Never have I been more disappointed at news regarding new content on Pottermore. Read on, and you’ll see why.

Misleading Muggle Media gets it wrong yet again

Once again, the “muggle news media” is going on and on about “new Harry Potter stories”, and this time, the headlines are even more misleading than they have been in the past. Just five weeks ago, when Order of the Phoenix was released on Pottermore, I wrote about how these words in the headlines are misleading, simply because people might assume that Harry Potter the character would be in the new stories. Instead, when the stories are published on Pottermore, we find that they’re about a minor side-character in the Harry Potter series and that they’re not really “stories” with a traditional exposition, climax and resolution after all. They’re simply articles providing background details about the character that Jo couldn’t reveal in the books, because the publishers wanted to keep the books the size of Hagrids and not Grawps.

But here is why today’s “muggle” headlines have been particularly misleading. Let’s start with the official news from the Pottermore Insider:

We’re feeling extra generous this year, so we’re bringing you early gifts this Christmas. Starting Friday, December 12, we’ll be releasing a festive surprise for you every day at 1pm GMT (8am EST). […] With wonderful writing by J.K. Rowling in Moments from Half-Blood Prince, shiny gold Galleons and even a new potion or two, make sure you don’t miss out – just visit pottermore.com and answer our rhyming riddles to unwrap a #PottermoreChristmas surprise every day.

Additionally, the corresponding email newsletter that all Pottermore users received in their inboxes today says a little more about the writing:

From Florean Fortescue’s ghost plot to J.K. Rowling’s thoughts on the sneaky Slytherin Draco Malfoy, there’s a wealth of writing to discover.

I don’t know about you, but I think both sources make it fairly clear that we won’t be receiving new writing every day of the 12 Days Before Christmas Eve. Yes, we will receive new writing, but only on two, perhaps three of those days. On the other nine days, we’ll be given smaller things, like galleons, potions and riddles. And yet, much of the muggle media interpreted the announcement like Entertainment Weekly (arguably the most popular entertainment news magazine) did:

J.K. Rowling will release 12 Harry Potter short stories this month

Then again, maybe I’m misinterpreting what I’ve read from the official sources, and I will be pleasantly surprised by new content from Rowling every day of the twelve days between December 12th and 23rd. But I doubt that I am wrong on this one. And even if I am right about this, I also doubt that the muggle news media will change their tactics. Why not? Because we live in a “clickbait culture”, where more and more often, news outlets will make their headlines purposefully misleading or vague or blatantly incorrect just to get readers to click on their articles. As for me, I care a lot more about the content of the article than about the title, which is why most of my titles are generic.

Where’s the rest of Order of the Phoenix? Where is my Patronus Quiz?

The other (and much bigger) reason I am disappointed by today’s news is that the new writing and new moments will be from Half-Blood Prince, not Order of the Phoenix, as I had previously hoped beyond every magical hope. Gone, apparently, are the days where the books are released on Pottermore in three installments, with a wait time of several months between each one. Rather than looking forward to 39 moments (13 per installment), which was the average with the first four books released on Pottermore, now we can only look forward to twelve. Not twelve per installment, but twelve total. (I broke down the numbers even further in my previous article.)

Now I can only hope that Pottermore is even more drastically changing its approach to releasing new moments: maybe Pottermore will release a few moments from book five, then book six, then book seven, then go back to book five and release some more and so on? I doubt it, but I can still hope. I am particularly hopeful that the Patronus quiz, which Jo hinted on Twitter would be coming to Pottermore, will come soon. I will say, though, it makes the most sense to introduce such a quiz within the chapter that Dumbledore’s Army learns the Patronus Charm, and if there is to be no more moments added to Order of the Phoenix, I can only consider this a missed opportunity.

Perhaps Pottermore has finally fully realized that it can never live up to the constant, misleading hype (which it creates for itself) and is now trying to put this dying thestral out of its misery as soon as possible. We may be looking at the end of Pottermore as we have known it… But, no matter. We have at least three Fantastic Beasts movies (and maybe still an encyclopedia!) to look forward to!

Nevertheless, stay tuned to FictionRow.com (and the Pottermore Index) for all your Pottermore updates in the coming weeks!