Did you cry when you realized you were never going to be accepted into Hogwarts? Did you, like so many others, want to experience the magic of the Wizarding World (pun most definitely intended) for yourself?

Starting in July of 2012, everybody and anybody around the world can access myHogwarts, an online fan site where people can take classes, connect with others, and establish friendships.

LVC freshman Steph George will be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Serena Aragon, for the virtual Hogwarts. After working with the creator of the site, Keith Cardin, on other Harry Potter internet projects such as Wizarding Life (a magazine based off of the Daily Prophet, where people write in character articles about the magic world), she applied for the position following an e-mail request and was hired. As of now, she already has 80,000 students for the upcoming semester.  Other subjects include Potions, Transfiguration, Charms and Herbology. New courses will be added to the site as it continues to become established.

The purpose of myHogwarts is not only to teach, but also to connect. Consider myHogwarts as the Facebook of the wizarding world. “There’s more to Harry Potter than just the books,” said George. Meet your classmates and develop new friendships while bonding over what could potentially be one of the most important and influential series of your lives. Here you can also listen to Wizard Rock, a genre of music specifically devoted to Harry Potter via the online radio station.

At this point, you might be thinking, “Isn’t Pottermore supposed to be the same kind of thing? Why can’t I just join that?” This is the very reason why George and her colleagues developed myHogwarts. Pottermore and myHogwarts are two completely separate experiences. “We weren’t satisfied with Pottermore,” said George. “Pottermore is good because it gives a lot of background on the characters and on the series, but it wasn’t what we were expecting. This [myHogwarts] is what we expected and what we wanted.”

Other speculations you could be having include the usage of the internet in the wizarding world. George also addresses this problem. “I’m aware that you can’t learn magic over the internet. We’re going to teach you subjects so you can learn things in real life.” Really, though, if you’re concerned more about the internet usage rather than being overjoyed at the opportunity to learn at Hogwarts, you probably shouldn’t be on the site at all.

myHogwarts is currently in beta testing, but will be fully open up to the public in July.

“If you feel alone in the world of Harry Potter because things have ended, there are ways for you to continue being actively involved in the series. Online fandom is just one of them,” said George.

Any specific questions can be answered on the FAQ page of myHogwarts via www.myhogwarts.co.uk.

By Nicki Shepski ’15, Features Editor (nes002@lvc.edu)

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