This week, J.K. Rowling is releasing four short stories centered around magic, witches, and wizards in North American history on her fan site Pottermore. She's using the stories to set the stage for the next "Harry Potter" movie, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," which takes place in New York City in 1926.
On Tuesday, she released her first story which charted the earliest years of Native American wizarding lore from the 14th to the 17th centuries. You can read about that here.
Wednesday, Rowling released the second story in the series, "Seventeenth Century and Beyond," which gives us insight into what life was like for American witches and wizards during the Salem witch trials. During these time, wizards and witches lived in fear of "Scourers," a vigilante justice group. Scourers rose to prominence in the years before the founding of the wizarding governing body, the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA), in 1693.
While the Scourers started out with good intentions, they quickly became corrupt and even hunted down fellow wizards. After 1963, many Scourers faced trial and were charged for horrible crimes like torture and murder.
But not all the Scourers were brought to justice. Many of them escaped and lived out the rest of their lives hiding among non-magical folk named No-Maj (you're probably more familiar with the English term muggle). Though some former Scourers had children with No-Maj spouses, Rowling explains that all their children were raised without magic. However, the Scourers still held onto their deep hatred of the magical community and passed it onto future generations.
So what does this mean for "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"?
In the new "Harry Potter" spinoff movies, magizoologist Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, heads to New York City with a case full of magical creatures in hand. While we don't know exactly what happens, we do know that some of the creatures escape and some serious problems ensue for Scamander and his friends.
One of the people Scamander meets is a woman named Mary Lou, played by actress Samantha Morton, who is a member of an anti-wizard member of the "Second Salemers," a group looking to hunt down wizards and bring an end to magic. It's clear she really hates the wizarding community. What are the chances she's related to a former Scourer? Pretty likely.
Mary Lou also has an adopted son named Credence who we don't know a whole lot about yet. But given her hatred of all things magical, we're betting he's not just your ordinary No-Maj. And if it turns out the Credence is a wizard, with a mother like Mary Lou, that definitely spells trouble.
You can read more about the cast of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" here.
