Pottermore is a website focusing on the unknown parts of the Harry Potter series
and re-telling the story in an interactive way. The author, J.K.
Rowling, partnered with Sony to develop the site. The site features Rowling's
thoughts, several pages of unpublished text, and a sales resource for e-book
and audiobook versions of the seven Harry Potter novels.
On 31 July 2011, registration for the limited beta release began. The limited
release allowed the first million fans registered to complete The Magical Quill
challenge. The original registration was intended to be October 2011 but was
delayed until 14 April 2012. All of the books are available. In April 2014, it
was announced that Pottermore had concluded its relationship with Sony and
entered its next developmental phase both creatively and commercially. On 22
September 2015, Pottermore was completely overhauled and nearly all
features were removed. A new redesigned site was put up focusing mainly on the
information available, rather than exploration.
Development Pottermore was incorporated in April
2008 and was in a developmental stage for two years. The Leaky Cauldron's
webmaster, Melissa Anelli, has been involved with the project since October
2009. On 15 June 2011, various Harry Potter fan sites, began releasing
coordinates that led to letters on SecretStreetView.com. This website,
created by Rowling, used Google Maps to reveal hidden letters that spelled out
the title of her secret announcement. The first webpage to announce the
project appeared in June 2011. The webpage linked to a YouTube channel that
featured a countdown. Pixelated owls gathered on multiple Harry Potter
websites that linked to this countdown page. Rowling also revealed some details
about the new site in a YouTube video on 23 June 2011.
Features = Exploring the books =
Pottermore visitors participate in interactive reading. They create an
account and are given a unique username. They begin with Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone and go through the chapters, following Harry and his
friends through several Hogwarts journeys. They collect potion
ingredients, books, Chocolate Frog cards, galleons, candy, and more along
the way. These various finds earn users house points after they are sorted by
the Sorting Hat. The Sorting Hat places them in one of the four different houses
at Hogwarts. The user is given a special quiz to determine in which house they
belong. The four different houses are Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and
Ravenclaw. Users can visit Diagon Alley, where they purchase different wizarding
supplies for school. They can learn spells, duel with other users, and brew
several different potions. Students from different Houses compete with each other
for the House Cup by earning House points through dueling, potion making
and collecting objects for the first time.
= Brewing potions = Pottermore users can make their own
potions using three different cauldrons that are made of either pewter, brass,
or copper. Each cauldron can make potions at different speeds. Pewter is
the slowest cauldron and copper is the fastest cauldron. Pewter cauldrons cost
fifteen galleons, brass cauldrons cost 21 galleons, and copper cauldrons cost
25 galleons. Users can make nine different potions with ingredients that
can be bought in Diagon Alley or found while exploring the chapters. If
completed successfully, each potion earns them House points. However, a
potion can fail if the wrong amount of an ingredient is added. It can also ruin
the cauldrons. This can happen if a user leaves it to brew for too long, does not
keep the temperature within the correct range, stirs the potion the wrong way,
or crushes ingredients too finely; when this happens, the player may have five
house points deducted. (From Magical Drafts and Potions):
Antidote to Common Poisons Cure for Boils
Forgetfulness Potion Herbicide
Sleeping Draft Swelling Solution
Wideye or Awakening Potion (From Moste Potente Potions)
Polyjuice Potion Polyjuice Potion
(From Book of Potions) Doxycide
Doxycide Shrinking Solution
Shrinking Solution Beautification Potion
Beautification Potion = Spells =
Users can practice spells and later use them against other members of Pottermore
in the wizard's duels. There are four spellbooks and they are The Standard
Book of Spells, The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, Curses and
Counter-Curses, and The Standard Book of Spells. Each spell has a different
effect on the victim. The spells that are currently available to members of
the site include: (from Curses and Counter-Curses)
Full Body-Bind Jelly-Legs Curse
Leg-Locker Curse Pimple Jinx
Stickfast Hex Tickling Hex
Tongue-Tying spell (from The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self
Protection) Curse of Bogies
Green Sparks Knockback Jinx
Red Sparks Smokescreen Spell
Wand-Extinguishing Charm Wand-Lighting Charm
(from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1)
Fire Making Spell Levitation Charm
Locking Spell Mending Charm
Severing Charm Softening Charm
Unlocking Spell (from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade
2) Dancing Feet Spell
Disarming Charm Engorgement Charm
Freezing Charm General Counter-Spell
Tickling Charm Wizard's duel
With the new update, dueling features have been removed.
= House points and House Cup = Members of Pottermore win and lose House
points as they duel, brew potions, and explore the books. These points are then
added and subtracted from that member's House point total.The members of each
House work together to gain more points than any of the other Houses. Every so
often, a House Cup is awarded to the House with the most points, after which
the points are reset. The first House Cup was awarded on 5 July 2012 to
Slytherin, who also received early access to the first four chapters of
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The second House Cup was awarded to
Gryffindor on 21 November 2012, whose members received screen-savers and
desktop backgrounds for electronic devices. The third House Cup was awarded
once again to Slytherin on 25 April 2013. As a reward, Slytherins gained
early access to a Montrose Magpies badge. The fourth House Cup was awarded
to Hufflepuff on 12 September 2013. As a reward, all members of the Hufflepuff
house gained early access to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The fifth
was awarded to Ravenclaw on 30 March 2014. This was much celebrated as this
was the first house cup that was won by Ravenclaw house. The reward was
announced on 4 April 2014 as being that members of Ravenclaw will enjoy early
access to the final installment of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as well
as commemorative desktop wallpapers. On 26 September 2014, Ravenclaw retained
their House Cup with Gryffindor being a close second. The House Cup was next
awarded on 22 May 2015, and was won by Slytherin. The final House cup was
awarded on 9 September 2015 and won by Hufflepuff house.
= Comments = On 13 April 2015, Pottermore announced a
deactivation of their comment boards in various sections of the site. This was
greeted by a storm of protest. Earlier that day, the site had frozen up.
Comments were finally removed the next day.
= Artwork = A UK art studio, Atomhawk Design,
created drawings of key scenes from the books in two and three-dimensional
styles. History
= Early registration: The Magical Quill Challenge =
When the website was launched on 31 July 2011, an overwhelming number of people
tried to access it. Those who could get into Pottermore were informed of The
Magical Quill Challenge. Users that completed the challenge could compete
for the early registration for the site. The challenge spanned across seven days,
with each day corresponding to a certain book in the series. Each day had a clue,
which had to be solved by the user in order to enable his or her right to
register before October. The website picked a user's name randomly. Only a
certain number of people each day were allowed to use the Magic Quill clue for
registration, but this quickly added up to a total of one million users at the
end of the challenge. While many accounts were created by fans during the
early registration phase, many other users created multiple accounts and sold
them for high prices on eBay. This was done despite the warning given by the
Pottermore blog and the fact that users were assured that the website would
remain a free site. Some of these accounts were created by cyber criminals
hoping to target Harry Potter fans. These criminals posted promises of early
previews and access to the site, which led people to unintentionally buy
malicious software and allowed hackers to gain access to their accounts. Clues
on the first three days were more difficult than the clues on days four
through seven. For North Americans, the final clue was released on 5 August 2011
instead of 6 August 2011. The following table is an overview of the Magical
Quill Challenge. = Philosopher's Stone: beta release =
On 10 August 2011, Pottermore sent a congratulatory email to registered users
that confirmed early entry. This signified that the beta period began
once the sign-in button reappeared on the website. On 15 August 2011, the
sign-in button reappeared, welcome emails were sent out, and the beta
period began. A very small number of users were invited to begin their use of
Pottermore on the first day. More users were invited until 27 September, that
marked when the final invitation emails were sent. Early users also said that
even though the site did not bring back the same feelings of excitement from
when the books were released, it did add an extra layer to the reading
experience. = Public launch =
Pottermore was originally scheduled to become publicly available at the end of
October 2011, but the beta period was extended. The Pottermore Shop became
available on 27 March 2012. On 8 March 2012, it was reported that Pottermore
would open to the public in early April 2012. The website officially opened on
14 April 2012, but the interactive experience was only available for Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. = Chamber of Secrets =
On 15 July 2012, the first four chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets were released to only Slytherin House, as their reward for winning the
first house cup; it was released to the other Houses on 16 July. On 18
September, chapters five through eleven were released. Accompanying these
releases were many new features. These features included badges, the ability
for users to see their own all-time House points as well as the number
earned since the last House Cup, second-year schoolbooks, more galleons
to spend in Diagon Alley, and a status field for user profiles. The final
installment of chapters, including chapters twelve through eighteen, were
launched on 31 October 2012. = Prisoner of Azkaban =
The first seven chapters of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were
released on 20 December 2012. Chapters eight through fifteen were later
released on 10 April 2013. Chapters sixteen through twenty-two were released
31 July 2013, along with a new layout of Pottermore that includes a new gateway,
a separate way of going through Harry's story and the user's, and three more
moments added to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
= Goblet of Fire = The first 11 chapters of Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire were released on the site in October 2013. In these
chapters, users can do things from the book, such as see The Dark Mark, watch
the Quidditch World Cup, and find a Chudley Cannons badge in Ron Weasley's
room. Chapters 12 through 20 were released on 16 January 2014. The final
chapters, Chapter 21 through 37, were released to Ravenclaw members on 30 July
2014, and then to the public on 31 July 2014. Chapters 2, 22, 29, and 33 of
Goblet of Fire have no interactive moments to explore, however, their
descriptions are still available to read when each chapter is clicked.
Between April to July 2014 while Chapters 21 through 37 of Goblet of Fire
were in development, the site periodically released "articles" from
the franchise's fictional newspaper The Daily Prophet, pertaining to 2014
Quidditch World Cup. Written in-universe by character Ginny Weasley, the articles
detailed the various matches of the sporting event between sixteen countries
such as Bulgaria, the United States, Japan, and Brazil. A further article,
written in-universe by reporter Rita Skeeter, was released on 8 July, and
detailed various, never-before-seen tidbits on the lives of the story's
protagonists. = Order of the Phoenix =
On 17 October 2014, the Pottermore Insider introduced a Trick or Treat
event that posted a new Trick or Treat daily. On even days, there would be a
Trick and on odd days, a Treat. Treats consisted of a piece of artwork or sneak
peek to be released in the new update on Halloween. Tricks consisted of a puzzle
or game that needed to be solved to provide hints of things included in the
new update. On 31 October, Pottermore released the Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix chapters to the online experience. In the fifth book, users can
read new content from J.K. Rowling, such as Professor Umbridge's backstory, the
mystery of Thestrals, and the history of the Ministry of Magic.
= Half-Blood Prince = On 5 December 2014, Pottermore gave
users early access to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince if they answered
the riddles correctly. There, the visitor can find more information about
Inferi, Florean Fortescue's forgotten plot to help Harry, the Order of Merlin,
Draco Malfoy's secrets, and more. = Deathly Hallows =
On 23 June 2015, Pottermore gave users access to Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows, the final book. References
External links Pottermore
Pottermore on Twitter Watch J.K. Rowling's announcement of
Pottermore from 23 June 2011. on YouTube