Harry Potter and the Door of Awesome

Brae was technically supposed to write this post for his "favorite Potter experiences" contribution, but he claims he's lost all inspiration and doesn't have time to contribute to the blog anymore. So you're stuck with me telling this wonderful tale of inspiration, creativity, excitement, and adventure.

Every year in my dorm in college there was a door decorating contest for Halloween. As anyone who knows me would tell you, I love competition and don't compete for “fun”. I'm always out to crush the competition, leaving no doubt that it was my entry that was the best in anyone's mind. I guess that's the odd combination of Ravenclaw and Slytherin in me that causes me to spend hours contemplating how to prove this to others and putting in the effort to go through with whatever plan we concoct.

The first year we competed, I begged my roommates to go in with Brae and myself on a Harry Potter-themed door. However, we were out-voted and we did a Tim Burton-themed door. It was admittedly awesome, but we came in second or third (I've blocked out the loss, I guess, because I cannot remember for certain). I was sure that if we'd gone through with my HP-theme, we would have won hands down, but I kept my mouth shut (for the most part) until the contest rolled around again the next year. Two of my roommates that year didn't care about competing, and the other sort of liked HP, so we all (finally) agreed to do the HP door.

Brae, the other roommate, and I sat down and came up with various ideas for the door. Since Brae and I were heavily into role playing our Pureblood Club characters during this point, we decided a Dark Arts theme would be excellent! We did some drawings and set out to buy supplies.

The trick with contests like this is that everyone can see your progress in the weeks leading up to the actual judging, so you have to keep it a surprise so no one runs out and re-does their entire door after seeing how super amazingly awesome the competition is. Because of this, our door was simply covered in black fabric (our blank canvas) for a few days, especially since people remembered how awesome our door was the year before and kept coming by to spy on us and see what we were planning. Meanwhile, hidden away inside the dorm room, I was posing for Brae (the best artist of all of us) so he could successfully draw the unique way Voldemort holds his wand, looking up pictures of Death Eater masks online, and figuring out other things we could add to the bottom of the door to make it look even more impressive.

The day of the judging was a long one since we'd been up for hours coloring, gluing, and dancing around to the HP soundtracks during our breaks (this was before we found wizard rock or there would have been some of that as well). This led to many hilarious moments when exhaustion truly set in and odd looks as people stepped over us in the hall and stared while we all sang along to “Hedwig's Theme” while pretending to duel and throwing fabric scraps at each other.

A few hours later (and just before the judges were scheduled to make their rounds), our door was complete. We immediately ran around the entire dorm to check out the other doors to find that we had, at best, two other doors that would even come somewhat close to the magnificence of ours. Clearly the competition wasn't as big of a draw that year as it had been in the past.

A few moments after we returned to the dorm, we heard a knock. I answered to be pelted with candy as the judges told us we'd made the finals. About half an hour later, another knock came, and we were presented with our prize (a small bucket of candy, a Target gift card, and assorted toys) which didn't compare to the droves of people (many of whom didn't even live on campus) flocking past our door just to have a look and take pictures with it for weeks following the contest. And the knowledge that we'd so successfully outdone everyone in my dorm that people were apparently hoping that we'd move out just so we wouldn't compete the next year (which we did, sadly, before we could make the “Are You Afraid of the Dark” door that we'd been planning for the next year).

So, what did this supermegafoxyawesomehot door look like? Am I really just being egotistical when I tell you how amazing it really was? No.

But see for yourself.

...But isn't that a children's book?

As Potterheads, we've all at some point or another faced muggles who don't understand our obsession. Sometimes its our families who think we need to grow up, our friends who think we're losers for reading something they think is cliché, poorly written, or overly hyped, the people who see us in costume and roll their eyes or can't seem to look away, or any other number of people who just cannot wrap their minds around why we love this series so much.

The main muggle in my life is my mother. Yes, she bought me all of the books to shut me up, but around the time of the release of the seventh one when I was well into college, she lost her supportive nature. She dropped “subtle” hints about this last book being the end of my childhood and my need to let go of the childish things in my life so that I could just grow up already. She argued that my friends must surely think I was weird for still reading Harry Potter. I thought briefly of the honors class devoted solely to Harry Potter at my university, my friends who used any excuse to dress up in their uniforms, and all my friends who had “childish” obsessions outside the HP universe (like collections of stuffed animals, classic Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows, Disney movies, etc.) and kind of laughed it off at the time.

The most I ever really discussed Harry Potter around my mother after that was during the occasional viewing of the movies with my father when I was home for the summer or Christmas. She'd ask what we were watching, perhaps what was going on in the plot if she decided to sit down with us, and that was about it. That was until I mentioned that Brae and I were going to Infinitus. I only brought it up because my family was planning a vacation during that time, and I had to let them know why they needed to move it if they expected me to be there. Though she didn't seem thrilled, she said she'd pay for one night of our hotel to help us go since I was finally letting go of my childhood with this conference (she seemed to be under the impression that I'd go, spend time with the other “freaks”, and never discuss, read, or watch HP ever again after getting it out of my system).

Well, obviously that didn't happen. I was on the fence about telling her we were going to LeakyCon this year, but I decided to come out with it. She was more supportive than I first thought she would be, but that's not saying much. Mostly we haven't discussed it since I first mentioned it a few months ago.

Other than my mother, I don't have any major anti-HP influences in my life. Most of my friends at least showed up to our Harry Potter party a while ago. Only a few opted out, not because they don't like HP but because they aren't (and I quote) “obsessed” like the rest of us.

My sister and her husband watch the movies, but they haven't yet let me dress my nephew (Griffin) up like a Gryffindor. My brother loves the books and movies and drooled over my pictures from the park when I showed him my slideshow (now averaging at and hour in length) at Christmas last year. My dad watches the movies and seems to like them. Our landlady even likes HP, and claimed to be sort of hurt that she wasn't invited to our HP party (in addition to telling everyone who would listen about the letter we sent her from Hogsmeade last year). Everyone else either avoids discussing HP or sort of kind of likes it.

So, the muggles in my life are few and far between but not silent. I can sympathize with some of the people last year at Infinitus talking about how they'd told spouses, parents, co-workers, friends, etc. that they were attending a work conference or visiting out of town relatives so they could sneak off to be with other Potterheads, but I don't quite have it that bad.

All I can say is don't let the muggles get you down. There's only 44 days until you'll be with other Potterheads!

Infinitus Part 2

Before we get back into the re-telling of Infinitus, I'd like to let you guys know that I am working on a LeakyCon collab channel which can be found here: AccioLeakyCon

We ran off to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in our Slytherin robes, knowing that Infinitus had worked it out so we could be in costume all day after 2pm when our Night of a Thousand Wizards (the after-hours park event for conference attendees) tickets went into effect.

There was some mild confusion finding the actual Wizarding World since neither of us knew where the heck we were going, but we finally found it after about twenty minutes of aimlessly wandering around, pretending we were able to read the map they'd given us.

When I laid eyes on Hogwarts castle on our way across the bridge to the park, I almost died. We obviously had our picture taken by one of the park workers before sprinting into the park to explore (and eat lunch). We ran into a few people who knew about Infinitus, and, after spotting our badges, came up to chat and ask us how we were enjoying the conference they couldn't afford to go to.

I don't want to go too much into the park experience since I know that there's a lot of people who are still doing their best to avoid spoilers, so we'll just say it was absolutely AMAZING! I think I squealed about every five seconds and cried for a good five minutes.

We ran back to the hotel to freshen up a bit after being out in the Florida heat all day before NoaTW started. The lines for the water taxis were atrocious on the way back, though. So, we decided then that we'd walk back that night after NoaTW was over.

We made it to the stadium event, which we'd heard about earlier that day before we went to the park the first time, on time and listened patiently to the presentation. There was major embarrassment when people started yelling at the Universal people and berating them with questions about the park, especially those that they had no authority to answer. One example was one girl yelling about weight restrictions on the rides, which had been covered extensively online. Every single amusement park has to enforce weight restrictions for safety. It went downhill from there so that it was just a list of complaints like someone complaining that they didn't have any authentic dishes from the books that were healthy. Um...when did JKR list any healthy foods in the books? I missed it. Anyway, a lot of people walked out, some while making loud remarks about how upset they were at being detained before getting into the park when it was obvious, if you thought about it, that they needed to set up the event for us. In the end, most of them missed out on the ride with Chris Rankin and Christian Coulson; there was a sticker or something under the benches of the stadium, and if you found it, you rode Forbidden Journey with them. The fifty of us or so left at the end had to scour the stadium for it. Less competition, I guess. Lol!

Then it was off to the park once more.

On the way back, we walked behind Joey Richter and a few other Starkids. At one point, Joey dropped his hat, I accidentally stepped on it, and Brae picked it up to give back to him. So, both my foot and Brae's hand have come in contact with Joey Richter. Lol! No, I'm seriously only joking. We had our mock fangirl moment when we got back to the room, and I told a few people who thought I was being serious and made fun of me a bit. It was mildly entertaining. Then, we ordered some room service since we hadn't had time to eat at NoaTW, which consisted of the single best turkey burger I've EVER had in my life, showered, and went to bed.

The next day was the premiere of A Very Potter Sequel, and I've mentioned before that the line had formed about an hour before we got to the conference space. Brae went off to a program, but I can't remember which one. I, mistakenly, went to see “Living the Magical Life: Wizarding Society of Harry Potter as an Emerging Subculture”. I say “mistakenly” because I was expecting something different. I'm not sure what, but I didn't get anything close to what I was expecting. They had us start by lining up according to what sub-sect of the HP community we fell under (i.e. Death Eater, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Dumbledore's Army, Order of the Phoenix, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, etc.) and talked about why we're drawn to those for about five seconds. Then, we moved on to discussing how to become your HP personality, whether it was an actual character from the book like Bellatrix (who was leading the workshop) or a new one. This wasn't cosplay or role play we were talking about here. These people wanted to be their characters. Bella only wanted to be called Bellatrix, bought clothes Bella would wear, ate what Bella would, decorated her house like Bella would, could have only married a pureblood wizard, had to find a job that Bella would work, etc. It was...uncomfortable to say the least and I generally have a high tolerance for unconventional things like that. A lot of people ended up walking out, but since the workshop was led by Death Eaters, they had placed the Slytherin section in the second row, where I was sitting. I didn't think I could leave without being rude and attracting attention to myself. So, I stayed through the entire workshop feeling uncomfortably sane the entire time.

Then, I joined the line for Starkid because it was wrapping the first time around the space when I got out of that program at 11am; I was also unsure how they would work my accommodations for vision for this program and I didn't want to risk not being in line. I made some friends nearby who were re-watching AVPM on their iphone and behind me with a family who turned out to be awesome! Brae joined me when his program got out, and then he disappeared to go back to the room and didn't return for hours. I eventually gave up on waiting for Brae to return and talked to one of the organizers at the door, stating my need for front row seats because of my vision and that I'd need my companion to sit next to me for the things that I still couldn't see. They said they'd come get me when I could go in. By that time, I didn't know what to do but to return to the line and wait where Brae could find me since there weren't any workshops that I could go to that would be over in time for me to make AVPS. They came to get me before Brae returned, so I asked the family to tell them where I'd gone and was escorted to sit with the Merlin's Circle registrants in the second row. Brae returned a few minutes later and joined me. When the event started, I literally could have reached out and touched the cast, and we were dying! At the end of the Sequel, everyone burst out into the reprise of Get Back to Hogwarts, and it was purely magical!

After that, Brae and I ran back to the room to get ready for the ball. By the time we'd returned, it had already started, but not many people had arrived. We got drinks (in an ungodly long line) and found some HP Ohio people in the crowd. There were some amazing costumes (which I posted pictures of in my Show and Tell post), but the most amazing moment of all was the “Don't Stop Believing” sing-along as documented on youtube:

By the end of the ball, Brae and I were so tired, we knew we weren't going to make it through the Midnight Comedy Slam wrock show, though I was disappointed at missing The Parselmouths. We went back to the room to pack to leave the next day and turn in early.

We arrived at the leaving feast after a lot of HP Ohio had gone to see two members renew their vows in a recreation of Fleur and Bill's wedding. The costumes were beautiful (again, there are pictures in my Show and Tell post), and the feast itself was amazing. I was very pleased to see that something had happened with the hotel not allowing The Parselmouths to perform the night before, I think because it was too late, and they performed at the leaving feast in their pajamas. I ran up and got pictures with them before we set off for the airport.

Overall, Infinitus was absolutely amazing! It was an experience I couldn't possibly have imagined and wouldn't change a thing about! Re-telling it has only made me that much more excited for LeakyCon, which I expect to be even more epic!

I talk a bit about Infinitus a bit more in this video, but I also discuss a program I would have liked to do but didn't have time with my thesis for seminary to put it together:

Why Role Play?

We've discussed Harry Potter role play a few times so far in this blog, but we've not yet touched on why we love it so much. I cannot speak for Brae, but I know that I, like so many other HP fans, longed for a way to fully experience the world that JKR created for us. Short of retreating into a fantasy world inside my head and being committed for it, I had no real way of doing this for several years.

Then I found forum RP. I had never really seen anything like this before I stumbled upon it hidden in its own sub-forum on an MSN group when I was about 14 or so. In those first few hours scouring that forum, reading every post that seemed mildly interesting, I fell in love. There was such beauty in some of the more talented RPers' posts. They knew their characters and connected to them in such a way that enabled me to feel like I knew them too.

It was the world of Harry Potter as I'd never seen it before. It had jumped from the page into these new people's lives. All right, so it was still confined to the computer screen and these “people” were still fictional, but it was more alive than it was when confined to the books no matter how real they seemed to me...it was adaptive, it was new, it was exciting, and it was something I could actually experience in “real time” in whatever way I chose.

So I jumped in with a few RPers I'd never met before, and I was extremely intimidated! I knew I'd never live up to their writing in the past threads they'd been involved in. And I was right. I sucked. I was that n00b that jumped into a thread that was moving along fine with a “Hi, my name is Cygnus” and expected them to engage me in a thrilling conversation before whisking me off for some excellent and life-altering adventure. That obviously didn't happen.

Over time, though, my writing skills improved (though I still don't claim to be an excellent writer), and I found my place in the RP community. That place was leading the Pureblood Club. It was a plot that was hatched during a late-night chat after I'd started my own MSN RP group (Harry's Magical World). I'm honestly not sure who came up with it now, but we all jumped in and thoroughly enjoyed our threads together until drama broke up HMW.
Then I moved to Mugglenet Interactive and restarted Pureblood Club there with great success, using a lot of the backstory from HMW and inventing a lot along the way to fit into new plots, taking on a lot of new characters for consistency and to make actual plots happen. Then, we started the short-lived Patronus Club and the adult purist group, Hydra, before abandoning MNI when drama started there as well. We briefly tried to start our own group (Out of the Ashes RP), but we ended up abandoning it as well when RP lost its appeal because of the real life drama that eventually creeps in and a lack of interest.

RP has brought me further into the HP community because it helped me make new friends who introduced me to wizard rock, fan parodies, and other HP fan greatness. It also made me the fan I am today because of the late-night study sessions for plots. I mean, who else has spent hours researching horcruxes (besides Voldemort) or the history of Hogsmeade? It taught me about many of the subtleties of the series and the art of creativity so that I could wind new stories into the plot line while the trio was still at Hogwarts or create entirely new atmospheres for the wizarding world after Voldemort's downfall. It taught me how to create a believable character and to see things from others' viewpoints, even when I know that they are all wrong (has anyone tried having an intelligent debate between a purist and a...sane person? It's hard!). I've learned flexibility after trying to RP with people who simply insist that they have an ipod at Hogwarts, are Voldemort's son/wife, or something else that's just plain impossible. And I've learned that to truly appreciate the characters in the series, you need to actually step into their shoes for a while (though I detest RPing canon characters and think only a very small percentage of RPers do it well).

My loves of theatre and writing play a large part in RP's draw, but any HP fan would admit that if there were a way for them to feel truly immersed in the wizarding world, they'd take it in a heartbeat. RP was that for me.

Infinitus Part 1

With only a little over three weeks until the deadline for our LeakyCon contest, I want to take a moment to remind everyone that there's still time to enter and you needn't answer all the questions to be eligible to win the prize!

And with 54 days to go until LeakyCon, I wanted to use this post as a kind of recap of Infinitus last year from my point of view.

Being that it was our first HP con ever and we'd been planning it for over a year (since we figured out there was no way we could make LeakyCon '09), there was a LOT of buildup of anticipation before the actual event. I don't remember any other time when I got less sleep before an event I was greatly looking forward to. For weeks beforehand, Brae and I went back to discussing nothing at all but HP and doing nothing that wasn't HP-related, whether that was re-reading the books, reading Harry, A History, watching AVPM, or reliving great HP-related times (some of which already have posts devoted to them here, others will be coming in the future).

The plane ride was excruciating, as was the cab ride to the hotel. The moment we got out of the cab and someone screamed, “Merlin's beard, I love your shirt” at me (I was wearing my “I'm tired, can't we just be death eaters” t-shirt), I knew I was home. Then, we checked in, checked our luggage because our room wasn't ready yet, and headed down to registration. I don't remember much between the line for registration and the beginning of the opening feast except finding a few people from HP Ohio in the mass of excited fans and taking a few pictures of and with various people in costume.

The opening feast was excellent, and they introduced the exiled and redeemed game that I couldn't quite follow throughout the con. All I remember of that was that Chris Rankin was apparently exiled for a portion of the con...? And there were a few people running around yelling because of it at one point.

Anyway, after the feast, we ran back to the lobby to get our luggage, throw it in our room (which was ready), and freshen up before hitting the vendor room briefly and heading to our first formal program--”Umbridge's Justice and Hitler's Justice: The Sinister Similarities”. It was amazing! Though a few other programs we went to out-shined it in my memory for various reasons, this was an excellent presentation and very informative.

Fortunately, after this program let out, we just had to run across the hall to see Wrock Classics Night, which Lena was opening. During her set, she announced she wouldn't be playing another concert live. Someone assured us that this isn't an uncommon announcement for wrockers to make before actually returning to tour or play “one more” show at a future con, so we held out hope that this wasn't the case. I think we ducked out after Lena finished because there were a few other bands we'd either already seen or weren't that interested in and headed to the craft fair intending to buy pygmy puffs. They had sold out of most of the colors, though, so we left empty-handed and intended to spend all the gold we'd set aside for the pygmy puffs at the merch tables at the wrock show next door. Then, we watched The Moaning Myrtles and ran off to find some food where we ran into our HP Ohio people again who were scarfing down food before Witherwings went on at Wrock Pub Night. We joined them, wishing Mandala well before her performance as she swept out to set up.

Someone received a text that Witherwings was about to go on, and we all ran back down to the conference space to see Wrock Pub Night. We ended up being pretty close to the front of the crowd, so we were afraid to stray during House of Black and MC Kreacher's performance, even though neither of us were that interested, and it did go on for about an hour. But then, the Swish and Flick cheerleaders came in, and we knew the party was about to begin! Sure, the next day my throat was sore, my feet hurt from people dancing on top of me, my head was slightly bruised from the elbow I received in the mini-mosh pit that started when Ministry of Magic came on, and I was slightly dehydrated and about to have a heat stroke from the amount of people all up in my business, but it was TOTALLY worth it to see Swish and Flick and Ministry of Magic live! I'm especially grateful since it appears Swish and Flick won't be performing at LeakyCon. : (

On Friday, Brae convinced me to sleep in an extra hour so we did miss a program I would have liked to go too, but I was too tired to argue much. But we got up, threw on our Slytherin robes, and ran to catch our different programs. I think he went to one about werewolves or other magical creatures...or something. I was too tired to hear where he was going, but I ran off to “Immaturity or Escape from Reality in Adulthood: The Satisfaction of Reading Young Adult Series as a Twenty-Something/Mother” where we all shared stories about our families not understanding how a “children's” book can appeal to us, how we found HP, how many of us had lied about where we were actually going that weekend, etc. It was hilarious to hear some of the stories that so closely echoed mine (again, there's a post coming on this)!

Then, Brae and I met up to hang around for an hour while most people ate lunch. We were planning to eat in the park when our after 2pm ticket was good for Night of a Thousand Wizards. We also had planned to go to see “But I'm the Chosen One: Schools, Hijinks, and Heroics with Buffy Summers and Harry Potter” which was EPIC! I mean, come on! They combined two of the most awesome things in the world...BUFFY AND HP! How could it not be amazing? But the discussion that this comparison created was amazing, though it did hurt me that Xander was obviously compared to Ron (because I love me some Xander and hate me some Ron).

Then it was off to the park!

To be continued...

WWoHP Advice

So, we covered a bit about the park in our Advice for Your First Con post, but we thought we'd cover a bit more after reading some of the comments and questions on the LC boards and other pages.

1. Get there as early as you can to avoid longer lines (and remember if you're staying at Royal Pacific or Portofino Bay, your room key acts as your fast pass for some of the rides and that you can get in early to the park). Or consider getting there in the afternoon when everyone's eating lunch and already inside the park.

2. Get a locker only if you need to. The lockers can be somewhat pricey if you use them all day, so limit what you bring into the park. Share a bag (and keep it small so they fit in the locker should you decide you need one to ride Forbidden Journey or something), keep money to pay for one, if you have a hat or camera, make sure they can be put in the locker as well. Also, a note: there are apparently little compartments in the Forbidden Journey seats so that you can stow cameras, but they rushed us on last year so we didn't get to stow ours there. Brae had to hang onto it for dear life throughout the ride. Keep that in mind for shoes that might fall off as well since your feet dangle freely on FJ.

3. Oh, and one more note about FJ, it does fasten between your legs so wear spanks under uniform skirts, girls!

4. Speaking of uniforms, I've heard conflicting information about the park's costume policy, but it is officially that they will not let you in if you're over 18 and wearing a uniform. This is to prevent predators from luring children away from parents (or finding lost children) and pretending they work there. So, yes, they sell robes and stuff there, but you cannot wear them in the park! The only exception is DURING the Open at the Close event for Leaky attendees after 10pm. I know last year at Infinitus we were allowed to wear costumes after 2pm in the park, but the rules changed this year for Leaky. I know some people have posted that they've worn their uniforms and haven't gotten in trouble or wore everything but the robes and got in, but do so at your own risk. And remember, crazy tourists will come up to you and demand you take pictures with them if you do this and manage to get in.

We wore our Slytherin robes last year and a Spanish tourist came up to ask if she could take a picture with us. I don't think we responded right away, and her entire tour group came up to us until we were surrounded by about 30 girls who didn't speak a word of English to hear our protests. They grabbed our purchases out of our hands to wave our wands about enthusiastically and cuddle Brae's stuffed owl and Fluffy for picture after picture after picture. You have been warned!

5. Share food. It's expensive, especially if you add up everything you'll want in Honeydukes. So, use what you learned in kindergarten, and save some money.

6. Think about shopping elsewhere. There's a store in the airport with WWoHP merchandise as well as outside the park. Add that to carts along the street in WWoHP, and you might be better off using one of the many other options. (I know, we all want to see Honeydukes, The Three Broomsticks, Ollivander's, etc. This is just for convenience.)

7. Buy a souvenir glass for butterbeer! It costs around 85 cents to refill it with soda, it's free to refill it with water, and it's only around $3.25 to refill it with butterbeer (if one glass doesn't make you completely full and hyper).

8. Go to the bathroom! Trust me. Oh, and check out the Gringotts ATM too and see how many galleons are in your account!

9. Hang around for the shows. They're pretty darn sweet.

10. Wear plenty of sunscreen. Think about bringing a fan, water bottle, umbrella, and a hat. And don't forget cameras and cell phones in case you lose your friends in the crowd.

11. If you're staying at Royal Pacific or Portofino Bay, remember it's free to have purchases sent to your room, but I wouldn't recommend trusting them with chocolate or anything that might melt in the heat. Take that back to your room with you when you leave (and think about buying it just before you leave the park so it's not goo when you open it expecting it to be frog-shaped.

12. Pay attention to some of the advice in our Con Advice post about saving money by not eating in the park (or only eating at the Open at the Close event since they'll have a lot of stuff for free), getting on certain rides and shopping at certain times, paying attention to your health since it's easy to become dehydrated in the Florida heat, etc.

13. If you want to do everything, don't expect to cram it into the eleven hours that a ticket to Open at the Close will get you there. You'll need at least a few more hours. We tried last year with Night of a Thousand Wizards and didn't get to ride Dueling Dragons and barely made it onto Forbidden Journey. If you take any more time shopping than we did, you'll miss stuff, especially if you return to the Royal Pacific for the opening festivities.

14. Don't let long lines deter you from doing everything. It will take a while, but it's so worth it!

65 Days to Go!

We actually had a better theme to write about this week, but with one thing and another, it wasn't written. I'm going to work on it for next week, but I thought it be interesting to do a bit of a highlight on our HP role play characters since we only play original characters and it has been kind of asked about in the past.

While my first RP character was Cygnus Fawcett, I think I'm going to skip her because...well, frankly, no likes her at all. *tear* So, we'll start with my most popular character--Tavis Burke!

Tavis is the grandson of Caractacus Burke of Borgin and Burke's and both his mother and father come from long lines of respectable pureblood families, which Tavis is very proud of. Their blood mania prejudices have been passed on to their son. He helped in establishing a Pureblood Club (after encouragement from a mysterious family friend known only as "Uncle Gavin", see my PC story for more information) with a few other students (Columba Briggs, Veronica Tomms, Mehren Blair, Fiona Shawn and Tom Campbell) many of whom have since graduated. With much of PC gone, he needed to find himself some new cronies...I mean accomplises...I mean friends.

Tavis has a few enchantments upon him that hinder his actions as a purist leader. The first, and most important, is one that doesn't allow him to kill anyone unless seriously threatened or provoked. His grandfather put this spell on him just before he died so Tavis couldn't track down his murderer (Lucius Malfoy) and take revenge. His grandfather's murder also explains his intense hatred for all Malfoys.

The second was placed on him as an infant. His grandfather gave him a cursed toy that allowed him to tell a person's blood status automatically. He doesn't put much store by this anymore since finding out that it can be tricked if he loves (or could fall in love with) the person. That being said, it's obvious he's been in love with filth before.

Tavis's past relationships have been shaky. He's dated extensively within PC (almost every female member can bear witness to this) and continues to do so though he knows he should stop. Because of this, he's been burned by almost all of them. Most of them left him for other girls (Fiona, Veronica, Mehren, etc.) and then he found out Cygnus was supposedly a "lesbian"! That didn't help. Because of this past, he's extremely homophobic (but the majority of his homophobia comes from his own deeply hidden and resented bisexuality)! Despite his dating streak, he is not looking for love. He's now viewing dating a much more Mehren-esque light. He wants a bunch of meaningless relationships, one after the other--the way PC should be.

One of my newer RP characters is also one of my most interesting. Her name is Katarina Borgin. I had to bring in a new character to run Pureblood Club after Tavis graduated. So, in came Kat!

Katarina, granddaughter of the infamous Mr. Borgin, former co-owner of Borgin and Burke’s in Knockturn Alley, has rarely seen her grandfather since she was quite young. Her father, Caradog, married Jacquelle Molyneux whom he’d met while she was on holiday with her parents while they were both still in school.

Their relationship was quite romantic; they fell in love quite quickly, continuing to write to each other over several years. Only much later did they both discover that they were promised to each other. They married straight away after he graduated from Hogwarts and she from Beauxbatons and made a small but quaint home in Diagon Alley so that Caradog could help his father and Caractacus, the man he was named after and had grown quite close to, in the shop while he and his new wife decided what they wanted to do.

They waited too long to make a decision and Jacquelle’s announcement that she was pregnant made the decision for them. The couple decided that, with Caradog’s mother gone (having passed on when Caradog was quite young), they didn’t have the resources to raise a child in England. So, they moved back to France to be close to Jacquelle’s parents.

Katarina was born and raised in a small town in Brittany in which her family was the wealthiest. Due to this, and her parents’ great love for their only daughter, she was given anything and everything she could ever want. It was this that brought her back to England the first time. She spent summers in her grandfather’s home, but she seldom saw him as he was always being called away for business. The only reason she returned was because she loved being around youngsters like her. Dinan was nice, but her family was the only magical one in the area, and she enjoyed the time she spent playing with young Tavis Burke (the family friend that is three years her elder). It was probably these excursions that shaped her love for the magical community and her passion for protecting it.

These visits stopped when she turned eight because her mother disliked the ideas she would express upon her return. She stopped playing with her Muggle friends in the village and just sat in her room writing to Tavis. Jacquelle found a letter that Katarina had written and was disturbed by the purist agenda her eight year old was already supporting. She showed it to her husband who refused to do anything, as he secretly supported the views his daughter had picked up. Yes, their romantic and seemingly perfect relationship was built on a lie—Caradog had never revealed his purist leanings to Jacquelle. Only now was it causing issues.

Not wanting to send Katarina to Hogwarts to be with “that Burke boy” Jacquelle sent her blossoming and talented daughter to WADA (the Wizarding Academy of the Dramatic Arts) to keep her away from the purist influences she knew to be present, even at Beauxbatons. And she was right. The purist movement was all but nonexistent at WADA and Katarina detested her mother for interfering with her goals in this respect. Her correspondence with Tavis, however, continued, uninterrupted, from school and she gained more and more information about their cause through him.

Jacquelle passed on the summer before Katarina’s fifth year at WADA. To be honest, Katarina didn’t partake in much of the mourning. She still resented her mother for not bowing to her every whim (as everyone usually did) and sending her to Hogwarts to be with Tavis. However, Jacquelle’s death provided the opportunity for Katarina to take Tavis up on one very important offer…to join Pureblood Club.

Without hesitation, Caradog shipped his daughter off to Hogwarts to take up her role in the purist movement, following soon after to live in England once again. Katarina was sorted into Slytherin, no shock to her father, and resumed classes at the English school. As always, she was quite skilled in potions and ancient runes. Now that she had proficient teachers, she would be able to progress further than she ever could at WADA, a thought that thrilled her father as she could make a name for herself in the professional world (as a healer one day) and beyond.

I created Mairead Lynch on a whim one day, and she still remains my favorite character!

Mairead was born to Adrian and Aurnia. Her mother met her father when he was at sea on vacation with his brothers in his late teens. He heard a beautiful voice that had a gorgeous siren to back it up. Upon meeting her, he fell in love with her song; he never really knew her. She fell in love with the young boy, and she hid him on the island they inhabited until she bore his child. Maternity didn't suit her, or her kind, so she allowed Adrian to take the child away, never to see either of them again.

Adrian raised Mairead as a single father thereafter. Throughout her childhood, she heard stories of her mother and was intrigued. She was often guilty about how much she yearned to meet her mother when she'd hurt her father so much. She felt the need to suppress her siren tendencies (such as the call of the water to transform, the song, and her spell over men) in order to make up for what her mother had done to her father (as countless other sirens had done to others).

Her father was ecstatic when she received her Hogwarts letter because he was just beginning to chase his quidditch dreams. He had also been fearful that she wouldn't have enough magic or human in her to be accepted. Regretfully, he sent her away from him for the majority of the year to be educated in Enlgand.

She was sorted into Ravenclaw, a house that greatly suits her thirst for knowledge. She's somewhat quiet when you first meet her, but, given time, she'll talk your ear off. She's also quite feminine, but she knows how to defend herself. Due to her background, she has a strong feeling for right and wrong and would do anything to fight for what she believes in. She feels regret about the actions of her kindred who inadvertantly (through ignorance about human anatomy and life) drown their lovers, and she works hard to do right by men and humans in general. Thus, she often feels guilt when she slips and "turns on the charm" around men who cannot resist her enchantments. She wants them to have a choice in the affairs of their heart and would never intentionally snare a lover this way. In fact, she's often avoided romantic interaction because she would question what really brought the man to her.

Mairead was quite good in school, especially with potions, charms, transfiguration, and defense against the dark arts. She struggles in few subjects like history of magic and muggle studies. She, like Hermione Granger and few other students, has been given special permission to take an especially loaded schedule including muggle studies, ancient runes, and care of magical creatures.

In her second year, she had just begun to make friends when the catastrophe at the quidditch world cup happened with her father losing the cup for Ireland. Most of her friends, huge quidditch fans who'd been drawn to her only because of her father's fame, deserted her. She was forced to start almost from scratch and her popularity never quite recovered. This did, however, allow her more time to focus on her studies, alone in the library. She is not ashamed of her father. She loves him dearly and is proud of his perserverence.

She was is involved in starting a group to oppose the purist movement she's found quite prevelant within the walls of Hogwarts. She was captured by the Pureblood Club after being charmed by their leader Tavis. She managed to escape with the use of her siren charms, though. Soon after, she met a pair of twins, one of whom she's still quite taken with, and Aschlyne who have founded what they call The Patronus Club.

It's been two years since she's last seen the Cuffe twins, though the absence of Bart has made it seem much longer. She was actually ripped out of Hogwarts by her father in her sixth year. He was afraid for her safety, and wanted desperately to be with her in what he feared might be the final chapter of their lives. She returned the year after to the chaos and joy that reigned in the castle and graduated quite high in her class.

Her life has been lonely but peaceful since the battle and the downfall of Pureblood Club. Though she has no real plans about what she'll do with her life since graduating Hogwarts, she's feeling positive about her future and what it might hold.