As part of the Twelve Days of Harry Potter event, J.K. Rowling has been releasing new content in the form of short stories at the official Harry Potter website Pottermore.com. A previous report from the Inquistr revealed that in order for fans to get their hands on new Harry Potter stories, they’d have to visit the site in the 12 days leading up the Christmas and solve a brief riddle to unlock the writing. The snippets have been released one by one and will continue until Christmas day.
“With wonderful writing by J.K. Rowling in Moments from Half-Blood Prince , shiny gold Galleons and even a new potion or two, make sure you don’t miss out – just visit pottermore.com and answer our rhyming riddles to unwrap a #PottermoreChristmas surprise every day.”
To see all the new Harry Potter stories for yourself, you’ll have to sign up at Pottermore.com and solve the various riddles. You can see the third Pottermore riddle in the photo below. While the answer might seem obvious to hardcore Harry Potter fans, the only answer that will work is “Professor Slughorn.”
For those who don’t want to put their brains to work, a few bits of fresh Harry Potter fiction has been leaked across the web.
According to Buzz Feed , the new Harry Potter content reveals a lot of interesting tidbits about the Harry Potter universe, including the explanation for why J.K. Rowling made Snape the potions master:
“Chemistry was my least favourite subject at school, and I gave it up as soon as I could,” Rowling writes. “Naturally when I was trying to decide which subject Harry’s arch-enemy, Severus Snape, should teach, it had to be the wizarding equivalent.”
In the new Harry Potter content, Rowling also shares some other facts about potion-brewing, including the fact that cauldrons are “enchanted to make them lighter to carry,” and that some potion makers use “modern inventions [which] include the self-stirring or collapsible varieties of cauldron, and pots of precious metal are also available for the specialist, or the show-off.”
Rowling devotes quite a bit of time to Severus Snape for Twelve Days of Harry Potter. According to Time , one of the new Harry Potter stories takes readers to the setting of Cokeworth (the hometown of Harry’s mother and aunt). The new chunk is only three paragraphs long, but tantalizes Harry Potter fans just enough to keep solving more riddles through Christmas. Here is a small sample from the new Harry Potter story:
“Uncle Vernon has a vague idea that Cokeworth is so distinctly unmagical, the letters will not follow them there. He ought to have known better; after all Petunia’s sister, Lily, turned into a talented witch in Cokeworth.”
What do you think about the new Harry Potter content?
