Happy New Year! Finally, we can put 2016 behind us and hope for a better year. As I sift through the “#worstyearever” hashtag, I feel as though I need to remind myself of the good things that were given us in 2016. Certainly, this doesn’t make up for all those that we’ve lost this year—Alan…
Below is an account of my first-ever Harry Potter midnight release. I wrote it shortly afterwards, but it has been sitting in my drafts for several months, unpublished, because I never actually finished my review of the story itself. Until now. Date: July 30th, 2016. Time: 11 p.m. It’s my first Harry Potter midnight book/story/script…
Last Thursday, Pottermore Limited released the Harry Potter Enhanced iBooks series, not even one month since the new Pottermore was released, and little more than a week since the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Illustrated Edition, with illustrations by Jim Kay, was released. It’s been eight years since the last Harry Potter book was published, and now…
No. This is not some Time-Turner trick. Harry Potter was not his own great-grandfather. That would have been, well, WEIRD. Read J.K. Rowling’s explanation below for more about Harry’s ancestor Henry Potter: Henry Potter (Harry to his intimates) was a direct descendant of Hardwin and Iolanthe and served on the Wizengamot from 1913 – 1921. This…
Pottermore unveiled its new website today. Even though I will so completely miss Pottermore in its “original and best” form, there are many things that I’m loving so far about Pottermore in its newest iteration. 1. Mobile accessibility (but with less to do on the desktop version) Finally, I can access Pottermore on my smartphone and my tablet. But is…
On August 25th, Pottermore released this announcement: Duel bravely, brew well and help lead your house to glory in the last House Cup, which will be awarded on September 9. Soon after the final House Cup is awarded, prepare for a new journey to begin. As J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World expands, so too will Pottermore. We’ll…
James Sirius Potter (or James Potter II), Harry and Ginny Potter’s firstborn son, boarded the Hogwarts Express at King’s Cross station today. This makes James two years older than his younger brother, Albus Severus Potter, who we know from the Deathly Hallows epilogue, “Nineteen Years Later”, will board the Express to Hogwarts in 2017. We know this,…
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort (spoiler alert!) kills Harry Potter. But not really. Voldemort really only killed the part of himself that resided within Harry, and Harry then came back to do away with the rest of him. I guess you really can’t keep that boy wizard down. After Deathly Hallows was published in…
Despite my grumblings when Pottermore doesn’t quite meet my expectations, I must say that it has been a pretty awesome past twelve days of Pottermore Christmas. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting up early (mostly) every morning to report on each new moment over the past twelve days. And now, we’ve come to the final day: what…
One of Voldemort’s memories that Dumbledore shows Harry in the pensieve in the Half-Blood Prince book, but not in the movie, featured a very rich witch named Hepzibah Smith. The significance of this character is that Tom Riddle (Voldemort) presumably poisons her after the encounter in the memory, where she shows Tom (trying to show off) Salazar Slytherin’s…