Make sure you know about the world of Harry Potter. Are you definitely writing for the right fandom? Make sure that when you post it, it gets posted for the right fandom, too. If you're not a fan of Harry Potter, don't worry - there are dozens of other Fanfiction stories available.
Choose which era you want to write for. Hogwarts founders? Marauders? Harry and his friends? Harry's kids? Once you have chosen, find out as much as you can about the characters at that point. Readers want your story to be consistent. There are thousands of websites about Harry Potter, and the books are readily available, so there is no excuse for not reading up on the characters.
Decide if your story will be canon or alternate universe. Are you following the books, filling in parts that J.K. Rowling didn't write? Or are you changing the setting or the characters? It's up to you. Remember, even if you write an Alternate Universe story, your characters still need to be in character, otherwise people won't want to read it. Make sure your story will interest others, not just you. If you want to do a story in canon then make sure your facts are correct. Look on http://harrypotter.wikia.com or the Harry Potter Lexicon.
Think about all of the characters in the Harry Potter series. The living ones, of course, unless your story is in a different universe where a character who died canonically survives. Some examples of this are Hedwig, Fred, Snape, and Dumbledore - which is your favorite? You might want to write a small profile of them to remind yourself of their personality, likes, dislikes, etc.
Consider which ships would be in your fanfiction. A big part of fanfiction is shipping characters, that is, taking two characters and writing a story about them as a couple. This isn't necessary at all, but it's common. Some popular ships are Harry and Ginny (Hinny), Harry and Hermione (Harmione/Harmony), Hermione and Ron (Romione), Harry and Draco (Drarry), Draco and Hermione (Dramione), Lupin and Sirius(Wolfstar), Tom and Hermione (Tomione), and Albus Severus and Scorpius(Scorbus). There are plenty of others, but these are the more common ones. Invent your own if you want to! You can also make a ship where the chosen character is with the reader, for example: Draco x reader. But you will have to refer to the reader as (Y/N) or (F/N).
Develop a plot. A good story needs an interesting plot. Choose an interesting character, preferably a more obscure one that not many other people will have written about, and put them into a new situation. Spend a few pages writing out your plot. Or even just one page.
Develop your characters. That's what fanfiction is about.
Write as much as you can. Long chapters are better than short chapters. That being said, don't write too much; sometimes enough is enough.
Check your spelling and grammar. Otherwise you end up with corrections instead of reviews. You don't want to distract from the plots.
Find a good site to publish your fanfiction on. You won't be able to get it properly published because you don't own the copyright to Harry Potter. It could be a site that caters for many different fandoms like FanFiction.Net, Wattpad, Quotev, Archive of Our Own or one that's specifically for Harry Potter.
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