Unabridged
THE CASUAL VACANCY
by J.K. Rowling
A BIG NOVEL ABOUT A SMALL TOWN...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.  Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty fa?ade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...  Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen.  Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults.  It is the work of a storyteller like no other.

Ever since Harry Potter had come home for the summer, the Dursley's had been so mean and hideous that all Harry wanted was to get back to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.  But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature who says that if Harry returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does.  For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girl's bathroom.  But then the real trouble begins - someone is turning Hogwart's students into stone.  Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever?  Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told?  Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects... Harry Potter himself?

•The #1 New York Time Bestseller •

Booklist 1999 Editor's Choice • Winner of the 1999 National Book Award (UK) • An ALA Notable Book • An ALA Best Book for Young Adults 1999 • Winner of the 1999 Gold Medal Smarties Prize • School Library Journal, 1999 Best Book of the Year

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WE NOW PRESENT THE SEVENTH
AND FINAL INSTALLMENT
IN THE EPIC TALE OF
HARRY POTTER.

Harry Potter is midway through both his training as a wizard and his coming of age.  Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys.  He wants to dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream).  He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for hundreds of years.  He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard.  But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards.

And in his case, different can be deadly.

• The #1 New York Times Bestseller •

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel
A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2000
A Booklist Editors' Choice 2000
An ALA Notable Book
A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

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THE WAR AGAINST VOLDEMORT is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing.  Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names.  Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.

And yet...

As in all wars, life goes on.  Sixth-year students learn to Apparate - and lose a few eyebrows in the process.  The Weasley twins expand their business.  Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love.  Classes are never straightforward, though Harry receives some extraordinary help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

So it's the home front that takes center stage in the multilayered sixth installment of the story of Harry Potter.  Here at Hogwarts, Harry will search for the full and complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort - and thereby find what may be his only vulnerability.

Jacket art by Mary GrandPré © 2005 Warner Bros.
Jacket design by Mary GrandPré and David Saylor

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PRAISE FOR
HARRY POTTER
AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

- The #1 New York Times Bestseller -

"As Harry gets older, Rowling gets better....  She has looted the shelves of literature and mythology, fairy tales and folklore, anthropology and comparative religion, firing up a pop-culture crockpot and adding pratfalls, wordplay and dread....  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is rich and satisfying."
- John Leonard, The New York Times Book Review

"Rowling has not lost her flair as a storyteller or her ability to keep coming up with new gimcracks to astound her readers.  But her true skills lie in the way she ages Harry, successfully evolving him from the once downtrodden yet hopeful young boy to this new, gangly teenager showing all the symptoms of adolescence."  - Booklist

"By the time we finish The Order of the Phoenix, with its extraordinary passages of fear and despair, the distinction between 'children's literature' and plain old 'literature' has ceased to exist....  This is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages."
- Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly

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Front Flap:

THERE IS A DOOR at the end of a silent corridor.  And it's haunting Harry Potter's dreams.  Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror?

Here are just a few things on Harry's mind:

* A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey
* A venomous, disgruntled house-elf
* Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team
* The looming terror of the end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level exams

... and of course, the growing threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.  In the richest installment yet of J. K. Rowling's seven-part story, Harry Potter is faced with the unreliability of the very government of the magical world and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts.

Despite this (or perhaps because of it), he finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty; and unbearable sacrifice.

Though thick runs the plot (as well as the spine), readers will race through these pages and leave Hogwarts, like Harry, wishing only for the next train back.

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ALSO BY J. K. ROWLING

HARRY POTTER
AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

"Another grand tale of magic and mystery, of wheels within wheels oiled in equal measure by terror and comedy, featuring an engaging young hero-in-training who's not above the occasional snit, and clicking along so smoothly that it seems shorter than it is." - Kirkus Reviews

HARRY POTTER
AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

"Isn't is reassuring that some things just get better and better?  This is a fabulously entertaining read that will have Harry Potter fans cheering for more." - School Library Journal

HARRY POTTER
AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

"Rowling might be a Hogwarts graduate herself, for her ability to create such an engaging, imaginative, funny, and, above all, heart-poundingly suspenseful yarn is nothing short of magical." - Publishers Weekly

HARRY POTTER
AND THE SORCERER'S STONE

"You don't have to be a wizard or a kid to appreciate the spell cast by Harry Potter." USA Today

Jacket art by Mary GrandePré © 2003 Warner Bros.
Jacket design by Mary GrandePré and David Saylor

For twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black.  Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort.

Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall as well.  And the Azkaban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep.  "He's at Hogwarts... he's at Hogwarts."

Harry Potter isn't safe, not even within the walls of magical school, surrounded by his friends.  Because on top of it all, there may well be a traitor in the midst.

•The #1 New York Time Bestseller •

Winner of the Whitbread Award for Children's Literature • Booklist 1999 Editor's Choice • A Los Angeles Times Best Book of 1999 • Winner of the 1999 Gold Medal Smarties Prize • An ALA Notable Book • A New York Public Library Title for Reading and Sharing

HARRY POTTER has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick.  He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon.  All Harry knows  is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley.  Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed.  There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter.

A New York Times Bestseller • A USA Today Bestseller • A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998 • Booklist Editor's Choice • Winner of the 1997 National Book Award (UK) • An ALA Notable Book • Winner of the 1997 Gold Medal Smarties Prize • A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year 1998 • Parenting Book of the Year Award 1998

WITH EXTENSIVE COMMENTARY BY -
ALBUS DUMBLESORE

THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers' attention in the book known as HARRY POTTER AND TIE DEATHLY HALLOWS.  Now, thanks to Hermione Granger's new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore.  Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," "The Warlock's Hairy Heart," "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump," and of course, "The Tale of the Three Brothers."  But not only are they the equal of fairy tales we now know and love, reading them gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter.

This purchase also represents another very important form of giving:
From every sale of this book, Scholastic will give its net proceeds to the CHILDREN'S HIGH LEVEL. GROUP, a charity cofounded in 2005 by J. K. Rowling and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, MEP.

CHLG campaigns to protect and promote children's rights and make life better for vulnerable young people. www.chlg.org