Take, for instance, the authors of this online petition. Apparently, these people seriously believe that, if they boycott the book, sales will be "seriously affected", and they will do so if the J.K. Rowling doesn't bend to their will and change the storyline. Their beef? They feel that Harry and Hermione are the "one true romantic relationship that matters", and are upset that she would end up with Ron.
Reality check, kids. First off, she's the author. If she chooses to have certain characters end up together, that's her prerogative as the author. Others may think things would go better your way, but that's just tough beans. Secondly, these people apparently neglected to notice that this is, primarily, a book series for children, not adults...and as such, even as the characters grow, they probably aren't gonna spend a lot of time gettin' it on. Third, it is exactly that child market that is the bulk of sales. Boycott (not "ban", christ, get your words straight...see, this is why THEY aren't authors) all you want, she'll still make piles of money and be plenty famous. besides, these are exactly the kind of rabid fans that you know damn well WILL buy the book anyway, so it's a hollow threat, at best.
This is all ignoring the fact that online petitions are a complete waste of time and mean nothing, anyway. Sorry to break this to you, but it doesn't matter how many "signatures" you get on an online petition, it's amounts to no more than a hill of beans in the real world, I don't care HOW indignant you are. On top of all this, I find is sick, sad, and pathetic that these people spend so much energy on who characters are gonna "end up with"...this is a children's series about a boy becoming a wizard. For the love o'Pete, do they have so little sex life that they need to fixate on Harry Potter's sex life? Slash/Fanfiction bothers me enough as it is, but this is just ri-goddamn-diculous.
Like I said, this isn't directed at all fans of the series. Just those that cannot seem to remember that it's not their book.