Pottermore-

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Okay - I confess; I joined Pottermore, out of sheer curiosity. I want to know if, by any strange chance, I will sort to Slytherin, and also what sort of wand I get. Still, some things struck me at once (I've spent about 20 minutes exploring the first chapter):

When describing Number 4, Privet Drive, Rowling said that she chose the number four because she disliked that number, finding it hard and unforgiving. I believe those were the exact words! Do you suppose that feeling is limited to the number four, or might it extend to other numbers?

On a more serious note, she based the look and floorplan of the house on that of a house she lived in herself - and got wierded out because, without discussing it with her, the filmmakers got the floorplan exactly right.

And - this is fascinating! - she had to argue with the publishers, who wanted to convert all the British measurements into metric ones. She also said that Wizards can do complex calculations magically. Can they, really? Then why did we never see them doing this?

Oh, dear. Maths.

But I'm very glad that she talked the publishers into keeping the old fashioned measurements. Can you imagine a metric Wizarding World? I can't.

Comments

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear! If the normal length is 12 to 14 inches, mine is abnormally short, as well as surprisingly swishy. It was 10 and 3/4 inches. (Larch and unicorn hair, as I think I said before.)

[sionna-raven.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, Mary. 10" is not abnormally short. Mine is 10", rowan, unicorn hair. We'd better not duel, just in case our cores are from the same unicorn ;).
IIRC wand lengths of 10 and 11 are mentioned in the books. Abnormally short must be much shorter, probably under 7 or 8.
BTW I could choose my house between Slytherin and Ravenclaw which seemed logical to me, but is very rare from what I've heard from others.

[600ants.livejournal.com]

Oh my... please note that I said: “From what I've seen I think.” :) For the purpose of writing my comment, I only looked over the Pottermore profiles of maybe 15 or 20 people, which indeed is not a representative sample. Just because they all happened to fall between the 12 and 14", doesn't mean that 10" couldn't in fact be the most usual and normal length of a wand in the HP world. From what we know for certain form the books (Harry 11", Ron 12", Hermione 10¾”, Voldemort 13 1/2", the Elder wand 15", ), 10" seem to be on the shorter side, but not really unusual. Although the medians on Pottermore probably differ from medians in the books, I believe you can safely assume that your 10" are outside the area of dishonorably short in any universe possible. :)

And since we're getting to know each other, mine is Redwood with dragon core, supple. And I'm a Slytherin. :)

[600ants.livejournal.com]

My current opinion - and it won't be good news :) - is, that the length of wand has nothing to do with your character, it just indicates how "cool" you are. Pettigrew, 9“ - what a fat loser! Dumbledore, 15“ - is he cool or what? He's the best. For example, the cooler Neville Longottom becomes in the course of the books, the longer wands he gets. Same, but in reverse, happens in the case of Ron. Voldy is meant to be evil but pretty cool, so he gets a long wand no matter his character flaws. et. etc.

However, there's the minor problem with Hagrid's 16“ and the Potter family's 11“ - probably residuals from the times when JKR still thought that the wands matched their owner's physique rather than psyche. :)
(all data taken from HP Lexicon)

[sionna-raven.livejournal.com]

I haven't taken offence, not from a fellow Slytherin anyway ;). The wand choosing pop-up asks for your own estimation of your height, so I assume wand length at Pottermore is based on that information. It does not ask moral questions. At RL 5.18 feet I am very tiny for an adult woman, so I guess the wand fits me.

I've seen quite a few complaints about the moderation of comments in the Common Room chat. OTOH they allow newly sorted members to complain about their house. I suspect they moderate/delete replies to these whinings, because it's unlikely that nobody reacts to it.