There's probably no real way to report on this without engaging in some spoiler fun, but what the hell: the Guardian reports that the somewhat ambiguous ending of the last Harry Potter book has forced bookie William Hill to pay out on thousands of bets on the fate of the boy wizard. "Since the book came out, it's been subject to quite a few interpretations," said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams. "So we paid out on all the bets."

Adams said that the bookmaker handed back 62,000 pounds to punters to cover all scenarios, "every penny that went into the book". It took about 4,000 bets on the outcome, including more than 1,000 online. The spokesman was relaxed about the payout, saying it was small beer for the company: "When horseracing goes wrong, it can be 2m pounds." Which is certainly no small chunk of change, that's for sure...