Whether by Floo Powder, by Portkey, or by broomstick, it’s time to transport yourselves back over to Pottermore.com, because the first eleven chapters were released to everyone today. Users in the Hufflepuff house, who won the fourth House Cup on Pottermore, were given early access yesterday. As always, the artwork, sounds, narration, etc, are all wonderful, but the only reason I keep going back to Pottermore is to read the new content by J.K. Rowling. There are three new articles, listed, linked, and described below. All three have also been added to the Pottermore Index page.
Pottermore.com has a new feature! With this new content about the Floo Network, not only can you read the written text as always, but you can also hear J.K. Rowling read her story about the “most notorious instance of accidental redirection” as well as her inspiration for the Floo Network.
This article has two very interesting tidbits. The second on the page, which I noticed first, tells about J.K. Rowling’s very own “real Portkey”: “the key to the US city of LaPorte — which was given to me by Emerson Spartz, the founder of the fansite Mugglenet.com”. What’s most funny to me about that sentence is that Jo didn’t capitalize the “N” in MuggleNet, which supposedly happens often and seems to be a point of contention with the website’s staff.
The first on this page, though, is easily overlooked. Correct me if I’m wrong and I’ve never noticed another instance of this happening, but Rowling relates a story on this page in which two Muggles accidentally are transported—by Portkey—to a Celestina Warbeck concert in 2003. This may be the first time that Rowling references an event that happens post-2000 within the Wizarding World—apart from, of course, the events of the Epilogue (19 Years Later), which occur in the year 2017—19 years after the Second Wizarding War, which takes place in 1998. On the whole, this isn’t particularly significant. It’s just fun for me to remind myself that Harry Potter doesn’t take place in the past. The story is ongoing. The story is current.
Finally, we come to an article that is, for me, full of the feels. It tells about the significance of colors (colours in the UK) in the series: how purple and green symbolize the good and evil within the magical realm, how the Hogwarts House colors reflect the colors of the elements they represent (as someone who grew up on a farm, I particularly love Hufflepuff’s reference to yellow wheat and black soil), and especially how Rubeus means “red” and Albus means “white”… This article tells further how these two colors reflect their respective characters’ personalities, but I’ll let you read about that there.
What are your favorite articles or scenes from the newest installment on Pottermore.com? Please share them in the comments!
