Okay, a couple copies of _Paradise Lost_ disguised as Harry Potter. Oh, Harry Potter 1-4 in PDF... Wait, what's this? It has a funny title, but it starts off sounding like it could be the 5th book...
I looked through the first few paragraphs for something to tip me off, like bad grammar, bad spelling, broken English, bad characterisation... but I found none of that. I went from entertaining the idea that I'd found quite a good fake to entertaining the idea that I really was the first person on my block to read the new book.
A new character was introduced, and it all seemed very canon to me. I said to myself, "Whether this is real or not, I like it." Then it hit me... the strange title. I did a Google Groups search for "Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent" and got my answer... it's a fanfic! I'd grabbed a 553-page PDF of a fan fiction that takes place where the 4th book left off. Now that was a nice Kazaa practical joke. :) It's a really good fanfic in my humble opinion, and has me wanting to read more.
Here's a site where you can grab it. I'm only into the sixth chapter, but I love it so far.
By the way... Windows 2000 is really stupid sometimes. I moved my Walmart PC to the kiosk in the living room, booted it up, and it blue-screened. Windows 98 booted fine. I finally figured out that the keyboard would flash lights just before the crash, and that it wanted the old keyboard back. The kiosk has a big 5-pin old-style keyboard connector, and I put an adaptor on it, but that must have confused it. I finally used the old keyboard it was installed with to re-install the keyboard driver, and now it works fine.
Hrmm, up late again. Got to get to a good stopping point in the story...
