52: 27 More More Pottermore

On Friday night I was incredibly excited to have received my official Pottermore email, inviting me to take part in Beta testing. Of course, my first response was to jump up and down screaming. MY second was to go and jump up and down screaming in front of my husband. My third response was to jump up and down while signing into Pottermore itself. 

My username, if you were wondering, is BronzeSnitch86 and I have to just spend a moment on this. I can’t believe how lucky I got with my username. For those people who didn’t sign up early for Pottermore, everyone is given a choice of usernames so that everyone is anonymous and therefore in a safer environment (so the theory goes). I was ecstatic that BronzeSnith86 came up, because: Bronze = Ravenclaw house colour; Snitch = the tattoo I will be getting on my back; 86 = the year of my birth, which looking at everyone’s usernames is actually quite rare. 

I was very excited. Of course I then realised that I was getting too invested in being a Ravenclaw when I wasn’t going to be sorted for 7 chapters. It was a dangerous line to walk.

I don’t want to talk too much about the game, mainly because I don’t want to ruin it for other people. However the basic idea is that you explore ‘moments’, which are a few per chapter. For example the Sorting ceremony is a ‘moment’ and so is getting your wand at Ollivanders. If you are wondering my wand is Fir, Unicorn Hair, Ten three quarter inches, Slightly springy. I am happy with this.

To get a wand, and to be Sorted, you must go through a little personality quiz, which matches your answers to your most appropriate wand wood, wand core and, later on, to your House. By the way I did get in Ravenclaw. Phew. I would have been happy in any house... but now I can wear my Ravenclaw Quidditch tshirt without feeling like a fraud or like I am betraying my house.

My favourite thing about Pottermore is undoubtedly the additional content from Jo Rowling. It is so exciting to hear about McGonagall’s parents, to find out Ollivander’s thoughts about different types of wand wood, and to be welcomed into your house by a Prefect. Everytime there is a new content sign, (a quill!), I get excited when I click and find a long page of new, essay length content to read. It is like a dive into Jo’s mind. I love it.

I feel it unfair to judge how slow Pottermore is at the moment, after all it is only in Beta testing so is still be worked on constantly. However it does worrying me when they put a notice up saying “Due to overwhelming demand Pottermore is currently unavailable”. Trust me... if you think you have a lot of traffic in Beta testing... you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Hope to see y’all at Hogwarts soon. Ravenclaws, see you in the common room.