One of just 15 special edition copies of a rare “Harry Potter” book, which narrowly escaped a fire earlier this year, is set to go up for auction. In 2012, Carina Haouchine, then 15 and from Scotland, won a copy of *Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone* published to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the series, according to Hansons Auctioneers in the UK.
Known as *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone* in the U.S., the book is the first in J.K. Rowling’s seven-part series. Now 26 and a documentary filmmaker, Haouchine won the book through a competition organized by publisher Bloomsbury to find the UK’s biggest “Harry Potter” fan. Contestants were asked to write creatively about their love for the boy wizard’s adventures, Hansons revealed in a press release.
Haouchine was one of 14 runners-up who received a copy signed and dedicated by Rowling, while the top prize winner also received a family trip to Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter. These special editions were never sold, according to Hansons.
Haouchine said the book had been kept safely in her childhood room and later in the storage cupboard of her Glasgow apartment, which survived a tenement fire earlier this year. “Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the building is now uninhabitable. I’m so grateful the book survived,” she said in a statement.
The book will be auctioned on September 5 at Hansons Auctioneers’ Library Auction at Bishton Hall, Staffordshire, England, with an estimated price of up to $15,000.
Jim Spencer, head of Hansons’ Library Auction, mentioned in the release that the public had no idea what this edition looked like until last year. “There was no visual record of it online, and none of the competition winners had shared images. Only the briefest details of the competition itself existed,” Spencer said.
Haouchine, who grew up with her mother reading her the *Harry Potter* books, plans to use the auction proceeds to fund her wedding and future with her girlfriend.
