J.K. Rowling pleads with her readers: Please don’t spoil it!

By M&C News May 17, 2007, 14:56 GMT

J.K. Rowling as asked one small favor of her fans. Once you finish reading book seven, please don’t spoil it! "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 website Monday.

"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."

Her comments came in response to an April 28 editorial by a leading Potter fan site, http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org, which noted that it had been receiving "spoiler" e-mails alleging the book's contents. Rowling has said two major characters will die in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which comes out July 21 and has had more than 1 million pre-orders on Amazon alone. Although the Potter books are released under tight security, copies often are obtained before the publication date.

"If Harry dies, we don't want to know about it until J.K. Rowling decides to tell us," Leaky Cauldron webmaster Melissa Anelli wrote. "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."