As huge of a Harry Potter fan as I am, I somehow have never attended an official Harry Potter event. That changed on September 1st when I attended Mugglenet Live! at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Orlando. Two minutes in and I was already having a blast.
Full disclosure in that I’m a nerd and Potterhead of the highest order. I’ve attended not one, or two, but four Harry and the Potters concerts. I can recite large sections of dialogue from the movies. The books are borderline holy objects to me. I’ve gone to the theme parks more times than I can count. But I’m not a huge fan of crowds or approaching people to awkwardly tell them I’m a fan, which is why I’ve avoided any sort of convention or quasi convention before now. Also: money.
However the Muggles at my job were, in the wise words of Ron Weasley, “getting me down” and I needed something crazy fun to take my mind off of it. Enter Mugglenet Live! 2017.
A chance to meet some of my favorite actors from the movies? Endless supplies of food, ice cream, and butterbeer? Exclusive access to Diagon Alley after hours??!
My partner in crime and I bought the cheapest ticket options available because we’re not Draco Malfoy
and put on our best Harry Potter gear to wear and got there early enough to enjoy the wild costumes of the people in line with us to sign in.
Here at #mugglenetlive and there is a Luna walking around in a full lion headdress and it is glorious. #harrypotter @Evy_Lynch
— Hermione’s Library (@HSecretLibrary) September 1, 2017
After we got situated in our cheap seats in the back we had a lengthy but worthwhile wait for the incoming panels. The first panel was the younger talent of Ryan Turner (Hugo Weasley), Rohan Gotobed (Young Sirius Black), and Ellie Darcey-Alden (Young Lily Evans). The second panel comprised the OG gang of Christian Coulson (Tom Riddle Jr.), Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood), Luke Youngblood (Lee Jordan), and Excuse-Me-I’m-Head-Boy Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley). If you read the link posted above and noticed that I didn’t mention the actor playing Albus Severus Potter, that’s because he was inexplicably missing and we never got an explanation. If you think this stopped us from making terrible Albus Severus jokes to each other all night, well, you’re more mature humans than we are.
I didn’t record the panels but I assure you all of the cast seemed delightful and we got some interesting tidbits like they filmed some sort of scene with Oliver Wood and Neville carrying Colin Creevey that didn’t make the movie.
.@Seanchuckle remembers filming a version of Neville carrying Colin Creevey’s body that didn’t make it into the film. #MuggleNetLive
— MuggleNet Live (@MuggleNetLive) September 2, 2017
I highly suggest reading Mugglenet Live’s tweets on the panels because there were some genuinely funny and insightful answers from the cast. I was impressed at how engaged and kind the actors were at the panel which was an ongoing theme that occurred throughout the night when (spoiler alert!) we were lucky enough to meet all of the cast except one.
The final panel consisted of some of the podcasters from Mugglenet and then we were off to our VIP Universal Employee led entrance into the park. As someone who has always had a love of secret and hidden things I enjoyed seeing the park empty at night aside from a few park stragglers who were being led out.
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The time had come to stuff our faces with buffet food. As an alleged grown adult I of course mainly stuck to trying every single dessert available and reluctantly eating some food without sugar in it but my partner in crime tried all the adult people food and said it was great. I particularly enjoyed the Pumpkin and Custard Tarts and the Sticky Pudding, but the Roasted Chicken and Cottage Pie were delectable as well. We stopped by for some free frozen Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice and then decided that riding the Gringotts Rollercoaster after shoving massive amounts of food in our gobs was an intelligent idea.
At this point, to those of you going yes yes but what about Percy Weasley?? sadly we had not seen any of the actors at this time, which was probably good for my last shred of dignity when the tarts were getting shoved down my throat without celebrity witnesses.
The guests who had bought more expensive tickets were off taking pictures with the actors at Platform 9 and 3/4 and some also got to ride the Gringotts Coaster and have an exclusive Ollivander’s Experience with one of them as well. We resigned ourselves that this would make it hard for us to actually spot or perhaps meet one and went on our ride instead. For those of you who’ve been to any theme park you will appreciate the sheer beauty of having absolutely no one in line and basically walking on the ride with only a few other people. 
We thought for one shining moment we’d get the whole coaster to ourselves but I forgave our latecomers because they screamed at all the exciting parts and I love a good screamer on a roller coaster.
We still hadn’t seen anyone British and famous so we decided to head over to the Hogwarts Express to enjoy having a compartment to ourselves. We hadn’t stepped ten feet outside of Diagon Alley when we saw a group of Mugglenet Live! staffers leading around our first sighting of the actors: Chris Rankin, Luke Youngblood, Christian Coulson, and Rohan Gotobed. I then took some supremely awkward blurry stalker-y photos and we had a whispered conversation about whether to actually approach them or not.
Our natural introverted natures were warring with the excitement of seeing the Harry Potter actors right in front of us, but at the time it seemed they were receiving a tour from the Mugglenet Live! staff and it seemed a rude time to interrupt. We decided to follow them back into Diagon Alley without asking for autographs of pictures, abandoning the Hogwarts Express for another day.
Shortly thereafter we ran into Chris (Percy) right in the entrance where the brick wall opens. We approached meekly and he put me at ease when I apologized for hassling him and he said: “that’s what we’re here for!” Thanks Chris you were a delight.
The rest of the actors had disappeared or had enormous crowds around them so we decided to partake in the free ice cream at Florian Fortescue’s.
On our way out of the door Ryan Turner (Hugo) came in. We didn’t want to be the sadists who get between a man and his ice cream and we figured we’d run into him later so we left. Sadly, Ryan was the only actor we didn’t actually meet but from all accounts he was also very kind.
Shortly thereafter I spotted Christian (Tom Riddle) in the Scribbulus store almost alone and snagged a picture. He was gracious and not at all a sociopathic snake man.
At this point we had observed all of the actors surrounded by vast hordes of fans so we figured there was no point in joining the masses. Instead we made our way to Knockturn Alley, both of us confident we wouldn’t spot a single actor there. We went inside Borgin and Burkes and received a shock when we saw Sean (Oliver Wood) almost entirely alone. Now, most of our actor encounters aren’t particularly interesting to read about because we just nicely asked for a picture, said thank you, and left, but this time we had a staff member join in on the fun. One of the Borgin and Burkes employees had told us “scream if you need anything” when we walked in while he sported an impressively unhinged poker face and he also photobombed one of my photos with Sean.
I assure you this is not sarcasm when I say all of this thrilled me and I hope that Borgin and Burkes employee never stops attempting to scare his customers. Next we ran into Ellie (Young Lily) and Rohan (Young Sirius). They were both also delights and we told Rohan what an excellent job he’d done hosting the second panel.
Every time we saw Luke (Lee Jordan) he was swarmed but we did manage to get him at the very end of the night and he commented on how tall we both are! Luke, like all of the others was charming and personable and we left impressed at how game all of the cast had been to interact with a bunch of crazed Harry Potter fans.
We ended up accidentally running into Christian and Sean again in Ollivanders while we waited for our (non VIP) experience and they were with their guest groups so we had the strange experience of being five feet away from them but not interacting. It was still awesome and we got to experience Ollivander’s wand choosing with only two other people.
Afterwards we walked out into Ollivanders the shop and marveled at the complete lack of guests throughout most of Diagon Alley.
Overall it was an (excuse the cliche) magical night and if they ever did it again we would be sure to attend. The VIP access to the park and the casual way the stars interacted with the guests was a wonderful touch, and the Mugglenet Live! staff did a fantastic job booking friendly and enthusiastic actors. My only complaint is that I wish it had lasted longer!
For more pictures of Mugglenet Live! check out my instagram.