LONDON, England (AP) -- Harry Potter fans, the end is near.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the last of seven installments of J.K. Rowling's mega-selling international phenomenon, will be published July 21 -- at midnight, of course, a time to be marked by celebrations and more than a few tears, as Rowling wraps up the magical adventures of the boy wizard, his friends and his enemies.

The author posted a brief announcement on her Web site Thursday, followed soon by releases from her British publisher, Bloomsbury, and U.S. publisher, Scholastic Inc. (Gallery: A guide to Harry Potter)

Readers immediately rejoiced, with dozens of ecstatic messages posted on the Potter fan site, www.theleakycauldron.com, within minutes of the announcement.

"OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS!!!!" read one typical message.

"WAH!!! I think I'm going crazy!!!! We finally have a date!!!" added another fan.

Other comments were sadder, noting the series' conclusion.

"I can't wait to read the book, but at the same time, I'm afraid to read it," read a message from a fan named Christine, who identified herself as a "30-something" mom. "I can't stand the thought of anything happening to the characters that I've grown to love! What an odd feeling." (Are you excited? Disappointed? Chime in on CNN.com's Marquee blog.)

Potter readers have a lot to look forward to, and to fear. Rowling's stories have darkened considerably over the years and the author has said two characters will be killed off in Book 7.

"I don't always enjoy killing my characters. I didn't enjoy killing the character who died at the end of Book 6," Rowling said during a reading last summer at Radio City Music Hall, declining to name that person in case someone had yet to finish the book. "I really didn't enjoy doing that but I had been planning that for years so it wasn't quite as poignant as you might imagine. I'd already done my grieving when I actually came to write it."

The print run and number of pages have yet to be revealed, but judging from the suggested cover price, a meaty $34.99, $5 more than Potter 6, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the last book will likely match or exceed the 600-plus page length of previous releases.

"We have held the price for the past four years," Scholastic publicist Kyle Good told The Associated Press. "In that time, costs of production, paper, trucking, gas and security -- to be sure all readers can enjoy the book at the release time -- have all increased."

Many fans will pay much less for "Deathly Hallows," with Amazon.com quickly announcing the book would be sold for $18.89, a 46 percent discount. Price competition has been so intense over the years that many retailers have acknowledged they don't make money on the fantasy series, depending instead on customers buying other books along with Potter.

Since Rowling first introduced Harry and his fellow students at Hogwarts to the world 10 years ago, with a now comically modest promotional campaign, the books have sold more than 325 million copies in 64 languages and inspired four hit movies.

The fifth film, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," is scheduled to come out July 13, just eight days before the final book's release.

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Now I can't wait. I just want it now so I can find out what all happens after all this time.

I'm looking forward to it. My family and I have read all six books together and really enjoyed them. We have been looking forward to this bookwith baithed breath.

Aww what the hell, they couldn't push it 15 days earlier do be released on 07/07/07!? 7 is the most powerful magical number awww.

I really can't wait for this now. I feel like going back and reading all the books all over again jst so I'm fully ready, but I'm not sure I could finish all 6 again by July. This book is going to be amazing. I wish it wasn't so far away....

I hope Harry Potter finally dies off...

It annoys me that Rowling got away with stealing every single one of her ideas from previously existing books and kids shows and she should be ashamed of herself for being a liar and a theif.

I can prove it too if you want....

I would be totally pissed if someone like her was getting away with the theft of my work and ideas...

This isn't exactly on topic... but what the hell! I love the Harry Potter series - both the books & the movies (although I think I prefer the books - but I digress), and this little tidbit is REALLY going to affect how I look at Daniel Rafcliffe as Harry...

A snippet of the story, according to People.com:

Click here for the rest of the story and some pictures (don't worry, they're not explicit).

Eek. I feel like a dirty old lady!

HP is passe, isn't it? I don't really follow this anymore. It seems to me that they tried to milk it too much, and the people who were with the series at the beginning have grown out of it.

KGS

Ahem...I'm not.
I've literally grown up with HP, and have all of them (except the first) in hardback - they come out just days after my birthday, so its where all the money goes

I cannot wait!....but it will be sad to see him go...

Better get cracking and start rereading them!

I doubt Harry will be killed off.....way too much money still to be made.

Me too. But I like it.

You ARE a dirty (well not old) lady, ethyl

Me? Never.

If those were his most flattering pictures he might be in serious trouble. I just do not see him making a young girl's heart flutter, but there is the whole Emo thing so maybe looking like a concentration camp victim has some tie in with that.

After 10 years of the burning fire, Rowling is filthy rich already. She can tell the world to go to hell right now, buy a small island and sip on booze looking into the sunset for the rest of her life.

There is also the matter of all the movies being completed and all the cash flow from them as well as all other promotional items from make up to clothing.



My sister and her friends are serious potter fans, from what I gather he's "hot" but Draco Malfoy is "hotter".

!!! I can't wait for July! I'm going to the midnight release with my English teacher from last year and two of my friends. Geeks unite!

I also have a $10 bet with those same two friends. I say Snape's going to turn out to be an okay guy, they disagree.

Too bad it wasn't Emma Watson in that play....yikes...

Emma Watson? I can't get over it, she still looks like a little girl to me!

There is no accounting for the love of money. There is still a fortune or two to be had on Harry Potter. Maybe it was her plan all along to have a whole generation of kids grow up reading about a boy wizard so that when they are adults and say twenty years after the last book, she can release a new series about Harold Potter, the adult wizard and master professor of Hogwarts.

Even though his two friends are killed at the end of this book, there are always the other students. Are we to believe that none of them ever had any adventures?

As anyone who has ever watched Star Trek knows, there are other starships and other crews, backstories to lesser characters, and even the founding of the Federation to be written about. Just apply these techniques to Harry Potter and you can see how he might even end up Harold Potter, retired wizard, gentleman farmer.

The series came out when I was about 23. It really didn't take off until I was a year or so older so, I kind of missed out on "Hocus Pocus" Harry and his little friends. I have to admit, I'm probably the only American that has never read or owned one of the books. I've seen two of the movies though and they were a far cry better than Disney's "Lassie, Come Home" specials that were all the rage when I was a pre-teen. I came along too soon to enjoy the viberating toy brooms and silly dunce cap shaped hats. Instead I had G.I. Joe and a B.B. gun.

I'm half looking forward to it and not looking foward to it. It's not that it's the last book, it's just what happend in the sixth novel, still I'm going to buy it. I put the release date of the seventh Harry Potter in my date book along with the third season release date of NCIS.

I'm 44 years old, married, mother of two teenage boys, and I'm a Pott-Head. I love all things Potter. Very sad, I know.

The Potter franchise is still going strong, and I'm afraid it will be around as long as JKR doesn't kill off Harry. If she takes that dangerous leap, she just may be one of the most hated authors in history. I believe that as a mother, she wouldn't want to break any little kid's heart. (Not to mention that this is quite a huge business for not only her but for many, many others involved with this money making machine.) I think that Warner Brothers would have had some influence regarding the ending. Not too many people would want to see movies 6 & 7 knowing that Harry was going to kick the bucket at the end of the series.

I personally think she is way too smart to kill off her lead character, especially since he has had a pretty miserable life so far. These books remind me of a Charles Dickens novel with a magical twist--and our homeless, orphaned waif demands a happy ending!

I think that the story can go two ways:

(Beware***Spoilers***)

1) Snape is really evil (many bloggers doubt that he has truly turned to the dark side), so the two characters destined to die would be Snape and Voldemort.

or

2) Snape is still a double agent working for the Order, but that would have to mean that Dumbledore isn't really dead...or would it? If Snape is still on the side of good, I predict that Lupin gets knocked off. He doesn't have much of a future, anyway. (Life is heck as a werewolf.) Of course, Voldemort must die in both scenarios.

The character that gets a reprieve just may be Sirius--after all, there was never a body, and we were never sure that he was killed before he fell behind the curtain. He just may come back and be the parent that Harry has always wanted. The reprieve may also go to Dumbledore--if Snape's little performance was just that--a performance.

My youngest son believes that both Harry and Voldemort must die--he thinks that Harry will sacrifice himself in order to kill Voldemort (since they are linked by blood.) I hope he's wrong.

I now realize I know way too much about Harry Potter. ***Hanging my grey-haired head in shame.*** I must get a life.

I'll bite and give you a fair run for your money.




Don't worry too much about it, mothers are amung the main HP audience since they read the books to their kids during the younger years. I'm a 23 year old single guy, and i don't think any of my friends have read the books, and damnit, i love them to hell. I've done so much research on them i'm afraid i really honestly do know far, far too much about this fictional characters life!



I agree. At first i was almost certain that JK would kill Harry in some kind of 'Harry must sacrifice himself so that Voldemort will be finished' deal. But upon reflection of her work, she would most certainly not take that route. However, JK has said and fortified the fact that this will be the last book, because it will not be possible to write more about Harry after. If Harry has a nice happy ending and goes on to live his life as normal in the Wizarding World, Joe will be forever hounded, for the rest of her life, by fans eager for an update on Harrys life. She therefore has a very difficult task ahead of her; not killing the main character, but not continuing his life. She's damned smart, i have no clue how she may have done it, but i'm confident she has. That's one of the greatest things about these books, they really are incredibly clever.



Well, while JK has said that two characters die, she didn't say ONLY two characters die. I'm sure there will be many more characters in the book who will die to be honest. Voldemort was said to have killed thousands when he was in power before the Potter incident, why would he have only killed a couple people in the few years he's been back. Doesn't make sense. I'm sure that perhaps two MAIN characters will die, and there may be a few additional deaths. Lupin is a good guess, i don't think Snape will die though, in my opinion there is too much evidence that points to him being good after all and redeming himself by somehow saving Harrys life. Wormtail has a life-debt to Harry that remains unpaid, i imagine he will also do something that will result in redempton and possibly his death.

Dumbledore IS completely dead, JK has said so and he will not be alive in this book. However, he IS in this book. Probably as flashbacks or memories in the Pensieve.



Not Dumbledore. But Sirius is actually a good guess. There is no reason exactly why that Veil killed him, for all we know it could have just been a portal to a different place. JK has stated that the two-way mirror Sirius gave Harry, that was smashed at the end of OOTP, will play an important role in this book.


There is no question that this is going to be the darkest book in the series. But it will also have a very happy ending to tie off the entire series.
Well, here's looking forward to it!

I heard about it. I can't believe this. I HAVE to get all the books. <3 Including the last one. :3

Maybe she won't be able to write about HP anymore because something happens which destroys the world's ability to use witchcraft? Wouldn't kill Harry, but it would be impossible to write about him as a wizard.

I dunno.

Well, Burnside, I'm glad I'm not the only one with a little obsession with Harry! I found confirmation of this when I read a few more blogs about the boy wizard. I'm actually a light-weight fanatic compared to most!

And you are right--Dumbledore is dead, for sure. But what about Dumbledore's brother--what part do you think he'll play in the last book?

As far as other characters dying--a great many think Ron is destined for death as foreshadowed by the Wizard's Chess scene in the first installment. I doubt it--why would you kill off the comic relief? There is also that entire Neville story line going on--that he could have been the "chosen one" except that Voldemort determined the prophecy by trying to kill Harry as a baby. I think Neville will play an important part in the last book. Dang, there is just too much going on!

I also know that JKR said this is the end; that there will be no more after the last book. But didn't George Lucas say he was through after he completed Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi? Wouldn't it be wise to Never Say Never Again? I think after she takes a break from Harry, she just might want to come back to it. After all, wouldn't you continue reading books about Harry's life as an adult Wizard? It's a great theme, and the story-line possibilities are endless.

Hi Howdydoo. My name is stephanie and i too am a "Pott-Head". lol i'm 23 and married with one child and another on the way. I've only ever met one other person here in san antonio that loves harry potter as much as i do. it's insane and kinda lonely. lol thank god i have my favorite potter dorks at UM to remind me that i'm not alone and weird.
About the last book, my toes are curled with excitement! I hope Rowling decides to wrtie more after this. i'm really worried she won't. what will i do then? what?! j/k i'm sure it won't be hard to find something else to obsess about. maybe i'll take up tap dancing....maybe not.