The latest feature on Pottermore, the ever-expanding home of Harry Potter content, is a quiz designed by J.K. Rowling to tell you what your Patronus is.
In case you’d forgotten, a Patronus is a spell conjured by a happy memory and the incantation “Expecto patronum!” The Patronus takes the form of a silvery animal that protects against the soul-crushing depression caused by exposure to Dementors.
The test on Pottermore, like all Pottermore quizzes, is multiple choice. Only instead of answering a question, two or three words pop up and you have a short time to click one instinctively. No thoughts needed or wanted.
The quiz also zooms through an animated forest before each question, which draws it out a little bit. Rowling, as she so often does, offered some more information on Twitter:
As many of you have now realised, the @pottermore Patronus Test is finally live!
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 22, 2016
I took the @pottermore test (which I wrote) ages ago when it was a work in progress and got a pine marten Patronus. I was happy, because…
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 22, 2016
… my fondness for weaselly creatures is well documented. However, when we finalised the @pottermore test last week I took it again…
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 22, 2016
… and found that it had changed (which, as we know, can happen). My new Patronus has personal associations and I like it even better…
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 22, 2016
… so as far as I'm concerned, the @pottermore test works! Here's my Patronus… pic.twitter.com/xnjKfjGMx4
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 22, 2016
Her new one is a heron, but Rowling also answered a fan who asked if mythical creatures were possible:
Yes, but they're rare! So far I've seen one hippogriff, one occamy and a unicorn… https://t.co/70e1PHjJiJ
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 22, 2016
I got a blackbird and some mild motion sickness. Take it for yourself here.
