ABSTRACT

The world wide web went critical in July 2006, as did Ye Olde mainstream media. Harry Potter, rumour had it, was being killed off, getting the chop, hanging up his Quidditch kit, going the way of all fictional flesh (Yeoman, 2006). According to J.K. Rowling, the boy wizard was unlikely to survive the final volume of her seven-book series, the first six of which had kept the world enthralled for the best part of a decade (Brown, 2005).