Harry Potter Fans Await Hero's Fate as Bookies Bet He's Doomed

By Mark Herlihy and Brian Lysaght

June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Millions of children and adults are waiting to
learn the fate of Harry Potter in the seventh and final novel of
author J.K. Rowling's series. Bookies are certain Harry's a goner.

William Hill Plc, a London-based bookmaker, is so sure of Harry's
demise that it stopped accepting wagers and shifted betting to the
possible killers. Lord Voldemort, who murdered Potter's parents, is
the most likely villain, at 2-1 odds, followed by Professor Snape,
one of his teachers, at 5-2.

``Every penny was on Harry dying, and it became untenable,'' said
Rupert Adams, a William Hill spokesman. ``People are obsessed about
this book.''

``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,'' from Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc, goes on sale July 21 with a retail price of 17.99 pounds
($35.50). It's published in the U.S. by Scholastic Corp. for $34.99.
Advance orders put the book at the top of online bookseller
Amazon.com Inc.'s U.K. best-seller list eight hours after Rowling
announced the title Dec. 21.

Rowling, 41, caused a stir among Potter fans when she said two
characters will die in the new book. The six earlier novels about
Harry's adventures at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
have sold more than 300 million copies, earning Rowling a 545
million-pound fortune and making her wealthier than Queen Elizabeth
II, according to the U.K.'s Sunday Times Rich List.

Last Adventure

``It's gonna be huuuge,'' enthused The Leaky Cauldron, a Web site
devoted to all things Harry Potter. ``It's the end, and every last
plot string has to be tied up.''

Rowling has refused to give any clues about which characters will be
killed off. Writing on her Web site last month, she asked people not
to spoil the ending for fans by speculating about the outcome.

``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 going,'' she wrote May 14.

Fans of the books who gathered at London's King's Cross train
station, where Harry takes the train to Hogwarts from the fictional
platform 9 3/4, said they didn't want the bespectacled hero to die.

``I love everything about Harry Potter,'' said Daniel Jones, 12, of
Cambridge, England. ``They can't kill Harry; he's the best character
in the book.''

The station has marked the spot -- located near the real platform 9
-- with a baggage cart that appears to pass through the wall,
mirroring the method wizards use to access the station.

`I'll Cry'

``I think I'll cry if he's killed,'' said Becky Nickurak, an
18-year-old from Alberta, Canada, who had come to King's Cross
specifically to see the display and spent 15 minutes taking
photographs with her friend.

Across town at Piccadilly Circus, Shaun Jennings had no affection for
the teenage wizard.

``I hope Harry Potter does die in the final book,'' said Jennings, a
19-year-old from East London. ``I've never seen any of the films and
never read any of the books, and I don't intend to either. It's just
drivel.''

Booksellers have mixed feelings about the end of Harry Potter. While
the previous volumes reached No. 1 and spawned movies and computer
games, supermarkets and online sellers are offering discounts of 50
percent or more on advance sales of ``Deathly Hallows.'' As a result,
bookstores don't make money on Potter sales, said Tim Godfray, chief
executive officer of the Britain and Ireland Booksellers Association.

Philip Wicks, owner of two bookshops in Yorkshire, northern England,
said the discounters charge less than what he pays distributors for
the book. Since he can't compete on price, he plans to open his
stores at midnight the day the book goes on sale and hire a magician
to entertain waiting shoppers.

Midnight Reading

Rowling will mark the publication with a midnight reading for 1,700
invited fans at London's Natural History Museum.

Shares of Bloomsbury, the London-based company that has published the
series from the first novel in 1997, jumped 10-fold from January 1997
through the end of last year. That compares with a 52 percent gain
for the U.K.'s FTSE-100 Index. The stock has slumped 28 percent this
year. The company declined to comment on the end of the series.

``Harry Potter was the luckiest book deal in history,'' said Simon
Davies, an analyst at ABN Amro in London. ``Bloomsbury was able to
ride on the coattails of that success for a long time.''

While the books are ending, the films aren't. The fifth movie,
``Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,'' distributed by Time
Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., premieres June 28 in Tokyo.

The first four films, starring British actor Daniel Radcliffe in the
lead role, grossed more than $3.5 billion in ticket sales, according
to Web site Boxofficemojo.com. Warner Bros. will open a Potter theme
park at Florida's Universal Orlando Resort in 2009, the companies
said May 31.

Seeing Harry Potter in two more films may ease the disappointment for
fans of the book such as Erin Nault, 18, who also made the pilgrimage
to King's Cross.

``I'll miss the excitement of getting a new Harry Potter book,'' said
Nault, standing near platform 9 3/4. ``Once you start reading, you
just can't put it down.''