I honestly hope it's a fake. It's actually a very good canon-compliant story, however, and that's saying something. There are a few things I didn't agree with, but all in all I liked the one going around. I just want better.

 

And it all ends in bad fanfiction, the end

 

In any of the leaked versions does Harry even *learn* Occlumency?

If not - what a waste of all that time in OotP! The only conclusion I can come to is that JKR wanted to show Dumbledore making a monumental misjudgement as to the depth of resentment between Harry Potter and Severus Snape.

So much for "Keep your mind closed".

 

Yeah... when I checked the pdf... it matched up to everything (Only checked Dobbys death, and kids and marriages) that guy said... everything...

 

If they aren't real then someone has really spent a lot of effort on this prank... must have loads of time on their hands.

I am hoping it is a fake though because after having read the book I wasn't overly impressed with the book. It wasn't bad... but it wasn't too great either.

I either wanted the book to be great or really bad.

I don't mind a bad book.. because I already hate books 5 and 6 so one more will just help me put the series behind me and stick to fanfiction for my Potter fix.

A 'not bad' book 7 on the other hand will irritate the crap out of me. It will just mean that JK hasn't put all her efforts into writing it.

 

i think the pictured one, which tonks, dobby, severus... die, is a fake one. the writing style is very simple and it is too fanfiction like style. also in that version, voldemort destroys the sorting hat, but at the last chapter "19 years later" harry tells his son Albus that the child will be able to chose gryfendor over slytherin. he then adds "the sorting hat takes your choice into account". well sorting hat was destroyed. it could be argued that a new one is made but i don't think so, as it was the founders who built it. it needs knowledge and skill. ( a plothole i don't expect from the last book)

i must admit though, the story isn't bad and it is definetly better than the six book.

 

Meh. I finally felt like sneaking a look at these less than legal leaks. I'm convinced the one made from 396 photographs including some white guys well manicured hands is real. There's just too many things like the apparent production value of the book, the layout of the text, the fact that it's a plotline and story unlike any fanfiction, the lack of errors in spelling or grammar, the style, etc... There's too many things done too well for it to have been faked (in my opinion).

And man is it a disappointing story. That epilogue. The Snape resolution. How Voldemort is defeated. The whole Elder Wand bucket of crap. Bleh.

I'll still buy it. And I'll still read it. But it's just... disappointing. The first four especially had such a sense of awe and wonder, i.e. a world of magic and fantasy. I liked OotP, but it was lacking in that fun wow-ness and while this doesn't look as disappointing as HBP was, it still looks frankly, uninteresting.

Audible sigh.

 

It's never said that the Hat was destroyed, only that it was set on fire.

 

Nonjon- check out this site. They point out all the mistakes in layout, etc. Personally, I think it's a fake because the cover is laminated like in a library's copy, but the ISBN number is supposedly that of retail copy.

 

If you look at the picture at the top of the page it looks as though there is nothing more than scotch tape holding the plastic in place over the dust jacket. Anyone can put clear plastic over the outside of a dust jacket and tape it in place. My girlfriend's parents collect first edition hardback mystery books, and they put thin plastic covers of the dust jackets of all of their books, even the brand new ones. Personally I wouldn't tape it on at risk of tearing the coverpaper. Either way, I can't see this as dispositive evidende of whether its a retail edition or a library edition.

I will say that I don't own any of the HP books in hardback (other than a Latin language edition of PS and that is a whole different animal) so I can't comment on whether the prior books had head and foot tapes on the spine either, though the "carpet copy" appears not to have them.