Portkey.org

Archive
Name:	Portkey.org (Portkey, PK)
Date(s):	November 2002 - November 2016
Archivist:	Imran (NAPPA), James (MythX), & Heaven
Founder:	Imran (NAPPA) & James
Type:	fanfiction and fanart
Fandom:	Harry Potter
URL:	http://www.portkey.org/ (defunct) portkeyorg on LiveJournal Unofficial mirror: https://www.portkey-archive.org
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Portkey.org was a Harry Potter fanfiction archive for non-canon het pairings. It was primarily a Harry/Hermione site, but also allowed James/Lily, Draco/Ginny, and Ron/Luna stories.

Submission Requirements

Fanfiction were required to fall into one of four categories: Harry/Hermione, Lily/James, Draco/Ginny, or Ron/Luna.

Fics in any category were not allowed to contain ships that contradict Harry/Hermione or Lily/James (e.g. Ron/Hermione), though fics did not need to comply with Draco/Ginny or Ron/Luna unless they are in that category. In addition, "graphic" scenes involving any ships besides the aforementioned were not allowed, even if they do not contradict them. This included slash, which was permitted, but only in the background of a story that primarily focused on one of the above het pairings.

History

Screencap of Portkey's main page, as it appeared June 18, 2014.

According to the portkeyorg community profile:

Portkey.org opened in early November 2002 at a time when Harry/Hermione shippers had no individual site of their own to hang out at. Soon the Lily/James and Draco/Ginny fans also made themselves at home here. With the release of the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book in June 2003, the ship Ron/Luna (HMS Red Moon, Nic's personal favorite) was added, to the enthusiasm of many of the site's regulars. [...]

The first fic to be published on the site was Out of the Shadows and Into the Night, by Professor Granger.

The first registered author was the site's coder, James. Although known amongst many Portkey oldbies for having a penchant for Nappa/Ron (Ew.), and also for having his own official group of fangirls (known as the JFGs), his main fic is Fading Regrets.

The most users on the forums at one time was 3,299, which happened on Aug 14 2008, 07:35 AM CDT.

The site closed in November 2016, which was reported on the /r/HPFanfiction subreddit , although it had been dying a slow death since 2010, three years after the final Harry Potter book came out (DH).

See also this post by NAPPA (10 October 2003).

Why These Ships?

NAPPA wrote in January 2004:

Well to know this question you must learn a little of the site history. When we started, it was designed to host only 13 authors. And not like a shipping site. We all shipped the same - H/Hr. When the focus changed to H/Hr fanfiction archive - we had that ship, but we added Lily/James as it was THE canon ship. Also - the only artist who would let me use their artwork on the site was Kristin ( http://chamberofkeys.com ), and her work was mostly beautiful for Lily/James images. If I added them as a site couple - I knew I could use the artwork to look nice and fit :) Her other work was too hard to use then with my limited knowledge.

Draco/Ginny was added next. Back then ( before OotP ) it was a given truth that most H/Hr shipped D/G too. Or a Redeemed Draco. Thus it was added because the site populus wanted an archive. Also as a way to encourage more variety in the writing.

Ron/Luna was added post book5. It was mostly in response to the site populus who loved Ron's character in book5 and saw the Luna --> Ron attraction. Lots of the H/Hr shippers before OotP had suffered with the question of which girl for Ron - and it was also discovered to be a lovely pairings to many many many H/Hr shippers.

Unofficial Archive

An unofficial, read-only version of the Portkey Archive is currently hosted at https://www.portkey-archive.org.