Good news for Harry Potter [ Images ] fans, as a new project called Pottermore, involving a treasure hunt linked to an online game, is in the offing, according to The Times.

Details of the mysterious project were sent to the newspaper apparently by mistake by a party involved with the official Pottermore launch event on Thursday, although skeptics may call it a canny marketing exercise.

The memo, which sets out the marketing strategy for Pottermore, suggests that it is a sophisticated online game that contains clues to prizes that are hidden in the real world. These include a number of magic wands hidden in Britain and America, and possibly other countries.

It is not clear, however, whether the treasure hunt is Pottermore itself, or merely a marketing drive for another product. Stonehill Salt, one of three public relations companies involved, has said that the project "is not a new book".

The Pottermore project appears to be masterminded by Adam & Eve, a PR company that has previously conducted online-only treasure hunts using Google Maps.

JK Rowling [ Images ], who will make an announcement tomorrow at the Victoria and Albert Museum in southwest London [ Images ], had previously said that the seventh Harry Potter book would be the last in the series.

"I've got enough story for seven books and I never planned to carry the story beyond the end of book seven," she wrote on her website.

"I might do an eighth book for charity, a kind of encyclopaedia of the world so that I could use all the extra material that's not in the books... we'll see!" However, this may refer to the two spin-off books she has already published for charity, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages.