Hogwarts Hits the Net

It was a beautiful day, a very beautiful day. Which is, of course, why it happened to be the fated day that a certain announcement was made that would change Hogwarts forever, and particularly the lives of its students...and even some of the teachers. All the students were in the banquet hall, enjoying their dinners, when Albus Dumbledore walked up to the front. As this was not a particularly special occasion, the students turned to their Headmaster, intrigued. A wave of mutters and excited whispers raced down the long dining tables, and soon enough, the entire hall was caught up in speculation as to Dumbledore's intentions. However, with a wave of his hand, the ancient wizard dispelled all talking and commotion.

"Now, students, if you would be so kind as to give me your attentions, I have an announcement to make to you which I am quite sure will make you all very happy. We teachers at Hogwarts have been working on a very special project--we kept is secret so we would not disappoint you if it failed. However, our plans have come about delightfully, and so I am very pleased to inform you that for the first time ever, Hogwarts now has something very unique available for use--the internet." Dumbledore beamed at the students, eyes sparkling behind half-moon glasses. He stepped back and allowed the students to digest the information and begin their ritualistic good-news-chatter.

"Harry! Ron! Can you two believe this?" Hermione was the first to speak out of the notorious Gryffindor trio of Hogwarts, turning to her two best friends to gauge their reactions.

"I wonder how they did it," Harry commented. "After all, you're always reminding us how electricity doesn't work at Hogwarts, right?" Unconcerned with the answer, as he already had a fairly good idea of what it would be, Harry turned to see how some of the other students were taking the news. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs seemed to be the most excited, which Harry supposed was due to the fact that that's where the most muggle-borns were sorted. He examined several students in particular, including a certain blonde Slytherin, who had a wicked sort of grin on his face. Seeing how Draco Malfoy received the news, Harry turned back to his friends and noted that Hermione was still pondering about how Dumbledore had accomplished a connection to the internet without the aid of electricity.

"... so perhaps they found a way to connect us magically to the web..." Hermione frowned, thinking.

"Wait guys, er, what exactly is the internet?" Ron asked, a hint of scarlet shading his cheeks.

"Finally!" Harry crowed immediately, grinning broadly.

"Finally what, Harry?" Hermione asked, perplexed.

"Finally, it's the wizard asking the muggle-born what something is, and not the other way around!" Harry held up his head triumphantly, as though he had personally accomplished some great task. Hermione rolled her eyes, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'boys' with an exasperated sigh.

"Look, could you just tell me what it is?" Ron interrupted, his eyes pleading.

"The internet, a muggle invention, is the mother of all networks. First incarnated beginning in 1969 as the ARPANET, a U.S. Department of Defense research testbed. Though it has been widely believed that the goal was to develop a network architecture for military command-and-control that could survive disruptions up to and including nuclear war, this is a myth; in fact, ARPANET was conceived from the start as a way to get most economical use out of then-scarce large-computer resources.

As originally imagined, ARPANET's major use would have been to support what is now called remote login and more sophisticated forms of distributed computing, but the infant technology of electronic mail quickly grew to dominate actual usage. Universities, research labs and defense contractors early discovered the Internet's potential as a medium of communication between _humans_ and linked up in steadily increasing numbers, connecting together a quirky mix

of academics, techies, hippies, SF fans, hackers, and anarchists. The roots of this lexicon lie in those early years.

Over the next quarter-century the Internet evolved in many ways. The typical machine/OS combination moved from DEC PDP-10s and PDP-20s, running TOPS-10 and TOPS-20, to PDP-11s and VAXes and Suns running Unix, and in the 1990s to Unix on Intel microcomputers. The Internet's protocols grew more capable, most notably in the move from NCP/IP to TCP/IP in 1982 and the implementation of Domain Name Service in 1983. It was around this

time that people began referring to the collection of interconnected networks with ARPANET at its core as "the Internet".

The ARPANET had a fairly strict set of participation guidelines -

connected institutions had to be involved with a DOD-related

research project. By the mid-80s, many of the organizations

clamoring to join didn't fit this profile. In 1986, the National

Science Foundation built NSFnet to open up access to its five

regional supercomputing centers; NSFnet became the backbone of the Internet, replacing the original ARPANET pipes (which were formally shut down in 1990). Between 1990 and late 1994 the pieces of NSFnet were sold to major telecommunications companies until the Internet backbone had gone completely commercial.

That year, 1994, was also the year the mainstream culture

discovered the Internet. Once again, the killer app was not the

anticipated one - rather, what caught the public imagination was the hypertext and multimedia features of the World Wide Web. Subsequently the Internet has seen off its only serious challenger (the OSI protocol stack favored by European telecom monopolies) and is in the process of absorbing into itself many of the proprietary networks built during the second wave of wide-area networking after 1980. It is now (1996) a commonplace even in mainstream media to predict that a globally-extended Internet will become the key unifying communications technology of the next century."

Harry and Ron stared at Hermione blankly, mouths open.

"What?" she asked defensively. "Haven't you two ever bothered to read the dictionary before?"

"Honestly, I think 'Mione's gone insane," Ron whispered to Harry, who gave a slight nod of agreement.

"Look Ron, I'll show you how it works when we get a chance to use it... of course knowing our luck, they've probably got three computers in the library or something, and we'll be fighting the whole school to use them." Harry poked at his food glumly. "I'm not really hungry anymore. Do you guys want to head up to the commons? It looks like that's what everyone else is dong anyway."

Ron and Hermione agreed, and the three left the hall, walked up the stairs (which by some miracle didn't even shift once), and entered through the Fat Lady's entrance (with the password 'Cornish Pixies'). The sight that met their eyes upon entering was amazing.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione!" The trio found themselves being greeted by none other than Fred and George, amidst a room of wildly partying Gryffindors. "You won't believe it--they've already put in the computers for accessing the internet, and there's one computer for each student!" Fred grinned at the three.

"As you can see, a lot of people are pretty excited. Everyone is either here partying or up in their rooms trying out the computers," George interjected.

"Actually, we're only staying here for a bit--we've some important business of our own to attend to on the internet. Goodbye!" With a wink, Fred grabbed his twin's arm and the two disappeared up the stairs.

"What do you think? Party or internet?" Ron asked, turning to Harry and Hermione.

"Internet," the two replied simultaneously.

Ron grinned. "That's exactly what I had in mind." All three perfectly content with the current situation of things, they headed up to their individual dorms, the boys greeting Hermione goodnight as she turned in the direction of the girls' dormitories. Harry and Ron entered their room excitedly, noting several open doors with excited giggles coming from their occupants.

"Hey Harry?" Ron said as he shut the door behind them.

"Yeah Ron?" Harry asked, noting the two computer desks facing each other and seating himself before one.

"Do you think you could show me how to use this thing?" Ron asked, a small blush coming to his cheeks.

"No problem," Harry replied, dragging his chair next to Ron's computer. "Now the first thing to do is press this button here to turn the computer on..."

**Harry's description of how to use the internet has been left out, as it would be somewhat boring a read... that, and I'm too lazy to write it for you.**

"So, do you think you can handle it on your own from here?" Harry asked, nearly an hour after he had dragged his chair over next to Ron's computer.

"Yeah, I think so," Ron replied excitedly. Harry had explained everything, from the web browser to the chat program, something he had been delighted to find. Assured that Ron would be able to handle the rest of the way on his own, Harry pulled his chair back next to his own computer, and with a sigh, opened up the chat client.

"Hmm, name?" Harry whispered to himself, barely audible. What would he use as his screen name? He was half-tempted to put something along the lines of 'ferret-lover', then realized that far too many people would understand the reference and nose about until they discovered who it was. Tonight of all nights, he knew that nearly all the student population of Hogwarts would be online. So instead, he settled on the subtler 'dragon-lover'. Draco meant dragon, but enough people liked dragons anyway that it would be very vague, and no one would think anything of it. With a very smug grin, Harry typed in his desired name, and with a single mouse click, was connected. Now, for a chatroom to enter, Harry thought. With a sly smile, he decided to enter the room 'Magic' and see what sort of people were hanging around. Unfortunately, he also realized that as this was an internet connection, there could be all sorts of people here... magical and muggle. Oh well, I can deal with it, Harry thought, and with a click, entered the room 'Magic'.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ron smiled as he opened up the chat program. This was going to be fun. He was fairly sure he knew what he was doing now, as Harry had pretty well explained to him how to use the chat program, as well as the internet browser. "Hmm." He frowned as he was presented with a question--what screen name to use? He thought for a few moments about what would suit his fancy. He glanced around his desk to Harry, who appeared to already be engrossed in a conversation, as he was typing furiously, laughing, frowning or smiling every so often. Ron sighed and turned back to his computer, staring blankly at the screen. Here he was, so close to being able to access this vast network, and he was stuck for a name! Guess I'll just have to think of something random, he thought, frowning. What would work though? Finally, he just typed in the first thing that came to mind--'Red Lion'. It wasn't particularly funny or cool, but it would do.

Now, there was only the question of what room to enter. Ron frowned, knowing that he had to be careful, or he could very well land himself in a room full of perverted people talking about dirty things. The very idea made him shudder. Finally, he surmised that it would be safe enough to join the room 'Magic'. Pressing a single key, Ron found himself in the room and grinned.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hermione Granger had always prided herself on her knowledge. It was the one thing she possessed that made her truly special, as far as she was concerned, and the one thing that could never be taken away. She knew that she was a very clever girl, as could be proven by her progress in school, and as every one of her teachers would vouch for, however resentfully. So why then, if she was so bright, was she stuck coming up with something as simple and ludicrous as a screen name? When she first encountered the situation, it seemed an easy enough one to conquer. Yet, here she was, unable to think of any sort of a name that would properly describe her but still avoid giving away her identity to any other students who might stumble into the same room as her this night.

"A name, a name, my kingdom for a name!" she muttered angrily, glaring at the screen. A giggle from behind the other computer interrupted her thoughts, and she peered around the computer desk to see Lavender Brown staring at her computer screen dreamily. Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that the girl was not using the chat program, but was staring at pictures on the internet. Hermione was half-tempted to ask her what was so funny, then decided she didn't want to know--knowing Lavender, it was probably significantly dirty. With a small sigh, Hermione turned back to the task at hand.

Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way, Hermione reasoned. Here she was, trying her hardest to come up with a name that described her. Yet, it added an element of stealth, and quite a bit of amusement, to use a name that didn't describe her at all. She glanced to Lavender, who had lapsed into a fit of hysterics, and the perfect name popped into her mind. With a wicked grin crossing her face, Hermione typed in the name 'Locked Heart'. Not terribly subtle, but it certainly didn't give one even the faintest idea that she was the one hiding behind the name. Proud of herself, she entered a room by the name of the first word that came to her mind--'Magic'.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Draco Malfoy smirked as he seated himself before the computer. Finally, Hogwarts had something to brag about. Before, he knew, it had been a rather dull school, with nothing particularly exciting to its credit. Now, the young Malfoy was in fact quite pleased to be at Hogwarts at the moment. After all, he knew of no other wizarding school that could boast such privileges to its students... and the old fool of a Headmaster hadn't even bothered to set any restrictions. Of course, Draco knew exactly what he wanted to do. He opened up the chat program, and immediately typed in the screen name he wished to use, for he had already figured out what he wanted to use. A few more clicks and keys, and 'Sly-Boy' had entered the room 'Magic'.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A tall man seated himself before a computer, a somewhat disturbing smile playing across his face. "Now, why not see what the little students are up to?" he whispered, his silky voice dangerously low. He opened up the chat program, and with nimble fingers, typed in the screen name 'Serpentine'. Pushing back one of many long black tresses behind out of his face, he paused, wondering what room name he'd likely find the most students in. Then, the smile returning to his face once more, Severus Snape entered the chatroom 'Magic'.