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by Dave Haber, Wizard News Wizard
with info thanks to Felicia Rickman and other Wizard News readers

Halloween is a special day in the Wizarding World, and lots of important things happened on Halloween in the Harry Potter books. Harry Potter fans were hoping J.K. Rowling would do something special this Halloween, and they were not disappointed.

In a special cyber-trick-or-treat, J.K. has revealed the titles of three of chapters in the next Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Like the last time information was revealed on the www.jkrowling.com website, fans had to look for clues and solve riddles to find the new information.

There is a door on J.K.'s site that is usually locked. You go to this door by clicking on the hair scrunchie on the main screen, which looks like J.K.'s desktop. Upon doing this, you notice immediately that the "Do Not Disturb" sign is gone from the door, but it still does not open.

Patient fans discovered that if you wait a few minutes, Peeves the Poltergeist would come by and knock over the vase on the table, which then makes a bunch of keys float around on the screen. If you catch the correct key and fit it into the lock on the door, the door will open, opening another view of J.K's desktop.

That's just the start. Fans then next discovered the drawer to the desk could be opened and magnifying glass could be taken out. When the magnifying glass is held over a folder on the left of the desk, a riddle is uncovered, which reads:

One by one we come to life,
Then side-by-side we wait
While our company swells in numbers
(Some come early, some come late);
And some of us may bore you,
And some of us enthral,
But you cannot choose between us
You must take us one and all.
We'll be bound together tightly
For we're naught if we break free.
If you'd like some clues about us
Simply answer: WHO ARE WE?"

You must then type the answer to the riddle, which fans quickly figured out was "chapters". When you correctly answer the riddle, a folder appears with the title of the next Harry Potter book on it.

If you click on the peices of paper that are sticking out of the top of the folder and drag them upward, they reveal the names of the chapters, which are:

Chapter 2 Spinners End
Chapter 6 Draco's Detour
Chapter 14 Felix Felicis

Spinners End... hmm... sounds like the name of a place. What detour could Draco be taking? Possibly one that takes him away from the path of the dark arts? And Felix Felicis. Latin. Felicis would be "happy", I believe. Anyone out there speak Latin?

So, there you go, three treats for Potter fans on Halloween. Around here at Wizard News, we'd personally been hoping we'd get the release date for book 6 today. But these little clues are fun, too! Thanks, J.K., for making yet another Halloween special! ©

Related articles:

•	Update: The meaning of the new chapter title (11/1/04)

Published October 31, 2004

This article is Copyright © 2004, David Haber, and may not be reproduced on other web sites or in print, in whole or in part, without expressed permission

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