Rowling's Potter Prequel Conjures Up $49K for Charity

JK Rowling’s handwritten “prequel” to the Harry Potter books has sold for $49,000 at a charity auction to benefit the PEN writers organization, Reuters reports. In the 800-word story, which takes place before Harry’s birth, the boy wizard’s father and Sirius Black use magic to elude police in a high-speed chase. The work also manages to brush aside rumors that an eighth Potter book is in the works.

“From the prequel I am not working on—but that was fun!” Rowling writes at the end, just above her signature. (More Harry Potter stories.)