Her new Harry Potter online universe, Pottermore, which launches in beta version in July, will reveal hitherto-unpublished passages from Ms. Rowling’s notebooks and pepper devotees with inside scoops about characters, plots and places.
So, amid the 18,000 or so extra words that Ms. Rowling has already handed over to the Pottermore programmers, what can the avid Harry Potter reader learn?
For one, Ms. Rowling has included the full back-story of Professor Minerva McGonagall, the Hogwarts teacher and later headmistress, who also happens to rank as one of Ms. Rowling’s personal-favorite characters. The biography traces Professor McGonagall’s childhood, details her schooling and delves into her early heartbreak and ministry career. Ms. Rowling says she had wanted to include the professor’s bio in one of the seven books, but could never find a right place for it.
Apart from that, Pottermore users who matriculate into a Hogwarts house other than Gryffindor (Harry’s house) will get to read an extra quarter-chapter about the “true nature” of their house, its history and prefect. Ms. Rowling insists being selected into Slytherin, the notoriously sinister Hogwarts house, is not a bad thing.
There’s also a mass of information about magic wands, the key instruments of power in the Harry Potter series, which have an array of wooden casings and hair-string cores. “I go into ridiculous detail about wand woods,” Ms. Rowling says. Wizards and witches never choose wands; wands choose them – and that’s also how it works for users who sign up to the Pottermore site.
But what about quidditch, the flying-broomstick sport that replaces football in the Harry Potter world?
“Men always ask me about quidditch,” Ms. Rowling says. “They just think it’s illogical — and it’s not illogical.”
A full explanation isn’t up there yet. But it may be forthcoming. Game on. Harry Potter,J.K. Rowling,Pottermore
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