The differences in houses. As seen by a panelist.
Or "How my panel turned into a Hufflepuff House Meeting"
I'm a panelist. As in I go to conventions and I do all the sorts of convention-going things many other people who go to conventions do. But I ALSO run panels and events at conventions. I rarely go to a convention without having some sort of panel to run.
I do this because I love learning, I love sharing and, in true-to-house-form, I LOVE food.
I actually have several food-based panels where I share my recipes, demonstrate cooking techniques, and talk about the importance of food in fictional settings. (just a dabbling of the panels I run in various settings.) I even run tea party events!
What does this have to do with Hogwarts houses?
Well this particular incident was based around one of my most popular panels "Fun Foods in the Potter-verse". This panel is one I constructed around my own personal recipe for Butterbeer, and during this panel I actually make fresh mushroom-shaped meringues, hand out pre-made chocolate frogs (with crunchy bones and squishy guts), hand-made liquorice wands (in red and black flavours) and samples of tasty freshly made butterbeer (which goes over swimmingly every time and has been labeled by many as being better than Wizarding World's sugar-laced swill).
This particular time I ran the panel I had been handed a LOT of shit by the convention I was at. The person who ran the fantasy track had NOT bothered listening to my needs for the panel, had been completely out of pocket the whole weekend, and had, at the last moment, while I was scrambling to get my panel set up around throngs of people who wouldn't clear out of my panel room and whom SHE had told could stay in my room while I set up when I had tried to clear them out so I could set up in peace, shoved this poor frightened English girl at me and told me that I was going to have a co-host for my panel.
I snipped at her, and told her I didn't -have- a co-host for my panel. I'd never had a co-host for my panel. The girl who usually acted as my assistant (and self-labeled house elf) in the past wasn't there and I hadn't been told about having a co-host pushed on me and that I was trying to get my panel set up and could she please let me get that done.
(I was EXTREMELY frustrated with this woman who had, at this point, given me the wrong room, and had undermined my authority when I tried to clear my own panel room, then shoved this poor terrified Hufflepuff (I knew because she couldn't've been more black and gold bedecked) and proceeded to tell me this was my co-host and I should meet her. All while getting underfoot, in a hallway queued with people and not HELPING me get set up) the Hufflepuff girl got upset (understandably) because I said I didn't -have- a co-host and left before I could explain that I'd love to have her stay, but that this track-mod had been screwing me over ALL weekend and SHE was who I was angry at, not the hufflepuff)
I snipped at the Hufflepuff by accident, everything had been going badly that morning. To this day I'd like to apologize and try to make it up to her, but I don't know how to find her. I'll explain how I know who she is in the story below.
So with everything falling to pieces I FINALLY get my panel started (in a conference room with all my attendees standing around the walls like bar patrons) and I'm talking firmly and loudly, explaining everything I'm doing and doing my absolute damnedest to make my signature panel something fun for everyone. I've managed to get control enough to have a plate of chocolate frogs going out ot people who wanted them, and the butterbeer begins flowing. Thanks to the help of a pair of attendees who began acting as house elves for me.
Well, a guy comes up and taps his wrist with two fingers. Which, in the panelist world means 'ten minutes left' or 'time is short' so I start RUSHING thinking my panel is about to end on me (I couldn't see a clock, thanks to the crap setup of the room) and I hurry through the rest of the panel, cutting it short and passing out samples so I don't cut into the next panel (a panel on British teas) because if I have to start late, I'm damn well not going to cut into someone else's panel time because I'm just not that rude.
Everyone finishes their samples, I get a listing of people who want recipes, and I begin cleaning up.Well... a handful of people remain behind. I tell them I'm really sorry they had to see the panel in such a state and they offered to help me clean up. I laughed, stress and everything just having gotten to me and gladly accept the help.
As we begin talking, and pondering where the next panelist is, one of them says that the girl hosting the next panel supposedly left early. She was a guest of the fantasy track and the house head on fanfiction.net for Hufflepuff. When I described the little Brit girl who'd I'd run off I found out THAT had been who the track head had pushed at me and not bothered telling me who was.
I felt HORRIBLE. I explained I was a Hufflepuff tried and true and I'd been looking forward to her "teas of England" panel and that now I was feeling even worse.
After sharing my house, those left behind began sharing their's. Every single person who had stayed behind was a Hufflepuff.
Shortly after we began getting the room in order a Slytherin friend of mine showed up and asked where the people in my panel were. I told her about running short (she was the track head for the Brit track) and then asked why I'd ended my panel half an hour early.
Sure enough. I'd rushed my panel through and only taken half my time. I told her what had happened with both the Hufflepuff head of house and the track head, and my dear dear Slytherin friend went out for blood when she found out how that track head had been treating me all weekend. She told me the Hufflepuff girl had gotten an earlier flight and that her panel had been cancelled. So we Hufflepuffs turned it a little more comfortable and everyone that came in looking for the tea panel was explained to what had happened and invited in for a bit of butterbeer, leftover chocolate frogs and cookies.
I discovered a few trends while running this panel.
Slytherins want Butterbeer (and usually ask for seconds)
Gryffindors come for the chocolate frogs and free butterbeer.
Ravenclaws always ask for the recipes and how/why things come out the way they come out, and how to get just the right texture.
And Hufflepuffs always stay to help clean up.
I'd say it was a little biased, but I've noticed this trend in the tea party events, the fun foods of the Potter-verse panels, and the rather consistent way people seem to act.
One of these days I'll write about the Harry Potter Tea Party and how interesting that was, seeing how people in different houses acted.
By the way. If anyone knows how to contact or who the Head of Hufflepuff House on fanfiction.net is/was or how to contact her... it's been three years and I never did get to apologize to her for how I acted, or explain to her what had happened to make me so snippy.
I know it's not only a long shot, but I've been trying to find her for three years, if only so I can apologize to her. I never had intended to snip at her. I was snipping at the track head, and she unfortunately, got caught in the middle. I've been terrified that I ruined her trip to America with the way I acted and that she thinks I'm a terrible person for it.