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by Adam Kane, Wizard News Media Reporter

A new website, which was launched last Friday to help fans cope with the distress they've been experiencing upon completing the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has discovered an important inconsistency between the American and British editions of the book.

David Haber, creator of DumbledoreIsNotDead.com, says the site uses clues hidden in the book to help fans understand what's really going on behind the book's emotional event, presenting actual quotes and information from Half-Blood Prince and the other Harry Potter books.

"We've received over 200 emails from fans since last Friday," said Mr. Haber, "thanking us for the web site and offering additional ideas and clues of their own."

It was one of those emails that triggered an important revelation.

"We won't say here what the quote is, in case anyone who still hasn't completed the book yet is reading this, but there is one particular quote in the book that is a really obvious clue, and we included this quote on the site. But then we got an email, asking us if we had gotten the quote wrong, because they couldn't find that sentence in their book. Turns out, we can confirm, since we have copies of both editions, that this line in the book that's a really important clue, is only in the American edition of Half-Blood Prince, it's not in the British edition at all."

Mr. Haber explained that there are lots of differences normally between the US and UK editions of Harry Potter books, but they are mostly spellings or changed words to clarify a British phrase for the American audience.

"But it's unlikely," Mr. Haber told us, "for complete sentences to be in one edition and not the other. On top of that, when you read the missing sentence I think you'll agree it's a very important sentence, making it extremely suspicious that it's missing from one of the editions."

But why is it missing? Mr. Haber thinks he knows.

"J.K. Rowling is playing a big game with us, and us with her. She buries clues in her books that we need to find to solve the mystery of the climax of that particular book, but there are also clues that pertain the story overall, what we call the 'Harry Potter Septology'. It really looks to me like it's possible that J.K. wrote this sentence, and then realized it went too far and gave too much away, and removed it from the book. However, somehow, by accident, it found its way into the American edition anyway."

You'll need to go over to the site to see the passage from the book in question. It's the second item on the "Dumbledore Clues" page.

More information:
• Dumbledore Is Not Dead

Published July 25, 2005

This article is Copyright © 2005, Adam Kane, and may not be reproduced on other web sites or in print, in whole or in part, without expressed permission

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