The new pre-epilogue

[sunnyskywalker]

Excerpt here.

Maybe Pottermore members can fill us on on what's in the rest of "Rita's" article?

I have to wonder what they have added to the wizarding world's water supply. Remember how wizards used to be fickle creatures, capable of going from hero-worship to deep suspicion and hatred based on a few gossip columns or rumors in the halls? No longer!

As the crowd stampeded, tents were flattened and small children mown down. Fans from all corners of the globe stormed towards the area where members of Dumbledore’s Army were rumoured to have been sighted, desperate above all else for a glimpse of the man they still call the Chosen One.

Since Harry is about to turn 34, this is roughly 16 years after the DA did its thing. That they're still famous for being the DA, and Auroring and whatever else is clearly a distant, secondary consideration, suggests that they haven't really done anything all that newsworthy lately. (I would bet on the cut being from a game of pickup Quidditch with Ron & co. or something equally boring.) Yet they're excited enough to see Harry that Rita can spin it into a stampede?

There must have been nothing happening at all in the WW for the last 16 years. I guess they really do disappear when Rowling isn't looking.

Comments

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

Rita's always been a bit of a meta-voice for the series.
True. Rita is nasty. And she's not above lying and trying to destroy a schoolgirl out of pettiness. But a lot of times she is saying (admittedly presented in worst light possible) the truth.

Yeah, never mind the fact that, in the entire series there is no mention whatever that anybody in the WW is even aware rugby exists, let alone cares about it. That's just a stupid muggle game, right?
The whole rugby thing is horrible.
It's stupid, makes no sense, turns everybody in WW into JKR sport fan self-insert, shows us that even before DD all Hogwarts professors were crap at their job and utterly unable to care for children.

But to me the Fridge Horror of "one of (suspected) Squib players looks suspiciously like Hagrid".
We know just how sensitive and tolerant of Squibs Hagrid is so can you imagine him having a kid that can't do magic? Not only would the poor body be in constant danger that some of daddy's "interesting" critters would eat him, he would also have to deal with Hagrid's prejudices.
And that's the better option! I don't even want to think that we are supposed to consider the possibility that Hagrid is that player's uncle.

Only bright spot is when Jo admits that wizard's love of rugby have a "element of sadism in it".

Thank you for explaining that!
It really sounds terrible. If it was just Rita being catty it wouldn't be so bad. But WW is sexist. And the way Jo writes female characters she dislikes also smacks of internalized misogyny. That or lack of empathy and narcissistic tendencies.