Two million pre-orders for Harry Potter book

More than two million people have pre-ordered copies of the seventh and last Harry Potter book to ensure they are among the first to discover the boy wizard's fate.

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' is released on Saturday, marking the final chapter in an extraordinary publishing phenomenon.

Since the first book in the series was published in 1997, the magic of the wizarding world, Hogwarts School and Harry's battle against dark wizard Lord Voldemort have proved massively popular with children and adults alike.

Such is the anticipation around the final book that worldwide pre-order sales have topped two million, according to Amazon.

At 5pm today, the online retailer's "muggle counter" stood at 2,000,516 books ordered - well above the previous record of 1.5 million for the sixth instalment, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'.

The hype over book seven is a far cry from the first instalment in author JK Rowling's series, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', which had a print run of just 500 copies when it was published on June 26, 1997.

Since then, her novels have broken sales records and made millions for publishers Bloomsbury.

Harry's struggles against Voldemort, who murdered his parents and left him with his famous lightning-shaped scar, have spawned a multi-million pound franchise of books, movies and merchandise.

Rowling, who famously thought up her young hero while on a crowded train, has amassed a personal fortune of some £545m (€805m), according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2007.

Of that, the royalties from her books add up to £365m (€539m), with the rest made up from merchandising and income from the Harry Potter films.

The movies have also made millionaires of their young stars: Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson who bring his on-screen friends Ron and Hermione to life.

The publication of the final book coincides with the release of the fifth film in the series, 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' - adding to the frenzy surrounding the boy wizard.