Canadian fan gets early Harry Potter fix

A Canadian woman has got her hands on a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix more than a week before its eagerly anticipated release, it was reported today.

Melissa, who told the Montreal Gazette she did not want her second name used, said she bought the book at a Wal-Mart shop in the city on June 12.

The fifth volume of British author JK Rowling’s hit series is not due to appear on store shelves worldwide until Saturday.

Her US publishers are suing the New York Daily News newspaper for allegedly publishing a sneak preview of the Order of the Phoenix on its website edition.

“I think it was just pure luck,” 23-year-old Melissa told the Montreal Gazette about her purchase, adding that she is on page 567 of the 768 page book.

Another two were bought from the Wal-Mart store within hours.

News of the novel’s early circulation caused a stir at Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher of the Harry Potter books.

Melissa’s boyfriend Steve phoned the company and Scholastic, the US publisher, to tell them he had the book.

“I could tell they didn’t believe me at first,” said Steve, 27.

As a test, a Scholastic employee asked Steve to read from the second line on page 73. He did.

Then the companies asked him if they could have the book back. Raincoast Books even offered €4,314 for the three books, Steve said.

“I asked Melissa, and she said she wasn’t finished reading it,” Steve told the Gazette.

“I want to finish it. After I’m done, I don’t care,” Melissa said.

The €4,314 offer could not be confirmed with Raincoast, the newspaper said.

An embargo on the book prevents anyone from selling it before June 21, said Allan MacDougall, president and chief executive of Raincoast Books, the Vancouver-based publisher.

“Anybody who has sold it is in violation of a worldwide contract,” he said. “If there are any breaches by any store in the contract, we will take action.”

That would mean reserving the right not to supply the store with Harry Potter books in the future, he said.

“It was probably human error,” MacDougall said.

A manager at the Wal-Mart shop would not comment on the matter, the Gazette said, and referred questions to Wal-Mart Canada headquarters in Toronto. No one could be reached for comment last night.

Raincoast will seek a court-ordered injunction preventing the store or individuals from releasing any information about the book before the release date, MacDougall said.

He added that the company has already prepared the paperwork for such an occasion, after a recent Harry Potter-related incident in Britain.

A printing plant worker pleaded guilty in May to stealing pages from the unreleased novel. Donald Parfitt, 44, of Worlingham, Suffolk, had earlier claimed he found the pages in the car park of the company where he worked as forklift truck driver.

Merseyside police are also hunting thieves who stole a lorry packed with 7,680 copies of the book from a trading estate at Newton-le-Willows on Sunday night.

The US publishers have printed a record 8.5 million copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The book already has advance sales of over a million in America.

Melissa, who has read all of Harry Potter’s adventures, knew the fifth book was coming out soon, but didn’t know the date.

When she spotted the fifth instalment in the Wal-Mart near her work, she bought it straight away.

Later that day, she told a colleague’s wife about the purchase.

The woman went and bought herself and Melissa’s friend a copy, just as Wal-Mart employees were taking the books off the shelves.

Melissa said her only regret about the early find is that she is going to have to wait longer than everyone else for Book Six, since she plans to finish reading this one by Saturday.

“It is really good,” she told the Gazette. “It refers to the book before, so you don’t get lost. It’s very hard to put down. I am sad it’s going to end.”