Pottermore was less than I'd expected. Somewhere deep within my own personal Horcrux (you mean you don't have one?), I was convinced that we were going to see "extras": a lost Harry Potter manuscript, special outtakes and/or stories, perhaps even prequel character sketches and such. Instead, as we all learned last Thursday, Pottermore "is a free website that builds an exciting online experience around the reading of the Harry Potter books.”
I was disappointed. So disappointed that all Potterish references and gags left me. Is that all there is, I thought, with Peggy Lee-like despair.
However, once I recovered from my snit and started thinking about Pottermore rather than simply sulking that it isn't as I wished, the possibilities gathered like so many owls. While it seems from various news reports that a big part of Pottermore.com will be about selling the heretofore-unavailable e-editions of the Harry Potter oeuvre, surely an "exciting online experience around... reading" means more than mere commerce--and as author J.K. Rowling revealed in her video (if you haven't watched, it's worth doing so simply for the delightful paper art), readers will shape this experience, and Rowling herself will release some parts of the story she's held on to for years.
In other words, everything I’d hoped for--and maybe even more. Perhaps my initial disappointment has more to do with delayed gratification than anything else: the Pottermore "experience" won't launch until October. All you can accomplish there for the moment is registration, with a promise that "a few" will be granted earlier access. Hmmmm. I wonder if there's a charm to unlock that.... --Bethanne Patrick