1. DENIAL

Whether Harry lives or dies, there will definitely be divergent views on whether Deathly Hallows' ending is satisfying (see The Sopranos), so the best thing to do is hop online and get your geek on rehashing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the message boards. We're betting some servers might go bust when all the speed-readers get on to dissect the minutiae of the last book.

2. ANGER

If you aren't happy with the final page, perhaps you can do better. Or at least read others who have tried their hand. Potter and his cohorts have a huge fan fiction community – the site harrypotterfanfiction.com purports to have more than 41,000 stories. This is a definite stop if you need to feed your addiction.

But be forewarned, there are plenty of folks who also write slash fiction – such as stories in which Ron and Harry graphically and physically express their love for each other – that just might leave some fans even angrier.

3. BARGAINING

Let the imaginary deal-making begin. For instance, even though she's richer than some small countries, one can hope the newly not-busy J.K. Rowling takes up gambling, hits hard financial times, and will need to write another Potter book just to stay in house and home.In reality, though, take heart – just this past week, in an interview with Britain's Telegraph, one of Rowling's people said about the possibility of an eighth book: "Never say never." The representative added: "It's not saying that she definitely is (going to write another book), and it's not saying that she definitely isn't. I cannot comment further."

4. DEPRESSION

This often happens when you realize that you need to get a life.

5. ACCEPTANCE

They were good books. There will be more good books eventually. Of course, you could also get busy and have a child so you can share the obsession and start the cycle all over again.