J.K. Rowling Announces Title of Book 6

Last Saturday, a fan reported finding the title of the sixth Harry Potter book behind “the locked door” on the official J.K. Rowling website. The new title was reportedly “Harry Potter and the Pillar of Storge”. The rumor was quickly denied by official J.K. sources, and on her own website, J.K. commented, “Storge, for crying out loud. Come on, people, get a grip.”

However, possibly due to the existence of these rumors, and possibly due to the fact that she was probably going to announce the real title sometime around July 1 anyway, today J.K. Rowling has announced that the title of Book 6 is “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince”.

The announcement of the new title was very cleverly hidden on the www.jkrowling.com website. Thanks to Wizard News reader Tim Rouse in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his daughters Reanne and Emily, here’s how to see the announcement of the new title yourself:

The “locked” door is no longer locked. Access the door by clicking on the little doughnut thing (is it a hair scrunchie?) on the www.jkrowling.com main page. Then click on the door handle to open the door to expose a brick wall.

Next, there are 5 bricks within the brick wall that darken when you click on them. Find them by clicking around and note where they are. Number them, 1 through 5 from left to right and from top to bottom. If you click on them in this order: 3-4-2-5-1, the brick door falls away to allow you to see a small room. If you click on the fan, it will blow papers toward the screen until it blows a final page up onto the screen, and then letters appear as if being type-written, and that is the name of the book.

Update: J.K. Rowling Confirms Book 6 Title

Well, the door opened at last and I showed you the title of book six – the genuine title, the title that will appear on the published book, the title I have been using in my head for ages and ages. Unfortunately, however, the door opened on the very same day the ‘Pillar of Storge’ hoaxer struck, which left a lot of Harry Potter fans bemused as to whether I was having a joke at their expense by posting another fake title to ‘teach hoaxers a lesson’, something I certainly wouldn’t do, as it would simply frustrate, confuse or annoy the 99.9% of you who aren’t hoaxers! I tried to give a clear hint that the title behind the door was the real one by making the ‘Toenail’ joke as well (see ‘Rumours’). But just to clear up matters once and for all…

Information you take directly from my official website will be truthful and accurate (I might occasionally joke, but as time goes on, you’ll learn to tell when I’m joking). Do not trust anybody else claiming to have found information on my site that you cannot access, however seemingly convincing the images they provide to support their story.

I never post information on the site that I do not want fans to read immediately. In other words, anybody claiming to have ‘discovered’ a message that wasn’t due for release yet is lying. There was never anything meaningful behind the door until the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign came off!

The ‘Pillar of Storge’ was never my title, and I did not change it at the eleventh hour because I was ‘found out’ (I nearly fell off my chair giggling when I read this).

I was delighted to see that a hard core of super-bright fans knew that the real title was once, in the long distant past, a possibility for ‘Chamber of Secrets’, and from that deduced that it was genuine. Certain crucial pieces of information in book six were originally planned for ‘Chamber of Secrets’, but very early on (first draft of Chamber) I realised that this information’s proper home was book six. I have said before now that ‘Chamber’ holds some very important clues to the ultimate end of the series. Not as many as six, obviously, but there is a link.

Anyway: if you continue to exercise patience, you will find that the Do Not Disturb Door opens again… and again… giving you further hints about book six. But as a little bonus, and compensation for having been messed around by Mr. or Ms. Storge, I shall tell you one thing without making you shift any bricks at all: the HBP is neither Harry nor Voldemort. And that’s all I’m saying on THAT subject until the book’s published.