizards to extremes.

In the darkest episode brought to the screen thus far, Harry also encounters the bodily form of Lord Voldemort, the not-quite-human force of evil he battles throughout the series.

Though it is a chapter clearly intended for an older audience, much more so than the previous three, some University students still feel geeky for being so excited about it.

“Yeah, I’ve read all the books; I’m kinda a nerd that way,” Schumacher said.

History sophomore Megan Salisbury and political science senior David Eaton said they would go to the midnight screening if they could find tickets.

“We would dress up,” Eaton said. “We’d do capes and hats, wands and glasses.”

Salisbury added, “I’d draw the scar on his head.”

First-year animal science student Virginia Westlie said about 30 members in her house at Territorial Hall were planning to take the bus to the Crown Block E movie theater today.

She said some of her housemates were going to get maroon and gold scarves from the University bookstore that could double as the colors of Gryffindor, which is Harry’s house in the school.

“I’m excited to see the cool tournament and how they’re actually going to portray Voldemort,” she said.

Not everyone is excited about the new movie. David Rettler, a member of Maranatha Christian Fellowship, said that because the “Harry Potter” books portray witchcraft, they shouldn’t be read.

“It’s just mind pollution,” he said.

He said he agrees with a movement to take the “Harry Potter” books out of school libraries.

“I think (that would) be great because it’s not helping out kids in virtues and Christian values; it’s pulling them away,” he said. “How about putting Bibles in the library and use that as literature?”