Cory Hoekstra couldn't believe it.

The Monteverde, Fla., teen was surfing the Web when there it was, like an early birthday present: a copy of the fifth entry in J.K. Rowling's mega-selling Harry Potter series, which won't be published until June 21.

"The title, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, came up, and I thought, 'Great, I can read it now," says Hoekstra, 16. "But as soon as I started reading the download, I could tell it wasn't the real thing."

Bummer.

The fake tale and two subsequent versions Hoekstra found on a shared-file Web site, kazaa.com, have been making the Internet rounds internationally, another indication of the phenomenal appetite for all things Potter. The first four books in the planned seven-book series have sold 200 million copies worldwide and spawned two blockbuster movies, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

That the real Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which at more than 255,000 words will be the longest installment yet, would show up on the Internet two months ahead of publication is impossible, says Kris Moran, director of publicity for Scholastic, Rowling's American publisher.

When Scholastic and Bloomsbury, Rowling's British publisher, announced in January that the new, 38-chapter Harry Potter would be published simultaneously in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia on June 21, they also released the book's opening lines:

"The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive. The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four."

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The Arizona Republic