This is my first Con. For as long as I have had a website (although I haven’t always taken it very seriously, especially lately) about Harry Potter, I feel less a part of the fandom than I did before, not more. You’d think that by going to a conference, I would get more in tune with my inner Potter, but that doesn’t seem the case. However, I have been trying to get my money’s worth, going to as many events as possible, and I am thoroughly enjoying myself, meeting a lot of crazy cool people, and experiencing so much.
On Wednesday, I went to the “Open at the Close” event at the Harry Potter theme park. I went almost right away to “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey”, which is the ride that features Hogwarts Castle. Granted, I was certainly mistaken when it came to this ride. I thought it would, more or less, involve exploring the school with rather minimal boundaries. Instead, exploring Hogwarts (what few rooms there are) is set up as a line with rails on either side. Not to mention that the line extends quite a long ways from the castle entrance. I’m not really surprised at this, though. With so many fans, there would have to be quite a long line.
While my first view of Hogwarts filled me with excitement, it was coupled with an almost equally intense desire to go to Jurassic Park. I never made it there. I guess this means I have to go back!
The line takes you by the Mirror of Erised, the statue of the humpback witch that covers the entrance to the secret tunnel to Honeydukes, then through a Herbology greenhouse before going through the front doors. Once through the front doors, you’ll walk into Dumbledore’s office, first by passing by the statue of the Phoenix, then by walking though some hallways with some portraits, which do look like portraits, but they do move. Some of my favorite portraits were the four Hogwarts founders bickering at each other.
Dumbledore explains, in his office, that we are about to go into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and learn more about the castle’s history from Professor Bins. Once inside the classroom, instead, the trio, coming out from under the cloak, explain that Bins, who was never featured in the movies (so it’s odd to hear movie actors talk about him) is very boring, so obviously it would be more prudent to sneak the Muggle visitors out of the castle to see a game of Quidditch. A very enthusiastic Fat Lady portrait (played by the incomparable Dawn French) talks about Quidditch, then visitors board the magical floating benches to experience the full ride which not only features Quidditch, but also Demetors, Acromantulas, and many other things.
I also went on the Dragon Challenge roller coaster, which was incredible, never mind the part where I stood in line behind Cheryl Klein, the editor of the Harry Potter books, and her fiance. It happened again when we were waiting for food. I tweeted about it shortly after getting back to my hotel room that night. It was important to me that I didn’t go crazy in front of celebrities while at the Con, so I am, perhaps taking the opposite cue, which involves saying almost nothing at all to anyone of any notoriety. I did talk to her and James briefly, but not about anything Harry Potter-related or about who she is. Maybe I should have, but I felt it was probably more prudent to allow her to have a great, fun time with her fiance, uninterrupted by yours truly.
So, that was my Wednesday evening. I had thought originally that I could write about my whole experience to date in one post, but then I realized, it’s impossible for me to achieve brevity. There’s more I could write even just about Wednesday, and pictures I could post, but I need to take a break and head back. More to come tomorrow, hopefully, about the rest of my experiences at here at LeakyCon, and most likely more about my relationship to the fandom–as I began to elude to at the beginning of this post–and more, of course, about the Pottermore presentation that I saw here yesterday, if I’m even allowed to write about it!
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