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APOLOGIES AS THE FIRST SET OF NUMBERS WAS INCORRECT. THIS IS MY FIRST TIME WRITING A PROPER STORY RIDDLE SO EXCUSE ME IF IT'S NOT GREAT. YOU'LL GET A NEW PAGE OF THE BOOK EACH TIME YOU SOLVE THE LAST ONE. ENJOY!

As he lay on his deathbed, aged at just forty four,
Your uncle James was holding your mother's hand and yours.
To her, he gave a house, the other 3 were given to his spouse
His mother got the millions held within his bank
and his sister (your aunt) got his shares in oil tanks
But what did you get? He handed you a book
Nothing written in but the first page 'what is it?' but too late
His last breath had been took

You opened the book and the first page read as follows:

There are many a-book by Rowling, JK
The most famous series over a half-billion to this day
Take the first book
Turn to chapter three
And count the nth letters
Along with me

1 2 19 30 34 36 43 56 73 77 88
90 114 247 268 300 306 318 320 408

NOTE: No title

But what does it mean, I'm really not sure
Please help me figure it, I implore

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The answer is

'This code belongs to Sam'

Following the instructions:

The first book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is Harry Potter and the philosphers stone. Not including the title and removing all punctuation, the extract for the first few words of chapter three, 'The letters from No One':

'The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest ever punishment By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new cine camera crashed his remote control aeroplane and first time on his racing bike knocked down old Mrs Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches Harry was glad school was over but there was no escaping Dudleys gang who visited the house every single day Piers Dennis Malcolm and Gordon were all big and stupid but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot he was the leader The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudleys favourite sport Harry hunting '

But taking the nth letter gives:

THIS CODE BELONECASAOD

@LannyStrack has realised if

We subtract 10/20 from some numbers and use 237 258 280 286 298 300 388 for the last few numbers we get:

'THIS CODE BELONGS TO SAP'

And the last letter should have been an 'M'

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  • $\begingroup$ Have you tried including/excluding spaces and punctuation? $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    May 4, 2020 at 15:59
  • $\begingroup$ @Stiv yes, with spaces the 3rd letter becomes a space which doesn't make sense with 'TH ' and punctuation doens't change much, as there is pretty little. The instructions say letters and that gives the above string, but not sure what now. $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    May 4, 2020 at 16:00
  • $\begingroup$ @Beastly Gerbil I have rewitten it as I made a mistake with the numbers Sorry :) $\endgroup$
    – William Pennanti
    May 4, 2020 at 16:15
  • $\begingroup$ @WilliamPennanti I've just gone through the new string. I think there still could be some errors in there $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    May 4, 2020 at 16:16
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I think you might also have a UK vs US version issue here - 'airplane' vs 'aeroplane' for one thing... $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    May 4, 2020 at 16:24

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