W

Who expected all this fuss over an English orphan boy who talks to snakes

and rides a broomstick?

A decade ago, English author J. K. Rowling introduced young, unassuming

Harry Potter, the unlikely heir to a family legacy of wizardry and magical

talent. Soon readers of all ages were just wild about Harry. Everyone could

identify with him. He wasn't Superboy; he was more like Everyboy.

Now loyal devotees of the Potter cult are preparing for the final rites

Friday, with the midnight release of the seventh and last book in the series,

''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.''

The cultural impact of these books may endure, but the big question for

fans this week is whether Harry himself will survive the final chapter.

Rowling has said two characters will die, but she won't say whether Harry is

one of them. And what about his classmates at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft

and Wizardry, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger? Or is brooding old Professor

Snape doomed?

''I'm such a bundle of nerves about that at this point. Each one of these

books has not been what I could have possibly predicted,'' said Jennie Levine,

co-founder of sugarquill.net, among the first of thousands of Web sites

created by and for Harry Potter fans over the past 10 years.

''I tell myself rationally that there's no way J. K. Rowling is going to

kill off Harry or Ron or Hermione,'' Levine said, ''but in the back of my mind

I think, 'What if she does?'''

Whether the boy wizard lives or not, he certainly won't be forgotten. As

the student mage, or magician, has come of age, his powers have proved most

potent not on some mystical plane, but in the marketplace: The six Harry

Potter books published so far have sold 325 million copies worldwide.

The golden touch

Magically transformed from the printed page to the movie screen, the Potter

saga turned everything it touched to gold. The first four films have grossed

$3.5 billion. The fifth, ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,'' broke

the record this past week for a midnight Tuesday opening with $12 million,

Variety reported.

As pop culture scholars and business wizards scour the series' several

thousand pages, searching for the magic formula that made Rowling's stories a

publishing juggernaut, they might start by looking online.

''You can't discount the influence of the Internet in making these books

popular. This might be the first time in history when fans of a book series

can go and make a Web page today that millions can see instantly,'' said

Levine, whose day job is curator for historical manuscripts at the University

of Maryland's Hornbake Library archives.

''You can have these fan communities where a 13-year-old, a 40-year-old and

a 60-year-old can all be having a pretty deep conversation about whether

Professor Snape is good or evil,'' she explained. ''Their location doesn't

really matter. Their age doesn't matter, as long as they're talking on the

same level.''

While the stories appeal to readers of all ages, Kathy De-Weese, Children's

Services Coordinator for the Sonoma County Library, credits the Harry Potter

stories with sparking a sharp rise in reading by pre-teens and teenagers. And

in turn, that led to more good books for kids to read.

''The publishing world has been rejoicing because they look at this and

say, 'This means kids can read books that are more than 100 pages,''' DeWeese

said. ''And a lot of other great novels and great books have been published

since then, because they've seen kids able to read them.''

When writer respects reader

DeWeese finds the secret of Harry Potter's success in Rowling's skill and

craft as a writer.

''A lot of authors nowadays talk down to our kids,'' she said. ''I think

there's been quite a bit of dumbing down in children's literature, and I don't

think she did that.''

There have been other popular book series marketed to young readers, but

DeWeese considers Rowling's work superior to most of them.

''I don't think there's any comparison to Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys

because those are written at a different level,'' she said. ''Although their

popularity may have been similar, those are very formulaic, and these are

definitely not.''

Like Levine and millions of others, DeWeese connects with Rowling's

characters and the magical world they inhabit.

''They're not heroes. They're regular kids, and J. K. Rowling put them in

situations where they were forced to become heroic,'' DeWeese said. ''And one

of the most important characters in any fantasy is the world, and how the

author visualizes it, creates it and delivers it to the reader.''

For educators and publishers, the most important question is whether the

young reading audience created by the Harry Potter phenomenon will continue to

read.

''Whether or not these kids are going to become lifelong readers, I think,

just depends on the kid,'' DeWeese said. ''For some kids, their football

practice is going to take over when they hit 15, and they're not going to read

anymore, until maybe later in their lives.''

Whatever happens to Harry in the last book, Levine remains convinced he'll

live forever in fan-written stories on Web sites like hers.

''If Harry dies, I guarantee you there will be hundreds and hundreds of

stories about what if Harry had lived, and hundreds about what if Harry's not

dead,'' she said. ''If Harry lives, there will be stories about Harry and his

12 children. It's going to continue.''

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or

dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. News Researchers Teresa Meikle and Michele Van

Hoeck contributed to this story.

POTTER PLOTTER

For those who have trouble keeping track of the seven volumes in J.K.

Rowling's series, here's a cheat sheet. All of the titles, of course, start

with ''Harry Potter and the ...''

The books:

1997 -- ''Sorcerer's Stone'' (''Philosopher's Stone'' in the U.K.)

1998 -- ''Chamber of Secrets''

1999 -- ''Prisoner of Azkaban''

2000 -- ''Goblet of Fire''

2003 -- ''Order of the Phoenix''

2005 -- ''Half-Blood Prince''

2007 -- ''Deathly Hallows''

The movies:

2001 -- ''Sorcerer's Stone''

2002 -- ''Chamber of Secrets''

2004 -- ''Prisoner of Azkaban''

2005 -- ''Goblet of Fire''

2007 -- ''Order of the Phoenix''

2008 -- ''Half-Blood Prince''

2010 -- ''Deathly Hallows''

SCHOLASTIC

J.K. Rowling reads from ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'' at Radio

City Music Hall in New York last August. Her final Potter book, ''Harry Potter

and the Deathly Hallows,'' debuts at midnight Friday.