Pottermore
For people who are not into Harry Potter, skip this post 🙂
For people who are into Harry Potter, but who didn’t get their Pottermore owl yet and who don’t want to read any SPOILERS, skip this post 🙂
June 23rd, JKR had some wonderful news for all Harry Potter fans!
Not too long after that Pottermore announced that 1 million people would be able to earn early access by finding a quill, after answering a question. When the question would pop up was a mystery (and after all there are 24 hours in a day, some of which I had to sleep :p).
So we knew that the question would appear for five days in a row – each day a different question of course (so only 5 chances to get in), ánd that the question would disappear when a certain amount of people got the question right.
Of course I missed the question on the first day!
The second day I went to Pottermore the moment my Lunchbreak began and lo and behold, the question was there! I couldn’t believe my eyes!! Didn’t have the books at hand, so I went to a Pottermore group at Facebook I joined and found the answer to the question, rushed back to Pottermore and was taken to a Warner Bros picture gallery, when I scrolled through the pics, the quill was there! Clicked it and got the confirmation that I was one of the lucky few who would get in early. (I know ‘a few’ sounds odd as 1 mill people will get early access, but considering how many HP fans there are worldwide, 1 mill is a few in my book).
Then the loooong wait for the second email began. Soon learned that about 20,000 people were allowed to log in to Pottermore but that there were a lot of glitches – the site is still in Beta – and that they had postponed letting more people in.
Finally – after weeks of checking my email and spam twice every hour or so :p – I got my ‘owl’ yesterday. Of course it was way past my bedtime, but I decided to take a peek anyway. And when I was there, how could I possibly go to sleep without getting my wand and being sorted??? The sorting hat was what I feared most. I’ve been a Hufflepuff all my HarryPotterLife and I was so scared that I would be sorted into another house! (It happened to other people, who were left in shock and are now suffering from an identity crisis, lol).
But all the worrying was for nothing as I was sorted into Hufflepuff, yay! Pat, a dear friend ever since we met in the Hufflepuff Common Room at an online HP community we both joined 10 years ago, is sorted into Hufflepuff as well 🙂
I’ve already spent quite a few hours at Pottermore and it’s amazing. The images are so beautiful, there’s lots and lots of information about the books and – the best part, at least for me – is reading all the background information JKR had in her head but not written in the books. How a character grew up, what his or her hobbies were, how some of the characters and places got their names, it’s a fascinating read!
I also like the personal video messages from JKR that you’ll find on several stages, it’s like she addresses me personally, which is awesome 🙂
Is it all hurrahs then? No. To be honest, I think the site could be more lifely. For one, there’s no sound, which could make the experience more interesting. Having said that, many people hate music added to sites, so if they add sounds/music, there should also be a button to switch it off.
Secondly, as one of the goals of Pottermore is to protect young children, each and every comment you make is under moderation. It may take a while before it appears on the site. I do understand the safety measure, but I grew tired of waiting for the okay and stopped commenting altogether.
There are things you can do, like finding objects and galleons on every page, which are added to your trunk. Some ingredients are used to brew potions – which is quite fun (although my first cauldron exploded, what a mess!). The shopping spree in Diagon Alley was very very special. It felt like reliving the book, made me feel like a young witch, ready for her first year at Hogwarts, browsing through those magical shops and buying the familiar items, like cauldrons, spellbooks, etc. I bought a cat (of course I bought a cat) but I’m not sure if I would’ve opted for a white owl, if that would’ve been available. Gotta love Hedwig!
The other thing you can do is a Wizard’s Duel. Well… I’ve been practising spells and… ermm… let’s just say I need a bit more practising – LOL. I honestly doubt if I will ever be good enough, but I don’t mind.
This Hufflepuff is trustworthy and loyal… not brave though 🙂
To be continued, I’m sure.
Ut oh…something else to keep you at your computer screen night after night no doubt 😉 Sounds fun, I wish I had joined the HP fandamonium years ago now but sadly I haven’t even seen the last movie…are you still with me Antoinette or have you fainted…lol.
Antoinette, I felt the same way about the sorting. There were a couple of questions that I thought about for a long time. I didn’t want to pick an answer and have that be the one that would put me some place besides Hufflepuff.
I’m impressed that you have been away from Pottermore long enough to post here. I haven’t done that yet. but I am getting better at potions. Spells for dueling? Not so much.
Like you, I love the way the pages look. When I first got in the number one complaint was that the site would be better with music. I fixed that by popping in my CD of the first Harry Potter movie. But I think actually hearing my cauldron melt might be more than I could take.
But I am enjoying every minute of it. Now that I’ve gotten better at potions, I think I’ll take some time and go back through the whole story and re-read everything. I started to do that but got distracted.
Yay, for Hufflepuff! Now we all just need to get some more points. Oh well, one thing at a time. 😉
It’s not too late, Nicole, you can still jump on the HP train 🙂
Pat, I so agree. I hesitated answering some of the sorting hat questions. Trying to figure out which one would lead me to Hufflepuff, for sure. But at some of the questions there were multiple ‘good’ answers. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when the yellow sign came up in the end 🙂
It’s funny actually because both of my kids are just now entering into the HP zone and are fanatic about the books. I am making Hailey read the books first before she can watch the movies, she is just now reading The Prisoner of Azkaban. Logan brought home the first book in the series from the school library yesterday too. I promised Hailey I would read the books as she finished them so I guess I have some catching up to do!!
The site sounds like a pile of fun, I just may find my way there one day soon 🙂