lucathia | Pottermore

Played around a bit with Pottermore today. I'm WildWolf10589 on there. I completely thought we'd be using our names, but it turns out that you must choose from a randomized list of names to protect your identity. So everyone has very random names with a bunch of numbers tacked on at the end. I hope there aren't too many other people named "WildWolf" around. =P

I clicked through Book 1, picked up a lot of random stuff, did not earn my house many points, had my browser crashed three times, but thought the overall experience was interesting. Lots of pretty backgrounds and scenery with some sound effects for all the different scenes in the books. Lots of information dumps. |D;; There's a long page just about different woods used in wands. I read through half of it before I had to take a break once I realized just how long the page was! I thought the section about Cherry was particularly interesting.

Cherry

This very rare wand wood creates a wand of strange power, most highly prized by the wizarding students of the school of Mahoutokoro in Japan, where those who own cherry wands have special prestige. The Western wand-purchaser should dispel from their minds any notion that the pink blossom of the living tree makes for a frivolous or merely ornamental wand, for cherry wood often makes a wand that possesses truly lethal power, whatever the core, but if teamed with dragon heartstring, the wand ought never to be teamed with a wizard without exceptional self-control and strength of mind.

Hah! Mahoutokoro. And cherry/sakura, of course. Well, now we have a name for a school in Japan! Would've been nice for crossovers with manga and anime.

My wand is 10 inches, unicorn hair, black walnut, unyielding. Apparently, the magical community never changed to the metric system... I'd always thought it was a localization thing that made the measurements appear in inches for me!

Black Walnut

Less common than the standard walnut wand, that of black walnut seeks a master of good instincts and powerful insight. Black walnut is a very handsome wood, but not the easiest to master. It has one pronounced quirk, which is that it is abnormally attuned to inner conflict, and loses power dramatically if its possessor practises any form of self-deception. If the witch or wizard is unable or unwilling to be honest with themselves or others, the wand often fails to perform adequately and must be matched with a new owner if it is to regain its former prowess. Paired with a sincere, self-aware owner, however, it becomes one of the most loyal and impressive wands of all, with a particular flair in all kinds of charmwork.

Eeep, inner conflict, huh? I would probably have my wand fail me at some point then. I don't always feel I'm particularly honest with myself!

A lot was also revealed about McGonagall throughout Book 1. Damn, she's been through a lot. With how detailed her story was here, I feel like an entire spin-off could have been dedicated to her. I wonder how many other characters JKR goes into depth about like this throughout Pottermore! I know some people are afraid that new info will contradict their fics or headcanon, or don't like that we're getting all this info yet they're not from the original books, but since I don't have very solid headcanon myself, I don't mind too much. And gosh is this one rich and detailed universe.

Interestingly enough, I got sorted into Ravenclaw. When asked previously what house I thought I'd be in for Harry Potter, I replied that I felt I would currently be in Hufflepuff but that I used to be much more of a Ravenclaw. Looks like I'm still quite a Ravenclaw. |D;;

Anyone on Pottermore? :3