Fenton Mother and Daughter Enjoying Harry Potter Convention in Florida

Most hardcore Harry Potter fans Friday to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Not Fenton resident Holly Hodgkin and her daughter Maggie, however.

They watched the film at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Harry Potter convention, LeakyCon, in Orlando. LeakyCon is a charity conference thrown by the staff of The Leaky Cauldron, an online destination for Harry Potter fans.

The trip was a birthday present for 16-year-old Maggie, a Fenton High School junior.

“I have never seen a child so happy in my life,” Hodgkin said. “She is in complete bliss. She is having a wonderful time.”

Hodgkin and Maggie enjoyed the Harry Potter experience with 3,500 fans and said it was a neat watching the film before everyone else.

“I thought it was fantastic,” Hodgkin said. “Overall it was really good. Just perfect.”

Hodgkin said there are all kinds of activities at the convention, including rock bands playing Harry Potter-themed songs, several television stars on hand and plenty of other fun events. The mother and daughter even received a yearbook of information, as fans were deemed “the graduating class of Hogwarts.”

When Hodgkin organized the trip she wasn’t sure how it would turn out. The family has been in Florida this week and plans to return Sunday.

“We have never done anything like this before,” she said. “We didn’t know what we were getting into. “It has been wonderful.”