Rowling urges people not to ruin Potter's ending

New York, May 15: Author JK Rowling appealed to people to leave the ending of the final Harry Potter book as a surprise and not spoil the mystery for fans of the best-selling series about the boy wizard.

Rowling's comments were sparked by a note on April 28 on fan site, The Leaky Cauldron (www.the-leaky-cauldron.org), saying it had received ''spoiler'' e-mails from people claiming to know the contents of ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.'' ''We're a little under three months away, now, and the first distant rumblings of the weirdness that usually precedes a Harry Potter publication can be heard on the horizon,'' Rowling wrote on her Web site wwww.jkrowling.com yesterday.

''I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are they going.'' Rowling has said two characters will die in the seventh book of the Potter series, which will be released on July 21, but she has refused to give any clues on who they will be.

Speculation has been rife that Potter will be killed off by Rowling, who became the world's first billion-dollar author on the back of Potter's success.

Potter books are released under tight security but The Leaky Cauldron said nuggets of information do leak out, sometimes from bookstore workers or librarians.

The site said it would not post anything about possible content of the book or the fate of Harry Potter unless it came from Rowling.

''And if you decide to tell us before that, you'll incur the wrath of a staff of almost 200, most of whom have been waiting almost 10 years for these final revelations and can NEVER get back the moment you rob by spoiling them,'' wrote the webmaster of The Leaky Cauldron, Melissa Anelli.

Rowling backed Anelli's comments.

''Some, perhaps, will read this and take the view that all publicity is good publicity, that spoilers are part of hype, and that I am trying to protect sales rather than my readership,'' she wrote.

''However, spoilers won't stop people buying the book, they never have -- all it will do is diminish their pleasure in the book.''

Reuters

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