LeakyCon Day 6: These Days of Summer

I knew the final day of LeakyCon would be emotional for me, and I was right.

None of us wanted to wake up that morning, and it felt odd now that Catherine was gone. I hadn't even stirred when she left because of the severe exhaustion, and I felt bad that I hadn't said goodbye except for a quick “bye” as I drifted off to sleep the night before.

We each ran around doing ten different things while Brae checked us out and checked the luggage so we could go to the closing feast that we were already an hour into, and we all got in line for the water taxi. My “Suffering from Post-Potter Depression” shirt attracted a few sad smiles and comments as people stopped me for pictures.

After my idea for the flash mob was shot down by the LeakyCon staff, I wanted more than anything to start everyone singing “These Days of Summer” after the feast was over and start a mini flash mob that way because I couldn't get in trouble if I was leaving anyway, right? Lol! Luckily, I didn't have to because after we'd all eaten, Starkid got on stage and sang it for me while I sobbed at my table. Then, they finished with a special version of “Get Back to Hogwarts” that turned into “Get Back to LeakyCon” which made me start crying all over again.

Note the exhaustion that had completely taken over here.

We went back to our hotel to get our bags and call a cab to the airport, but in line for the water taxi to PB, we ran into one of my subscribers on youtube that had told me she was going. So, I chatted for a while, and she was pretty darn awesome. We'd also met a few of our readers during the con that were equally awesome. I mean, in what other situation can someone come up to you, tap you on the shoulder and declare that they stalk you online without it being super creepy and leading to the police being called and paranoia?

Since our roommates' flight was about fifteen minutes before ours and we were only two gates apart, we ate an early lunch with them at the airport after buying a few things in the Universal store. I, miraculously, didn't cry when we hugged them goodbye. I don't know if there were tears left by that point, honestly.

Then it was back to Cincinnati with me carrying my new hippogriff for emotional support (and because it wouldn't fit into my luggage). A little boy on the tram in Cincinnati pointed at it and said, “Look, Mommy, a parrot!” I cracked up for a while. Brae looked confused, and after they left, he looked at me and said, “He is an American, maybe he doesn't know that parrots don't have four legs.” I said that I had been hugging the hippogriff, so the back legs were hidden, but even with the poor American educational system, he should know what an eagle looks like...again, being an American or at least that parrots are, I don't know, colorful.

Overall, LeakyCon was even more amazing than Infinitus was! It makes me sad to think this was our last HP conference ever since we plan to do much more in our religious community in terms of travel and attending events over the next year or so. Given scheduling conflicts and monetary issues, we would not be able to do that and another HP con. It was an excellent farewell for that part of the fandom for us, and we walked away with some totally awesome friends!

The End?

As a fandom that evolved with the release of each book and was hinged on theorizing and debating with each other between books and helping each other fill the void created by finishing the last sentence of the current books at our disposal, we wondered if the fandom would end with the release of Deathly Hallows, and it was only natural.

I mean, what really held us together? We were a group of relative strangers gathered online, most of whom hadn't met in real life or for more than five minutes in between activities at HP conventions.

But we survived.

We discovered what truly held us, as a fandom, together: our love for the works. It didn't matter that there wasn't another release to look forward to. It didn't matter that many of the mysteries we'd spent countless hours pondering alone, in chat rooms, on forums, on skype, etc. had been resolved in the final book. It didn't matter that we still didn't always have faces to put with the handles and avatars on forums for those we called “friends”. We were bonded by going through the HP experience together.

We experienced love, loss, and victory, not just with Harry and the other fictional people we'd come to love, but, by extension, with every true HP fan around the world who had read the words that drew us in so much. We went through Post-Potter Depression together after the tears had long since dried from our eyes.

And we survived.

Maybe deep inside many of us there was a tiny part that was saying “there's always a few more movies to look forward to”. And maybe that got us through.

But now we face the last movie release, and we are again wondering if we, as a fandom, will cease to exist.

If you are to honestly ask yourself if every “true fan” (by which I mean those that listen to wrock, go to conventions, dress up for releases, hold HP parties, host HP discussion groups, play Quidditch, etc.) will simply give up their love for HP upon seeing the last movie, what is your answer? I'd bet my broomstick it's a “no”.

There will still be conventions, fansites, and all the friendships we've forged through this fandom to hold us together. The fandom will not die.

Is that to say that I don't foresee a day when HP conventions are no longer held regularly or at all? No. Do I foresee a day when HP discussion groups are all but extinct? Yes. Do I foresee a day when wizard rockers don't tour anymore? Yes. But do I foresee a day when the forums that were a-buzz when HP news are completely gone and every HP fan I've met looks back at the HP phenomenon as a fad, a passing fancy, a youthful delight? No.

The fandom will live on as long as there are true fans out there re-reading the series, listening to wrock, going to wrock concerts, reading and sharing the series with others, discussing theories, making fanvids and parodies, and generally loving the heck out of these books.

"I shall never truly be gone unless none here are loyal to me."