Harry Potter 'hacker' posts plot on internet

By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
Last Updated: 8:57am BST 22/06/2007


A computer hacker claims to have discovered the greatest literary mystery of the decade - how J K Rowling ends her Harry Potter epic and which two characters die in the seventh and final book.

The hacker, calling himself "Gabriel", posted a message on a well-known hackers' site in the early hours of Tuesday, claiming that he had discovered the ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is published on July 21, on the computer of an employee of Bloomsbury, Rowling's publishers.

In less than perfect English, he gives a detailed summary of the alleged ending and names two central characters who have appeared in the series since the beginning 10 years ago.

Gabriel boasts that he sent an email carrying a virus to the Bloomsbury employee and says: "The attack strategy was the easiest one. It's amazing to see how much people inside the company have copies and drafts of this book."

In a bizarre justification, the hacker claims to have been motivated by religion.

He writes: "We did it by following the precious words of the great Pope Benedict XVI when he still was Cardinal Josepth (sic) Ratzinger.

"He explained why Harry Potter bring the youngs (sic) of our earth to Neo Paganism faith."

Bloomsbury, who are expecting to sell three million copies of the title within 24 hours of it being published, is known to have taken stringent security measures to prevent leaks but would not comment on the alleged hacking today.

A spokeswoman for the publishers said: "There are lots and lots of rumoured versions of the book (on the internet). We don't confirm or deny any rumours."

She declined to say whether the company had called in the police over the claims made by Gabriel or other alleged hackers.

In 2003, a forklift truck driver pleaded guilty to stealing pages from the fifth Harry Potter title from the printers in Suffolk where it was being produced and attempting to sell them to a tabloid newspaper.

The claim by Gabriel was found on the hacking website yesterday by PC Tools, a software security company which says that it routinely scours known hackers' sites.

A spokesman for the company said that it could not verify the claim.

He said: "Is it true? Only two groups really know the answer to that question - the hacker and the publisher. Is it possible? Certainly."

The Potter books have sold 325 million copies worldwide, have been translated into 64 languages and spawned five blockbuster films to date.

Source and full article here.

I heard about this on the radio. And the radio host gave the thing away! Of course I wasn't completely wake. So I didn't catch it all.

***SPOILER ALERT***

The Plot

The war between Harry Potter and Voldemort will reach a crescendo with both sides amassing armies on both sides. Voldemort will be the more powerful and all seems lost for the ‘forces of good’. Finally the forces of good discover a method to destroy Voldemort - however, using this method will destroy magic forever. No more magic, no more Hogwarts, everyone becomes a Muggle.

During the final battle, with Voldemort gaining the upper hand and on the verge of winning the war, Harry unleashes the secret weapon on Voldemort, killing him, but at the same time, removing all magic from the world. The last chapters of the book will deal with all the ex-wizards/witches dealing with life without the magic they had got used to relying on. Finally Ron and Hermione get married.

Justifications for the Plot

Harry Potter will live

Although JK Rowlings has expressed the opinion that killing Harry would be good since it would stop people writing additional books, my plot suggestion of removing all magic from the world accomplishes that too. And it does this without killing off the central character of the book, which I think would be (a) too unpopular/traumatic for young readers and more importantly, ( too obvious a plot line.

Voldemort will lose

At the simplest level, the Harry Potter series is about good versus evil where good triumphs through adversity. So Voldemort must lose. That could be either by dying, or by losing all access to magic. Either way, he loses.

The destruction of magic

I think this is a highly plausible plot theme for several reasons:

it ‘kills’ Harry without physically killing him
it ‘kills’ Voldemort without (necessarily) physically killing him
it makes Harry’s ‘victory’ over Voldemort bittersweet since it sacrifices magic in the process. Sacrifice has been a recurring theme in the Harry Potter series and the destruction of magic to ensure the safety of the world fits right in.
it’s not an obvious plot line - therefore there is the element of surprise which any author loves in their books

Whether it's true or not, I've always said Harry would make it. I can't see a kid being brought up in such bad conditions and having to suffer so much in life, having his life just end at the age of seventeen. Anyway, I hope that is the ending... seems fitting, and I'm sure the overly religious folks who have fought so hard against the books will be happy that magic is destroyed.

um.. the question is... how exactly he hacked the system? was he hacking the printing puter? or was he hacking the puter that has the book in it? I doubt them publishers would be silly enough to left the book in their puters and not in a flash pen or something since these days people could afford, take and go gadgets.