The tears of J. K. Rowling?

I haven't mentioned this to many people -mostly because I've forgotten. It's been over four years since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been released.  Always in the back of my mind though, I've never forgotten.

While I was reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the first time, I noticed something strange about my copy.  At first, I thought it was supposed to be there.  I believed it was part of the print.  A trick of the trade intended to reflect the mood of the chapter.  It was, after all, called The Will of Albus Dumbledore.

Then, out of curiosity, I checked a friend's copy.  This anomaly was not there.  I checked another and another. I even went so far as to go to the bookstore and look in those copies.  Not there.

I even searched online to see if anyone else had reported this strange occurrence and couldn't find anything.  Granted, I didn't search very hard but if google doesn't know, who does?

So, to what am I referring?

 Here are my images.  I scanned two pages and photographed two pages. The scan isn't great because I'm not about to squish my copy of the book just to get a good scan.  I also assure you this is not photo-shopped -I'm not that good with the program and something like this simply isn't worth my time.

I like to think of these as the tears of J. K. Rowling.  As a writer, to bid farewell to that which has been so dear to her for so very long is not an easy thing.  I truly thought that was the message she was trying to convey with these ink stained pages that resemble drops of liquid on the pages.

What are they really?  A printing error obviously...perhaps.  Or perhaps they are part of the magic of Harry Potter.  Magic in one copy of a book printed 12 million times (thank you google).

So, this begs the question, is this printing error (or whatever this is) worth anything? Maybe.  My copy has been read at least twice, has finger grease on the outside cover and the typical wear of a beloved book on the outside of the pages so it isn't in mint condition like collectors of the strange and unusual so desire...but I am not a collector.  I am simply a fan who got lucky (or was chosen) enough to receive a special copy of the book.  I won't easily part with my copy -that's not to say if someone offered me a ridiculous some of money I wouldn't consider it.

I'm a huge fan of these novels for more reasons than I care to explain.  Like so many things fiction, you either get it or you don't. I'm a Potterhead through and through and I'm thrilled that this belongs to me.

Does anyone else have a copy like this out there?  I'd like to think I'm the only one yet I find it hard to believe.  It's funny, I pre-ordered the book to deliver to my house the day it was released and then found myself away on vacation and purchased another copy so I could begin reading on release day along with the other 8 million loyal Potter fans.  I cannot recall which copy this was.  The one that came in the mail or the one I purchased in a bookstore along the boardwalk in Ocean City New Jersey.  Regardless, as a writer, a reader and a lover of great fiction, this is something special.


It seems that J. K. Rowling isn't ready to say goodbye to her Harry Potter family.  With all the post-Hallows projects she's done (as a way of coping with their absence, a way to make money or a way to satiate the fan's need for it I'm not sure -I'd say a bit of #1 and #3 if I were a betting man) I have a feeling that these tears may have been in vain. I hope not because this was a perfect end to an amazing tale.  The story has run its course...or has it?



Shameless self promotion!

Check out my website! www.TheNeverChronicles.com to learn about my book, Exiled, book one of The Never Chronicles, releasing in June 2012.  Is there magic?  Of course -J. K. Rowling wasn't the first author to write of spells and sorcery and I will certainly not be the last.  There is magic in every word of fiction regardless of the topic.

BTW, click HERE to see the images with better resolution.