Anticipation climbed along with the air temperature as literature fans waited to learn the fate of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Snape and the rest of the characters in the final installment of J.K. Rowling’s celebrated Harry Potter series.
Dedicated aficionados took care to avoid the inevitable spoilers that began mushrooming on the internet this month.
They spurned the web sites offering images advertised as scanned photographs of the famously sequestered “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which publisher Scholastic ordered to be kept literally behind locked doors until 12:01 a.m. July 21. The retailer Wal-Mart unctuously distributed earplugs to employees and media types to publicize its promise to sell the book but keep a veil over its contents.
On her website, , the author pled with “everyone who calls themselves a Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all of those who are looking forward to reading the book.”
Still, a few copies somehow slipped out early.
One errant book went to Will Collier, of Atlanta, Ga., who promptly listed it on eBay, ultimately selling it (for $250 plus shipping) to an editor at Publisher’s Weekly, which, like all other media institutions, was refused early reviewers’ copies.
But Collier, as he wrote in an essay for National Review Online, otherwise played by the rules. He refused to skip to the last chapter and post a digest of the contents, an act he compared to “walking out of a theater in 1980 and telling a then-11-year-old … that Darth Vader was Luke’s father. Un. Cool.”
The biggest question for fans is a morbid one: Who dies in the new book? Rowling has warned that beloved characters will die. During her appearance on BBC, when an apprehensive young reader asked if “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” will induce tears, Rowling confirmed her fears.
Will it be haplessly accident-prone Neville, who is linked to the prophecy “Neither can live while the other survives”? Could it be irresistible Hagrid?
Could Rowling dare to kill effervescent Ron, loyal Hermione, resolute Ginny or – is it even possible? – Harry?
Time will tell. And midnight is fast approaching.
