Thursday morning, J.K. Rowling released the third installment of her new writing about magic in America on Pottermore. You can read the first installment here, and the second here.
We learned something that may reverberate through every other story involving the American wizarding world.
After a catastrophic breach in the International Statute of Secrecy, a law was instituted in 1790 to completely segregate American wizards from the No-Maj community.
Dorcus Twelvetress, the daughter of a high-ranking MACUSA official, fell for a No-Maj named Bartholomew Barebone, who happened to believe that the magical community was wrought with evil.
Working off information gleaned from Dorcus, Barty exposed the wizarding world to the No-Maj press and did his best to kill any witches and wizards he could.
This event directly led to Rappaport's Law. Wizards were no longer allowed to even be friends with No-Maj people, let alone marry them. Communication was decreased to only the necessities.
Basically, we just learned of a major wizarding historical moment. One that drove American wizards even deeper underground...
And one that will SURELY reverberate through to the 1920s and Newt Scamander's adventures in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Oh, and we also learned that American wizarding currency is called "Dragot."
You can read J.K. Rowling’s new piece on Pottermore here.
CORRECTION
Bartholomew almost killed a group of No-Maj people in his attempts to attack MACUSA officials. An earlier version of this post said he killed them, but they survived, and hopefully lived very happy fictional lives for decades to come.