Got Harry?

Galloping gargoyles! It's almost Saturday, July 21st, 2007 . . . the day Harry Potter fans have been waiting for; the day when the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series will be released!

In celebration of the upcoming Harry Potter Year 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, over a hundred participants of our Children's Summer Reading Program, Get a Clue! @ your library, attended a party this afternoon in our library courtyard for a magical day of Hogwarts-related games, crafts, and discussion.

At the "Divination" booth, children and adult fans offered their own predictions as to what might take place in the final book. Here are some of the ideas our Summer Reading Divination Detectives offered:

• "Harry stays alive and Voldemort gets killed." --Julia, age 7
• "Harry Potter is going to be the head master of Hogwarts, old and unmarried." --Sirius B., age 12
• "Harry finds and destroys all the horcruxes except the 6th and 7th, the 6th is Voldemort and then Harry finds out that the 7th is himself and he has to decide if he will sacrifice himself." --Garth L., age 12
• "Professor Snape, he'll be good after all and Harry forgives him." --Kara L., age 9
• "I predict Hermione and Ron will get married and have lots of children who will call Harry 'Uncle Harry.' Voldemort will become the babysitter and get paid less than minimum wage. J.K. Rowling will then write another book." --Andrew, age 30
• "I think Harry Potter is supposed to kill Voldemort." --Cole, age 5
• "Harry will die." --Kaylani, age 5
• "Snape feels guilty and comes back to the Order but Moody kills him. Harry and Ginny get married. Ron and Hermione get married. Neville and Luna get married. Lupin and Tonks get married. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley get divorced." --Stephen T., age 16
• "Luna would come back." --Maribel, age 9
• "Harry will decide to go on a lovely vacation to the islands. And that is all. Harry's conflict with Voldemort won't be resolved. And that is all." --Mr. Unknown, age 100
• "Neville will kill Bellatrix LeStrange." --Emily L., age 12
• "Voldymort will be killed by Harry and Harry will live Happy Ever After." --Kayla, age 6
• "Nevil & Malfy is going to . . . DIE!" --Valentine J., age 4
• "Harry finds out that Dumbledore was his grandfather." --Gloria L., age 14
• "My prediction for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is that Harry will go back to Godric's Hollow where his family lived." --Cassidy K., age 12
• "Harry Potter is going to kill somyon and somyon is going to cast a spell on him for killing somyon." --Emily, age 7
• "Malfoy will go to the good side and be friends with Harry, Ron, Herminie, Ginny, Nevill, and Luna. Malfoy will eventuley marry Moaning Murtle." --Jan, Hufflepuff, age 9
• "Harry, Hermione, and Ron and all the Order of the Phoenix and all of Dumbledore's Army ALL live happily ever after. Voldemort dies and same with all the Death Eaters." --Sasha R., Ravenclaw, age 13
• "Harry Potter is nice to some people." --Nayeli, age 7
• "Harry Potter is gunna die." --Tessa, age 7
• "Snape confesses to Harry that HE is Harry's real father!" --Danielle, age 26
• "Dumbledore uses his portrait to help Harry find all 7 horcruxes and Harry kills Voldemort. Neville and Hagrid and MacGonegole all die though." --Gary G., age 13
• "Hermione will get together with Harry and Ron will be jealous and so will Ginny and Ginny will kill Hermione and Ron will kill Harry and they'll all live happily ever after except for Harry and Hermione." --Emily, age 12
• "I predict that Harry and Ginny will get back together, and that Hermione will die." --Kelsey B., age 14

To find out whether any of these Harry Potter prophecies prove accurate, we will all have to wait until Saturday, to read the book!

There are already more than 500 patrons on the hold lists for one of the 139 OCPL library copies of the book or Book-on-CD. If you don't want to wait in either of those queues, you can also try to get hold of one of the rental copies, each available for $1.50 as a 7-day checkout to the lucky muggles who snatch up these first-come-first-checkout copies when they're placed on the shelves Saturday morning. ("Accio, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!")

By Monday, at least two of our own reference librarians will have completed the book and will be delighted to talk about the series with Potter fans young and old or patrons just interested in learning what all this Harrybaloo is about!