Just in case you were getting your hopes up that J.K. Rowling might be continuing the story of Harry Potter, Dustin Nelson of Thrillist and many others bringing this bit of news are here to remind you that the saga of one of the most famous wizards has indeed ended. While Rowling will be revealing four new books starting in June, they’re going to be more like supplements to the main story than anything else. What these books will do will flesh out various courses within Hogwarts that were presented in the movies but weren’t given their due diligence as some folks wanted to see. Hardcore Potter fans will no doubt pick these books up simply because they have something to do with the overall story and in fact are parts of the story that could stand to be rediscovered in ways that were never fully explained by the movies. But if you were looking for added tales that will bring the original trio and the characters that people enjoyed back into prominence you might be kind of disappointed.
In all honesty though it does seem to indicate that Rowling is wanting to take a deeper look into her own stories by detailing just what goes on in the various classes that she’s outlined and why they’re important to the story. Alex Nelson of iNews has given a little more of an explanation as to what the books are about, and to be honest they’re going to be short stories that detail a few of the most important and relevant classes from the original movies. Those classes include the Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions and Herbology, Divination and Astronomy, and Care of Magical creatures. If you’ve read the books then you can already tell just how each book is going to go and what it’s going to cover and why it’s important to the main story. Care of Magical Creatures is of course from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry finally met his godfather Sirius Black. This was also the movie when the class on magical creatures really came into being since Hagrid stepped up to teach and introduced Harry to Buckbeak, the hippogriff that would be so instrumental in helping Harry when he and his friends really needed the creature.
Divination and Astronomy could be linked to the entire series in a way as Harry’s life was mapped out as ‘the boy who lived’ from the get. But considering the level of disdain that so many wizards have for this class in the movie it seems easy to see just how it was overlooked so often. After all it does seem like a rather vague and antiquated class that doesn’t tend to mesh well with others. But at the same time it did feature in the Prisoner of Azkaban since it spoke of a great danger in Harry’s life. Potions and Herbology can be connected to a couple of movies such as the Chamber of Secrets and of course the Half-Blood Prince, where Harry becomes especially gifted at brewing potions. Given that potions are quite potent when made correctly it does seem as though this book will go into the dangers of mixing them wrong and applying them in very different ways. But that’s a guess at best really.
Finally, Defence Against the Dark Arts is a class that has been a part of the Potterverse for a while now and has been one of the most controversial since not a single teacher in the movies has lasted more than a year in the class before moving on, for various reasons. The most underlying reason however is that after being refused twice for the position, Tom Riddle jinxed the class so that no one would last for longer than a year. Of course, given the fact that a couple of the teachers weren’t exactly a prize when it came to their character it’s not hard to see why they didn’t last. But all in all the class is one of the core programs at Hogwarts so it’s not hard to see just why it would be included in the list. Rowling is no doubt wanting to go back to her creation no matter how much she might say she’s done, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about this and the world of Harry Potter would have begun to fade some time ago instead of holding strong. As it sits now it does seem as though it would take a lot more badgering and a lot more desire on Rowling’s part to bring the story back, but one of these days the author might actually decide that it’s worth it to continue the story. After all, the next generation will always have their issues, and there’s always a story waiting to be told.
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