I had hoped this wouldn’t happen. I had hoped that Pottermore wouldn’t think it was a good idea to release the final installment of Goblet of Fire on July 31st, Harry’s birthday. But, of course, Pottermore did just that. Why am I complaining? Because July 31st—and the Ravenclaw’s 24-hour early access on July 30th—landed directly during LeakyCon, and for those of you who have been to LeakyCon, ain’t nobody got time to Internet. Actually, on July 30th, my friends Amanda, Mark and I ran the Ravenclaw meetup, so it was great to be able to ask whether anyone had utilized the 24-hour early access to look through Goblet of Fire’s final moments yet. I don’t believe that anyone had.
It’s fairly obvious that Pottermore is waning in popularity. Honestly, I’m fairly certain that generally the only thing that keeps people coming back to it is the new content written by J.K. Rowling, especially when that content is about our favorite characters. People ravenously read the new short story about Harry Potter (and the rest of Dumbledore’s Army) that was released on July 8th. An article about wizarding illnesses and disabilities, though? Generally not as popular.
That article about illnesses and disabilities, plus three other new articles by J.K. Rowling about pensieves, owls, and the Great Lake, debuted in the final installment of Goblet of Fire. They are listed on the Pottermore Index page. As with every other moment, you can find and collect Galleons, Potions ingredients, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, magical objects, mundane objects, etc. You just need to have a keen eye! I have found every item on every moment on Pottermore, so all my “status bars” are filled. I’m thinking that it might not be a bad idea to keep notes about every item I find in the future and where to find it, because I see so many comments like, “Where do I find the thing?”
One final thought: I might be wrong about this—and you’re welcome to comment to let me know if I am wrong—but I’m fairly certain the King’s Cross moment is the first moment that the artist(s) decided to illustrate faces. It seems that every other moment featuring people has only shown the backs of heads or hoods/hats/hair down or faces shrouded in shadow or mist. Certainly, showing faces is not an earth-shattering notion, but it does feel like a fairly significant shift when not showing faces in 165 other moments seems like a very deliberate choice.
Going back to count all 166 moments has revealed that the Pottermore “Status Bar Glitch” is back. I know for a fact that I had all these pesky status bars filled weeks ago, but now several of them are not full—some are even half empty! Unless Pottermore has added more items to those moments, encouraging us to go back? I’m going to investigate…
I was right. It’s just a glitch. There are no new hidden items in previous moments to collect. For most of the moments, I merely had to click on them and “zoom in” to achieve “full bar” status again. For a few moments, I had to click on a “new content by J.K. Rowling” article, all of which I know I’ve clicked on and read already. However, I realized while rereading the article about Draco Malfoy that I seemingly forgot to add it to the Pottermore Index, so that is there now too.
My favorite moment from this installment is King’s Cross (above). What’s yours? Share in the comments!
