July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Emerson Spartz, who started Mugglenet.com at age 12 and built it into the most-visited Harry Potter Web site, says daily hits have doubled to 2 million in the past month.

``I just thought it would be fun,'' said Spartz, who at 20 has a paid staff of six and 120 contributors. ``I had no idea what I was getting myself into.'' Muggle is the wizarding world's term for people with no magical powers.

Spartz is one of millions who have grown up with Harry and his adventures, which culminate at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow with the release of J.K. Rowling's seventh and final book in the biggest children's series in publishing history. Leaks of the plot haven't damped the enthusiasm.

Orders for ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' have reached more than 2.2 million copies at Amazon.com and more than 1.3 million at Barnes & Noble Inc., a record for both retailers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, the U.K. publisher, said in June that export orders were 17 percent ahead of the sixth installment, ``Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.''

Scholastic Corp., the U.S. publisher of the books, plans to release a record-breaking 12 million copies tonight. The first six books are on the U.K.'s all-time bestseller list and three have made it to the U.S. bestseller list since 2001, according to Nielsen.

Multibillion-Dollar Franchise

The New York Times already published a review by Michiko Kakutani, who said she bought the book in a store. While the story has some ``lumpy passages,'' Kakutani wrote, ``it ends not with modernist `Soprano'-esque equivocation, but with good old- fashioned closure.''

The boy who escaped Lord Voldemort, or ``He Who Must Not Be Named,'' with only a scar spawned a franchise that has generated billions of dollars in sales of books, DVDs, box-office receipts, soundtracks and licensed trademark goods, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Adding to the current Harry Potter momentum --``The Summer to Remember'' as some fans have coined it -- Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. released its fifth Potter movie on July 11. ``Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,'' earned $140 million in its first five days. The first four Harry Potter movies have netted more than $3.5 billion worldwide.

Scholastic Shares

MuggleNet.com carries ads from companies such as Borders Group Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. Spartz, a University of Notre Dame business major, said he receives a six-figure income from the site.

Scholastic may face an exodus of investors as the series ends. The Harry Potter books are estimated to make up 9.4 percent of the New York-based company's $2.4 billion in sales this fiscal year, and investors including Mark Boyar of Boyar Asset Management Inc. say Scholastic should put itself up for sale.

Shares of New York-based Scholastic, which have fallen 5.7 percent this year, dropped 41 cents to $33.80 as of 4:30 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Bloomsbury shares rose 3 pence to 187 pence in London. They have declined 27 percent this year.

Potter's adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have inspired more than 30 books about his magic.

Connie Neal, a Christian author, wrote three books defending Potter's wizarding world and its relationship to Christianity. She read the first book, ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' in 1999.

Christian Parallels

``The parallels to the Christian gospels were everywhere,'' said Neal, who resides in Northern California.

Her books, including ``The Gospel According to Harry Potter'' and ``What's a Christian to do with Harry Potter?'' have sold more than 100,000 copies since 2000.

George Beahm, a pop culture analyst in Williamsburg, Virginia, has written three related books including ``Muggles and Magic,'' an overview of the Harry Potter phenomenon; and ``Fact, Fiction and Folklore in Harry Potter.'' About 115,000 copies are in print.

``Rowling has accomplished something very rare,'' Beahm said. ``She's helped transform a nation of gadget-transfixed people into readers again.''

Spartz, from LaPorte, Indiana, and members of his Web site staff wrote ``What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7,'' which details their predictions for the final tale. Their book, fourth on the New York Times' bestseller children's list, has been on the list for 22 weeks. More than 300,000 copies are in print.

Release Party

Spartz is hosting a midnight release party tonight in Oak Park, Illinois, complete with a countdown and ball drop. More than 10,000 Harry Potter fans are expected to attend, he said.

Neal plans to buy the book at midnight, read it aloud to her three children and then discuss it in light of their religion, she said.

Rowling has ``kept people guessing successfully for 10 years,'' Beahm said. ``There's a lot of loose ends to tie up.''

The ultimate loose end is the fate of Harry himself. William Hill Plc, a London-based bookmaker, has 2-5 odds that Harry will sacrifice himself. Odds are 9-4 that Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents, will kill the boy wizard.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katie Hoffmann in New York at khoffmann2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 20, 2007 16:43 EDT