Author JK Rowling has told fans to be wary of false rumours regarding the plot of her final Harry Potter book.
"There will always be sad individuals who get their kicks from ruining other people's fun," she said on her website.
She hoped, however, that her readers would "embark on the last adventure they will share with [Harry] without knowing where they are they going".
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh instalment in the series, will be published on 21 July.
As a result, Rowling said, "the first distant rumblings of the weirdness that usually precedes a Harry Potter publication can be heard on the horizon".
"Spoilers won't stop people buying the book - they never have"
"Some, perhaps, will read this and take the view that all publicity is good publicity, that spoilers are part of hype, and that I am trying to protect sales rather than my readership," she continued.
"However, spoilers won't stop people buying the book - they never have. All it will do is diminish their pleasure."
Earlier this year Rowling revealed she had commemorated finishing her final Potter novel in an Edinburgh hotel room by scribbling a note on a marble bust.
The author has said that two characters will die in the book, which she has described as her favourite of the series.
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