Reading the wand woods thing - Goddamnit, every second wand is either 'for loyal people, strong of heart bla bla bla' or 'has never, in my knowledge, gone to a dark wizard.'

All of her wands are perfect for nice, kind, strong people. Goddamnit. Guess 80% of the wizarding world isn't getting a matching wand then. Not to mention how nearly all of the wands mentioned are 'rare' or 'in much demand'.

You can tell she got bored writing and just copied the first three descriptions over and over again. If only I wasn't such a nerd for wand-lore. This addition isn't great. Pottermore's new canon content: looking pretty bad.

 

It doesn't cover all the wands though. James Potter had a Mahogany Wand, which isn't on the list.

There do seem to be at least two wands well suited for Dark wizards, Walnut and Yew, which happen to be owned by Bellatrix and Voldemort respectively.

 

It isn't horrible. I appreciated that Unicorn hair wasn't associated with innocence or some such, and the listing doesn't cover many other wood types that I'd think were relevant (Teak, Lignum Vitae, Rosewood, Pecan, Hickory, Mahogany...). We also learned a bit more about the industry and that other cores are possible (and fraught with reliability issues, apparently).

This is the type of material I'd hoped they'd add.

Also, that site is quite the trove of spoilery goodies for those of us without access...

 

Spoiler

Another cool thing about Ravenclaw is that our people are the most individual – some might even call them eccentrics. But geniuses are often out of step with ordinary folk, and unlike some other houses we could mention, we think you’ve got the right to wear what you like, believe what you want, and say what you feel. We aren’t put off by people who march to a different tune; on the contrary, we value them!

Luna Lovegood cries foul.

EDIT: Apparantly, Neville wanted to be in Hufflepuff, but the Hat overruled him. Or convinced him. It doesn't just go along with the student's wish though. And a hatstall is when the Hat takes more than five minutes to decide, which happens about once every fifty years.

 

I see that there is already possibility of dueling. Question for people who already have access - how does it work?

 

Dammit, even though some of this stuff is pretty shitty, I'm still getting way too excited. Some more tidbits from the link wordhammer posted, just because I can't contain myself.

Spoiler

The Mirror of Erised is a very old device. Nobody knows who created it, or how it came to be at Hogwarts School. (...) . Only after Professor Dumbledore makes key modifications to the mirror (which has been languishing in the Room of Requirement for a century or so before he brings it out and puts it to work) does it become a superb hiding place, and the final test for the impure of heart. Link

This shows just how crazy brilliant Dumbledore really was, to come up with a plan based on a centuries old hidden object. A little strange he never considered the RoR as a hiding place for Horcruxes though.

Spoiler

Very specialised subjects such as Alchemy are sometimes offered in the final two years, if there is sufficient demand. Link

That has some pretty awesome fanon potential.

Spoiler

Prior to Mr Ollivander’s proprietorship of the family business, wizards used a wide variety of wand cores. A customer would often present the wandmaker with a magical substance to which they were attached, or had inherited, or by which their family swore (hinted at by the core of Fleur Delacour’s wand). Link

Spoiler

In my experience, longer wands might suit taller wizards, but they tend to be drawn to bigger personalities, and those of a more spacious and dramatic style of magic. (...) However, abnormally short wands usually select those in whose character something is lacking, rather than because they are physically undersized (many small witches and wizards are chosen by longer wands). (...) Wand flexibility or rigidity denotes the degree of adaptability and willingness to change possessed by the wand-and-owner pair... Link

Ooh, Umbridge got burned.

Spoiler

Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. (...) As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. (...) Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Link

Harry's wand doing its own thing wasn't all that impossible after all.

 

Dueling is broken at the moment. It seems like there were a few people who did it immediately and either exploited a hole to make a buttload of house points or just showed how unbalanced it was. It's currently undergoing some sort of reconstruction.

Also, fun fact: The current distribution between the 4 houses is 23.4% Gryffindor, 23.4% Slytherin, 23.6% Hufflepuff, and 29.6% Ravenclaw. It's been split like that for the entire beta.

 

Er, sup.

Slytherin's know how to break that shit.

What happened was "Petrificus Totalus" was the strongest spell. Just flat out, the strongest. It had the most potential for "Spell Potency," giving people 120-144 depending on how good you are at it (Bitches don't know 'bout my 144s).

There's also a way to grab a lot of duels, by opening them all up in new tabs. Because Duels run out fast, you click on one and you'll get "That Duel has already been taken." So folks (I'm assuming, maybe it was just me), would spam open as many duels as possible in order to guarantee they'd get a lot. I don't know if they're fixing that, but it feels like they may shut that down if it's even possible.

And then, when they got all the duels up, they'd spam Petrificus, because it's more broken than Expelliarmus in canon.

 

The more I read about wands the more I can't believe that I've never read a fic where wizards would have more symbiotic relationships with their wands (and ultimately someone would write it as Harry/girl!HollyWand smut ) Everyone was always about wandless spells and wandless magic.

EDIT: Learning spells would be much funnier, if we could use something like Wiimote and try perfectly swish and flick it as a wand.

 

Huh, those wand movements look different from what I expected. Not much flicking and swishing. I wonder if curses and such are different from charms in that area. Or maybe the start of the Full Body-Bind is what a swish looks like on paper.

Do we also get more incantations?

 

Merlin lived his life backwards, your argument is invalid.


Well, okay, maybe not... but I really wanted to say that.

All old news for anyone who has been around the community for a while/read the class list.

This info does put a few new spins on the old essay Secrets of The Classlist. It assumed Neville's original surname was "Pupp," which is somehow less asinine than "Puff" and might, MIGHT, have created enough confusion to eliminate the goddamned infantilists that insist on having Sirius refer to Harry as "Pup."

Or people who don't like moths.

So... we're in Hogwarts during the books? Oh shi-

 

Okay. I'm sorry, but that Hufflepuff spoiler is just ridiculous. The means to get in that common room not only seem tedious and stupid, but in fact are...

 

I can't believe JKR didn't see anything wrong with basically guaranteeing that every Hufflepuff first year is going to get doused in vinegar at least once. Also, it's pretty odd that no outsider has ever gotten in if the way to open it has always been the same. I guess no-one has ever wanted access to it... or the claim is just bullshit, of course.

Also, they've supposedly had more than their fair share of brilliant wizards, but half of them are just popular ministers, as if popularity was brilliance, and there's no way that's anywhere near a quarter of brilliant wizards. Hufflepuff just comes across as a house of leftovers who are in denial about it. All of them seem to be propaganda, but the Hufflepuff one just fails at it hard.

 

Have you never heard of Hannah 'Massive Tits' Abbot or Susan 'Wants to Jump My' Bones? More than enough reason to sneak into the Badger's den...

 

It's not that no one has ever broken into the Hufflepuff common room.

...It's that Hufflepuff was too incompetent to find out. :awesome

 

Who's up for Ravenclaw? lol, my friend (who doesn't even like HP) got into Pottermore. What's with Australians and the validations of their emails? ;;

Knowing Ravenclaw and its popularity over Hufflepuff, I wonder if this post would get more thumbs-up than the other one.

Spoiler

Congratulations! I’m Prefect Robert Hilliard, and I’m delighted to welcome you to RAVENCLAW HOUSE. Our emblem is the eagle, which soars where others cannot climb; our house colours are blue and bronze, and our common room is found at the top of Ravenclaw Tower, behind a door with an enchanted knocker. The arched windows set into the walls of our circular common room look down at the school grounds: the lake, the Forbidden Forest, the Quidditch pitch and the Herbology gardens. No other house in the school has such stunning views.

Without wishing to boast, this is the house where the cleverest witches and wizards live. Our founder, Rowena Ravenclaw, prized learning above all else – and so do we. Unlike the other houses, who all have concealed entrances to their common rooms, we don’t need one. The door to our common room lies at the top of a tall, winding staircase. It has no handle, but an enchanted bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. When you rap on the door, this knocker will ask you a question, and if you can answer it correctly, you are allowed in. This simple barrier has kept out everyone but Ravenclaws for nearly a thousand years.

Some first-years are scared by having to answer the eagle’s questions, but don’t worry. Ravenclaws learn quickly, and you’ll soon enjoy the challenges the door sets. It’s not unusual to find twenty people standing outside the common room door, all trying to work out the answer to the day’s question together. This is a great way to meet fellow Ravenclaws from other years, and to learn from them – although it is a bit annoying if you’ve forgotten your Quidditch robes and need to get in and out in a hurry. In fact, I’d advise you to triple-check your bag for everything you need before leaving Ravenclaw Tower.

Another cool thing about Ravenclaw is that our people are the most individual – some might even call them eccentrics. But geniuses are often out of step with ordinary folk, and unlike some other houses we could mention, we think you’ve got the right to wear what you like, believe what you want, and say what you feel. We aren’t put off by people who march to a different tune; on the contrary, we value them!

Speaking of eccentrics, you’ll like our Head of house, Professor Filius Flitwick. People often underestimate him, because he’s really tiny (we think he’s part elf, but we’ve never been rude enough to ask) and he’s got a squeaky voice, but he’s the best and most knowledgeable Charms master alive in the world today. His office door is always open to any Ravenclaw with a problem, and if you’re in a real state he’ll get out these delicious little cupcakes he keeps in a tin in his desk drawer and make them do a little dance for you. In fact, it’s worth pretending you’re in a real state just to see them jive.

Ravenclaw house has an illustrious history. Most of the greatest wizarding inventors and innovators were in our house, including Perpetua Fancourt, the inventor of the lunascope, Laverne de Montmorency, a great pioneer of love potions, and Ignatia Wildsmith, the inventor of Floo powder. Famous Ravenclaw Ministers for Magic include Millicent Bagnold, who was in power on the night that Harry Potter survived the Dark Lord’s curse, and defended the wizarding celebrations all over Britain with the words, ‘I assert our inalienable right to party. There was also Minister Lorcan McLaird, who was a quite brilliant wizard, but preferred to communicate by puffing smoke out of the end of his wand. Well, I did say we produce eccentrics. In fact, we are also the house that gave the wizarding world Uric the Oddball, who used a jellyfish for a hat. He’s the punch line of a lot of wizarding jokes.

As for our relationship with the other three houses: well, you’ve probably heard about the Slytherins. They’re not all bad, but you’d do well to be on your guard until you know them well. They’ve got a long house tradition of doing whatever it takes to win – so watch out, especially in Quidditch matches and exams.

The Gryffindors are OK. If I had a criticism, I’d say Gryffindors tend to be show-offs. They’re also much less tolerant than we are of people who are different; in fact, they’ve been known to make jokes about Ravenclaws who have developed an interest in levitation, or the possible magical uses of troll bogies, or ovomancy, which (as you probably know) is a method of divination using eggs. Gryffindors haven’t got our intellectual curiosity, whereas we’ve got no problem if you want to spend your days and nights cracking eggs in a corner of the common room and writing down your predictions according to the way the yolks fall. In fact, you’ll probably find a few people to help you.

As for the Hufflepuffs, well, nobody could say they’re not nice people. In fact, they’re some of the nicest people in the school. Let’s just say you needn’t worry too much about them when it comes to competition at exam time.

I think that’s nearly everything. Oh yes, our house ghost is the Grey Lady. The rest of the school thinks she never speaks, but she’ll talk to Ravenclaws. She’s particularly useful if you’re lost, or you’ve mislaid something.

I’m sure you’ll have a good night. Our dormitories are in turrets off the main tower; our four-poster beds are covered in sky blue silk eiderdowns and the sound of the wind whistling around the windows is very relaxing.

And once again: well done on becoming a member of the cleverest, quirkiest and most interesting house at Hogwarts.

 

The four house intros read like what they're supposed to be, I guess: canned pep talk / propaganda speeches designed to instill some pride in the new students and make them feel more comfortable. They remind me of the sort of babble you get from university tour guides if you're a prospective student. (here in the U.S., anyway)

Still, it was amusing and annoying how several of them talked about how secure their House entrances were. Makes me wish that Harry had stalked the Hufflepuff entrance under his invisibility cloak, taken the minute or two needed to watch the Hufflepuffs enter and figure out the right entrance code, and then made his grand entrance.

"Wazzup, mah badgas!"

 

A lot of this new 'canon' so far is just JKR taking ideas created in fanon and claiming them as her own... Nothing new, really.

 

While they new content isn't as comprehensively awesome as we'd like, I don't believe that JKR is stealing fanon concepts wholesale and recycling them as her own. It's likely that any similarities have more to do with the "million monkeys on typewriters" theorem. Sometimes the monkeys fans are going to guess correctly.