From Yahoo News:

LONDON - At midnight, like magic, Harry Potter appeared.

Like castles lowering their drawbridges, bookstores across Britain and as far away as Singapore and Sydney, unveiled their copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final volume of the young wizard's adventures.

Eager readers, many of whom had lined up for hours, rushed from the tills, opening the thick hardback book to take in the opening words. Inside were answers readers have waited long to learn -- and that J.K. Rowling and her publishers have labored, with mixed results, to keep secret. Will Harry kill evil Lord Voldemort, or die in the attempt? Who will be slain in the battle between the good guys and the wicked Death Eaters? And what are deathly hallows, anyway?

"It's all that matters to him, to get this book -- he couldn't eat or sleep," mother Laura Helmy said of her 15-year-old son, Bobby, who purchased the novel at midnight in central London.

The family, from Northfield, Ill., had been vacationing in Paris but hopped on the Eurostar to London for the day.

Shops throughout the world were putting the book on sale at the same time -- a minute past midnight British time (7:01 p.m. EDT Friday). Readers in the United States have to wait until midnight strikes in each time zone, from 12:01 a.m. EDT Saturday.

Rowling, who a decade ago introduced her magical character in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," was giving a midnight reading to 500 competition-winning children in the grand Victorian surroundings of London's Natural History Museum. She sat in a large wing-backed chair and read the opening pages.

For many of the hardcore Potter-maniacs, the place to be was Waterstone's bookstore on Piccadilly in central London. More than 5,000 people lined up for hours before the midnight opening, in a festive, colorful line stretching around the block. Among the fans from as far away as Finland and Mexico were dozens of witches and wizards, a couple of house elves, a pair of owls and a woman dressed as Hogwarts castle.

Ken Zwier, 42, from Phoenix, Ariz., grew and bleached his hair to achieve the golden tresses of villain Lucius Malfoy.

"Tomorrow I'm buzzing it all off. It's been a couple of years," said Zwier, who was lining up with his wife and two daughters -- all in costume. The family planned to read the book aloud to one another on their flight back to the United States Saturday. They said anyone who complained would be offered ear plugs.

Waiters at a bookstore in downtown Rome served customers colorful Potter-themed cocktails, a green one called "Serpeverde" -- Italian for Slytherin -- and an orange one named "Grifondoro" -- Gryffindor.

The passion for Potter was almost life-threatening. In Canberra, Australia, a 21-year-old man jumped into the frigid waters of the city's central Lake Burley Griffin on Friday afternoon to retrieve a pre-order voucher he had dropped. Paramedics arriving at the scene found the man shivering and distressed -- and without the voucher, Emergency Services spokesman Darren Cutrupi said. He was given another voucher by the bookstore.

In India, stores were opening at dawn for special Harry Potter parties. In Bangkok, British ambassador David Fall was to hand over Thailand's first official copy of "Deathly Hallows" to the first customer in line at the Emporium Shopping Complex. The mall was decked out with a recreation of King's Cross Station's platform 9 3/4, where Harry and friends catch the Hogwarts Express to school.

Portland, Maine, was going all-out with a 12-hour Mugglefest to celebrate the book's launch. Fans wearing cloaks and carrying wands were riding the Hogwarts Express into a re-creation of King's Cross station, and an old red-brick warehouse foundry along the city's waterfront was converted into the magical shopping street Diagon Alley.

Source

The webmistress of this site (that would be Padfoot) has decided, in light of the Deathly Hallows spoiler situation, to close registration to the forums until after the book has been released. I am the faster reader of the two of us, so registration will be reopened as soon as I am finished with the book, which should be no later than noon, Eastern Standard Time, July 21.

Guests will still be able to view all our content, which is guaranteed to be be spoiler free pre-release, but you won't be able to join in. If you desperately feel as if you need to join in RIGHT NOW and haven't registered yet, then you may e-mail me and present your case. If you are over 13 and can agree to abide by our rules, which are found here for our board rules and here for our spoiler rules, then send me an e-mail telling me your desired user name, a little bit about yourself (not your life story) and that you promise to abide by our rules, and I will see what I can do for you.

Until then, remember that there are many spoilers out there about the book and that there are some people who don't care whether or not  they are ruining the book for you. If you don't go looking for them then you will never find them. Constant vigilance!

But you're still not getting them here, so don't get excited.

Yup, me either. So be careful out there. Source

Daniel Radcliffe has admitted that filming the Harry Potter movies is less enjoyable without Richard Harris.

Harris, who died of cancer in October 2002, played the role of Albus Dumbledore in the first two films - and constantly entertained his fellow cast members with amusing anecdotes while on set.

"We got on really, really well. He was just fantastic to have on set because he was, as one might expect, just an amazing storyteller - and he had a lot of stories to tell," Radcliffe told talk show host Larry King. "You never quite knew how much to believe because some fiction was drafted in.

Well, it's the first day of the seventh month of the seventh year of the millenium and you guys know what that means...the end of Harry Potter is only 20 days away! Well, I don't say end like he's going to die or anything, though personally I think he wi--wo--wi--won', no will.

I apologize for the lack of news on the front page--one would think that Harry Potter month would bring a little bit more to the table in the arena of interesting news. But oh no! Several of the stories I've passed up for publication in the past week have had to do with Rupert Grint auditioning with prosepective Lavendar Browns (also known as "Rupert Grint snogs potential Lavendars in an open casting call on July 1"). And now the news seems to be about Harry Potter's first kiss when Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Leung (Cho Chang) have to snuggle up for a kiss in the OotP movie. So you see what I mean when I say there's nothing newsworthy out there, eh?

Other stories that aren't quite interesting enough to merit their own coverage by me:

Movie news:
Critics Hail new Potter flick
Radcliffe signs $50M deal to star in final two Potters
A Life after Harry Potter
A chance to win movie tickets (Port Huron, MI area)
Radliffe's Cricket nightmares

Actually, that last story is a hoot and I ought to have done a full story on it. If you don't want to read any of the others at least read that one!

Book news:
How will the new Potter novel end? (good news for those of you hoping Harry will live!)
Harry Potter and the deathly discounts

You know, I think I'm always going to do the news this way. It's way quicker and I don't have to think of my trite little blurb to go with the presentation of the story. Yup. Join us in the forums if you want to discuss some Potter with us. Of course you'll probably have to start the Potter discussions since we pretty much just spam around these days in the O.T. section. ;-) But we will discuss HP if we must!