J. K. Rowling Will Testify in New York Monday

Rowling will face a Manhattan judge Monday in a bid to stop the publication of a fan's unofficial encyclopedic companion to the boy wizard series, reports Reuters.

Steve Vander Ark has written The Harry Potter Lexicon, a 400-page reference book based on his popular fan Web site (www.hp-lexicon.org). The British-born author filed suit earlier this year, claiming that the book is "nothing more than a rearrangement of her own material."

In a declaration filed in the U.S. District Court in February, Rowling, 42, who wrote the seven hugely successful Harry Potter novels, said she was "very frustrated that a former fan has tried to co-opt my work for financial gain."

The author said she would be exploited by the publication of the book she said constituted a "rip-off."

"I feel intensely protective, firstly, of the literary world I spent so long creating, and secondly, of the fans who bought my books in such large numbers," the British writer said.

According to People, the case is scheduled to last most of this week in the New York U.S. District Court, where Judge Robert P. Patterson will conduct the trial without a jury. A security guard will watch over Rowling in court, and she can spend breaks in the seclusion of a jury room.

And, as all hardcore Potter fans already know, Rowling has said she plans to write her own Harry Potter encyclopedia, which would include material that did not make it into the novels, and donate the proceeds to charity.