My Magical Monday

I feel tingly all over. It makes sense, too. I am magical after all. I was just told so by the Magical Quill!

After pumping myself full of caffeine (I did this with the help of Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream before dinner and some dark chocolate squares about an hour ago... that would be 4am!) I waited patiently by my computer through a lightning and thunder storm, the calm after, and as the sun rose behind me. I kept myself occupied with blog reading and then, ultimately, chatting it up with Pottermore tweeps from all over the US, Britain, France, Brazil, Australia and even the Philippines. Then, as one twitter friend asked me what the time was in New York, USA, I noticed it was exactly 5am.

One thing I didn't let pass all night (starting at 12am London time) was refreshing the Pottermore page on the hour. *POW!* There it was the second Magical Quill clue:

I called frantically for my husband, so he could call my friend to wake her and tell her (this was at her request!) while I tried to read, absorb and think about the clue. 

*DISASTER* My brain was absolute mush! I feared this. I started multiplying everything by 42. When I was one number off, I had made it into a foreign site! This was no good. Suddenly answers were everywhere - being texted to me, on my twitter feed, I was so grateful! I was a complete mess!!

Once I had typed in the appropriate web address for the English version of the Chamber of Secrets, and, in turn, the English version of the Pottermore site, I was taken to something that looked like an advertisement for Deathly Hallows Part 2:

Due to my fried brain, I once again had difficulty knowing what to do next. I probed at the menu when my husband and I almost both knocked the monitor off the desk by pointing out the QUILL on the page (do you see it there? It kind of STANDS OUT!).

Then, rather than try to pry the quill out the screen with our bare hands, I decided to actually click it:

Then, the journey could begin...

The five questions asked were:

• Birth date
• Where you live?
• Name and e-mail address (if a minor, then I believe it is name of parent and parent's e-mail)
• Password
• Which Harry potter books you've read and which Harry Potter movies you've seen

It is after these questions were answered, when I completed this "journey,' that something, well, magical happened:

I am in the book! I am "magical." There's no denying it! The Magical Quill says so!

However, the fun wasn't over yet. I needed a magical name. There were choices given:

I really was thinking only about the first two (although "StarCloak" is pretty cool, too), but the pumpkin and the tree won me over. My parents always used to call me "Pumpkin" and I love trees (I should probably write a post about that sometime soon), so...

The e-mail did not come right away. No big deal. One of the benefits of being a Day 2 person is that you witness all of the freak outs of Day 1 and learn that there is nothing really to freak out about. However, by the time I started writing this post, my e-mail had arrived!

There was a link at the bottom that had to be clicked within 48 hours (I think I did it within 48 seconds!) in order to register, otherwise it was all for nothing. I clicked it and found out

I am "one of the lucky ones."

Yay! Joy and splendor!! I am in the Pottermore BETA group! Sometime before October 2011 I will receive an e-mail with my formal invitation to begin my journey through Pottermore and, what I'm looking forward to most, be sorted into a Hogwarts House!

I guess I'll just have to keep checking my e-mail, keeping an eye out for my owl! 

A Huge Thank You To:

•  My fellow #pottermore tweeps that kept me company on twitter. Especially those that worked toward us getting #pottermoreWORLD to trend while we learned about each other!
• My husband and friend, Cristyn, who both were calming influences on my obviously sleep-deprived brain.
• To all the Rivera Runs Through It readers and FaceBook fans that crossed their fingers that I would only be a muggle until Monday.

and, of course

• Ms. Rowling and her crew that came together to make such an exciting, global and happy experience for all of the fans of a very special book series!