J.K. Rowling Introduced "New" Character to Harry Potter-verse!

We may not have owls to deliver J.K. Rowling's new Harry Potter-inspired story to our door steps, but the internet is pretty close to that, so she decided instead to post it on her site Pottermore yesterday, August 18 -- which also happens to mark the birthday celebration of one Celestina Warbeck. Who is Celestina Warbeck, you may ask? Apparently, she is Rowling’s favorite “off stage” character, meaning that she never actually appeared in any of the books.

Despite this, does Celestina’s name sound familiar? If so, that’s because Celestina Warbeck is actually a pop singer in the Potter world and none other than Mrs. Weasley is a huge fan of her since her teen years. During a Christmas celebration at the Weasley family household in the sixth Harry Potter novel The Half Blood Prince, Mrs. Weasley is shown reminiscing about her teen years while listening to Celestina’s hot hit from back in the day. The lyrics are, “Oh, come and stir my cauldron / And if you do it right / I’ll boil you up some hot, strong love / To keep you warm tonight.” Yeah, Mrs. Weasley was apparently a frisky young gal in her youth.

The story of Celestina Warbeck follows her life in and out of the spotlight. Without giving too much away from the story, I can tell you that Celestina had a wizard father and a muggle mother who was a failed actress, and she attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in House Gryffindor before becoming famous. Like many other singers and entertainers alike in our world, she has been married three times but only has one son. She is often found in the gossip column of such magical publications like the Daily Prophet, and she has a love for philanthropy. Her muggle mother even complained to Hogwarts about their lack of a stage school and insisted on creating a chorus, which, when the Harry Potter series picks up in the future, proves that her mother’s efforts paid off.

That’s just a taste of some details you can expect from the story about Harry Potter’s newest character being thrown into the spotlight. This is getting me excited about what else Rowling has in store for the Potter expanded universe. How about you, Potter fans, are you excited to meet Celestina Warbeck and whatever else the owls are the internet is flying over our way?

Fun facts about Celestina Warbeck:

1. On top of a story about Celestina, you can actually see her (well, an actress playing her) performing shows regularly at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley at the Universal Orlando Resort. She even has a group of backup singers accompanying her called “The Banshees”.

2. Rowling based Celestina’s style and looks on the Welsh pop singer Shirley Bassey. She is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker. As far as I know, though, she does not practice witchcraft.

3. Her two best known songs are “You Charmed the Heart Right out of Me” and “A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love”. The latter song was playing during Christmas at the Weasley household in The Half Blood Prince.

(Photo via WENN)

- Kevin Donaldson, YH Staff