The first term of Hogwarts will start on August 1st and end December 1st. After the term ends a week break is taken off for students to relax, and it gives the head staff time to recruit teachers and students, and make important decisions (prefects, headstudents, etc.)

Please DON'T sign-up twice. You are one person and you can have only one Hogwarts identity. Getting into two different houses by signing up twice is not allowed, and your housemates won't be very happy when they find out. Just don't do this, as all your identities may well be expelled.

How Do I Change My Name/E-mail?-
You can change your name for a valid reason, for example if you accidentally put your real name, or you accidentally misspelled. Send an owl ([email protected]) that includes your old student name and new student name (or old email address and new email address, if that is what you're changing). Send the owl from the email address you've registered with, or it can't be changed (anyone then could ask to change your name without your approval).

HELP!!-
The first thing you do if you have a question regarding Hogwarts is read the FAQ, starting with this one. They answer most of the questions you might have. If you can't find an answer to your question or you have a different problem, you should then post on the message board, and see if anyone can help you. If they cannot, contact one of your house's Prefects. They can almost always help you, and if they can't they will contact someone who can for you. There is a list of house prefects in the Owlery.

Win/Lose House Points-
The best way to win House Points is by simply doing your homework. Most of the points are awarded for class work, for doing your homework and exams. Throughout the year, you may participate and potentially win points in contests as they are posted. You can also win points for extra work, bravery, and other things. You can lose points for misbehavior and not following the rules, and also for not doing your Hogwarts homework.

How do I become a Prefect/Head-Student?-
It's up the Head of House to decide how to choose their Prefects. There might be held elections or you can apply for a position. Or, the professor may choose based on his or her judgement. At this point all of the prefect positions are filled, but if there is an opening that you can apply for, you will be informed of this in your Common Room. The Headboys/girls are chosen by the Hogwarts Headoffice at the beginning of the term.

Duties of a Prefect-
Prefects are the main contacts for all students who need help, have questions or problems. All students are supposed to contact one of their house's Prefects first, before owling their Head of House or the Headmaster's Office. If the Prefects can't help you or solve your problem, they will contact the professors for you. Other Prefect duties are moderating the forums, and any other tasks that they have been appointed. The Prefects are expected to set an example to their fellow students by being fair and following the Hogwarts rules. The responsibilities of a Prefect include awarding house points for good behavior, and deduct points for misdeamenors.

The Quibbler
The Quibbler is our version of The Daily Prophet, and deals with things related to the school. If you are interested in being on The Quibbler staff, please send an email to [email protected].

If you aren`t sure if you are signed up for the newsletter or not, it is recommended that you go sign up for it again. If you have never received any newsletters, make sure you sign up for it. Afterwards, you can read the archives of the old newsletters at Archives

How do I quit Hogwarts?-
If you can find no other alternative or wish to quit Hogwarts, all you have to do is send a pm or e-mail to a prefect or headstudent, and they will send it on to the administrators for you.

Does it cost money?-
No - besides internet connection, everything is free. And of course the "wizarding money" you have to use to buy things in Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Knockturn Alley, etc.

HOUSE POINTS-
House Points and Inactivity-
The house with the most points at the end of this term wins the Hogwarts House Cup. All points you earn in classes or in projects/events/for anything counts toward your house.

If you are not active for one of the named reasons, you will be set inactive by your house to make sure the "house points race" is fair for everyone, especially for your own housemates. Again... you will not be set inactive without at least one notify by email. If your email address is outdated or wrong, if there is no way to communicate, you can be set inactive right away, so please make sure you report any changes of your email addresses as soon as possible.

If you are set to "inactive" without being notified first, or if you feel being treated unfairly or being the victim of some misunderstanding, please contact one of your prefects. Everyone is welcome in Hogwarts, especially also those of you who have only limited internet time available.

ORGANIZATION-
Library-
The library is a site filled with strictly information resources for students. Please do not send in RPGs, Fan-Fics, etc. Please visit it on the Sixth Floor.

If a student writes an informational text, they will be awarded 50 house points. It of course needs to have some form of organization to it and be related to a certain topic, not just ramble on.

Be sure to read the submission guidelines and be careful about sending items to the correct address.

Chain of Command-
It's important to follow Hogwarts's chain of command when you have a question, a problem, or anything you need to ask.

Student--> Prefects--> Head Students--> Professors--> Deputy Headmistress--> Headmaster

It means that as a student, when you have a question, you need to contact a Prefect first and not the Professors or Headmaster. You will probably get an answer even more quickly if you follow this, and it makes everything easier for everyone, so keep it in mind.

Professors and the Headmaster are busy setting up classes and working really hard for Hogwarts so if you have a question please bug your prefects and NOT the Headmaster and professors. PM the Prefects or post in the "Ask a Prefect Board" in the Hogwarts Forum, they are here to be bugged by you! That's their job! And if one of the prefects can't answer your questions (which I am sure won't happen since they are all wise and all knowing) you can always ask another prefect! One of them will have the answer! Also please ask one prefect at a time, and don't bomb all prefects with the same question at the same time.

FORUM- Getting Started- The main Hogwarts Forum is at http://hogwartsacad11.proboards21.com/.

If you don't have a forum account already, you need to register. Click on "Register" at the top of the forum webpage. Then, you need to fill in the form.

For your Username, you have to enter your full Hogwarts name. This is important because we have a lot of students in Hogwarts and if you only use your first name people might mistake you for someone else. If you use a nickname, then people might not recognize you at all, so please only use your FULL Hogwarts name, it's easier for everyone (e.g. Schray Schubert, not SchraySchubert)! If you do not follow this rule 5 points will be taken from your respective house.

Choose a password you can easily remember and enter a correct e-mail address. This is important if you want to be able to archive your PMs or track any topic in the forum. Please read the "Terms of Service", check the "I agree" box and click on "Register".

You are now registered for the Hogwarts Academy of Magic Forum, this does not mean you are automatically a member of Hogwarts Academy - this requires student registration, sorting etc. and it has nothing to do with the Hogwarts Forum registration. All new forum accounts have to be verified by an Admin. If you are a member of Hogwarts, your usergroup will be "First Year" or up; if you are just registered for the Forum, your usergroup will be "Not Yet A Student". You will be able to sign-up for Hogwarts when the student registration is open, then you will be set to "First Year" level.

Spam-
Spam is useless or pointless posts. One word posts, simple 'I agree' posts, posts where you ask questions that have already been answered in the FAQ or in another thread, and posts that have recently been discussed are all considered to be Spam. Spam is very annoying, unnecessary, a waste of bandwidth, and you may lose points anywhere from 5-50 points for it.

House Common Room-
To be able to talk with the other members of your house, you have to sign up at your house Common Room website. Use your full Hogwrats name for this. The Common Rooms are located at:

Gryffindor: http://www.geocities.com/hogwarts_acad/gryffindor/main.html
Hufflepuff: http://www.geocities.com/hogwarts_acad/hufflepuff/main.html
Ravenclaw: http://www.geocities.com/hogwarts_acad/ravenclaw/main.html
Slytherin: http://www.geocities.com/hogwarts_acad/slytherin/main.html

You can, of course, only visit the common room that belongs to your house. No Gryffindors can visit at the Hufflepuff.

If you have any questions regarding the common rooms, please contact one of your house prefects.

PMs-
PM's are Private Messages that you can send to any registered member of the forums. To send one you first log in on the forum then click on a member's name, which is under users online. Under Additional Information, click "Send this member a private message". Fill in all the fields required (member name, Message Title, Post) and click Send and you are done.

Not Yet Sorted-
Not Yet Sorted is a usergroup in the Hogwarts Academy Forum. Every newbie who is not sorted and therefore not a member of Hogwarts with at least "First Year" status, will become a "Not Yet Sorted" at least until student registration opens again.

However, people who aren't a student can still sign up for the forum and post in here, this forum is for everyone to enjoy, have fun, not just Hogwarts Academy students or professors. That's why we created a new usergroup for non Hogwarts students, the "Not Yet Sorted" usergroup. Being Not Yet Sorted will let you discover Hogwarts during a few weeks, reading/posting in the forum, and then when the registration opens you can sign up to become a student if you want to.

Being allowed to post as any other member also means following the forum rules, don't forget that.

Hogwarts Names-
When you sign up for Hogwarts, you will have to pick a name for your identity. It is highly recommended that you do not use your real name. All names will be verified by the Headoffice, they have to follow certain rules in order to get accepted:

-You must have a First Name and a Last Name. Names like "sk8erboi2003" or "ilovehorses" are not acceptable. Pick any first and last name you like. Maybe you want to be distinguishable, the more original your name is, the better maybe. But that is your very own decision.

Every name is allowed only once. If a name is taken by someone else, it is not available anymore.

Your name must be "clean"! No offensive names, and also no stupidly silly names. It is up to the Admins and the Headoffice what we consider appropriate and what not.

No names of celebrities (incl. all HP movie actors of course) that do actually exist! No "Daniel Radcliffe", okay?! You can not pretend to be a celebrity in Hogwarts. If Brad Pitt one day wants to join Hogwarts, the "please no real life name" guideline will be in effect for him as well.

You can only have ONE identity at Hogwarts - just one. You can't "play" two students in the same house, and for sure not in different houses. Fair play and honesty is what we care most for in Hogwarts.

Please take a deep breath, and just look at your keyboard. I'd like to remind you that you ALL have a space bar on it, you know, at the bottom (well... unless you use your keyboard upside down, but that's another problem...).

I have great news. You are allowed to use it! Yes, we have an awesome forum which allows spaces in usernames. You can sign up as "Schray Schubert" (in fact you can't cause that's me), and forget all "SchraySchubert" or "Schray_Schubert" or "Schray*Schubert" or "schrayschubert"...

Yep, I love capital letters too, at the beginning of first and last names, but I guess that last part is up to you... just know that the username is case insensitive, meaning that if your username is "Schray Schubert", you can type "schray schubert" when you log in, it still works.

My point here is that sometimes, your usernames are not easy to read at all (or maybe it's just me).

In fact, if you PM me, I can actually edit your username - add a space, capital letters... just if you feel like satisfying another of my flaws... I'm a perfectionist for many things.

Also, if you forget your password and your username (yes, it happens), please don't sign up again, just email me ([email protected]), and I'll find your username. The problem here is that we end up with people having 2 or 3 forum accounts, just because they forgot the way to type their username: Mark Lupin, Mark_Lupin, and MarkLupin for the same person... which means writing more emails and deleting more accounts.

CLASSES-
Intro and Info on Classes-
Here is all the info you need to know about how to sign up for classes, how to find out classes for which you've been confirmed, and some handy suggestions.

Class List: there is not a class list, but you can view the different classrooms by exploring Hogwarts

Registrar's Office: the place to register is basically the classroom, just e-mail the professor with your name, house, year, vault, and owl (unless they have another specific form of registration that they are using)

Please send an owl to the professor politely asking to join the class (be sure to include all those things mentioned above). And then wait patiently to be accepted into the class. To keep busy, do the homework, so you'll be ready when you're accepted.

Terms: Hogwarts Academy runs on 4-month terms. We fill this gives teachers plenty of times to educate their students. There is a week inbetween each term for a break from Hogwarts, and it is a chance to recruit new students and professors!

Promotion: In order to be promoted to second year, or to third year etc., you must pass all of the classes in which you are enrolled. -- Side note by your favorite Deputy Headmistress: A silly addition, as I know each and every one of you will be promoted each term. Just come to me if you fear you won't. We'll set that teacher straight. Errr ... I mean, we'll talk about your options.

How to Quit a Class: Just send your professor an email asking to be dropped from the class. If you quit a class, it will be noted and observed by the Head Staff, so please choose carefully.

Suggestions to help students better understand the demands we make of professors, and what they deserve in return:

Essentially, professors create a website filled with information and homework assignments. They receive 40-100 assignments a month to grade, spend hours inputting points earned for the work, and answer questions from students who need help. All of this for Hogwarts, in addition to their real life demands. Why on earth do they do this?!? Because they want to!! They enjoy it, just as we enjoy being students.

What do professors ask in return? From what I've seen, they've asked very little, as many homework assignments are optional. Here are some basics that professors graciously require to make their work load a little lighter:

Include your name, house, and year with every homework assignment you submit.

In the subject of your email, include the class title, or whatever the professor may indicate- they may receive hundreds of emails daily, and if they cannot distinguish at a glance what the email is, they may delete it along with the rest of the spam they receive.

Have patience. Patience is a Virtue. Professors will respond to your respectfully written emails and pm's in due time. Lack of immediate response from a professor does not indicate any sort of malice, it merely indicates a busy schedule. Assignments will be graded, points will be awarded. Just be patient.

Be respectful.

How to Become a Professor-
Everyone who wishes to be a professor must visit the Professor Application room and complete the application that asks why you want to teach, what you want to teach, and you have to include a background of interest and what you do. You have to be at least 13 years of age, and if you are under that we will ask you to demonstrate further HTML training, you must also have at least 4 lessons and a classroom set up.

The Hogwarts Headoffice decides on new classes and professors.

Being Inactive-
Hogwarts is a school. Classes are on of the the central parts of Hogwarts. Every student has to be signed-up for at least one class, half-term class or seminar that qualifies for graduation. If you are not doing anything in classes, you can be kicked out by your professors, so just being signed-up and then forgetting about it will not work. Please understand that Hogwarts is a school above all. If you just lurk and chat, then this is not very fair to your housemates. You will hardly be able to earn some points for your house, and if you are not passing, you will not be able to advance to the next year.

Every house has the right to set all students inactive who are not taking any classes in Hogwarts. Being inactive means that your membership is on hold for the rest of the schoolyear. You won't advance to the next year, but you can "rejoin" in summer at the same level as you are now. You will get an email from your house prefects, asking you to take a class or report any problems you might need help with before you will be set inactive.

If you are signed-up to a class that for some reason is not running as expected, then this is not your fault and you won't be made responsible for this.

Specific Time?-
Not at all. Lessons are posted on the class' respective site and you may access them there. Any questions about the lessons can be asked via email. [The professor should have his or her email up on their site.]

There are some classes, however, which are an exception, but most (if not all) of them are not mandated by the professor in charge.

-- Note from Deputy Headmistress: lol, I warned you. You've gotten farther then I have. I think I quite at "How Do I Register". And Now you are halfway through!