Pottermore v.12

[Daggerstone]

Originally Posted by Spirit

I got a Black Mamba for my patronus. Which I'm not really okay with

For a defensive spell, you can't do much better...

I got a brown owl.
What's it gonna do? Mail-deliver Dementors to extinction?

[Spirit]

Originally Posted by Daggerstone

For a defensive spell, you can't do much better...

I got a brown owl.
What's it gonna do? Mail-deliver Dementors to extinction?

I suppose. I'd rather have an owl though. I hate aggressive, poisonous snakes like the black mamba. But I will get over it.

[Chrysalis]

Focusing on the animal is missing the point of the Patronus. The animal is merely symbolic, the strength of the spell depends on the skill of the caster. The form of the Patronus represents the hidden resource within the caster that supplies the memories for the spell.

And I think you're being unfair to venomous snakes. They are a hugely important part of any ecosystem in which they occur.

[Anhelda]

Originally Posted by Daggerstone

I got a brown owl.
What's it gonna do? Mail-deliver Dementors to extinction?

Dags' Death Owl--delivering doom to dementors since 2016 (actually, that sounds kind of cool...)

Pottermore says that I am a Ravenclaw/Thunderbird with a hard flexibility 14.5 inch black walnut and unicorn hair wand with which I produce a white stallion patronus. A stallion is cool, although I always thought my patronus would be a cockroach (can't be killed!) or a sponge (because it's funny).

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

And I think you're being unfair to venomous snakes. They are a hugely important part of any ecosystem in which they occur.

Agree completely. Snakes are cool in all varieties, venomous or otherwise.

[Spirit]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

And I think you're being unfair to venomous snakes. They are a hugely important part of any ecosystem in which they occur.

And I think you're taking this way too seriously. I just don't like snakes. I'm not saying I want death to all snakes. I just don't like them, and I wish I had gotten a different result of an animal I liked. It's a personal preference.

[MrSleepyHead]

The Patronus test is by no means scientific. I think fans have been waiting on tenterhooks for years for a Patronus test, and in the meantime they've generated their own strong ideas of what they want their Patronuses to be. So when someone gets an aardvark or a mole, it's understandable there would be a feeling of letdown (even if someone gets, say, a dragon but always wanted a dolphin).

As a fan community we've put a lot of legitimacy into the Pottermore tests, so it's reasonable to feel a bit nonplussed by the results, but it's important to realize it is just an online "quiz" and not a true look into our souls (especially when there's no write-up about what the Patronuses mean)! And that taking the test multiple times could lead to very different animals - for instance I got an Irish wolfhound on one account, an adder on another, and a bloodhound on the other (and across those 3 accounts I have 2 Hogwarts houses and 3 distinct wands - all prompts answered honestly with each account).

But one neat thing about each of these tests is that they make us look a bit more deeply into ourselves. If, for instance, you were Sorted into Slytherin after self-identifying as a Ravenclaw all your life, it may spark some self-reflection as to what qualities about yourself match up with Slytherin. Same for a Patronus (with many more symbolisms/meanings because one is not spelled out for you): if you get a mole, you may look within to see what about you matches with a mole - whether symbolically, biologically, ecologically, philosophically... (e.g., trusting of your senses, a willingness to seclude oneself from the mainstream, a fanatical digger).

So I see the Patronus test as what I think it was intended: a fun exercise allowing you to immerse yourself in the world of Harry Potter, but not a sentence on your character or a declaration on how to live your life!

Originally Posted by Anhelda

A stallion is cool, although I always thought my patronus would be a cockroach (can't be killed!) or a sponge (because it's funny).

The invertebrates are sorely underrepresented!

[Chrysalis]

Lots of people elsewhere on the Internet were really upset about the quiz because of their results. Which was strange because as though an online quiz could mimic magic! Lots of Gryffindors upset that they got snake patronuses, that sort of thing.

It's a bit pointless to 'sort' yourself as an adult - your personality would be too developed to belong in any one house. I have been a fan nearly since inception and I still don't know in which house I would belong.



The funny thing was the test gave me a swan while I've been thinking for sometime that my patronus would be a goose. No idea why, though.

I think earthworm was a possible result, so there's your invertibrate. And sponges are sessile, so a sponge patronus would be a bit pointless, wouldn't it?

[Anhelda]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

sponges are sessile, so a sponge patronus would be a bit pointless, wouldn't it?

Yeah, but it would be a magic sponge, so....

[MerryLore]

I always saw my patronus as an owl, and was surprised and disappointed at first to get a dolphin, especially considering how positive the imagery associated with the dolphin is, but now that I've had time to consider it, I'm thrilled. I'm not quite as gloomy as I used to be.....

[Sereena]

Originally Posted by MrSleepyHead

The Patronus test is by no means scientific. I think fans have been waiting on tenterhooks for years for a Patronus test, and in the meantime they've generated their own strong ideas of what they want their Patronuses to be. So when someone gets an aardvark or a mole, it's understandable there would be a feeling of letdown (even if someone gets, say, a dragon but always wanted a dolphin).

If someone gets upset about a Patronus, then they really don't have any real problems to deal with. The whole Sorting and Patronuses thing is fun and all but people take it way too seriously as though it says something about themselves or something. Let's not forget that many of these people have taken the tests several times and got different results, both on sorting and on the Patronus. Really, it's like getting upset over your horoscope.

Don't get me wrong, it's all good fun. I took the test as well so it's not like I'm above it. But when people are all like "OMG all my life I thought I was a Gryffindor and now I'm a Hufflepuff" or "OMG I got a snake Patronus and I hate Slytherins", they're way too emotionally invested in made-up categories. You think a website is going to tell you who you are?

[Anhelda]

So I just read the new info on Pottermore about the MACUSA. Not bad, but the fact that Jo has the Magical Congress meeting in Washington in the 1770's is a bit problematic, seeing as how the city of Washington wasn't founded until 1791...maybe they used time turners?

Still don't know how well-thought out some of the American wizardry stuff is; specifically, the harsh separation of magical and muggle people (I don't really care for the "no-maj" terminology, so I prefer to use the British term). I just wonder how they handle muggleborns if they're so absolute on secrecy. Do they obliviate everyone who ever knew a muggleborn witch/wizard and forbid said witch/wizard from any further contact with their family and friends? Seems kind of harsh, and quite frankly un-American.

[Chrysalis]

I thought that was supposed to be Washington State?


A lot of people were really upset that the magical American government was portrayed in a negative way, but I don't see how that is any different from the British ministry of Magic.

JKR has never been good with foreign cultures. Just look at Fleur/Beauxbatons and Viktor Krum. Out of the the three Eastern-Europeans in the book, two were Death Eaters.

And in Quidditch Through The Ages, she says that the Ministry of Magic in India preferred magic carpets. Now why would they do that? That's not a thing in our culture, at all.

[cardinalguy]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I thought that was supposed to be Washington State?

Even worse, since Washington State was part of New Spain in the 1770s, only opening up to other countries after the Nootka Conventions in the early 1790s. It wasn't fully ceded to the US until the Oregon Treaty in 1846, and wasn't named Washington until 1853.

[Chrysalis]

OK, I don't know much about US history. If I were writing a magical world set in another country than my own (or even in my own) I'd do more research than that!

Although to be fair, wizarding Britain seems to have little connection to Muggle Britain. I just assume that the books are set in a kind of alternate universe. Involving real historical issues in this type of fiction can be fraught with problems.

[MerryLore]

Originally Posted by Sereena

Don't get me wrong, it's all good fun. I took the test as well so it's not like I'm above it. But when people are all like "OMG all my life I thought I was a Gryffindor and now I'm a Hufflepuff" or "OMG I got a snake Patronus and I hate Slytherins", they're way too emotionally invested in made-up categories. You think a website is going to tell you who you are?

I agree with you for the most part, but I have to admit, if my patronus turned out to be an earthworm, I'd probably take to my bed for several hours. I can't even image.

Merry Lore casts her first ever patronus: "Expecto Patronum!" It's...it's....it's....an EARTHWORM.

ewwww

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Although to be fair, wizarding Britain seems to have little connection to Muggle Britain. I just assume that the books are set in a kind of alternate universe. Involving real historical issues in this type of fiction can be fraught with problems.

I agree. Some of it will follow history, and a lot of it won't. The focus will primarily be on the story, I think.