Saturday, June 29, 2013

"I joined this club... it had the word 'eaters' in it... I thought that there would be cake....": Harry Potter Con, Day 3

Day 3 Of The Harry Potter Convention...

First off is a panel on the similarities between certain characters in Harry Potter... and other certain characters on Buffy. Now, if they'd done this panel 11 or 12 years ago I'd have been even more enthused, as I was a huge Buffy fan back in the day, but the fact is, it's been that long since I've watched anything past season 3. Oh well; it's still interesting... even if I have no idea who "Kennedy" is and my memories of "Andrew" are wispy at best.

Here are a few of the "pairings" (similar characters) that the mods and the audience members came up with: Faith & Neville, Angel & Dumbledore, Dawn & Ginny, Drusilla & Bellatrix, Wesley & Neville, Tara & Luna, Andrew & Ron, Cordelia & Draco, Tara & Cedric, Tara & Sirius, Darla & Voldemort, Jonathan & Percy, The Mayor & Umbridge, Principal Snyder & Cornelius Fudge, Spike & Dobby, Giles & Lupin, Cordelia & Hermione, Cordelia & Fleur, Darla & Narcissa Malfoy, Harmony & Lavender, and Ethan Rayne and Grindelwald.

If you know who all those characters are, I salute you, totally.

I then head over to LitLand for back-to-back panels; one on publishing, and another in which four writers read aloud their "embarrassing" scribblings from their teen years.



Only... some of the selections -- save for a few funny word choices and unintended double entendres -- really aren't that bad. Really. They had talent, even then. But the stories get some laughs -- mostly because the authors read their work in mocking voices -- oh, and those double entendres I mentioned. (Cover your ears, underaged wizards!)

Next up, a round-table (round-floor?) discussion on which Hogwarts House the characters of Pride & Prejudice would be sorted into. (Ulltimate geekery, amirite?)



Here's the consensus:

Elizabeth Bennet: Either Ravenclaw (because of her wit and smarts) or Gryffindor (because of her bravery). [I had penned her as a Ravenclaw.]

Darcy: Slytherin or Gryffindor. [Slytherin? No way. Darcy is not a Slytherin.]

Mr. Bingley and Jane Bennet: Pretty much everyone agreed on Hufflepuff. [Yep.]

Lydia: Lots of discussion about her. Survey says? Slytherin or Gryffindor. Others say she's too airheaded for any of those, so she'd probably end up in Hufflepuff because that house will take anybody. Another person offers that Lydia might actually just be a squib. [I would actually give Lydia the benefit of Gryffindor because she reminds me a lot of Lavender Brown.]

Charlotte Lucas: Ravenclaw or Slytherin. [I would lean toward Ravenclaw, because while her snatching up Mr. Collins was pretty cunning, I don't think that act alone should define her.]

Mr. Collins: Slytherin or Hufflepuff. [I'm certain he's a Slytherin, the way he always name-drops Lady Catherine and tries to make himself sound awesome by association constantly. (Then again, he's very much like Peter Pettigrew, who was technically a Gryffindor, though perhaps a misplaced one.)

Mr. Wickham: Slytherin. [No kidding.]

Mr. Bennet & Mary: Ravenclaw. [Fair enough.]

The hour ends just as we were trying to figure out Mrs. Bennet. [Probably for the best; is that woman even... figure-out-able? She'd probably cause the sorting hat to need therapy.]

As we get up to leave, I ask a girl to let me take a picture of her awesome shoulder bag:



I want it.

I decide to take in one more panel before I break for lunch. At first I sit down in a room that's going to show a documentary, but then I decide I'd rather take in Ladies Creating Content For Youtube (because... hey, I used to do that!), so I make my way across the venue and sit in for that panel, which proves to be interesting, though I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with any of of the ladies' youtube channels. (But I do love me some youtube!)



Lunch at Burgerville (yay!), then I walk to a nearby Walgreens for some stuff. I walk six blocks and I pass, I kid you not, three Starbucks. Here is proof:



Is this necessary? It must be to somebody....

 I head back to the convention center for one last panel of the day... and it's more Snape! Yeah, I know I went to one of his panels yesterday, but he's hilarious, so I need more!


Today the audience is smaller, so more people get to ask questions.

I ask if Snape had a pet when he was young. He says no, but that he knows of a fanfic in which he has a cat.

Later I ask about the Hogwarts' professors' sleeping quarters, as we never got to see them, only their offices. He replies that his room at Hogwarts was "small... dark... walls of books and potions... the bed is long...." He then mentions that he does not care for hotels with their short beds and tiny showers. 

He gets everyone to break into a rendition of this by simply making the ticking sound. Oh yeah. We're all crazy.

Later, he dances, per someone's request.


After Snape's Q&A session comes to a close, I wait in line to get a photo with him, then head home. That's it for me, at least for Day 3. The con wraps up tomorrow. I may go. I'll probably go. There isn't much on the schedule but I kind of don't want to miss my last chance at Potter immersion. It is, after all, quite fantastic.

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