Last week two Windham families traveled to a faraway land with promises of a magical adventure.

Windham’s Diana Ruecker, 62, and Rachel Roman, 34, were two of 1,000 winners nationwide of the J.K. Rowling Open Book Tour Sweepstakes. They each got to bring a single guest to Carnegie Hall in New York City on Oct. 19 to hear Rowling read Chapter 19 of her latest book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.”

“It was great. She is very down to earth,” said Roman. She brought her 12-year-old daughter Gabrielle Galarza with her to the Scholastic-sponsored event.

Roman and her daughter are both huge Potter fans. She said she got hooked after seeing the first movie and has a Harry Potter-themed license plate, as well as silverware, pillows and collector coins.

“The whole house is polluted with Harry Potter,” said Roman. She and her daughter drove to New York and stayed at a hotel on Long Island where she used to live.

Ruecker said she fell under the spell of Harry Potter in 2000 when the books started to take off.

“I saw these kids reading, and I hadn’t seen kids reading in years,” she said. She said Rowling was wonderful with the kids in an autograph session after the reading, freely trading hugs and high-fives with them.

“She’s quite a lady. I’ve got a lot of respect for her,” said Ruecker. She said the stage of Carnegie Hall was adorned with a large tapestry rug and an ornate wooden chair for Rowling. A video screen behind the stage made the author more visible for those in the back of the hall.

Both Windham families heard of the contest at the Windham Public Library.

The event made national headlines when during a question-and-answer session Rowling said that one of the characters, Hogwarts Headmaster Dumbledore, was gay.

Ruecker’s husband Neil leaned over to her and whispered, “This is going to be all over the news.”

“People tend to make big deals out of unimportant things,” said Ruecker. “As a member of Unity Church I’m accepting of all people.”

For the past year and a half Ruecker has taught a Harry Potter-themed Sunday school class at Unity Church of Greater Portland on River Road in Windham. She said the books promote the same values as Christianity.

“You will find all the qualities of Jesus in there – love, forgiveness,” said Ruecker. She tells her students about an exchange Harry had with Dumbledore where he was told one’s choices in life determine who they are.

“That’s something I drill into them,” she said. Ruecker said the class is a complete success.

She said some people, including members of her family, aren’t convinced.

“They won’t read it, they think it’s Satanic,” she said. Ruecker said that’s ridiculous.

“This is a work of fiction,” she said. She said the only place we can find witches and wizards is in our imaginations.

HPotter1: Diane Ruecker, 62, holds her autographed copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows at her house in Windham. She was one of 1,000 winners of a contest to hear author J.K. Rowling hear the book read allowed last week in Carnegie Hall.HPotter2: The carved chair Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling read from at Carnegie Hall in New York City last week. The contest was only advertised in libraries and book stores and about 50,000 people entered.