Ask Elm (Vol 8)

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

Answers to questions below the cut…

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.