Rames put out the following

Rames put out the following press release for Hogwarts OnLine:

HOL – VIRTUAL HOGWARTS
SEPTEMBER 1 – START OF TERM ANNOUNCEMENT

Hello,

we are proud to announce the launch of HOL – VIRTUAL HOGWARTS, a community and online school, based on the ideas of Joanne K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

http://www.hpgalleries.com/hol/ – HOL Main Page
http://190.rapidforum.com/ – HOL Community
http://www.hpgalleries.com/hol/headoffice4.htm – HOL Course Plan

HOL is a huge, international project – the world has not seen so far. For the first school year (September 2001 – June 2002), 3,402 students from 75 nations are registered in HOL, adult teachers from 4 continents are offering more than 30 classes, related to literature and writing, mythology and fantasy and of course all the subjects from the Harry Potter books, from Potions to Herbology, Muggle Studies to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The main purpose of HOL is: to bring people of all ages, cultures, nations, religions together in one big community – to tear down any real or artificial walls that may have been built up by wealth, politics etc. – It’s the individual that counts – that’s the spirit of JK Rowlings books (quotes):

– “You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!”

– “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”

– “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

The main element of HOL are the classes that students will attend during the term! We have a huge variety of “magic-related” classes, some topics are very close to the HP books, others only very loosely related. These classes are not real in the meaning of that students will join in a classroom, or have to get up at 6:00 am for school etc. – but everyone can actually have fun and also learn something in these classes. Students will actually have to do papers and exams.

If you are interested in topics as Alchemy, Myths and Legends, Herbs or Literature – just a few examples – and maybe your interest was raised by reading the HP books – you can enjoy going deeper into the subject by attending these classes. If you wanna do a more fantasy-like class as Charms and DADA you can enjoy this too and it will probably enrich your imagination and bring a lot of fun.

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Pre-term in HOL has started in early July and the success is incredible so far: The combined HPGalleries/HOL site has about 16 million hits per month, 1.8 million pages have been loaded in the HOL Forum (http://190.rapidforum.com/) over the last eight weeks, more than 76,000 messages have been posted .

Dozens of side-projects are being developed already, an extensive library with fan fiction and resources is under construction, and HOL will offer creative writing courses with experienced teachers.

The Spell Binder (http://www.thespellbinder.com/) is a professionally run newspaper that covers all of HOL and the Harry Potter universe. With a staff of many dozens of editors and contributors, the Spell Binder teaches young students the basics of journalism, editing and layouting and it will be the first address for Harry Potter and HOL news, stories and coverage on the internet.

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Thank you for reading. If you need more information, please contact me by email at [email protected] and I will get back to you!

Rames El Desouki (aka Prof. Emerald Dybendahl, HOL Headmaster)

HOL thanks rapidforum.com for its support.

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HOL is looking for a strategic partner or main sponsor. If you are interested in a long-term partnership with the largest independent project in the Harry Potter internet world, please send an email to [email protected] and we email you telephone and fax contacts.

Thank You.