Inside: Latest Potter
Author J.K. Rowling releases a chapter at Pottermore.com.
Seven years after his last appearance, Harry Potter has returned.
The boy wizard is all grown up in a new, 1,500-word chapter from author J.K. Rowling, whichwas published Tuesday on the site Pottermore.com (it crashed the site). The new story finds Harry and his wife, Ginny, attending the Quidditch World Cup, accompanied by the married pair of Ron and Hermione.
The article is written in the voice of vicious Daily Prophet gossip reporter Rita Skeeter, who doesn’t always have the nicest (or most substantiated) things to say about the beloved heroes of Dumbledore’s Army. But here’s whatwe know:
Harry works at the Ministry of Magic, is about to turn 34 and, as Skeeter says, “There are a couple of threads of silver in the famous Auror’s black hair.” He also has a cut on his cheek, which Skeeter speculates could mean dark days ahead, given Potter’s important job as defender against the Dark Arts.
Ron used towork at the Ministry with Harry but now co-manages his brothers’ joke shop, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. His hair is thinning.
Hermione is rising through the ranks at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, where she serves as a deputy.
Ginny is a journalist who will be covering the World Cup final. She and Harry are still married, though Skeeter says that “cracks begin to showin a union that the Potters are determined to promote as happy.” (Maybe Ginny read that Rowling regrets not pairing Harry and Hermione.)
The story coincided conveniently with the opening of the Diagon Alley section of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.