Pottermore redesign marked with 749 new words on Harry Potter from JK Rowling

A whistlestop tour of Harry's family history

(Pottermore)

JK Rowling certainly knows how to keep the Harry Potter fan base sated, today posting new information on his heritage on the refurbished Pottermore website.

Rowling digs deep into Harry's family history, right back to the 12th century and an eccentric local potion maker named Linfred of Stinchcombe.

The blog post details how Harry's family is rooted in important moments in wizarding history, and tells how the Invisibility Cloak was passed down through generations.

"Linfred was a vague and absent-minded fellow whose Muggle neighbours often called upon his medicinal services," Rowling explains. "None of them realised that Linfred’s wonderful cures for pox and ague were magical; they all thought him a harmless and lovable old chap, pottering about in his garden with all his funny plants.

Rowling goes on to outline that Linfred's reputation as a "well-meaning eccentric" allowed him to carry out his experiments in peace. "Historians credit Linfred as the originator of a number of remedies that evolved into potions still used to this day, including Skele-gro and Pepperup Potion," she says. His sales of such cures to fellow witches and wizards enabled him to leave a significant pile of gold to each of his seven children upon his death."

Rowling also details how the Potters originally resided in the countryside, until Ralston Potter headed to the capital in the 1600s.

You can read the author's full post here.