Harry Potter And The Book Seven Spoilers?

You could call it "Harry Potter and The Leaking Plot."

With the concluding novel due out 12:01 next Saturday morning, would-be spoilers are already on the loose, claiming to know how the series will turn out. CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason reports.

In Philadelphia this week, a convention of Harry Potter fans recreated the Hogwarts dining room. At a New York toy store, a crowd strained to catch a glimpse of Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the films.
Less than a week away from the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter novel, the anticipation is building.

"I hope that Harry kills Voldemort," says 5-year-old Erin Allen.

In the U.S. alone, 12 million copies of "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" have been printed.

The contents are so carefully guarded that the publisher wouldn't reveal the locations of the printing plants. Author J.K. Rowling, did reveal the final word in the series was "scar" — but now says she changed her mind, and declines to share the new final word.

Only a handful of insiders have actually read the last novel. One of them is actor Jim Dale, who recorded the audiobook for Scholastic.

"It is probably, of all the books, the most exciting book of all the series," he says.

Dale has been sworn to secrecy. He says that he will be "skinned alive" if he leaks the contents, and he's not kidding. When Dale jokingly told a reporter Harry "would probably be killed off or become pope" in book seven, "the lawyers from J.K. Rowling were on the phone to us in America saying, 'You know, we want Jim Dale to retract this statement," Dale said.

But now some details may have leaked out. On Friday, The-Leaky-Cauldron.org, a fan site received what appear to be actual pages, says Melissa Anelli, the site's webmaster.

"Somebody scanned the first pages of several chapters and the summary of the book and just sent them to us, knowing full well our policy on spoilers, how we don't want them."

Anelli refused to post the pages and immediately turned them over to the publisher.

"It's our job to act as Scholastic's sentries. To act as sentries for her publishers and help stop this from happening," she says.

Because many hardcore Harry fans don't want to know the secrets — until they read them for themselves:

"It's like trying to go and find out what all your Christmas presents are before Christmas," says Keith Davis, a Harry Potter fan. "You'll be sorry you know."

And that's why, when it's all over, some fear the outbreak of an epidemic: "Post Potter Depression":

"It's almost the anticipation of the thing is better than the thing itself," says Emerson Spartz, of mugglenet.com. "Because as soon as we finish that book, it's over."