leakycon day three part one

day three of leakycon began with quidditch. we had been hoping to catch evanna lynch commentating, but she was only doing the final and by then we had lectures to attend. it was still fun, though. it was muggle quidditch, which isn't quite the same as the real thing (the lack of flying is a bit sad), but there are 14 players, 14 brooms, 6 hoops, 2 bludgers, 1 quaffle, and 1 golden snitch (who happens to be a speedy little person in bright yellow). it's a very intricate sport, with tons of rules, and if they play full-contact it looks quite dangerous. it was enjoyable. (though sadly the video i took of it didn't turn out.)

after that chelley and i headed to a lecture entitled, 'the real deathly hallows,' supposedly about how the harry potter series relates to arthurian legend, while auto went to a presentation by the production designers of the hp films. she had a great time and learned a lot. chelley and i, well, what a waste of our precious time. the presenter was stretching things so far. rather than saying things like 'gryffindor's sword is like the sword in the stone - only the worthy can wield it' she said things like 'hermione's bag is just like the silver chalice in that you can get stuff out of it. but you can't get food or drink out of hermione's bag, because she forgot to pack it. for someone who's highly logical that was just dumb.' not only is that a dumb comparison, but actually hermione did bring food, she had just taken it out at grimmauld place and hadn't repacked it when they went to the ministry of magic because she thought they'd be back that night. okay, so maybe she should have thought through the possibility that they wouldn't be back, but a girl can only prepare for so many what-ifs.

i digress. it was a dumb lecture, so chelley and i left and headed back to john granger, who was a sure bet for a good one.

to get to the room where he was lecturing, you had to go to the 8th floor (where basically nothing else was), around all sorts of bends, and past a bunch of hotel rooms. i would guess a bunch of people missed his lectures on a mere count of because they couldn't find it. we had, though, and this time, as we snaked around, who should we run into but robbie jarvis, sitting on the floor, listening to his ipod, locked out of his room. we were walking right behind the guard who was going to let him in. he scrambled up, as she, very crankily, asked him for i.d. he said he didn't have any, it was in his room. seeing as she was a very cranky lady, she didn't seem too impressed with that answer. as we walked past i quietly said i'd vouch for him, but being me, i didn't say it loud enough to get a smile of acknowledgement, and that's my big regret of the weekend. i need to learn to be gutsy enough to do that stuff. although, at the same time, maybe i don't regret it, because he said in an article later that he had gotten some bad news that weekend and wanted to be left alone, but people kept wanting autographs. he didn't begrudge them, because he knows that's part of his life now, but still. i wouldn't have wanted to be one of those people.

 oh, and one final thought on that. i'm so thankful it wasn't matthew lewis.