That being said, if during those hours if you see Pottermore has added the new chapters of Chamber of Secrets and you are one of my twitter tweeps I need you to tweet me until I post that the new chapters are up. I need you guys to be my eyes and ears. On whatever day it opens I will be doing another live blog of my play through like I did for Chapters 1 – 4 on that day starting at 5pm EST (provided traffic cooperates). Now, on to…

This is the eleventh edition of Ask Elm and I am getting record volumes of questions. As a result I’m no longer really answering the questions in order necessarily and am trying to get repeatedly asked questions up first. I will endeavor to answer ALL questions that are submitted to me as quickly as is possible. If you have asked a question and never received a response there is ALWAYS the chance it got lost. I will not be upset or put out if you send the question in a second time. If I notice I have duplicates I will pick whichever one is worded better and run with it.

If you have a question to ask CLICK HERE.

“Hi! I just finished chapter 4 of the Chamber of Secrets, and chapter 5 is still locked. I was hoping you know why and how long I have to wait, or what I have to do to unlock it. Thanks!”

-FlightCharm

Answer:

Right now, only the first four chapters of Chamber of Secrets are open. We have no concrete word from Pottermore about when we might expect to see the next “section” of the book which will contain chapters 5 thru 11. Many have speculated that September 1st is the day as it is also the day Harry would go to Hogwarts in the books. We are quickly approaching the one year mark of when Beta users first gained access to the site and I can’t help but think that the release of this important section has to be coming soon. One year of the same potions and spells is long enough wouldn’t you say?

“when i look at the point total at the top of the screen one time, it will read one thing. when i go to a new page, the point total will sometimes raise itself drastically, or lower itself what is going on??????”

-FlameCauldron

Answer:

The total points for each individual house jump up and down due to a server cache system that Pottermore uses when loading pages. As each house is approaching a million members, it’s a lot of points coming in for the score to try to collate live on site. Unfortunately the site doesn’t cope will with this when the servers are busy. There is an excellent site that is tracking the Pottermore House points I like to visit called HouseCup.Info for a nice graph and reliable read on where the House Points stand.

“With all the spells in the books that we have access to now (not including The Standard Book of Spells Grade 2) why are we unable to use something like the levitation charm or the smokescreen charm?”

-RiverCharm

Answer:

I suspect that Pottermore has something planned for the others spells in the spell book that do not, necessarily, pertain to dueling. We already had to use Alohomora in the story, so perhaps these other spells will be needed later on? At the moment we really don’t know why some spells are inaccessible. Spells from Standard Book of Spells (Grade 2) will probably not be accessible until more of Chamber of Secrets opens.

“How do I set up my pottermore nickname? Do I just add it to the end of all my comments or is there more to it?”

-WolfThestral

Answer:

Nick names are a user invented system in which users place a nickname of their own choice at the end of their posts in the Common Room or Great Hall. The system came into creation for a number or reasons. First, because Pottermore will not allow you to type a username into a comment. Forcing people to write out user names or address people by another nick name. Since Pottermore did give us the ability to put nicknames in for friends it became easy to keep track of your nicknamed friends and to address them in a much shorter manner.

You can pretty much pick what you want, so long as the moderation screen will allow it to post in a comment and no one is actively using the name. Most character names have been nabbed multiple times by multiple users.

“How does one put forth a suggestion for improvements to PM wizards.
I wish there were a better way to scroll through the friend list or dueling list for example. you scoll through 10 or 20 pages, take an action on a name and the system pops you back to the beginning of the list again. Why can’t the system take you back to the page you left off? Why can’t they put in a feature to sort by house. or joined date? would be convenient.”

-YewDraconis

Answer:

To send in an e-mail message to Pottermore, whether it be to report a bug or make a site suggestion, you will need to visit the Pottermore Help Page and then click the OTHER heading followed by WHAT’S NEXT? and then NEED MORE HELP? to bring up the e-mail form. I wish it was not buried under so many headings.

The navigation of the friends page and dueling interface are among my list of complaints as well. I hope that they plan on changing dueling at the very least with new spells in Chamber of Secrets. (Please please please)

“is there a way to get into knockturn alley like you did with the chamber of secrets?”

-PotionSun

Answer:

Despite everything that I’ve tried just to extricate the LINK to Knockturn Alley from the coding of Pottermore, I have not found anyway to get in. I was disappointed because I had HOPED that Knockturn Alley would unlock when Harry visited Knockturn Alley in Chamber of Secrets but that did not happen.

“Hey i was wonder how to receive the next badges? I’ve gotten all three, but im not to clear on how to get the others. Thank you. xo”

-LumosFelicis

Answer:

Right now those three seem to be the only badges available. I suspect that more badges will become available when they open the next section of Chamber of Secrets.

“Do you know anything about the house points from the first book? I remember reading that they would be restored to use “in good time”…but do you know anything or have any ideas if they will be put somewhere? Thanks for your help! I really enjoy your blog.”

-MidnightGlow

Answer:

The message above which showed for a couple days and then vanished has never been fully explained by Pottermore. It was my belief that this meant they would be placing something on our profiles to show our previous point total before the House Cup wiped them to zero. Since this notification vanished about a month ago they have not made any reference as to how they intend to restore our points to our profiles.

“So I took this screenshot of this one Ravenclaw dueler named PhoenixPurple202. We both did the same spell. I was excited to win a few points for my fellow snakes from those wretched eagles and I lost…badly. My score was 141 for Full Body Bind. He did the same spell…except his score was 161. I know the max score is 145….How is he doing it?! Is he cheating? How do I send you the screenshot? Thanks! Oh and on your HP Restrospective, you never told us your reaction to finding out that Snape was always good and was in love with Lily! Let me know! And help me bring this cheater down! Thanks!”

-LumosPhoenix

“I just dueled PhoenixPurple202, a Ravenclaw. He/she scored a 161. I’ve seen others in our Slytherin common room that have had the same experience. Glitch or another cheater? I did report it to PM.”

-MarauderSpirit

“Is it possible to get a 161 on a full body bind curse? I was just dueling with PhoenixPurple202 and s/he got a 161. I didn’t think you could get more than 145. Hmmmmm”

-SilverHolly

Answer:

PhoenixPurple202 is using a cheat to alter the maximum potency of the spell’s they cast to raise them above the standard max of 145 points. Example below:

This basically makes them unbeatable in duels. I urge you all that if you encounter PhoenixPurple202 in duels, or PP Overkill as I have nicknamed them, to send a message into Pottermore thru the Pottermore Help Page (click OTHER then WHAT’S NEXT? then NEED MORE HELP?). You can include the “view” link to the duel. I myself have already sent in countless messages and I am sure many others have as well.

Pottermore needs to sort itself out in regards to cheating in dueling if you ask me, but the only way they are going to do it is if a multitude of users complain about the issue. I myself have hardly dueled since the end of July because the cheaters have sucked the fun out of it for me. I don’t want to duel computerized bots and people who’ve hacked the game. I want to duel other users such as myself on a level playing field again.

Until that happens I report, report, report. I encourage all of you to do the same.

PS – NO I WON’T TELL YOU HOW TO INFLATE THE SCORE ON YOUR DUELS. So don’t ask.

That’s all for today. Remember if you have any questions for Ask Elm you can submit them by clicking here.

Hello, and welcome to Volume 10 of Ask Elm! I am getting such a high volume of questions that I simply cannot answer every question publicly. I am making an effort to answer every question via e-mail and featuring the most frequently asked questions here. If you have a question click here to ask it.

I am going to dedicate this entry to two of the hottest topics in the world of pottermore: whether ThornPatronus19 is cheating, and how are some people showing up in chapters past chapter 4 in Chamber of Secrets. These answers below the cut.

“Why do you charge me ? I don’t use a bot. Really? Because i’m the first point user? I NEVER THROW A SPELL WITH POTENCY OVER 145, that’s a lie. No one can see it, because it never happened.
I don’t do duels at night, and i’m not dueling all day. At the beginning of this house cup i do duels a lot, yes, but only 1 day!! And it didn’t a bot, if you know, i’m a human and i need time for hygiene, eat, sleep, have a social life…”

-ThornPatronus19

That’s right, this question comes from ThornPatronus himself. Now, many of you have asked me about Thorn, who’s points were nearly as high as SnitchSpirit168′s (before deduction) and were a great deal higher than anyone on all four leaderboards. So I know that there has been suspicion looming about this for a while. Now, first thing I should say is that Thorn’s native language is Spanish as opposed to English so that is why the grammar in this question is not perfect. That is also the reason why they have confused something I said about a certain other user (*cough* PhoenixPurple202 *cough*) who has been tossing out duels with a potency ABOVE the max score of 145. I have never said that ThornPatronus19 casted spells above 145. I HAVE however stated my suspicion that ThornPatronus19 has utilized a bot to earn the majority of their points on Pottermore.

To answer this, I feel I need to validate why exactly I believe Thorn has used a bot. Now we (the Bot Busters) hold our data at a fairly high level of secrecy, so I am not going to show you our complete data, as it contains the names of other Bot Busters who have not consented to being publicly tagged on the blog. Instead I am going to pull out some numbers that you all will probably find very interesting, and show you a couple graphs made from data we have collected.

We will be looking at a 24 hour span of time starting on July 19th and ending on July 20th. During this time ThornPatronus19 earned points at an average of 481.5 points an hour THE ENTIRE TIME. This data was collected by 9 other users and myself, I did not collect this alone. Times are in ThornPatronus’s timezone.

Following is a visual of the same 24 hour timeframe, you see there are actually many more data points than I have shown above.

And this is just one example, we have others such as the 20 span just a day before the one we just discussed:

So in a 48 hour span of time ThornPatronus19 spent 44 of them online and earning points at this constant rate.

This is not human. Humans get tired and start to mess up duels causing a decline in their point earning. Humans take bathroom breaks, get phone calls, get distracted. I should also state that during this time he seems to have had PLENTY of time to run a website, as his website address was included in the Ask Elm e-mail I received (click his name in the question above to visit it). I can tell you as someone who runs THIS website that doing so is time consuming and does NOT allow for me to earn nearly 500 points an hour for an extended period of time.

Some of you might have seen my conversation with ThornPatronus19 on Twitter the other day. He found me, as SnitchSpirit168 did, because of a tweet I had made about him. In that conversation, I pointed out that I had data such as what I presented to you all above, to which he responded with the following (click on images to go to actual tweet):

Here Thorn claims that perhaps another person is dueling on his account as well, helping him earn points. Even if I believed that was the case (which by the behavior shown above I DO NOT believe it is) it is still a clear violation of the Terms & Conditions of Pottermore. Namely the following:

“3.6 [...] You may not transfer your own Account to another person (even your child), or allow another person (even your child) to access, your own Account [...]“

“3.10 Your Pottermore …Account and Pottermore Shop Account are for your personal use only. Please do not share your Account details with any other person, as you will be held responsible for all activities that occur under your password or Account(s) with or without your knowledge. By creating any type of Account on Pottermore, you confirm that you will treat your login details as confidential. [...]“

But lets say we pretend Thorn IS allowing another person to split duels between, that would mean in 48 hours they each spent 22 hours dueling at a rate of nearly 500 points an hour with no breaks. Is that believable to you all? Because I’m having a problem swallowing that notion. I have talked to many very seasoned duelers who DO pull down a lot of points in a day, and none of them have ever claimed to be able to pull off such a rate for an extended period of time. Also, if they COULD it violates one of the more humorous terms in Pottermore’s Terms and Conditions:

“7.5 We hope you enjoy the Games we provide on Pottermore. However, please ensure that you take regular breaks from playing these games and from using your computer generally. If you experience any discomfort, symptoms or any other adverse physical effects during or after your use of Pottermore, including the Games, please cease using Pottermore immediately and seek professional medical advice.”

So ThornPatronus19, you ask why I charge you with being a bot, there is why. I don’t point fingers of accusation without doing my research and have been fortunate enough to meet others willing to help collect this type of information. What do you all, as readers, take from this information? Do you agree or disagree that the data above shows that something is amiss with ThornPatronus19′s point earn? I would really love to hear what you think.

Also, if any of you really ARE dueling 44 out of 48 hours I suggest you “seek professional medical advice” as Pottermore suggests in Term 7.5.

“How are you on chapters like 7 and 8 of CoS while others are only on the chapters that have came out(chapters 1-4)????”

“You’re my friend on pottermore, and I noticed it looked like you were already on chapter 8 of COS. How??”

“I have a friend that on my gateway comes out as though he/she is on the 5th chapter of Chamber of Secrets. Is it just a computer error or does that happened to all of us that have finished the 4th chapter?”

“Some of my friends are in chapter 5 of CoS and I can’t work out how they are there. Do you know how they could be?”

There is a GLITCH that allows you to trip through chapters past chapter 4 in the Chamber of Secrets by altering existing links on Pottermore. First, look at the anatamy of a link on pottermore: http://www.pottermore.com/en/book2/chapter4/moment1

This is a link for the first moment of chapter 4. If you were to change that 4 to a 5 you would get: http://www.pottermore.com/en/book2/chapter5/moment1

If you click that second link it will take you to the first moment of the fifth chapter. Nothing loads in the moment, but you will appear in that chapter on your friends timelines.

You can go even deeper in the book but you have to hit the chapter END and the FIRST MOMENT of each chapter to keep going. In other words you have to hit chapter5/end then chapter6/moment1 then chapter6/end. If you have the patience to do so you can get all the way to the end of the book doing so. You can comment at the end of the chapters. And *whispers* Nick’s Death Day party in Chapter 8 actually loads. No items, or sounds. But the visuals are there.

I really look forward to seeing comments on this one, I am actively going through questions for Ask Elm (Vol 11) I didn’t know this one would end up focusing on only two things until I started writing it. Remember if you have a question to ask CLICK HERE.

Welcome to the ninth edition of Ask Elm.  To ask a question: CLICK HERE.

Answers to questions below the cut…

I’ve noticed huge point fluctuations, like ten, twenty thousand point swings between Gryffindor and Slytherin house within hours. I went to bed one night and Slytherin was 20,000 points ahead … the next day we had lost that lead. How does that happen? I think there is more going on … like people cheating … using multiple accounts to sabotage … is there anything that could be done? I’m thinking not but it seems like cheating is getting way out of control. And I’m frustrated! :/
-April

Answer:

To be honest, I don’t think cheating is responsible for those fluctuations. I’m pretty sure that it is due to the fact that the populations for each house have gotten quite large, and so has the point total. A fluctuation up and down of 20,000 points when the point totals are in the 60 million range is only about a 0.3% fluctuation. Less than 1%. I know that a lot of account are inactive, but with around 700,000 students in each house if they each won a single duel a day that’s a LOT of points.

It doesn’t help that the Great Hall points jump up and down a bit as they are calculating, another biproduct of point and population volume. For a more stable point tally based on averaging the points as they jump up and down check HouseCup.Info.

Now to the hot button question: CHEATING. The truth is, there isn’t much cheating to be done on Pottermore anymore. The time-turner and one click fail cheats for potions have been thoroughly banished. A lot of people argue “but what about people making accounts in other houses?” It is true that you can make an alternative account and get sorted into a rival house. But what exactly would you do then? Blowing up a cauldron will lose you five points, but only if you earn five points to begin with.You can not go into negative points. At one point during the Beta you could go into negative points, but they stopped that due to cheating also.

Pretty much the only way to “cheat” would be to create an account in a house other than yours, and then duel people in your actual house and intentionally lose. But honestly, I feel like time would be better served just earning points for your house yourself. I’m sure people are doing it, but not enough to account for large point swings or anything.

In chapter 3 in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone when the letters are flying about, i can’t collect the salt and pepper or the postcard! why won’t it let me?
xx Niamh

Answer:

This is one of the more notoriously glitchy moments on Pottermore. I have a friend who STILL can’t get that moment to load on their computer, but when they log in on my computer it loads just fine. She, of course, refused to install a new browser to try, but I have had other people who had the same problem who tried a different browser (IE, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) and were able to load the moment just fine from a different browser.

Try Chrome, it’s the one I’ve been  using and I have had less problems with it than the other browsers. Also, when you go back into that moment and can finally collect thing, there is “hammer and nails” to collect by the front door in addition to the “salt and pepper pots” and “postcard from London”.

Hope you can get it to load!

1)Is there a point to the wand test? Are there any differences beetween the wands (more powerful, etc.)? Or is it just to understand our personality based on the new content found in Olivanders shop? 2) I have a fealing that the leftmost locked icon will be quiditch, that quiditch will be an actual feature in future books. Whtat do you think? 3) What new features (ways to earn house points, have fun, communicate, etc.) do you want pottermore to add in the future?
-Andrew

Answer:

1) At this juncture, the wand doesn’t affect how you cast spells in dueling. I have been asked often if it ever would, since in Ollivander’s wand descriptions some wands are better for spell casting than others. I don’t know if they plan on implementing that later on down the line, or not. At the moment the wand asignment is purely personality based so that you can get a wand and more info on that wand.

2) I would LOVE to believe that Quidditch will be featured on Pottermore, but I wouldn’t count on it. The first icon was originally intended to be a link to the Pottermore store. We know this becaus of the following two images pulled from the html coding of the site:

“/locked/dockshop.png”	“/en/dockshop.png”

Now, that being said, obviously the shop has BEEN open and that locked icon never has changed over. So it is common belief among users that Pottermore recognized they were running out of dock space at the top and decided to use the icon for something else. Many people proclaim that surely it will be Hogsmeade, but the truth is we really don’t know what they might have in mind for that icon.

In regards to the possibility of Quidditch, I’m not overly optimistic. I feel as if they would have done it before dueling if they were going to do it at all. Quidditch, for Harry, started in the first year. Whereas Dueling Club didn’t happen until Chamber of Secrets. I think they looked at the programming hurtles they would face trying to make Quidditch and decided to go with the much easier concept of dueling.

But I would really LOVE for Pottermore to prove me wrong on this one.

3) There is such a world of possibilities for expansion of Pottermore. My first, and most important, request is the ability to ACTUALLY SEND A MESSAGE to another student via owl post. Imagine the possibilities? You could send someone a Howler and it would go off in the Great Hall when you open it. You could actually say “Thanks for all the duels” to someone you’ve been dueling back and forth with for days without ever speaking to  them.

To earn more points they could expand into a number of games, even aside from Quidditch itself. What about gobstones? Exploding snap? I’ve always wanted to know the rules of these two games as they have been referenced throughout the books with limited information. Wizard’s chess is a common request as well, and I would like that too. Even though I am utterly terrible at chess.

I would also like to see the other subjects. Transfiguration, in particular. But I’m sure there are many ways different Hogwarts subjects could be given their own games for users to play.

The houses have extremely unequal numbers. Do you think one reason for this is so the Griffindors will be sure to win the house cup, as in the book?
-Kristina

Answer:

I don’t know about being SURE to win anything. At the moment Slytherin has about a 25,000 point lead, but as I discussed in a previous question, that is a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of points being earned. The Gryffindor’s have a definite point advantage under the new point calculation system. Before, the numbers were being averaged to form a point total for each house that was weighted according to the population of that house. This was to make it so that if you had more students it did not necessarily put you at an advantage. Unfortunately, too many people did not UNDERSTAND the point system, and instead of explaining it Pottermore changed the calculation to a straight total of all the points for all the students in a given house.

So, with significantly more students, each student in Gryffindor must earn LESS points apiece to stay in the lead then, say, Ravenclaw. Just for fun I did a quick point average to show you the average number of points per student for each house at the moment that I am writing this up.

Gryffindor: 80 pps
Ravenclaw: 88 pps
Hufflepuff: 71 pps
Slytherin: 85 pps

What this tells me is that right now, under the original point calculation system, RAVENCLAW would be in the lead. Slytherin would be in second and Gryffindor would be in third.

As it is, yes, Slytherin will have to CONSTANTLY work harder than Gryffindor to maintain a lead. And unfortunately Ravenclaw, with the least number of students will have to work even HARDER to win. It isn’t exactly fair… wonder if we can convince them to switch the point calculation system back…

I have one more question for now. What’s the point in having 3 cauldrons? I bought all 3 of them on my first visit to Diagon alley, because it sayd that different potions take different times in different cauldrons. But since only one can be used at a time, and the copper one is the fastest, what’s the point in having the others? Also, is there a purpose of buying the moon chart, moon globe?
-Andrew

Answer:

Honestly, I only ever use one cauldron, and that is the Copper one because it is the fastest. Now I do know other avid potioneers who utilize all of them. Let’s say you know you are leaving the house for longer than it takes a potion to brew in the copper cauldron, so you brew it in pewter so it takes longer and won’t have failed when you get back from being left brewing too long. Aside from this, I can’t really see a need to own all three at once. I don’t even own a pewter one anymore, I blew it up early on and never replaced it.

In regards to the Moon Chart, Star Chart, and Globe of the Moon, they do not currently serve any purpose. People tend to buy them just so that they have EVERY possible item. I bet they come into play at some point though.

Hi Elm,i need your help with my nickname problem.Any comments i’ve made using the nickname i chose haven’t been posted.It keeps showing me a message saying your comment is under moderation.I’ve searched through forums with lists of nicknames in case someone has already picked it but i haven’t found anyone.Any ideas why is this happening? I chose the nickname Auroress by the way…
-Violet

Answer:

The word Auroress is not in Pottermore’s database of approved words, so therefore the moderation is going to trigger every time you attempt to type it in a comment. It has nothing to do with whether or not anyone else is using the nickname as Pottermore itself doesn’t have anything to do with us using nicknames, it’s just something we decided to do on our own. My suggestion is to spell it “Auror ess” that space makes the filter treat it as two seperate words and allows it to post. Otherwise, you will have to pick a different nickname.

When picking a nickname, you want to consider is if it will pass through the moderation filter. Pottermore blocks a great deal of names, which is why I am Elm everywhere now as opposed to my real name (Lauren).

Hi Elm, I found all the secret books, thanks for the help. but the last one in Hagrids secret, I know where it is and it lights up and tickles and will even say read about but I can’t get the bugger off the shelf! I’ve tried changing browsers and nothing. very frustrating please help?
-Robin

Answer:

I had a similar issue with one of the books, and did MULTIPLE refreshes until I was finally able to collect it. I have also heard that clearing your browser cache and cookies and then refreshing the page has worked for a number of people. If you are using chrome at all, try the tip posted in this image I found on silverheart91.tumblr.com:

Notice that they had trouble picking up the same book you are having trouble picking up, so hopefully this will work for you.

Hey Elm!I found this blog really helpful. But It’s been a few weeks since I last opened my Pottermore account, I can’t help but notice some changes, especially the library thing. How do I go there? Thanks very much!:)
-Frances

Answer:

Thanks, I’m glad you’ve been finding the blog helpful! The “Pottermore Library” is located across three chapters in any moment that took place in the library, for links to each of these libraries CLICK HERE.

Hey Elm, its IceNight. Since they hired that new manager at pottermore (Can’t remember her exact title) how do you think PM will change with respect to comments and things like that? Does it mean she has autonomy to do what she thinks fans want? Thanks.
-Octavius

Answer:

The official job title is Online Community Manager, and it’s a title that is vague and versatile. The responsibilities change depending on the community they are managing. I read quite a few different articles on it, trying to find the most common definition. Some stuff I found was slightly scary. Some pages made me want to BE a community manager. But in the end I think I can now sum up what exactly a Community Manager is.

A Community Manager is the liaison between a company’s online community members and the bigwigs at the company itself. They report news to the community, and manage the way the community works. They advice companies on how to effectively build an online community that people want to be a part of and continue returning to day after day.

The new Community Manager of Pottermore is coming from EA Games’ online community, which is a community like most online communities. There are forums dedicated to different games. Registered users have profile pages that can be personalized. Registered users can send private messages to each other. And moderation is served up in the form of moderators roaming forums and policing the posts.

Can we expect ALL of these things to show up on Pottermore now that we have a new Community Manager? Doubtful.

I am unsure how much power Sony intends to give our new CM, but I do hope that having someone who’s focus is the community and communication will bring about improvements. Finding a balance between child safety, and the needs of adult users is a necessity if Pottermore wants to keep people coming back to the site. Accommodation also needs to be made for the fact that there are two different groups posting on Pottermore: role-players and those talking about the site itself. Creating separate areas for different kinds of posts would make new users more likely to return to post things.

At the moment the Common Room and Great Hall act as a slow moving chat room, not as message boards. Meaning posts over time just vanish into the abyss below the span of vision of the comment board, never to be read by anyone ever again. I hope something changes about this, as new users coming into these chat like comment boards at the wrong time might just get the wrong impression about the general populace of the site.

I hope the new CM sees these things, and works towards improvements. I also hope that she emphasizes the Pottermore bigwigsthat a better, easier to access way of talking to support about bugs and issues should be put in place.

I feel for the woman, she has her work cut out for her. And guess what, her first day is TOMORROW. I wish her luck.

This entry got a little away from me there. Some wonderful questions that just got me babbling. To ask a question to be answered in a future Ask Elm entry CLICK HERE!

Answers to questions below the cut…

Sorry if this has been asked before but what are you looking forward to reading about the most in Pottermore books 2-7?
-Josh

Answer:

Josh, thank you so much for this question. I was so excited about this question I had to put it right at the top of this entry. My sister and I, as the movies came out, would play a little game of “What are we excited to see in the next movie?” and we would take turns going back and forth about things from that book we were excited to see in the movie. The lists would often get really long, so I’m going to try really hard to not let this get away from me.

• Things Elm Looks Forward To In Future Pottermore Books
  • Book 2: Chamber of Secrets
    • Dobby
    • Flying Ford Anglia
    • Brewing Polyjuice potion
    • Lucius Malfoy
    • Knockturn Alley
    • Dueling Club
    • Buying Lockheart’s complete works at Flourish and Blotts
    • Traveling by floo
    • Visiting the CHAMBER OF SECRETS
    • Fawkes
    • Dumbledore’s office
    • Trip into the forest to “find the spiders”
    • Riddle’s diary
    • Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom
  • Book 3: Prisoner of Azkaban
    • The Knight Bus
    • Professor Lupin
    • Dementors
    • Expecto Patronum
    • Visiting Hogsmeade!
    • Secret passages!
    • THE MARAUDER’S MAP
    • Boggarts
    • New subjects! (Care of Magical Creatures, Divination)
    • Buckbeak
    • Sirius Black
  • Book 4: Goblet of Fire
    • Nagini
    • Ton-tongue toffee prank on Dudley
    • The Quidditch World Cup
    • Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes
    • Malfoy the ferret
    • Dumstrang and Beaux Batons
    • The Yule Ball
    • The Tri-Wizard Tournament tasks
    • Rita Skeeter
    • Dobby at Hogwarts
    • Visiting the kitchens
    • S.P.E.W.
    • This might sound crazy but… Voldemort’s resurrection.
    • Priori Incantatem
    • Sirius
  • Book 5: Order of the Phoenix
    • Number 12 Grimauld Place
    • The Ministry of Magic
    • Cleaning the rooms
    • Dumbledore’s Army
    • The Room of Requirement
    • Grawp
    • Occlumency lessons/ Snape’s memory
    • Fred and George’s fireworks prank
    • Learning spells from Harry in DA
    • O.W.L.s
    • The Department of Mysteries
  • Book 6: Half-Blood Prince
    • Trip to Slughorn’s house
    • Felix Felecis
    • Brewing potions from the Half-Blood Prince’s book
    • The Slug Club
    • “Lessons” with Professor Dumbledore
    • The Pensieve
    • The trip to the cave by the sea.
    • Learning about Horcruxes
  • Book 7: Deathly Hallows
    • Bill and Fleur’s wedding
    • Hermione’s bottomless bag
    • Camping across the country side
    • Godric’s Hollow
    • Breaking into the Ministry of Magic
    • Breaking into Gringott’s
    • Shell Cottage
    • Malfoy Manor
    • The Tale of the Three Brothers
    • The Room of Requirement
    • The Battle of Hogwarts

Honestly there is so much more I could put on this list but I can’t think of it all in one sitting apparently!

Hi Elm. All my completed wizard duels disappear after a period of time. Is this normal? Fortunately the points I have acquired do not disappear but it is really annoying because now I have no record of who I have been duelling with. Thanks.
-Karen

Answer:

Unfortunately, this has become a fairly regular occurrence. Every time they update something on Pottermore, the dueling history gets wiped. So when they updated and added the additional books to the library, everyone’s history was cleared. This is both a blessing and a curse. There is no way to delete entries in your dueling history, which over time can grow quite long, so that’s the only way it EVER clears.

I recommend if you duel someone regularly, and want to continue, then you should friend them, and maybe add a nickname to them. The list of friends in the right column always lists friends with nick names in alphabetical order before the rest of your friends list. I have a couple dueling buddies who have been nicknamed as “aa” and then their username just so they appear first. (Ex. if you nickname me as “aa ElmBlade” I will appear at the top of your friends list)

Never count on your dueling history to keep its entries.

Hey, I was just wondering how do we lose points and how can we make drawings? Also (you probably get a lot of those) but when the second book will open?
-Laura

Answer:

There is only one way to lose points, and that is by melting a cauldron while brewing potions. You will lose five points and the cauldron. (For anyone with a mind of cheating by opening an account in another house and intentionally losing points, it won’t work. You only lose YOUR OWN points. So if you don’t earn points, you can’t lose points. And also, cheaters never prosper.) To make sure you DON’T melt your cauldron, check out Potions 101.

To add a drawing look for a blue “add a drawing” button at the bottom of certain comment boards. Every page you find through the “Read About” menu in any given moment will have drawings below the comments and the button to add your own.

I wish I had details for you about Chamber of Secrets, but honestly all we know is that they are currently programming it. The CEO of Pottermore has been quoted as saying both “in the coming weeks” and “in the coming months” when asked about when we might see it. Trust me though, as soon as I hear anything official I will be posting it right here on the blog.

I’m unable to read the books because even after your directions I still can’t find them, they are not clickable. What should I do?
-Gaelle

Answer:

My first recommendation is to try a different browser, or update the browser you are on. I use Chrome, but when I’m in the computer labs at school I am on Internet Explorer. Both, at times, don’t load Pottermore correctly. When I went to collect the books in Chrome I had to refresh multiple times to collect one of them. Then I switched to FireFox and was able to collect them just fine.

If you try this and it STILL doesn’t work, let me know and we can try something else.

Is there somewhere we can view the second pages of spell instructions, so we can have a better chance of following them correctly?
-Diane

Answer:

When I first read your question, I was slightly confused. You said “second page” and I immediately thought “WHAT SECOND PAGE??”. I am assuming you mean the instructions when you FIRST cast a spell in the story. There is a two page pop up that shows up for you to read before casting your first spell (Alohomora); unfortunately, it does not provide you with more instructions then what pops up when you go to duel someone. Here is the two pages:

Now here is what shows up before every duel or practice spell:

See how this is identical to the second page of instructions from your first spell in The Forbidden Corridor? Aside from differences in formatting of course.

The first page only shows up the once, but it does not hold any spell casting secrets.

For dueling and spell casting help see Dueling 101.

Several questions that you may/may not know the answers to: 1) Are we ever going to be able to name our pets? 2) Is there a messages feature between individuals (not just the overloaded comments pages)? 3) How in the heck do I get a drawing onto my profile? Thanks!
-Jess

Answer:

1) I don’t know if they will ever add the option to name your pet, but it certainly would be cute!

2) There is no private messaging system on Pottermore. There isn’t even a reply feature for replying to a comment you see on the comment board. They say that this is in an effort to protect children under the age of 13 on the site. I do not know if they ever intend to add a private messaging system, but it does not look promising.

3) To post a drawing, you scroll down to the bottom of comment boards dedicated to people, places, and things (normally found in the Read About menu of moments) and you will see already posted drawings and an “Add a drawing” button. All drawing that you submit in this manner will appear on your profile, the most recent will be actually shown with a link to your gallery.

Is there any options on collecting the measurements in chapter 1;moment 2 besides clearing the cache? And the Standard book of spell (grade 1) in chapter 14;moment 1? And one more thing, when does the Chamber of Secrets open? Thank you!
-Sjania

Answer:

Until you sent me this question, I had NEVER heard of clearing the cache to collect an item. Now I have seen it in a couple of places when an item glitches that you can clear your cache to collect it. Personally, I have never had to do this. When they released additional books in the libraries I did have a couple of them glitch and vanish before they were clicked. For me though, I logged out and closed the browser. Then I reopened and came in and was able to collect them. If you absolutely do not want to clear your cache, you could always try a different browser. I actually have three browsers installed on all of my computers (IE, Chrome, & FireFox) and in the event that something does not load on one I will log out and switch to another browser.

In regards to Measurements, it has been glitchy since the Beta. The whole lamp post will turn purple, but you can only click on the bottom half of the pole to collect it. In my case, it never let me click on it and then unlocked on it’s own when I reached the end of the chapter. Then when the site opened it locked itself again and I was able to collect it by clicking on the bottom half of the pole.

In regards to Chamber of Secrets, I wish I knew! Trust me I will be tweeting it and posting it here the moment I know.

How do you get into the library? Sara By the way, your website is very cool!
-Sara

Answer:

I’m glad you are enjoying my site! For details on how to reach the library and where to find the new books CLICK HERE.

Hey Elm, Midnight Nettle here again, with another not particularly pertinent question, but it’s been needling away at me. In the Forbidden Forest, why why WHY is there a porcupine quill on the ground that we cannot collect? there actually seem to be a few “items” all over that have not been “activated” yet, perhaps? you know how eventually your eye will be trained to see the collectible items, because they either move funny when you zoom, or just kind of stand out? do you think these things are set up for later? that quill always gets me!
-Midnight Nettle

Answer:

I have noticed that there are some items that do have the slight wiggle to them that collectible items do. Now a good portion of these items DO different things. Such as the lights throughout the moments that you can turn off and on, and books flying through the library.

In regards to the quill, I have slightly decided it must just be a funny colored root that tricks my eye. But I am glad I’m not the only one that noticed this quill looking root. Or whatever it really is.

Now I wouldn’t be surprised if they came back and added content, they have already done it once. And I don’t know if you noticed that the new books did NOT have that slight wiggle that some of the earlier objects had. Meaning future items are going to be much harder to find! I’m slightly looking forward to that.

how can I obtain extra galleons I have used the majority of mine replacing cauldrons when potions go wrong thanks
-Lawrence

Answer:

According to the official Pottermore Help page, aside from the 12 loose galleons you will find throughout the story, you will not receive any additional allowance of gold until Chamber of Secrets opens. So spend wisely. In regards to the melting of cauldrons, I recommend you check out Potions 101 for tips and tricks. Mainly, if you know you’ve messed up a potion refresh or hit back and return for a free redo. You can redo as much as you want, just DON’T WAVE THE WAND if you know you’ve messed up.

“Hi some people have star chart and globe of the moon where can they be found thanks”
-Lawrence

Answer:

Both of these objects must be purchased in Diagon Alley. If you would like to have them, you can buy them at Wiseacre’s Wizarding Equipment.

That’s all I have for now. I have a couple in queue I’m doing some research on.  Keep those questions coming! Remember you can read all the volumes of Ask Elm from the top menu of the blog.

Answers to questions below the cut…

“Hi there! I was wondering what you love the most in Pottermore and what you hate the most. And what would you change to the thing you hate the most? Cheers!”
-Orion

Answer:

This is a tough one. I would say the thing that I like the most is potion brewing. Even though I would like more potions, this is probably just because I’ve been on the site for close to a year with the same potions and no new options. I feel like they did a good job balancing fun and difficulty with the potions.

The thing that I hate the most is the way the comment boards work. I wish there was a way to reply to a specific comment. There is a like function that does absolutely nothing to make using it worth while. The delay in the posting of comments is painstaking. Moderation screens are tricky to maneuver around and drive most people from using the Common Room or Great Hall. I would definitely change that if I could. At the very least I would settle for being able to write a complete user name without the moderation screen going off.

“When I’m dueling with another house, I keep getting stalled by “verification” screens (captcha). Right now it comes up after every duel. Is this normal? Seems like it kind of discourages dueling between houses.”
-Baber

Answer:

The Captcha verification screen comes up based on the length of time it has been since your last duel. I believe if you request within 60 seconds of a completed duel it pops up. Are you dueling that fast? I find on a night when I’m going slow I rarely see it, but on a night where I’m dueling rapidly with multiple tabs open with duels I will start to get it a lot.

Unfortunately the Captcha doesn’t look to be going away either. During Beta when it first surfaced I wondered why, and am still not ENTIRELY sure why they put it there unless it was to prevent the more computer savvy users from programming a computer to duel for them.

“Hey Elm, it’s me Midnight Nettle. I have a strange, and not necessarily important questions… I am hearing that all of the other House Welcome letters talk about their Head of House, but not ours. And since we are in the book “Sorcerer’s Stone” I and many other people have been “acting” like we are first years, new to Hogwarts, etc. Just as Harry is brand new. then you get the people who are operating in “post Potter mode” and acting like Snape and Dumbledore are already dead, Harry is no longer there, etc. What is your take. are we “in the past” so to speak, and should play along in the timeline of the first movie, and if so, why no mention of our illustrious Potions Master???”
-Midnight Nettle

Answer:

We are running on the same time line as Harry, Hermione, and Ron as they go through school. My evidence? When you sign up for Pottermore and it shows you your name in the book it is listed alongside their names, and the names of other students who started Hogwarts at the same time. I have seen people in the Great Hall attempting to act as if we are attending Hogwarts in the time of the next generation of students (alongside the sons and daughters of the main characters from the books) but if that was the case Dumbledore surely could not be our Headmaster, and he is listed as such in the Great Hall of Pottermore.

I, too, thought it was curious that our letter did not speak of Professor Snape, but the Gryffindor letter does not speak of Professor McGonagall either. Perhaps they thought since it was not talked about much in the books that the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws might need a reminder as to who their heads of house are.

“I was wondering does a unicorn have to die to have a unicorn horn for a potion, do they shed them like deer, or can they regrow them? I have not seen anything in the book about this but I might have missed it and you seemed like a great person to ask. Thanks!”
-Chestnut Seeker

Answer:

In the first Harry Potter book Hagrid talks about how it is a monstrous thing to kill something so innocent. This is why a witch or wizard who drinks unicorn blood will lead a cursed life, he says, because they killed a unicorn. So despite it never being outright said in the books, I think it is safe to assume that horn can be acquired without killing the unicorn. As to whether or not they would regrow a new horn I am really not sure, but it sounds like a neat idea!

“Hey, I don’t know if anyone’s asked this already but do you have any idea when the House Cup is awarded or if it is at all?”
-Jenn

“Hello, I am in Slytherin, and everytime I go into the Common Room, everyone is up in arms about House Points and beating the Gryffindors. I was wondering, when is the House Cup announced? Or when is there a winner? Hopefully the four Houses won’t be locked in battle for the House Cup forever? Lol”
-Olivia

Answer:

Unfortunately we simply do not know WHEN the House Cup will be awarded. According to the entry about the Cup in the Help section of Pottermore (look under Houses and House points)  it will be awarded, just as in the books, at the “End of Year Feast” and that they will tell us a couple weeks in advance so we can get as many points as possible leading up to this.

If I had to GUESS I would say that the House Cup will probably be awarded just before Chamber of Secrets opens up. It would make a lot of sense to end Year One by awarding the cup just before opening up Year Two. But we will just have to wait and see.

“On Twitter you use the term “point stall”. Could you explain how and why that works? Thanks!”
-Tina

Answer:

Point stall is not an official term, I was referring to a specific dip in the graph of House point totals on HouseCup.Info that day (May 10th) I also posted the following shot of the graph:

As you can see here, Slytherin and Gryffindor were both in a steady upward climb, but around 3:30 pm this day, Slytherin stalled and suffered a dip in their point gain while Gryffindor continued it’s steady rise. I call this a point stall and actually you can see this happen back and forth up and down the graph at HouseCup.Info. It’s started to make me have not so easy to answer questions about the points trend.

“Hi Elm, On Pottermore I was gifted Sleeping Draught as a gift,If I was to gift a potion to a Pottermore Friend, would it regenerate like Ingrediants or Objects do so I can find it again?”
-Wayne

Answer:

Unfortunately not. Since you never find Sleeping Draught in the story to begin with, it can not regenerate because it doesn’t have anywhere to regenerate. Only things that are found in the story the first time you play it will appear when you no longer have them. Potions are something that we create and can only be acquired by brewing it or being given it by someone who brewed it for you.

“When will chamber of secrets be open please”
-Chris

“When with the Chamber of Secrets be open as a book?!?! I’ve been waiting forever. Will it be open by summer?”
-Maria

“how can I get the book 2?”
-Louise

“do you know when the second book will be released im desperate to get in??!
-Callum

Answer:

We still have shockingly little information as to when Chamber of Secrets, the second book, will appear on Pottermore. About a month ago they said that they were actively programming it, but to expect to see new stuff coming to the site in the weeks before it’s release. Since then we have seen new info from J.K. Rowling added to the site.

Just before the site opened, Charlie Redmayne the CEO of Pottermore said that the timeline for the release of the next book was “months”. I have seen recent quotes that say “weeks” but these are both such vague answers that can really mean the same thing.

There is lots of speculation on this. You will see people claim any number of months as the release. September because that’s when Hogwarts is supposed to start. October because that is the month Pottermore was supposed to open. Summer, because if it got bumped six months back like the opening did “Early 2012″ would become summer time.

The bottom line: WE DO NOT KNOW when the next book will open. And anyone claiming a time frame is probably just guessing or repeating a guess from someone else.

“My husband and I signed up for Pottermore within minutes of each other after I was emailed an invitation. We haven’t gotten very far, but it seems like we have different versions. His version has background sounds, plus sounds for interactive objects. I get the sounds of interactive objects, but not the backgrounds sounds. Also, in the kitchen, he got the letters to fall out of the fireplace by rolling over them, but we couldn’t get them to fall out in my version, no matter what we did. How do I get the complete version?”
-Tessa

“Why can’t I collect the dragon egg in chapter 14? I’ve clicked everywhere on the egg. I do not get the “collect” box that usually shows up when you are in the right place. Thanks.”
-Kathy

“I still can’t find the books in ‘THE LIBRARY’ and ‘HAGRID’S SECRET’. In Hagrid’s Secret I was able to locate the book but before I could click it, it became all dark and disappeared. Please HELP!”
-Pratishna

“Hey Elm! I am stuck at Book 1 Chapter 16. The page opens and says “To solve the puzzle you must select the two correct potions”. BUT, I can’t click on anything. Is this a glitch? Thanks for any help”
-phtbtmgrl

Answer:

My suggestion for all of these are the same: try a different browser or update your existing browser.

Tessa, there are no “versions” of the site. It is a site that is the same for everyone, and you log into it using different accounts. One account doesn’t see something different than another account. I suggest you logging in on his computer and browser and see if you can access the same things he can.

Kathy, Pratishna, and phtbmgrl it sounds to me as if the flash on each of these pages isn’t loading correctly. The Dragon Egg and Potions Puzzle are two of the notoriously bad loading moments. If refreshing doesn’t work try a different browser or computer. In regards to the new books, I myself had some difficulty collecting a couple of them. I sometimes had to refresh for it to show as actually unlocked, or to get it to reappear after vanishing before I clicked it. If refresh doesn’t work, close out your browser and re enter it.

If anything ever doesn’t load correctly on Pottermore I recommend using a different browser. I use Google Chrome but sometimes have to switch to other browsers if something doesn’t load right.

“Hey elm, I just have a quick question: do you know where exactly all the books from the new library feature are yet? Because I know there is new content on the book A beginners guide to Transfiguration, but I can’t find it. I’ve found all the other ones, but that book is just undiscoverable.”
-Morgana

Answer:

I know already that you have probably gotten them all Morgana, but for any of you still looking for the new readable Library Books on Pottermore: CLICK HERE.

“Hello, Elm I’m just wondering… If someone sends me a gift, How do I collect it? I know it seems totally foolish… but I can’t seem to work that out!”
-Connie

Answer:

When someone sends you a gift, you do not need to accept it. The item is automatically added to your inventory, and you receive a notification saying that “SoAndSo54 sent you suchandsuch as a gift”.

“Hello! Since I enter in Pottermore, I see people talking about: dance, balls, dates, and a team of quid(ditch) anyway, You know what is this? When we have again? And how we participated???? Thaaaanks”
-Larissa

Answer:

These are all role-playing things that have been unofficially taking place in the Great Hall. Basically a bunch of students playing out an imaginary dance, making imaginary dates, and trying out for an imaginary Quidditch team (or just claiming to be on the Quidditch team). I couldn’t tell you when another one will happen, as it is an unofficial thing you’d be better off asking in the Great Hall when another might be happening. To participate you just have to be in the Great Hall at the right time and have an open mind.

Phew, that’s all I have today. Keep those questions coming! Remember you can read all the volumes of Ask Elm from the top menu of the blog.

Answers to questions below the cut…

Where does one go to accept a challenge from another house in Wizard’s Duel? Or does the challenge go out to a random student in the house you’ve sent a challenge to?
Thanks Elm, Anna

Answer:

When you want to challenge someone and you don’t want to challenge a specific person you can create an open duel with another house, cast, and wait for a response. The only duel you respond to is if someone has directly dueled you. For more info on the dueling interface check out Dueling 101.

I’m trying to send my friend all of potion ingredients because I’m horrible at making potions and the’re really good, but I have a ton, so I was wondering if theres a way to send them multiple ingredients at once?
-Zaya

Answer:

Unfortunately you can only send one item at a time. It is quite tedious. But, don’t give up on potions! Have you read Potions 101 for some guidance??

umm hey again , i dont know why but i cant finish the chapter five of book one (diagon alley) help meh please!!
-Fruit99punch

Answer: 

Lots of people get stuck on Chapter 5 because each moment requires you to do something to move on. First you must collect your shopping list from the ground. Then you must unlock your vault. Then you must buy everything on the shopping list to get your wand.

I completed all chapters but when I look at the locked/unlocked icons on the main gate, the first icon is still locked. Did I miss something?

Answer:

 You haven’t missed anything, the icon is locked for everyone. Looking at the HTML coding it is supposed to be the e-book store and we are not sure why it has not been unlocked yet. There is a chance that they are now planning to use it for something else. Nothing officially has been said, until they unlock it we just don’t know what it is.

Hello! Well, look, I wanted to ask you about an “error” I found in Pottermore. I’ve alredy written to the Pottermore team but they seem to be ignoring me xD. In short, the problem is this: When a friend entered the page, she began to search frantically new content from JK Rowling, and as she didn’t find it in Chapter 2 (the information of Vernon and Petunia) she advanced to the final of this chapter and … CHAN CHAN! The information had unlocked alone, without her doing anything. We returned at Moment 1 and we click on the picture, that “unlocked” another time the content. My question is: Is that information will automatically be unlocked when you finish the chapter, regardless if you find the item that unlock it? I look forward to your response.
- Joel

Answer:

This happened to me during Beta, I could not find “Measurements” and at the end of the chapter it unlocked anyway. I was under the impression they had fixed this because when I replayed once on a new account I did not unlock things and at the end of the chapter it remained locked and I had to go back and get it.

Perhaps they are still working on this. Or perhaps it is designed to do this. I’m not really sure. 

how do i manage to get past the third question in the wand selection process when it wont show the button that says next question? its hidden by the bar that says chapter 5 and every time i try to click next question it just shows me the part of chapter five again!
-Marlene

Answer:  Is there no scroll bar on the right hand side to scroll down? My friend did her wand selection on a Netbook, and the button was below the bottom bar but she could scroll up and down the page revealing the submit answer button.

If you are not getting a scroll bar here I recommend trying a different browser or updating the browser you are on.

I have been exploring the site and I have one quick question: Do I have to unlock the new content from JKR for each chapter – chapter by chapter? For example on Chapter 7 – 8 and 15, there is some content on McGonagall, once I unlock it on chapter 7, is there more to unlock on chapters 8 and 15 or that’it? becasue I can’t find the way to unlock the content on either?
Thanks, Connie

Answer: 

I am actually surprised no one has asked me this question sooner. Initially, you unlock Professor McGonagall’s section of writings by clicking on her in the Entrance Hall before you are sorted. This unlocks her childhood information and nothing else. In Chapter 8 and Chapter 15 more information is unlocked, but not by clicking on anything, just by reaching that chapter. You will notice at the end of these chapters there are links to the McGonagall page. So the information expands furthur as you play. I expect it may expand even furthur in future books.

I’m just curious to know if you have any idea about the mysterious numbers that are in Book 1, Chapter 2, Moment 1, Level 2. These are the spinning numbers on a trunk (?). The numbers are 1531 and then spin to 4157 when you move your cursor over them. I think a lot of people have tried to figure them out, to no avail, but what do you know about them? Do they have any meaning, or are they just there?
-Daniel

Answer:

Since the Beta of Pottermore began, many of us have pondered these numbers inside Harry’s cupboard and we still don’t know what they mean. It’s almost like it looks like a combination lock. But aside from making the numbers spin none of us have figured out what it means. Let me know if you do!

Am I right in noticing through youtube videos of Sortings that the questions are not always the same? I was sorted into Slytherin and wondered how my answers affected the outcome. Some videos showed questions about your fears,choose one (moon/stars)and one involving musical instruments. I had none of these on my test. Any inside info you can share?
-Tracy

Answer:

The Sorting questions are a sort of evolving personality test, starting with a Random question and building off that sending you to other questions. I am not sure how many different questions there are, I have seen a list of up to 24 of them. Some are easily predicted whereas others are not. For example Black or White chess pieces. Who is to say which house falls under each.

I can tell you that they ADDED questions after Beta. I can also tell you that before opening hatstalls were only between two houses, and after opening some people got three house hatstalls. So I think the test has changed since Beta.

I believe that the test uses an algorythm to calculate where your answers fall among the four houses. Wish I could tell you more.

I want to upload a picture I have, and I have gone into Help looking for the answer. You see, in Help it says that there should be a button that says’upload picture’, but that supposed button doesn’t show up on my screen. Is this a glitch, and something that will be fixed over time? Thank you for your time, please reply!
-StormDust

Answer:

The “Add a drawing” button only appears on certain comment boards. My prime example is if you scoll down below the Professor McGonagall page’s comments, you will find images there and below those images is the “Add a drawing” button. You can only add drawings of things that have pages such as this. Items, people, and places. See if you can find the button now. If not let me know.

a lot of the comments look like this: rose- i love pie! -teddy lupin. why are there people’s names in the beginning and end?
- Sav

Answer:

Nicknaming is a fun part of hanging out on the comment boards at Pottermore, but at first can look confusing. In the instance of the comment you used as an example: “rose – i love pie! – teddy lupin” Rose is the name the comment is addressed to. I’m going to guess Rose said something about pie. Teddy Lupin is the signature. Teddy just wanted to tell Rose he liked pie.

In the comment rooms any name at the end is the nickname that that user goes by. For example if you ever see me roaming the boards, I sign everything “- Elm” so they know what to call me.

That’s all for today folks, make sure you check out the links in the Pottermore Help section at the top. Full of good and helpful Pottermore info.

Answers to questions below the cut…

With my Beta Screen Name On Potttermore in Diagon Ally some of the shops are still locked other than the ones required to go on the shoping list,I think I’ve found everything there is to be found including Gallions although my Galleons are at 0 is there a way to replenish Galleons? Is there a way to unlock those locked shops Not on the shopping list?
-Wayne

Answer: 

Once you have run out of Galleons, there is no way to replenish them until Chamber of Secrets has opened. It says in the Terms & Conditions you receive gold before each term. If you need anything in the mean time let me know, I can always send you some potion ingredients.

At the moment, those shops are remaining locked for everyone. I suspect the plan is for them to unlock when coresponding books open on the site. For example I suspect that Knockturn Alley will open once we hit the chapter in Chamber of Secrets where Harry visits Knockturn Alley. It is not confirmed, but this is my base suspicion.

Though some of the shops are not correlated to books, such as the The Junk Shop or Obscurus Books, which were not featured in any of the novels that I’m aware of. So it’s really hard to tell when they intend to start opening these other shops, but at the moment none of them are accessible. Which is a shame, because I really want to go into the Daily Prophet. *prods the locked shop with her wand*

How do you find the Philosopher’s Stone?
-Michelle

Answer:

The Philosopher’s Stone is in Harry’s Pocket. But it is not a collectible item that will appear in your trunk, because as we all know after this it is destroyed. It does however unlock new information from J. K. Rowling.

the tag before Diagon alley is locked is it like this for all of the others to.
-Amy

Answer:

Yes, this icon was originally intended for the Pottermore E-Book shop, but as the shop is now open and the icon has remained locked, I suspect they are going to use it for something else in future. But for the moment, it remains locked for all users.

Hello, I’ve been having major issues with my potions and I’m hoping to figure out if it’s me, or if the website is glitching because it’s still so new. I’ve brewed all the potions. Then yesterday potion after potion starting telling me that I wasn’t keeping the temperature within range. The temperature stays in the green for the allotted amount of time. I’ve tried turning off the heat when the time ends: same failure. I’ve tried keeping it between the gold lines until I wave my wand: same failure. I didn’t change how I was brewing the potions so I don’t understand how I could be making a mistake, but I’m open to being told that it’s me who is being incredibly dumb and not the website messing up. Please please please let me know if you know anything, because failure after failure is kind of disheartening even if it is just a silly website. Thank you!
~Regina/HawthornFang

Answer:

If this is happening to any of you, it seems to be a glitch, to report it (HELP -> OTHER -> WHAT’S NEXT? -> NEED MORE HELP?)

i keep trying to leave a comment on my house board but every time i try, the comment gets a red box around it and a cross by the side and it says the comment is ‘under moderation’ but i’ve never seen any of my comments actually appear on this board? Does this happen to everyone and is there anything i can do about it? Thanks!
-StarGirl

Answer:

The comment moderation is stringent, it will take a long time if the red box appears for your comment to ever appear on the boards. Normally, if I get the moderation box I reword my comment until it will post. It does not like mis-spelled words, numbers, and symbols. If you attempt to post a word that is not in their acceptable word data bank it will go into moderation.

There is a glitch that doesn’t allow one to sign up for pottermore due to a loop. How does one get around this loop?
- Cassie

In book 1, chapter 3, moment 1, I can’t zoom. I even went back to the very first chapter and made my way up to the third chapter, checking zoom during each moment. It worked fine. I then skipped up to chapter 4 and the same thing happened. What’s going on? Thanks for your help.
-Charlotte

Hi! When I got to Chapter 9 of the first book, I noticed a glitch. When I get to the Forbidden Corridor door, my computer just freezes. The screen won’t zoom in and the letters to complete the Alohamora spell don’t appear. I’m so sad I can’t move on past this part right now! Can you help?
-Alex

Why can’t I pick up objects? I have tried to click and pick up the alarm clock but can’t.
-Diane

Hey Elm! I need your help. I’m trying to get into the forbidden corridor in chapter 9, moment 3 on Pottermore, but it doesn’t respond when I try pressing ‘a’ to start the ‘alohomora’ spell Also, when I try clicking on something in ‘Read about’, the whole board simply disappears. This happened in chapters 3 and 4 as well, but has been working fine in the other chapters. Do you think this is a glitch that I should report to the Pottermore staff?
-Siri

Answer:

I put all of these questions together because I have the same suggestion for all issues: try a different browser.

As Pottermore is a flash based site, I have been getting messages about things not loading properly. Either people can not select things, can not cast spells, can not proceed through registration, etc. In most circumstances UPDATING or switching to an alternative browser has solved the problem.

I have had people switch from IE to Chrome, Chrome to Firefox, Firefox to Chrome. The problem is not localized to one browser.

Personally, I have used all the browsers to browse Pottermore, and as long as the browser is the absolute current version you should not have any problems with the browser. But if you are on one and having issues I recommend downloading one of the other browsers new and trying it from there.

Now ideally, most people would prefer NOT to switch browsers just to browse one specific site, so this is just a workaround for you in the mean time until they get it fixed.

I also recommend you report it (HELP -> OTHER -> WHAT’S NEXT? -> NEED MORE HELP?).

The new info about wandlore was the most interesting new material so far but I wish there had been more because now I have lots of further questions(Of course I do I’m a Ravenclaw)! By any chance do you think your wand figures into what house you are sorted into? Or perhaps some of the wand questions are re-analyzed for the sorting? Is the question about eye color given to everyone? If so I would really like to read Ollivander’s notes about the correlation between eye color and wands. Do you know whether there is a scale of flexibility. My wand is 10″, yew, phoenix core and surprisingly swishy, what is the difference between swishy and bendy for instance? Sorry too many questions.
Thanks for your time, gin

Answer:

To the best of my knowledge, the wand questions do not factor into your sorting, but really there is no way to tell 100% for certain on this just by playing. The questions for the wand are the same for everyone, they do not change like the sorting, so everyone gets the same sequencing (Height, eyecolor, even or odd birthdate, etc). There are over 10,000 permeatations of wands, making it immensely hard as a user to pinpoint which questions effect what, and how your eye color might effect it. So unless they decide to share this information with us, it’s to be left a mystery.

The unlocked information from JK Rowling on wand flexibility is limited: “Wand flexibility or rigidity denotes the degree of adaptability and willingness to change possessed by the wand-and-owner pair – although, again, this factor ought not to be considered separately from the wand wood, core and length, nor of the owner’s life experience and style of magic, all of which will combine to make the wand in question unique.”

This does not tell us of course which is more flexibly, swishy or bendy. Though my instinct says bendy is more. But I really couldn’t tell you for sure.

Hi Elm, So, I’ve run through the first book and I love what they’ve done. It’s amazing. But I noticed that I haven’t unlocked the “Measurements” information in the first chapter, second part. I’ve looked several times and can’t find, for lack of a better word, icon to unlock it. Any ideas or clues you can give me?!
Thanks, ~B

Answer:

A full list of how to unlock the special info from JK Rowling is coming to go along with the other lists in Pottermore Help. In the mean time, for this one, click on the light pole.

How do I collect book’s/objects please. chapter2 moment 1, cant see any berti beans, scaned the floor nothing. chapter5 moment 3, list will not dissapear in order for me to look for anything.
-Chris

Answer:

The Bertie-botts beans are on the table and you can only click on them after you have zoomed. The shopping list is lying on the ground in front of Gringott’s. You must also zoom in for this. For a complete list of these type of objects CLICK HERE.

i cannot find the rockcake in chap 8 moment 3 hagrid is standing in the doorway and i cannot see a shelf. what do i do ? it is the last thing i need for my trunk.
-Ginger

Answer:

You have to zoom in, and in the space behind Hagrid and Fang you will find a piece of paper on the table that you can read, and above that the Rock cake to be collected.

When I try to post a comment anywhere on the site it always brings me back to the sign in page. Is this what happens to everyone or is it a glitch?
-Reva

Answer:

This must be a glitch, as I have not had it happen to me, but I have had a couple of people ask me about it. It should only ever log you out after you have been inactive for a few minutes. To report a glitch (HELP -> OTHER -> WHAT’S NEXT? -> NEED MORE HELP?)

Greetings and Salutations, I am wondering if you know if different Spells have a different maximum cast proficiency scores? For instance, I mostly get beat by a Full Body-Bind score of about 140, and I pretty much mastered the Fire Making spell and get like 120 all the time. Again, I am just wondering if you know (or read somewhere) the maximum cast proficiency of spells? Make sense?
-Cheers, SpikeMugwump11039

In the spell books, each spell has a different color background, do these indicate anything? Everyone is consistantly using Patrificus Totalis (Total Body-Binding) because it can max out over 140 dueling points. Is there a point to using other spells then? For example, if i Get a 115 with the Tickle Hex, that is near perfect, and red. Would there be any indication that a lower-point, but different color spell may beat Pat Tot?
-Nikki

Answer:

I have been working on a Dueling 101 to go with Potions 101 here on the blog, but as I’m not as good at Dueling as I am at potions I haven’t completed it yet.

One thing I can tell you for sure, the maximum cast strength of the Full-Body Bind is 145 and it is the highest earning spell. Sad to say, if you want to win a duel, there isn’t any point in attempting one of the other spells. I have sent emails myself because I think the duels should allow the challenger to select a spell, and both duelers attempt the same spell and whoever gets stronger wins. This would at least allow the other spells to get some use.

In regards to the different color background, I am assuming that it is different category types of spells. But I attempted to figure out the rhyme and reason behind the color choices and have not figured it out. There is no spell available in Dueling that will beat a max cast Full-Body Bind, regardless of the color of it’s icon.

how do i enter hogwarts in pottermore? i just joined that website so i need help.  i just wanted to ask how to join hogwarts.
-fruit99punch

Answer:

You have to play through the chapters, you get to Hogwarts in the same chapter that Harry does.

It’s past the beta testing and it is open to everyone, I am through the first book and trying to play the second. Why won’t it let me move on to the chamber of secrets? I keep reading peoples comments on the next books so I know it’s possible, what’s the trick to move on?
-Morgan

When will the other books be out to explore? is there a specific date or are they letting all potter heads wonder!
-StormGoblet

I have just finished the first book on Pottermore, but it won’t let me start the second book! It does not have the button to click that says something like “Explore This Chapter”… All it says is “Friends on this chapter: 0″ (You are my only Friend)…I am not sure whether or not this is something I should report, or if this is something that others are waiting on as well… I heard that people are waiting for the Chamber of Secrets to open, but does that mean that I will not be able to read and explore any further? I have been waiting forever for this wonderful experience, and I hope that I am not going to have to wait any longer… PLEASE HELP!!!!!! Thanks!
-Sarah

When will Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secerts be realeased? It was said to be early 2012, but its already April and it is not realeased. Thanks! PS… Add me!
-Arman

do u know when book 2 will be open?
-Ginger

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can you let me know by email as soon as you have any information on when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will be open on Pottermore. In the meantime i will continue to check Pottermore daily THANK YOU SO MUCH ElmBlade43 you were a great help in informing the public and me in the upcoming days to the realse of Pottermore.
-Joseph

When will Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets be ready to explore?
-Anvita

Answer:

I’m starting to think that people click right past this pop-up, which appears when you reach the end of the last chapter of the Philosopher’s Stone.

The Chamber of Secrets section of Pottermore has not yet opened. We have absolutely no date. All we have are vague notions from the Pottermore Insider and the CEO of pottermore stating that more things will come over “weeks and months”. But the CEO said with certainty that for the next book “months” was more accurate. They had originally said “Early 2012″ but that was when the site was slated to open last October. So it is safe to say that CoS was bumped back as much as the opening, if not MORE.

I will be opening a Chamber of Secrets watch just like I had for the opening later on down the line, once I have reason to think that the book might be opening soon. But rest assured you all are not being left out, there is absolutely no one who has access to the second book. We are all waiting together!

Phew, that was a lot, keep them questions coming people! Click here to submit a question to Ask Elm.

Answers to questions below the cut…

Hey, Elm! In Chapter 16, there seems to be a bug that wont let you click on the potions, and I cant get to the next chapter! Is there any way I can fix this?
-OakMarauder

Answer:

This hast to be a glitch. There should be no reason why you can not click on the potions. When I click a potion it slides forward and waits for me to select a second one. Once I have selected two it tells me if I’m totally wrong, half wrong, or totally right. If you can not get it to do any of these things you need to make a ticket with Pottermore help. (go to HELP -> OTHER -> WHAT’S NEXT? -> NEED MORE HELP?) In the mean time I know that some people have had luck getting things to load in different browsers. If you are using Internet Explorer I recommend you at least give it a go on FireFox or Chrome and maybe you’ll be able to load the moment fully in a different browser.

So my trunk says that i only have 15 books. I’ve looked up the list of where all the books are, and it looks as tho I’m missing one ( i know there is 16 books) when i look at the list of books i bought in diagon alley, there are a few missing in my trunk. For some reason, even though it says i bought The Dark Forces book, but it doesn’t show up in my trunk. WHY??
-Breeze

Answer:

Oh dear, I just noticed that mine is missing too! I am missing The Dark Forces: A Guide To Self-Protection, Magical Drafts and Potions, and The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1). As I already know you are a Beta (HI SABRINA!!!) I can tell you that just before the site opened publicly a lot of people were reporting missing books. Looks like we have fallen victim to the glitch. And because you can not re-purchase these books the only thing I can suggest is to send in a help query (I just did). Go to HELP -> OTHER -> WHAT’S NEXT? -> NEED MORE HELP?

Another user did point out though that the books are still in your possession or you would not be able to brew potions or duel with the spells and potions they contain. But they did originally show in your trunk before the glitch occurred.

For a complete list of books, where to find them, and whether they will show up in your trunk CLICK HERE.

How do I collect the objects in chapters that glow pink? I have tried clicking on them but to no avail…
-Laura

Answer:

We have discussed this via e-mail, but I wanted it posted for others to see in case they are in the same boat. If you can not click on objects I recommend trying a different browser. Trying a different COMPUTER. E-mailing in through the help page notifying the Pottermore staff that you are glitched. (HELP -> OTHER -> WHAT’S NEXT? -> NEED MORE HELP?)

Thanks for answering my last question! I have one more that I’m hoping you have an answer for. When comparing trunk items with my friend I noticed that she has a vault key and I do not. Did I miss it somewhere?
-Chelsea

Answer:

I feel like I’m sounding like a broken record now. The key SHOULD store itself in your trunk after you have opened your Gringott’s vault. But I have been hearing since the beginning of the Beta about people who’s key’s have vanished. The only solution is to put in a query through the Pottermore help page (as I said, broken record). Go to HELP -> OTHER -> WHAT’S NEXT? -> NEED MORE HELP?

Hi! I was also a Beta tester (awesomeness) and I was wondering, do I need to do anything for the “active” site to be visible to me or for anything to change? Because I feel like it looks exactly the same and it still has BETA in the corner on the pages for feedback and such. Just wondering, I know I probably don’t have to but I was slightly confused. kthanksbye!
-Jenn

Answer:

I have to say, I chuckled a little bit when I realized that the Beta Feedback buttons were all over the site. Honestly, you aren’t going to see a difference, because your Beta account logs into the exact same site as the new public accounts. They never took down the beta buttons. A lot of Beta users expected a giant difference in the site when it opened, but it is the same site just with more people in it. They did, however, add sound a bit before opening. So if you haven’t re-visited the moments since they added sound I highly recommend you do so.

I expect we will see them yank down those Beta buttons soon, but I’m not sure how long it will take them to get on that.

Any tips for pottermore potion brewing?
-Alexis

Answer:
For help with potions check out Potions 101.

Answers to questions below the cut…

I am in chapter 5 Diagon Alley and I can access ‘Arriving at Diagon Alley’ but it won’t let me navigate any further. At ‘Harry and Hagrid visit Gringotts’ it tells me to be patient and the page will be unlocked soon. Do I need to do something to unlock the page? If not, is this common to see as I work my way through book 1?
-Laura

hey, please help me, I have come to the chapter: HARRY AND HAGRID VISIT GRINGOTTS , but I do not know how to unlock my Gringotts account, and I could not go to the next chapter, how? please help me. thanks
-fitri zara

Answer:
I put these two together because they have the same answer, in order to go into Gringott’s you must first find your shopping list which is laying on the ground in Diagon Alley. That being said, there seems to be some glitchiness going on with this scene, as I have had a couple of people tell me they can see the shopping list but they can not collect it. If this is the case for you then you should report it to the Pottermore staff (go to HELP -> OTHER -> WHAT’S NEXT? -> NEED MORE HELP?) so that they can try to fix it.

Some people have reported that if they log off and come back later it allowed them to collect the list. Also, switching browsers has helped some people. Some switched from Internet Explorer to FireFox and it fixed this problem.

In the “Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection” and “The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)”, I am only able to practise a couple of them, how can I practise the other ones?
-Mary

Answer:
You can only practice one spell from the Standard Book of Spells (Fire-Making) and two from Dark Forces (Curse of the Bogies and Knockback Jinx). It is unclear if the other spells will unlock at one point later on down the line, but you aren’t the only one it is standard.

On Pottermore when can we access the ice cream parlor????
-Jack

Answer:
I wish I knew! In an interview the CEO of Pottermore talked about how more things in Diagon Alley would be unlocked over time. I really want to go in there though. Now if it follows the books, Harry visits the ice cream parlor in Prisoner of Azkaban so we might have to wait until then.

I tried to post the following comment about being hatstalled ”I was hatstalled with Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor…go Gryffindor” and it was rejected by the All Seeing Eye. Do you know why?
-Sunny

Answer:
The automated moderation of comments is a pain in the… well let’s just say it’s very picky. Because it has word filters in place, so if you type a word that is not allowed or is not recognized by the system the comment is held for moderation. In this case I’m going to guess it was the ellipses (…) because there is no space between them and the word go. It could also be the word “hatstalled”. Sometimes I have to rephrase something a couple of times to get it to accept it.

The good news is that if your comment is held for moderation they will eventually read it and realize there is nothing wrong with it and post it anyway. They also tweak the filters when that happens to try to prevent it happening again.

Is there a way to get more galleons? I’ve noticed that cauldrons are expensive and I’m constantly needing to buy more ingredients cause I don’t have the hang of brewing potions yet. Thanks!
-Ian

Answer:
Aside from finding the occasional Galleon hidden throughout the moments you will not receive an additional allowance of gold from Gringotts until we start the second year. That being said it is important to moderate your spending. This is possible, as I still have half of my gold left after six months as a Beta.

You should go to Potions 101 and take a look at the list of renewable potions ingredients. NEVER BUY THESE INGREDIENTS AGAIN! Any item you find in the story will respawn where you found it when your inventory of that item is at zero. That should save you some gold right there.

I was wondering if those of us who were part of the Beta testing have to sign up again? When I log in it still says Beta at the top and I’m not sure if it is just me or if it has that for everyone. Thanks!
-Chelsea

Answer:
Fortunately us Beta testers did not have to sign up again, but it has not gone unnoticed that the Beta feedback buttons are still all over the site. Not really sure why they did not take them down, unless they were just so rushed towards the end they left them up.

The feedback forms still work, so feel free to leave them some feedback!

Do you have any idea when the Chamber of Secrets part will be opened?! I’m dying to find out!!!
-Rachel

Answer:
According to the CEO in an interview with The Naked Book there is a timeline in place to open up the next book but that it would take “months”. That is the extent of the official information we know on the release of Chamber of Secrets. Later on down the line I will make a CoS Watch just like I made for waiting for the opening. But I think we’ve got some time to wait.

Now that Pottermore is open, I’m finally getting questions again through Ask Elm. To ask a question CLICK HERE. I will answer all questions as quickly as possible, questions answered below the cut.

ELM! Alohamora is very very mean to me! It does not does not does not does not cooperate and I can NOT get the spell right! Ugh! What’s a shortcut?
-Cissy

Answer:

The key, for me at least, when it comes to casting spells, is that instead of using the mouse I use my computer keyboard. The second important thing to realize is that you hit each letter TWICE. You hit the letter once to conjure up that little circle, then you hit it again when the circle is at it’s largest. Then the beam of light will move and you want to hit the subsequent letter just as the light reaches it, and repeat the same thing from the first letter. Hit it once to produce the circle, and a second time when that circle is at it’s largest. Do this for all the letters until the spell is complete.

Did this help? If not leave a comment here and I will be glad to try to elaborate furthur, soon Dueling 101 will be posted I just haven’t had time to write it up yet.

Did you unlock the Pottermore icon on the far left? What’s it for? It’s still locked for me.
-Jeanne

Answer:

The icon on the far left is still locked for everyone. Originally intended to link to the e-book shop, we aren’t really sure why they haven’t activated it. I am starting to suspect that they realized they may need that icon for some other purpose down the line since they didn’t really leave themselves any room to expand the top menu of the site.

Here is what the shop icon WILL look like if they ever activate it:

When I tried to make the Wide Eye /Awakening potion, I can only stir anti clockwise once.Is this a glitch?
-Zara

Answer:

As far as I know there is not a left stirring glitch on Awakening potion, or at least I haven’t experienced one. I had trouble stirring anti-clockwise at first too. First, try moving your spoon to the opposite side of the cauldron before picking it up for the anti-clockwise stir. Then click it and make LARGE counterclockwise circles with it.

Also, if you are doing this on a laptop touch pad mouse I recommend getting you a nice plug and play usb mouse for your computer. Has made potion brewing so much easier for me.

If after trying this it STILL genuinely won’t stir that direction you will want to report it (Pottermore Help -> Other -> What’s Next? -> Need more help?) Also for my full guide to potions check out POTIONS 101.

When I click on a link on the ‘Read About’ board of the left side, it doesn’t do anything…even if it’s unlocked. Am I doing something wrong?
-Laura

Answer:

On the read about board you hover over the cattegories and a menu should pop out to your right with lists in it to different information, when you hover over each of the items on the list they should change color. These are the things you should be able to click on.

If you can not click on these you will want to report the glitch through the Pottermore Help section. (Help -> Other -> What’s Next? -> Need more help?) 

Thanks for your time! I would like to know how to start with the next book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Out of curiosity: does it work for everybody at the same time or not? Thanks again.
-Rosy

Answer:

At the moment, they have not released any information about whether or not when Chamber of Secrets first opens if everyone will be allowed on or if that book will go through it’s own Beta phase. So far all we know is that it won’t be available for “months”. I will be keeping everyone posted here on the blog as details start to come out about the second book.

Hi, I have two questions. 1) I know you can get more potion ingrediants after you’ve used up the existing one, and I went to get more horned slugs from the Troll chapter. I looked and looked and there didn’t seem to be any of them anywhere! I know I used up the original ones because I rechecked several times. Do you know why this is? 2) I’ve made the potion ‘A antidote for common poisons’ several times, but every time I finished part 2 it says it wasn’t brewed right because I didn’t put the right amount of unicorn horn in. But I did, and it was even crossed off in the book! Is this a glitch? Thank you!
-MiMi

Answer:

 1) – A lot of people think the horned slugs have vanished, but really they like to hide in the far sink. Zoom in and just sort of wiggle your mouse around the sink and the little bugger should start to crawl out so you can click on him and collect him.

2) – I have not experienced this myself thought I have heard others say it has done so to them. If it continues I urge you to report it (Pottermore Help -> Other -> What’s Next? -> Need more help?). But before you do so, make sure you are not adding TOO MUCH unicorn horn. Because you can add more then necessary and it be crossed off in the book but still count as the incorrect amount. For my complete guide on potions check out POTIONS 101.

Every time I try to leave a comment on Pottermore it signs me out. I’m wondering if there is anything that can be done about this or if it’s just a glitch I should learn to get used to? It makes me sad that I can’t leave comments!
-Suze

Answer:

 At what stage does it log you out? When you actually hit the comment button? You are the first to come to me with this one and I would be quite frustrated with it myself. I urge you to report it to staff so that they can figure out why it keeps doing so. (Pottermore Help -> Other -> What’s Next? -> Need more help?)

http://woodworkshop.wordpress.com/

I now have a workshop and create with my hands (not my head), hand made, bespoke, wooded bowls. Have a look, see what you think… get your mind active and see if there is a path you can follow, what have you got to loose!!!

Finally, here is the first volume of “Ask Elm” a column where I will be answering questions sent in from readers about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to do with Pottermore. We’re gonna jump right in with the questions, if you have a question you want answered in a future column click here for the e-mail form!

Answers to some of these questions might be considered as spoilers. Read at your own risk.

“Curious, I really didn’t want to see any spoilers, but couldn’t help peeking at your screenshot of house point standings and members. It’s so pretty!

There is a list of the top four students with the most house points for each house. Take for instance, Gryffindor. The top student there has 5,660 points (according to the screenshot) and the second student has 5,586 points yet the total Gryffindor points total 6,896.

How does that work?” – FeatherBronze

Unfortunately, they are still keeping us completely in the dark about how the house points for each house are calculated. Many, at first, thought it was an average, but as the points climb higher it is obvious that that is not the case. Others have said they believe that every 100 student points equals a single point for the whole house. None of this can really be confirmed as there is no way to see the points for all 35,000 students in a given house to figure out how it is calculated.

If I find out, I will let you know and come back and amend this answer.

“What was the Sorting quiz like? What sort of questions did it ask, and how many???” – RoseSpirit120

The sorting quiz is a 7 questions personality test. It does not give the SAME questions to everyone. A friend and I sat at a table and sorted together. We only had three questions in common. Some questions are simple, with only two answer choices (ie. Dawn or Dusk?). Others give you details of a situation you might find yourself in at Hogwarts, with several possible scenarios you could go with as your response to the situation.

Some questions can not be led, but I think that some had answers that were fairly obviously skewed to one house or the other. Others I was completely lost on. Truthfully the simpler the question, the harder I found it to figure out which house might go with which answer.

I have been gathering the questions and answers given from a couple different people for a DETAILED blog entry on the sorting later on down the line once more beta testers have gained access to Pottermore. If you would like to send me yours for this study, just let me know.

“How hard is it to do potion and how long does it take?” – HexShadow44

Right now, all potions have to “brew” for 80 minutes or longer depending on the potion, but according to the Pottermore Insider these times will change due to feedback from those already inside. Potion making is tricky at first, but can be learned. For those of you already in who want help brewing check out my Potions 101 entry by clicking here.

“Have you found all of the chocolate frog cards? :O” – WalnutGold111

Actually, no, I haven’t! I’m still missing two cards. I am trying earnestly to find them on my own, but some of them are quite tricky to find. I visited one page over a dozen times and then noticed a card I didn’t know was there just yesterday. I will be posting a complete entry of card locations once I have found them all.

“Hi Elm,

Cant find a WWW with details about potion making… Info on which cauldron to use for which potion, how long each potions takes to prepare in each potion, etc. I’m experimenting with it, and it would help to have some tips so that i don’t melt more expensive cauldrons

ANY TIPS?

Thanks a million” – FlameBludger82

I hope the details in my Potions 101 entry were helpful, I will keep the page updated as the beta progresses and will release Potions 201 whenever we get a new potions book in Chamber of Secrets (due out 2012).

” I was wondering — do you have any idea what to do if Potions suddenly stops working altogether?” – WillowOak120

A lot of people have been  having some bizarre potions glitches. Personally, I can not enter a potion from the recipe book once it is brewing without being forced to start over. I have to always enter from the cauldron page.

There are two ways to report a problem such as this to Pottermore. The official line as outlined in the Insider is to click on your Beta Feedback button and under “The page loads and works well on my screen” click one of the disagree options. Then they will return to the page for testing and repair.

Then there is MY WAY of reporting glitches to the Pottermore staff. I’m not sure why they buried this under three different menus, but you can find it in the help section by following the following link sequence:

• Help -> Other -> What’s next? -> Need more help?

This brings you to an e-mail form to send a message directly to the tech staff. I know for a fact that multiple people have received responses to their technical issues through this method.

“How much interaction is there with others on Pottermore? Is there a chat room? IM? Message boards? Do you have to know someone’s name to interact with them or is there some way to search for new folks?” – Hyphen

I sat here a minute trying to decide if I should sugar coat this answer or just be brutally honest. Honesty won out.

At the moment communication is very limited, and tightly controlled. There is no live chat, IM, or even private messaging on Pottermore. There are areas to post “comment”s around the site, but the two main places are the Great Hall and your house’s common room. Other comment boards exist for objects, characters, chapters, etc.

All of these boards are simply a string of comments with the most recent at the top and then going down in order from now until the board was created. There is no way to direct reply, or search. The only filters available are “Everyone”, “Friends”, and sometimes the “Your House” option.   You can not change the order in which they appear, and though there is a link under every comment to “like” it there is no way to see what comments are more popular than others.

Moderation is incredibly stringent. Sometimes you will attempt to leave a comment and it will come up saying it is under moderation, and highlight the comment input box in red. Then, days later, they will end up approving the comment. But it will appear in the timeline so far back that now no one has any hope of reading it anyway.

I think of my common room and the Great Hall as slow moving chat rooms. You can communicate to an extent. But there is no way to use it to connect outside of the site. Moderation filters words like twitter, facebook, and google. Also, you are forbidden from posting links of any kind.

You asked about finding new people, and I will say that I have friended and been friended by people from the common room board. Once you have been connected as a friend you can see their full profile, send and receive gifts, and see their little status alerts on your gateway (home) page.

“Will you marry me?” – Anonymous

*laughs* I was so flattered when I opened this e-mail, I felt like a Pottermore princess for just a moment. Unfortunately, Mr. Anonymous, I’m already spoken for. But I’ll let you know if that changes.

“Are the graphics good?” – IceAuror8

This is a tricky question, because when most people reference graphics in a game setting it is about High Definition 3d type graphics. That is not what Pottermore is.

Pottermore is more like stepping into a digital pop-up book, with each moment in each chapter being depicted in beautiful artwork. One of the reason I have not posted any screen shots from within Pottermore is because the gorgeous artwork on each page is the real joy of the site.

That’s all I have for this volume. If you have a question you would like to ask, click here for the submission form.

You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers! –>

I get asked a lot of questions on Twitter, and as I’m trying very hard not to casually paint spoilers across my followers’ timelines, I thought it would be a good idea to start Q & A here on the blog where I would be able to answer things more thoroughly and people would have less of a chance to accidentally read something they didn’t want to.

So I came up with “Ask Elm” a column I will be regularly posting for the blog.

I will post the first set of Answers after I have ten questions. The questions can be about absolutely anything related to Pottermore. Simply fill out the form below, and thanks for contributing!

To find all Ask Elm reply entries: CLICK HERE.