J.K. Rowling Details the Impact of Native American Wizards in First 'History of Magic in North America' Story

The series is set to expand the Potterverse even further ahead of the release of the 'Fantastic Beasts' film adaptation.

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Though the film adaptation of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them doesn’t arrive until November, J.K. Rowling is already teasing the continued expansion of the Harry Potter universe with a new series of Potterverse tales. Collectively known as The History of Magic in North America, the four-part short story series unveiled its first slice on Monday to the assumed joy of the entire human race. "The wizarding world you thought you knew is much larger than you imagined," Rowling said before releasing the first bit of educational text.

Focused on the lives of wizards and witches between the 14th and 17th centuries, Rowling’s first deep dive back into the history of magic shows that the complicated world of wizardry has little room for small-minded bigotry. "The Native American magical community and those of Europe and Africa had known about each other long before the immigration of European No-Majs in the seventeenth century," Rowling writes. "They were already aware of the many similarities between their communities."

Elsewhere, Rowling briefly explores the origins of the "magic wand" and the inherent difficulties of attempting to procure "wandless magic of a very high quality." Of course, as the trailer for the aforementioned Fantastic Beasts film make quite clear, cinematic adaptations of Rowling’s work are perhaps the closest thing to wandless magic most of us will ever get.

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Rowling will drop another History of Magic short on Wednesday via Pottermore, followed promptly by the final two entries on Thursday and Friday. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, starring Eddie Redmayne and Ezra Miller, hits theaters on Nov. 18.

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