So hey, I’ll bet you noticed that Rowling wrote a New Short Story and posted it on Pottermore. It would be hard not to notice, since it’s been talked about all over, even in the Muggle news. I rushed online to read it the moment I found out.
And it’s pretty cool! Good old Rita Skeeter, still at it. (I can’t help but wonder if she has come clean to the Ministry about being an unregistered Animagus). But it’s not really a story, not like the Prequel. It’s no more a story than are the Quidditch World Cup news articles that written by Rowling as Ginny Potter for the past few weeks. It’s more of a list of details about various characters, almost all of which we already knew.
I love it, don’t get me wrong! Any glimpse into the world of Harry Potter, especially how things are going many years later, is exciting. But as I said, most of what’s in there we already knew. The bits we didn’t know hardly warrant the frenzy I’ve been seeing online.
A story should have a plot. This doesn’t. It hints at a little drama, I suppose, but most of that’s manufactured by Rita and therefore isn’t even real. This is cool, it’s interesting, it’s exciting, sure. But it’s not a “new Harry Potter short story,” no matter what the media says.
However, there actually is a brand new Harry Potter short story, a story filled with passion and pain and the struggle between the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. It’s a story Rowling wrote some time ago now but which never received the kind of acclaim that this minor little gossip column has. It’s also on Pottermore, that site that so many fans have decided wasn’t worth their time. It’s the story of a young witch growing up in a Muggle/Wizarding household, watching the pain and frustration this dichotomy caused her mother and father. It’s the story of a young witch who fell in love with a handsome Muggle boy and who chooses to leave him rather than live a lie like her mother did. It’s the story of that same, more mature witch who married a wonderful man only to lose him in a tragic accident.
It’s the story of Minerva McGonagall. It’s a real “new Harry Potter short story.” And it’s been on Pottermore for ages now, untrumpeted and ignored. Let’s talk about that story for awhile!