Countdown to Potter 7

We probably have about a year to go until the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter book series. No official release date has been announced, but if author J.K. Rowling and the publishers stick to the pattern the book will probably hit store shelves during summer 2007.

In the meantime, here’s a little bit of Potter news to hold you over. In a recent interview, Rowling admitted that two more characters will be killed off.

Supposedly, she wrote the final chapter of Book 7 years ago—around the time she wrote her first story and decided it would be a seven-book series.

"The final chapter is hidden away, although it's now changed very slightly," she said in an interview broadcast on Monday on Britain's Channel 4. "One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die."

Although she gives no hints as to which characters will meet their demise, she does discuss what makes killing off the main character of a popular book series appealing for an author.