Only one million accounts were registered for early access.
The promise? The one million Beta testers would be given early access to the website. Early access, meaning between August 15 to September 30. All Beta testers, including yours truly, would have to wait to receive a welcome email, which we later referred to as our "owls" since we all felt like young wizards and witches waiting for our turn to enter Hogwarts as first-years.
With my Pottermore Family keeping me company, we all took turns on our Owl Watch. It was very helpful that we were all coming from different countries, so there was always someone on the lookout.
August 15 to 21: Pottermore started sending out waves of owls.
Unfortunately, my owl was not in any of them. At first I was fine with it since I was a Day 2 Beta, so I was expecting that they wouldn't be sending my owls just yet since they did say that they would be sent on a "first come, first serve" basis.
BUT we soon found out that people from different days were already getting their owls. So while a majority of them were from Day 1 and 2, I felt a little put out with Pottermore since I found it unfair that some of the later days (Day 7s were getting in) already had their owls, while those who had to solve harder clues WITHOUT any hint as to when the clue was going to be posted were still owl-less Betas.
Don't get me wrong. I was sincerely happy for every person who got their owl with each wave. But that doesn't mean I couldn't be annoyed with Pottermore for making a false promise.
It was also in this first week that we had the first weekend, and sadly, no owls were sent on Sunday. (For once Uncle Vernon was right, no posts on Sundays.)
So how was I to deal with this disappointment?
Aside from getting words of comfort from my Pottermore Family, I also busied myself with my first attempt at a blog on via tumblr (Willow's Peek on Tumblr), and I found myself re-writing songs for the rest of us in the No Owl Party. During this first week, I was able to record four songs ("All Out of Owls", "Owlinaire","You and Me", and "The Lazy Song") with the hope that they would help keep all owl-less Betas entertained.
August 22 to 28: Again, another wave of owls, but not as many as we were hoping given that September was just a few days away.
By this time, many of my Pottermore Family were already in, except for me, of course. With each wave I found myself excited, even if I told myself not to get my hopes up. And as easily as that hope swelled, it was also easily deflated as hours would pass and still, I was owl-less.
Once again, I found myself adding songs to my No Owl Party album. At the end of the week, I had another four songs ("Need My Owl", "Want My Owl", "Someday We'll Get My Owl", "A Hard Long Wait"). However, writing the songs could not ease the sadness I was feeling. I felt so terrible that weekend, especially after Pottermore annouced that it would soon be taking a break in order to fix issues with the website.
What if I didn't get in before the break? How long would I have to wait? Would that mean I would get just a week before October, when everyone else would be able to register?
These were the fears I had after every wave of owls that did not contain my owl.
August 29 to 31: Only THREE days to wait before September arrived. Still I was owl-less, but my hope was higher than ever since many of us speculated that they would send a huge wave of owls on September 1 being that it was the start of term at Hogwarts.
September 1: The start of term at Hogwarts, for Harry, Ron and Hermione, but apparently, NOT for Pottermore.
Yes, many of us were disappointed when we realized that Pottermore was not going to send out owls. Many of us owl-less folk sneaked onto the Hogwarts Express, with the help of our Pottermore Family, as it left for Hogwarts. But I found myself stuck inside the Room of Requirement since I could not freely explore the castle without my owl.
September 2: They finally did send out some owls, but not as many as we hoped. And once again, I was still owl-less.
Songs were no longer enough to ease my disappointment and sadness. And so, I found a new hobby, which was to bombard Pottermore with mentions from me on their Twitter account. While I had no idea whether they actually do read their mentions, I felt calmer and more productive sending them messages. I went from simply mentioning that I had no owl, to almost begging them to send it to me. While I enjoyed the company of the people in the No Owl Party, I wanted to leave the party already and go home, home to Hogwarts.
Once again, I started to fear, and the greatest fear that I had was that I would be left all alone in the No Owl Party by September 30. I sent out notices for my owl such as this one:
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| My Pottermore Owl, when it finally does get to me. ^_^ |
Pottermore Family.
September 3: I was not on Owl Watch duty since they usually did not send out owls on weekends. So without thinking about my owl for a whole day, I busied myself with TV show marathons of my favorite shows (FRIENDS) and sang karaoke with my mom.
September 4: At 12:30am, I was sitting with my mom as we were still enjoying our Karaoke Night. I had just reserved a couple of songs while my mom belted out to one of her favorites. As I waited, I decided to randomly refresh my Twitter feed to check on the Pottermore Family. As I couldn't see my mentions, I decided to refresh my inbox via my phone.
2 New Messages, 1 in Yahoo! Mail, 1 in Gmail.
I opened my Gmail.
Confusion, "Did someone send me mail about Pottermore?"
Shock, "Wait, it's not the subject but the SENDER."
Understanding, "OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! MY OWL IS FINALLY HERE!"
Apparently, my owl arrived on September 3 at around 11:30pm. I had no idea that I was no longer owl-less for almost an hour.
I tried to stop my hands from shaking as I tweeted the wonderful news to the rest of my Pottermore Family. I couldn't stop myself from saying "OH MY GOSH!" over and over again. My mom even thought I got a job offer to teach in another country since she heard me say that "The most important email I have been waiting for finally arrived." She thought I was going crazy.
After singing two more songs (yes, I had to sing two more songs to calm my overly-excited nerves), I finally rushed to my laptop. After saying my thanks to those who congratulated me on Twitter, I finally was able to go to Pottermore and SIGN IN.
And so, I was no longer owl-less and no longer in the No Owl Party (but I still visit my friends from time to time).
My lost owl finally found the scared Beta that was me. ^_~
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