In case you haven’t heard Pottermore, the Happy Potter online experience for Potter fans is now open to all to join. Like many fans of Rowling’s books I leapt into action as soon as I could and now finally have my wand and have been sorted.

This article isn’t going to be a review of Pottermore, which should I choose to write one would need far more exploration and experimentation to be fair. This, however is a reflection of the much discussed sorting process where site members learn which house they are in. Much has been made of people canceling their accounts and trying to rejoin with new identities if they disagree with how they were sorted. This seems to especially revolve around the lessor favoured Hufflepuff house.

Having recently been through sorting I can tell you that it is neither in depth or lengthy and really should be treated as a ‘bit of fun. I encountered questions where my honest answer would have to be ‘none of the options on offer’ which of course isn’t an option. Also many of the questions have no element of motive in the asking so choices of classes, spell or power can be read many ways. In no way does Pottermore suggest that these questions define you as a human being and no one should take anything personal from their sorted outcome.

Yes I was disappointed and also surprised at my final house but having seen others go through the process I also can see how random the whole thing is. Of a group of four new Pottermore members who registered and we’re sorted over the same weekend not one of us was sorted into the house we expected to be in and three of the four didn’t even get into a house they wanted to be in either.

Of the four of us there was one who wanted to be Hufflepuff, expected Ravenclaw and was put in Gryffindor. Two who wanted and expected to be in Ravenclaw, with one ending up in Gryffindor and the other in Hufflepuff.  The forth new member wanted Gryffondor but expected Hufflepuff, finally being sorted into Gryffindor.

I think what this shows is that we all know ourselves just a little better than a fun thing on the Internet.