As revealed in ITV's JK Rowling Documentary which aired back in December, May 2nd, 1998 was the day Harry finally defeated Lord Voldemort within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

A couple of visitors have asked us to post this wonderful anniversary. And why not? The Battle of Hogwarts within Deathly Hallows was one of the coolest scenes ever created by Jo. It held what we've been waiting to witness since closing Sorcerer's Stone. And who can forget Molly Weasley's infamous line to Bellatrix Lestrange: "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"?

So here's to Harry and his triumphant win against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Leave your thanks to Harry and Jo in the comments, and ask yourself: Do Wizards have a name for this anniversary?

Nigel Newton, the chief executive of the UK Potter publisher Bloomsbury, will disclose on Tuesday that the phenomenal success of Deathly Hallows was the major factor behind an increase in annual profits from £5.2 million to more than £17 million.

A report by the Sunday Herald continues that Newton "will claim that the Potter effect will continue for years ahead as the group dips into cash reserves of more than £40m, built up from past Potter sales, to promote new talent and to make further acquisitions."

Thanks to everyone who wrote in!

As if anyone needed to tell us this, MTV published an article earlier today about research concluding that the Harry Potter series can in fact be addicting. The story notes:

In a just-finished study that's being submitted to the Journal of General Psychology, psych professor Dr. Jeffrey Rudski and two of his undergrad students at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, report that they found characteristics of addiction in at least 10 percent of the 4,000 Potter fans they polled online.

While the doctor discusses that the end of the series did have serious withdrawal symptons for some, likening it to going off a drug "cold turkey," he also said he chose to do the study on the end of the boy wizard's saga over the conclusion of the hit series The Sopranos because of his 15-year old daughter and the things she's taken from it:

"She's picked up guitar because she wants to be in a wizard-rock band," he said. "She's studying Latin because she wants to better understand J.K. Rowling's choices of names for her characters. She started reading Stephen King and John Irving because they spoke with Rowling at Radio City two summers ago." If that's being an addict, he's down with it.

UPDATE: Four pictures from the event can be seen here, here, here, and here. Big thanks to Stephen Boyle and Daniel Lynch!

Last night, Jo Rowling was presented by the Literary and Historical Society of UCD in Dublin with the James Joyce award. Over 600 fans turned out to see the author read from Deathly Hallows and answer 10 questions.

Jo said she would "never say never" to another book in the series, but also felt "that the Harry story is now done." She also revealed the character she would most like to meet is "Dumbledore -- to apologise for outing him," even if she had been tempted by a hug with Hagrid (reports La Gazette du Sorcier).

As for the opposition of the Pope to Harry Potter, she confesses that she doesn't follow the issue. Basically, she is definitely opposed to censorship and sees Harry Potter more as a moral book than a proselyte one.

Agence France-Presse is reporting this evening that JK Rowling has halted printing of the Finnish Deathly Hallows translation due to environmental concerns. Jo insists "that it import paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being derived from wood grown and harvested in a way that promotes sustainable forest development."

Read the full story right here. The Finnish translation is still due out on March 7th.

USA Today recently named J.K. Rowling's final novel in the Harry Potter series book of the year. A huge factor was due in part to the record-breaking numbers in sales made by Deathly Hallows — 11.5 million copies were sold within the first ten days of the July release. But the decision came down to something much deeper:

Hallows is the book of the year because Rowling gave her story an ending that was as graceful, unpredictable and satisfying as the series itself. She reaffirmed that magic can exist when someone opens a great book and enters a world created from words on paper. She made us believe that the imagination — like her own little wizard, now all grown up — still lives.

Ah, and what a year it was. 2007 was BY FAR the biggest year for Harry Potter fans that we have ever seen. It was filled with book releases, movie releases, theme park announcements, gay character announcements, and oh-so-much more.

We now present to you our fourth annual Year in Review, highlighting the biggest and most interesting stories of 2007.

Feel free to use the comments of this news post to reflect on this year and discuss what's coming in 2008. Also, look for two more big projects appearing here from MuggleNet within the next week!

Jo Rowling recently appeared on the Harry Potter podcast, PotterCast, and part one of this interview is now available for download here (right click and save)! Stay tuned for part two next week.

Some of the items discussed in this part of the interview include:

-The morals of Beedle the Bard
-Who was right about Horcri?
-Who made the first Horcrux?
-Creating a Horcrux vs. splitting the atom
-Will Jo tell us how to create a Horcrux?
-The things that made her editor look like she wanted to vomit

Newsweek has named Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the Best Book of 2007. The magazine lists their top 15 books of the year with the final installment in the Harry Potter series claiming the top spot.

You could call it the most satisfying ending to a guessing game since the casting of Scarlett O'Hara. The seventh and final installment of the Potter series went in no radical directions (Harry didn't die), but Rowling made it look effortless when she niftily tied off one plot line after another. The kids who grew up on these novels--and therefore can't help but take them somewhat for granted--have no idea how lucky they are.

UPDATE: Thanks to Justin for pointing out that Harry Potter was also named the #4 Top News Story.

In looking back at the best things of 2007, TIME magazine has released 50 Top Ten lists that each include various interests such as books, movies, DVDs, and television shows.

Their list of the Top 10 Fiction Books places Deathly Hallows in the number eight spot, with this explanation:

She gives us wartime gloom, the crackling three-sided chemistry of Harry and Ron and Hermione, and an epic, cataclysmic finale, among many other minor treats. This isn't the most elegant of the Potter volumes, but it feels like an ending, the final iteration of Rowling's abiding thematic concern: the overwhelming importance of continuing to love in the face of death.

Other books beating out DH on this list include No One Belongs Here More Than You, The House of Meetings, and (in the number one spot) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

JK Rowling has been filmed for a documentary over the past year, and "JK Rowling... A Year in the Life" will air on ITV on December 30th. ITV has sent us detailed information on the documentary, including quotes from Jo, which can be viewed here.

ITV will also shortly be sending us a video preview of the documentary so stay tuned for that!

Sticking to the usual pattern of releasing the paberback edition roughly a year after the hardback, Bloomsbury has announced that the papberback version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will hit shelves on July 5th, 2008 in the UK. It will retail at £8.99.

It has yet to be announced when Scholastic will release the US paperback version.

The Trefoil House has received a signed copy of Deathly Hallows for auction. The Scotsman reports:

David McArthur, Trefoil's chief executive said: "We are absolutely delighted by this generous gift. This is a chance for someone to win it without having to pay lots of money as it's not an auction and as it's only taking place over two days the odds are good."

The book will be raffled as part of the annual Christmas Bonanza, an event where people can come and buy presents they would not normally find in mainstream shops.

The event is being held at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange on December 4th and 5th. Thanks to Loris and Timo for the tip!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been included on the New York Time's list of 100 notable books of this year. The full list will run in the December 2nd print edition of the Book Review.

You can see the NYT's review of the book here.

Harry Potter y las reliquias de la muerte, the Spanish translation of Deathly Hallows, will be released on February 21st, 2008 in Spain, Latin America and the US, it was announced today by publisher, Salamandra. The Castilian, Catalan and Galician copies will all be released at 6:30pm on this date.

In news that shouldn't surprise anyone, Deathly Hallows was named the Best Book of 2007 by Amazon.com. From the online warehouse:

Was there any doubt? The final episode of the most popular series in publishing history, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, leads our list of the 100 topselling books on Amazon.com during 2007. (Ranked according to customer orders through October. Only books published for the first time in 2007 are eligible.)

If you want to fuel the already-top-spot fire, there's a poll on the right side of this page that lets you vote for which book you think is the Best of 2007. Thanks to Emily for the tip!

The BBC recently conducted an interview with Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe where he talked about filming Half-Blood Prince and what he thought of Deathly Hallows amongst other things. On how the sixth film is coming along:

"Really well. I've just been doing a bit of work with Jim Broadbent who plays Horace Slughorn, who's just fantastic. And we've been doing a bit of stuff with me and Rupert Grint. We haven't done any scenes with all the kids yet in the Great Hall - that's all to look forward to just after Christmas. It's glorious to be working with [director] David Yates again."

Dan acknowledged he didn't read the seventh book until about four days after it came out, so he was "walking around with his fingers in his ears." Luckily, it wasn't spoiled for him.

During the first 48 hours of its release, the French translation of Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort, sold 1.15 million copies. This breaks the previous record of 800,000 set by Half-Blood Prince.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

The French and German translations of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows were both released at 12:01 this morning. Hundreds of fans queued for hours to get their hands on the book, with large release parties being organized in several towns and cities.

The UK Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards took place yesterday in London and, once again, the Harry Potter franchise came out triumphant. Emma Watson was "so thrilled" to take home the award for Best Actress, being voted ahead of fellow nominees Keira Knightley, Dakota Fanning and Cameron Diaz. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows also won the top spot in the Best Book category.

You can now view some high quality images of Emma attending the event here:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The awards will air on Nickelodeon UK on Saturday, October 27th at 11 a.m.