Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has come up with yet another surprise for fans by revealing that a secret story about the boy wizard will be auctioned in London next month.
The Harry Potter prequel, which is only 800 words long, was written over the past month and deals with events predating the publication of the first Harry Potter novel in 1997, the author has revealed.
The new contribution, coming a year after the seven-book series finished with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will not be published.
It is Rowling's contribution to a special auction at Sotheby's which have asked leading British authors to create a story for the sale June 10.
If previous success is anything to go by, Rowling's latest creation could fetch a knock-out price at the sale, to be held at a bookstore in central London.
In December, another of Rowling's "surprise" works, a fairy story called the Tales of Beedle the Bard, fetched a breathtaking 1.95 million pounds ($3.8 million) at auction.
Rowling said it was "fun" to write her latest work, penned on both sides of an A5 card.
{{/usCountry}}Rowling said it was "fun" to write her latest work, penned on both sides of an A5 card.
{{/usCountry}}Proceeds will go to English PEN, the authors' association which promotes understanding through literature.
Rowling, who has amassed a fortune of 560 million pounds from the worldwide sale of her books, has said Harry Potter 7 was her last.