![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Days 3 and 4
Jul. 29th, 2007 10:17 amDay 3
Number of hour's sleep: 4
Day 3 was the day of our trip to the castle, so naturally I got up ridiculously early. I -thought- that it was half past six (sick) in the morning...but in fact it was far worse than that. Half past FIVE, because I was still on French time. Not knowing this, I jumped out of bed, found my key and tried to unlock my things from the locker...only it was the wrong padlock key.
Oh yes, what a twit.
I had to go down to reception, near tears, and half an hour later (and I was feeling sick with worry by then), had to give permission for a great big man with boltcutters to come into the girl's dormitory and cut my padlock off the door. The other girls obstinately slept through it - I can't blame them, because it had only just gone six.
Anyway, I had my clothes back, but now I thought PANIC! I didn't have time to do anything I needed to do. So I got dressed in my Slytherin uniform and went downstairs and skipped breakfast in my panic to get out (I must surely be late!). Of course, my awful sense of direction came into play here, and I was at King's Cross in about fifteen minutes. I thought it was -ages- away. I had a sausage roll, and lingered around until people started to arrive; and then I acted like a great robed magnet - sweeping up and down around the station, attracting other Potterphiles.
We all climbed onto a train soon enough (our own carriage); but not until I'd met some wonderful people! This was the second time I'd run into Snape's Toy (after Wetherspoons), and this time I had my art to flaunt, although it was damned heavy. I also spoke to Ryoko Phoenix, amongst others, who was looking dashing in her Gryffindor robes.
The train journey literally took hours. It was wonderful (and inspiring) to watch the landscape change from London to flat, constant fields, and then begin to roll, until we were mountainous, sweeping on from station to station.
It wasn't just about the train journey though. On the way, we totally crackficced. The four of us at our table, and calyxess in between arts (she was still drawing her entry for the gallery at the time), took turns writing anything from a couple of words to, at some points, a drabble, and this story took shape... When it's all transcribed I'll repost it here shamelessly. It's title is Harry Potter and the 24 Hour Pants Party a.k.a. Harry Potter and the Crotch Monster. And of course, its sequel.
When we got to Alnswick the station was deserted, but for a couple of men working on the telephone lines(?) and a couple of station related people on the other platform; all of which looked at us all when the train disembarked in a mixture of shock and gruesome fascination. Hilarious.
We climbed onto the Knight Bus, which took us on a fascinating (boring) trip around the area. By this time we were all hungry, and thirsty, and wanted nothing more than to run stupidly around the castle going WOW. Anyway... We went around the castle twice (I think). A long way from it so that photos could be taken, and were told stupidly long stories about random pieces of wall, and things on the other side of the wall that people on the ground floor couldn't see.
Then finally we got to the castle, and waited to go in - and then happily found ourselves deposited in a dun dun dun! Food place! We all sat at various tables; I found myself with some very straight and proper Potter fans, so no messing about for me, I sat and ate like an angel, except for putting far too much sugar in my tea even for my tastes. We had turkey with veggies and the best gravy I've had in my entire life. It was great.
When we'd finally finished gorging ourselves, we went out into the grounds and went on a Harry Potter tour of the castle, by a lady who misspoke a few words, and though she was very, very bouncy and well trained, she obviously wasn't -really- a Potter fan; it was her job. But shush. She showed us all kinds of silly things; particularly the secret passages, and the places where Warner Brothers had permanently defaced a building of greater age than the film industry in its entirety. Oh well, and would you like to see where Quidditch was filmed? Yes - ignore the owls...
So the tour ended, and we all rushed over to the omgowls! and watched as people in turn got to have the barn owl and the eagle owl fly onto their arms. So all too eager, we volunteered for the last one, a falcon, and out we went!
It was so amazingly cool. The glove was slipped onto my arm, the falcon flew onto it, stood there as the man talked for a while, then flew off on command. Now this falcon was -huge- and standing on my arm I could slightly feel its talons, but it weighed absolutely nothing. It was amazing. Clearly explains why humans will never fly - and is again inspiring. Winged Harrys capable of flight must be featherlight. And if they're featherlight, they don't need huge piles of shackles to hold them down... Hum.
So, we were finally let free, and set off in groups, and started taking pictures - first innocent ones, and then pictures of each other - going up and down stairs, chasing each other... FINALLY we got to the point where we were at the entrance (used as the entrance in the films), and we were acting out whole SCENES there. Including Snape attacking a Gryffindor, and the Gryffindor being rescued by three others - and me, as Snape again, throttling a teddy bear, and having no less than I think eight wands pointed at me! Scary!
We took stupid photos for too short a time, then set off back to the bus, had another boring tour, then got onto the train as it came back from further north (my god, further north! how cool is that?). We couldn't find good seats, and in order to write the sequel to our story, calyxess, roykophoenix and I all had to sit in the aisle. *snort* Later we got a table and played cards. During this time, the rest of our group were making up a raucous new game with the playing cards we all got in our souvenir kits. We tried to play it but didn't understand...it was much better later when someone told me the real rules.
So we all came off the train eventually and head up to find a pub. Somehow we ended up at the Dolphin, which has to be the tiniest pub ever. We left before many had even sat down, and head of instead to the Grafton again, and whilst it -was- very expensive, it was by far the best place to just hang out until 2am. I had one cup of coke, spread out my Marauder's Map for general perusal. Ryokophoenix showed me her amazing map (so much better than my zomgIhavetwoweeksandwanttohaveamapsobad map), and then I went back upstairs and started playing the card game with everyone else, and made up a wonderful story about Flitwick stalking Harry to the Ministry and then sneaking into Order Headquarters).
So eventually we were all very tired, and I went back to the hostel with...with Luna. Yep, that's right. We yapped all the way there about Snarry, I think, and then I fell into bed, again at around 2am. So.
Day 4
Number of hours sleep: 4.5
I got another hour's sleep this day because I set my alarm clock properly. Of course, I also had to move all my stuff out of that room so I could change to a different room that night. Not very useful, but I lived. I was up early so that I could do something that morning, and Luna and I went all the way to Primark in Oxford Street so that I could buy socks and knickers. I also bought a Kentucky Fried, that I couldn't eat, and which later went missing when I had to leave to go to rehearsals. At one point I thought I'd lost my snakecane, which put me into a sad position, because the snakecane is pretty much priceless as far as I'm concerned. It's a family thing...and I took it with me on pain of death of losing it. Turned out that I'd left it in the locked luggage room - but we had to go back to the hostel to check, and it made us later.
In fact had to take two trains to get to the Slasher's picnic, and arrived at around 12:30 instead of 12. The group had already left the meeting point, and had gone off to the inner circle - but we had no clue where they were. We set off looking for them, and Regent's Park is pretty damn big, I'll have you know. An hour later, I had to go or I'd be later for rehearsals (and actually I was late for rehearsals anyway). Bear in mind that I was wearing FULL SNAPE COSTUME, and had been all day. My shoulders hurt from the weight of my bag and robes, and my feet were in agony after racing down all those roads. (my trainers died).
So then I walked all the way up to St. John's Wood station, which as anyone knows is WAY out of the way. In fact, it was so far out of the way that I could have walked all the way to the venue in the time it took me to get to this station. I bought a case for my contact lenses on the way from a rather frightened looking man in Boots.
I got off at the wrong stop in Westminster, asked at one university door and had to walk around to the Cavendish campus on the other side, where we -finally- got some rehearsing in. It was nice to put some movement to our words. We rehearsed in front of some rather amused looking students, who were standing around the steps, and inside on the balconies looking down at us. Nerves didn't get to me at all, I was so proud!
Finally we head off as a group, right down to King's Cross, and then across the road to the Camden Center. Not far at all. The queue was already starting to form, and we waved and swept in - it must have been about four or five by this time. We head up the back and started rehearsing (and found out that we had no mic again...and suddenly we had to project once more, and we didn't do a good enough job because nobody could hear us, apparently.
This was when I tried to put in my contacts... Absolutely impossible, so we gave up on that idea pretty quickly! Ah well, nobody would have seen them anyway.
Anyway, it was delightful to get a cheer every time I came out on errands from behind the stage. I didn't recognise poor Sinick when I was sent to get her, as she had made such an amazing transformation into Lucius in his pimp suit. My second trip was to fetch food for everyone as we missed the treacle tart, and my third trip was because of my nose bleed (heat and nerves got to me). This coincided with the Snarry auction, and I snagged one of the last tickets, and got a beautiful Snarry keyring!
There were ten minutes to go. The lights went down, the hall was full, everyone was registered, and out went Mijan as Harry, and the crowd went absolutely wild! Woooo! That's because Mijan was amazing as CAPSLOCK Harry. "IT'S EVERYBODY'S FAULT APART FROM MINE!"
As soon as she was done, we - that is, Bellatrix, Voldemort and I, as Snape, head onto the stage; and it really WAS a stage. Lyria was excellent, and Bella even better - the Voldie/Bella was palpable, and ohmygodsocanon! To my credit, I remembered my every word on cue; I made people laugh, and it was so, so cool! I had to sit out for a whole scene, and I spent the entirety of it hovering on the other side, laughing along with everyone else when lines were forgotten, or the funny parts came - cheering when Sinick came on as Lucius. Lyria played Dumbledore too; and fondly became Dumblemort in everyone's eyes. She had to do superfast changes. although for the life of me I can't remember much of the actual acting.
Finally, just as Voldie was closing in on Harry at the end, I leapt through the center of the curtain and cried 'He Shall Not Die!' and got a massive cheer. Wooohooo! I put myself between Voldemort and Harry and said 'Yes, tis I! A spy I was, and now I slay you Voldemort for all your crimes. Now die, you bloodless fiend! I smite thee! Die!' And smacked Lyria on the head with my beloved tablelamp (which I sprang from under my robes to the delighted surprise of the crowd). Down she went, despatched by furniture. The whole crowd laughed and cheered, and Mijan and I both toed the dead Voldemort, before Mijan began her speech, while I circled amongst the dead, stood lewdly over Lucius, kicked Sirius hard in the side, pulled a face at Bella, made my way back over towards Harry looking confused - and had the tablelamp snatched out of my hand...to which it then despatched Mijan in most dramatic flair. Mwuahahah.
I laughed, finally, and gave the speech that introduced the weekend of the Deathly Hallows. Soamazinglycool. Nothing will ever beat the sensation that came after that - a glowing kind of euphoria that pounded in time with my heart. We went out, listened to Steve Vanderark's presentation, and then I wanted a drink so bad, and didn't want to listen to theories...because I was way past theories by then. We went for a room party back at the Grafton (after I rescued the Lamp of Doom from being binned! I have it in my room now, ready to go beside my bed forever more) and then I head down as soon as Misha was ready to go, back to the hostel. Turned out I was too sick for a strong drink, so I had a carton of milk instead, lol. Snape drinking milk; that's something for the books.
So I fell into my new bed ridiculously early (everyone else was already asleep), and dropped off to sleep far too easily. Again at around 2:30. Knowing I was going to have a long day.
Number of hour's sleep: 4
Day 3 was the day of our trip to the castle, so naturally I got up ridiculously early. I -thought- that it was half past six (sick) in the morning...but in fact it was far worse than that. Half past FIVE, because I was still on French time. Not knowing this, I jumped out of bed, found my key and tried to unlock my things from the locker...only it was the wrong padlock key.
Oh yes, what a twit.
I had to go down to reception, near tears, and half an hour later (and I was feeling sick with worry by then), had to give permission for a great big man with boltcutters to come into the girl's dormitory and cut my padlock off the door. The other girls obstinately slept through it - I can't blame them, because it had only just gone six.
Anyway, I had my clothes back, but now I thought PANIC! I didn't have time to do anything I needed to do. So I got dressed in my Slytherin uniform and went downstairs and skipped breakfast in my panic to get out (I must surely be late!). Of course, my awful sense of direction came into play here, and I was at King's Cross in about fifteen minutes. I thought it was -ages- away. I had a sausage roll, and lingered around until people started to arrive; and then I acted like a great robed magnet - sweeping up and down around the station, attracting other Potterphiles.
We all climbed onto a train soon enough (our own carriage); but not until I'd met some wonderful people! This was the second time I'd run into Snape's Toy (after Wetherspoons), and this time I had my art to flaunt, although it was damned heavy. I also spoke to Ryoko Phoenix, amongst others, who was looking dashing in her Gryffindor robes.
The train journey literally took hours. It was wonderful (and inspiring) to watch the landscape change from London to flat, constant fields, and then begin to roll, until we were mountainous, sweeping on from station to station.
It wasn't just about the train journey though. On the way, we totally crackficced. The four of us at our table, and calyxess in between arts (she was still drawing her entry for the gallery at the time), took turns writing anything from a couple of words to, at some points, a drabble, and this story took shape... When it's all transcribed I'll repost it here shamelessly. It's title is Harry Potter and the 24 Hour Pants Party a.k.a. Harry Potter and the Crotch Monster. And of course, its sequel.
When we got to Alnswick the station was deserted, but for a couple of men working on the telephone lines(?) and a couple of station related people on the other platform; all of which looked at us all when the train disembarked in a mixture of shock and gruesome fascination. Hilarious.
We climbed onto the Knight Bus, which took us on a fascinating (boring) trip around the area. By this time we were all hungry, and thirsty, and wanted nothing more than to run stupidly around the castle going WOW. Anyway... We went around the castle twice (I think). A long way from it so that photos could be taken, and were told stupidly long stories about random pieces of wall, and things on the other side of the wall that people on the ground floor couldn't see.
Then finally we got to the castle, and waited to go in - and then happily found ourselves deposited in a dun dun dun! Food place! We all sat at various tables; I found myself with some very straight and proper Potter fans, so no messing about for me, I sat and ate like an angel, except for putting far too much sugar in my tea even for my tastes. We had turkey with veggies and the best gravy I've had in my entire life. It was great.
When we'd finally finished gorging ourselves, we went out into the grounds and went on a Harry Potter tour of the castle, by a lady who misspoke a few words, and though she was very, very bouncy and well trained, she obviously wasn't -really- a Potter fan; it was her job. But shush. She showed us all kinds of silly things; particularly the secret passages, and the places where Warner Brothers had permanently defaced a building of greater age than the film industry in its entirety. Oh well, and would you like to see where Quidditch was filmed? Yes - ignore the owls...
So the tour ended, and we all rushed over to the omgowls! and watched as people in turn got to have the barn owl and the eagle owl fly onto their arms. So all too eager, we volunteered for the last one, a falcon, and out we went!
It was so amazingly cool. The glove was slipped onto my arm, the falcon flew onto it, stood there as the man talked for a while, then flew off on command. Now this falcon was -huge- and standing on my arm I could slightly feel its talons, but it weighed absolutely nothing. It was amazing. Clearly explains why humans will never fly - and is again inspiring. Winged Harrys capable of flight must be featherlight. And if they're featherlight, they don't need huge piles of shackles to hold them down... Hum.
So, we were finally let free, and set off in groups, and started taking pictures - first innocent ones, and then pictures of each other - going up and down stairs, chasing each other... FINALLY we got to the point where we were at the entrance (used as the entrance in the films), and we were acting out whole SCENES there. Including Snape attacking a Gryffindor, and the Gryffindor being rescued by three others - and me, as Snape again, throttling a teddy bear, and having no less than I think eight wands pointed at me! Scary!
We took stupid photos for too short a time, then set off back to the bus, had another boring tour, then got onto the train as it came back from further north (my god, further north! how cool is that?). We couldn't find good seats, and in order to write the sequel to our story, calyxess, roykophoenix and I all had to sit in the aisle. *snort* Later we got a table and played cards. During this time, the rest of our group were making up a raucous new game with the playing cards we all got in our souvenir kits. We tried to play it but didn't understand...it was much better later when someone told me the real rules.
So we all came off the train eventually and head up to find a pub. Somehow we ended up at the Dolphin, which has to be the tiniest pub ever. We left before many had even sat down, and head of instead to the Grafton again, and whilst it -was- very expensive, it was by far the best place to just hang out until 2am. I had one cup of coke, spread out my Marauder's Map for general perusal. Ryokophoenix showed me her amazing map (so much better than my zomgIhavetwoweeksandwanttohaveamapsobad map), and then I went back upstairs and started playing the card game with everyone else, and made up a wonderful story about Flitwick stalking Harry to the Ministry and then sneaking into Order Headquarters).
So eventually we were all very tired, and I went back to the hostel with...with Luna. Yep, that's right. We yapped all the way there about Snarry, I think, and then I fell into bed, again at around 2am. So.
Day 4
Number of hours sleep: 4.5
I got another hour's sleep this day because I set my alarm clock properly. Of course, I also had to move all my stuff out of that room so I could change to a different room that night. Not very useful, but I lived. I was up early so that I could do something that morning, and Luna and I went all the way to Primark in Oxford Street so that I could buy socks and knickers. I also bought a Kentucky Fried, that I couldn't eat, and which later went missing when I had to leave to go to rehearsals. At one point I thought I'd lost my snakecane, which put me into a sad position, because the snakecane is pretty much priceless as far as I'm concerned. It's a family thing...and I took it with me on pain of death of losing it. Turned out that I'd left it in the locked luggage room - but we had to go back to the hostel to check, and it made us later.
In fact had to take two trains to get to the Slasher's picnic, and arrived at around 12:30 instead of 12. The group had already left the meeting point, and had gone off to the inner circle - but we had no clue where they were. We set off looking for them, and Regent's Park is pretty damn big, I'll have you know. An hour later, I had to go or I'd be later for rehearsals (and actually I was late for rehearsals anyway). Bear in mind that I was wearing FULL SNAPE COSTUME, and had been all day. My shoulders hurt from the weight of my bag and robes, and my feet were in agony after racing down all those roads. (my trainers died).
So then I walked all the way up to St. John's Wood station, which as anyone knows is WAY out of the way. In fact, it was so far out of the way that I could have walked all the way to the venue in the time it took me to get to this station. I bought a case for my contact lenses on the way from a rather frightened looking man in Boots.
I got off at the wrong stop in Westminster, asked at one university door and had to walk around to the Cavendish campus on the other side, where we -finally- got some rehearsing in. It was nice to put some movement to our words. We rehearsed in front of some rather amused looking students, who were standing around the steps, and inside on the balconies looking down at us. Nerves didn't get to me at all, I was so proud!
Finally we head off as a group, right down to King's Cross, and then across the road to the Camden Center. Not far at all. The queue was already starting to form, and we waved and swept in - it must have been about four or five by this time. We head up the back and started rehearsing (and found out that we had no mic again...and suddenly we had to project once more, and we didn't do a good enough job because nobody could hear us, apparently.
This was when I tried to put in my contacts... Absolutely impossible, so we gave up on that idea pretty quickly! Ah well, nobody would have seen them anyway.
Anyway, it was delightful to get a cheer every time I came out on errands from behind the stage. I didn't recognise poor Sinick when I was sent to get her, as she had made such an amazing transformation into Lucius in his pimp suit. My second trip was to fetch food for everyone as we missed the treacle tart, and my third trip was because of my nose bleed (heat and nerves got to me). This coincided with the Snarry auction, and I snagged one of the last tickets, and got a beautiful Snarry keyring!
There were ten minutes to go. The lights went down, the hall was full, everyone was registered, and out went Mijan as Harry, and the crowd went absolutely wild! Woooo! That's because Mijan was amazing as CAPSLOCK Harry. "IT'S EVERYBODY'S FAULT APART FROM MINE!"
As soon as she was done, we - that is, Bellatrix, Voldemort and I, as Snape, head onto the stage; and it really WAS a stage. Lyria was excellent, and Bella even better - the Voldie/Bella was palpable, and ohmygodsocanon! To my credit, I remembered my every word on cue; I made people laugh, and it was so, so cool! I had to sit out for a whole scene, and I spent the entirety of it hovering on the other side, laughing along with everyone else when lines were forgotten, or the funny parts came - cheering when Sinick came on as Lucius. Lyria played Dumbledore too; and fondly became Dumblemort in everyone's eyes. She had to do superfast changes. although for the life of me I can't remember much of the actual acting.
Finally, just as Voldie was closing in on Harry at the end, I leapt through the center of the curtain and cried 'He Shall Not Die!' and got a massive cheer. Wooohooo! I put myself between Voldemort and Harry and said 'Yes, tis I! A spy I was, and now I slay you Voldemort for all your crimes. Now die, you bloodless fiend! I smite thee! Die!' And smacked Lyria on the head with my beloved tablelamp (which I sprang from under my robes to the delighted surprise of the crowd). Down she went, despatched by furniture. The whole crowd laughed and cheered, and Mijan and I both toed the dead Voldemort, before Mijan began her speech, while I circled amongst the dead, stood lewdly over Lucius, kicked Sirius hard in the side, pulled a face at Bella, made my way back over towards Harry looking confused - and had the tablelamp snatched out of my hand...to which it then despatched Mijan in most dramatic flair. Mwuahahah.
I laughed, finally, and gave the speech that introduced the weekend of the Deathly Hallows. Soamazinglycool. Nothing will ever beat the sensation that came after that - a glowing kind of euphoria that pounded in time with my heart. We went out, listened to Steve Vanderark's presentation, and then I wanted a drink so bad, and didn't want to listen to theories...because I was way past theories by then. We went for a room party back at the Grafton (after I rescued the Lamp of Doom from being binned! I have it in my room now, ready to go beside my bed forever more) and then I head down as soon as Misha was ready to go, back to the hostel. Turned out I was too sick for a strong drink, so I had a carton of milk instead, lol. Snape drinking milk; that's something for the books.
So I fell into my new bed ridiculously early (everyone else was already asleep), and dropped off to sleep far too easily. Again at around 2:30. Knowing I was going to have a long day.