Sectus Report
A very rare real-life update here - but still firmly fandom-related! Having returned home from Sectus 2007, it was all so enjoyable, fun and magical that I wanted to record the whole experience...

(Contains the occasional spoiler for Book 7)



Day One

I arrived in London on Thursday afternoon, and met madzilla in the hotel lobby (Radisson Edwardian Grafton, next door to Warren Street tube station). The room was very pleasant and comfortable, and a little time was afforded for unpacking (madzilla's caption for the photo of our wardrobe was 'witches in residence') before we headed to the Camden Centre for registration and the opening ceremony.

A large queue of be-costumed people left us in little doubt that we had arrived at the right place. Particularly impressive were Narcissa and Bellatrix, who had 'Bella' and 'Cissy' embroidered onto the front of their robes, and sinck as Lucius Malfoy in a purple velvet suit with a zebra-striped collar! The queue began to move fairly soon after we arrived, and everyone was issued with a registration pack containing a beautifully designed programme, badges, bookmarks, a key ring, postcards and lapel ribbons to indicate whether one had read the new book or not to try to prevent people from being accidentally spoiled (a system which seemed to work pretty well during the course of the conference).

We went through to the bar area and had a 'Hogwarts-style' early dinner of Shepherd's Pie and Treacle Tart, and chatted with various fun people over dinner, including such_heights. Amusingly, the bar was serving appropriately named beers - to include Wychcraft and Hobgoblin. A few more wonderful costumes could be seen then - including some beautiful Helga Hufflepuff robes, a wizarding teddy bear, and possibly best of all, blue_braces dressed as Professor Binns, complete with silver make-up and wig! I joined in by donning my purple velvet cape and matching black/purple witch's hat.

In the main hall, lots of dubious Ministry of Magic advisory signs were cycling on the projector, as the backdrop to a rather raucous Snarry meetup(!). I also couldn't help noticing an extendable ear peering down from the balcony above! The opening ceremony proper began at 7pm with a pantomime-style parody play, featuring the aforementioned Lucius, Harry, Voldemort (who had a wonderfully multi-coloured Nagini around his neck), Bellatrix, Dumbledore, and regassa as Snape. The script and performances were hilarious, and all seemed to centre upon the Deathly Table Lamp of Doooooom - highly enjoyable :-)

Elanor the Sectus chair then gave an opening speech mentioning plans, logistics and thanking the committee, then handed over to Steve Vander Ark, who gave a fascinating presentation about places in the Wizarding World. He spoke really fluently and entertainingly, making excellent use of PowerPoint (that's a very dry way of putting it, I know, but I couldn't help thinking that most of the academic talks I attend could happily take a leaf from his book on that score) and including lots of interesting maps that showed real/likely locations for Ottery St. Catchpole, the Burrow, Little Whinging, the Leaky Cauldron, and, Hogwarts itself - shown at the end of a long drive in a deserted part of Scotland heading away from Rannoch station. He also made some valid points about the way that J.K. Rowling's imagination is very visual and she doesn't really think in terms of numbers or precise geography (clearly an irritation to someone who is making an encyclopaedia!), ad included plenty of vibes about how 'trapped' we fans are. My personal favourite was, "You buy things that are *clearly* not intended for your age group.... And play with them... In public." Ooooh yes... *blushes*

Next came a short break, followed by a Book 7 theories panel with Steve Vander Ark and Mary Bauman. Various interesting ideas were expounded upon - both by the panellists and audience members (with the help of a megaphone), to include a (suspiciously accurate...) idea about Kreacher being in the boat with Regulus when the lockets were swapped, and a 'opposites' theory about McGonagall and Snape: male-female, Slytherin-Gryffindor, ambiguous loyalty-stalwart loyalty ... to culminate in the idea that if Snape is ultimately good, does that mean that Minerva is ultimately evil? A lot of people in the room gasped when that one was suggested!

madzilla and I then headed back to the hotel via Kings' Cross station to take the obligatory Platform 9 3/4 photos, and to buy midnight-feast supplies from Marks & Spencer. Neither of us seemed to sleep well, even though we were happy and comfortable; I was just too bunged up to breathe, and madzilla said she was too excited about the following day's book release...(!)


Day Two

Predictably enough (for me, at least!), madzilla and I overslept somewhat, but we still managed to reach the conference main venue (Westminster College, Cavendish Campus) pretty close to the start of the day's programming. First of all, we both auditioned for a podcast play. I read McGonagall and Madam Marshbanks in a comic piece set in a courtroom, and was later really pleased to find out that I had been cast as Marshbanks for that afternoon's performance/recording!

Next I had a look around the Art Gallery - which featured some really lovely pieces of fanart, and hand-made wands and copper-bound notebooks. Sadly though, most were already sporting a 'sold' sign by the time I got there; some people had been very quick off the mark.

I then went to a presentation entitled, '"Severus Snape: Friend or Foe?" A Homeopathic Parable of Ambiguity.' My feelings about this were mixed. On one hand, the presenter was very well organized and clear, and she made some valid and interesting points about Snape and Harry's characters, and the interactions between them. On the other hand though, she spent quite a long time making analogies with the modern post 9/11 political situation and the terrorism crisis in general - which for me seemed rather 'shoe-horned in' and didn't really add value to the presentation.

The Snape-loving theme continued, as at noon I set off with a large crowd of others to the sectus_severus/Snapecast meetup at Potion bar/kitchen. How appropriate was that then?! Unfortunately, we were *monumentally* rained upon on the way there, and turned up looking thoroughly bedraggled. The person organizing the meetup had booked the top floor, which was nice as there was plenty of space for Snapely camaraderie and hopefully the other (saner) patrons didn't feel too disturbed! A rather good picture was made by the long row of soggy wizarding robes drying over the banister.

We ordered food (I had Pesto and chicken pasta, which as Anastasia helpfully pointed out, looked just like gillyweed... although what I could taste of it, was nice...), and then set about the serious business of all things Snapely :-) We were given wonderful black goody bags containing green goo in a little cauldron, a toothbrush that said 'I see no difference' on the side, and 'Snape's anti grease potion shampoo'. Hooray! Also, I podcast-duelled for a Snape t-shirt and won! The subject was 'Magical Creatures' and my opponent and I had a pretty close battle, I think ;-) Other fun things included playing a crack-fic HP card game (bonsai_betz made an excellent effort when confronted by Umbridge/Death Eater practice target!), and forming a defence against the statement, 'Snupin is just Snarry for wimps." Ooohhhh!

Back at the venue, I met summerborn for a quick chat, and then attended the Arithmancy (Numerology) class that she taught. It was quite spooky how well some of the HP characters fitted the personality types that are predicted by using their name for a numerological reading, and the 30 minutes definitely seemed to zip by. I then headed off to a presentation given by lizardspots called, 'Draw Your Own Snape' (unfortunately, magically breathing life into one's creation wasn't part of the class, but one can dream... ;-) ) which I really enjoyed. She combined some classical portrait drawing techniques about proportions of features etc. with some really nifty tricks about making a character look properly 'Snapely' - thick bushy eyebrows, different options for That Magnificent Nose (TM), and the right kind of straggly hair (not Sirius-style emo-hair *giggles*). I think I learnt a fair bit, and was also rather pleased with my finished sketch by the end of the hour :-)

Those of us in the podcast plays the met for rehearsal in the foyer, - all smoothly organized by hathorx - and we had a great time with the scripts, which were both hilarious! After a little practice and the hasty assembly of some props and costumes we went to the lecture theatre for the performance/recording, which seemed to go pretty well. It was great fun to be involved with, and I'm looking forward to downloading the recording!

madzilla and I then toddled back to the hotel via a nice Indian restaurant, and regrouped our energy for the Book Release Party. Sooooo exciting...!


Book Release Party, Seamlessly Blending into Day Three

With only a few hours to go, it was time to get into costume! I opted for the full McGonagall outfit, with a black dress, tartan jacket, green cape, tartan witches'-style deerstalker, pointy shoes and half-moon glasses. madzilla showed her house loyalty with Gryffindor-student, and robes and badges.

When we arrived at the venue there was already a hubbub of activity, with an alarming number of people pointing video cameras in various directions. Steve Vander Ark was making up some cracktastic 'spoilers' about the last book, there were some more brilliant costumes, including Hagrid and Grawp, Snape and Dobby. To save us from two hours of anxious waiting, the committee organised HP-themed games, which I think were a brilliant idea. We were divided into teams of about 6 for a very fast-paced game of charades, and then we gathered around a large flipchart for Pictionary. The afternoon's 'magical creatures' theme was clearly still with me, because I drew the Giant Squid, and then Fluffy.

At about 11:40 we toddled towards the queue and took a place in the long, curving corridor. The excitement was definitely palpable by then, and there were lots of whoops and cheers that echoed around the building as each milestone was reached. Ten minutes to go, then five, then two... and then a countdown of the last ten seconds! Much fangirlish squealing ensued, and then we were walking forwards at an impressive pace, and swapping our book-tickets for a hefty, hardbound copy of the Real Thing!

madzilla and I joined the stream of people heading downstairs to the all-night reading room, and chose a table and chairs. We took the obligatory squeeful photos while posing with the book, and then opened the covers and began the serious business of reading.

I took my time with the process - taking in the cover pages, dedications and quotations at the beginning. My heart jumped when Snape was mentioned in the first paragraph or so, and from then on I was lost, rapt and enthralled.

I shan't write at length about the book itself here - that probably deserves a post all of it's own. I shall say however, that the experience of reading all night, in that bizarre subterranean room with so many other people equally engrossed people was wonderfully extraordinary and extraordinarily wonderful.

In general, it was deathly quiet. Nothing could be heard save for the occasional footstep when someone got up to fetch a cup of coffee (urns and water jugs were kindly provided by the Sectus committee), the tiny rustle of a biscuit wrapper, or perhaps faint breathing or snoring from those who decided to take a 'pit-stop'. This 'deathly' silence made the occasional exclamation or triumph, squeal of surprise or impassioned sobbing all the more striking. Ripples of laughter or concern spread through the hall for the slightest moment... and then the silence resumed once again.

After what I imagined had been about three or fours hours reading, I was halfway through the book, and decided to check my clock. To my utter surprise, it was past 8am! That therefore seemed a strategic point to go back to the hotel, de-McGonagall, shower and be horizontal for a while (the plastic furniture in the reading room was not built for long-term comfort). I read a few more chapters lying in bed, and then decided to have a short nap when the time was about 10:30.

I woke up at about noon, when madzilla came back too. I was just over half-way through the book by that point, and knew that with my tortoise-like reading speed (for fiction, anyway; when I have to read academic texts they go in much faster, for some reason.) I would never make it through the rest in time for the day's spoiler-containing programming, which I really wanted to attend. So, I sat up in bed and made a decision. I asked madzilla to tell me what happened - just like that.

She covered the main points (downfall of Voldemort etc.), and then - of course - I was absolutely bursting at the seams to know about Snape. Neither his death nor his true loyalty came as a surprise, but I remember feeling washed with relief and happiness that he was, deep-down the snarky, yet brave and honourable character that I loved. *Big smile* [I paraphrase here, of course. This statement is not supposed to convey a sense of reasoned book critique, just a bouncy feeling ;-) ]

Having sorted out the important issue, I think I probably mobbed madzilla with questions for about the next hour, and she was even obliging enough to read out a few relevant passages (Oooh, the Snapely flashback wibbling...). Of course, reading the rest was still a top-priority for me, but it was actually really nice to have the facts in hand, and be able to make the best of the rest of the programming without the time-pressure and fear of being accidentally spoiled by someone random who wasn't about to explain everything that happened with such care and detail. So, thanks madzilla :-)

Armed with the essential facts, I then felt able to make the most of the rest of Sectus, so madzilla and I headed back to the venue. I went first of all to the Snupin meetup, which had been arranged for Saturday at 2pm. We numbered about twelve in total and had a brilliant, positively-orientated discussion, expertly guided by r_grayjoy (who had amazing *green* hair). Of course, it seems that the Snupin 'ship is one of the least supported by the new canon, but that didn't stop us from being creative and bouncy about future possibilities for writers and fanartists. gatewaygirl raised the interesting issue of 'shades of AU,' and we discussed for a while the possibilities for 'branching' fics alongside outright alternate universes. r_grayjoy had made some lovely 'Snupin' bracelets for us, and I very much admired aunty_marion's knitted dolls - mini Severus with all those little buttons was soooo cute!

On a similar theme, I then went to a discussion called 'Closing Canon: The Greasy Git', lead by elanor_isolda and snapetoy. Lots of encouraging thoughts were put about expounding on the theory that Severus isn't really dead (no portrait in the Headmaster's Study, excellent abilities to evade danger, repair injury and counter Dark Magic), and the (rather vocal!) Snarry crowd maintained that Snape's patronus is cast-iron proof of their 'ship, plus the fact that Harry tops...

I then flitted to a conflicting programming item led by hathorx entitled, 'The next great adventure'. We discussed each of the deaths in DH in turn, also commenting more in general about the way that death and the afterlife is portrayed in the books. Although numbers there were modest (relative to the Snape discussion, anyway) the discussion was really interesting, and provided a nice contrast to all things 'shippy.

I then took a final turn about the (Moving) Portrait Gallery, and caught the tail-end of, 'Deathly Hallows at the Movies'. It was definitely interesting to speculate about which elements of the books will be omitted by the director (and indeed, whom the director will be), and to discuss which elements of previous movies had been influenced by the then-top-secret seventh book. JKR's insistence on keeping Kreacher in the OotP movie was a clear example, as was Harry's exclamation, "Look at me!" and Luna's line about, "things come back to us; just not in the way we might expect."

Meeting madzilla once again, we made our way back to the hotel for another strategic nap, and to get ready for the evening's 'well-mannered frivolity'.


Not The Yule Ball

In many ways the social centrepiece of the conference, I thought that 'Not The Yule Ball' was fantastic! The decor committee had done a really beautiful job transforming the usually-unremarkable University of London Students' Union into a glittering wintry paradise, with tinsel, bells, Christmas trees, fairy-lights, and of course, lot's of Hogwarts-specific touches - candles floating above the dance floor and enormous silver snakes with green and red LED eyes. The dining area was particularly classy - the ceiling had been tented to look like a marquee and the tables were strewn with metallic confetti.

It was also lovely that the quality of food and drink matched the high standards set by the ambience; the buffet was really varied and excellent, and a menu of Harry Potter-themed cocktails had been devised. I had a 'Snape' (vodka, midori and pineapple juice), followed by a 'Quirell' (vodka, amaretto and orange juice'), while madzilla had a 'Lupin' and then an 'Umbridge' - which was a terrifying bright-pink concoction, naturally!

Music in the first part of the evening was provided by the classy-yet-quirky ZSL strings, who set the tone beautifully, and they then gave way to a fun-filled ceilidh band. The dance floor was brimming with people throughout, and I had great fun 'stripping the willow' with blue_braces and twirling with gatewaygirl, among others!

Much as the venue looked beautiful, so many people had excelled themselves with costumes for the occasion. madzilla and I had both gone for 'evening wear with a wizardly twist' - I wore a purple velvet dress with white gloves, sparkly shoes, and a 'snowy' witches' hat (complete with owl), and madzilla wore a red dress with a gold stole and time-turner necklace. Some other people were splendidly fully in-character though. blue_braces came as Arthur Weasley - with a wonderful period ruffled dress shirt and bright red hair, unsymbolic was a splendidly foppish Gilderoy Lockhart - complete with a white mess jacket, lilac robes, cravat and peacock quill, and sinick wore some splendid Snapely dress robes in Slytherin green with a sticky-up collar and snake embroidery.regassa looked resplendent in her 'double cross-dressing' outfit as 'Flamenco Snape'! I also admired the outfits of lots of people I don't have LJ names for - Rowena Ravenclaw robes, Hephzibah Smith - complete with house elf, cup and a handbag in the shape of a watering can, fandom!Snape in top-to-toe black PVC - and Bellatrix with Harry on a leash...

The band had to stop playing all-too soon; it was a truly magical evening.


Day Four

Following some more reading and some much-needed sleep, I spent most of the third day in the Main Lecture Theatre. First off, madzilla and I went to the book analysis panel with Steve Vander Ark, Mary Bauman and Colin Manlove (he didn't seem to show an interest in slash, despite his surname... ;-) ). Various topics were dissected and disagreed upon, including Snape (natch), JKR's treatment of death and which loose ends remain to be tied. Everyone seemed united in the thought that more time was needed to process the new book and integrate it's analysis with the rest of canon though, and in unified dislike of the Epilogue!

Next, Steve Vander Ark spoke about the future of fandom and the Harry Potter phenomenon as a whole. He pointed out that we are very lucky to have the connectivity offered by today's multi-media world (back in the 70's, he went to see the first Star Wars film in the cinema 56 times - because there was no other was to indulge one's fannishness!), and predicted that although it is natural that the following for Harry Potter will shrink as 'the next big thing' comes along, it will most probably survive. He mentioned the highly creative nature of the HP fandom, talked about the movies (so popular and often excellent, but still essentially works of fanart), the computer games, conferences, the forthcoming HP theme park in Florida and the future of the HP Lexicon. In general, it was an uplifting talk, tapping strongly into the sense of Sectus-solidarity (how's that for alliteration?).

Last of all came the charity auction and closing ceremony. Things were rather frantic as we were pushed for time, but lots of things were auctioned off for a good cause, including decorations from the conference and the ball, and a large promotional book-poster, which fetched £130! I bought a lovely portrait of Dumbledore by tripperfunster, which is amazingly well drawn, and seemed like a mirror to blue_braces's brilliant Dumbledore costume. The final goodbyes and thank-yous to the committee were pretty emotional, but everyone quickly cascaded downstairs to order souvenir books and pick up a few more decorations (the prophecies were particularly popular).

madzilla and I headed back to the hotel to sort out our bill, and then said goodbye outside Sainsbury's as she was in a hurry to meet people for a OotP cinema trip. The weather was being kind at the time, so it was with a happy heart that I set off to Regent's Park to join the Itch-quidd brigade, finding them after a pleasant leafy stroll by the inner circle (when one was sufficiently close, a Quidditch pitch is pretty difficult to miss!). I nibbled some lunch and then joined the game in the position of keeper for the dark blue team (the slashers!), replete with broom. I wasn't challenged very much though, because our Seeker was super-efficient and caught the Snitch within about two seconds! A game or so later, I switched positions to be a Snitch-pitcher (part of the team responsible for keeping the Snitch away from the Seekers). It was great fun, and I'm glad that I played - even though I'm not usually the sporty type...

There was time for a little more sitting on the warm grass, reading, chatting and saying goodbyes, and then it was - all too soon - time to go home.

All in all, Sectus was a fabulous and unique experience. I really hope to stay in touch with some of the lovely people I met there, and the memories of such communal passion and enthusiasm will stay with me for a very long time indeed.

PurpleFluffyCat x