Potter Fans Try to Stay in the Dark

BALTIMORE -- Lisa Miller arrived later than she should have for the midnight release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on July 16, 2005 -- a slip-up she rues to this day.

It took about 20 minutes for Miller, 26, to get inside the London bookstore where she bought the sixth book in J.K. Rowling's juggernaut fantasy series. But before she had the novel in hand, a crucial plot point was ruined for her.

"Some 'lovely' person drove past where we were queuing and shouted the spoiler of who died in 'HBP,' " Miller wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "It was so horrible to think of it being true that even when I read the book, I still held out hope that they were making it up!"

Pranksters pulled similar stunts worldwide. In Dallas, a drive-by spoilsport yelled "Snape kills Dumbledore!" to fans gathered outside a Barnes & Noble. A blurry, shaky video of the verbal assault can be found on YouTube.

Now, as the July 21 release of the seventh and final book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," approaches, fans who have waited the better part of a decade to find out the ultimate fate of Harry, his friends and his nemeses are taking no chances.

But how far do they have to go? Must they close their eyes, cover their ears and scream, "LALALALALALALA"?

Pretty much.

In fact, if you want to get in touch with a rabid Harry Potter fan on the weekend of July 21-22, you might be out of luck. Readers are planning media blackouts -- no computers, no cellphones, no TV, no radio. And if that's not enough, they're threatening to get physical.

"I'll beat the [stuffing] out of the person who spoils it for me," Pritthish Chakraborty wrote in an e-mail. Chakraborty, 17, who runs a fan Web site, Harry Potter Beyond, in his native Bangladesh, was spoiled two years ago when a "friend" sent a picture message to his cellphone of the page describing Dumbledore's death.

Many fans don't want to give up the excitement and camaraderie of a midnight release party, but they know they're putting themselves at risk.

"We advise people -- I know this is terrible -- to bring headphones to the book release and put them on as they leave the store so they're not subject to the idiot across the street screaming the end to them," said Melissa Anelli, webmaster of the Leaky Cauldron ( http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org), a prominent Harry Potter fan site.

Miller learned her lesson. She's forgoing the conspicuous bookstore gathering in favor of home delivery and instant seclusion.