featherxquill

16. How have you participated in the fandom over the years?

2003: Joined WB forums after stumbling into them via the Harry Potter Trading Card Game. Started RPing, first with Sofie/Leya/a bunch of others, then with Chris/Rach/Nicci/DL/etc. God, I'm glad those threads don't exist any more (Snape/Lucretia-the-vampiress! Lucretia hanging out with Snape's teenage daughter and them, like, doing each others hair and shit! My vampire! Anne Rice phase FTW!), but they were good times.

2004: Joined LJ, though at that point I posted mostly RL stuff and I was still RPing at WB. Started reading fanfic - epic Snape/Hermione, mostly. Started writing fanfic.

2005: Found 'old lady' fandom and femslash. Posted my first fic on LJ. Later in the year, joined Nimue's Bane RPG, which would later become Merlin's Legacy (my first taste of RP wank! And man, was that epic) on GJ as Poppy Pomfrey and, later, Rita Skeeter (also Neville Longbottom, but I was crap at playing him). I'm sort of glad those threads don't exist any more either, but that game was so much fun. Playing Snape/Rita with Remi, the other Angi and the snarky Poppy/man!Umbridge threads (my first ever experience of being told what to do by an RP character! We so wanted to ship them eventually, but they weren't having any of it). I grew increasingly obsessed with Rita this year.

2006: Went to England for six months. My online friends - especially Marquis - became my family away from family (it was so important to have these friends who weren't suddenly thousands of miles away from me - weren't any different to what they'd been before. It was the best six months of my life to date, but those first few weeks, and my whole time, there, really, my online friends were my constants - the people I came home to). Met

nema_rasa in Ireland, and celebrated my 20th birthday with

princesslucia, seeing Hayfever and meeting Judi Dench. Sometime in... May, maybe? Randomly went to a meetup in London of HP fen that was in honour of a visiting friend - who happened to be

inell (I didn't know anyone who was going, including her, back then. I was just like 'yay! fandom people! In person!' Being in another country on your own for six months makes an introvert far more extroverted than she is at home). We happened to discuss RP that day, among other things (at Snape's pub! With

lizardspots drawing porn at the table and waitresses looking at us funny!), and Inell happened to mention

the_leaky, where she was a Mod, and the fact that didn't have a Rita. I joined The Leaky a short time later and played there sporadically until it closed (I would follow her, and others, to another RPG later - see 2007).

In July, I attended Patronus Con in Copenhagen, just before I came home (no, really, the day I left Copenhagen I flew back to London, got tattooed, then went to Heathrow and boarded a plane for Sydney). It was amazing. I met so many awesome people there, or saw them again, if they were at the meetup in London. I had the pleasure of listening to Steve Vander Ark address the convention (something which, because of fandom's horrible treatment of him, I don't think many people will get to experience again), and a screening of GoF in a room full of fangirls ('Potter is a boy, not a piece of meat! Someone in audience: 'We respectfully disagree!').

2007:

stoatshead_hill RPG. I seriously cannot even begin to describe how this shaped my HP fandom life. How many people I met and became friends with an are still friends with. Katie, Inspire, Rana, Anne, Coco, Tam, Kristi, to name a few I was particularly close to. Seriously though, half my flist is made up of SHHers, so I can't even begin. These were the people who taught me how to RP, how to really develop a character and let her make her own decisions and bounce of others, how to not play stupid shit like 'Lucretia the vampire does Snape's daughter's hair', but write a character arc over a year that I can still read and love and remember.

In July (a year and a day after I returned home from England), I used my 21st birthday present - a plane ticket from Dad - as a way of going to visit friends from my exchange who were living in Seattle, and coupled it with going to stay with

chibitoaster and

cocohufflepuffs and attending a midnight release party for the release of DH.

2008: I played in HP Beholder and

yuletide for the first time, this year, and while neither pushed me outside my circles too much, both mark the times I am most terribly excited with fandom. This was also the year that

wizardwatch happened (because of

draco_crescendo, who I met at Patronus), where I met

regasssa, who was the reluctant Neville to my voracious Rita *g*) and who I dragged along with me when I followed the Inell and Flora's Mod-ness to

road_ahead. Plenty of SHH people there, but also new and awesome people, especially

miss_bowtruckle, whose George unexpectedly clicked with my Muriel.

2009: Followed P to Bloodlins RPG on IJ after RA closed, and played there for a while. Also had a brief stint at

waking_pandora. Wrote 'Apart' for Beholder, which was Draco/Rita, and seems to have marked some sort of apex in my experience of exploring Rita's character. I don't know. I'm sure I'll write more Rita fic, but I actually haven't since, which is a long period for me to go without. I still love her with all my heart. I'm hoping that seeing Miranda in costume again for DH will bunny the living sit out of me.

2010: Hung out wit

englishwannabe in Melbourne back in March. Wrote 'An Interesting and Difficult Woman' for Beholder, which well and truly re-ignited my love for the 'old ladies' of HP canon. Have made a whole bunch of new friends post-Beholder *waves to you all* and am rather enjoying being part of the HP Old Lady Smut Brigade once again :D.

I think what stands out to me here, the most, is how absolutely interconnected everything is, and how much the experience centres around the people I've met. My fandom journey has been a crazy mix of RP and fic, RL travel and online friends, and god, I wouldn't change a moment of it.

Previous Answers

01. Discuss how you got into Harry Potter
02. Your favorite book
03. What house would you be in?
04. Your favorite movie
05. Wizard Rock: discuss
06. Your favorite character(s)
07. Song that reminds you of HP
08. Your favorite ship(s)
09. Fanfiction: discuss
10. Favorite book moment(s)
11. Character you're crushing on
12. Favorite movie scene
13. Least favorite character(s)
14. Moments in the books/movies that made you cry
15. Whatever tickles your fancy
16. How have you participated in the fandom over the years?
17. Your favorite celebs from the movies or fandom
18. If you could change one thing about canon, what would it be?
19. A favorite fanart
20. A favorite quote
21. How has the HP fandom connected you to other fandoms, interests, or people?
22. Your favorite villain
23. Share some HP icons
24. Rant about Steve Kloves something
25. Song that reminds you of HP
26. What aspect of the books has been best translated to film?
27. What aspect of the books has been most poorly translated to film?
28. Hogwarts subject you would most like to take
29. Favorite location
30. Whatever tickles your fancy

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

inell.livejournal.com

*random ♥* I am so glad we met in London. You became one of my best on-line friends and an amazing RP partner. Even if I'm not around so much *damn RL*, I still adore you and consider you one of the best & most talented people I've met.