Secrecy Casts a Magic Spell Over the Latest Harry Potter

Now that the third secret of Fatima has been revealed, the biggest mystery on the planet seems to be the plot of the next Harry Potter book. Rumors and speculation are flying about the widely anticipated novel, which is set to go on sale just after the clock strikes midnight and ushers in July 8.

Even the title is under wraps, but judging from the hype, it probably should be “Harry Potter and the Constantly Ringing Cash Register.”

With advance sales swamping booksellers, Scholastic Inc. has ordered a staggering 3.8-million copies for the first printing, a figure that dwarfs the standard John Grisham novel’s first press run of 2.4 million.

Naturally, a movie is also in the works, based on the first volume in author J.K. Rowling’s series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”And a crush of Harry Potter toys and merchandise is due in stores this fall.

But for now, most attention is riveted on book four.

Unlike its predecessors, which debuted in Britain a few months before going on sale in the U.S., the newest installment will be released simultaneously in both countries. That’s partly because British-born Rowling doesn’t want advance word to spoil any surprises for American readers and partly because Scholastic lost thousands of sales when U.S. customers went online and ordered the British editions, which are published by a different company.

Another marketing twist is the secrecy. No review copies are being issued to generate publicity. No author interviews are scheduled. And the 752-page novel’s plot, cover design and title are as closely guarded as the colonel’s secret recipe. (The book’s working title was “Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament,” but Scholastic says that’s been changed.)

If this were a movie, the secrecy strategy would indicate that something was dreadfully wrong. But with Harry Potter, the mystery has only heightened the anticipation.

Internet chat rooms are buzzing with theories about what will happen to the young wizard and his classmates at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main topic: Who’s going to die?

Last year, Rowling began hinting that her seven-volume series would grow increasingly dark and that book four would include some deaths.

“It is only by killing someone the reader cares about that you will have a sense of how evil it is to extinguish human life,” she told the Telegraph Magazine.

Distressed fans have since beseeched the 34-year-old author to spare the life of one or another favorite character, often Ron or Hermione, Harry’s closest friends. Rowling has refused to identify the first corpse, but in October she told the Los Angeles Times, “You don’t have to worry about a really key character [dying] until later in the series.”

Nevertheless, the darker tone of forthcoming books could stir controversy. Already, scattered protests have erupted over Rowling’s depiction of witchcraft and magic. Although her spin is usually more amusing than malevolent, one conservative Christian magazine complained that “this apparent harmlessness may create a problem by putting a smiling mask on evil.”

Rowling, who says she doesn’t believe in witchcraft, dismisses the criticism: “If you ban all the books with witchcraft and the supernatural, you’ll ban three-quarters of children’s literature,” she told the Washington Post.

But Judy Mazzarella, a teacher at Imperial Middle School in La Habra, worries that a gloomier tone could spur further protests and wreck the books’ appeal to youngsters, some of whom dreaded reading before Harry Potter came along.

“If Rowling changes what she’s doing and adults get involved, kids might stop reading them,” she says.

Book merchants don’t seem too concerned about that prospect.

Alexandra Uhl, owner of Whale of a Tale Children’s Bookshoppe in Irvine, has ordered several hundred books without the usual benefit of seeing an early copy.

“This is blind faith,” she says.

Well, not quite. Uhl has experienced Harry Potter mania firsthand.

Overflow Crowd Meets Author

Her shop hosted Rowling’s only book signing in Orange County during the author’s 1999 promotional tour. Rowling autographed 800 copies of her novels in two hours for an overflow crowd of boys and girls, many of them dressed in Harry Potter’s signature taped-together glasses, black and red cape and lightning bolt-shaped scar in the middle of his forehead.

And, for months, Uhl has been fielding daily inquiries about the new Harry Potter sequel.

“The kids are very excited,” she said.

So are lots of adults. Not long ago, Rowling’s first three volumes commanded the top three slots on the New York Times bestseller list, an unprecedented feat for a children’s book.

When Forbes magazine issued its celebrity 100 income list for 1999, Rowling’s $40-million income ranked 24th, sandwiched between that of Michael Jordan and Cher. This year also promises to be lucrative.

Book four, sight unseen, was only recently knocked off the No. 1 perch at Amazon.com. The online merchant now displays a Harry Potter odometer--updated hourly--that counts advance orders for the new book. As of Friday, the tally had soared past 145,000 and was climbing at a rate of roughly 2,000 orders a day. That’s more than double the 61,000 total pre-orders that Amazon took for the third book, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”

Industry observers have never seen anything quite like it.

“It’s colossal,” said Bridget Kinsella, book news editor at Publisher’s Weekly.

Despite Scholastic’s plan to print 3.8 million copies, apparently a hardcover record, “some people don’t even think that’ll be enough to meet demand,” says Michael Jacobs, a senior vice president at Scholastic, which is about to send promotional kits to 10,000 bookstores.

On July 8, the full publicity machine kicks in. Around midnight, the Jumbotron screen in New York’s Times Square will flash the arrival of Harry Potter IV. And when the sun rises, airplanes on both coasts will fly over beaches, towing banners touting the book.

In England, Rowling will board an old steam train for a whistle-stop book-signing tour through several cities.

In the meantime, those suffering acute Harry Potter deprivation must rely on Internet gossip and previous Rowling interviews for clues to the sequel’s content.

One thing the author has ruled out is that Harry might somehow be reunited with his dead parents.

“The first thing I had to decide when I started was the fundamental physical laws of magic in my world,” she told this newspaper last year. “I had to decide what magic couldn’t do. For example, a very profound thing: You can’t raise people from the dead.”

Packing Alot Into New Book

But she promises plenty of other machinations in the new novel.

“It’s a long book,” she said. “I think when all seven books are finished, [numbers] four and seven will be the longest. A lot has to happen in book four.”

The extensive preparation--Rowling has had outlines of all seven novels since 1993--is necessary because of the intricate whodunit plots. A passing mention early in a book can prove critical in the denouement, or an incident in one book can take on new meaning in another.

“There is something in ‘Sorcerer’s Stone’ [the first book] that is absolutely crucial to the ending of book four. People will remember it,” she said, declining to be more specific.

Rowling has also said that Harry will discover girls in the new book and that the Hogwarts gang will all fall in love with the wrong people, as in real life (Rowling is divorced and lives with her young daughter).

Beyond that, little has been revealed. To fill the gaps, the Seattle Times just sponsored a contest in which children were invited to write what they think should be the first paragraph of book four. About 650 entries rolled in, including one that had Harry killing his cousin Dudley with a magic seat belt that disappeared in a car crash.

Closer to home, students at Imperial Middle School recently concocted other possible plot scenarios for Potter’s latest chapter:

David Taylor, 12, suggested a James Bond-style adventure: “I want Voldemort [the villain who killed Harry’s parents] to get his hands on a nuclear weapon and set up a base in Alaska. Then Harry goes on a one-man mission to stop him.”

Student Tim Newton countered Rowling’s promise of darker story lines with a kinder, gentler vision: “I think something should happen to the Dursleys [the aunt and uncle who raised Harry after his parents’ death but made him sleep in a cupboard], but Harry saves them and then they’re nice to him afterward.”

Another student, Andrea Hjorth, said, “I’d like to see Malfoy [Harry’s rival at school] kicked out of Hogwarts.”

Many readers--children and adults alike--expressed similar ill will toward Malfoy. But Shayna Ingram, 14, of Rancho Cucamonga, thinks the character is misunderstood. She even wrote 80-page stories defending Malfoy and Professor Snape (another universally disliked figure) and posted them on her elaborate Harry Potter Web site, https://www.angelfire.com/on2/harrypotter, one of hundreds of Internet sites devoted to Potterdom.

However, Ingram says she has no plans to stand in line in the early hours of July 8 to buy one of the first copies of the book. But other fans expect to make the trek, and stores nationwide hope to accommodate them, some with magicians and slumber parties.

At Whale of a Tale in Irvine, owner Uhl says she’ll probably serve snacks, but she isn’t planning special activities.

“Nobody will have read the book, so we can’t have a discussion of it,” she explained. And even though the store will stay open for two hours, until 2 a.m., she doubts the young customers will want to stick around.

“I think they’re going to be way too anxious to get home and get under their covers with a flashlight.”

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* Times staff writers Mike Wyma and Dennis McLellan contributed to this report.

* E-mail Roy Rivenburg at roy.rivenburg@latimes.com.