Whether you consumed the Harry Potter series book-by-book, anticipating the release date for the next in the series by marking off days on your calendar, or you binged them all in the span of a few months, you'll be excited about this news. You've followed Ron and Hermoine's familiar romantic tension (sorry if you're a decade behind and that is a spoiler) and Harry's quest to defeat Voldemort. Maybe you're even certain which Hogwarts house you'd be in (I'm Hufflepuff, as much as it pains me).
Regardless of your dedication to the series, you can have something new to read if nothing else. Last month, it was announced that there would be four new Harry Potter books coming out on the fan site Pottermore. So far today, two of those are live.
Adapted from the 2017 audiobook of Harry Potter – A History of Magic, each £1.99 ($2.52) eBook lets fans learn about the historical past of magic in a format that suits millennials: a colourful app.
The ‘bitesize' stories elaborate on different classes that Harry, Ron and Hermione all really took in the series. These courses include Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Herbology, Divination, Astronomy and Care of Magical Creatures. London artist Rohan Daniel Eason illustrates some of the pages. Others include notes, manuscript pages, and sketches to heighten your reading experience.
The Charms & Defence Against the Dark Arts eBook description on the Pottermore website reads:
"How to become invisible, to make someone fall in love with you, to transform into another creature: these are all things that people have believed in, yearned for, or feared, throughout history. Spells and charms have captured the imagination for hundreds of years. Warding off evil is also something that has concerned people throughout history. From werewolves to all manner of snakes in the wizarding world, you’d learn how to face a number of strange and frightening forces in Defence Against the Dark Arts classes."
The Potions & Herbology description for the second book in the four-part series reads:
"Potions have been made for thousands of years – associated with bubbling pots and mysterious ingredients, they have been brewed to make medicines, drugs and poisons. Harry Potter became much better at Potions with a little help from the Half-Blood Prince. Plants have also been important components of medicines as much as myth-making and magic. A source of danger as well as a means of overcoming obstacles, Herbology was a subject which had a major bearing on Harry’s key decisions and mistakes in the wizarding world."
At the bottom of both book descriptions is a summary of Pottermore's mission to teach about traditional folklore and the art of magic behind Harry Potter:
"The history of magic is as long as time and as wide as the world. In every culture, in every age, in every place and, probably, in every heart, there is magic."
Happy reading!
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