Beginning the Pottermore Journey

As I stated last week, Pottermore is open for all. And now that I am able to actually talk in-depth about the service, I will walk through the website, giving my thoughts throughout.

When you first logon, you will be shown the Pottermore Gateway, an interesting swirl of metallic lines and pictures of each Harry Potter book. For now, only Philosopher's Stone is available. But thanks to a recent tweet from the folks behind Pottermore, Chamber of Secrets should be open in a few weeks.

As with any journey, it begins on the first step. In terms of a book, that means chapter one. Evidently, this chapter is called The Boy Who Lived.

The opening quote for this chapter is, of course, the opening quote for the book, reprinted below. If you notice, there is a little advertisement for the Pottermore Shop, where you can buy the Harry Potter eBooks.

"Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense."

As you navigate to the first moment, a popup box appears, giving you instructions on the interface of the different moments, how to discover new writings from J. K. Rowling, and more. As a beta user, it all seems familar, so I continue onward.

After clicking on the Privet Drive sign on the first moment, I am rewarded with some writing from Rowling, where she reveals the inspiration behind the Dursley's home. I will post her writing tomorrow, as a special treat.

I move on to the next moment, with another quote from the chapter, reprinted below.

"A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you’d have thought he’d just popped out of the ground. The cat’s tail twitched and its eyes narrowed..."

When I clicked on the lightpole, I was rewarded with some more writings from Rowling. This one illuminates her thoughts on Muggle versus magic weights and measurements. As with the other reward, I will repost it very soon, a special treat.

Moving on to the third and final moment of this chapter, I am delightedly shown a beautiful drawing of Hagrid and baby Harry flying on Sirius' moterbike. No new writings to receive, but this picture is reward enough. The closing quote to the chapter is perfect, as was the initial step of Pottermore.

"He couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: ‘To Harry Potter – the boy who lived!’"

I hope you enjoyed this look through the first chapter of Pottermore. This will become a reoccurring feature, of course.

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File