The Harry Potter mod got its start in November of 2002. Our first host, Kerry, worked with some friends to bring the original Harry Potter in Neverwinter Nights module to life. After a tremendous burst of creative building and scripting, the first closed beta was ready to begin by February of 2003. In March of 2003, the beta was opened to the public—specifically to other NWN gamers who were now able to see HPNWN on the multiplayer server lists. In May of 2003, Harry Potter in Neverwinter Nights had its grand opening.

In the summer of 2006, Kerry shut the original host server for HPNWN down, but passed the torch to Kimi, who in turn enlisted Mike to host the second incarnation of HP in NWN, which was called HP Adventure. The mod itself was passed over intact with Kaz becoming the new Head Builder. However, the server character vault was lost. HP Adventure had a brief, but excitingly tumultuous run through the fall and winter of 2006-'07.

Concurrently, beginning in the winter of 2007, a separate, official effort was underway to construct a new Harry Potter in Neverwinter Nights module employing third-party and custom-made HAKs. The brainchild of Shova, and harking back to his efforts to create New Rise during the first server's run, JBMT was the Head GM and co-architect. For a couple of months, JBMT and Kaz ran both the post-"Voldymike" HP Adventure (as a veritable free-for-all) and the more strictly regulated and truer-to-HP Harry Potter in Neverwinter Nights. The first GM-led class on HPNWN was Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall and took place at 6:30 PM Eastern Standard Time on March 14th, 2007.

Eventually (before long), Mike pulled the plug on HP Adventure and neglected to pass on the latest version of the mod and the character vault. Kaz would rebuild the mod from older work she had saved—both out of some necessity and in the hopes of removing various issues and additions that had crept into the mod during HP Adventure. JB renamed the new module World of Harry Potter and stated an emphasis on expanding the scope of roleplay beyond Hogwarts itself. Another goal, carried over from HPNWN, was to distance the Harry Potter mod from the Dungeons & Dragons nature of Neverwinter Nights—an ongoing and evolving effort which continues to this day.

At that time, HAKs were enough of a barrier to entry that the population of HPNWN remained small. It was decided to focus all efforts on the newest, HAK-free module, World of Harry Potter. While Kaz was busy recreating the HP mod, a large group of "HPers" took a vacation together and invaded the Castlevania mod. Shova's host of HPNWN was taken offline.

The World of Harry Potter was launched in the spring of 2007. JB hosted the server and acted as Head GM while Kaz and Shova alternately contributed to the build, along with a little help from some other guest builders. HP Adventure characters—some of them with history going back to the first server—were painstakingly imported into WoHP from timely HPA exports. WoHP had a small, tightly-knit group of GMs: JB, Kaz, Zack-Fireblade, Nik, and RT. The releases of both the seventh Harry Potter book and the fifth movie, The Order of the Phoenix, our mod saw an overwhelming influx of newcomers. The mod reached its zenith of player population and activity up to that time. Unfortunately, many of the new players were less-than-perfect mod citizens. And old tensions between some of the players were further exacerbated by the passing swirl of chaos. Fractiousness between the builders and the players and a terrible flame-war on the forums led to a request by the builders to shut the mod down, and at the beginning of August, 2007, JB complied.

Nik quickly hosted an older version of the mod to temporarily house all of the HP refugees. One of the builders soon relented and contributed a more current, working version of the mod to Nik's host. The World of Harry Potter resumed its life with Nik as host and Head GM and with Drado as Head Builder. In response to the fraying of the previous server, Nik's host was more centralized and authoritative. The character vault was preserved, but so many players had jumped over to the new host so quickly, Nik decided against its use. In general, the policies of the mod were preserved, despite the different style of management.

As Nik's real-life obligations usurped his time for administering WoHP, Drado gradually took on the full responsibility of running the mod almost single-handedly. In early 2008, a new host for World of Harry Potter was found, and Nik, Drado, and JB agreed to hand the reins to Calan. Calan had already been contributing significantly to the mod's scripting. Calan combined both existing character vaults and began hosting the World of Harry Potter on February 18th, 2008.

The official Neverwinter Nights Harry Potter module, still called World of Harry Potter, is currently enjoying its most stable and productive server run in our history. Our player numbers are at an all-time peak. And even more importantly, we can boast one of the most solid player bases of dedicated, talented, and fun roleplayers on Neverwinter Nights. As our history shows, we've paid our dues and learned our lessons. As we continue to grow and evolve, continuously incorporating new players and new ideas, we look forward to new opportunities for entertainment and new challenges for roleplay. Join us.