Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the final chapter in the cinematic rendition of J.K. Rowling's novels about The Boy Who Lived and his coming of age, released three years ago, but few people - if anyone - believed that would be the last time that we'd get to make a trip to the Wizarding World, either on the big screen or via the printed page.

Sure enough, since then a play about Harry (during his pre-Hogwarts years) has been produced, while over the past year Rowling has been working on the script for a Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them movie. Today, however, the author surprised the masses by unveiling a new short story (via the Pottermore site) that catches up with a 34-year old Harry and his companions - filling in a few of the cracks in her Deathly Hallows book epilogue (which is actually set some three years after this new material).

The new short story is presented as an article titled "Dumbledore's Army Reunites at Quidditch World Cup Final" and written by the Daily Prophet's most infamous gossip columnist, Rita Skeeter (played by Miranda Richardson in the Harry Potter films). Those who are registered with Pottermore can read the full post over at the site, but we've broken down some of the highlights here - for your reading convenience (obviously, SPOILERS AHEAD):

  • Harry continues to work as a professional Auror (read: dark wizard catcher), but Ron now works with George running Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
  • Ginny is a sports reporter for the Daily Prophet, while Hermione is currently the Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
  • Neville Longbottom, as indicated in the Deathly Hallows book epilogue, is a Herbology professor at Hogwarts, and is now married to Hanna Abbott.

There're several additional tidbits in the "Dumbedore's Army Reunites" that Potter fans should find quite enticing, so if you're so inclined, head over to Pottermore and give the full post a look-over (assuming you haven't already).

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them gets a release date

Rowling still hasn't budged on her commitment to not churning out any more Harry Potter book installments, but in all honesty I would prefer more stuff like the "Dumbledore's Army Reunites" post - small, playful little peeks at what happened to Harry and Co. after they defeated Voldemort - to full-blown novels. The latter would put Rowling at greater risk of suffering from creative burnout, as opposed to the scenario where she only commits to writing far less time-consuming stories centered around Harry (saving her enthusiasm to continue exploring the Wizarding World for the Fantastic Beasts film(s)).

Indeed, much as Pixar has smartly followed up Toy Story 3 with cartoon shorts rather than Toy Story 4 (thus far, anyway...), this post could be the first of a handful of short stories about the older Harry Potter released by Rowling. The Pottermore site is already hinting that another post will be released this month on July 31st (a.k.a. Harry's birthday) - when Skeeter is supposedly going to release her new "book", Dumbledore's Army: The Dark Side of the Demob.

Meanwhile, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them is scheduled to reach theaters on November 18th, 2016.