"Harry Potter" online courses from Hogwarts Is Here are available.
photo: Warner Brothers Entertainment

Imagine you're rushing to potions class when your buddy Harry Potter grabs you to go on a quest to the Chamber of Secrets, it's just a day in the life of a Hogwarts student. 

That dream is now a reality with a site that's been around for years. Many people are turning to online entertainment as they're cooped up at home, which has sparked popularity for the fan-run website Hogwarts Is Here. The role-playing website allows you to choose your Hogwarts House and take real courses with quizzes, tests, and essays graded by real-life Hogwarts professors to become a true witch or wizard. 

There are also areas to communicate with other Harry Potter fans in the virtual world.

Imagine you're stuck at Hogwarts and not your bedroom this quarantine season.

If you're bored and stuck at home, you're not alone. "I would like to spend the rest of the isolation period at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft & Wizardry," one person tweeted. Now, there is a way to imagine you're studying at Hogwarts instead of procrastinating your real online schoolwork.

Fans have imagined what Hogwarts is looking like during the global pandemic.


Another HP-fan tweeted, "How do you think Hogwarts is doing with virtual classes? Are they using Zoom? Or are the profs teaching primarily through the Floo Network?" 

Hogwarts is probably just as technologically advanced as the rest of the world and is practicing socially distancing, too. Wizards aren't immune to illness, right?

Earn real points for your Houses.

photo: Warner Brothers Entertainment

First year students can enroll in seven classes including Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Astronomy, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Herbology — just like in the Hogwarts universe. Once you choose your own House, you'll begin earning points in order to win the annual House Cup. Currently, Ravenclaw is in the lead, unsurprisingly.

Study as if you were a real-life wizard.

One fan of the site tweeted, "Been studying for @hogwartsishere for a few hours now. Now THIS is the kind of stuff I like to study for! #proudslytherin." Each course includes real lesson plans, with lots of reading and writing, plus quizzes, tests, and essays, which actually receive grades. Fans can work their way up through all seven years of Hogwarts and even prep for the O.W.L.S — aka Hogwart's version of standardized tests.

The site has actually been around since 2014.

Fans have been able to play this role playing and online course game for years now, but it's gotten quite popular since the quarantine has been in place. "A while ago @u_are_lovely_ and I made accounts on @hogwartsishere, and if you've never heard of it, you're really missing out. You can literally take the courses from Hogwarts, and do assignments that are graded by REAL PEOPLE. And don't get me started on all the other features," one fan wrote in 2018. 

Don't goof off in class, you might earn the title of head boy or girl. 

photo: Warner Brothers Entertainment

If you earn the top marks of the class then you could be named Head Boy or Girl. Each professor nominates two students based on their academic performance and commitment. You can either pick up books in the library or at Flourish and Botts, like all of the rest of Hogwarts students. 

This is the perfect time to participate in the OWLS Readathon 2020.

Another way to get involved with other Hogwarts fans is by participating in the third annual #OwlsReadathon2020. Throughout the month of April there are challenges through this Twitter account, Magical Readathon. 

On the Hogwarts Is Here site, you can gather in the Great Hall, House common rooms to communicate with other Harry Potter super fans.