Oops, we missed it. Yesterday was J.K. Rowling’s and Harry Potter’s birthday. Have a happy post birthday Harry and Jo!

A few months ago, J.K.R. produced a limited number of hand-written and illustrated voluimes by the title of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard.” Most of those copies were given to people instrumental to the publication of the Harry Potter series, and one was put at auction. (I feel like I’m rewriting the Lord of the Rings intro here…)

Amazon won the bid for the book put up for auction, and proceeded to take it on a tour throughout North America.

On December 4, you’ll be able to get your hands on your own copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Ms. Rowling’s charity, Children’s High Level Group, will publish the book in an exclusive deal with Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon.

Allegedly, the book will have notes by Albus Dumbledore, including some insights into everyone’s favorite topic of late…wandlore.

J.K. Rowling’s annoucement is live on her website.

It’s here at last! AOL Moviefone has the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince teaser trailer up on their website. You can view it here in standard and high definition. Fear not, we won’t spoil it for you. Be sure to watch it before someone else does though!

Rumor has it that the teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will go online on AOL.com tonight. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

The IMAX version of The Dark Knight was reported to have a short (15 seconds!) “mini-teaser trailer” for the upcoming ‘Potter movie. It is merely a Dumbledore voiceover and the Harry Potter logo. Here’s the clip:

Kind of silly to play that in theaters, isn’t it? All it really does is say “it’s coming sometime.”

Still no word on where and when the real trailer will premiere.

Remember back last year when we heard that J.K. Rowling finished Deathly Hallows in a room at the Balmoral Hotel in Scotland? Word got out that she’d defaced, er, signed a marble bust of Hermes, saying something along the lines of “J.K. Rowling finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows here.”

The Balmoral is making the most of things. They’ve since named the room the “J.K. Rowling Suite,” and have returned the marble bust to the room (now in a glass case). Also added is a plaque on the door, which bears the room’s name, as well as a brass owl.

J.K. Rowling is one of the many authors against the preposterous idea that books should have an MPAA-style rating applied (e.g. PG, PG-13) in order to advise whether “children” should read particular books. (She has went so far as to sign a petition against the proposed plan, which would go into place this Fall.)

“[Book] covers of participating publishers will bear a logo indicating they are suitable for readers aged 5+, 7+, 9+, 11+ and 13+/teen.”

Great job, Jo. Your signing of this petition will most likely help raise awareness of this issue.

You can sign the petition yourself here, as well as view noteable supporters.

Electronic Arts has just updated their website for the Harry Potter videogame series, updating it for the Half-Blood Prince game due in November.

The site’s main page features a trailer for the game, which will apparently feature the return of Quidditch and the Duelling Club (yay!).

In a recent Empire Magazine interview, director David Yates stated that the sixth Potter film will be “opening with a big attack. We’ll bring a major London landmark crashing down.”

Speculation has come to the possible conclusion that the film may open with the destruction of the bridge talked about in the opening chapter of the book.

Read more at The Leaky Cauldron.

If you have a Mac, once again, you’re in luck. If you want more than just a plain Harry Potter countdown widget, we have a new choice for you. The SR News + Countdown widget displays fresh news from The Site of Requirement, along with a countdown to the next major Potter event (when available). Currently it shows a countdown to the Half-Blood Prince movie, but it will be updated to count down to the Deathly Hallows release after we get HBP.

Download Widget (requires Mac OS X 10.4 or greater).