J.K. Rowling released a new story as part of her new online series History of Magic in North America, titled “Seventeenth Century and Beyond.” The story sheds light on wizards in the U.S. and expands the Harry Potter universe across the pond.
The History of Magic in North America, is a series of short stories telling the magical history of America. The first part launched on Tuesday, titled “Fourteenth Century – Seventeenth Century,” and tells the story of how wizards in different parts of the world communicated with North America before it was colonized by non-magical humans, or ‘No-Maj’.
In this second installment, Rowling explores the Salem witch trials. In the New World, Scourers were mercenaries who established the earliest form of law enforcement but overtime became corrupt. They “enjoyed bloodshed and torture, and even went so far as trafficking their fellow wizards.” Their careless and evil actions led in part to the Salem witch trials, which fed off the fear of witches.
The witch trials lasted for a few years, wizards eventually fled and fear kept other wizards for migrating to the New World. This led to the rise of the No-Maj-born population.
After the Salem witch trials, the Magical Congress of the United States of America was established to prevent any future barbaric killings.
“It was the first time that the North American wizarding community came together to create laws for themselves, effectively establishing a magical-world-within-a-No-Maj-world such as existed in most other countries,” reads an excerpt from the story.
As a collective force they hunted down the Scourers responsible for the atrocities but a few escaped and hid within the No-Maj community, seeding hatred of magical people through future generations.
