The Grand Bro Trip (Orlando, Florida) - Day 5

This summer holidays, my Bro and I went on the trip of a lifetime! 2 weeks of amazing was on the Grand Bro Trip in Orlando, Florida.

Day 5, 30/7 (Saturday)

Today was Day 2 of LeakyCon!

We were so ready for Day 2 of LeakyCon! We started our day with a panel called 'Nature vs. Nurture', which discussed Tom Riddle's early life and how he really never stood a chance! He was born with inter-generational family trauma, because of Merope's home life and family trauma which was passed onto him. Inbreeding created Marvolo Gaunt's violence and abuse, which was passed on to Tom through Merope. It has been proved (I believe) that trauma can actually change DNA so Tom, as a child of rape and coercion began life already in a bad place. It suggested that if Merope had lived that Tom might have been okay, but he actually suffered every version of early trauma as an infant. The speaker showed footage of orphanages in the 1950s and how children were affected by their environment. When they got up to questions, I asked if being sorted into another Hogwarts house would have helped Tom at all, but my answer was that by the time he was 11, Tom had suffered too much and was probably too far gone to come back. Creating the horcruxes was a kind of self-inflicted trauma, which only served to bring him further from healing and  being able to have healthy relationships.

Then we headed back over to the main stage for a discussion panel called 'Flawed Favourites'. It featured 3 of the actors from the films discussing their characters in more detail than the books gave and their potential flaws. It featured Chris Rankin again (Percy Weasley), Stan Yanevski (Viktor Krum) and Afshan Azad (Padma Patil) and was interesting to hear the perspectives of the actors themselves.

After that panel it was time for lunch, so I ate some fries but Bro wasn't feeling well and we were due to have the Ball that evening, so he Ubered back to the hotel to rest up. I was excited for an afternoon of fanfiction content! I actually used to write HP fanfiction back in the day - mostly canon pairings and day in the life type content. I enjoyed it a lot and got some good reviews back in the day but was kind of surprised that it is still going! The first panel I went to was actually just a discussion about why fanfiction is cool, how important it is to pop culture, and also provided a list of recommendations! We of course talked about some stories from back in the day that many people read (like 'My Immortal', the most famous HP fanfiction which must be an intentional parody because it's too crazy not to be!), but also I walked away with a great long list of fanfictions to read. I have actually already started reading a 7 book AU story where Harry has a twin who is the boy who lived, he is sorted into Slytherin, and Snape becomes his guardian. It's actually amazing writing and I have many more on the list to read at some point! They also talked about other cross over stories, like Kingsman/Doctor Who or Harry Potter/Ouran High School Host Club! Very cool and just my kind of nerdy.

After that I went over to another room for a discussion called 'Pairings That Should', which talked about peoples favourite character pairings which didn't actually exist in the books. This include Harry/Luna, WolfStar (Sirius/Remus), Oliver/Percy, Blaise/Ginny, Dean/Seamus, Ginny/Luna, Harry/Ron, Gin&Tonic (Draco/Ginny). Interesting to note, which was pointed out, is that any Draco ship in fanfiction needs the characterisation of Draco to be changed or completely rewritten in order for him to be compatible with anyone we know. He's just the worst in stories!

Then it was back to the main stage for the LeakyCon game show! It had Chris as the host, and panellists Sean Biggerstaff (played Oliver Wood), Josh Herdman (Gregory Goyle) and Afshan Azad. They were tested on their HP knowledge through trivia. Chris was a great, if chaotic host, and Josh admitted that he has only read 3 books! He was asked a fan question and got owned: "What does the Crucio curse do? You were in the room when it was explained and Moody even did a demonstration..." Luckily he did get it right!

My last panel for the day was the Crafters Meetup. We talked about what we make (mostly other crafted rather than sewed clothes), how it makes us feel, noticed that most of us were Hufflepuffs which we thought was quite interesting, and took turn sharing our experiences and some makes. I showed off the shorts I was wearing (Lander shorts which I had made with Hufflepuff fabric pockets and an embroidered badger on the back pocket) and got so many compliments. I even got new Instagram followers and someone who I was chatting with afterwards called me "inspiring"! It was such a rush!

The Ball didn't start until 8pm and Bro was still at the hotel so I went back to check on him. Turns out he was really not well, and was definitely not up to attending the Ball. He was so poorly that I didn't go either, instead I went out to a chemist and got him some meds, some plain food - and the local McDonalds for me. I didn't mind because I started the physical diary for the trip, watched some tv and headed to bed at a reasonable time. I was also glad that I went to McDonalds because I could get a frozen coke! I do love them.