In the weeks and months leading up to July 21st, 2007, the media’s favorite question to ask anyone who had anything to do with Harry Potter (the fans, the filmmakers, even J.K. Rowling herself) was “What’s going to happen when the seventh book comes out?” Everyone seemed to think that after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published, the Harry Potter fandom would simply vanish. But the Harry Potter phenomenon has never been in the business of meeting the public’s expectations. When Rowling was first trying to publish Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, she was told it would not work. The title was too wordy, the manuscript was too long, and the subject matter was too British: A story that featured boarding school and milk men would never sell in America.

13 years and an estimated 400 million copies later, the Harry Potter phenomenon is still disproving media outlets everywhere. Case in point: Expeditious 2010, a Harry Potter fan conference held in Ann Arbor’s Courtyard Marriot, drew almost a hundred Potter fanatics from across the country on May 15, nearly three years after the seventh book was published.

Expeditious, though smaller than other Harry Potter conventions, was no less of a celebration. Saturday was packed to the brim with discussions, rock concerts, and a keynote speech, all pertaining to everyone’s favorite boy wizard. “We wanted to make [the conference] go back to being about the fans,” said Stephanie Anderson, the executive director of Expeditious. “The fact that all these people are coming together is always the best thing ever. If I could just have an excuse to get all these people together, I would.” And so she did: Expeditious was marketed as a cheaper alternative to the bigger conventions happening this summer, and brought together fans from places as far away as Texas.

Anderson even booked a keynote speaker, Melissa Anelli, a senior editor at one of the leading Harry Potter news websites, The Leaky Cauldron, and the author of Harry, A History. In her keynote speech, Anelli spoke about the Harry Potter fandom, and why it differs from other fan communities. “Real life mirrors the story,” she said, making the age old comparison between Harry Potter and Twilight. “Twilight is about being young and selfish and in love… Harry Potter is about the little things.” The love story of Twilight is reflected in it’s infatuated fans, while fans of Potter emulate the friendship and solidarity written about in the series. “Harry Potter has always been about being better together than we ever were alone, and that’s what makes us special,” said Anelli.