I’m not ashamed to admit that some of my strange isolation daydreams while staring at the ceiling have been about what Hogwarts would do in the middle of this whole coronavirus pandemic. I’ve come to the conclusion that they’d either have a potion which would cure it, or they’d just magic a bubble around themselves until it had passed. Clearly we all need some more Harry Potter in our lives, and the isolation gods have blessed us with Harry Potter At Home.
J.K. Rowling has announced on Twitter that Harry Potter At Home is being launched, an online hub aimed at helping kids, parents, teachers, and anybody else currently battling through home schooling while we’re all under COVID-19 lockdown. We’re going to come out of lockdown with a whole new respect for teachers, and there’s a damn good reason for that.
The website is partnering with the likes of Audible, Bloomsbury, OverDrive, Pottermore Publishing and Scholastic. There are quizzes, word games, drawing challenges, things to read for fun, and a ton of resources to make this frankly grim time a bit more magical.
As a grown adult who logically knows that Harry Potter is a kids story and this site is aimed at kids who are in the middle of home schooling right now, I want in. You can’t just tell me that there’s another opportunity to sort myself into my Hogwarts house happening somewhere and not expect me to show up. And I dare say I’m not alone in that.
As the site announces, they’re casting a Banishing Charm on boredom, and nothing has ever arrived at a more perfect time. I suppose that makes sense though, as Dumbledore once said: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
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