STORY

The Harry Potter Dictionary is gradually growing Harry Potter fan-based website that is currently being operated by a couple of high school students. The website hasn’t made it hugely popular yet, but we still take pride in owning a small piece of the web that is dedicated to Harry Potter.  Below, you may read the information behind what initially intrigued its presence and how it came about.

It started out as much more as a personal project.  When I (Ashley) was in the 8^th grade, there was a project assigned in my Social Studies class whose goal was to have the student potentially create a new colony, with all the technicalities.  And I needed the names of the residents of my colony.  Well, since I was obviously a huge Harry Potter fan, and we were allowed to use whatever we needed to for names, I wanted to strictly use names from the Harry Potter books. Simple enough, I thought.  I started naming characters off the top of my head, but after the first page or so, I found myself seeking additional aid aside from my own recollection.  It was very difficult, considering how hard it was to find a source with a simple list of charaters.  So, I ended up thinking of all the names myself, and wrote them down in the process. 

After the project, I just started briefly defining the characters on the list, and eventually I started to add other fields such as spells and terms.  It became something of a pastime, which I found amusing, just because I was so darn fascinated with the series, but it was mainly for personal reference only. 

                So, one day, I was just carrying the notebook with all this stuff in it around school, and my friend John (see below) simply inquired as to what it was.  I explained.  He found it interesting and prompted me to do a website with the information, which I found surprising, because, again, I considered it nothing more than a personal reference.  Nevertheless, I was intrigued.  John offered to help me set it up and cover technicalities, since he already had a website of his own (www.johnhg.com) and was familiar with how to do so… unlike myself, who, at the time, was clueless.

                We got the site running in January 2008, and it started out with only the basic dictionary info.  Once the summer came, I had more time to try out different things as far as the design, and add new aspects such as recent news to the home page, a poll, and wallpapers.  I consider the website a hobby of mine, and it’s very fun to keep up with.  We are always looking for new ideas to allow the site to improve and expand, so feel free to send suggestions (see the Help Desk).

                Well, now that I’ve typed a novel about why you are reading this right now, you may as well read on about the website’s staff.