UrbanWire

Are you absolutely crazy about Harry Potter, and would like to have something magical to ravel in during those long waits for the books or movies to be released?

Well, a large Harry Potter online community has already been established on the web, and it consist sites featuring Harry Potter news, fan fiction, fan art, and even information databases on everything Harry Potter.

Having only just opened its doors in May 2004, Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling's official website is just as interesting and surprising as her works.

Completely made using flash, the site is a representation of J.K.Rowling's desk - messy, with secrets hidden everywhere. Some of these secrets include "Easter eggs" - secret content found by clicking everything on the site and working out the clues. Quite worth your while. J.K.Rowling also periodically awards fan-sites, dispels rumours, and relates her experiences, which are very entertaining, on the site.

The Leaky Cauldron (TLC) is one of the best fan-run Harry Potter news sites on the net. It features all sorts of HP news faster than any other website.

Run by an interesting group of fans (including a newspaper journalist, a web-developer, an attorney, a geographer, and a researcher) mostly based in the U.S., The Leaky Cauldron is updated daily with HP news sent in by fans from all corners of the globe.

TLC is also renowned for their exclusive interviews with HP cast and crew members, as well as their efforts to bring HP fans everywhere together for charity drives and national meet-ups, among other things.

The Leaky Cauldron has been mentioned in many newspapers, and is also a popular fan link in online articles.

MuggleNet is perhaps one of the few sites that have ever beaten The Leaky Cauldron to a news scoop.

Besides having an on-the-ball crew of young webmasters from all over the world, MuggleNet is also an all-round fan-site which has many sections ranging from editorials, interesting information about the books and movies, games, downloadable wallpapers and icons, to funny parodies and spoofs.

Ever heard the saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?" Well that's what Warner Brothers did when they discovered that there were too many HP fan-sites for them to sue over copyrights.

Warner Brothers dropped all the suits it had filed against fan-sites (mostly run by children and teenagers), and set up its own official Harry Potter site. The website has beautiful flash animation, which just seems to get better with the release of each new HP film.

Although not updated often enough, the games, virtual walk-throughs and downloads are pretty good. It's definitely worth a visit.

DarkMark.com is another top all-rounder fan-site, with good news scoops and well-stocked sections about the books and movies, as well as fan art, fan fiction, and forums.

DarkMark.com also has arguably the largest Harry Potter-related image gallery on the internet, boasting 3475 images in 106 categories! It's definitely worth your time even if it's only for the galleries alone.

The Harry Potter Lexicon is a complete (and we mean complete!) encyclopaedia of everything from the Harry Potter books. If you've forgotten a fact and want to look it up quick, Lexicon is the way to go. It even has its very own search engine. Everything from the books, down to the smallest detail, is documented on this site, making it a true treasure.

Not only is DanRadcliffe.Com the best site featuring Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, it is also a remarkably good Harry Potter fan-site.

Though obviously with a specific slant towards Daniel Radcliffe, this site is renowned for having the best HP-related magazine scans and some exclusive video clips, as well as face-to-face meet-ups with Dan (their latest project was making a cookbook for Dan - all the recipes were sent in by fans).

CBBC Newsround, a children's news program in the U.K., runs a full section on Harry Potter, and as CBBC is in constant contact with Warner Bros., they normally receive casting information before any other media vehicle does!

One of CBBC Newsround's presenters, Lizo, is a huge Harry Potter fan, and he has a knack for getting exclusive interviews with J.K.Rowling and the Harry Potter stars, which are uploaded on their website after broadcast in the U.K. - Harry Potter fans across the globe don't lose out!

Potter World Online is a fabulous fan-site run by French webmaster Winky, who often produces really good magazine scans, and painstakingly translates interview transcripts into English for English HP fan-sites.

FictionAlley.Org is one of the leading Harry Potter Fan Fiction websites on the internet, with a huge range of sections and categories. And like The Leaky Cauldron, it has been featured in newspaper publications around the world.

HPANA is very good fan-site and is famous for its automatically-updated Harry Potter news-gathering engine, which can detect news updates from some sources in as little as 5 minutes after publication.

The Official Scholastic Harry Potter website is a beautiful flash site that has been running since 2000. Special features on this site include the long-running and ever improving Wizard Challenge, a flash quiz game consisting of millions of HP trivia questions sent in by fans, and the scholastic flash screensaver, a masterpiece which is updated with the release of each book and movie.

RupertGrint.Net is the best fan-site on the internet for information about Harry Potter star Rupert Grint. In addition, it has a fantastic image gallery second only to Dark Mark's.

This Thai Harry Potter fan-site recently expanded to include English-speaking fans, and it's a good thing they did. Muggle Thai looks to be the next "it" website, springing out of nowhere to bring us fantastic hi-resolution never-before-seen movie stills and exclusive video clips!

This flash cartoon site consists of two absolute madcap Harry Potter cartoons that have gained popularity over the last year.