Plot details from the next ''Harry Potter'' book

J.K. Rowling would probably rather utter the name of the evil Lord He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named than leak details of the plot of the upcoming fifth installment in her ”Harry Potter” series. Nonetheless, Scholastic, the American publisher of ”Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” has let spill a few Every Flavor Beans about the book, due in stores June 21. According to the BBC, the tidbits are revealed in Scholastic’s new promotional catalog, and they offer a few meager hints about what will happen during Harry’s fifth year at Hogwarts.

Among the details, according to the catalog: Harry confronts ”the unreliability of government and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts.” (Gee, that sounds familiar.) The new professor of defense against the dark arts — a position whose job security is lower than that of Spinal Tap’s drummers or J. Lo’s husbands — has a personality ”like poisoned honey.” (Um, that sounds familiar, too.) Good news for Harry’s pal Ron Weasley: He’s the new keeper on Gryffindor’s Quidditch team. Most noteworthy: Harry has recurring bad dreams about a door in a silent hallway that is ”more terrifying than every other nightmare combined.” The book jacket illustration seems to depict Harry facing this same nocturnal hallway. And that’s probably all we’ll get, until June 21.