Note: Our books and culture critic, Claire Fallon, refuses to watch any of the Fantastic Beasts movies . Why? Just read her essay from 2016 on the clunky, unnecessary expansion of J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter universe.

American Harry Potter fans found out, earlier this year, that their whole magical lives had been lived in deliberate ignorance: Muggle or not, we would never have gotten that coveted owl from Hogwarts. Thats because North Americas wizarding school, it turns out, is some place called Ilvermorny (according to J.K. Rowling).

Ilvermorny??

OK, fine. Within the books themselves wed learned about chic Beauxbatons, the French wizarding academy, and Durmstrang, which appears to educate students from the chillier regions of magical Europe. There are no American students at Hogwarts (though fan fiction is littered with violet-eyed, raven-haired American exchange students named Esmeralda and Chloe who take the British school by storm). Obviously, there would be an American school.

The Ilvermorny announcement turned out to be just the tip of the skeletal ship rising out of the Great Lake . With the film adaptation of Rowlings Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them coming to theaters this fall, starring Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Rowling is preparing fans with a four-part series on Americas magical history, which will be available on Pottermore. The series will address Ilvermorny, the Salem witch trials, Americas magical governing body, and the Navajo legend of skinwalkers.