MuggleCast 73 Transcript
Show Intro
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[Intro music plays]
Andrew: Because you need something to keep you sane during exam time – thank you Kate, 18, of Canada – this is MuggleCast Episode 73, for January 21st, 2007.
[Music continues to play]
Andrew: Can you guys believe that Laura Mallory once again appealed the court decision?
Kevin: It’s so stupid.
Laura: Of course! She’s got nothing better to do.
Andrew: Oh, you can believe it, Laura?
Laura: Yeah! She’s got nothing better to do, obviously.
Micah: Ah, well, Laura’s from Georgia.
Laura: I understand…
Micah: Laura Mallory’s from Georgia.
Laura: I understand how these people operate.
Micah: They both share the same name.
Kevin: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Ah, I see, you’re on the same brain waves. You got everything.
Kevin: There are not many brain waves…
Laura: Hey! Don’t even go there.
Andrew: Welcome to another edition of MuggleCast. We’ve got a jam-packed show this week, including a very special interview that we promised last week. We are happy to bring it to you this week. But first, I want to introduce a special guest co-host that we have this week. Mikey B., from California!
Mikey: Hi, everybody!
Andrew: Mikey! How you doin’?
Mikey: Pretty good! I’m excited.
Andrew: A few of us know Mikey from a couple of…
Kevin: [laughs] Good times.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: …Harry Potter business trips that we took out to Las Vegas and California. And…
Mikey: [laughs] They were completely business.
Kevin: Yup.
Andrew: Yeah. And you – he knows his Harry Potter stuff, and we wanted to have him on the show this week. You have been very excited to be on here.
Mikey: Yeah. I’ve been actually very excited.
Andrew: You’ve been telling me all week. [laughs]
Mikey: I’ve been freaking out! I’m like, “Oh my gosh! I’m going to be on – you know, MuggleCast.”
Andrew: You bought a new headset for it – you are set to go!
Mikey: I did buy a headset. It’s nice, I like it. It’s comfy, too.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, we do have a jam-packed show for everyone this week. I’m Andrew Sims.
Kevin: I’m Kevin Steck.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Mikey: And I’m Mikey Bouchereau.
[Music continues to play]
News
Micah: All right! Micah Tannenbaum here with the past week’s top Harry Potter news stories.
Imelda Staunton, the actress who plays Professor Umbridge, spoke recently about her experience playing the former High Inquisitor. She said:
“Dolores is a vision in pink taffeta but a nasty piece of work. At first I thought, ‘Oh, a Harry Potter, that’ll be fun’. But at this film’s heart is real tragedy, and I found myself having four months of intense acting, followed by occasional wand-waving for the next six.”
A new Order of the Phoenix photo showing Daniel Radcliffe at King’s Cross station was released earlier this week. Also, David Yates was quoted in USA Today recently as saying Order of the Phoenix is “the most emotionally complex one so far.”
The Argus has a lengthy new interview online with the actor who plays Argus Filch in the Potter films. Most of the discussion revolves around the upcoming play The Caretaker in which David appears, but towards the end he talks about Order of the Phoenix. He said:
“I had a lot of fun up a 35ft ladder, clinging on with one hand and hammering proclamations into the hall wall with the other, while four crew guys shook the bottom. I’m not very good with heights.”
Wrapping up movie news, a recent report by the UK Film Council stated that over 840 million pounds sterling was spent on film production last year. That’s an increase of 48% from 2005’s total expenditure. As a result, 2006 was the UK’s best-recorded year for film.
Film minister Shaun Woodward commented that “These figures show that the UK is a great place to make a film. Two Potters – Harry and Beatrix – a Golden Compass and a bit of Stardust have helped the UK’s film industry have one of its best years ever.”
And Forbes Magazine has placed JK Rowling at #2 on their list of the richest women in entertainment. They estimate her net wealth at $1 billion, and she is the only career author on the list. In first place – who else? Oprah Winfrey.
Speaking of JK Rowling, Friday Night Shirt, a short film about the lives of single mothers in Yarmouth, has won a “Deffie” at a Hollywood film festival. JK Rowling, who struggled herself as a single mother some years ago, financed the poignant film.
Finally, Laura Mallory, the Georgian mother who has been crusading since August 2005 to remove the Potter books from the Gwinnet County’s school libraries, is set to appeal to the County’s Superior Court.
Mallory said:
“We will take a stand for truth, and pray God will touch the hearts of this generation.”
For the past year and a half, she has vehemently preached that the books indoctrinate children in witchcraft. She hasn’t, however, actually read the books.
Mallory says she is poised to take legal action and has apparently received “significant donations” from “supporters” in aid of this cause. You know, Laura, there is somebody who has already touched the hearts and minds of this generation. Her name is JK Rowling.
That’s all the news for this January 21st, 2007 edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show.
Andrew: Okay, thank you Micah.
Micah: You are welcome!
Mallory Discussion
Andrew: I guess one of the big stories of the week – Laura Mallory. What’s going on? What’s her mindset here? Does she really think she’s going to be able to win this?
Micah: I don’t think so.
Kevin: Nah. I think she’s just wasting her time.
Laura: She’s got to know, I mean…
Kevin: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah. She is wasting her time, and I’ve said this time and time again.
Mikey: I think she just wants attention.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: So Laura, most of us already know there really is nothing to do in Georgia, but – I mean, does it get to this point where there really is nothing to do but keep appealing your court cases?
Laura: Apparently! You know, I’ve said it time and time again that this woman has an extraordinary – an extraordinary amount of perseverance, and should be using it for charitable causes that actually need something like that. Not trying to get a book taken away from a bunch of kids.
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah. The fact that…
Micah: Well, I liked her quote.
Kevin: The fact that she’s actually taking donations – it just irks…
Andrew: She is?
Kevin: Yeah! “Significant donations from supporters in aid of this.” It does…
Andrew: Oh no! [laughs]
Laura: What could you possibly use donations for?
Andrew: Gas money. [laughs]
Mikey: For legal action.
Kevin: For legal costs. But why spend money on legal costs when she could spend it on something that would go towards her cause a bit more, like promotion of other books besides Harry Potter? You know?
Laura: Yeah.
Mikey: Or promotion of reading.
Laura: Yeah, I think she should…
Kevin: Because she knows it’s going nowhere. So…
Micah: What do you think of her quote? She said, “We will take a stand for truth and pray God will touch the hearts of this generation.”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I want God to touch me!
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: No, I don’t know. I don’t know what to think anymore. [laughs] This lady – I don’t know. Good for her for having – [laughs] being able to stick with it for so long, but… [laughs]
Kevin: Yeah, and…
Andrew: It’s not… Really, it’s not even worth talking about anymore.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: We’ve – we’ve beaten this to death. But – so, of course…
Laura: Get a hobby. That’s essentially what it comes down to.
Kevin: Yeah.
[Laura laughs]
Mikey: Has she…
Andrew: You’ll see more…
Mikey: I have a question. Has she even read the books all the way through? Or…
Kevin: No. No.
Laura: No, she hasn’t.
Micah: No.
Laura: She’s read excerpts.
Andrew: Of course, you’ll see more updates on MuggleNet.com, as the news breaks. I know everyone’s on the edge of their seats to see…
Micah: When she’s going to fail…
Andrew: … the next time she’s going to get shut down.
Micah: Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, exactly.
Announcements
Andrew: Moving on, we don’t really have any big announcements this week, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to point out a couple of things that we do every week, but most people don’t actually realize it or how to subscribe properly in iTunes. First of all, we do have low bandwidth versions of the show. If you are on a dial-up connection these come in really handy; they’re about a third of the size of the full quality MuggleCast podcast. Of course they sound – [imitates bad audio] they sound really bad, [returns to normal audio] but you can hear us and they are – you can listen to them without your ears bleeding. And they are worth it if you are on a dial-up connection. I know. Every once in a while when I’m on dial-up, I don’t know about you guys, but I cannot take it…
Kevin: Yeah, it’s like pulling teeth.
Andrew: …especially long downloads.
Laura: I’m never on dial-up, thank God.
Andrew: You are very lucky.
Mikey: You’re just special.
[Andrew, Kevin, and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Yeah. Also, this is a big problem, every single week I post on MuggleNet.com saying, “Hey, there’s a new podcast out.” And people say, “It’s not showing up in iTunes yet.” What people don’t realize is the link that I have in iTunes goes to the directory listing within iTunes, which shows the ten most recent podcasts, but iTunes does not automatically see that we have a new episode out immediately after I post it. So, you have to press that Subscribe button on the page that I link to on MuggleNet.com to get the latest episode automatically whenever it comes out if your iTunes is open. So, hopefully that clears some things up. And also, Laura…
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: We have a little Prophecy update.
Laura: We do.
Andrew: I believe you wanted to bring this up.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: So, go ahead.
Laura: For those of you who were wondering, and I know a lot of you were, the dress code for the Decade of Enchantment Ball is semi-formal/formal.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: [laughs and yells] Shut up, Andrew!
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: Hold on. [laughing] I love the name of it.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: [still laughing] They can’t call it the Yule Ball, so they…
Laura: Well, no…
Andrew: They have to call it…what is it?
Andrew and
Laura: Decade of Enchantment.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: That’s because the whole thing is about ten years of Harry Potter.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
[Andrew, Kevin, and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Okay, okay.
Laura: So anyway, that is semi-formal/formal. So, ladies, get out your prom dresses, polish your shoes, do all that jazz. You are allowed to wear costumes and dress robes are encouraged, but Muggle formal wear is fine. I think that’s what most people will be doing, I know that’s what I’m doing. Tickets for the ball are on sale for $5.00 right now, and they can only be purchased by registered Prophecy attendees. You can purchase a ticket for and bring an unregistered guest if you wish, but as of right now unregistered guests may not purchase tickets. Also submissions for call papers will be closed February 1st. And that’s all.
Andrew: Wow, Laura. You are a great – I’m appointing you our official Prophecy update spokesperson.
Laura: Okay, sure.
Mikey: Well, I have a question.
Andrew: That was good. Huh?
Mikey: What’s with the formal and semi-formal? What, you know, decides as semi-formal? Because sometimes, you know, $200 jeans can be semi-formal. So…
Andrew: Yes.
Mikey: So…
Laura: Well, they mean like… [thinking of word]
Kevin: Dress pants, shirt and tie.
Laura: Yeah. For…
Mikey: Do they want us in tuxedos?
Kevin: No, tuxedos are formal.
Laura: No, no, no. Not guys.
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Mikey: You should wear a tuxedo.
Laura: Okay, let me make…
Kevin: Like a jacket. A jacket would be formal.
Laura: …this very clear for everyone. When they say semi-formal to formal, the semi-formal is for guys and the formal is for girls.
[Micah laughs]
Mikey: Okay.
Laura: That’s how it goes. [laughs]
Andrew: Or if you’re in England, you will know the dress pants to be smart trousers.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: As Jamie taught me.
Kevin: Oh, is that what they call them?
Andrew: There’s your little English fact for the day.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Next time all you Americans, next time your mom or dad or friend or whoever asks you to wear some dress pants, he means – just say, [attempts British accent] “You mean smart trousers?”
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: That’s my British accent.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: So goofy, isn’t it?
Kevin: Is that your British accent?
Andrew: Those English people. Yeah. But Ben, Jamie and I have been planning our outfit. already, for Prophecy…
Laura: Really?
Andrew: …for the Decade Of Enchantment Ball.
Kevin: Really?
Micah: You’re all wearing the same outfit?
Andrew: I don’t want to – [goofy voice] I don’t want to give it away.
Kevin: So, who are you going with?
Andrew: [still in goofy voice] It’s a big surprise.
Laura: You guys sound like girls. [laughs] Oh my God.
Andrew: We’re going…
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: We’re going single.
Micah: Stag?
Andrew: Actually we’re going together…
Kevin: Oh, okay. I see.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re going stag. We’re going as a package.
Laura: Oooh.
Andrew: It’s a group of three. It’s a three – [laughs] three way date.
Micah: Threesome?
Andrew: But anyway this…
[Mikey laughs]
Andrew: Our – what we’re wearing is borderline semi-formal…
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: To whatever was below that, so…
[ Andrew, Laura, and Mikey laugh]
Mikey: Yes!
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: So, that should be good. But that does bring up a good point. We probably…
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: …will be at Prophecy 2007 in Toronto, Canada, doing a LIVE podcast there and also will be at the Decade of Enchantment Ball. Can we call it the – can we call it DEB? For short? D-E-B.
Laura: Sure.
Andrew: Decade…
Laura: Why not?
Andrew: …of Enchantment Ball.
Laura: We shorten everything in this fandom anyway.
Andrew: …DEB. Are we going to be at DEB?
Laura: I mean, we have…
Andrew: [laughs] I know.
Laura: …DH, COS. So, why not?
Andrew: Right, exactly. So we’re going to be at DEB [laughs] at Prophecy. So, Prophecy 2007 dot com?
Laura: Dot org.
Mikey: Org.
Micah: Org.
Andrew: Org, sorry. Prophecy2007.org.
Listener Rebuttal: Hangman Game in Fantastic Beasts
Micah: Speaking of Canada, David, 16, of Ontario…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Eh?
Micah: Wrote in about another “Gallows” reference in the books. He said:
“When you stated that the whole reason for the Hallows/Gallows discussion was because of the game on JKR’s website, it got me thinking. In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we see a hangman game played by Harry and Ron on the inside cover. Next to the hanged person, there’s a giant spider who says, “You die Weasley.” Do you think this could be a clue to who dies in Book 7?”
Laura: I completely forgot about that.
Andrew: Very interesting. I – that – I don’t know. That seems to me like it would be kind of extreme for some fat – [laughs] uh, foreshadowing in such a small book, but…
Laura: Well, I mean…
Andrew: I don’t know.
Mikey: No.
Andrew: What does everyone else think?
Mikey: Ron’s not going to die. Ron’s not going to die. There’s…
Laura: I don’t think he will.
Mikey: …no reason for him to.
Laura: I think it – I don’t know. She said that one character had gotten a reprieve and I think that that might have been Ron.
Andrew: Mhm.
Laura: So, maybe at the time she wrote those books, maybe Ron was going to die.
Andrew: Yeah. Who would write that in the book, anyway? I wonder…
Laura: Well, it…
Mikey: Malfoy?
Laura: No, no, no. It was Harry’s book and they were playing hangman and all sorts of stuff in the margins.
Andrew: Oh. That is very interesting. Hmmm. [laughs] I like that that. That … Hmmm, cool.
Micah: I don’t know, it doesn’t look good for Ron. I mean, there’s a lot of things that foreshadow his death.
Andrew: He’s a weak character if you ask me. I think he’s had it coming since Book 1. [laughs] I don’t know, he’s…
Laura: You’re mean.
Andrew: I don’t know.
Kevin: [laughs] Nice.
Andrew: I’m sorry.
Laura: I don’t want to talk to you anymore.
Andrew: Ah, yeah. I know, you all the other girls…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: …always go for the – for Ron.
Listener Rebuttal: Hangman in History of Magic Class
Andrew: Next rebuttal comes from Jenny, 14, of Boston. She writes:
“In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, JK Rowling writes that during a particularly boring History of Magic lesson Harry and Ron passed the time by playing hangman. This could be foreshadowing to future events.”
Andrew: And, you know, I like how people are pointing all these out to us, because we have a page on MuggleNet where we list all of the ways that Sirius’ death was foreshadowed, I think?
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: That right? Or am I completely wrong?
Laura: It’s the Death Clues under Things You Might Have Missed.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Death Clues, yeah. [laughs] We’ll get to some more rebuttals later on.
Mikey’s Release Date
Andrew: But, Mikey, earlier this week you brought up a release date theory to me, which I thought was very interesting.
Mikey: Really? Okay.
Andrew: Just like you did your – yeah, you know what I’m talking about.
Mikey: Yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Well, of course like any fan, I was listening to, I guess, MuggleCast Episode whatever one you were…
Andrew: Wooo!
Mikey: … talking about the release in…
Andrew: Pretty much every episode.
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Mikey: Yeah, you know. Micah mentioned Halloween being the release date. I don’t think Halloween, I think the day after it, November 1st. Reason for this is because All Hallows Eve is Halloween, but All Hallows Day is November 1st. I was talking to a couple friends about this. My friend Quinn and I, we were talking about it and he actually just re-read the first book. And, actually, in the first book, on November 1st McGonagall says she wouldn’t be surprised if today is known as Harry Potter Day, and that’s also the day that everyone was dressed up in robes and Vernon was going through those people in weird cloaks talking excitedly on every corner talking about Harry Potter. That would actually happen if the book was released on midnight on the 1st. What would be great is we have the party on Halloween, people can go trick-or-treating, line up for the book release, at midnight we start reading, and obviously during the day it would be “Harry Potter Day”…
Andrew: Right.
Mikey: …on the 1st. So…
Andrew: Yeah, that’s really cool. I really like that.
Kevin: Yeah, I like that.
Mikey: I think it’d be a great idea, because…
Laura: That is pretty cool.
Mikey: … she said it in Book One…
Micah: I like it.
Mikey: …you know? So…
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: I’ll put in a word with her.
Andrew: Go trick-or-treating for…
Micah: Make sure that happens.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Okay.
Mikey: Micah will be like, “I want Harry Potter Day, just like you said in Book 1.”
Micah: Yeah. [laughs]
[Laura laughs]
Micah: You know, something else that one of the listeners sent in, which actually raises a good point – I mean, we think only about ourselves here in America, but – and this one came from Australia, I forget who sent it in, but when it’s summer here, it’s winter down there, so, I mean, we tend to have a skewed view of when we think the books should come out. You know what I mean? When we say, “Oh, it’s always been a summer release. It’s always been a summer release.” Well…
Laura: Well, for us it has.
Micah: Yeah, but, you know, we’re not the only ones who read the books.
Laura: I know, but if you look at it that way, there’s no release date that’s going to be convenient for the entire world. It’s not going to happen, and I think a lot of it…
Andrew: Right.
Mikey: November 1st. November 1st is. [laughs]
[Laura laughs]
Mikey: Because it’s “Harry Potter Day.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Well, I mean but that’s like, what, in the middle of the week?
Mikey: It’s a Thursday, so this is how it is. I know it’s not, you know, a Saturday, but it’s a Thursday, you know? So, what would happen is, you only would miss so many days of work, and then the Saturday is here. You know? People already expect people to miss work sometimes, or school, on November 1st, because they’re out trick-or-treating late at night, so, you know…
Laura: Well, that’s true.
Mikey: …just take an extra day off on Friday, wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I’m still holding out for that day.
Andrew: I, I really do like that. I think that’s pretty clever.
Laura: Yeah, it is. I never thought of that.
Andrew: It just, it – but whenever I think about these release dates, I think about, am I going to be in school?
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: How much work am I going to have?
Laura: Mhm.
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: If I miss, what am I going to you know? Because we’re planning big…
Laura: Especially since we’re going to be in college. Oh, my gosh.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly, so…
Kevin: And it would be…
Micah: Some of us.
[Laura laughs]
Kevin: It would be nice to be in England for the release.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: Well, that’s the thing, yeah.
Kevin: Yeah.
Andrew: And…
Kevin: That’s like, a week venture there, so…
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, most people go to book parties and stuff, that’s cool and great, but we plan on doing one big, live podcast. We want to do one in England [laughs], but I mean, you know, if it’s during the school – school year, that’s – might, you know, put a dent. So…
Micah: What about August, though? I mean, everyone seems focused on July.
Andrew: August is great. Yeah.
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, August would be cool.
Andrew: August would be nice, yeah. I concur. [laughs] Right over the top of Prophecy.
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: Imagine all of that.
Micah: Right after Prophecy.
Andrew: Oh, God.
Micah: Or two weeks after Prophecy.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re going to Canada and England. No, thanks.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Two terrible countries. [laughs]
Kevin: Ohhh.
Micah: I guess that’s getting cut out.
Andrew: I take that back. [laughs]
Laura: Careful, one of those countries is our neighbor, smart one.
Andrew: I know. [laughs] What, are they going to come down here and – never mind.
Mikey: I love Canada. William Shatner’s from Canada.
Andrew: Yes, yes. I know all about you and William Shatner.
Main Discussion: Deathly Hallows = Horcruxes?
Andrew: Moving along now; Micah, you’ve been doing your homework this week.
Micah: I have.
Andrew: Would you care to explain?
Micah: Well, I think we’ve hit this from so many different angles, we started out with the hangman game. We talked about that two weeks ago, last week we kind of got into the whole referencing it to Halloween, you know, are they – were the deathly hallows the people who died for the Horcruxes to be made? But, one thing I think we briefly mentioned when the title first came out, and now we can come back to, is, are the deathly hallows in fact the Horcruxes themselves? And what I did was, I said – well, Eric brought this up, you know, I think it was Episode 71, when he started talking about this whole tie-in to Arthurian legend. And I said, “Now, I don’t know anything about Arthurian legend, so I’m going to contact a professor at some university,” and it’s really bad that I don’t remember who I contacted or where they work, but, nonetheless. Actually, I just found the e-mail. The person I spoke to was Professor Jane Chance of Rice University, so thanks to her. She provided some information that was similar to what Eric had mentioned back then, so I mean, I think it’s worth exploring just a little bit more.
Andrew: So, what did you find out from this professor?
Voldemort the King
Micah: She was pretty helpful. She said that, you know, in Arthurian legend – in most legends – the hallows are seen to represent, sort of, the royal regalia that’s carried by the king. So, I mean, can in this sense, can we compare Voldemort to a king?
Laura: Well, yeah, he’s been…
Andrew: In a way.
Laura: … compared to a king before. In the chess match, at the end of Sorcerer’s Stone, people have compared that to the war that’s been going on in the books. And people will compare the queen to Bellatrix, the king to Voldemort. I think it would be safe to say that you can compare Voldemort to a king.
Comparison to Arthurian Legend
Micah: Okay, so these hallows, supposedly, are these sacred vessels, have developed over time, through all these different legends, and what they’ve been developed into is basically four symbols of magical elements, and they actually also appear on tarot packs, and I know we talked about the hangman tarot card a couple weeks ago, as four suits: the sword, the spear, the cup, and the pentacle. Now, we know that Jo is very good at incorporating mythology and stories into her work. These four things, could they be the four remaining Horcruxes? Could they compare to the four remaining Horcruxes? What do you guys think?
Mikey: Well, the cup, we kind of know.
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: The – yeah, but the sword, they already, didn’t she already confirm that it wasn’t the sword?
Laura: Yeah, I think it’s already been kind of debunked that it’s not a sword.
Kevin: And that’s the only sword we’ve seen.
Laura: Well, I mean it all really comes down to do we think that the Horcruxes are entirely new things that we’re going to find out about, or have we already seen them in the books before? Like we’ve already seen the locket at Grimmauld Place, for instance. Is there any chance that we’ve seen a Horcrux – you know – all of the Horcruxes, in each of the books, and we just don’t know it yet?
Kevin: Well, I think that we’ve seen at least a couple of them, but…
Laura: Oh, I’m sure.
Kevin: …maybe, I don’t think all of them, necessarily. I mean, it’s all speculation, but I would think that she would reserve at least one for herself to play around with in the seventh book, you know what I mean? Because that leaves her…
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: …room to be creative as to where he will find it and stuff like that. So…
Horcrux From Each Book?
Andrew: Wouldn’t it be cool if one main item from each of the books was one of the Horcruxes?
Laura: Yeah, that’s what a lot of people think.
Andrew: The diary in Chamber of Secrets, Gaunt’s ring in Half-Blood Prince – er, how about the locket? Hmmm.
Mikey: The locket would be Order of the Phoenix, because that’s when we saw it.
Laura: Yeah, the locket would be Order of the Phoenix.
Andrew: Oh, right. Right, right, right, right, right.
Mikey: We think we saw it.
Laura: Don’t they also think it’s Nagini? His snake? That was in Goblet of Fire.
Andrew: Yeah.
Voldemort’s Wand
Mikey: Well, I think we – I actually heard a theory recently, because everyone is trying to tie them to the founders. If Fawkes – because, you know, phoenixes live forever – if Fawkes was Godric Gryffindor’s Phoenix, and we know that Harry and Voldemort share brother wands, if Fawkes’s feather is inside Voldemort’s wand, couldn’t his wand be a Horcrux? That would be Godric Gryffindor…
Kevin: Uh, yeah, but would he really want to store a Horcrux with him? It would sort of defeat the purpose of trying to protect them. His whole methodology in creating Horcruxes was that it would allow him to separate them from his body and, therefore, there was never a chance that the Horcrux and him would die at the same time, and if he has a wand, I mean, what’s the first thing anyone is going to do with Voldemort’s wand if a Death Eater doesn’t get it? It’s break it. They’re going to snap it in half.
Andrew: Maybe he feels like he needs to have one with him in the event that, all six others got destroyed, he would still have his wand that he would protect no matter what, because it’s always with him.
Kevin: Yeah, but…
Laura: Well, that’s not true, though. He spent, what, fourteen years without being able to use his wand. Wormtail carried it around for him.
Micah: Well, I was pretty sure that Jo said that Fawkes only belonged to Dumbledore, and he’s always been in Dumbledore’s possession.
Kevin: Yeah, but he’s talking about the feather itself. Like the wand itself, like…
Mikey: Yeah, maybe – yeah. Even if it wasn’t back to Godric Gryffindor, couldn’t it be his wand himself? Something that he holds on to, you know? He could protect it because he uses it.
Kevin: Yeah, but I would think it’s a long stretch just because, like I said, if he does get defeated again – I mean, if Harry defeats him, the first thing Harry’s going to do is go for his wand, because it’s like, the wand matches the wizard, so there’s only one wand like that, and it’s his, so what better thing to do than make it so that even if he does come back, he’ll never have the same wand and, therefore, he’ll never have the amount of compatibility with his wand, you know?
Andrew: Mhm.
Kevin: At least that’s what I would do. I’d destroy the wand first.
Laura: I think anyone would. It’s a good theory, though. I mean…
Kevin: Yeah.
Mikey: How did the wand survive the first time he fell?
Kevin: Well, they said – Hasn’t she confirmed that they weren’t alone at Godric’s Hollow?
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Oh, yeah. That’s…
Kevin: So…
Laura: She’s pretty much said it without saying it, essentially.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Kevin: Yeah, so if they weren’t alone, you assume that at least one Death Eater was there, and if there was a Death Eater, then any smart Death Eater would pick up his wand, you know?
Back to Horcruxes in Each Book
Andrew: Right. Do you guys want to talk about the Horcrux in each book more? I sort of think that’s interesting. I mean, there’s…
Laura: I think it is interesting, but I think we would all need to take some time to go back and…
Kevin: And read. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: It’s just speculation otherwise.
Laura: Because I honestly can’t think of one thing in Sorcerer’s Stone at all.
Andrew: Ummm…
Mikey: The Mirror of Erised. [laughs]
Kevin: Eh, no.
Andrew: Well, what about in Prisoner of Azkaban?
Mikey: It was the only thing I could think of.
Laura: Uhhh, the Time-Turner? I don’t know. I mean, that’s the only thing I could think of that was shiny.
Kevin: The Time-Turner definitely is in it, because…
Laura: Yeah, I know that, but that’s the only thing I can think of that was like, I don’t know. A treasure.
Micah: The problem is that they’re going to be such obscure items, in my opinion. I mean, some of them will be, “Oh, wow. This has been in our face the whole time.” But I think others will have mention, but they’ll be very, very brief mentions. And with this whole tying to King Arthur and things like that, I’m not saying that the four things that are listed there have to be exactly what would appear in the seventh book, but it’s just interesting the connection that’s there.
Laura: But it could be something that has a likeness, is what you’re saying, right?
Micah: Yeah, or – yeah.
Mikey: Makes sense.
Micah: I’m just saying it’s too coincidental that there are these Hallows that exist in Arthurian legend. There’s four of them, there’s four remaining Horcruxes, and…
Andrew: Uh huh.
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: Make of it what you will, but I think it’s just a little bit too coincidental.
Andrew: So, was there anything else that this professor had to say?
Micah: Yeah, she told me that she’s sure that there’s some professor out there that studies both Arthurian legend and Harry Potter, so if there’s anyone out there that wants to contact us.
Andrew: Or knows someone who knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone who knows someone. [laughs]
Micah: Yeah. [laughs] Exactly. Get them in here!
Andrew: mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com.
Micah: We want to talk to you.
Andrew: Actually, e-mail micah at staff dot mugglenet dot com with their information. We’d love to talk to them, or even have them on the show. And heck, for the finder’s award, you can be on the show with them. There you go. [laughs] If you know someone who knows someone you can both be on the show and discuss it. That would be fun.
Rowling’s Quotes About Book 7: Harry Growing Up
Andrew: Moving along now, we wanted to talk about – We wanted to take a look at some things that J.K. Rowling has said concerning Book 7, and I was thinking about it the other day and I sort of realized that we never really touched on any of it. I mean, we’ll reference it every once in a while, but we never actually took some quotes of hers and actually sat here and sort of discussed them in more detail. So, we have a few of them here right now, and we wanted to start off with something that she said back in 1999, actually. So this goes way back, and I think some of the earlier quotes might be more significant than some of the current ones, because that was before she realized how big the series was going to get, and she didn’t really see what kind of fan-base was going to be coming with this series. This was said at – actually, this wasn’t – this was paraphrased. This is from The National Press Club back in 1999, and I want to give credit here to Accioquote.org. They basically have a huge database of quotes from J.K. Rowling, and everyone else, and they have a nice Book 7 section. And in 1999 she pointed out to the audience that she couldn’t tell us if she imagines Harry growing up, because it will ruin the plot of Book 7 for us. Now, we’ve talked about Harry possibly… We seem to think that Harry is going to make it through, right?
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: Right, yeah.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Mikey, do you agree with that?
Mikey: Yeah. Oh definitely, Harry’s going to live.
Andrew: So, what do you think she meant when she said that she can’t imagine Harry growing up because it would ruin the plot of Book 7 for us?
Laura: Well, I think she’s just trying to keep us from speculating over whether he lives or dies, essentially.
Kevin: Right, yeah.
Laura: I mean, if she says that, “Yes, Harry would do this when he grew up…”
Kevin: It’s confirming he’ll live.
Laura: …then we all assume – Yeah, it’s confirming he’ll live, and by saying it this way, we can sit here and go around in circles all day long and we won’t know the answer.
Andrew: Ah, right. Yes, that is a good point.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Kevin: Yeah. Shot down.
Micah: I think it’s just like…
Mikey: She’s pretty evasive about stuff.
Micah: Just like the interview she did on that Richard and Judy, where one of them said to her – Well, something about Harry in the future, and she said something along the lines of, “Who said he’s going to live?”
Andrew: Uh huh.
Micah: And I think that’s just her way of, what Laura said, keeping us all on…
Kevin: On the edge of our seats.
Micah: Exactly.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, she knows exactly what’s going to happen when she says stuff like that at this point.
Rowling’s Quotes About Book 7: The Gleam of Triumph
Andrew: Ummm, another thing I wanted to discuss was the interview that Emerson and Melissa had with J.K. Rowling back in July of 2005. She said:
Melissa asked Jo, “Does the gleam of triumph still have yet to make an appearance?”
And Jo replies, “That’s still enormously significant and, let’s face it, I haven’t told you that much is enormously significant, so you can let your imaginations run free there.”
And Emerson responds by saying, “I think everybody realized it was significant when they read it, but we didn’t see it materialize in Five or Six.” And Jo says, “Well, it still is,” in reference to it materializing.
And Emerson says, “We’ve been kind of waiting for the big revelation.” And Jo says, “Absolutely, that’s for Seven, that’s for Seven.”
Have we talked about the gleam of triumph before? I think real little bit.
Laura: A little bit.
Kevin: We touched on it, yeah.
Andrew: Any theories from anyone?
Laura: I don’t know. I mean, a lot of people kind of took it to think – to believe that Dumbledore had the gleam of triumph because it would have something to do with making it easier for Harry to defeat Voldemort. But I think if Jo is saying it’s going to be enormously significant, I don’t know, I kind of feel like there’s something more there. Like, something else we’re going to find out about it.
Andrew: I don’t know, it’s just really interesting because, like you said, enormously significant. That, I think… I don’t know, it seems just like…
Laura: Some people – and this is a very, very small, small percentage of the fandom – but some people think that Dumbledore is evil and they take this as evidence that he is actually, truly evil, and that he has this gleam of triumph because now Voldemort can touch Harry.
Andrew: Uhhh…
Micah: Uhhh…
Laura: Yeah, I know.
Kevin: I think that’s…
Laura: It makes me want to cry.
Kevin: Yeah, but…
Laura: It makes me want to cry when I hear that.
Micah: That’s – is it Rachel or Jess? Jess?
[Laura laughs]
Laura: Well, she’s one of them.
Kevin: You have to put yourself in J.K. Rowling’s place. She wrote Dumbledore as like the father figure and she’s not going to make him like that, you know? It’s…
Laura: Yeah. Although, admittedly, it would be a very huge plot twist.
Kevin: It would, but I…
Laura: I think my brain would…
Kevin: I think it would sort of be…
Laura: …spin for weeks after that happened.
Kevin: …killing a great character, you know?
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Well, doesn’t that make him human, though? I mean, that’s what I thought of. You know, if all the Horcruxes are destroyed then he’s human, there’s nothing stopping him from dying, and I mean really dying. Not just siphoning himself off and going to find something else to latch onto.
Andrew: Ah. So, maybe that’s why Dumbledore is suddenly realizing that, “Hey, now he can be killed.” I mean, on the other hand, before you said that, Micah, I was thinking that maybe he was just – maybe Harry read him wrong. It wasn’t a gleam of triumph. It was more of a absolutely-could-not-believe-what-had-happened. But…
Micah: Or, maybe there’s something special about the fact now that Harry’s blood is running through Voldemort.
Kevin: Right. And that’s what a lot of people have been speculating upon, you know, the fact that there may be an advantage given to Harry because his blood is running through Voldemort’s veins.
Mikey: Yeah, like big thing is, what if, you know, now that he has Harry’s blood, and the connection’s a little bit stronger, love is such an important role, maybe now that he – the connection’s so much stronger because of that blood, he’ll feel Harry’s love more and that will be what causes his demise or something.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: I don’t know. Blood…
Laura: Possibly. But what if it is something…
Mikey: Love….
Laura: …to do with the fact that – we saw in Goblet of Fire that if you have brother wands they can’t fight each other, and I think that maybe Voldemort having Harry’s blood is kind of reinforcing that. What if because Voldemort is now – I mean, he’s essentially got a piece of Harry in him – what if he can’t kill Harry, because, you know, he has his blood running through his veins?
Andrew: Why would – why would that stop him, though?
Laura: I don’t know. I mean…
Andrew: Because it’s…
Laura: Why can’t brother wands fight each other? It’s just how it is, I suppose. I don’t know.
Andrew: So, Dumbledore could’ve been excited because he couldn’t kill Harry. Harry was…
Laura: Or, at the very least it gives Harry the upper hand.
Andrew: Advantage, yeah.
Rowling’s Quotes About Book 7: Why Dumbledore Didn’t Kill Voldemort
Andrew: Yeah. Hmm. Interesting. I’m glad we finally talked about that in more detail. The next one we wanted to point out is, someone asked Jo:
“Were there any questions that you were surprised nobody has ever asked you?” And she says, “I’m surprised no one has asked me, since Phoenix came out I thought that people would, is why Dumbledore did not kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the Ministry. I know that I’m giving a lot away to people who have not read the book. Although Dumbledore gives a kind of reason to Voldemort it is not the real reason. When I mentioned that question to my husband, I told Neil that I was going to mention it to you. He said it was because Dumbledore knows that there are two more books to come. As you can see we are on the same literary wavelength. [laughter] That is not the answer. Dumbledore knows something slightly more profound than that. If you want to wonder about anything I would advise you to concentrate on those two questions. That might take you a little bit further.”
So, have we ever talked about this? I think…
Laura: No.
Kevin: I don’t think so, either.
Laura: I don’t think so.
Micah: Now, when was this question asked? Do we know? Because if it was before Half-Blood Prince we could say, “Well, now we know because Dumbledore technically couldn’t kill Voldemort.”
Andrew: Mikey, do you have any ideas? While I look this up.
Micah: I have no clue.
Mikey: Um, well, I’m thinking like – My biggest thing, I went back and actually looked at that. I reread that section.
Andrew: Uh huh.
Mikey: I could tell you my biggest thing kept coming back to the prophecy. You know, he knows he can’t kill Voldemort. And, actually, he was constantly worried, more worried about Harry. In that section, if you read it, he’s like constantly doing a lot of defensive magic, and then as soon as Voldemort disappears from the fountain water thing, Harry tries to move, but he tells Harry not to move and kind of keeps the statue against Harry. So, I think it’s more that he knows he can’t defeat him because of the prophecy, and he’s more worried about Harry, so he’s just protecting his – the Chosen One. But I couldn’t tell you.
Andrew: Yeah. This was before Half Blood Prince. This was in August of 2004 at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
Mikey: He’s protecting Harry.
Andrew: What you said, Micah. Yeah.
Rowling’s Quotes About Book 7: Dumbledore’s Spell in the Ministry
Andrew: Moving along now, another quote from the Melissa and Emerson interview.
Melissa says to Jo, “Now that Dumbledore is gone, will we ever know the spell that he was trying to cast on Voldemort in the Ministry?”
And Jo says, “Umm…” and then she just goes [clicks tongue]
And then Emerson says, “Let the record show that she made a funny sound with her mouth.”
[laughs] Oh, Emerson, you’re such a jokester. [laughs]
[Laura and Mikey laugh]
Andrew: And they all have a laugh at that.
Then Jo says, “It’s possible. It’s possible that you will know that. You will…”
And then she pauses.
“You will know more about Dumbledore. I have to be so careful on this.” So, could the spell be crucial? Could Harry be – could Harry have to learn that spell to kill Dumbledore in Book 7?
Mikey: Which spell exactly are they talking about?
Andrew: Well, we don’t know. Will we ever know the spell that he was trying to cast on Voldemort in the Ministry? So, I assume it was when they were…
Kevin: When they were dueling, yeah.
Andrew: …dueling around the fountain.
Kevin: From what I remember, he was trying to cast a spell and he got interrupted by something. The significance it plays, though – I mean, it’s sort of hard to say because she said, well, she confirmed in Half Blood Prince that Dumbledore is unable to kill Voldemort. So, the spell he was casting may not be as significant as we think, because the most it could do is just hurt him, you know what I mean?
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: I think what we’ll find out is something about Dumbledore’s history that may explain the spell, but I don’t think the spell is necessarily very significant, you know?
Andrew: Micah, do you have any ideas?
Micah: I agree with Kevin on that. I think when she says, “You’ll know more about Dumbledore,” that it’ll all tie into that in Book 7 as far as if we find out what the curse was, or the spell was, then we do. If not, then… I just think there’s more to him that needs to be revealed. I don’t know if the spell that was cast is that significant.
Rowling’s Quotes About Book 7: Favorite Order Member
Andrew: Another quote now from – this was an interview that Jo conducted at Waterstones. Someone asked:
“Which is your favorite member of the Order of the Phoenix?”
And, Micah, did you put this one in?
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Jo replies: “I keep killing all my favorite members of the Order of the Phoenix, but there’s one member of the Order of the Phoenix that you have not yet met properly, and you will well – you know that they are a member, but you haven’t really met them properly yet, and you will meet them in Seven, so I am looking forward to that.”
Ah, that is very interesting. So, we know him but we don’t… So, I assume…
Laura: We know they’re a member of the Order.
Andrew: No, we don’t. We don’t know they’re a member.
Laura: Well, yeah. She said, “You know…
Mikey: No, no…
Laura: …that they are a member, but…
Andrew: Ohhh.
Laura: …you haven’t really met them properly.”
Andrew: So…
Laura: Okay, so which members do we not know very well? [laughs]
Mikey: Aberforth.
Andrew: Hmmm.
Laura: Do we…
Mikey: I’m tossing…
Laura: …know that he’s a member?
Mikey: Yeah. In the picture in Order of the Phoenix that Moody…
Laura: Oh, right.
Mikey: …hands Harry…
Laura: Yeah.
Mikey: …he’s in there. I just reread that book. So…
Laura: That’s probably it, then. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, met him properly – Yeah. Do you guys think Aberforth’s going to come to Harry, or Harry’s going to go to Aberforth about his brother?
Laura: Possibly. I mean, I don’t…
Andrew: That makes sense.
Laura: I don’t think Jo would’ve included him for no reason.
Andrew: Well…
Laura: I mean, there have been a couple of…
Andrew: [laughs] There’s been a couple of Mark Evans here and there, but… [laughs]
Laura: …subtle hints about him all through the books. [laughs] Yeah.
Micah: Yeah. Well I mean, I think that can also tie into the last question that you asked or the last statement that you brought up. When we learn more about him, who else would be better to tell us about him than his own brother?
Andrew: Right. RIght, he could get really personal and go way back with him because who else do we know that has known Dumbledore for so long before Hogwarts and everything else?
Micah: Old-school Albus.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly. [laughs]
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: We want to know what did Dumbledore – what Dumbledore – what Albus was doing in his teenage years, man! Was he…
Mikey: He was causing a raucous.
Andrew: Yeah, I bet.
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, well, we’re making progress here. [laughs]
[Mikey laughs]
Rowling’s Quotes About Book 7: Release Date of Book 7
Andrew: And the final quote, someone asked Jo:
“When is the seventh book going to come out? Because it took two years for this one…”
Oh, here’s another release date one.
“…comes out? Because it took two years for this one to come out.”
J.K. Rowling responds, “I’m going to say now, I think it will be at least another two-year wait.”
I don’t know if she’s groaning, or the audience is groaning. Micah? Probably the audience.
Laura: Probably the audience. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. She says:
“Sorry, I think it probably would – I think it probably will be just being – I think it probably will be, just being realistic. My plan is to start writing seriously at the end of the year because I have a very young baby, although I am doing some work on it at the moment.”
She did that interview right after the release of Half Blood Prince. So…
Micah: So, November 1st sounds good to me, based on what she said. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. Actually, that is kind of interesting…
Mikey: Yes! [laughs]
Andrew: …that she said that after Half Blood Prince. Because, really, that’s the only thing she said about the release date.
Mikey: Yeah.
Micah: Yep. And so, if she started writing at the end of 2005, at least…
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: …two years…
Andrew: You know, we’re getting tips all the time about release dates. Oh, well of course the big one is – right now is Barnes and Noble or Borders, I can’t remember which. They both – or one of them has it listed as 7/7/07 and when people call and ask, “When is it coming out?” they – the person working at Borders or Barnes and Noble say, “Oh, it’s coming out July 7th, 2007. It says it right here on my computer! It must be true!” And of course that’s not true. That’s not an official release date and, honestly, the way all these rumors are spinning right now and from what we’ve been hearing, it’s looking like the end of ’07. Summer to the end of ’07. What do you guys think?
Laura: It’s exciting.
Kevin: Scary, yeah.
Andrew: It is!
Laura: My gosh, I mean, by…
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: …this time next year…
Andrew: We’re going to be like…
Laura: …it could all be over. [laughs]
Andrew: “Welcome to Week 23 of our… [laughs]
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: …Book 7 discussion. We’re exhausted from this.” I think we’ll do this again, sometime in the future, talking about some of more of the things that Jo said.
Jo After Potter
Micah: Mhm. Or we’ll just have Jo on the show.
Kevin: Yeah, that would be cool. I hope she becomes a little more accessible when she…
Andrew: I doubt it. I doubt it. [laughs]
Kevin: …at least when… No, I think she will.
Laura: After – after Potter I think she will.
Kevin: After – Yeah, after…
Andrew: What do you think? She’s going to be like, “Hey, MuggleCast! Podcasts! Sure, why not!”
Laura: Well, no. No, not that, but…
Kevin: No. No, but – no, I’m saying in the sense of people…
Laura: Nothing…
Kevin: …actually being able to…
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: …talk to her and…
Laura: Yeah, and nothing she ever writes is going to be like Harry Potter.
Kevin: Yeah, it’s not necessarily…
Laura: She’s even said that herself.
Kevin: …going to be like the primetime shows and magazines always getting the interviews, you know what I mean?
Andrew: See, you know what the thing is, though, even after she’s going to try to move away from Harry Potter with writing new books – like smaller books – she’s not going to be able to get away from it with the press and the interviews and everything.
Kevin: Yeah, but that’s – that’s why you have a pen name.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Huh?
Laura: It’s probably…
Andrew: No, I was thinking like…
Laura: Didn’t she say she was going to do that?
Kevin: Yeah.
Andrew: Didn’t she say that jokingly?
Kevin: No, I think she… I…
Andrew: Maybe she’ll just go back to Joanne Rowling.
Laura: I wouldn’t – you know what? I wouldn’t blame her if she did that, because anything that she ever writes under the name J.K. Rowling…
Kevin: Is going to be typecast.
Laura: Yeah. It’s going to be completely compared to Harry, and I wouldn’t blame her if she went with a pen name.
Kevin: As an artist like that, you’re – you’re – you want people to enjoy your reading, or your writing, because of the writing, not because of your name. So…
Andrew: Yeah, but what I was – she’s not going to be able to escape this stuff in interviews, like she’s going to want to promote her new book, and they’re going to spend three minutes doing that, and then the rest is going to be, “So! Book 7, you’re all done with it now. What’s it like?” All that stuff. I just really think she’s never going to get away from it, media-wise.
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: Well, that’s why…
Micah: Well, what’s interesting though, it’s kind of a…
Laura: … she’s got to really wrap up everything in Book 7.
Andrew: She should go goth.
Laura: I mean, she’s really got to…
Andrew: Completely change her look.
Kevin: Oh, yeah! [laughs]
[Laura laughs]
Micah: This is an odd comparison, but it’s kind of related to what you’re talking about with where I work. A lot of our owners are former NFL players, and we try and get them on shows to talk about Arena Football, but they end up talking about the NFL instead.
Andrew: Ohhh.
Micah: So, it’s the same thing. You know, what you’re saying: she’s trying to promote something different, but in the end, she’s going to go back to Harry Potter.
Andrew: Right.
Listener Rebuttal: Ravenclaw’s Horcrux
Andrew: We have another rebuttal now, Joey, 15, of Massachusetts, concerning Ravenclaw’s Horcrux. Here comes more Horcrux discussion.
“I have just re-read Book 5, and I think I may have discovered the Ravenclaw’s Horcrux. On pg. 99 in the U.K. version, when they are cleaning out glass-fronted cabinets, a number of objects were mentioned, such as some daggers, claws, snakeskins, silver boxes, and an ornate crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper, full of what Harry was quite sure was blood. I know it is a somewhat long shot, but couldn’t it be Ravenclaw’s? Also, since there was the rumor that Book 7 could have been called ‘Ravenclaw’s Heart’, I felt that this might have made it important. Please tell me what you think.”
I don’t think the Book 7 title rumor has really anything to do with it, because the copyright – the people who trademarked those names just to screw with us do it, just to throw us off with the real title. But Laura, what were you going to say?
Laura: Well, I just I mean, what he’s talking about is when they were cleaning out the cabinets, where they also found the – the locket that we all think is the actual Horcrux, and I’m just not sure what the likelihood is of there being two Horcruxes in the same cabinet, let alone the same house.
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah.
Micah: Maybe R. A. B. did a little bit more than we think.
Andrew: Right.
Laura: Maybe, but I just feel like – I feel like from a book’s standpoint, that makes it too easy, you know what I’m saying?
Kevin: Yeah, I – I agree. It just seems like it’s too convenient for them to be in two places, you know, or the same place for two objects, you know?
Andrew: Hmmm.
Kevin: And it’s not very…
Mikey: He still has to fight Voldemort!
Kevin: Yeah, but it’s not very… If you’re trying to… It’s not very J.K. Rowling. I – the way she…
Laura: It doesn’t provide for much of a journey.
Kevin: It – that’s what I’m saying, yeah.
Laura: It’s not much of a quest there.
Kevin: I mean, when you think of Harry Potter, especially the seventh book, you expect a lot of action and a lot of moving around from place to place, constant time-dependent movements, and it just seems too convenient that two Horcruxes are in the same place.
Andrew: Hmmm. Yeah.
Mikey: Mhm.
Kevin: Although, by the same token, she can also put two Horcruxes in one place, have Harry get one of them, and then have Harry looking everywhere for the other and then realize, “Oh, my god! It was right in front of me!” That could be…
Andrew: You know, you ever hear of that prank where high school kids will graffiti numbers onto different areas of the school, and they’ll do 1, 2, 3, and then they’ll skip 4, and put 5? So, then the administration or whatever, they’re always looking for number 4, but it doesn’t actually exist. [laughs]
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I don’t know if you guys ever heard of that, but it’s actually a pretty funny prank. I don’t know – that just reminded me of it. [laughs] So, maybe there aren’t really seven Horcruxes. [makes a silly cry] Wooo! We’ll always be looking for the seventh, and never kill Voldemort.
Kevin: That would be horrible. [laughs]
Laura: Wow!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: At the end of the book, Harry’s still looking for the Horcrux.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Voldemort – sorry – Voldemort wins. To be environmentally efficient, we cannot possibly print any more pages for this book, so…
Mikey: The end.
Kevin: Good bye.
Laura: I think you just came up with the most depressing ending…
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: …that we could ever have.
Andrew: And the epilogue is set 50 years later, and Harry’s still searching for the Horcruxes.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Searching under the Hogwarts castle for the 23rd time. Thank you, Joey, for that e-mail.
Hagrid Interview
Andrew: Ladies and gentleman, we have a very special interview for everyone right now. As I mentioned last week, it took us a lot of work to get this interview, and we are very proud and excited to have it.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Ben and I recorded it a little earlier this week with the guest host, so here it is now. All right. I’m joined with Ben and Micah here.
Ben: Hey, guys!
Andrew: How are you guys doing?
Ben: Pretty good.
Andrew: It’s a big day. It’s our big interview.
Ben: You know, some of those other podcasts sort of rip on us sometimes – no…
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Like not getting interviews, but…
Andrew: This is our answer to them. I mean this is a big one.
Ben: This is huge.
Andrew: Ben, I really – honestly, I give all the credit to you. You worked on getting this interview with this person and I am very excited.
Ben: I know. I took – I had to pull a few strings.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: So…
Andrew: But, as we always say on the show, you are Ben Schoen, and that’s…
Ben: And I can do anything. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. Without a doubt. So, I think [phone rings] we’re going to call the person right now. [phone rings]
Ben: Oh, geez. [phone rings]
Andrew: Whose phone is that?
Ben: [phone rings] Hold on a sec. I got to take this.
Micah: Don’t you know you’re supposed to turn it off when we’re recording?
Ben: Hello?
Andrew: You know, Micah, I tell him this every time…
Ben: Really?
Andrew: …and he always forgets.
Ben: [sighs] Do I have to go now? [sighs again] Okay – okay. Whatever. [hangs up and sighs again] My mom’s stuck in Wichita, so I have to go pick her up.
Andrew: Stuck in Wichita? [laughs] What, the snowstorm’s going on?
Ben: Yeah, there’s big snowstorms here, so I have to…
Andrew: Oh, my – Ben! You – this is the only time he can do it.
Ben: I know! I’m sorry! What do you expect me to do? I mean…
Andrew: All right. All right.
Ben: I just have to go.
Andrew: Are you okay with just me and Micah doing it?
Ben: I worked – I worked…
Andrew: I mean, I know you worked for this.
Ben: I worked for this, but [sighs].
Andrew: We’ll still give you the credit.
Ben: Whatever.
Andrew: Well, give me a call in case something happens. Maybe he can redo it later.
Ben: Okay.
Andrew: We’re going to give him a call.
Ben: Okay. I got to go. See you.
Andrew: [sighs] Oh, my god. Should we still do it, Micah?
Micah: Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. Ben worked very, very hard on this. So…
Andrew: [laughs] You know what? Honestly, I could care less. This is – I want this to be my time to shine, so I’m going to give him a call here. Wait. [turns the speakerphone on] There we go. [sniffs] Okay. Hold on. Let me – [starts dialing] it’s a long number. He lives in England, actually. Stupid U.K. numbers. [phone beeps] Okay. [phone rings twice]
Ben/Hagrid: Hello?
Andrew: Hagrid?
Ben/Hagrid: Rubeus Hagrid!
Andrew: Hagrid! Rubeus Hagrid, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Ben/Hagrid: Oh, you’re welcome. I was just flying my motorcycle.
Andrew: Well, thank you for taking the time out to do this with us today. I mean, this is a big honor. I know our fans have been very excited to see you on the show and we weren’t kidding when we said to them that this is our biggest guest to ever appear on a Harry Potter podcast. So, thanks for coming on today.
Ben/Hagrid: You’re welcome!
Andrew: So, Micah and I have a few questions for you. Ben was supposed to be here, I know you’ve talked to him about coordinating this interview, but he had something to do. So, we just had a couple basic questions for you. We want to know how filming has been going for Order of the Phoenix?
Ben/Hagrid: Ah geez, it’s fine I guess. I’m not in it as much as I would like to be, but one thing’s for sure.
Andrew: What’s that?
Ben/Hagrid: I’m still Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts. So, I say, over all, filming is great.
Micah: So, Hagrid, what are the hours like on a daily basis?
Ben/Hagrid: Well, I get up at 4 p.m. and eat lunch and then I go film a scene or two with some dragons and then I go back and be Keeper of the Keys.
Andrew: Right, right. Now, what kind of food do they serve there on the set?
Ben/Hagrid: Dairy Queen.
Andrew: Dairy Queen? Hmmm.
Ben/Hagrid: Dairy Bars and ice cream cake.
Andrew: Yeah. Is that all you eat? I mean, or are there any other healthier options for people?
Ben/Hagrid: There’s a McDonald’s.
Andrew: Oh. Do you eat there? What do you usually get from there?
Ben/Hagrid: Double quarter pounder. Cheese.
Andrew: Uh huh.
Micah: Who do you enjoy working most with on the set?
Ben/Hagrid: Well, actually, some of you may be surprised about this – I work a lot with Michael Gambon; he plays Dumbledore. And, we have a good time together.
Micah: So, what do you think about Michael Gambon? I mean, personally, I think he’s terrible as Dumbledore.
Ben/Hagrid: Never! And I mean never insult Albus Dumbledore in front of me!
Andrew: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. We didn’t – Micah is just speaking from some articles that he’s read online. Just please ignore that, sir. So anyway, moving on…
Ben/Hagrid: I should leave this interview right now.
Andrew: Oh, no, no. Please don’t. No, please, no. I know a lot of our fans were really excited to have you on. Really, we’re sorry about that. What do you think of the new director, David Yates?
Ben/Hagrid: Don’t know him.
Andrew: Don’t know him? Do you work with him at all or do you just sort of do your own thing on set? You just show up and do a couple lines?
Ben/Hagrid: Well, I call my own shots.
Andrew: Oh, okay. So, being there for, what, it’s been seven years now, you really do your own thing?
Ben/Hagrid: Pretty much, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben/Hagrid: I mean, when you’re Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts, you get to call your own shots.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: Now, do you live in your hut on set or do you have a home outside of Leavesden?
Ben/Hagrid: What kind of question is that?
Andrew: Well, I mean…
Ben/Hagrid: I couldn’t leave Fang. Fang lives in my hut with me. I couldn’t leave Fang.
Andrew: Well, I mean, I don’t know. Maybe – so you do live on set? All the time?
Ben/Hagrid: Absolutely.
Andrew: Yeah? What’s it like there at night?
Ben/Hagrid: Dark.
Andrew: Oh, okay. All right, so, do you ever leave the set or are you always there?
Ben/Hagrid: Well, since there’s a Dairy Queen and McDonald’s and see I have the key to everything, no reason to leave the set.
Micah: Now this is a little bit of a personal question, but, how’s your love life doing?
Ben/Hagrid: Well, I’m not supposed to talk about it, strictly speaking.
Andrew: Yeah, but do you think you could give us a little, exclusive tidbit for the site and the podcast?
Ben/Hagrid: Let’s just say things between me and Madame Maxime have heated up a bit.
Andrew: Oh! Well, I’m sure our – all of your loyal fans are going to be very pleased to hear that.
Ben/Hagrid: You aren’t the only ones who are pleased!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Now, to wrap things up today, we were thinking that maybe you could recite some of your biggest lines in the books and movies. Do you think you could do that for us?
Ben/Hagrid: Oh, I guess, I guess. “Yer great puddin’ of a son don’ need fatten’ anymore, Dursley.” “Never try an’ get straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin’ closer’n the moon.” “What’s comin’ will come an’ we’ll have to meet it when it does.” “Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway, there wasn’t much left ter do.” “I’m not blaming yeh, but I’ve got to tell yeh, I thought you two’d value yer friend more’n broomsticks or rats. Tha’s all.” “Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Games at Hogwarts.”
Andrew: Okay, well, thank you Rubeus for joining us today here on the show. It was a pleasure having you…
Ben/Hagrid: No more questions?
Andrew: I don’t know. I think that’s pretty much it. I mean, we covered all the bases here.
Ben/Hagrid: Well, thank you. Tell Ben he’s my favorite MuggleCaster.
Andrew: Oh, well, I will. It’s – I’m sure he will be very excited to hear that. Is there – real quick, are there any other projects you’re working on? Or are you just dedicated to Harry Potter right now?
Ben/Hagrid: Strictly speaking, I have some things on the underground with the dragon trading.
Andrew: Oh. Okay, so you probably don’t want to talk about that.
Ben/Hagrid: Yeah, the big bucks, you know?
Andrew: Okay. Well, thank you once again. What’s your name and title?
Ben/Hagrid: Rubeus Hagrid! Keeper of Games and Keys at Hogwarts.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay, thank you, Hagrid, for joining us today.
There you go, there was our big interview. It was Hagrid! We got Hagrid! What do you guess think?
Kevin: Awesome. That’s great.
Micah: Amazing.
Andrew: You like it?
Laura: It was a huge achievement.
Andrew: Guys, it’s really him! No pun intended, Laura.
Mikey: I’m in awe, honestly.
Andrew: Mikey, I got his address and phone number now, so if you want an autograph, I can get him to send one to you.
Mikey: Wow! Really?
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: Oh, definitely.
Andrew: We’re good friends now, yeah. All right, cool. Yeah.
Mikey: I love Hagrid. Who couldn’t love him?
Andrew: Yeah, all right. So, once again, big thank you to Rubeus Hagrid for coming on the show. I know he’s a busy guy right now. But, unfortunately he wouldn’t spill what was going to happen in Book 7 though. That was a bit of a bummer, but, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Favorites: Book Covers
Andrew: We’re going to play a segment now that we haven’t done in a while. Favorites! Where we pick an aspect of the Harry Potter series and tell everyone what our favorite of them is. This week we’re going to talk about book covers, suggested by Micah. Why did you pick this, Micah?
Micah: I thought book covers would be a good idea this week because earlier this week Mary GrandPré said that she hasn’t received any information yet on a release date for Book 7. So, I thought we could talk a little bit about that afterwards, after discussing…
Andrew: Not just release dates. She has no details
Micah: Yeah, which is interesting because it makes you think of a couple of questions: How long does it take her to draw a book cover and all the chapter art before it’s actually released? Do we know any of that? Can we use any of that to try and figure out when Book 7 will be released?
Andrew: Does anyone remember when the cover was revealed in relation to…
Laura: March?
Andrew: Was it March?
Laura: I want to say…
Andrew: I know it was on The Today Show that they released it.
Laura: I want to say it was March.
Andrew: March?
Laura: That we got the cover art for Half-Blood Prince.
Andrew: Okay. Hmmm.
Laura: But who knows how long she had been working on it?
Andrew: Right, right. I mean so that – yeah. So that was four months beforehand. Humph. So, we are going to go around the table here, see what is everyone’s favorite cover is. I’ll kick it off I’ll have to say that my favorite one was the Order of the Phoenix cover, because I am a big flan – flan [laughs] – I’m a big fan of the color blue. That’s really the only reason why. I think it’s a pretty cool cover. I like how Harry is posed wand at the ready.
Kevin: Just blue? That’s your… [laughs]
Andrew: Well – what? What do you mean?
Kevin: That’s your reasoning behind liking the book cover, it’s blue? [laughs]
Andrew: Yes actually, it’s blue. It is. That is my exact reason.
Kevin: Nice.
Andrew: I like Half-Blood Prince and the Order of the Phoenix covers because its just one solid color. I kind of like the books that way. They should redo all the covers and make them a solid color. Mikey what about you? What’s your favorite cover?
Mikey: Mine is actually the deluxe edition of Half-Blood Prince.
Andrew: Ooo.
Mikey: You know? Dumbledore and Harry going through, you know, the woods or going towards the Horcrux.
Andrew: Mary GrandPré drew that, didn’t she?
Mickey: I believe so.
Kevin: Yeah, I think…
Mikey: I’m pretty sure she does all…
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah, I’m pretty sure she does all of them actually.
Laura: She did.
Mikey: Does she do all of them for all the different countries or just the U.S.?
Kevin: No, no, no.
Andrew: No, just…
Laura: No, just for the U.S.
Mikey: Yeah, I like that one. It’s green, my favorite color.
Andrew: Laura?
Laura: I would say mine would be Prisoner of Azkaban. Because it’s mostly because I got the first three books for my birthday one year and I noticed after I read them that the covers for Chamber of Secrets and Sorcerer’s Stone weren’t entirely accurate. Like there were a couple of things on them that weren’t really how they would have been in the books and I thought that the cover for The Prisoner of Azkaban was more intriguing, I suppose. It made me want to pick up the book more.
Andrew: Interesting. Do you think that Mary GrandPré takes that into account? Trying to sell it by “don’t judge a book by its cover,” although most people do [laughs]. Well, some people do. Do you think she sits there and when she’s sketching it out she is like, “What would appeal to customers?” I doubt it. [laughs]
Kevin: No.
Laura: No, I think she tries to pick – I think she tries to pick a significant scene from the book and put it on the cover. You know? Something to kind of add more speculation…
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: …to our little fandom.
Andrew: Right. Well, thinking about it now, picturing all the covers, I mean, they really – all the big scenes, except Sorcerer’s Stone – it’s not really set anywhere.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: It’s just sort of outside the castle. But the rest of them…
Laura: Yeah, it was sort of like just a hodgepodge of different things from the book kind of thrown on the cover.
Andrew: Like you can see Fluffy and you can see Hogwarts in it. You can see a lot of different things. Kevin, what is your favorite cover?
Kevin: I actually liked Order of the Phoenix as well.
Andrew: Why is that, because it’s blue?
[Andrew and Micah laughs]
Kevin: Well, I actually liked it because of initially the amount of information it gave away about the book.
Andrew: Well, sort of.
Kevin: Like Half-Blood Prince – we sort of knew what Half-Blood Prince was, you know the Pensive. I remember speculating about the candles and stuff and how all the flames were going in one direction and people saying, “Oh, maybe its room that’s possibly rotating or something’s moving,” and, I don’t know, I think it was pretty cool.
Andrew: We’ve been talking about the title for four or five weeks now. I mean, when the cover comes out that’s going to kill another four or five, if not, close to ten shows. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: Oh yeah, without a doubt.
Andrew: “I think the little dot in the top-right represents what’s going to happens in chapter two.” We get stuff like that, people.
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Andrew: And, who am I missing? Micah, finally, what is your favorite cover?
Micah: I like Goblet of Fire. I think that there is a lot of stuff on there and I always think that Mary GrandPré does a good job of hiding things whether it’s in the cover art or the chapter art. Goblet of Fire itself has, just looking at it right now, all the Triwizard Champions, it has the egg on it, it has some of the Death Eaters, has Padfoot, and then a bunch of other stuff on the back.
Andrew: Mhm.
Micah: Including the Goblet of Fire itself.
Kevin: Doesn’t it have Cedric on the front as well?
Laura: Yeah, all the Triwizard…
Micah: Yeah, all the Triwizard champions.
Andrew: Yeah, and Order of the Phoenix has who on the back? Moody – or am I completely off?
Laura: Tonks, Moody, Lupin.
Andrew: And Half-Blood Prince – who are those people? Is it just like…
Laura: Which people the ones on the back?
Mikey: I think it’s…
Andrew: Ron, Hermione and Ginny?
Laura: Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Although, okay this is just me, but I thought that Ginny looked like Princess Fiona from Shrek.
Mikey: She kind of does. [laughs]
Kevin: It’s true.
Andrew: She looks like Shrek.
Laura: She does! It bothered me for so long. I was like “What is that?”
Andrew: Yeah. Wow, you’re kind of – yeah, you’re right. That’s funny
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Kevin: Epiphany.
Andrew: What do you think? I don’t know – has she answered this in an interview once before? Why did she go from doing multi-colors to just single color?
Kevin: Probably just style, I would think.
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: It’s just…
Andrew: She did four books with them and then…
Laura: It’s easier.
Andrew: Yeah, I guess so.
Kevin: Well, one thing I noticed was – remember in Order of the Phoenix was the first time that she portrayed Harry more adult, in the sense of the boy is now an older teenager.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Mhm.
Kevin: So, maybe it was just a transition between going from, like, sort of childhood years to more adult years maybe? I don’t know.
Listener Rebuttal: Year 7 on Book Cover
Andrew: We have an e-mail now from – of course, this isn’t his real name “Dumbie,” age 348, from “I don’t know.” Ha, ha, ha, you’re very funny.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: He writes:
Though I may be 348 years old, I can still talk, and if I wasn’t alive how would I be talking to you now? Anyway, I, Dumbledore, think the show is great, keep the excellent work up.”
Thank you, Dumbledore.
“I just had one nagging question that kept popping up in my brain when I was gazing blankly at the cover of Harry Potter 7, Deathly Hallows, I noticed one thing: Though Harry says he’s not returning to Hogwarts, I wonder why it would say ‘Year 7,’ referring to the 7th year of his school, unless he attends it for some period of time. Is it just an error or is there a deeper meaning?”
I think that’s just Scholastic doing what they always do. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah.
Andrew: Teaser covers.
Laura: I think it is too.
Andrew: Definitely.
Micah: Yep.
Laura: Not to mention, it’s not just Year 7 at school, it’s just Year 7 as in the seventh year we’ve seen Harry. Yeah.
Listener Rebuttal: Grffin-Door
Andrew: Another email now from Hannah Roberts, 14, or Manchester, England.
“I was re-reading Half-Blood Prince and I came to the part of Dumbledore’s death and the Death Eaters versus the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore’s Army battle at Hogwarts. It says on page 560 of the British hardback version of Half-Blood Prince, ‘The giant Gryffindor hourglass had been hit by a curse and the rubies within were still falling.’ This could be a metaphor for Dumbledore’s death. Also, a bit further on it says ‘the rubies were falling like drops of blood.’ If he was last in line of Godric Gryffindor, it could be a metaphor for this too. Don’t forget Dumbledore’s office had a griffin on the door, so it’s a ‘griffin-door.'”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That’s pretty funny.
Laura: Yeah, that’s cute.
Andrew: What do you think about that, Micah?
Micah: I thought it was good enough to put in there. [laughs]
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, I agree.
Kevin: Yeah, but didn’t she sort of imply that she’s not necessarily continuing the whole bloodline thing? Like, at least with Harry, she had said flat out that he’s not the heir of Gryffindor. I think from what I remember of the tone of the interview, she was sort of getting a little annoyed that people kept focusing on these bloodlines when they really show no significance.
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: You know? It’s sort of a theme throughout the book that whether you’re half-blood or pureblood, it doesn’t matter whether, you know? It doesn’t show what your skill is. So, what would it matter if Harry was the heir to Gryffindor? He’s just a wizard.
Listener Rebuttal: International Travel in Book 7
Andrew: Yeah. We’ve been getting a lot of emails lately, of course about Deathly Hallows. This comes from Zainab, 16, of Canada. We’ve had three emails from Canadians this week. This is just our Canadian show.
Kevin: This was actually a voicemail…
Laura: [laughs] Yeah.
Kevin: …but someone accidentally deleted it.
Andrew: By “someone” he means himself. [laughs]
Kevin: Yeah, sorry.
Laura: “Someone” meaning Kevin. [laughs]
[Micah laughs]
Kevin: Sorry.
Andrew: She says:
“With all the hints of the international wizarding community existing, including methods of long-range transportation such as carpets, etc, do you think that it is possible that Harry’s battle will be brought internationally? That is, will Harry be outside of the UK for part of Book 7?”
Eh, I don’t know. That’s taking a stretch. I mean, unless Voldemort has a Horcrux or two hidden outside of the UK. [laughs]
Kevin: Yeah, but see – that’s what I was thinking, because where was Voldemort when he went into hiding, when he had lost his body? Because wasn’t he…
Laura: Weren’t they in Romania?
Kevin: Yeah.
Laura: They were saying he was in some dark forest.
Kevin: Right there he went outside of the UK to hide. So, if he went there to hide, is it probable that he chose the same spot to hide a Horcrux?
Andrew: In the beginning of Goblet of Fire – what’s her name, was it Bertha Jorkins?
Mikey: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Where was she killed? Wasn’t that outside of England?
Mikey: Yeah, she was traveling.
Laura: No.
Mikey: No, wasn’t she traveling and that’s where they found her?
Laura: No – oh, well yeah. I guess so. I don’t remember where they were though.
Mikey: I think if they go international, it would be just Europe. We’re not going to see Harry come to the U.S.
Andrew: Oh yeah, no.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: We’re not going to see… I wouldn’t be surprised if they go to Romania because, come on, Viktor Krum, you know. Durmstrang is up there.
Kevin: Yeah, and actually…
Mikey: Beauxbatons is in France.
Kevin: Yeah, the…
Mikey: So, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some international travel.
Andrew: So, maybe because Jo promised a return of Krum. So, maybe that’s how we could be seeing him again.
Mikey: Yeah.
Andrew: He can head back to Romania and meets up with Krum – maybe enlists the help of Krum via Hermione.
Mikey: Hermione.
Andrew: Yeah.
[Laura laughs]
Mikey: And Ron throws a fit. [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: And Ron gets mad.
Andrew: That’s good. I like that.
Mikey: But, I don’t think it would be beyond Europe at all, you know.
Laura: Yeah, I really don’t think so.
Kevin: Yeah, but still I think that would be cool to see it brought to a different place.
Harry Hits McDonald’s
Andrew: The U.S.
Kevin: Yeah. The U.S. [laughs]
Andrew: “Harry inserts his metro card into the subway.”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: “He runs through the turn-stile and hops on. Harry finds a Horcrux under an old homeless man.”
Kevin: [laughs] Oh, geez.
Mikey: A Horcrux is in Disneyland.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mickey Mouse has got it. [laughs]
Kevin: No, it’s at McDonald’s.
Mikey: Mickey and Goofy are fighting for it. You know?
Kevin: It’s in McDonald’s.
Andrew: McDonald’s.
Mikey: It’s in the chicken nuggets.
Andrew: Can I have a… The Horcrux is on the dollar menu that day.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Anyway…
Mikey: Dark Lord’s soul for $0.99!
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. “Can you hold the mayo on that? I just need the Horcrux. I don’t need the fries or the drink either. Actually, give me a water.” [laughs] Okay, so anyway…
Mikey: “Ron, you want anything?” Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: “Can I have a Happy Meal?”
[Laura and Mikey laugh]
Andrew: “Are you guys still doing that Monopoly promotion? I’m still looking for Boardwalk, damn it!” [laughs]
Mikey: Who isn’t looking for Boardwalk?
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, I know. Anyway – good stuff. [laughs again] Anyway.
Kevin: We killed that.
Deathly Hallows Theory Contest
Andrew: All right. So, listen up, listeners. For the past five weeks now we’ve been talking about Deathly Hallows, and frankly I’m sick of it. I’m just kidding. It is time now to listen to all of your theories. So, we are holding a Deathly Hallows theory contest, and the prizes or this are the best we’ve ever had on MuggleCast. So, here’s how it works: We want everyone to submit your best Deathly Hallows theory as to what the title could mean, via voicemail. 1-218-20-MAGIC, and we’ll give the other numbers at the end of the show. We’ll pick our favorite 10 to 15 and run them on the show on a listener’s segment. We’ll put them all together and it’ll be like a 15-minute segment where it’s just your theories. And then the listeners will vote on which one was their favorite on MuggleCast.com and then the top three will win prizes. Now, a couple things about the voicemails: We want you guys to keep them about a minute. So, write out your theory first, know what you’re going to say, and then keep it under a minute because we want to fit as many people as possible into one show without boring everyone. So, try to keep them in a minute and once again, we’ll have everyone vote on their favorite theories.
Now – prizes. We have three places you can take: first, second and third. First place: MuggleCast t-shirt and a MuggleNet book. Second place is a MuggleCast t-shirt and third place is a MuggleCast t-shirt. We’re not sure which designs yet that we we’re going to be able to give away, but we’ll let you know on an upcoming episode. Now, here’s where the fun comes in. Let me set this up first, and it’s a shame Jamie’s not here.
[Mikey laughs]
Andrew: Have any of you heard about this story yet?
Mikey: Do I know this one?
Micah: Is this when he got a call at the curry place?
Andrew: No, no. But Mikey, you’re probably one of the last people to see Jamie’s old suitcase.
Mikey: Ah. Yes, yes.
Andrew: Which now sits in my room because on our flight home from Vegas to Philadelphia, we had been waiting in baggage claim for a while. I had my suitcase and we had to wait like an extra 10 minutes for Jamie’s and, sure enough, it pops out and it’s torn into parts, like, the top part is just ripped. [laughs] So, it doesn’t zipper together, and of course Jamie’s up in arms. He doesn’t know what to do. We ended up buying him a new one, but he kept the old suitcase here. Of course, he wasn’t going to bring it back and we were too lazy to actually go bring it back downstairs and throw it out. So, I was sitting here and I was thinking there’s got to be something we can do with this suitcase. [laughs]
Kevin: [laughs] Oh geez. Oh, God.
Andrew: So, you knew it was coming. Each winner is going to receive an optional piece of Jamie’s suitcase. You pick which part that you want.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: I will cut it off and I will mail it to you. Now, it’s all intact still. There’s also his – what do you call the tags that they put on the suitcase, like where it’s going and stuff.
Mikey: The flight tags, I guess.
Andrew: The flight tags, yeah.
[Micah laughs]
Laura: Yeah, flight tags.
Andrew: I still have that on there, so if you want that. If you want a handle. If you want the top cover. I don’t really care. It’s yours.
Mikey: Does it have Jamie’s address on it? That’s what people want to know. Does it have Jamie’s address?
Andrew: No. He removed that. [laughs]
Mikey: Oh, okay. Sorry, girls.
Andrew: But if you want a handle or something…
Kevin: But we’ll provide that.
Andrew: Yeah. Take any part you want and I’ll take a saw to it. I could care less.
[Mikey laughs]
Andrew: I want to get rid of it, but I don’t want it to sit in a landfill. I want it to be put to use. So…
Mikey: If you take a saw to it, could we get video of that? That’s all I really care about.
Andrew: Hmmm.
Mikey: You taking a saw to it.
Kevin: I’m sure it’s like a…
Andrew: Yes. If it requires a saw we will film it. His suitcase.
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Andrew: Of course, you can’t have the whole suitcase. You can only have a piece of it. What was I going to say? I mean, this suitcase has been everywhere. It’s been to LA, England – well obviously.
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Mikey: Las Vegas.
Andrew: England, Las Vegas, New York, New Jersey…
Mikey: Kansas?
Andrew: No, not Kansas.
Mikey: Hasn’t been near Ben?
Laura: Your house.
Andrew: Yeah, my house. In a way, I’m kind of sick at looking at it. It’s a nice black suitcase. I’ll take a picture and put it on the website, but yeah. So, each of the top three winners will receive a piece of Jamie’s suitcase of their choosing. And if you don’t want it, if you’re mature and can’t believe we’re actually doing this, you don’t have to take a piece of Jamie’s suitcase.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: But anyway, that’s what we’re doing.
Laura: Yes, you do. You have to take it.
Andrew: Yeah. Why not? Come on.
Laura: You have to take it.
Andrew: Yes. It’s awesome.
Kevin: It sort of smells.
Andrew: So, that’s that. So everyone has till February 4th to get in their submissions. More details or full details can be found at MuggleCast.com.
Chicken Soup For the MuggleCast Soul
Andrew: Moving on, today we’re going to wrap things up with a Chicken Soup for the MuggleCast Soul.
Micah: Chicken Soup comes from Christine, 14, of Ohio. She says:
“Hey MuggleCast. I wanted to let you guys know how you helped save my grades.”
Andrew: Yay!
Micah: “I slacked off a bit second quarter and needed amazing grades on my exams. With a mixture of U2 and old MuggleCast episodes I was able to get through studying. For safe measure I wore one of my MuggleCast t-shirts everyday that I had an exam. I even tried my first pickle ever! I had no problems. I’ve never felt more confident on a test before. Thank you, MuggleCast.”
Andrew: Ah, wonderful. Thanks, Christine, for sending that in. Of course, you can always send in your Chicken Soup for the MuggleCast Soul to mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com.
Show Close
Andrew: Speaking of e-mailing us, please do not forget the rest of our contact information. If you would like to send something in the form of an actual item you can always mail it to our P.O. Box. It’s located in central Kansas. It’s:
MuggleCast
P.O. Box 223
Moundridge, Kansas
67107
You can also, if you’re in the United States, to leave a voicemail you can dial 1-218-20-MAGIC. If you’re in the United Kingdom you can dial 020-8144-0677. If you’re in Australia you can call 02-8003-5668. You can also Skype the username MuggleCast, and don’t forget calling or Skyping is the only two ways we will accept submissions for our Deathly Hallows theory contest. You can also go to MuggleCast.com for our handy feedback form where you can contact any of us. You can always e-mail any of our first names at staff dot mugglenet dot com. Actually, Mikey has mikey at staff dot mugglenet dot com, don’t you?
Mikey: I actually do. I don’t know how.
Andrew: I forgot about that.
Mikey: Somehow I got it. [laughs]
Andrew: You have it. So, if you do want to contact Mikey about today’s show, if you have any thoughts on what he had to say or give him some good feedback. You did a great job today, Mikey.
Mikey: Well, thank you.
Andrew: Thanks for being here.
Mikey: Hopefully I can come back sometime and bug Ben, Jamie.
Andrew: Yeah. There you go, yeah.
Kevin: Actually, replace Ben.
[Everyone laughs[
Laura: Yeah.
Mikey: Who wants to replace Ben Schoen? Come on. He’s Ben Schoen.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh}
Laura: Exactly. That’s the problem.
Mikey: He’s from Kansas.
Andrew: Yeah, I know.
[Closing music begins in background]
Mikey: He’s from Kansas. I think that earns him a right.
Andrew: How many people can say they know people from Kansas? There’s like two people in Kansas.
Mikey: Well, there’s two people in Canada.
Andrew: I apologize to everyone – yeah, that’s very true. Who are they? Who are they, Mikey?
Mikey: That’s Amy from EmmaWatson.us and William Shatner. We know William Shatner’s from Canada.
Micah: Alex Trebek.
Andrew: [laughs] So, if you want to question why Mikey has such a weird obsession with William Shatner, e-mail mikey at staff dot mugglenet dot com.
[Mikey laughs]
Andrew: And also once again: [quietly sings] MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Frappr, Last.FM, Fanlisting/Forums. There’s many ways to be involved in the MuggleCast community. Growing every single day. Become our friends on MySpace. We love friends on MySpace, and, new and improved, we’re now replying to people’s comments on MySpace.
Kevin: I’m not.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: So, if you leave a comment, you’ll get one back. Hopefully, if your comment is worthwhile. So, once again that concludes Episode 73 of MuggleCast. We’re getting so old.
Laura: Oh, my God. I can’t believe we have 73 episodes.
Andrew: I’m Andrew Sims.
Kevin: I’m Kevin Steck.
Laura: [laughs] I’m Laura Thompson.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Mikey: And I’m Mikey B.
Andrew: Mikey, thank you again for joining us. It was a pleasure having you on the show.
Mikey: The pleasure is all mine.
Andrew: All of you.
Micah: Yeah, November 1st. Don’t forget.
Andrew: Yeah. November 1st. Mikey caught it. Mikey, if it is November 1st we’ll have you on again so you can boast all you want to about it.
Mikey: [laughs] Oh, yes. I will have to do that.
Andrew: All right, goodnight everyone.
Kevin: Goodbye.
Mikey: Goodnight everyone.
Laura: Goodbye.
Micah: Bye.
[Show music ends]
Bloopers
Andrew: Okay. Everyone going?
Laura: Yes.
Micah: Yep.
Kevin: At least you didn’t do the “one, two, three.”
Andrew: I don’t do that.
Kevin: Yes, you do.
Andrew: I don’t understand why you guys always think I do.
Kevin: You do that all the time.
Andrew: Okay. Now, Mikey, here’s the problem. I always run into this problem where I can’t figure out…
Kevin: …how to start.
[Andrew burps]
Andrew: How to intro the show.
Micah: Perfect right there.
Laura: Yeah, I think you should use that.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Mikey: All right, that’s how you have to do it. Just be like…
Andrew: Should I really?
Mikey: Yeah. Just go get another glass of water and be like [burps].
Andrew: Don’t you think I’m going to get…?
Mikey: “Welcome to the show.”
Kevin: Not really.
Laura: Yes, you will.
Micah: Tons of it.
Kevin: Yeah, but big deal.
Andrew: All right. So I should do it then. [laughs]
Mikey: And then you should say it’s a natural body function.
Andrew: We’re already going to get in trouble for the interview.
Laura: Oh. That’s true.
[Micah and Mikey laugh]
Mikey: That is true. Ummm.
Andrew: The Prince of Snape.
Laura: The Prince…
Andrew: Snape. Half-Blood Prince. Snape.
Laura: There’s not a Prince in chess.
Andrew: King, Queen, Prince…
Mikey: He’s a pawn. Snape is just a pawn.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Oh, you’re talking about chess.
Mikey: We’re talking about chess here, just so you know.
Laura: That’s why I’m like, “Uhhh.”
Andrew: He’s a knight. Half-blood knight. I thought you were talking about – never mind.
Mikey: He’s a bishop.
Laura: Yeah. He would be.
Mikey: He moves diagonally.
Andrew: There you go.
Mikey: He moves diagonally.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mikey: He moves diagonally.
Andrew: Yeah, he doesn’t move straight.
Mikey: That’s all he can do. He can’t move.
Andrew: Yeah. He’s not straight. He’s not a straight guy.
Kevin: Oh god.
[Andrew, Laura, and Mikey laugh]
Andrew: It’s the hair. It gives him away.
Laura: So, anyway…
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: As I was saying, I think it…
Andrew: [Still laughing] All right.
Laura: I think it would be safe to say that you can compare Voldemort to a king.
———————–
Written by: Micah, Adrienne, Allison, Amanda, Briana, Eloise, Jessica, Mandie, Margaret, Martina, Matt, Megan, Roni, Samantha, Sarah, Shannon and Shelly