Harry Potter Invades The WWW

Muggles, take note! This April, Harry Potter and the world of wizardry returns. But we’re not talking about yet another Harry Potter book to add to the existing seven novels (which have, to date, sold over 450 million copies globally) or a secret installment of the film series (which have grossed over $6 billion at the box office).

We’re talking about Harry Potter climbing into your machines and snatching yo space up!

Literally.

Slated to go live in April 2012, Pottermore, the Potter-centric website is a part social media, part interactive reading platform that will send all (happy) Harry Potter nerds into a frenzy. The site is already fully functioning but only for the beta testers. It was scheduled to launch six months ago but, as more users were invites into the open test, it was evident that the site was far from ready to open as planned.

But of course. When you’re open to one million excited beta users, and have so many hours of Harry Potter fun to offer, you’d definitely need a bigger platform to prevent it from crashing when the regular users come flooding in. Talk about strain!

An excerpt from the Pottermore team’s official statement reads, “We always knew Pottermore would be incredibly popular, which is why we made the decision to only open to one million Beta users to begin with. We wanted to make sure that we had a really good understanding of how people want to use the site and which bits we’d need to modify before giving more people access. ”

In a press release, J.K. Rowling said that she will be revealing 18,000 new words (about the size of a novella) all related to the Potter universe. Pottermore will also have a backstory on secondary characters, such as Professor McGonagall’s relationships as a young woman or how the Dursley’s met, as well as lore about the world itself, like more history of each house at Hogwarts and details about wand wood.

All that plus the virtual Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, The Three Broomsticks, The Leaky Cauldron, Quidditch – we can already hear the fangirl/fanboy in you squealing with glee! And if you’re not, well, we are.

As of now, it hasn’t been confirmed yet if the e-book versions of the book will be made available on the website. That’s okay. We can’t wait to navigate and explore the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

“So get ready to join the Pottermore journey – the wait is nearly over.”