By Abigail Wood

HOGWARTS–Harry Potter has been described as part of our generation. A lot of us grew up with Harry Potter at a young age, with both the movies and the books and it has become part of our lives. With the last book in the series published, and the last movie produced some may believe that the life of Harry is over. But as a diehard Harry Potter fan, this was not acceptable at any level because Harry Potter will never die. Luckily, J K Rowling agrees with this idea and started a new website that was officially launched this summer called Pottermore.

Pottermore is a “unique online reading experience” that was created by J K Rowling and sponsored by Sony. The idea was to continue the stories of Harry Potter by allowing reader interaction throughout the books. As a member of Pottermore you can explore the stories by reading the stories again and experiencing them with interactive illustrations, and then even more fun begins. Background on characters that even the most dedicated Potter fan wouldn’t know before entering Pottermore can be found on the website. Rowling has been hoarding these facts and interesting back stories to characters that make the wizarding world even more alive.

Over the summer a contest was held to open Pottermore to a select number of readers to be beta-testers of the website software and the ideas behind the website. Originally the plan was to open Pottermore to the public in October, but more changes were to be made and it has yet to be open to non-testers. However, if someone was dedicated over the summer they could use their Harry Potter knowledge to find a “magic quill” that would offer early access. Only a million people would be offered early entry to Pottermore, which seems like a rather large number, but because this is a global website with a huge readership, it is in reality rather small. One could find a magic quill by answering a trivia question during certain unannounced hours of the day and only approximately 2000 quills were given out each day. The first day had the hardest question, and the questions got easier as the days went on. Although, the trivia wasn’t the hardest part, accessing the website at the right time was very difficult because they wouldn’t announce what times it would be open. So a group of my friends and I took turns refreshing the webpage over and over again, until one of us got in, and then we would text or call each other to try to get each other access. Luckily, we got in by the end of the 5^th day.

It took over a month for any of us to be allowed to enter the official site though as a waiting process was necessary because the server of the website crashed numerous times. Now, all the testers have been allowed access. Once you get into the site you not only get to follow the story but you get to experience certain aspects of the story. For example, you get to read the acceptance letter to Hogwarts, you get to choose a pet, a wand chooses you (as is customary in the wizarding world) and you get sorted into a house. You also get to take some classes at Hogwarts including Potions, where you actually brew different potions. They are working on fixing one aspect of the website now, which will be available soon, where different wizards can duel each other, so we can duel our friends. As you do different activities you accumulate house points as well.

Overall, Pottermore is an excellent way to carry on the world of Harry Potter and has provided fans with new information and adventures. Hopefully it shall be opened to the public very soon, with even more things to do that the testers have suggested.