MuggleCast 105 Transcript
Show Intro
[Intro music begins]
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[Intro music begins]
Andrew: Today’s MuggleNet Podcast is brought to you by Borders. In May, thousands of Harry Potter fans descended upon New Orleans for a Phoenix Rising Conference. Borders was there to take in the sights, and share a lively disscussion of the series that has bewitched the world with some of Harry’s most dedicated fans. Listen in or watch the action yourself. Check out the Phoenix Rising Borders Book Club Disscussion at BordersMedia.com/HarryPotter or click on the Borders Banner at the top of the Mugglenet page.
[Show music begins]
Jamie: Andrew’s doing some technical stuff now. You ready?
Andrew: Yeah, sorry, sorry. We’re ready to go. How’s everyone doing today?
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: Welcome to MuggleCast Live in Canton, Ohio.
Ben: What number is this?
Mikey: What number?
Andrew: It’s not Cleveland. So it sounds like we hit a big town.
Mikey: No, it’s Canton.
Andrew: How far away are we from Cleveland?
Audience Member: 60 miles.
Andrew: 60 miles? That’s not too bad. It’s the first outdoor podcast we’ve done.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Ever. [laughs] And…
Emerson: Ben and I are veterans, Andrew. We…
Andrew: Oh, sorry, sorry, Spartz. I forgot.
Emerson: We did an event in Oak Park, Illinois, actually, where it was in front of four or five thousand people. It was outside; it was really cool. To be in front of a crowd that big is just one of those wonderful experiences that you don’t forget.
Jamie: There’s a picture of you on your Facebook where the camera’s behind them and it’s looking into the crowd, and he loves it because there’s like a light on him and he looks like a rock star playing his guitar.
Emerson: Yeah, basically. I felt like one of the Remus Lupins for a second there.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Mikey: Wow.
Andrew: First of all, has anyone not finished reading Deathly Hallows?
Jamie: Yeah.
Ben: Testing, testing.
Andrew: Because we are going to be discussing it today, so…
Jamie: You’re going to be royally spoiled…
Ben: Whoa…
Andrew: As well as the people playing soccer back there; they’re going to be royally spoiled if they…
Jamie: They look like Harry Potter fans to me, so they probably will be.
Web-chat Discussion
Andrew: I’m sure there’s a few over there, Jamie. Anyway, there’s been a lot of news lately. Of course there was a web-chat with J.K Rowling earlier today. So did anybody catch up on that? Yes? Okay, a couple of people. If you all went on MuggleNet before the show you would have caught up on the news. That’s a good place to get the news.
Jamie: [microphone makes a strange noise] Oops.
Andrew: So there’s been a few things Jamie, you found pretty interesting. You were really proud of some of the people in that web-chat because you were like, “Oh wow, these questions!”
Jamie: Oh, yeah. They asked some really good questions like…um…
[Andrew and Audience laugh]
Jamie: Can you pull it up, Andrew, and I’ll…
Andrew: Oh, I’m pulling it up. I can’t move far though.
Jamie: Okay. Um…
Emerson: We finally found that – Dudley’s – what his worst memory was was when the…
Jamie: Yeah.
Emerson: …Dementor was on him, was that he was seeing himself who he really was for the first time, and it scared him.
Jamie: Yeah, and the one about Dumbledore’s Boggart, as well, that it’s his sister’s corpse.
Andrew: His sister’s.
Jamie: Arianna’s corpse.
Andrew: Yeah.
Emerson: And that Dumbledore’s – when he looks into the Mirror of Erised, he sees his family, happy and together and alive.
Jamie: And you have to draw the Harry parallel there, because that’s basically what Harry saw when he looked in. What other questions were there?
Andrew: Well, it was interesting that this was asked, because we had a little debate, “Is Snape a hero?” And someone directly posed that question to J.K. Rowling, basically said, “You think Snape was a hero?” and she said, “Yes, I do, though a very flawed hero. An anti-hero, perhaps.” But he laid down his life for Harry, and J.K. Rowling says that’s pretty heroic.
Jamie: He must be a hero then, yeah. We had this huge debate about whether Snape was a hero or not. Have you put it online?
Andrew: I can’t remember what show that was.
Jamie: Yeah, well, if you heard it. Well, it was vicious at best, wasn’t it?
Andrew: We also found out that the Dementors won’t be at Azkaban anymore. They’re going to use some new system to protect Azkaban. Or they are using it now.
Mikey: Yeah, the Dementors were part of the…
Andrew: Your mic’s not working. Group?
Mikey: My mic’s not working?
Andrew: Do you have an on switch?
Mikey: No, there’s no on switch. Anyway, the Dementors were part of the corruption that the Ministry had, and so now that they’re reforming the Ministry, the Dementors are leaving away.
Jamie: Where do they go?
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Where do you – huh? Where do you send a Dementor? And they don’t listen to you either, so there’s like a troublesome creature. Anyone have any ideas? [laughs]
Mikey: Hmm.
Andrew: Nope, no ideas.
Jamie: What a very uninspired crowd.
Mikey: Wow.
Jamie: Come on!
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Come on.
Mikey: We’ll all go to Kansas to hang out with Ben.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Someone said to Jo, “Was Minerva in love with Albus?” and J.K Rowling said, “No, not everybody falls in love with everybody else.” It’s amazing how people just pair these people together.
Jamie: It is, it is, it is.
Ben: Yeah, everything’s romance, for some reason.
MuggleCasters: Yeah.
Mikey: I was a little sad Hedwig and Fawkes didn’t get together.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Who? Who?
Mikey: Hedwig and Fawkes, you know.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew: Oh, she did explain that.
Jamie: It was the travesty of the book series.
Mikey: That’s a joke, everybody.
Andrew: She did explain that, and we’ve been wondering this too, someone said to Jo, “Why did you feel that Hedwig’s death was necessary?” And J.K Rowling replied, “The loss of Hedwig represented the loss of innocence and security. She has almost been like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. Voldemort killing her marked the end of childhood. I’m sorry, I know that death upset a lot of people.” Anyone upset by the death here? It was just – were you upset upset or were you just like,”Aww, Hedwig”?
[Audience Member yells something and Audience laughs]
Jamie: Oh my God.
Andrew: Does that really exist? Hedwig’s not…
Jamie: There’s a slight flaw in that plan though, Ben, isn’t it? On the website.
Andrew: I have a feeling that’s not going to work out very well, though.
Jamie: Well, yeah, the slight flaw being that she is.
Andrew and Mikey: Yeah…
[Andrew laughs]
Emerson: They had theories, but Harry/Hermione shippers had theories for the last three books too, so…
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: But, Andrew, I know exactly what you mean when you say that people just pair people together, because I’m surprised in the last book when Dudley’s like, “Well, actually, Harry you’re a really great people.” I’m surprised…
Ben: Dudley/Harry shippers?
Jamie: Yeah, Dudley/Harry shippers. They’re going to come at some point, they may as well come now.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Someone asked, “Does Winky still drink a lot of Butterbeer?” J.K. Rowling replied, “She’s dried out a bit now.” I wonder if – like, she obviously doesn’t have this all in her head. Before this web-chat she wasn’t thinking…
Jamie: Exactly!
Andrew: …”Does Winky still drink a lot?” She makes this up on the fly!
Jamie: There are a couple like that, yeah. She makes them up. There are some more; there are loads like that.
Emerson: Yeah, you can definitely tell reading the book. I mean, but she can do that, though, because she’s J.K. Rowling, and it’s the last book, so…
Jamie: But then she has to write it down just to make sure she remembers that she’s made something like that, or…
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And she’ll go – oh, she did explain who was the person who displayed magic later in life. She said, “I’ve changed my mind about that one. That one actually did not happen.”
[Audience laughs]
Ben: She’s allowed to do that too.
Emerson: So, basically we wasted a lot of our lives…
Andrew: Yeah. Because we’ve been discussing that…
Emerson: …thinking about something that was a complete waste of time…
Andrew: Yeah, we’ve been discussing that on tour if you’ve heard the shows. We were like, “Duh – who was it?” But now it’s a…
Jamie: Myrtle.
Andrew: Yeah, we don’t know it all.
Jamie: What other questions were there?
Andrew: Well, I was trying to find…
Mikey: We’ve found out who killed Remus and Tonks, which is kind of sad, but Bellatrix…
Ben: Why does Bellatrix kill everybody?
Mikey: I know! Bellatrix did Tonks in. It was really sad. Sirius. No, it’s Remus, not Sirius. [laughs] I love that joke.
Andrew: About the person displaying magic later in life, Jo said, “My very earliest plan for the story involved somebody managing to get to Hogwarts when they had never done magic before, but I changed my mind by the time I’d read the third book.” Which is pretty early on, so – someone here said it was Dudley?
Jamie: If she’s changed her mind by the time she wrote the third book, not read it.
Andrew: I don’t know.
Jamie: You’d think so.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: That’s a good question.
Jamie: Though if she writes it and then reads it, she’ll be like, “Oh no!”
Ben: Though she wouldn’t read it until she had changed her mind.
Andrew: Who would it have been? Because she didn’t say who it was. So she must of had this…
Ben: Hagrid?
Jamie: Maybe it was a new character?
Ben: Not Hagrid, but Dudley?
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Jamie: Dudley, yeah.
Andrew: I guess Dudley would make sense. But if he went into the school, how would he – what would that do? What would happen?
Ben: Perhaps she had a story line for that we didn’t hear about.
Jamie: Probably.
Andrew: Exactly. How did Voldemort get his wand back after he was in exile? Wormtail, desperate to – Emerson, didn’t you say you called this in the book or something?
Emerson: Yeah, in the book. If any of you have read MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter Seven?, we did say Wormtail had to be at Godric’s Hollow the night that Voldemort killed James and Lily, because he would have had to pick up his wand, and that’s how Voldemort was able to kill Bertha Jorkins in Albania. And speaking of the book MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter Seven?, you have to take a moment here, because, you see, Ben and I spent the entire summer traveling around the country, standing in front of bookstores – over thirty total, including one in Canton here. And was anybody at that event, by the way? Okay, a few hands, few hands. And we basically spent – we would say some of our theories about Harry living, and Snape loving Lily, and Snape being a good guy and all that, and then we’d get to the Harry a Horcrux theory. And we would proceed then to spend the rest of the event – probably about half an hour per event – just defending the theory from angry, angry people!
Ben: It wasn’t very popular.
Emerson: It wasn’t a popular theory at all! But we held firm in our convictions, and we were vindicated in the book, and I just…
Ben: We were proud. We were proud.
Emerson: We’re very proud of that, actually.
Jamie: You’re very proud of this, aren’t you?
Emerson: We really are! We took so much heat this summer, you have no idea! Every bookstore, as soon as we tell the theory, everybody would start snarling at us.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: I can tell every time you tell that story, because your voice levels out and it becomes emotion-filled, and I just think that’s very impressive.
Ben: Okay, guys, okay, who here’s…
Emerson: Because there’s one event, in particular, where there’s a woman in the second row who, I swear to God, she was about to lunge at us at any minute.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Hold on one second. Actually, yeah. Sorry, I had my mic up to my face, hold on. My bad. Anyway, one last thing we wanted to point out here. Someone said to Jo, “Why did Dumbledore want Ron to keep his Deluminator?” And J.K. Rowling said (I thought this was nice), “Because he knew that Ron might need a little more guidance than the other two. Dumbledore understood Ron’s importance in the trio; he wasn’t the most skilled or the most intelligent but he held them together. His humor and his good heart were central.”
Emerson: Aww!
Main Discussion: Ron Weasley
Andrew: Which leads to our main disscussion today. We wanted to talk about Ron. We’ve been covering a series of characters who played big roles in the book. We’ve gone through Snape, Voldemort…
Andrew and Jamie: Dumbledore…
Jamie: And we talked about Hermione yesterday. Yeah.
Andrew: Today we’re going to talk about Ron.
Jamie: Talk about Harry tomorrow. Yeah, we’ll talk about Ron today. I’ve always seen quite a bit of mixed opinion on Ron. Some people who like him, some people who thinks he’s tagging along with Harry, and Harry’s a real hero. Some people think it’s him who’s the real hero because he has to put up with Harry’s outbursts at times and how he’s always being overshadowed by his family, and in the seventh book there’s a lot of changed things about Ron, how he runs away and then Harry and Ron really, really, really, really unite for the final time, and we know they’re going to be friends forevermore. And he helps Harry a lot, like when he just turns up at the pool when Harry jumps in with the Horcrux and saves the day. So – go on.
Tangent: MuggleCasters Accuse Each Other of Stealing Jokes
Mikey: Oh, well, I was going to say, about Ron – what about his mom in Book 7?
Ben and Mikey: Give it up for Molly Weasley!
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: [laughs] I can’t even talk about it anymore!
Emerson: What’d you do, Mikey?
Mikey: Well, anyway!
Jamie: Should we explain why…
Mikey: Well, let’s explain why…
Jamie: …we just changed tangent?
Mikey: …we’re laughing real quick. Ever since the first podcast we did on this tour, I’ve been saying, “Molly Weasley,” because that’s just an awesome scene, really. But then – I think two days into it – Ben took that. He took that line twice from me and I was just like, “Dude! That’s my line!”
Jamie: However, Mikey is…
Mikey: [unintelligible] …the story. So then I proceeded to steal four of his jokes, just to get back at him.
Ben: Whoa, whoa, whoa, okay!
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: That’s Mikey’s story…
Ben: Day one happens, then day two, Mikey stole everybody’s jokes.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: So day three, we decided to steal jokes back from Mikey to get him back.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Mikey stole one of my jokes once and from…
Mikey: I’m sorry, I apologize, I apologize!
Jamie: …there it was downhill. That’s the way it was. No, it’s all good, it’s all good. And we tried to get…
Emerson: Oh yeah! Well, listen to this: one time, Mikey went to the bathroom and he didn’t wash his hands!
Mikey: That’s a lie, sir!
Emerson: Mikey, touche, bro! Don’t call me out in public like that.
Ben: I saw it, I saw it.
Audience Member: I do that a lot!
Emerson: That’s right. And you thought you heard enough about Mikey.
Mikey: [sighs] Anyway…
Andrew: We had a member of the audience say, “I do that a lot.”
Emerson: Everybody has skeletons in their closet.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: The Life and Lies of Mikey Bouchereau. It’s going to come out next.
[Audience laughs]
Mikey: Wow. That’s the next MuggleNet book right there?
Jamie: Yup. We’re going to print it soon.
Andrew: Anyway, back…
Mikey: Anyway, back onto Ron Weasley.
Reactions to Ron Leaving Harry and Hermione
Andrew: Was anyone surprised by how he sort of just left Harry and and Hermione? I mean…
Ben: Yeah, that was weird.
Andrew: …they’ve been best friends for seven years now, so, why would…
Jamie: I always thought – sorry, go on.
Andrew: Sorry, my cup’s falling over.
Ben: Honestly, I think it’s good that he was ashamed of it. I mean, that was weird.
Emerson: The whole fight – even though I understand there was a lot going on in their lives and they had every reason to fight with each other – but it really was immaturity that kept Ron from leaving or that made Ron leave. Harry and Hermione would never get to a point where that would happen, because Hermione is so much more mature than both of them combined that she would just drop it and she’d realize that there was nothing to come out of that.
Ben: And Ron’s kind of whiny.
Jamie: Yeah.
Mikey: Yeah, he is. Really.
Ben: …compared to Harry, I think.
Mikey: Well, I also thought that it was kind of lame that he forced Hermione to choose between him and Harry at that point.
Emerson: It’s immaturity.
Andrew: That just shows his immaturity level. He’s like…
Mikey: …”Choose between me and him,” and, of course, she chose Harry.
Ben: Of course. Because, you know, in that position you’re usually – the person who makes you make the choice is the one you’re not going to go with just because they’re making you choose, so…
Emerson: That is something you’d see someone who has the “emotional range of a teaspoon” saying.
The Horcrux’s Effects on the Trio
Jamie: You sure it wasn’t just the Horcrux that was causing them to do that?
Emerson: I mean, the Horcrux probably exaggerated that, but he was still being a little whiny, immature baby.
Ben: Well, I think the Horcrux still had everything to do with it. I think the reason that…
Jamie: I agree.
Ben: …he got so upset was because he had been emotionally dragged down by that thing, by that object. And it just got to the breaking point where that – he got so emotionally drained to where it was his affecting his behavior and his attitude towards Ron and Hermione.
Jamie: Yeah. But even though…
Ben: Harry and Hermione.
Jamie: But even though that was extremely immature, he grew up towards the end of the book when he was all about House-elves’ rights and that kind of thing.
Ben: Jo answered that too. She said – she talked about writing that scene, how she loved writing the scene – the kissing scene between…
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Ben: …Ron and Hermione.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah, she did.
Andrew: Ron finally earned his S.P.E.W., I think she said.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Aww. That was a bad choice of words.
Ben: I don’t think she put it that way, but…
Andrew: A little pun there. Yeah, she did.
Ben: Find it.
Mikey: I think she did. Anyway, going back to Ben and the Horcrux, I totally agree with you, Ben Schoen, on that one, simply because when Ron had to actually destroy the Locket-Horcrux, it was him that had given the Horcrux enough of his emotions, kind of like how Ginny had given the diary a lot of her own emotions and thoughts, and so it was him that saw the Harry/Hermione regurgitate and his worst fears, and it was him who had to destroy that Horcrux, rather than Harry. It was also him that grabbed the sword because Harry jumped into a lake naked…
Jamie: I agree.
[Audience laughs]
Mikey: …with the Horcrux on.
Tangent: Harry Potter Discussion
Emerson: See, that’s just such a Harry Potter thing to do, though, isn’t it?
Andrew: It’s like…
Emerson: “I’m alone in the middle of the woods! I’m going to dive into this freezing ice-cold lake by myself, with no one watching, so I can go drag down this mysterious object.”
Ben: Why did he leave the locket on?
Mikey: “With a piece of the Dark Lord’s soul around my neck!”
Ben: Who knows this movie? [imitating Rose from Titanic] “I want you to draw me wearing this…only this.”
[Andrew and Audience laugh]
Ben: Titanic? Have you seen Titanic? Yeah.
Andrew: No one here is going to want to see that film.
Emerson: That scene right there is – I mean, wouldn’t any rational person just go, “Hey! Hey, Hermione! I found the sword! Come and help me; we’re going to go to the lake and we’re going to get it out together. We’re going to think out a way to get down there.” No, no. He just strips and jumps in.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: He’s not that smart!
Jamie: He’s not.
Emerson: Like, he’s lucky! I love Harry and I’m glad that he won and he’s alive and he’s a good person, he’s a great friend, but he’s not that intelligent. He really isn’t.
Ben: Now, Emerson. Emerson.
Emerson: Smart people don’t dive, naked, into ice-freezing cold lakes…
Ben: Now, Emerson…
Emerson: …by themselves, in the middle of the night after chasing a ghostly doe into the woods.
Ben: Emerson, Emerson, I have a question for you. Jo did happen to say – someone asked Jo the question specifically, “When Harry died where did he go?” She said he died, dude. How do you handle that?
Andrew: That was the question. That wasn’t Jo’s words.
Emerson: Yeah, that was the question. Jo said, in the transcript, that when he thought he was dead, he was in a limbo between life and death. And we’ve been saying for the past couple of podcasts now, there was a theory we heard that we thought was really good, that the train station at King’s Cross, at Platform 9 and 3/4, was a sort of a purgatory, like you decide by getting on the train which way you’re going to go; living or dying. Harry chose life. So he didn’t die in the book. He didn’t.
Andrew: No. And we said, Emerson, on another podcast, that if – you cannot come back after you die. And Jo’s made that clear.
Jamie: He couldn’t have died though.
Andrew: Even with magic. Yes.
Jamie: Exactly.
Mikey: He was in limbo, like she said.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: Anyway…
Andrew: There was something I was going to say, now I forget, but another thing Jo said in this chat – I just wanted to go back to, real quick…
Jamie: Can we continue about Ron?
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Does anybody have some points on Ron they want to make, about how he’s changed throughout the books, or him in the seventh book, or anything like that.
Mikey: Anyone want to come up and comment about Ron Weasley?
Jamie: Anyone at all.
Mikey: Anyone in the Weasley family?
Andrew: Right here.
Mikey: Come on up.
Jamie: Come on up.
Mikey: You guys can be on MuggleCast.
Andrew: [imitating fangirl] Yay! I’ve always wanted to be on that show!
Mikey: Say who you are, where you’re from.
Emerson: Your phone number.
Mikey: Social Security number.
Ron Had to Snap
Audience Member: My name’s Meg. I’m fourteen, and I just wanted to say that my friend and I made predictions, and I totally called the Ron snapping thing, because I said someone in the trio was going to snap, and I think it was going to be Hermione, and my friend said, “Well, it’s not going to be Harry, because he already snapped in the fifth book.” And so I said, “It’s going to be Ron,” and I got so excited at that part, because even though he left…
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: It was bound to happen. A snap was bound to happen at least, since one of the characters didn’t actually die…
Audience Member: Yeah.
Andrew: …which Jo said she’s put a lot of thought into. Killing one of them.
Ben: Well, now that Emerson and I have had our chance to boast, she has, has anybody else? By all means, come on up. Do you have a thought?
Andrew: What’s your name…
Jamie: We should ask them for proof on these boasts, Ben.
Andrew: What’s your name and where are you from?
Give Ron Some Credit
Audience Member: I’m Sarah, I’m from here in Canton. The thing about Ron that really gets me, is my friend’s always like, Ron’s such a bad person, but people don’t give Ron enough credit, because it’s so hard. You’ve got to think about it. He’s got six brothers and sisters, and they’re all so much cooler than he is, and…
[Audience laughs]
Mikey: Aww.
Audience Member: …and – well, except for Percy. But – and he has to share everything. He grew up having hand-me-downs, and I think people just don’t give Ron enough credit. So that’s pretty much all I had to say.
Emerson: See, I feel like Ron is just so incredibly normal.
Jamie: Yeah.
Emerson: Like, I feel like he’s just – there’s nothing about him that just really stands out. He just seems like a really normal teenager who had been living a life with lots of brothers and sisters. Harry is normal
in the sense that he’s normal concerning what he’s been through, but he’s not had a normal upbringing.
Ben: He’s like the Chosen One too.
Emerson: Well, I mean that makes him a little different.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: Other than that…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Actually, he isn’t different – so sorry – he’s completely different, isn’t he? Because everyone knows his name. I’d say that, and that’s changed him.
Emerson: I mean, like his personality, though.
Jamie: Oh, you mean for a normal teenager. Yeah, that’s true.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: That’s a good point.
Mikey: Nothing to add.
Andrew: Any other questions?
Jamie: What about over there?
Andrew: They’re starting to build up. See, it’s – yeah, yeah, we’re talking about Ron, so yeah, come on up. See, it’s funny, because whenever we start asking for questions, there’s nobody….
Jamie: Nope. Mhm.
Ben: Yep. And then at the end there’s a flood of eighty people who all of a sudden have a question.
Andrew: Exactly. There’s a flood. And then we can’t get to everyone. So here, come on.
MuggleCast 105 Transcript (continued)
Give Ron Even More Credit
Audience Member: Hi, I’m Becca from Sto. I’m fifteen, and I’d have to say that Ron is my favorite character, and he’s always been my favorite character because he’s normal, but he has to – he is able to put up with his best friend, famous Harry Potter. And even though he’s belittled by every one of his friends, he stays loyal to them. And he went back to his friends, and I think that shows him being more mature. And also, he grew a lot because he almost lost both of his friends throughout this book.
Mikey: I think in Book 7…
Ben: In the words of Dumbledore…
[Audience laughs]
Ben: …. [as Dumbledore] “It is our choices, Harry,
far more than our abilities that determine what we truly are.”
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: The fact that Ron made the decision to come back is a great choice.
Mikey: That’s a good one, Ben. I was waiting for that one. But, I was going to say, it definitely showed Ron growing up a lot in Book 7. You know, he got a book – he gave Harry a book, How To Charm a Witch. And we saw him do that with Hermione quite a bit, you know. There’s a line in there that I started laughing at where Harry’s like, “You’re just choosing her side so you can get on her good side.” And he’s like, “Yeah, so?”
[Audience laughs]
Mikey: It was like, “Come on, really!”
Jamie: Harry should know that by now.
Andrew: Hi.
Ben: Speaking of Weasley – we have a Weasley here.
Andrew: What’s your name? Yeah – a Weasley. What’s your name? Where are you from?
Fred and George
Audience Member 1: Hi, I’m Jimmy from Ottery St. Catchpole.
Audience Member 2: Yeah! [laughs] I’m Angie. And I’m from Kent. And I’d like to say, who needs maturity? Fred and George all the way!
[Audience cheers]
Mikey: Don’t you mean George?
Jamie: Yeah, just George now.
Ben: Can I just point out one of them died. Just so you know.
Audience Member 2: I know. I do. And – and it’s sad.
Jamie: I know what you mean, though. It’s like common sense doesn’t come from – well, it doesn’t only come from maturity. You know.
Mikey: Yeah.
Jamie: Actually, I think it does.
[Jamie and Mikey laugh]
Emerson: I don’t actually think – even though Fred and George have a great sense of humor and it can seem immature at times – I don’t think they’re actually immature.
Jamie: I agree. They’re so clever, as well.
Ben: I agree.
Emerson: There’s different types of maturity.
Ben: They’re too smart.
Mikey: I’ll disagree. They’re goofy. “U-No-Poo?” Really?
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: Yes, they’re businessmen!
Mikey: Really.
Emerson: They have acute skills.
Ben: Really, Mikey, yes, really.
Emerson: If they give it a clever, catchy name like that they’re good marketers.
Mikey: That’s a marketing skill.
Emerson: They make more money which they can use to support their family. Thus they are mature.
Mikey: Okay. Okay.
Ben: You don’t see them making any poor decisions, really. I mean, really?
Andrew: No.
Mikey: [laughs] Really?
Ben: Really?
Emerson: Really, Mikey, really?
Andrew: Okay, concerning Ron, J.K. Rowling said that…
[Audience Member yells something]
Andrew: Oh geez, oh no.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: J.K Rowling said one of her – the funniest moment she’s written in the series is the one where Ron says, “Really captures the scope and tragedy of the thing, doesn’t it?” And, okay, I’m sorry, which book was that from?
Audience Member: Deathly Hallows.
Andrew: Oh, was it? Okay. My bad. I just read it.
Mikey: Read the books, Andrew Sims. Read the books.
Andrew: I was thinking it was a book way back and I was trying to think of one of the first six. But anyway. The Pickle Pack vultures are these girls in Pickle Pack who – who attack us whenever we’re not on time with something. But here, come on up.
Jamie: Which is happening quite regularly now.
Andrew: Don’t get near me.
Emerson: Wow.
Audience Member: I love you guys!
Andrew: I’m just kidding.
Ron and the Mirror of Erised
Audience Member: I’m Joy. I’m sixteen from Cleveland, and I just have to – I just have to wonder if – what would Ron see in the Mirror of Erised if he looked at it now that the battle’s over and he’s lost his brother? And would his desires change?
Andrew: I think it would be his whole family together again.
Mikey: I think it would be his whole family, yeah.
Mikey: Including Hermione.
Jamie: Yeah, including Hermione.
Ben: I don’t know, though.
Jamie: And Hugo!
Mikey: And Rose.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: And Rose.
Mikey: Hugo and Rose. Ah.
Ben: Because his family wasn’t really that ripped apart. I mean, they lost Fred…
Mikey: An ear.
Ben: They lost Fred…
Mikey: And an ear.
Ben: …but they regained Percy though…
Mikey: Yeah. But they also lost an ear.
Ben: …because Percy might as well have been dead. Who?
Mikey: They lost an ear.
Emerson: But also Ron didn’t care.
Mikey: Sorry.
Emerson: I mean, even though Ron obviously loved Percy, as you can only love your brother, he was obviously more attached to Fred, as he’d been living with him for a
lot longer. Percy left when he was fairly young. So I think – I think he would actually see his family back together again. And I do think Hermione would be there too; Harry and Hermione.
Mikey: I agree.
Andrew: Yeah. Okay.
Jamie: Next question?
Ron Coming to Terms with Harry’s Fame
Audience Member: My name’s Andrea and I’m from Columbus. And back to Ron growing up in the seventh book…
[Audience cheers]
Audience Member: Hi! Back to Ron growing up in the seventh book, I think one of the biggest ways he did that is that in the beginning he was always really jealous of Harry and him being famous and everything. But in the seventh book he sort of grows to accept that; he even makes jokes about it in the end – in the epilogue where all the kids on the train are staring back and he’s like, “Oh, it’s just me. I’m extremely famous.” So I think he really comes to terms with Harry being famous and just being out of the limelight so long.
Andrew: Yeah.
Audience Member: And that he gets his own, basically, [unintelligible].
Ben: What I think happens is, eventually you just come to accept what your role is. And Harry’s the Michael Jordan and Ron’s like the guy on the bench eating a hot dog.
[Everyone laughs]
Emerson: Not even Scotty Pippin, Ben?
Ben: Not even Scotty Pippin.
Mikey: Wow. What about Luke Longly?
Ben: Hermione’s Scotty Pippin.
[Mikey laughs]
Ben: You kids – did anyone else actually follow basketball in the ’90s besides me and Emerson?
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: Can you imagine Scotty Pippin with long, bushy hair? Anyone? No? It would be amazing.
Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, it’s about Ron. Well, just hold on. We’ll take random questions in a minute. That are on topic, of course.
Hermione Has it Worse
Audience Member: Okay. Hi, I’m Erin from Hudson. Okay, back to Ron being a little bit immature. I think it was a lot harder on Hermione because since had to leave her parents and they had to forget her. And I think that would be a lot more difficult on her, and I’m surprised she didn’t throw that in his face. Like, “I have to deal with that compared to you.”
Andrew: I don’t know – did it really seem like it bothered Hermione at all, that she sent her parents to Australia.
Jamie: I wonder if she’s going to tell her parents ever that she…
Andrew: Well, actually in the web-chat…
Ben: Did what bother Hermione, exactly?
Jamie: That she put a charm on her parents, sent them to Australia, and told them that they didn’t have a daughter, which would get under some people’s skins, definitely.
Andrew: Yeah, but it doesn’t…
Ben: I think you just get to the point where you know what the mission is, and that you have to do whatever it takes.
Andrew: Yeah. And Jo said in the web-chat today, that right after this whole thing ended, she went straight back to Australia and got her parents.
Emerson: I think that’s just a sign of extreme maturity. In order to be able to do that you really have to be able to put other people in front of yourself and your wishes or desires.
Jamie: Yeah, you do.
Mikey: I kind of don’t think she really minded too much, considering we know she’s kind of kept a lot from her parents in the sense of Voldemort coming back and a lot of bad stuff happening in the Wizarding World. And what she gets into with Ron and Harry.
Ben: At the end of the year, though, like coming home from school year. Just being like, “So what went on this year?” [laughs] “You have no idea.”
Andrew: See, that would be a corny line they’d put in the movie at the very end.
Jamie: That’s the end of it, Ben. There’s like a flash screen at the end.
Ben: You heard it here first, folks.
Andrew: “MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Films.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: There you go, Emerson.
Mikey: There you go.
Ben: You’re a machine.
Andrew: [laughs] He’s thinking now.
Mikey: This has to come out after The Life and Lies of Mikey Bouchereau.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: That’s going to be a best-seller, that one.
Mikey: It’s going to be.
Emerson: It’s going triple platinum.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: Books go platinum?
Andrew: Yeah.
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: Yeah, they do. Or they could.
Mikey: That would be an album of…
Andrew: Every single Wizard Rock career?
Mikey: Maybe. Every single Wizard Rock career.
Jamie: Mikey, the audiobook would go triple platinum.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: The audiobook read by…
Emerson: Read by Stephen Fry.
Mikey: Yeah, Stephen Fry. And Jim Dale. Combined. Anyway, back to Ron Weasley.
Ben: Actually, I want to do Mikey’s voice on the audiobook.
Andrew: You both come up.
Mikey: Uh-oh. They have to do this together.
Andrew: Oh, geez.
Mikey: I’m scared.
Andrew: This is going to be a well rehearsed question.
Mikey: It’s going to stump us.
Andrew: Or complain about us. Okay. Nice shirt.
The Importance of Ron Coming Back
Audience Member 1: Okay. I’m Sarah and this is my twin sister, Bethany.
Audience Member 2: We’re actually from a family of seven kids and we fall in the same place where Fred and George do.
Audience Member 1: There are six girls in the family and one boy. It’s really weird. But anyway, like coming from a family as big as ours and the inverse of the Weasleys, it’s very easy to understand where Ron’s coming from. He’s constantly being outshone by his brothers, and when
you’re in a big family you really have to strive to find your own place where you fit in in the family. And Fred and George had their thing, and Percy had his weird thing where he kind of disappeared…
Audience Member 2: He was power-hungry.
Audience Member 1: Yeah. And, you know, Bill and George were like the cool older brothers, and Ginny was the only girl; she automatically had her place. And then Harry comes to school, and he becomes friends with Harry Potter, and he’s being outshone again, and he’s kind of like chilling there, like, “What’s going on?” [laughs]
Audience Member 2: And just – I think it said a lot, really, when Ron turned around and came back. You know, it’s twice as hard to come back than it is to stick with it. And I think it really does, Sarah’s right, it shows something about his heart. He knows what it’s like to be loyal to his family, like he’s stuck with it, and he’s going to stick with – he’s stuck with Harry and Hermione until the end.
Andrew: Careful. You’re right in front of the speaker.
Emerson: That was well said.
Andrew: That was very well said.
Mikey: And it only took a few chapters for him to come back, unlike Percy, where it took him like two books.
[Audience laughs]
Mikey: So I think it shows a lot about Ron’s character, where it’s like forty pages versus like two whole novels.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: Like at the very end of the last one.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: That was kind of weird, though, wasn’t it? How like Percy shows up out of nowhere. He’s like, “Guys! I’m back on your side now!”
Mikey: “I’m sorry, I know…”
Andrew: At least that was explained. Percy said like, “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, but I couldn’t really say anything in the Ministry, otherwise they would have killed me.” Stuff like that.
Jamie: Yeah, but you’d think they’d check him for Imperious Curses and Polyjuice Potion and not just accept it that it was him.
Andrew: Yeah…
Jamie: That was stupid.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: …because I sort of thought he might have been two-faced, he might have been trying to work for the Ministry still.
Jamie: Exactly.
Emerson: And kill Harry.
Andrew: And I didn’t trust him, personally.
Jamie: I didn’t trust him, either.
Andrew: Was anyone like, “Oh, wow, Percy’s back. Thank God.”
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Were you? Or do you have a question? Okay.
Mikey: Come on up.
Andrew: I just can’t – are you giving away that Dobby? Because we’ll just take it.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: We’ll glue it to the top of the car.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: That is the best idea I’ve ever heard.
Mikey: [imitating Dobby] Dobby’s free!
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Where can you buy those? Weren’t those for sale?
Audience Member: No, we got this free.
Andrew: Free?
Audience Member: At Wal-Mart.
Andrew: Wal-Mart?
Jamie: Mikey, can we stop there on the way home?
Mikey: Let’s go to Wal-Mart. Let’s get [unintelligible] for the cars.
Andrew: Roll-back. Oh, okay.
Jamie: We’ll glue like seven to the top, so there’s just a swarm of Dobbys on top of the car.
Mikey: We’ve got to get a wolf for Alex’s car and have like this werewolf thing going around the front.
Andrew: We might have to take him out to the car just for a second. I mean, we’ll bring him right back, but…
Mikey: For a picture.
Andrew: …just for a second.
Emerson: Yeah, we’ll have like fifteen straight state trooper cars like outside within like a minute.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Emerson: Like child abuse.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: Wooooo!
Jamie: Yeah, because at eighteen miles an hour they could look quite real.
Ben: Okay so…
Emerson: What did you do to that poor kid’s nose?
Ben: So what were we talking about again?
Mikey: We were waiting for a question for Ron Weasley.
Audience Mom Impressed With Ron
Audience Member: Hi, my name’s Mary. We drove about two and a half hours to get here from Columbus. My gosh, is this countryside. A lot of people from Columbus. I just wanted to say from a mom’s point of view that I always admired Ron, because he had to always over-extend himself in order to be able to do the things with Harry and work with Harry and sometimes save Harry from himself, and so I just wanted to say I think he grew a lot in that position, and I was always really impressed with him.
Andrew: Mikey?
Mikey: I’m speechless. I don’t know.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: I’m trying to think of something witty to say. I can’t, I agree.
Andrew: It’s very fitting, too, because a lot of people have been saying that in Order of the Phoenix, the film, he really made a turn around.
Jamie: Yeah, he did.
Andrew: It’s the real Ron, so to speak. But yeah, that’s a good point. Someone came up to us yesterday after the show – it was a mother – to Jamie, and Ben, and I…
Jamie: Oh yeah.
Andrew: …and she was saying that – what was she responding to? Something about a mother’s love. “Never doubt a mother’s love.”
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: She was convinced that Mrs. Weasley had killed Bellatrix…
Jamie: Couldn’t it – because we were talking…
Mikey: Because I reread that book to us, remember, like on one of the shows? In the book, when Molly goes up to Bellatrix – because she goes “Stay away from my daughter, you witch!”
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: With a slight change.
Mikey: It says a curse flew at Bellatrix. It never says what curse, and I find it really hard to believe that Molly Weasley would use Avada Kedavra to kill,
even though I understand it’s like a mother’s protective love and all that. But one of the things that makes me really not believe it and think it’s more like the Stunning Spell is because the book is from Harry’s point of view and it says, “Harry knew exactly what was going to happen, just like what happened to her cousin Sirius before he fell through the Veil.” Shock in the face with Bellatrix and everything. And the spell that actually hit Sirius was a Stunning Spell, and so I think Molly actually used a Stunning Spell, and it caught Bellatrix off guard, and she went down. And then she was probably rounded up afterwards and went to Azkaban like all the other Death Eaters.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: But I find it really hard to believe that Molly Weasley would use…
Jamie: We said that it’s because, you know…
Mikey: …the Killing Curse.
Jamie: …she’s so nice, she doesn’t have the potential to kill. But then the lady came up and said don’t ever underestimate a parent’s love for their child, and
that anyone could do it.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: If put in the same situation.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: So we weren’t really sure about that.
Andrew: Yeah. But the description was the same as what was described when Sirius was killed.
Mikey: Yeah, when Sirius was killed.
Andrew: Square in the chest.
Mikey: But that was a Stunning Spell, not the killing spell.
Andrew: Yeah, and now I’m all ticked off, too, because no one posed that question to Jo in the web-chat. Isn’t – I don’t know.
Ben: They said she had like 115,000 questions though, so…
Jamie: Yeah, so she couldn’t…
Ben: They would give her a little bit of a break.
Jamie: There were two questions up there. Do you still want to…
Emerson: I think it’s time we can probably start taking some general questions.
Andrew: Yeah, let’s take some general questions about the book, where the fandom’s going, is MuggleCast done?
Mikey: Favorite scenes, maybe.
Andrew: You can come up.
Mikey: Come on up!
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: Anyone have a favorite scene they want to tell us about?
Jamie: Yeah.
Mikey: Have us kind of discuss or something?
Andrew: Here’s our first…
Mikey: Come on up! Get in line. Not too many.
Andrew: Sorry, we’re like – no, you can stay here.
Mikey: Stay here.
Obliviation Rules
Audience Member: All right, I’m Alex. I’m thirteen. I’m from Cleveland. Woo!
[Andrew and some audience members cheer]
Mikey: Cleveland rocks!
Audience Member: One thing that I was kind of wondering, and before Deathly Hallows this was kind of a theory between me and my friends, why the Dursleys never had any Obliviator visits. We were thinking, does that mean Petunia’s a witch or something? But Jo didn’t really explain that in Deathly Hallows and we were wondering what that meant.
Andrew: Has the Ministry just accepted that since Harry stays with them that…
Ben: Probably. I mean, it was probably special circumstances with Harry.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: And also, with family, Hermione’s families don’t get Obliviated.
Audience Member: Yeah.
Mikey: They’re the family. And also, Petunia grew up with her sister as a witch and she even wanted to go to Hogwarts, we know that.
Ben: I’m sure there are exceptions to the law when it relates to Muggle-borns and Harry probably has the same.
Andrew: So, yeah, that makes sense. Good question, though.
Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix
Audience Member: Hi, I’m Megan. I’m from Ashtabula. I was just thinking about what you were talking about with Mrs. Weasley, and when they first started dueling, wasn’t there something in the book about how Harry noticed that both women were fighting to kill and that they were really going at it? It was mentioned in the book, so I was just…
Mikey: No, it was actually – I was reading the book word for word, and actually, they don’t really even duel. She comes running at her and does one spell. The big duel is between the other two.
Audience Member: Because I swear it says that both women were fighting to kill right before it started.
Ben: I thought it would be that they circled each other.
Jamie: Where did you get that from?
Mikey: It’s the last chapter.
Audience Member: I don’t know, but…
Jamie: I’ll make sure someone finds it.
Mikey: Maybe I’m totally wrong, but…
Audience Member: It was before when they first started dueling. It’s not when she actually killed her or stunned her. When they first started dueling did Harry notice that…
Mikey: I think they just circle each other and they never…
[Audience members chatter]
Andrew: We have the U.K. one, unfortunately.
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Unfortunately?
Andrew: Well, I mean…
Ben: They have different numbered pages.
Audience Member: Right here: “Both women were fighting to kill.”
Emerson: Page 736?
Audience Member: It’s right at the bottom.
Mikey: Wow.
Audience Member: I don’t know. So that’s why I thought that she was.
Mikey: Man, that sucks.
Ben: So Bellatrix is dead, then. Sorry, Mikey. You were wrong.
Andrew: That’s probably – well, it doesn’t clearly state that, though. So, we can’t…
Jamie: Why would Bellatrix…
Mikey: But it says right there: “Molly’s curse soared beneath.” It doesn’t say which curse she used.
Jamie: We’ll make a…
Mikey: I still like to think Molly Weasley would make pancakes for everyone and not kill Bellatrix Lestrange. Because I think that’s just wrong. Killing is bad.
Andrew: But if they were fighting to kill, if Jo said they were fighting to kill, I think it could be assumed that they were.
Emerson: Yeah, it does say that jets of light were flying from the wands, so they were clearly dueling.
Andrew: Yeah.
Emerson: Honestly, when I first read it, I thought that she’d actually killed her, but when you were talking for a second, I thought maybe I misread it because I only read the book once at this point.
Andrew: Has anyone read it more than once? Someone said they read it three times already. Yeah, twice? Yeah, couple of times?
Ben: Once.
Andrew: Twice?
Jamie: Once.
Andrew: I haven’t read it at all yet. Is it good?
[Audience laughs]
Emerson: We’re all due for a rereading soon, but…
Andrew: I read the Spark Notes.
Andrew: I read the Spark Notes, Ben! But anyway, [laughs] next question.
Mikey: I have the audiobook. I never actually read it; I just listened.
Andrew: Okay. This girl first.
Snape’s Reliable Source
Audience Member: I’m Corey from Kent, and I was just wondering who Voldemort thought Snape’s source was in Chapter 1 at the Malfoys’ when he’s telling him the date.
Jamie: When he says he has a reliable source, yeah.
Audience Member: Yeah. And I wanted to know who that source was. Like, I don’t know who it could be.
Ben: Did we get it cleared up? Wasn’t it Mundungus who spilled the beans?
Jamie: But he wasn’t the real source. It was the fake source who Snape was pretending to be the source just in front of Voldemort, right?
Mikey: Yeah, it was Mundungus. Because Dumbledore tells Snape to Confound Mundungus and tell him to suggest the seven Potters. And it’s him that also gives him the actual proper date, and so that’s how Snape tells Voldemort. Yeah, okay. Am I right, Ben Schoen?
Ben: You’re right.
Mikey: Thank you. Just wanted to double check.
Andrew: Let’s go right here. Do you have a favorite scene? You got a really excited one
[Audience laughs]
MuggleCast 105 Transcript (continued)
Neville
Audience Member: Hi, I’m DJ, I’m from Broadview Heights.
[Audience member shouts “Yeah!”]
Audience Member: Yeah!
Mikey: Yeah! Broadview Heights!
Audience Member: No one knows that. Okay.
Mikey: I do.
[Audience chatter]
Audience Member: Yay! Anyway, I have two favorite scenes. One is just the line, “the Snape-shaped hole in the window.”
[Audience laughs]
Audience Member: That’s just hilarious.
Mikey: It’s kind of like Roger Rabbit.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: It’s exactly how I…
Mikey: Right through the window.
Audience Member: My second favorite scene is when Neville is being all like, “Oh, I just got this cut from like speaking out…”
Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: “…I got this cut from there.” He’s just being all bad and stuff.
Jamie: He was boasting about them, wasn’t he?
Mikey: Yeah. He was, like, awesome.
Jamie: Insane.
Andrew: Neville’s someone who really changed in this book, and that’s why we had sort of – we were sort of – well, I was speculating that he might have been the person that had got the reprieve…
Mikey: Yeah.
Andrew: …because he was acting so different in this novel. I thought maybe Jo would have considered killing him because he was so – he…
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: …grew so…
Jamie: He – he…
Ben: Why? Why?
Jamie: He did do much…
Ben: Why would…?
Andrew: Just because he – he – his head got a little…
Mikey: You’re a jerk, Andrew Sims.
Andrew: Because I’m saying his head got a little too big…
Mikey: So you should kill him?
Andrew: …and maybe he went out there and tried to duel someone, and somebody killed him…
Mikey: Well…
Andrew: …whether it’s Bellatrix, because Bellatrix would have made sense.
Mikey: …you know, he did try to almost duel Voldemort and he just took a sword and was like, “Whack!” and…
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: …chopped off that snake’s head and it goes flying through the air.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: That would be cool.
Andrew: I like your sound effects, Mikey.
Mikey: I always use sound effects when I’m talking. It’s like in real life too. It’s weird.
Snape
Jamie: On that Snape point as well, I’ve been thinking over the past couple of days – I’ve been reading the Snape scenes and I feel so sorry for him now. I really feel sorry for him. I think he was one of my favorite characters, but I…
Ben: Particularly when he says…
Jamie: …didn’t really realize that…
Ben: …at the end of the – the chapter when he dies, and he says – his last words are, “Look at me.” It’s obvious that the reason he said that is…
Jamie: So he can look at Lily’s eyes, yeah.
Ben: …because the – one of the last things he would see would be Lily’s eyes.
Andrew and Mikey: Aww!
Jamie: It’s the importance – but didn’t she say something about Snape that – because…
Mikey: He loved Lily!
[Audience laughs]
Jamie: Because he abandoned Hogwarts, his portrait didn’t go on the wall straight away, but she said that Harry would make sure it did…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: …which I was very pleased about.
Andrew: Yeah, that was interesting. We did…
Jamie: Poor Snape.
Andrew: …learn a lot in this web-chat. Oh, and James always suspected that Snape harbored deeper feelings for Lily, which is – which was a factor in James’ behavior to Snape. I thought that was pretty interesting too.
Ben: And she also said that Snape and Lily could have fallen romantically in love had Snape not joined the Death Eaters.
Jamie: The story would have been so different then.
[Audience laughs]
Ben: Yeah. That would be crazy.
Jamie: Oh my God.
Ben: She said that Snape would have thought that she – that Lily thought he was cool. That’s the reason he did it because it was associated with power.
Andrew: Come on up. Aw, so kind. I was going to rip on you for the Harry and the Potters t-shirt.
Audience Member: I’m Stephanie and…
Mikey: Oh!
Audience: Oooh!
Andrew: I’m sorry.
Mikey: Oh!
Andrew: Apparently I struck a – I’m just saying! I’m saying…
Audience Member: Now we got to do a knock-knock joke!
Andrew: I’m just saying because this is a…
Mikey: Knock-knock.
Andrew: …Remus Lupins concert. That’s all I’m saying. Here.
Audience Member: Um…
Jamie: There’s a lot of hostility…
Audience Member: …I’m Steph.
Jamie: …around here, isn’t there, Andrew?
Andrew: I know.
Jamie: Very bad vibes.
The Basilisk in Movie 2
Audience Member: Okay. [laughs] I’m Steph and I’m from Canton.
[An audience member cheers]
Andrew: Whoo!
Audience Member: And I was wondering – I had a little bit of trouble following the second movie, and I was wondering why the snake was following him through the tunnel and who that was and why. I don’t know. I don’t…
Ben: Why the…
Audience Member: I had trouble.
Ben: …snake was following him?
Audience Member: Yeah, and…
Jamie: The Basilisk, you mean?
Audience Member: Yeah. Who was it?
Jamie: The Basilisk.
Ben: It was the Basilisk.
Mikey: It was Slytherin’s monster.
Ben: It was the beast. It was the beast in the…
Audience Member: That was…
Ben: …Chamber.
Audience Member: …trying to kill him? Or…
Ben: Yeah.
Mikey: Yeah.
Audience Member: Oh, because I had trouble. [laughs] Okay. Thanks.
Andrew: No problem.
Mikey: Uh-oh. [singing] Harry and the Potters.
An Audience Member Delivers Some Jokes
Audience Member: Ow! She just stepped on my foot. Okay, I wasn’t going to do this joke and they all wanted me to, but now that you – since you guys ripped on Harry and the Potters, we have a knock-knock joke for you real quick. Okay? And then I’ll get to my real question. All right so, knock-knock.
Mikey: Who’s there?
Jamie: Who’s there?
Audience Member: Dead Hedwig!
Ben and Jamie: Oh.
Mikey: That’s not even – that’s not even funny. That’s just mean.
[Audience laughs]
Mikey: Really, like…
Audience Member: Wait, I have something that makes it better. Why did Harry cross the road?
Mikey: Why?
Audience Member: Because Hedwig is dead.
Mikey: That’s so mean right there too!
Jamie: You wouldn’t have the nerve…
Mikey: Wow. You know what?
Jamie: …to tell Jo that, would you?
Mikey: I was really sad. I liked Hedwig.
Emerson: I’m not going to lie, actually. I heard that like yesterday, and I thought it was funny yesterday.
[Everyone talks at once]
Jamie: Hey, why don’t we all talk at once?
Meaning of “Remember My Last”
Mikey: I have a good Harry Potter joke if you want.
Audience Member: Okay, I want to do my question now – get to the earlier question. Okay. They never really explained why – what Dumbledore meant by his letter to Petunia about “remember my last.” And we kind of were talking earlier about it, that either – that he was either referring to the letter that he sent to Petunia about Harry or his letter that’s the last letter he sent to Petunia about not being accepted into Hogwarts. And I wanted to know what you guys thought about it and what he actually meant by that because nobody ever came out and said what exactly he meant.
Jamie: Didn’t we…
Ben: Well, I think “remember my last” would have to be referring to that letter that he left with Harry that night on the doorstep because…
Jamie: I agree.
Ben: …that makes the most sense. “Remember my last” – because at that point in time in Order of the Phoenix is when Harry was about to be expelled, about to be thrown out of the house. Vernon was saying, “the boy has to go,” and then all of a sudden he changes his mind after talking to Lily, so I think it’s pretty obvious that “remember my last” was referring to the letter he left with her.
Mikey: Also because probably in that letter Dumbledore explained the protection that Harry has while in their home.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: I know. I’m saying – I’m agreeing with you, Ben Schoen.
Andrew: Someone up here? There are a lot of questions today. Geez.
The Dursleys’ Fate
Audience Member: I’m Amanda, and I’m from Canton, and I was wondering what you guys think happened to the Dursleys. Do you think Harry ever went back and tried to find them?
Andrew: Or at least go hang out with Dudley, because apparently Dudley really likes him.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Poor Dudley.
Mikey: Can you imagine him and Big D hanging out?
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: I don’t know, I…
Mikey: [unintelligible] punch Big D.
Andrew: I don’t know if Harry would really be in a rush to go back to the Dursleys. Maybe just a visit, show him the kids, stuff like that.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Other than that, though, I mean they never really had a relationship.
Jamie: That would be so awkward.
Andrew: And even when Harry left Mr. Dursley, he couldn’t even – he gave him a handshake but he didn’t say bye to him, right? It was just like a silent handshake, wasn’t it?
Ben: And Jo also talked about that in the chat. She talked about what Petunia was going to say to Harry. Do you know what I mean? Did you read that part?
Andrew: What are you saying?
Ben: I was saying that Jo also talked about that moment when Harry left and Petunia acted like she was going to say something.
Andrew: Oh yeah, yeah.
Ben: But she said like she had been so hardened about, you know, from her magical hatred over the years that she wasn’t able to…
Andrew: Yeah, you’re right. That’d be another…
Ben: …go for it.
Andrew: That’d be another good question to ask Jo because I sort of assumed that was going to be explained later in the book, because we were supposed to learn something more about Petunia, weren’t we?
Mikey: Yeah.
Andrew: So – oh well. Hi.
The Fate of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes
Audience Member: Okay, my name’s Kirsten from Dublin, and first off, this Dobby statue here is really depressing me, because I cried so hard when he died.
Andrew: Aww.
Jamie: Does anyone have a knife and we can stab it through his heart?
[Audience laughs]
Mikey: [in high-pitched voice] Dobby is dead.
Jamie: It’d be more realistic.
Andrew: It looks kind of worried now.
Emerson: He does look rather corpse-like.
Jamie: He knows he’s going to die. I bet like a week ago that face was so happy, then now it’s sort of…
Mikey: He was smiling and now he’s – [gasps] Anyway…
Audience Member: All right, my question was, do you think George would still run the joke shop now that Fred’s dead?
Ben: Actually, Jo addressed that too. She said that Ron actually went on to help George run the joke shop and they made lots of money together.
Jamie: Yeah, so itÃ’s still Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes.
Andrew: Yeah. Who’s over here?
The Epilogue
Audience Member: My name’s Katie, I’m from Massillon. This is more about my favorite scene, but from the epilogue, I thought it was cool how she showed everybody in the future and how everything was okay since Voldemort was gone.
Andrew: Yeah.
Audience Member: I always thought that Ron and Hermione would end up together. And I think it’s cool that Harry and Hermione – not Hermione – Ginny named one of their kids after Snape and Dumbledore since he found out that Snape was actually a good guy. So I just thought that was cool.
Jamie: I agree. I thought that was such a nice touch.
Andrew: Yeah. The name Albus Severus was pretty interesting.
Jamie: It isn’t as bad as Scorpius, though, so there again.
Andrew: It’s kind of scary.
Mikey: Scorpius.
Andrew: We had a little ten year-old come up to us at the show yesterday and say, “What’s up with the name Scorpius? I wouldn’t like to be named Scorpius.”
Jamie: Yeah, I wouldn’t either.
Andrew: It was pretty cute. We only have time for a couple more questions, so let’s…
Audience Member: Hi, my name’s Maggie. I’m from Broadview as well.
Ben: Broadview in the house!
Snape’s Connection to Harry
Audience Member: I wanted to know if I was the only one who caught that Snape really liked Harry throughout all seven novels. Because there was that scene where he’s talking to Dumbledore, and Dumbledore tells him that Harry’s going to die, and Snape wigs out.
Jamie: No, but I’d say that that was because that was the son of the person he loved, not because it’s…
Audience Member: Well…
Jamie: Because it’s a human being. Snape doesn’t, you know, Snape…
Audience Member: Dumble…
Jamie: Snape doesn’t do things because he’s Snape.
Audience Member: Dumbledore asks him, like – he asks him like after all these years, have you come to love this, or come to care for this boy that you despise so much? And then Snape looks at him and says, “Always.” Like he’s…
Jamie: When was that?
Audience Member: …always cared for Harry.
Jamie: I don’t remember that.
[Audience members chatter]
Audience Member: What?
Mikey: He’s talking about the…
Jamie: Yeah, he was talking about when Snape cast the doe Patronus and you can’t fake a Patronus. So, you know, it’s a reflection of what you really feel. He says “still” about Lily, about his love for Lily, and then Snape says, “Always.” And then to look in his eyes, which is very sad.
Mikey: If anything, Snape would resent Harry because it’s a constant reminder that he lost Lily to James Potter.
Jamie: And the eyes.
Mikey: And the eyes are what reminds him of Lily. And that’s again why he died, like Jamie said, “Let me look at your eyes.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: And that’s probably why when they were – when Harry was learning Occulemency, Snape was like, “Eye contact is essential,” just so he could look into…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: …Lily’s eyes.
Andrew: All right…
Jamie: I didn’t get that before.
Andrew: …we have time for two more questions. One over here and one over here. I’m sorry.
Mikey: Sorry.
Andrew: We’ll talk after the show. We really got to wrap things up now.
Saddest Death
Audience Member: I’m Alex and I’m from Dayton…
[Audience cheers and Alex laughs]
Audience Member: …and I was just wondering – I mean, I know all the deaths were really sad, but to each of you, what did you think was the saddest death? I mean, personally for each of you.
Andrew: Dobby, because the way Jo described the death – I’ve said this in a few shows now – she would say the way Harry carried his small body…
Jamie: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Just these little adjectives…
Jamie: And the way that Harry…
Andrew: …that made him small and innocent.
Jamie: …got the shovel out in the blaring hot sun and he’s digging this grave when he could just…
Andrew: And then Griphook – Griphook was just like, “You’re a crazy wizard” or something because you could’ve just…
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: …dug it with magic, but instead he did it manually, which was a really nice way to pay tribute to Dobby considering how much manual labor he does.
Jamie: Mikey?
Mikey: I’m going to say Dobby also. [laughs] I was really sad with that. Maybe Mad-Eye because I kind of…
Andrew: That one – that came so quickly.
Mikey: That was kind of sad. And then his eye was just like – Umbridge had it, and I was just kind of like…
Ben: It was an insult to Mad-Eye’s memory.
Mikey: I know! I was like, wow, that’s really mean.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: I like Mad-Eye. He was cool.
Andrew: Yeah. Jamie?
Jamie: Well, I really wasn’t sad for anything and I’m not just saying that. It’s because when Sirius died, I didn’t think feel I could feel anymore emotion for any of the characters. He was my favorite character, bar no one, so I couldn’t cry for Dumbledore or anyone in this book. But after reading this book and seeing how much Dumbledore has done, I think if I re-read Book 6, I might bawl.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: But Sirius’ was just so sad and he was my favorite character, so that’s why I didn’t really feel sad about anything.
Andrew: Ben?
Jamie: I’m just, you know…
Ben: Eh. I wasn’t really…
Mikey: Voldemort, maybe? Did you shed a tear when Voldemort died?
[Audience laughs]
Ben: Actually, yes. Of all the characters, probably. No, I mean, Hedwig – I didn’t really – it was just a bird.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Mad-Eye was old.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Lupin and Tonks didn’t even get a death scene and besides that – Fred was pretty sad.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: That was kind of like the loss that, you know, it kind of hit home. Like if Fred Weasley can be killed, anybody can.
Jamie: That’s true. Yeah.
Andrew: Dobby? Not sad for you?
Ben: It was sad…
Jamie: He was just a House-elf right?
Ben: Yeah, just a House-elf.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: He’s not part of SPEW.
Andrew: He’s not just any House-elf. Look at the guy!
Emerson: He wants to make sure he alienates every single person in this crowd right now. I thought one of the coolest things in the whole book was after George lost his ear and then Fred and George were just like – they were taking it completely in stride and making all these ear puns.
Mikey: Amazing!
Emerson: You know, “‘Ear, ‘Ear,” “Your holiness.” You know, I thought that was so cool that they could do that.
Ben: So that was your favorite death? That was the most emotional death in the book for you?
Jamie: The loss of an ear?
Emerson: I cried like a baby when he lost his ear.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: All right, one last question for today. I’m sorry, guys.
Lord of the Rings Parallel
Audience Member: Hi, I’m Emily, eighteen, from New Hampshire.
Andrew: New Hampshire?
Audience Member: Yeah, college tour.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Audience Member: So I noticed when the locket, when Harry was putting on the locket, he was talking about getting heavy and sort of burning into his chest, I was kind of remembering Lord of the Rings.
Jamie: Yeah.
Audience Member: So I was really glad that Ron actually left, because it made it different, and so there wasn’t that whole – it made a different dynamic around the Horcrux instead of having it be this sort of thing that has its own mind the same way – it’s not taking it from people to people, person to person, excuse me. So I just that was really – it came really close to almost making me feel a little bit uncomfortable with the parallels I was drawing, but – so – I don’t know. I just thought of that earlier and hadn’t gotten up until later. Also, my friend read Aeschylus, which is that quote in the very beginning of the book, and he said that the basic idea behind that is that heroes will live and have a happy life, and so I thought that was really interesting in how it ended up turning out.
Jamie: So if we had read that first we would have known that Harry was going to live.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Exactly.
Jamie: Why didn’t we think of that?
Andrew: It was really interesting. I thought it was really nice how Jo had those two quotes in there. I didn’t even read them because I just wanted to get to the book. But then also in the U.S. edition, it says, “We now…” What does it say exactly?
Ben: “We now…” Something about the seventh installment.
Andrew: “We now present the seventh and final installment.” That was really a nice little touch there, but in the second edition that’s just going to be reviews about the book. It won’t actually say that there. So, anyway, we want to thank everyone for…
Show Close
Mikey: We have one more person.
Andrew: Oh. Sorry. Alex. I forgot.
Mikey: Alex has something to say.
Andrew: All these rehearsals and then I screw up.
Alex: Of course.
Andrew: Alex of The Remus Lupins. Round of applause for Alex.
[Audience cheers]
Andrew: He’s going to do a little Wizard Rock in a minute. Alex, what was the saddest death for you?
Alex: Well, Hedwig, but Hedwig’s not actually dead, so it’s okay.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Don’t start this.
Alex: I’ve read some theories.
Andrew: Don’t start this, please.
Alex: No?
Ben: I think, actually, Hedwig made a Horcrux. We just didn’t hear about it.
[Audience laughs]
Alex: That’s the whole – that’s the encyclopedia.
Audience Member: [unintelligible] Elder Wand!
Alex: Yes. Whatever you just said.
Andrew: [laughs] We are going to do a raffle real quick to give away the Dobby, I think it was?
Mikey: No. You can’t give the Dobby away.
Andrew: I tried, guys.
Mikey: And the winner is Mikey B. Oh!
Audience Member: We got a copy of Deathly Hallows?
Andrew: Oh, a copy of Deathly Hallows.
Mikey: Deathly Hallows.
Andrew: Uh-oh, you lost one. There it is.
Mikey: There’s the winner. It’s got to be.
Audience Member: Are you picking?
Andrew: Sure, I’ll pick.
Mikey: Andrew Sims is going to pick.
Andrew: This is really exciting for me.
Mikey: Who’s going to pick, Andrew Sims?
Andrew: I’ll pick from the bottom. Winner of the copy is Ashley Gregga, phone number – oh, I shouldn’t say that. Ashley Gregga?
Mikey: Hey, Ashley.
Andrew: Is she here?
Mikey: Ashley, come get a free copy of the book.
Audience Member: She’s over here.
[Everyone cheers]
Mikey: Yay! A big hand for Ashley. Come on.
[Audience applauds]
Mikey: All right. So…
Andrew: Don’t move. I have your phone number if you do.
[Audience laughs]
Andrew: Well, we want to thank everyone for coming out today. Make sure you stay here for some awesome Wizard Rock from Alex and his band.
Ben: And also remember MuggleNet t-shirts and MuggleCast t-shirts available.
Andrew: Momentarily.
Mikey: And Remus Lupin CDs. Don’t forget that.
Andrew: Yes, of course.
Emerson: I should also point out real quick that this will be the first and last time that MuggleNet shirts will ever be available for sale. On the website six months ago we were asked by Warner Bros. to stop selling them, so we have our few remaining shirts available for sale here tonight.
Mikey: I’m wearing one. They’re pretty cool, guys.
Andrew: And we have the MuggleCast tour shirts which will also be here.
Mikey: One time only!
Andrew: One time only.
Mikey: So, guys, get ready for the Teddy Lupins. The Teddy Lupins, right? Because Remus is dead.
Andrew: One last quick notice: we’re going to do the meet and greet after the Wizard Rock concert. So make sure everyone sticks around for that, then we’ll be happy to meet everyone afterwards, all right?
Mikey: Here comes the book for you.
Andrew: Here comes the book. Yay.
[Audience applauds]
Andrew: Get reading, it’s a long book. Thank you, everyone, for coming. We’ll see you next time.
———————–