IT IS the type of conduct that would have him expelled from Hogwarts in a flash. Boy wizard Harry Potter is being cast as a gay porn star on the internet.
The craze, which has attracted the attention of author JK Rowling�s lawyers, features the schoolboy sorcerer in explicit gay sex stories for the benefit of heterosexual women.
The so-called �slash� fiction portrays Potter in uncompromising scenarios with other male characters from the hugely-successful books. These include Draco Malfoy, his arch enemy, and the sinister potions teacher Professor Severus Snape.
Lawyers for Rowling have now written to the internet firms which provide the websites asking for them to be shut down because they fear the explicit material could be read by children.
While most of the young fans of the fictional wizard are eagerly awaiting the publication of the fifth book in series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a steady stream of risqu� and sometimes obscene material aimed at adults is being published on the internet.
On one website, Potter�s detention turns out to be much more unorthodox than writing a hundred lines: "Snape rolled his stool to where his student was sitting. He leaned closer until their faces were a centimetre apart. �Still answering back, Mr Potter! I think I should teach you a lesson.�
"Harry couldn�t suppress the grin that spread on his face. �I�m sure I�ll enjoy your lessons,� he said seductively."
Another reads: "To Harry�s surprise Draco leaned over and kissed him on the lips, firmly yet gently ...
"Before Harry had a chance to react, Draco pulled away and took a step back. He surveyed Harry�s dazed look and Ron�s dismayed expression with a detached amusement�"
Other examples are far more explicit and too bawdy to be reproduced here.
Potter and his Hogwarts companions have fast become the most popular focus of the genre with more than 1,000 web sites devoted to material involving the youngster with supernatural powers.
The Potter pornography is written by, and is mainly for, straight women. The term �slash� refers to the internet convention of using a stroke or slash to signify a same-sex relationship between two characters, such as Potter/Snape or Potter/Malfoy.
The most popular pairings are between characters who dislike each other and whose relationships are characterised by tension and suspicion. The scenarios vary widely, from light-hearted romances to hardcore sadomasochism.
Louise Hale, founder of Writers University, a guide to internet fan fiction, defended the slash fiction websites, arguing that they give budding authors the opportunity to explore themes that would not feature in the original books.
She said: "Many people can see some subtext between characters like Harry Potter and Draco: �Look. They tend to obsess over each other. They are enemies. That must be sexual tension.�
"It is doubtful that JK Rowling sees it that way, but fan fiction gives fans a chance to explore the �what if� scenario."
Explaining the appeal of the craze, Hale added: "Many of the people writing slash are younger and some are unsure of their sexuality. Fan fiction is a way to explore their sexuality in a setting that is familiar and comfortable to them."
One slash writer, known as Savidana, said: "Slashers are not bent on corrupting the human soul, nor are they writing pornography about little boys.
"Very few of the authors will write anything that involves underage boys ."
The author of works including Do as the Prefect Says added: "It gives fans something to fill their heads with while people sit waiting desperately for the all too elusive Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to show its face."
Most slash fiction carries a content warning and a disclaimer, explaining who holds the copyright to the original work it is based on.
Savidana insisted the warnings were "adequate enough to deter the majority of any young Harry Potter fans from happening upon something that may not be suitable for them".
But last night Neil Blair, a lawyer at Christopher Little, Rowling�s literary agent condemned the craze, warning that it could corrupt "innocent fans", most of whom are children.
He said: "It is almost like running a porno bookshop in Soho and encouraging kids to come in through advertising with sweets."
Blair added that both his firm and lawyers from Warner Brothers, which owns the film rights to the Harry Potter series, had written to internet service providers (ISPs) asking for the websites to be shut down. He said: "Both we and Warner Brothers have been proactive in respect to inappropriate sites, writing to all the ISPs alerting them to the issue even before any material is spotted."
Blair added that ISPs had a "social responsibility" to protect children from pornographic stories involving Potter.
A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association said: "The difficulty is the issue of whether it�s illegal material. ISPs can�t act as judge and jury. The people who take responsibility for this material are the publishers. The ISPs can�t possibly keep tabs on everything of this nature."
The spokesman advised parents to use computer filters to prevent children accessing inappropriate websites. He added: "They should also choose an ISP that offers safety controls and �walled gardens� where the content has been reviewed. Also, parents should take an interest in what their child is looking at, and they should spend time surfing together."
Fiona Nicolson, intellectual property and technology expert with the Glasgow-based law firm MacLay, Murray and Spens, explained that it is often difficult to take legal action against websites carrying slash fiction. She said: "Individual website owners or producers are the obvious targets.
"However, such individuals or organisations are often extremely difficult to trace and can move their sites quickly and easily. The problem is compounded somewhat by the fact that worldwide regulation varies from countries with rigid codes of practice or trust schemes to countries with no protections at all."
Fini~