Rowling's Pottermore Notes

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

I'm not a member of Pottermore, so I'm glad that some bloggers have been collecting Rowling's notes from the site. The notes don't have that many surprises, but a few things did jump out at me.


According to one of the Slytherin Prefects, Merlin was a Slytherin. I'm hoping that we're supposed to take this tidbit with a grain of salt since I'm pretty sure that Merlin lived several centuries before Hogwarts was founded, even in the Potterverse.

In a 2007 web chat, Rowling said that Quirrell was previously the Muggle Studies professor, probably because fans had been asking how Percy had had him as a teacher before if the DADA professor changed every year. But she says nothing about him teaching Muggle Studies in his backstory on Pottermore. I suspect the truth may be that she didn't figure out the details of the DADA curse until after PS was published.

I think some of the most interesting new information comes from McGonagall's Backstory. Apparently, like Severus, Minerva had a muggle father. Her mother kept her wand locked away and didn't reveal to her husband that she was a witch until after Minerva was born. Also, I'm guessing that Rowling must have said something in the past about Minerva being around 70 years old, for most fans seemed to have believed that Minerva's years at Hogwarts had overlapped with Tom Riddle's. However, it now appears from her backstory on Pottermore that Minerva didn't start at Hogwarts until 1947, two years after Tom finished, for she started teaching at the school two years after she graduated, and we know from OotP that she started teaching in December of 1956.


In a note on the history of the Sorting Hat, Rowling writes:

The Sorting Hat is notorious for refusing to admit it has made a mistake in its sorting of a student. On those occasions when Slytherins behave altruistically or selflessly, when Ravenclaws flunk all their exams, when Hufflepuffs prove lazy yet academically gifted and when Gryffindors exhibit cowardice, the Hat steadfastly backs its original decision. On balance, however, the Hat has made remarkably few errors of judgement over the many centuries it has been at work.

So, in other words, Slytherins really are all evil? I think it's rather disturbing that this appears on an official fansite where all members are sorted by a personality quiz into one of the four houses, including Slytherin.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

COS suggests she had no idea about the previous opening of the chamber. If she started teaching 2+ years out of school (she started teaching in December, not at the beginning of the school year, according to OOTP) then she was even younger than Severus when he started teaching. (This kills my idea that normally there was a policy to keep new teachers from teaching those who knew them as students.)

Born Oct 1935, turned 11 Oct 1946, started at Hogwarts Sep 1947, left school Jun 1954, started teaching Dec 1956 at the age of 21.

I expected her to be younger than Tom because of the implied familiarity with Augusta Longbottom. We know Augusta's mother-in-law was born in 1915 (Black family Tree) and Frank must have been born in the mid-1950s (or earlier) if he was already a famous and popular Auror in 1981.

We have evidence that Albus still taught Transfiguration in the 1950s if he was her Transfiguration teacher. (So either Dippet died in 1956 and Albus moved directly to the position of headmaster, or in 1956 the DADA teacher died/left, and Albus took his place until Dippet's death sometime later to prevent Dippet from offering the DADA position to Tom. The third possibility, that Albus switched to DADA for this very reason in 1945 is dead.)

We also have Pomona some 5 years younger than Minerva - at school from 1952 to 1959 (which means she was at school with Minerva both as an older student and as a young teacher).

I roll my eyes at Minerva sharing her father's 'cast iron moral sense' and her 3 month love affair at 18 as 'the only time she lost her head'. But Rowling doesn't read her own books, so... you know the rest.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----The third possibility, that Albus switched to DADA for this very reason in 1945 is dead.

I'm kind of disappointed that this possibility is dead. It was my favorite of the options.

I wonder if Dippet taught defense as well as being headmaster between 1945 and 1956, so, when he died, that left both the defense and the headmaster positions open.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

"I roll my eyes at Minerva sharing her father's 'cast iron moral sense' and her 3 month love affair at 18 as 'the only time she lost her head'. But Rowling doesn't read her own books, so... you know the rest."

Kinda reminds me of what she said about Dumbledore when she discussed him and Grindlewald. She's good, really! She just fell for the seductive wiles of an evil man once- 'cause she's totally good but all fallible and stuff....

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Kinda reminds me of what she said about Dumbledore when she discussed him and Grindlewald. She's good, really! She just fell for the seductive wiles of an evil man once- 'cause she's totally good but all fallible and stuff....

Oh, you mean like Snape and Voldemort? At least Snape never plotted to torture and enslave millions, unlike St. Albus. As for Snape's alleged Dark Arts practice, IIRC, the only people who accused him of that were his enemies, who had every reason to lie about him.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And all they really say about him is that he was a bit precocious. Considering how Hermione knows to use at least 2 curses in 1st year (the Leg-locker curse she picked up from Draco and Petrificus Totalus) - so Severus knew a handful more, big deal. And with the jury being out as to whether he invented Sectumsempra or merely copied it down from some obscure source there really isn't much 'meat' to the accusations.

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Not only that, but even if we concede that he did know a lot of curses, that doesn't necessarily mean anything nefarious. Many people collect guns or knives but don't use them to commit crimes. People in law enforcement study crimes and criminals so they can combat and prevent crime, just as scientists study diseases so they can prevent and cure them. Snape may have studied Dark magic because he wanted to combat it, or to figure out why and how people were seduced by it so he could prevent people from falling into that trap. Without knowing why he was interested in Dark magic, we can't know if his alleged interest was unhealthy or altruistic.

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

J.K's not good at math and really should just stop trying to micro-manage the universe.