What's Next 2007

It's been almost 10 years since J.K. Rowling published Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, long enough so that there are actually fully caught-up Potter readers who don't remember a world where owls weren't part of the postal system. It doesn't take the divination skills of a Firenze to figure out that there's going to be a lot of fuss on July 21 when the seventh and last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is published. Rowling has been coy about giving hints concerning Hallows (she once mentioned that the last word is scar, although that may change), but we can be sure that she will continue to deepen and darken Harry's world. Playtime is over: there are no Quidditch scenes in Hallows. More deaths will follow Dumbledore's. And even after the last page turns, the aftereffects will reverberate. The movie of Order of the Phoenix opens July 13. "Wizard rock" bands like the Remus Lupins (the album is Spells from a Broken Wand) make Potter-themed music. The Web is teeming with gigabytes of fan fiction. What began as a book is ending as a movement.