My Owl Finally Came

I didn't discover Harry Potter until the summer I turned 13, so I'm not one of those people who approached her 11th birthday with secret hopes that an owl would arrive with an acceptance letter from Hogwarts. Nevertheless, the world captured my imagination and, in some ways, I grew up right alongside Harry, Ron, and Hermione. But I was always doomed to be a muggle.

Well no more. With the creation of Pottermore, and my luck to be one of the early Beta testers, I finally got my letter! And now I can begin my journey to Hogwarts.

Pottermore is an interactive, online website that leads you through the books. There are a few neat illustrations for each chapter, done in layers. As you move your mouse side to side, the layers shift and you get a bit of a 3D illusion. There's also a few animations and hidden objects to collect. These object include everything from Chocolate Frog Cards to the salt and pepper shakers from the Dursley's breakfast table. Apparently Harry is a kleptomaniac? Because I cannot figure out why I would want to keep those in my trunk.

The part that has me the most excited is the plethora of new information. There are tidbits all over the place, explaining, among other things, how Vernon met Petunia, the history of the Hogwarts Express, and Wand Lore.

Then comes Diagon Alley. and the world just opens up. You get an account at Gringotts, along with a shopping list and access to all the stores. Well, half of the stores. I can only assume that the rest will be unlocked later on, probably in the third book. Buying the books and school supplies is fun, but the interface is a bit clunky; it works like the stores in a Zelda game. Each item must be bought and paid for separately, which got really frustrating in Flourish and Blotts. Eight books, purchased one at a time. I think the point of this is to give you the blurb about each book as you buy it, but it got a little bit frustrating.

There are also several items for sale that aren't on the school list, mostly advanced potions ingredients. You can buy water from the River Lethe, for use in forgetfulness spells, which made my inner geek squee. And then there are the standard snake fangs and such. I spent a long time trying to decide between a tawny owl and a screech owl for my pet. These are very important decisions.

The last item you buy is a wand, which involves a quick personality test. Once you buy your wand, the site provides a bunch of information about wand lore to explain what your wand says about you. I got an ebony wand with a phoenix feather core, 10 3/4 inches, unyielding. This seems to imply that I'm an outsider who doesn't much mind it because I'm comfortable with who I am and that I'm fairly resistant to external pressure to change. I think that's fairly accurate. Even though it also appears to make me susceptible to the Dark Side.

My only problem with the website is that it is unbelievably glitchy. It seems to crash every fifteen minutes and then takes a long time to come back. On one hand, I understand that this is the beta period. There are bound to be things that need to get ironed out. On the other hand it's seriously eating up a lot of time. As far as I can tell, the site has more downtime than uptime. It gets frustrating.

But I did finally get sorted (Gryffindor!) and learned Minerva McGonagal's epic and heartbreaking life story. Plus, Pottermore! I can't complain too much.