The Weapon We Have Is Love: LeakyCon 2009

I heard "The Weapon" by Harry and the Potters tonight, for at least the third time since I've been home, but this was the first time it brought tears to my eyes. That's how I knew it was time for this post. It's rare that I have to sit and process something for a long time. Usually something important happens and I instantly have words scrolling through my brain, preparing for the first moment I have to sit down and write about it. So why has it taken me a week and a half to be able to write about LeakyCon 2009??

The simple answer: Those four days were without a doubt the most wonderful, amazing, incredible, spectacular, moving, emotional, completely joyous days of my entire life, and I don't think anyone could possibly process all of that in a shorter amount of time. For the record, all of those adjectives were completely inadequate. I'm advocating that "LeakyCon" becomes its own adjective, although I don't think it could ever be properly used again until 2011.

In case you don't know, LeakyCon 2009 was (geesh, I hate that past tense!!) a fan conference put together by the brilliant folks at The Leaky Cauldron, the best source for Harry Potter news anywhere (http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org). If you want to hear every tiny little detail about the conference, I would be thrilled to tell you all about it in person, or the Internet equivalent. (I'm sure that offer surprises no one...) Here, though, I'm just going to attempt to sum things up as best I can.

There's nothing more awesome to me than people who are so committed to what they love that they're willing to gather a lot puzzled looks from strangers in order to express their love. For example, teenagers walking down the sidewalk in broad daylight, dressed as Draco and Bellatrix, or middle-aged women enjoying a coffee at Au Bon Pain (how do you say that again??) wearing beautiful, elaborate, hand-made robes and witch hats. Plenty of other people wore sweaters and House ties, or wizard rock T-shirts, or whatever they happened to pull out of their suitcase that morning. Whatever you wore was perfectly acceptable.

But of course, pretty much everything was perfectly acceptable, because Harry Potter fans are the most accepting community I've ever been a part of. Every single person was clearly important to everyone else, no matter their age, nationality, mental or physical ability, or understanding of the fandom...and the attendees truly ran the gamut in all of those categories. Nothing was embarrassing there; everyone was cool...the Nerdfighters, the super-geeks (like the kid who carried a lightsaber all weekend!!), the fanfiction writers (which, yes, I am one, in case you didn't already know), the gamers, and of course, the people who make their living touring the country and singing songs about Harry Potter. The only negative comments I heard all weekend were directed at Laura Mallory and Warner Brothers ("Alan Horn is a Slytherin!!" Yes, Sue, yes!!). People were even civil when Twilight was brought up, to my surprise and appreciation.

Everywhere I went, I looked around and was reminded that all this glorious craziness was started by one woman and one book. From the incredible abundance of authors who were willing to answer any question with advice and encouragement to the freaking sweet drumset painted with the mantra "Fight Evil, Read Books!", I couldn't help thanking God for Jo Rowling every five minutes. There was absolutely no way she could have known, nineteen years ago, how her simple idea would change the world, and we have no idea now where it will take us in the future. The general public thought all the hype would die down after Deathly Hallows was published; no one has ever been more wrong. There's more to talk about now than ever, as evidenced by some of the programs listed in my conference book: "Fawkes as a Symbol of Faith and Resurrection;" "Demonization of Wealth, Power, and Prestige in the Wizarding World;" "The Impact of Fathers in Harry Potter;" "Still Conjuring Herself: Further Thoughts on Hermione's Self-Determination in Harry Potter." There was a seminar on Jewish values and ethics, a comparison of the Wizarding world to the American Deaf community, a comparison of Wizarding and UK laws, and a discussion about being an adult fan of a children's series. There were workshops for fan art, wand and costume making, improv, and starting a wrock (wizard rock) band. There were several live podcasts, an original musical, panels with successful authors, a screening of We Are Wizards, and of course, a whole slew of programming provided by the awe-inspiring Harry Potter Alliance, which has put the values espoused in the books into practice in the real world through their work in Darfur, Rwanda, censorship in the media, environmental issues, and countless local communities. (I'm in the beginning stages of getting a chapter started at B-W.)

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the whole experience was getting to meet so many of the awesome people who have become the leaders of the fandom -- most of whom never intended to lead anything at all. They were just regular fans who were blessed with brains, talent, and a whole lot of luck. It's a really odd thing, in a lot of ways, to be a fan of the PotterCasters and the Leaky staff and the VlogBrothers and the wrockers. It's like being a fan of a fan. But all of those people worked so hard to put LeakyCon together for the rest of us, and they are truly normal (well as "normal" as a Potter fan can be!!) people who are willing to shake hands and take pictures and sign autographs for hundreds of people. And the greatest thing is that they're all friends. They created an evironment of love and friendship that was contaigious. They all want each other to succeed, even to the point of plugging each other's merchandise, sharing instruments, and playing another hour-long set to help out a band that only actually has one person in it, despite a plural name.

It's only been nine days since I left Boston, but it feels like a year. As someone said on YouTube or something recently (I think it might have been Addie from Room 3428, but I might be way wrong...), it kind of seems like LeakyCon was something I dreamed. At the same time, though, it feels like it all happened yesterday, because so many moments from that weekend are indelibly etched in my brain and my heart. It's very hard to explain (and understand)...I guess you kind of had to experience it.

At the end of the ball on Saturday night (or rather, early Sunday morning), Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters said, "This has been one of the best weekends in the history of humanity," and he was so right. I can't think of another experience I've had that was more focused on love and making the world a better place. At the close of his little speech, I figured Paul was going to put on "The Weapon," the unofficial anthem of the Harry Potter community. Before he had the chance, however, 750 people spontaneously burst into the song a cappella. We sang the whole thing, and it was completely indescribable. I realized later that the only reason tears hadn't been streaming down my face was that every last smidge of energy in my body was occupied with jumping up and down and singing at the top of my lungs. The words of the chorus have never felt truer than they did that night:

"There's one thing that I've got
One thing that you've got inside you too
One thing that we've got
And the one thing we've got is enough
To save us all...
The weapon we have is love"

I can't wait for LeakyCon 2011!!

Two other songs that capture the fandom pretty darn well:
"This Is Never Gonna End" by The Parselmouths (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEKgEnq_qYM)
"For Jo" by RiddleTM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unms0DvGg_Q)