As a younger child, I can recall curling up into my mother’s lap as she read a strange story about a boy with no parents, and a scar on his forehead.
The “Harry Potter” series has graced many childhoods including mine.
We imagined walking up to the gates of Hogwarts right beside harry. We were watching in anxiety when Harry was almost got sorted into Slytherin. We held his hand when he was chosen in the tri-wizard tournament, and on the sidelines we cheered as he defeated Voldemort. Now, what if someone told you could go to Hogwarts? Would you believe them, or would you laugh in their face, or just smile and say that would be nice and get on with your life? You would continue to go about your day, all the while pondering on what it would be like if there was this possibility. Actually, now you can attend Hogwarts- online that is.
“Pottermore” is an interactive online experience created by J.K. Rowling and Sony that integrates the reader with J.K. Rowling’s series “Harry Potter”. The purpose of the site is so that anyonewith internet access can read part of the Book online for free, while taking part in the plot themselves. To be a part of “Pottermore”, all one has to do is sign up. While following Harry’s own plight, the user can attend school at Hogwarts, shop in Diagon Alley, collect house points, brew potions, and participate in wizard duels.
In early 2011, the Pottermore team announced that they would be letting a set amount of people into the site early as beta-testers. During the week of July 31 to August 6, a new clue was put up on the site each day, and if you were one of the lucky few to get the answer right and find the magical quill you could apply to get an account on “Pottermore”. The only catches are that the welcome email takes a long time to arrive, they would only let in 1,000,000 people, and the time the clues put up each day was random and not specified.
I had heard about “Pottermore” first from a friend of mine, and I immediately went onto the internet to investigate. From what I read, I assumed I would never get into Pottermore early. It would have been nice, but my thoughts were clouded with visions of people clamoring over their computers and losing sleep just to gain access into the site.
During the week of the clue releases, I decided to meander onto the site out of curiosity when miraculously, the clue was up. Immediately my heart went to my throat. This was too good to be true. I knew the answer to the question, and anxiously I typed it into the address bar. I was brought to a page on which the Magical Quill rested. With one click, I was in.
The wait for the welcome letter had been a long one. So long, in fact, I thought that my application form hadn’t sent correctly. However, when the day came at last I dove right into the world of Pottermore.
Pottermore takes the experience of reading the book to a whole new level. Even though I am only allowed access to the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I am still extremely impressed. The scenes in each chapter are illustrated beautifully, and the interactions on each page are unique. Sometimes even the interactions are reward you with access to exclusive content from J.K. Rowling relating to the story, ranging from character bios to little ‘did you know facts’ that no one has ever seen before.
It’s cool to be able to shop in Diagon alley for your school supplies, and go to Ollivander’s Wand Shop and see what wand you will acquire. Best of all, when you first arrive at Hogwarts with Harry, you finally have the chance to be sorted in a house. Do you belong to the Humble Hufflepuffs, the witty Ravenclaws, the ambitious Slytherins, or with the courageous Gryffindors? and Don’t forget about the potion brewing and the dueling! The experience is definitely one I recommend to all lovers of the Harry Potter series, and even if you don’t know anything about it, Pottermore is a good place to start. You will truly feel apart of the magical wizarding world Rowling created.
One of the downfalls is that the sites servers are unable to handle barrages of traffic, so the site is often down. Even during gameplay the site could crash and kick you out. It’s annoying, but it’s also something the Pottermore team is working to fix.
The site was set to open up to the general public in October, but due to the many crashes and delays the date has been postponed. One can expect to sign up for Pottermore by the end of 2011.