About the Daily Prophet

With the publication of the first Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling, something amazing began; children around the world found a new love for reading. Upon seeing the eagerness of the readers, Heather Lawver -- also known as Megora McGonagall -- seized the opportunity to take that love of reading, and turn it into something more; a love of creative writing.

Lawver teamed up with her friend, Liz Malfoy, to create the first edition of the Daily Prophet. Their goal was to teach important writing, grammatical, and professional skills to young people like themselves in a fun environment. They latched on to Harry Potter, and soon, other Harry Potter fans latched onto the Daily Prophet. The site grew rapidly; within a few months, the site had acquired a staff of over twenty columnists, with still more vying to be hired.

Still today, the Daily Prophet exists to instill this love of creative writing in children of all ages. Writing skills are not a requirement for being hired as a columnist at the DP; the goal is to improve skills, or to help kids find new writing skills they didn't know they had.

Megora McGonagall, the site's Editor and Webmistress, handles all the HTML and CSS codes for the creation of this website. She learned how to create websites from her older brothers, both of whom are quite successful on the Internet in their own fields. Steven, the first to teach her HTML, is best known in the Microsoft Flight Simulator fan arena as Captain Slug; he's considered the best fan creator of simulation aircraft. Kevin, who was the first in the family to get interested in the Internet, is a successful and valued employee of America Online, where he works programming AOL Search.

Apart from their dedication to literary arts, the Daily Prophet has also become an advocate for fans across the Internet. In reaction to heavy-handed legal threats sent to Harry Potter fan site owners by Warner Brothers, Heather Lawver took a stance against them, forming a boycott with Harrow City Councilman, Alastair Alexander. The boycott was a resounding success, ultimately ending with Warner Brothers settling nearly every case of fansite misunderstandings. Mr. Alexander and Ms. Lawver have used their victory to protect the fans from future debates and legal threats by forming fan defense organizations. Ms. Lawver has turned the boycott's campaign homepage, the Defense Against the Dark Arts, into an educational hub for legal information regarding fan websites, making sure that children who make fan sites know how to protect themselves. Mr. Alexander is hard at work forming fandefence.org, a similar, albeit much larger, information headquarters regarding domain disputes and fan issues. Ms. Lawver will contribute in the fandefence.org effort.

The Daily Prophet's always expanding in an effort to better educate and entertain youth around the world in a safe, clean environment. The Internet opens doors and dissolves borders. Truly, this is a unique opportunity for growth.