With the Pottermore House Cup being awarded this Thursday, many of the Pottermore users have been scurrying around the site getting their last few potions and duelings in.

And now that the hourglasses have been concealed, there’s just no telling who will receive the cup!

This week, there have also been a few updates from the Pottermore team concerning the Chamber of Secrets Interactive Book. First, one from the Notifications Owl that read:

In the run-up to the award ceremony for the Pottermore House Cup, the Great Hall hour-glasses will be concealed for the next week. You’re in the final stretch now – good luck to all houses. Members of the winning house will receive a ‘secret’ bonus.

Could the ‘secret’ bonus be an early entry into the Chamber of Secrets book on Pottermore? Also this afternoon on the Pottermore Insider page, the team gave us a little info on the Chamber of Secrets release:

Over the past few weeks on the Site Updates section of the Pottermore Insider, we’ve been letting you know about our progress developing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Pottermore.

We’re excited to announce that the first chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets are coming very soon to Pottermore.

We will reveal more about this next week here on the Pottermore Insider, as well as the Pottermore Gateway and the new Pottermore house noticeboards.

How do you feel about a few chapters being released at a time? Theoretically, maybe they did this so that we can proceed through the book as if it was the actual Hogwarts school year, and not rush through it in a few hours or days. Do you like this, or would you rather have all the chapters out and read them at your own pace? Get ready because the Chamber of Secrets is closer than ever!

Editor’s note: Thanks also to sachin, who wrote a similar story for Hypable.