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 I like to call Christmas Eve Eve. After yesterday’s duplicate article, I admittedly lowered my expectations for today a bit, so I was genuinely surprised to see a new article from J.K. Rowling today. It’s not terribly long—only four paragraphs—but it is entertaining!
Today we learn more about the Order of Merlin. Here are some particularly fascinating tidbits:
Legend says that the green ribbon, on which the First Class Order hangs, is to reflect Merlin’s Hogwarts house.
I don’t know about you, but I think having the O.M. First Class honor the Slytherin house cheapens the award a bit. Rowling goes on to write how the award does not always go to wizards who truly deserve it, which certainly cheapens it even more (though not when you consider that Albus Dumbledore received it because he genuinely deserved it).
…Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, awarded himself an O.M. (First Class) for a career that many considered less than distinguished… Arcturus Black, Sirius Black’s grandfather, was widely believed to have bought it by loaning the Ministry of Magic a large amount of gold.
Wait a minute. Did you notice that? Arcturus Black? I think JKR just surreptitiously told us who Regulus, Sirius’s younger brother (remember R.A.B. from the locket?), was named after. I suspect we might read more about him later.
Want to read the article for yourself? You’ll have to answer the last riddle! Here it is (from the Pottermore Insider):
The answer? Albus of course. This new moment also gives us narration from a very touching section of the audiobook, because this moment is from the chapter about Dumbledore’s funeral, something I wish the movie would’ve included.
Something I wish Pottermore would include is more moments for Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. I’m absolutely baffled that they’ve gone from an average of 40 moments per book to only 12. There has to be more coming to Pottermore later, right? After twelve moments are released for Deathly Hallows? Why was this change made in the first place? I have so many unanswered questions about Pottermore’s new more-hype-and-less-substance format.
What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments!
P.S. The Pottermore Index will be updated later today!
