There are two Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter. The first resides in Los Angeles, Orlando and London, where fans of the book and film series can immerse themselves in reproductions of Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There’s a certain thrill involved, walking in the fictional footsteps of Harry, Ron and Hermione, especially when surrounded by adults and children dressed in house robes and brandishing wands as they take in the sights.
The second, meanwhile, inhabits public libraries, fan-organized festivals and conventions, and the World Wide Web. Although both of these Wizarding Worlds owe their existence to the books of J.K. Rowling and corresponding Warner Bros. film adaptations, the second was built by fans and resembles a self-contained community, complete with news outlets, charity initiatives, fanfic writings, fan-made artwork, and even its own musical genre.
Melissa Anelli had a front-row seat during the formation of this real life Wizarding World, having first become active within it in 2001. Over the next six years, she witnessed the fandom’s expansion as the final three books in the series and initial batch of big screen adaptations were released. In her 2008 book Harry: A History, Anelli tells the story of that evolution and how it resulted in not only a shared experience for millions but a genuine community that continues to unite fans from across the country and around the world to this day.
Although Melissa Anelli had initially read Harry Potter during college, it wasn’t until she rediscovered the books after graduating from Georgetown University that her involvement within fandom truly began. Searching the Internet for news on when the next installment would be published, she stumbled her way through a number of websites until one in particular caught her eye – the Leaky Cauldron.
Anelli soon found herself active on Harry Potter message boards and, given her journalism degree, even assisted fellow fans in starting an online newspaper called the Spellbinder. Her efforts garnered the attention of the Leaky Cauldron, which invited her to join the website as editor. It didn’t take long before Melissa Anelli was the dominant creative force on the Leaky Cauldron, which – along with MuggleNet – was the premier source of Harry Potter information on the Internet.
While Harry Potter had already become an international phenomenon by 2001, Melissa Anelli contends in Harry: A History that it was the World Wide Web and the growing community of fans that developed on the Internet that ultimately raised the franchise to astronomical levels. In the past, fandoms based on science fiction, comic books, Star Trek, and Star Wars had to rely on fanzines sent through the mail and annual conventions to have any sort of shared experiences. The World Wide Web changed fandom by allowing more immediate interaction across greater distances, something that fans of The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer took advantage of during the 1990s.
By the early 2000s, meanwhile, the Internet itself was evolving with its first batch of social media sites – including LiveJournal and Myspace – finding a foothold. The Web continued to grow in popularity as well, especially with a younger generation that was more willing to share information about themselves and had already developed a love for Harry Potter.
“Now they weren’t only forming social connections but using Harry Potter to explore literary concepts by writing fanfiction… developing their artistic skills by drawing their favorite Harry Potter characters and scenes,” Melissa Anelli explains in Harry: A History. “In America alone Harry Potter absorption was bounding, multiplying, mushrooming outward, and feeding on only itself to do so, and children of that age were the same ones who were most likely to give out information on the Internet or form social connections online. The right people, the exact right fans, at the exact right time.”
This newfound form of fandom had a direct impact on book sales. Before the third installment was released – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – worldwide purchases of Harry Potter books were approaching one million. By the time the final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published, that number had topped 325 million, while Deathly Hallows itself had a record-breaking twelve million first print run.
Warner Bros. – which not only acquired the film rights but general jurisdiction over all-things Potter as well – had not yet made the connection between the fandom and its positive effects on official Potterdom. In early 2001, the media giant therefore began sending “cease-and-desist” letters to fansites, claiming copyright infringements. Fans decided to fight back instead of capitulating, however, informing news outlets of their predicament, researching legal options, and even calling for a boycott of Warner Bros. merchandise. Eventually Warner Bros. backed down in this so-called PotterWar, taking a different stance in which Harry Potter was considered an “evergreen” franchise that needed to be nurtured so that its long-term viability could flourish.
This new approach benefited another off-shoot of Harry Potter fandom, Wizard Rock. Started as a lark by Boston-area brothers Paul and Joe DeGeorge – who crafted songs about Harry Potter and performed under the stage name “Harry and the Potters” at local libraries – this budding musical genre reached a peak of over 800 similar bands worldwide by the time Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in 2007.
Instead of taking a “cease-and-desist” approach to Wizard Rock as they had initially done with Harry Potter fansites, Warner Bros. reached an informal agreement with the DeGeorge brothers – as long as they didn’t sell merchandise directly related to Harry Potter on their website, Warner Bros. would allow them to continue using Harry Potter as a source of inspiration for their songs.
This more enlightened Warner Bros. also benefitted Melissa Anelli, who was determined to transform fansites into a legitimate branch of journalism. She slowly established contacts at Warner Bros., as well as book publisher Scholastic and even J.K. Rowling’s inner circle, who made themselves available for quotes and information. Soon even mainstream media began recognizing websites like the Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet as legitimate news sources, resulting in Anelli herself being interviewed by the BBC, ABC, CBS and the New York Times.
Overall Harry Potter fandom continued to expand during this time period as well. In 2003, fans organized Nimbus in Orlando, the first Harry Potter convention ever held. The event was well attended, with a full slate of panel topics and the majority of fans dressed in cosplay as their favorite characters. By the time the Phoenix Rising conference was held in New Orleans just two months before the release of the final Harry Potter book, not only were thousands of fans in attendance but Borders Books sent a seven-team crew to film the event while journalists from Dateline and Salon.com were likewise on hand to report on the proceedings.
The first Harry Potter-themed podcasts, meanwhile, first hit the Internet in 2005 and quickly became runaway success stories, with MuggleNet leading the way and the Leaky Cauldron not far behind. In November of that year, MuggleNet’s MuggleCast and the Leaky Cauldron’s PotterCast teamed up for a joint live presentation in New York City. When the number of fans who had expressed an interest in attending reached 500, Barnes & Noble agreed to hold the event at its flagship store in Union Square. All three floors quickly filled, with many of the over 700 attendees watching the podcast via videofeed.
On July 20, 2007 – the day before the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Melissa Anelli and PotterCast were in Naperville, Illinois, for a celebration that transformed the small town into a Harry Potter dreamland that attracted tens-of-thousands of fans. Paul and Joe DeGeorge, meanwhile, performed as Harry and the Potters in front an estimated crowd of 16,000 at Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
While Harry Potter fandom may never be as big as it was in July 2007, it continues to remain strong nonetheless. Harry and the Potters still go on tour, as do a number of other Wizard Rock bands. MuggleNet and the Leaky Cauldron remain the premier news sites for all-things Harry Potter, and Melissa Anelli’s Mischief Management now oversees an annual Harry Potter convention called LeakyCon that continues to attract thousands of fans.
The official Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter in Los Angeles, Orlando and London are fan magnets as well, bringing in millions of visitors per year. But it is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Fandom that is truly “evergreen” – a community of fans built by fans that continues to remain strong to this day.
Anthony Letizia