Random top ten: Harry Potter websites

Published on Thursday 9 July 2009 15:24

1 www.mugglenet.com

The "ultimate Harry Potter fansite" is run by a staff of 19 precocious young things and includes 50,000 photos, fan fiction, fan art, games and an entertaining Wall of Shame, featuring all the stupidest/strangest/most disturbing things they've ever been sent. "whY don/t u do us all a favor and die cuase hary potter is gay?" goes one. Charming.

2 www.jkrowling.com

The official website of the woman herself, featuring spiders and butterflies scurrying across the screen, and a section devoted to quashing rumours. It's a little bit out of date at the moment, but she's earned a break by now, surely.

3 www.the-leaky-cauldron.org

"The most trusted name in Potter," it says here. Another site held up by a large staff of teen and twentysomething fans, tirelessly devoted to reminding you when Emma Watson is going to be on The Jonathan Ross Show.

4 http://harrypotter.warnerbros.co.uk

Official, hi-tech but uninspired movie website, promoting whatever official movie they happen to have out at the time. Currently features some moody, blue-tinged pictures from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and not a great deal else.

5 www.hp-lexicon.org

Sober, thorough and mostly photo-free, the Lexicon prides itself on its policy of publishing "only strictly canon information in its encyclopedia sections". It is also a bit dull.

6 www.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter

Practical, unfussy and grown-up, the website from publisher Bloomsbury acts, refreshingly, as if Harry Potter is just a series of children's books you might like to read rather than an all-consuming life obsession. Includes a brief FAQ section which tells you what JK stands for and how to pronounce Rowling ("it rhymes with bowling").

7 www.harrypotter.ea.com

Home to Harry Potter the video game, featuring wizard duels, Quidditch and more. Be warned, "you may get sidetracked by Ron's romantic entanglements as you journey towards a dramatic climax".

8 www.harrypotterspage.com

Run by a toothy mother-of-two from Florida, plus a team of helpers with names like "Aragorn" and "Dobbyman". More up-to-the-minute what-the-stars-of-the-films-are-up-to-this-week stuff. There are chapter-by-chapter guides to the books, too.

9 www.harrypotterrealm.com

Cheery, homemade site made by a Californian woman called Gypsy Silverleaf. "Once you have read Harry Potter, you will realise that Harry Potter is a name that will always be with you, for your whole life, no matter where you go," writes Gypsy. However, she has failed to update the movie page since 2004 – tsk tsk.

10 www.veritaserum.com

The United Nations of Harry Potter sites, run by a group of teenagers and early twentysomethings from Brazil, Argentina, Romania, Canada, the UK, the US and elsewhere. Whose bright idea was it to call it Veritaserum, though?