By Gina Daugherty
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Doug Rasmussen, 13, (center) and Alex Swanson, 10, (right) hold their copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Wednesday in Indianapolis. (Indianapolis Star photo) | ZOOM |

You'd think it was a matter of national security: Sensitive information about the government or Area 51. But it's a children's book. Right?

"They are in their own special place behind a locked door," says Ermajean Sellars, a Joseph-Beth Booksellers employee, of tonight's hottest commodity: the fifth and newest installment in the best-selling Harry Potter series.

"You are literally not allowed to touch them. They are on a skid with signs on it saying, 'Touch This, You Die.' The entire skid is wrapped in plastic with caution tape around it."

Such is the secrecy shrouding everyone's favorite boy wizard.

Greater Cincinnatians will get their hands on Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (Scholastic; $29.99) Saturday at 12:01 a.m. and not a second sooner.

Bookstores throughout Greater Cincinnati are respecting the embargo by author J.K. Rowling to such an extent that stores like Joseph-Beth in Norwood will not even remove the books from the skid, the plastic wrap or the box. And don't even think about trying to get a picture of the security measures. Not even for the newspaper. And don't even think about reading any of it either - or else.

Or else what?

Or else you'll get slapped with a $100 million dollar lawsuit like the one Rowling and Scholastic allegedly filed against the New York Daily News after it snapped up a copy at a health food store and published details of the nearly 900-page novel. Other copies have slipped through the security, including thousands in a tractor-trailer outside a warehouse in Newtown-le-Willows, England, and a copy bought Wednesday by 14-year-old Kaitlin Webster at a Walgreens drugstore in Daytona Beach. "I feel like I'm the luckiest kid in America and Britain," she said.

But Harry's secrets have been safe here in the Tristate.

"Not even the staff is allowed to open the boxes," said Joe Deeter, marketing manager at Borders Books and Music in Springdale. "We've kept them sealed so there is no temptation to give away any of the story.

"We want to make sure that every child has the same opportunity to experience the magic at the same time."

Indeed. So magical that Amazon.com, which logged more than 1 million preorders worldwide, has a special "Harry Potter zone" in each of its warehouses, including one in Lexington, guarded night and day.

Kristin Schaefer, aspokesperson for Amazon, said every title they ship is kept under lock and key before its release date. But with Harry, special measures were taken.

"When we receive the books from Scholastic, the entire process is overseen by a security guard," Schaefer said. "Once they are checked in, we bring them directly into a Harry Potter zone, which is cordoned off by an eight-foot-high, orange mesh barrier. And then that area is guarded 24/7 by security."

This is serious stuff. Word on the street is that a significant character dies in the book. But the real question is, are those guards armed?

"Fair question," says Schaefer, laughing. "Clearly this book is in very high demand and people are wanting to get their hands on it."

She didn't answer the question. But she did say only authorized Amazon.com associates are permitted within the Harry Potter perimeter. But first they must show a special Harry Potter badge in addition to regular identification.

David Kevorkian, CEO of Metropolitan Private Police Association, has protected everything from rock stars to buildings. He says he understands why booksellers are going to such extremes to protect Harry Potter's pages: No one wants to spoil the surprise.

The key to protecting anything, Kevorkian says, is to keep mum on security. If he were in charge, "no one would know anything in relation to the book. They wouldn't know of any previous incidents, who to call if there was a problem, shift changes, personnel, guards ... nothing. It would be self-contained. And we would be there 24/7 in case there was a problem," he says.

And they would likely be armed.

E-mail to gdaugherty@enquirer.com