New Harry Potter short story unveiled: media

British author J.K. Rowling has unveiled her new short story on the world's most famous schoolboy wizard Harry Potter in his mid-thirties.

Seven years on from his apparent farewell, Harry Potter was revived by Rowling for the online version of the fantasy world she created for the character. His hair is showing signs of greying and he is bearing a worrying new scar, but with his trademark spectacles intact, reported the Scotsman newspaper on Wednesday.

The 34-year-old Harry Potter was reunited with his former Hogwarts classmates in the short story by the Edinburgh-based Rowling, which also offers a glimpse into the "next generation" at the school for wizards, raising the prospect of another book in future.

Rowling, 48, published the 1,500-word short story, on her "Pottermore" website on Tuesday, describes how the trio meet, with their families, at the fictional Quidditch World Cup.

Rowling wrote the first Potter novel while living as a single mother in Edinburgh, which was published in 1997, with a series of another six fantasy novels finished in the next 10 years.

As of July 2013, the seven books had sold between 400 million and 450 million copies, making them one of the best-selling book series in history, and had been translated into 73 languages.