A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices, differentiating fandom-affiliated people from those with only a casual interest.
Harry Potter fandom refers to the community of fans of the Harry Potter books and films who participate in entertainment activities that revolve around the series, such as reading and writing fan fiction, creating and soliciting fan art, engaging in role-playing games, socialising on Harry Potter-based forums, and more. The fandom interacts online as well as offline through activities such as fan conventions, participating in cosplay, tours of iconic landmarks relevant to the books and production of the films, and parties held for the midnight release of each book and film.
Shipping is the desire by followers of a fandom for two or more people, either real-life people or fictional characters to be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship. It is considered a general term for fans' involvement with the ongoing character development of two people's character arcs in a work of fiction. Shipping often takes the form of unofficial creative works, including fanfiction stories and fan art, most often published on the internet.
MuggleNet is the Internet's oldest and largest Harry Potter and Wizarding World fansite. Founded in 1999, MuggleNet distinguished itself early on by its unique and comprehensive content. Barely one year after it was launched, the site was seeing hundreds of thousands of daily visitors each month at its peak. It has expanded over the years to include a handful of partner podcasts, a separate book blog, over half a dozen published works, and live events. At one point, it also ran its own forums, social network, and separate fan fiction website. MuggleNet currently features over 200 pages of content plus an archive of over 18,000 articles, including news, editorials, recipes, a caption contest, and more. Originally owned by founder Emerson Spartz, MuggleNet became an independently owned and operated brand in early 2020 and according to its Twitter bio, has been women-led since 2017.
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's struggle against Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic and subjugate all wizards and Muggles.
The Leaky Cauldron, also called Leaky, TLC, or Leaky News, is a Harry Potter fansite and blog. The site features news, image and video galleries, downloadable widgets, a chat room and discussion forum, and an essay project called Scribbulus, among other offerings. Since 2005, the Leaky Cauldron has also hosted an official podcast, called PotterCast.
The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator, or HPANA, as it is better known, was a Harry Potter fansite created in 2002 to monitor news on the Internet about J. K. Rowling's series of novels about the eponymous wizard. It is now critical of JK Rowling and her views on trans issues.
Wizard rock is a type of novelty rock music themed around the Harry Potter franchise. The music was largely prevalent in the United States in the early 2000s. Wizard rock initially started in Massachusetts with Harry and the Potters, though it has grown internationally.
PotterCast is the official podcast of the Harry Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron. Its episodes are posted once per month and are typically about an hour long. In every episode, the hosts discuss particular passages, themes, and questions from the Harry Potter books and films, and they go over the Potter-related news stories reported during the previous week by The Leaky Cauldron. The podcast often includes input from everyday Potter fans, but it has also featured numerous interviews with professionals involved in making the Potter books, films, and video games. PotterCast frequently hosts contests, and it has presented a variety of themed shows, including a special wizard rock video edition and an episode for Banned Books Week 2005, in which staff interviewed representatives from the American Library Association. It also covers breaking news, such as the press conference hosted by Warner Brothers before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Harry Potteris a series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling.
Harry and the Potters are an American rock band known for spawning the genre of wizard rock. Founded in Norwood, Massachusetts in 2002, the group is primarily composed of brothers Joe and Paul DeGeorge, who both perform under the persona of the title character from the Harry Potter book series. Harry and the Potters are known for their elaborate live performances, and have developed a cult following within the Harry Potter fandom.
Harry and the Potters is the eponymous debut studio album by indie rock band Harry and the Potters, released in June 2003. The album was inspired by the first four novels in the Harry Potter book series.
Draco and the Malfoys are a wizard rock band founded in Woonsocket, Rhode Island in 2004. The group is composed of half-brothers Brian Ross and Bradley Mehlenbacher, who both perform under the persona of Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter book series.
Fandom is a wiki hosting service which hosts wikis on entertainment. Its domain is operated by Fandom, Inc., a for-profit Delaware company founded in October 2004 by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. Fandom was acquired in 2018 by TPG Capital and Jon Miller through Integrated Media Co.
Pottermore Ltd. is the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company from J. K. Rowling, and is a global digital publisher of Harry Potter and the Wizarding World. It offers news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased writing by J. K. Rowling. The site features Rowling's thoughts, several pages of unpublished text, and a sales resource for e-book and audiobook versions of the seven Harry Potter novels.
Fandom Forward is a nonprofit organization that was initially run by Harry Potter fans but that has since expanded to include members of various fandoms. It was founded by Andrew Slack in 2005 to draw attention to human rights violations in Sudan. Since then, the organization's campaigns have focused on topics such as literacy, United States immigration reform, economic justice, gay rights, sexism, labor rights, mental health, body image, and climate change. They have received recognition from many popular figures in the Harry Potter community and have been the subject of multiple academic studies on fan activism and civic engagement among youth.
Ministry of Magic is a wizard rock band with a pop/electronica sound. The band was started in 2007 by Jason Munday and several of his friends. They have released several albums and given hundreds of performances.
8 Myles Kane is an American film producer and wizard rock artist.
Geek rock is a musical subgenre derived from alternative rock within the nerd music group. It is a sister genre to the chiptune-influenced rock subgenre nintendocore and related to other branches of nerd music such as hip hop's nerdcore and contemporary folk's nerd-folk. Geek rock is characterised by the standard instruments of rock music often combined with electronic and unusual instruments; references to geek culture and specialised, yet often mundane, interests; and an element of humour. Specific subgenres of geek rock range from those related to elements of geek culture, such as the Harry Potter–based wizard rock, and those related to elements of rock music, such as the punk rock variant called nerd punk.
A Celebration of Harry Potter was an annual three-day weekend event held on the last weekend of January at Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure theme parks at Universal Orlando Resort. The event was a celebration of the fandom of the Harry Potter books, authored by J. K. Rowling, and the Wizarding World franchise, in a collaboration between Universal Parks & Resorts, Warner Bros. Entertainment, who owns the franchise, and Scholastic, publishers of the book series in the United States. The inaugural event took place on the weekend of January 24–26, 2014 and the final event on the weekend of January 26–28, 2018.
