Happy Easter, Donation Drive - Win Fabulous Prizes!

Some of you may have experienced serious lag time during our peak hours of gameplay.

To answer the problems of the current server we use at HogwartsLive, we have pooled together and purchased a fantastic new server which will be up this coming week.

Due to our need for this faster server to accommodate our growing user base and technological needs we'll be holding a $2000 (USD) fund drive.

You'll note that the monthly donation goal for the month of April has been pumped up to the $2000 mark. This is just a temporary increase, after the $2000 is raised the bar will be lowered again back down to reasonable levels.

To help cover the cost for this new server, we are celebrating the donation drive with the launch of a new feature on HogwartsLive, Candy Raffles (located in Hogsmeade, Devon, and Hogwarts)!

For a couple weeks now you've been able to save your Bertie Botts every Flavour Beans, so instead of just eating them you can now trade in your Bertie Botts every Flavour beans for tickets in several raffles for REAL prizes.

To get us started on the raffles, there are 5 raffles, available, the first one will end on April 15th, the next on April 20th, and the final 3 on April 30th.

The first raffle is for "FREE" donator points. Enter this raffle for just 15 beans. The prize will be 2 times the number of tickets entered in donator points. So if 100 tickets are sold, the winner will get 200 donator points. If 1000 tickets are sold, the winner will get 2000 donator points.

The second raffle you will see will be for Real Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans! And an assortment of other Harry Potter candy and a Magic Wand from Alivans. It costs 300 beans to enter this raffle, and only 1 will win.

The last 3 raffles are for 3 tiers of real material prizes, here's an outline of what you can win:

Tier 1 (50 beans per ticket) - 3 Winners wil get their choice of
Hogwarts Live Stickers
Hogwarts Live Magnet
Hogwarts Live Tile Coaster

Tier 2 (250 beans per ticket)- 3 Winners will get their choice of
Hogwarts Live Mousepad
Hogwarts Live T-shirt
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Video Game (PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, or GBA)
Harry Potter 2007 Wall Calendar
The Sorcerer's Companion Book
The Psychology of Harry Potter Book
Who Killed Albus Dumbledore? Book
The Hidden Myths in Harry Potter Book
Mapping the World of Harry Potter Book
Fact, Fiction, and Folklore in Harry Potter's World Book
Mugglenet.Com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 Book

Tier 3 (750 beans per ticket) - 3 Winners will get their choice of
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Book
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DVD (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Travel Case with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for PSP
The World of Harry Potter (box set of four Harry Potter PC games)


An additional Grand Prize raffle will begin once the donation goal is met. The winner of the Grand Prize raffle will win his or her choice of
Apple iPod Shuffle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Deluxe Edition)
Harry Potter 1-4 DVD Box Set (Widescreen Edition)

If you don't have enough beans to enter these raffles you can find them in the forest in random encounters or trade donator points for them in the Prefect's Lounge. Good luck on these raffles, your odds of winning will be based on the number of entries received. You may enter as many times as you like.

Remember all Hogwarts Live merchandise is of limited supply, and will not be made available for purchase at any time in the future, so participating in the raffles is the only way to get any of this cool swag.

Note: We will only pay for shipping of items within the continental United States, for winners outside the States we will cover shipping costs up to $20 (USD). International users who do not wish to pay for shipping may have their prizes exchanged for an amount of donator points equivalent to the value of the prize they have won or an Amazon.com Gift Certificate.