Harry Potter Fans Grumble at J.K. Rowling Over Today’s Pottermore ‘Story’

Harry Potter fans were disappointed to learn that J.K. Rowling has merely posted a riddle and no new story this morning, after purportedly promising to post new content on fansite Pottermore for the 12 days leading up to Christmas.

Today’s riddle is a simple one:

In an orphanage in London where Tom Riddle resides; A suited wizard visits him, it’s quite a surprise. After showing the boy magical tricks of all sorts, Which future Headmaster offers him a place at Hogwarts?

Entering ‘Professor Dumbledore’ will grant fans access to a popular scene from the Half Blood Prince, when Dumbledore uses a pensieve, a magical object used to review memories, back to the moment he recruited Voldemort, neé Tom Riddle, for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Alas, solving the riddle will only get you as far as one can get through Pensieve, which means no interacting with the characters and, in this case, no new content. You’ll get a look at a young Tom Riddle, an unknown woman and Dumbledore and Harry studying the scene.

Fans have apparently gotten quite greedy; eager for new content, the comments include rants like “I would rather wait ages for amazing new material than get filler so frequently” to “What is the purpose of this? It is a waste of time” and even “Seriously? That’s it? What happened to the Pottermore excitement? It’s like they aren’t putting any effort in anymore.”

The Daily Telegraph‘s Alice Vincent thinks that “if Pottermore members are entering [the scene] through a Pensieve, like Harry and Dumbledore are, then they can’t interact with the memory. So why would we be able to interact with it, if Harry can’t?”

She has a great point. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll have something to make of the memory.