Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #389, Quirky Walrus (HBP Chapter 9, The Half-Blood Prince)
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 389. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: And I’m Micah.
Andrew: Sorry I missed everybody last week, but it was nice that Lottie was on. She did a great job filling in. It’s nice to be back.
Eric: It’s good to have you back.
Andrew: Oh, shucks. Gosh, I was at a wedding, and I was enjoying it until we’re at the bar the next day, and one of the people in the wedding party goes, “You know what I could never really get into? Harry Potter.” I threw my hands up in the air and I walked out and I headed home. I was like, “Who says that?”
Micah: Did you make them pay for your drink?
Andrew: No, because I threw my drink in her face.
Micah: Ooh.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: This story gets better every time you tell it. [laughs]
Andrew: I did a double take.
Micah: Now, was this intentional, though?
Andrew: What?
Micah: Did she know that you were sitting there? Did she know who you were?
Andrew: No, no, I was undercover. I was just so shocked.
Eric: Who says that?
Andrew: I know. Seriously, who says that? I really think I’ve never heard that before.
Micah: You should have looked at it as an opportunity, though, Andrew. You should have said, “Well, let me try and change your mind a little bit.”
Andrew: [laughs] I didn’t want to get anywhere near that. I was off from talking about Harry Potter that weekend, which never happens anymore.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
News
Andrew: Anyway, so we are going to do Chapter by Chapter this week, but first, some news. Lots of little things to talk about this week. I know you guys were thinking about mentioning this last week, but you didn’t. Harry Potter: A History of Magic is now open at the New York Historical Society and Museum. This was the exhibit that was open over in London, and now it’s in the US. Micah, have you tried to go yet?
Micah: I have not, but I will plan to go at some point the next couple of weeks. Tickets are pretty cheap, actually. They’re $21 for adults, and then there’s different price ranges, depending on where you fall in the different categories. I know we have a lot of students, college students, that listen to us. It’s only 13 bucks; same for high school, so it’s definitely worth the money. And I know that there’s a companion book that goes along with it. We actually reviewed that book from the British version a while back; have to check what episode number that was. But it’s definitely worth it for any Harry Potter fan that’s in the New York area or lives here just to go and have something to do for a couple of hours one afternoon. There’s still plenty of spots that are open, but I suspect as word gets out about this, they’ll fill up very, very quickly.
Andrew: Plus, maybe you were looking for something to do while you’re seeing Cursed Child or Puffs, if you need something else to do in the New York area.
Micah: Yeah, as you would imagine, a lot of the weekend slots are filled up, or filling up very quickly, but the times that are available during the week are still pretty open.
Eric: You know what, fellas? It was almost a year ago exactly – October 23, 2017, Episode 342 – when we went through that book, History of Magic Exhibit.
Andrew: Oh, there you go. And I know there are new artifacts in there now…
Eric: Yes.
Andrew: … surrounding the US release of the Harry Potter series, including a letter from Arthur Levine, the editor of Scholastic, to J.K. Rowling. I’m looking at it now, December 19, 1997, and he asks if they can change the title. [laughs]
Micah: So it’s all his fault.
Andrew: Yeah, but listen to this. This is kind of low-key offensive. He says, “I like the sound of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but those who have heard it so far have found themselves misled into thinking this will have an obscure, ‘philosophical’ overtone. Chalk it up to idiot Americans, but I think we’d be better off here with a title that was a bit more playful (and easier to design).”
Eric: I agree.
Andrew: [laughs] It’s not wrong. I mean, we wouldn’t know what “Philosopher’s Stone” meant. But then in the next paragraph – and I feel like we’ve heard about this before – he says to Jo, “What do you think of ‘Harry Potter and the School of Magic’ as the title?”
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Not sure that one would have sold as well.
Andrew: It’s kind of basic, isn’t it?
Eric: Well, funnily enough, in different languages, that’s exactly what it translates to. I’m pretty sure as close to Europe as… in Europe, and I’m pretty sure the French name is… people in our patrons and things who are familiar with the international books can say. But some of the translated versions are literally “Harry Potter and the School of Magic.” So the fact that they settled on Sorcerer’s Stone, and it’s got that alliterative sort of ring to it, is kind of lucky for us.
Micah: That’s a multibillion dollar decision that he made.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: I do agree, though. I think in the US, philosopher means something different. It’s not this old idea of a Philosopher’s Stone of alchemy. Who knows what an alchemist is? I certainly didn’t when I was 11.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: And so there’s just not the same connotations. I don’t know. It was a good call. I wish all the titles were similar, but…
Andrew: It was a good call, and it never happened again.
Eric: Yeah, exactly.
Andrew: [laughs] So cool little things like that are on display at this exhibit, and that’s why I want to go. I want to see all those pieces of history.
Micah: For sure, and I know that there’s a audio accompaniment that’s narrated by Natalie Dormer, and most listeners of the show who are also Game of Thrones fans will know her as Margaery Tyrell on Game of Thrones. So if people want to pick that up, they can obviously do that, or they can just walk around and check things out for themselves.
Eric: I’m going to use my Audible credit for that. But I’m actually hearing really good things about that audiobook; apparently it contains interviews with these people themselves, so you’ll hear Arthur Levine actually speak about this decision that we just talked about, and stuff like that.
Andrew: Oh, that’s cool.
Eric: So yeah, I’m hearing really good things.
Andrew: Oh, glad you mentioned Audible; they’re actually going to be one of our sponsors next week, I believe.
Eric: Oh, that’s lucky.
Andrew: Yeah, so everybody hold off on buying it until we get that sponsor going.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Andrew: Also out now is Beedle the Bard, the illustrated edition. So we’re not getting one of the Harry Potter books this year; this is the first year we’re not getting one since they started. They were on this yearly cycle, but the illustrator needs extra time to do Goblet of Fire because it’s so long, so this year we’re getting Beedle the Bard. This is by a different illustrator, and have you guys picked this up yet?
Eric: No.
Micah: I have not.
Andrew: I’ve been meaning to.
Micah: I can’t remember if I preordered it. If I had, it probably would have been here already?
Andrew: I think so. Yeah, you need to get on that then. So obviously, it’s… I heard it’s thin, it’s big and thin, because it’s not a very big book. And I’ve previously said that I do not like Beedle the Bard, [laughs] but because I’m a completionist, I have to buy this to join the rest of the illustrated edition books.
Micah: You and the Potter Collector.
Andrew: Yes, right. Need it.
Micah: Isn’t Beedle the Bard already illustrated, though?
Andrew: Yeah, by J.K. Rowling! [laughs]
Eric: J.K. Rowling herself, yeah, drew the… but it’s not in the style of the new illustrated versions, and by that I mean it’s still not the same illustrators who did those, as you just said, Andrew. But where every point in the story is narrated, I think J.K. Rowling kind of did the key moment. She also hand-wrote the original copies of Beedle the Bard, so I don’t blame her for not doing more than, I don’t know, 15 illustrations.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: My impression of this one, at least from the previews that we saw, were that it was fully illustrated, every moment from each of the stories.
Andrew: Right. I also heard the text is really big on the page. [laughs]
Eric: That helps. That definitely helps. I like the art style when they release the previews of some of these images. I will be getting this book; I just haven’t yet.
Andrew: Yeah. All right, so that’s available now. And speaking of merchandise, the Harry Potter fandom was very excited a few days ago because Funko, who makes all those adorable Pop Vinyls, they have announced a Harry Potter advent calendar, and this is going to be on sale in about a month from now.
Micah: For the holidays?
Andrew: Yeah, of course. It has 24 mini Pop Vinyl figurines in it, and when you open up this advent calendar, a snowy Hagrid’s hut pops out. And then the idea is you open up each advent calendar door and you place each character into the Hagrid’s hut scene. It looks so cute, and I, of course, ordered it immediately.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And it kind of… I know the Hypable link went a little viral; it’s already out of stock on Amazon, so it might be hard to get. It is still available at some other retailers for preorder, but man, this thing looks awesome. I just love quirky little things like that.
Micah: So it doesn’t come with a set of Funkos; you have to purchase them separately?
Andrew: No, it comes with them. Behind each door is a little…
Micah: Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s what I thought. I was confused because normally advent calendars, you open up the door and you get chocolate or prizes or other things like that.
Andrew: Right, these are little figurines like Hagrid, Harry, Dumbledore, Dobby, Hedwig, Hermione… there’s 24.
Eric: It’s kind of a neat concept, but I do know I’m already at the point where I don’t need anymore Funkos, so I don’t need 24 new Funkos.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: I know. It’s a lot. Like, what do you do after Christmas? It’s just too cute to pass up.
Micah: It’s not a bad price either, 60 bucks, given how much those Funkos sometimes cost individually.
Eric: Yeah, $12.50.
Andrew: Keep in mind, these are super small versions, but yeah. On to some Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald news. Looks like we have the runtime, and I’ll explain why in a second, but I want you guys to guess. What is the runtime of Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald? And for context, I’ll tell you the runtime of the first movie was two hours and 13 minutes.
Micah: Okay. I’ll go with two hours and four minutes.
Eric: I’m going to go two hours 26 minutes.
Andrew: [laughs] So according to AMC, it is two hours and 12 minutes, so basically the same exact runtime as the first movie.
Eric: Oh. Huh. At least they didn’t pull an Order of the Phoenix, and it’s like an hour and a half. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Which I think is good. I personally like being in and out of a movie theater in 90 minutes. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, but there’s so much in this movie.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: For all that they’re trying to do with this film. We hear about how jam-packed with subplots this is; I’m very surprised that it’s… I’m glad it’s not shorter; I’ll just say that. But the fact that it’s exactly the same runtime still feels like maybe it’ll be a little bit jam-packed.
Andrew: Right, because it feels like there’s more happening in the second movie, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it feel that way? So why do we know that? Well, tickets for the movie are slowly but surely coming on sale. We wanted to let our listeners know about this event at IMAX AMC theaters called the Fantastic Fandom Event. You get to see the movie on Tuesday, November 13, in IMAX theaters, and – this is my favorite part – no trailers.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: So if you want to see the movie pretty damn early, you should go to AMCTheaters.com and see if a local AMC near you is doing this event. Eric and I bought tickets to one here in Chicago. Micah, are you trying to go to one of these early ones?
Micah: Yeah, definitely going to try and get to one here in New York. There’s a couple of theaters in the city, so definitely going to get tickets for that.
Andrew: I feel like WB is confident in the quality of the movie for Harry Potter fans if they’re letting people see it a couple days early, because they probably are doing these events so that people will go and tweet their reactions in the days leading up to the film’s worldwide release, and if they know the movie’s good, then they know the reaction will be positive. So hopefully that’s a good sign.
Micah: It’s definitely creating a lot of opportunity, though, for spoilers to leak out several days in advance.
Eric: That’s true.
Andrew: Yeah, and I know the reason that we want to see it early is because we want to get our review episode together. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, no, it’s a great opportunity for us to have it all ready for Friday morning or whatever.
Andrew: Do you guys remember last year we did a spoiler-free episode and a spoiler episode? Two years ago?
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: Should we do that again?
Micah: Let’s take a poll.
Eric: Oh, yeah. That’s a good call.
Micah: I feel like, though, once the movie is out, the movie’s out, so…
Andrew: True.
Micah: It’s kind of different with a book. Let’s let the listeners decide on that one. There’s also three premieres to look forward to, right?
Andrew: Yeah, London, Paris, and New York, I guess.
Micah: Maybe I’ll sneak into that one.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Man, New York is like the second mecca for Harry Potter now. I mean, to some extent, it always has been, but with Puffs, the actual Cursed Child play, this HP exhibit, the new premiere of the film, which… yeah, it’s just… there’s going to be a lot to do in New York.
Micah: The setting for the first film.
Andrew: So some new photos have also been released courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. There wasn’t… I mean, EW is like, [in a serious voice] “Ten intriguing new photos.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: There’s like, two that are actually kind of interesting. For me, the photo I found interesting was this one of Leta back at Hogwarts opening up an old desk, and in it she’s touching a inscribed L plus N – Leta plus Newt – on the underside of the desk. So my question is, what is Leta doing back at Hogwarts?
Eric: When does this occur in the film?
Andrew: Yeah, because I thought it was mostly flashbacks. Kind of surprising. But I’m certainly not complaining about more time at Hogwarts.
Eric: No, no, that’ll be true.
Micah: Wasn’t there, from very early on, one of the trailers that showed Dumbledore being confronted by what looked like members of the Ministry? So maybe this is when it happens.
Andrew: Yeah, would Leta be with Theseus?
Micah: Possibly.
Andrew: But we haven’t seen Theseus in any of these clips of Dumbledore being confronted in his classroom. There is a photo also of Dumbledore with something around his wrist, and I actually read a spoiler about that, and I feel like it’s kind of spoiler-y, so I won’t say. But that wristband is significant.
Eric: Oh, yeah, didn’t the props designer or somebody talk about that wristband recently?
Andrew: I think so. With all this merchandise, there’s just all these little tidbits that are coming out about this movie. [laughs] Because there’s these companion books, and of course these companion books talk about the movie a bit.
Micah: This is in the first photo that comes up?
Andrew: Is it the first photo? Yeah, Dumbledore. It’s a full shot of him looking to his left. What was the photo that stood out to you, Eric?
Eric: This one of Grindelwald. Not even necessarily for the photo; it’s quite similar to the one that we see… or we see this scene a lot in the trailer, where he’s proselytizing to a group of followers. But the caption was what was most interesting to me. It says that “Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) holds an audience spellbound in an amphitheater beneath -“ get this “- the Lestrange Mausoleum.”
Andrew: Huh.
Eric: So we’ve been questioning where this amphitheater sort of thing is underground. I think it’s been speculated before that it would be underneath the graveyard that we also see them in at various points across several of the trailers. But for it to be called the Lestrange Mausoleum… there’s your connection to Leta right there. Grindelwald is using either hers or her family’s weird underground public event space to recruit followers. So that one little detail just blew my mind and is very titillating.
Andrew: Yeah, I agree. That is super interesting. Because is he going to try to recruit Leta?
Eric: Maybe he already did, especially if Theseus is there.
Micah: And even going back to the first film, we know from what Queenie says about the Lestranges, they’re very well known for being Dark wizards, even in the Americas. So the fact that they would be inside the Lestrange Mausoleum is definitely on par with what we know, because if we look back at the fact that all these characters are congregating around a graveyard, the fact that they would be in a mausoleum is not that surprising.
Andrew: There have also been a ton of posters released. [laughs] Too many, in my opinion. We’re up to at least 12. But the character posters with pairs – so Queenie and Jacob, Grindelwald and Credence, Tina and Yusuf, Leta and Theseus, Newt and Dumbledore – they all have a lot of details in the upper halves of their posters, little references to the characters and potentially what is going on. Actually, speaking of Leta and the Lestrange Mausoleum, there’s a little grave in her poster over her shoulder. Two graves, actually.
Eric: Whoa.
Andrew: And there’s the Ministry of Magic M, referencing Theseus working at the Ministry. And then in the Queenie one, there’s an umbrella in the poster. [laughs] Very subtle. And the wand is the umbrella handle. Just beautiful artwork that you might gloss over; I know I glossed over it. And meanwhile, Jacob is also holding an umbrella in this poster. Somebody tweeted me or something like, “Is Jacob related to Hagrid? What’s with all these umbrellas?”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: That’s it. Jacob is Hagrid’s father.
Andrew: [laughs] Could you imagine? That would be a stretch from J.K. Rowling. I would have to put my foot down there.
Eric: Oh, but she’s known about it for 20 years.
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Micah: Why is Tina with Yusuf, though? Is it just because they’re both on the hunt after different people? Or maybe the same person?
Andrew: Well, yeah, I’ve also read that Yusuf is looking for Credence. Isn’t Tina looking for Credence too?
Micah: Everyone’s looking for Credence, and then they’re looking for Grindelwald…
Eric: Are either of the graves in Leta’s poster Percival Graves? Played by Colin Farrell.
Andrew: [laughs] I can’t tell.
Eric: I don’t get it. Like you said, Andrew, too many posters. I agree. When they released the most recent trailer, we got those eight posters that are individual to their characters, and then there’s another eight more, or another six more with these couples posters. Is anybody buying these?
Andrew: I don’t know what they do with them. I just feel like it’s to make a splash online, to make people pay attention to the movie for a day.
Eric: Yeah, at this point, it’s sort of just got to be social media stuff. You probably can’t even buy these in… I mean, I remember going to Hot Topic in 2001 or 2002 when the Tomb Raider movie came out, and you could buy these three different posters for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. And I did, and they were on my bedroom wall.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: That was the coolest thing, though. That was really cool, because it was this one movie, three posters. The reason I bring this up is nobody’s doing that with this one sequel, for Crimes of Grindelwald. Nobody’s going to buy… if a Harry Potter fan is going to buy eight posters, it’s going to be the eight original movie posters, and maybe Fantastic Beasts.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: And we’ve seen… one of our patrons posted actually their awesome movie viewing room in the basement, kind of refurbished den. And it was absolutely… it’s awesome, but nobody’s going to buy these character posters, especially this early on in the overall arc of the story. What’s the purpose? It’s got to just be for social media.
Andrew: Yeah, I think you’re right.
Micah: Well, those posters will end up plastered all over subway stations in New York City. I mean, there’s no…
Andrew: Ah, yeah.
Micah: I don’t know if it’s a little too early for that right now, but maybe in a week or two, you can walk through a subway station in Times Square, because there’s just so much space and advertising available, and literally all those posters will be plastered over the walls and poles and things like that. So probably, depending on what their advertising budget is, I would imagine that they’re going to use them in different cities.
Andrew: I will also say, unlike the Harry Potter posters, these have a lot of details in them, like we were just speaking about, and I guess that speaks to the fact that this isn’t based on a book, so we have more to theorize over. So it is kind of nice that they’re adding all these little tidbits into the posters that maybe a month from now, we can look back on and be like, “Oh, look at this. Look at that. That was referencing that.” And just like the Crimes of Grindelwald script book cover; there was a lot of details in that as well. So I do like that they’re adding all these little details. They aren’t taking the lazy route with these, that’s for sure. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, and it’s not all the Deathly Hallows. It’s not all just that necklace symbol or whatever, so that’s cool.
Andrew: There was also a big interview with Johnny Depp. We will be talking about that on Patreon this week; that’s going to be our bonus MuggleCast segment, at Patreon.com/MuggleCast. He said a lot, and I actually kind of felt good about everything that he said, so we’ll talk about everything, including the abuse allegations. I give EW credit for asking him about that. And then we do have our weekly Dancing with the Stars update.
Eric: Yes, here is the latest. You guys gotta check out this video – I’m sure it’s on YouTube – but Evanna Lynch and Keo Motsepe, her partner for Dancing with the Stars, performed a waltz to “Hedwig’s Theme.” It finally happened; we’ve reached peak inception. Actually, you know what? Next week we’re reaching peak inception. But this week, they scored a 27, which is nines from all three judges, nine out of possible ten points. It’s truly amazing. If you watch it, it’s kind of short. I was expecting the full “Hedwig’s Theme,” which is, like, five and a half minutes long. It’s kind of more of a 90 second thing. But honestly, the reason she scored so high, the reason they scored so high, is because of the various emotions and styles that Evanna is able to embody. You guys both saw this, right?
Micah: Yeah, I watched it last week. And 90 seconds is because it’s TV. Come on, Eric.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: You’ve got to cut off right at 90 seconds; move on to the next person. But it is super impressive to watch her week in and week out, and what I found interesting, just aside from the dance, was the theme was all about a year that changed her life. So Evanna told a story that I’m sure many our listeners are aware of, but what I didn’t know is that she actually had a correspondence with J.K. Rowling prior to getting the role of of Luna Lovegood, and J.K. Rowling wasn’t aware of the fact that she ended up getting the role until after the fact. So they showed a bit of the correspondence between the two, the actual handwritten letters.
Andrew: Oh, wow.
Micah: So I thought that was pretty cool.
Andrew: Oh, that is cool. It’s very cool.
Eric: That’s mind-blowing. She had to… at the last minute, they kind of asked her, “Did you cheat to get your role on TV?” And she was like, “No, no, no, none of that. It was different.” But it was a story I’d never, ever heard of. So going back to what I said about peak inception, next week on Dancing with the Stars… which is actually tonight, once you’re listening to this podcast episode. The Monday that this comes out is triples week, which means they dance with a third partner. So Evy and Keo are dancing with none other than Scarlett Byrne, the actress who plays Pansy Parkinson in the later couple of Harry Potter films. And Scarlett was there in support of Evy a couple of weeks ago, I’ve seen, and it looks like they’re still close. So they are already on social media. They’re practicing; there’s videos and photos of them getting in gear. But I don’t know what they’re dancing to yet, but this is a chance to see two Harry Potter actresses on Dancing with the Stars in one fell swoop.
Listener Feedback
Andrew: Okay, before we get to Chapter by Chapter, we are going to listen to a few voicemails. I know you guys encouraged people to call in, and they did last week. But first, a word from this week’s sponsor, Zip Recruiter.
[Ad break]
Andrew: So now let’s hire some of our listeners to do the talking, ha ha.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Here’s one from Chanel about Nagini.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hi, MuggleCasters. Chanel here. I have some thoughts on Episode 386, with all of the Nagini hubbub. When we were first introduced to her, it’s in Goblet of Fire, where Voldemort looks like a half-snake half-human baby, and he needs Nagini’s milk in order to survive. So I was thinking that Nagini would have sort of a motherly love towards him, and that could kind of spur her into being more like his servant, but not exactly like one. And I’m not entirely sure how anybody convinced her to be Voldemort’s new mom, or what that spell was that they did in the cemetery, but it seems like Nagini isn’t so much of a servant, because he cares about her more than anybody else, since he entrusted part of his soul to her. But it kind of upsets me that people are talking about her being a slave to him, instead of considering everything that has happened between Voldemort and Nagini since her introduction in Goblet of Fire. Just wanted to know what you guys think. Bye!”
[Voicemail ends]
Andrew: I think that’s a fair point, especially with nursing – kind of a weird word to use – but nursing Voldemort back to health being critical there. Nagini just feels a connection to Voldemort, and there’s some period that we still do not know about the relationship between them. We don’t know what happened in those years prior to Goblet of Fire, so we’re just going to have to wait and see how J.K. Rowling builds this tortured relationship between Nagini and Voldemort. I will also say Chanel called in the next day. [laughs] She had to clarify what she said. I don’t think she needed to do this, but let’s listen to this quick.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hi, MuggleCasters. It’s Chanel again. I just listened to Episode 387, and I’m mortified about what I said in my last voicemail about Nagini’s milk. So you don’t milk snakes. Didn’t know that before. But I still think that Nagini still could have some sort of mother-like feeling to Voldemort, because he did seem like a half-snake, half-human baby, however way he managed to do that. So thank you for letting me correct myself. You guys have a good weekend. Bye.”
[Voicemail ends]
Andrew: You milk a snake; you just don’t milk it like a cow.
Eric: Yeah, the fangs, the venom. Regarding the mother connection, I don’t know. I think the problem is that we don’t know to what extent Nagini is still in there, her human side. So can…? I mean, I guess snakes probably have a maternal instinctual reaction, but it’s way too early to speculate as to whether or not that’s what she feels for Voldemort.
Micah: Right. We don’t know the story. We may not get to know the story.
Andrew: We’d better get to know the story. I’d be annoyed.
Micah: Well, if this series is going to end around 1945, Voldemort and Nagini don’t cross paths until, what, 40-50 years later?
Andrew: Oh, true.
Eric: That’s a good point.
Andrew: Maybe J.K. Rowling can write something on Pottermore for us. It’s been a while, I feel like, since she’s written something on there for us. All right, this next voicemail is regarding Chapter by Chapter.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hey, MuggleCast. This is Katie. I’m really enjoying the Chapter by Chapter of Half-Blood Prince; it’s been really fun revisiting it and listening to you guys talk about it. This past week, you were talking about Moody and how he didn’t want to teach for another year, and did Ron and Hermione know that Moody was really Barty Crouch, Jr. and everything? And I just wanted to clarify that Moody had signed up to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts prior to being kidnapped and imprisoned, but when he took the job on, he said, ‘I’m only going to teach for one year.’ That was not a result of what happened with being kidnapped; that was the stipulation when he agreed to come on. So just wanted to clarify that. Thanks for doing such a great job; You guys are awesome.”
[Voicemail ends]
Micah: Okay. It still doesn’t answer why Ron doesn’t know that it wasn’t Moody who stayed on as Defense Against the Dark Arts, and was, in fact, Barty Crouch, Jr.
Eric: And given that Moody did not end up teaching that year, I think our premise still remains the same, that he could have stayed on to teach the next year. I mean, if he signs up for a year, doesn’t do the year, spends the year locked away, he could still have a year left in him. Maybe he wanted to teach for a year. I don’t know.
Andrew: All right, couple more here.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hey, MuggleCast. This is Molly. Hopefully you remember me from the episode you guys had right before you went and saw Cursed Child. If you remember, I had never read Cursed Child up until that point, because I didn’t really want to read it after hearing about the plot. I just wanted to let you know that six months later, I saw the show yesterday, and I was completely blown away. I just want to thank you guys for giving such a positive review after seeing the show yourselves, and giving me some hope that it would be really good. I thought it was amazing; I teared up; the special effects were the best I’ve ever seen on Broadway, so I just want to say thank you guys for encouraging me to go see the show, because it was amazing, and I spent all my money on merchandise. Keep up the good work, and I can’t wait to hear you guys’ thoughts after Crimes of Grindelwald comes out. Bye.”
[Voicemail ends]
Andrew: All right, there we go. Another Cursed Child fan after seeing it. This next one is a warning to everybody about Hogwarts Mystery from our southern friend who never shares his name. [laughs]
[Voicemail plays]
“Good morning, fellas. I recently deleted my Facebook; just needed some change. I go to open up Hogwarts Mystery, and lo and behold, it ruined and deleted my whole doggone account because I ain’t got a Facebook no more. Apparently, if you don’t have a Facebook… well, you can play, I reckon. But anyways, just a heads up, if you delete Facebook, you lose all your crap in Hogwarts Mystery. Learned that the hard way. Really sucks. Y’all have a good’un. Bye.”
[Voicemail ends]
Andrew: So this guy, I think he created his Hogwarts Mystery account with his Facebook account, so his login is tied to Facebook, and that’s why you lost it, sir. So if any of you are out there concerned about maybe Facebook, how they handle our data – because there’s been all these leaks lately – well, don’t delete your Facebook if you connected any of your apps to Facebook, otherwise you’re not going to be able to get into those apps anymore.
Eric: That’s hugely concerning for me, not only because my year one progress on Hogwarts Mystery is in danger of being erased completely, but I mean, I tie all my apps into Facebook.
Andrew: I know.
Eric: It’s just how you log in. It’s just super easy.
Andrew: They’ve got us. They’ve got us by the neck.
[Eric sighs]
Andrew: So those are our voicemails for now. We’ll get to some more next week. Just a couple of quick reminders: If you do call in, keep the voicemails no longer than a minute, and make sure we’re able to clearly hear you. Sometimes the voicemails are too long; sometimes we have a hard time hearing you, so we’re not able to air them. But we do listen to all of them, and thank you to everybody who calls into our voicemail line, which is 1-920-3-MUGGLE.
Chapter by Chapter: Seven-Word Summary
Micah: All right, so I guess that means it’s time for Chapter by Chapter. We will be talking about Chapter 9 this week, “Half-Blood Prince.” So we have… did you find out what that word was, Eric, that describes the title of the book in the title of the chapter?
Eric: Yes, eponymous. Or eponymous? [struggles to pronounce it] Eponymous. Thanks to Ryan Nolan, our good trivia buddy, for answering that question for me.
Andrew: Oh, of course the trivia guy knows it.
Eric: This is the eponymous title, it is, to say Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “Half-Blood Prince.”
Electronic female voice: Eh-PON-imus.
Andrew: That’s the Google translation. Wow, kind of sexy.
Eric: Oh, do that again.
Micah: That was a little creepy.
Electronic female voice: Eh-PON-imus.
Eric: Yeah. Sounds like a spell.
Andrew: [laughs] Eponymous.
Micah: Sounds like it’s coming from a… well, never mind.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Andrew knows what I’m talking about. [laughs]
Andrew: Anyway, glad we got that worked out.
Micah: Yep, good job, good job. So we’ll start off this week’s chapter much like all of them so far, and that is with the Seven-Word Summary, and looks like I’ve slated myself to go first. So I will go with… Potions…
Eric: … is…
Andrew: … taught…
Micah: … by…
Eric: … a…
Andrew: Potions is taught by a… quirky…
Micah: … walrus.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Beautiful. Yeah, you could have made that boring and said, “man,” but you didn’t.
Micah: I didn’t.
Andrew: Good job.
Micah: I went for it. So “Potions is taught by a quirky walrus.” That is the Seven-Word Summary for the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9.
Andrew: Excellent. Adding that to Pottermore now.
Micah: Please.
Eric: That one’s my favorite one yet.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Micah: All right, one thing I actually did was to go back to Chamber of Secrets and to see if Chapter 9 of Chamber of Secrets was “The Chamber of Secrets,” but it was not.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Just… you know, we always do connecting the threads. There’s a few of them in this chapter as well; we’ll get to those. But just starting off the chapter, Harry is trying to sell, once again – this is the constant chapter reminder – that Harry believes that Draco Malfoy is, in fact, a Death Eater. And he’s really trying to push it on Hermione, but he is unable to do so because there are too many eavesdroppers listening to their conversation. Harry is this big celebrity; a lot of people want to listen to what he has to say, and he can’t even have a conversation with his friends in the common room.
Andrew: Why not spread the rumor, though? Let the whole school think that Draco is a Death Eater. Probably for the best, so everybody can be monitoring him, right?
Micah: That’s not a bad idea.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: But I mean, maybe we’ll see it sort of… maybe the train scene was supposed to indicate what Slytherins would do if they knew that, because the Slytherins are actively protecting that secret, at least the few who seem to know it. So maybe the defenses would be even higher if it were three of the Houses in the school against Slytherins that it would be that Draco would have even more protection to do what he needs to do, not from people who want to see Dumbledore dead, but from people who are just on principle defending their fellow Slytherin. We see a lot of House loyalty in these books.
Andrew: True.
Micah: That is true. And yeah, the beginning of this chapter is kind of a wrap-up from the end of the last one. So we know Ron and Harry were talking about how they weren’t going to be taking Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid, and they assumed Hermione wouldn’t be as well, and that is confirmed in the early part of the chapter. And it kind of raised a question in my mind as to is Hagrid even qualified to teach a NEWT-level course?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: I mean, I don’t want to rag on Hagrid, but…
Andrew: Too late.
Micah: Yeah, well, what do you think? I mean, I don’t think he’s qualified to teach regular courses, much less a NEWT-level course.
Andrew: I think that they have no other options when it comes to Hagrid. He’s the best that they’ve got, so just let him do his thing. But it also speaks to just how loosey-goosey Dumbledore runs the school. This is something he doesn’t care about. [laughs]
Micah: He needs to run a tighter ship.
Andrew: Yes! There’s millions of examples of this that we keep bringing up. But that’s just kind of the charm of Hagrid and his Care of Magical Creatures class. It’s not that good, it’s never been that good, and it would be no different with NEWT-level courses. But everybody would come to expect that anyway.
Eric: I guess the only difference between each year of Hagrid’s classes are the difficulty level of the beasts, right? So maybe it will just be that there’s just even harder beasts this year if they were in that class. I mean, Hagrid, even though he’s not that great a teacher or… I understand where you’re coming from. Could he teach NEWT-level classes? He could hold his own against pretty much any beast.
Andrew: That’s true.
Eric: Wouldn’t you believe that he would do the research? For a three-headed dog to be kept at bay by this guy… sure, he’s half-giant, but he knows exactly how to calm that beast. And maybe that’s what Care of Magical Creatures as a subject really is, is the caring for these crazy, dangerous sort of creatures. So maybe they would just… I don’t know, maybe there’s a paddock somewhere of dragons again in the forest, or something that would be more suited to a NEWT-level course.
Andrew: Hagrid does know his stuff, as Eric is pointing out. But I’m also trying to think right now… does anybody really pursue Care of Magical Creatures outside of Hogwarts? You know what I mean? Does anybody go on, that we know of, to take a position in this type of field? I don’t think so. So maybe Dumbledore also kind of sees it as like, “Well, do we really need somebody seriously teaching this class in a highly professional manner?” [laughs]
Eric: Yeah. Nobody’s pursuing to be… nobody’s trying to be a Magizoologist, just like Newt Scamander, and I think…
Andrew: Right, Newt wrote that book, and they were like, “Well, we don’t need anybody else to work in this field. Newt’s got it all done. Got it wrapped up.”
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Charlie, maybe.
Andrew: Charlie. Good point.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Micah: But that’s one character out of how many?
Eric: Well, Luna marries Rolf Scamander, who’s Newt’s grandson, and becomes herself a wizarding naturalist. That’s the word they throw around. I don’t know what that is in relation to Magizoology; it’s like separate but related fields, I want to say. But even she’s not talking about her Hagrid lessons this year. Nobody’s talking about Hagrid’s NEWT-level class, so I just don’t think we have that student that’s taking that class.
Micah: Right. And the next point kind of ties into the overall conversation about just how things are structured at Hogwarts, because we get to the point where McGonagall is sitting down in the Great Hall with Harry and Ron and Hermione and Neville, amongst others, and going through all the different grades that they received for their OWLs and whether or not they will be qualified to take these NEWT-level courses. And we get to the point where she’s talking with Harry and Potions comes up, and previously, Harry wouldn’t have been able to take Potions at the NEWT level because of the grade that Snape accepted, but we learn that Slughorn accepts one level below that, and Harry will still have his opportunity to pursue becoming an Auror. But I wondered, is there some standard that should be in place here for NEWT-level courses, as opposed to it just being at the teacher’s discretion?
Andrew: [sighs] Well, I don’t necessarily agree, because I think the teacher ultimately knows what’s best for their students. They’re the ones who work within these classes, within these subjects year round, whereas standardizing what OWLs you would need for NEWT-level courses wouldn’t be a very… it would just be too broad of a brush to be painting. So I just think teachers do what they believe is best for their students. In the case of Slughorn, I can see why he’s easier on which OWLs he accepts. I mean, clearly he’s not as big of a hardass as Snape is. And Slughorn likes meeting new people; he likes surrounding himself with as many people as possible, I think. [laughs] And maybe, just maybe, he knew what Harry’s OWLs were for Potions, and perhaps he lowered the bar just for him. That’s a little crackpot and maybe a bit of a stretch, but I don’t think we could put that past Slughorn.
Micah: Maybe, but I think Slughorn’s standard probably was in place from when he previously taught there.
Andrew: Very possible.
Eric: Maybe, maybe. It might also be that NEWT level is the level where the curriculum is sort of specific from the government. The NEWT-level courses are the hardest ones; the teachers can choose what barrier for entry they’re willing to place on it from the OWL level, because they know what their own teaching strengths are to get students up to this. I’m trying to think back in high school when there were AP classes. That curriculum was mandated by whoever runs AP in the education system in the country, the Advanced Placement system. That was all… our teachers barely got to choose what they taught because that was the Advanced Placement curriculum, so I’m thinking NEWT might work the same way. I never took any AP classes, but I recall hearing about how the books that they’re assigned and all that is strictly mandated. So maybe the difference between OWL and NEWT level is that the teachers are getting people up to what is the government standard.
Micah: That’s definitely possible. And I think it’s also just the discretion of the teacher, kind of going back to what you said, Andrew, where they know the student, and it may just be the case that the student is going to have to work that much harder to achieve the NEWT level if maybe they’re coming in with a grade that isn’t exactly where the teacher would want it to be.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: One cool moment, though, from all this was when McGonagall was going through the OWLs with Neville, and Neville was really downtrodden and wanted badly to take Transfiguration, and there was back and forth between the two of them. And she not only praised him for what he did in the Ministry, but said that his grandmother should be a little bit prouder of him, and that if she has an issue with him going to NEWT-level Charms, Minerva would be more than happy to remind Augusta how poorly she did. So first of all, I mean, I would think McGonagall and Augusta would have been at Hogwarts around the same time.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: The fact that she knows how she did – unless they were best buds – it seems like McGonagall may have even taught her. So I don’t know. What do you guys think about that?
Andrew: Well, I thought it was a really nice moment for Neville. He never really gets any praise heaped on him, so it was a feel-good moment to read. But I was also just wondering, maybe Minerva just remembers the grades of every single one of her students. That seems like a very old witch professor type of thing to do. Sort of like Dumbledore has this giant brain, I think Minerva and maybe these other professors have these giant brains as well that seems to remember every damn thing, because it’s kind of shocking that she would know, seemingly off the cuff, how Augusta did in Charms.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. I wonder what the story is there, but I agree it definitely comes across as though McGonagall taught Augusta, or was a teacher with access to that information while Augusta was taking those classes.
Micah: And free periods are going to be a thing in this book, which we haven’t seen before, but I think we can all remember when we were going to school how much fun it was to have a free period just to do pretty much whatever you wanted to do.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: I had one. I still remember sitting… it was in the auditorium, but I was just kind of bored. Because I didn’t study; of course I wasn’t Hermione. I guess I was more like Ron. But yeah, I guess they were kind of fun. It does seem a little silly to have free periods in Hogwarts, though. There’s just so much to do, so many cool things to do.
Eric: Yeah. Well, as Hermione points out, it’s a lot of opportunity for actual study. Free periods, also known as study halls… they do have a higher quality of homework, a larger sort of amount that they’re expected to turn in.
Andrew: That’s true.
Eric: So I think Ron is a little optimistic about how much free time they’ll actually have. But I don’t know. I forgot that this was such a big deal in this book.
Andrew: Me too.
Eric: So yeah, moving forward, just going to kind of focus on how they’re spending their free time.
Andrew: Especially after these earlier books with so many classes. I mean, they were all so busy, of course, Hermione especially, and now it’s like, “Okay, we’ve got less going on.”
Eric: Yeah. I’m pretty sure Harry uses most of his free periods to spy on Malfoy.
Andrew: That’s productive. That’s a productive use.
Micah: Well, the sixth year starts off with Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Snape is, once again, the focal point of this chapter, at least in my opinion. So we have now several chapters that have really honed in on Snape, and I wondered, are there any clues that we should have picked up on in this chapter as to him being the Half-Blood Prince?
Andrew: Other than… well, I mean, he is prominent in this chapter, and this chapter is called “The Half-Blood Prince.” So other than that, no, I don’t think so.
Eric: Yeah. I’m trying to think of the cramped handwriting, whether or not Snape’s handwriting has ever been described that way before. Maybe in Book 5, when Snape sends Harry a letter, but who the hell remembers that? Honestly. Yeah, I don’t think you can know. It’s, again, one of these chapters fully devoted to Snape, like you said, Micah, but it’s done so well. It’s done so off the… because we meet a character called the Half-Blood Prince in this chapter who we don’t know who it is, it kind of makes you think that that’s why the chapter is called that. It doesn’t draw attention to Snape, even though he is a huge part of this chapter.
Andrew: And then speaking of this classroom, he has redecorated it. [laughs] Remodeled it, might be the best word, and he’s got these messed up posters of these wizards being tortured, I believe, right? It’s pretty disturbing, especially when you remember these students are 15/16 years old. I get what… I can actually defend Snape here; he’s trying to bring the point across that there are some very evil people out there who can do terrible things, and there are things you need to protect yourself against. However, it might be too much on day one of the class.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Maybe wait a few weeks or months before showing people just how terrible it is.
Eric: He sort of wastes no time, because he knows how inconsistent their education has been so far, and he says as much in his speech.
Andrew: That’s true.
Eric: The speech bothers me way less than those posters and photos, though, of the people being tortured.
Micah: Definitely. It’s a stark contrast from – if we were going to do some sort of connecting the threads – to the way Lockhart set up the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Eric: Talking about himself? [laughs]
Micah: Yeah, and all the different portraits of himself that were hanging up. So there’s one quote, though, that I pulled that Snape has in his discussion with the class, and it’s about the Dark Arts, and he says that “The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible.” And I thought a little bit of Voldemort and his Horcruxes when this quote was being given, but I know, Eric, you found something different?
Eric: Yeah, it’s very evocative language. It reminds me of the scene in the Disney animated movie Hercules when Hercules is battling the Hydra. But this is actually a real Greek myth that the cartoon is based off of. The Hydra is that creature which has multiple serpentine heads, is a many-headed monster, and in the Greek myth – at least more recently than I looked this up – since 483 BC, that creature has been described as having heads that, when you cut one off, two or more grow back in its place. So J.K. Rowling is essentially right here making a 2,500-year-old literary reference, which is pretty badass. Not to mention it’s just a scary thought that you try and kill this evil thing, but then it grows back stronger than before. It’s very… I think it succeeds in selling what Snape is trying to sell here.
Micah: Yeah, I think that’s a great reference point that you bring up.
Andrew: I like your point, Micah, about it referring to the Horcruxes, but when I was reading this just the other day, to me, it just makes sense generally about Defense Against the Dark Arts. These people are “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” If they’re looking to kill, they’re going to kill, and they’re going to evolve until it gets done. That’s how I read it.
Eric: Yeah. For me, it really also takes it back to the Ministry scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort when they’re fighting, and you’re seeing the very sort of elemental magic. And I think most of that is nonverbal, if not all of it. You’re just seeing Voldemort throw things at Dumbledore and Dumbledore throw things back or counter fire with an ice wall, things like that that really speak to… because they’re the only grownups at this point we’ve seen do magic. Snape’s speech here kind of reminds me of seeing them at the Ministry.
Micah: Right. And the focal point of the lesson that Snape is teaching would come in extremely handy, I think, in a situation much like the Ministry, because, to your point, a lot of what was being thrown back between Voldemort and Dumbledore was nonverbal in nature, and that’s exactly what Snape starts off with. And no surprise that he continues to antagonize Harry, and he’s walking around the classroom looking at the different pairings of students who are trying to cast nonverbal spells on each other and counter them, and he comes across Harry and Ron, and of course, Ron is not up to snuff, so he kicks him aside and goes straight at it with Harry. And Harry, having those nightmares of Occlumency lessons, immediately throws up a protective spell, Snape gets knocked on his ass, and there’s a few wrong words exchanged between the two of them, and Harry ends up with detention.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, first of all, I was kind of surprised… I wish we got more info on how nonverbal spells are conducted. It would have been nice to actually hear that as a reader, especially… well, of course, J.K. Rowling wasn’t planning this at the time, but especially with Fantastic Beasts, the film series, we see a lot of nonverbal spells, so it’d be interesting to read about how those are conducted, because I think we’ve been wondering how that happens, especially now that we’re seeing so much of it. But yeah, Snape clearly has a grudge here that he really needed to take out on Harry. And how did you guys feel about how Harry conducted himself? I kind of found it justified. It was rough seeing him talk to a teacher like that, but I think he needed to defend himself in the scene.
Eric: Yeah. It’s such a shitty thing for Snape to… and bless Harry, he’s quick for the… he has that instinct that Snape is about to round on him, and when he turns from insulting Ron to be like, “You need to do it this way… like this!” And then he quick… the way it’s written is really, really smart. Harry is justified, and the fact that… you rarely see a teacher caught off balance like this, and when he hits that desk you love it because, I mean, he also insults Hermione again. He asks what the benefits of nonverbal spells are, and he waits for anyone else’s hand to go up, then calls on Hermione, and then criticizes her answer for being lifted almost straight out of the textbook. Like, come on. She had the right answer. He’s picking on everybody, and this is the very… probably one of the few times that he gets what is owed to him. And so it’s short and sweet. I just hate that he gives Harry detention.
Andrew: Not to mention they’re in Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: He should defend himself. He should receive points for how quickly and successfully he pulled that off. By the way, I kind of agree with how Snape responded to Hermione reading the answer word for word from the book, because it kind of is like, you know, think for yourself. In your own words, describe what is going on. We always heard about that a lot in class. “In your own words, explain something.”
Micah: Right. Don’t just be copying the textbook, regurgitating.
Eric: Don’t plagiarize.
Micah: Yeah. And I just think, though, what would have been the outcome if Snape had cast the spell? Then you essentially have a situation where a professor is attacking a student, and I don’t think that looks too good.
Eric: Right. I think we’ve got to give Snape the benefit of the doubt. He would have chosen a spell that seemed more harmless than it was something insidious, where Harry doesn’t like the feeling of… like if it were Imperius. It wouldn’t be Imperius, because that’s illegal, whatever, but it would be something that kind of harmed Harry more internally than…
Micah: Made fun of in some capacity; get Draco and crew laughing. Yeah, absolutely. Do you think that it was a fair comparison, though, after the class, when they’re in the hallway and kind of chatting about…? Hermione says that Snape didn’t sound all that different talking about the Dark Arts than Harry did when they were in Dumbledore’s Army.
Eric: No, I think this is one of two things that are shoehorned into this chapter, connections just for the sake of connections. And I think that it’s meant to get us thinking, but this is my least favorite of the two. The other one is when Ginny talks about the book, which is later. But Hermione saying this, it doesn’t really add up, because Harry, in the scene in Dumbledore’s Army when he’s training everybody, and is like, “Listen, this sort of sucks; you have to be there, your wits about you,” is not the same as saying, “The Dark Arts are this amazing, wonderful, always changing…” I don’t know. It doesn’t quite add up for me, because Snape’s love for the Dark Arts colors our perception of what it is he’s actually saying.
Micah: Fair point. So we head over to Potions class with Professor Slughorn, and the big moment of the chapter is Harry getting a very mysterious book, Advanced Potion-Making, with writing all over it.
Andrew: What?!
Micah: And he uses this book throughout the remainder of the chapter to create a Draught [pronounces it like “drought”] of Living… what is it? Draught? [pronounces it like “draft”]
Eric: I think both are accurate.
Micah: [laughs] Okay. Harry has gone from being the favorite of Defense Against the Dark Arts to now being presumably the favorite of Potions, and this plays very, very well into the hands of Dumbledore for having Harry achieve, ultimately, what he wants him to do, and that is get a memory from Slughorn. But this is a great first step, right? I mean, what are the chances? How lucky is it that Harry comes across this book that’s going to make him a super Potions wizard and be able to really show off his stuff to Slughorn throughout the course of his sixth year?
[Eric laughs]
Micah: I mean, it’s amazing.
Andrew: The way you’re talking, it’s almost like you’re implying that Dumbledore planted the book. But maybe that’s not what you’re actually saying. [laughs]
Micah: Well, not only that, but go back to the beginning of the chapter when McGonagall is suggesting that Harry take Potions now that Slughorn is the professor. I mean, Harry was never even going to be considering taking Potions at all, so that’s another bit of luck that comes into play, and I wonder how much did Dumbledore figure that into it? His plan is just… so many things needed to fall into place for it to go right. It’s amazing.
Andrew: But that’s what he does all day. He’s not trying to look out for the school. He’s not caring about Care of Magical Creatures, how it’s taught.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: He’s putting together this master plan.
Eric: I’m glad you found the hill that you’re going to die on, Andrew. The Care of Magical Creatures thing.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: He doesn’t care that the stairways are moving and that it’s unsafe for students. He doesn’t care that there’s these Vanishing Cabinets that can get Death Eaters into the school.
Eric: But Micah, you’re right. I mean, McGonagall even has that line, “Well, you can probably borrow a school copy, or an extra copy of the book.” She not only puts Harry in the room, she tells him to go to the cupboard and grab the book. I think it’s confusing, because it’s not anybody’s plan that he actually get this book, right? It’s not Dumbledore’s. It’s not McGonagall’s.
Micah: No, not that we know of.
Eric: And even if Dumbledore had this plan, it’s a 50/50 shot. It could have been Ron that got this book.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Up until the very last second when Slughorn hands Harry the book that he hands him, the two copies there… and it’s not like it is in the movie, where one of them is really, really old, and so they both fight for it, which I thought was a cool, clever character moment injected into that. But it’s just a straight 50/50 shot. It could have been Ron that got this.
Micah: Because Ron always gets the hand-me-downs.
Andrew: It also is pretty funny… it shouldn’t be lost on us, the fact that Harry is doing great in Potions now that Snape is out of it, but thanks to Snape’s book. It’s pretty hilarious.
Eric and Micah: Yeah.
Micah: It’s definitely a bit ironic.
Eric: You know what blows my mind, though? Harry got an Exceeds Expectations, even with Snape as a teacher. That’s kind of impressive, right?
Micah: I would say so.
Andrew: Because he’s… I mean, he’s still a good student at the end of the day.
Eric: I mean, even in Snape’s class, presumably Snape himself would have given Harry that grade. Or was it Outstanding? No. Whatever. It was one lower than he would have needed to get into Snape’s NEWT class. But he still does pretty well in Potions to begin with, and so that’s the kind of thing that surprised me about reading this chapter, is that when he’s going through the Potions instructions list, J.K. Rowling doesn’t really write him with an innate sense of what he’s doing. It’s not like the words that come to him sound particularly inspired, given his existing knowledge of Potions. She still kind of treats it as though Harry has never taken a Potions lesson before when he follows the… but he did pretty well in the OWL.
Micah: But what does it say, though, then about Draco and the others that are in this class, right? Isn’t it…? There’s four Slytherins and four Ravenclaws, and then it’s Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ernie Macmillan from Hufflepuff. So I think we probably don’t take into consideration how good of a student Draco may be.
Eric: Right.
Micah: A couple other things that happen, really quickly, during this class: Hermione gets some props from Slughorn, and it’s when he’s going through and looking for a student to identify all the different potions that are at the front of the room. And I thought it’s kind of comical now that it seems that Gryffindor is going to end up getting more points in Potions than they likely will during Defense Against the Dark Arts…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: … and through that, during the discussion about Hermione being Muggle-born and Slughorn quoting Harry, it’s also mentioned how good Lily was at Potions. So I don’t know if that was supposed to be a misdirect by J.K. Rowling to make us think that, “Well, maybe Harry is using his mother’s book.”
Andrew: Ohh. But wouldn’t that be the Half-Blood Princess?
Eric: “How many girls are princes?”
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Well, “Prince” is also a misdirect.
Eric: Yes.
Micah: We learn that at the end of the book.
Eric: It’s true.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Micah: Because it’s a last name as opposed to…
Eric: Royalty.
Micah: Yeah, anything royal. Harry ends up earning himself a vial of Felix Felicis, and he’s quite proud of himself up until… what do they have, lunch a couple minutes after this? And he gets chastised a bit by Ginny for using a book with mysterious writing all over it. Haven’t we been down this road before?
Andrew: I found that… I thought that was unfair. Kind of a cool callback for readers, in my opinion, but I thought Ginny was coming down on him hard for that. Because it’s a very different situation; this book isn’t alive like the diary was. These notes were handwritten in there clearly a long time ago, and Harry happened upon it by chance, whereas Ginny, it was given to her. And now, Ginny didn’t know that at the time, but I don’t know. I thought that was a little unfair of a comparison for Ginny to make.
Eric: From a story perspective, it’s important that we have this extreme negative sort of approach to the book, because Harry is just really excited about it. Ginny is really triggered by, still, the memory of the diary; that much is clear. We have to respect that. I agree the circumstances are different, though, so it does feel kind of out of place a little bit.
Andrew: So doesn’t sound like anybody agrees with Ginny?
Micah: I just think it was a way for J.K. Rowling to connect the two books together with Chamber of Secrets and Half-Blood Prince. Now you have another book that is sort of…
Andrew: Mysterious.
Micah: Questionable, yeah. And Hermione does try and make sure that it’s not some Dark wizard’s doing, but I agree with you; the attempt by her is almost questionable in my mind, because as you pointed out, Harry comes across it randomly. It’s not like it’s tucked under his pillow up in the dormitory, or slipped into his backpack.
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Micah: It’s in a classroom, in a class that he wasn’t even going to take at the beginning of the semester. So it’s just chance.
Andrew: Nobody wanted him to have it. And to me, it read like Ginny just being like, “Hey. Hey. Remember I exist? Hey.”
Micah: Definitely.
Andrew: But also, speaking of connecting threads, I also found it interesting that Slughorn is talking about infatuation and obsessive love in Snape’s old classroom. [laughs]
Eric: Yep. Yep.
Andrew: The guy who’s obsessed with Lily. I mean, that guy, that room… if those walls could talk…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: … they might talk about Snape’s obsessive love with Lily. I found that very interesting, and I wonder if that was intentional on J.K. Rowling’s part, or just a coincidence. I could argue both ways.
Eric: Yeah, well, here’s the quote, because it’s particularly brilliant. “Amortentia doesn’t really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room – oh yes. When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love.” Crazy.
Micah: So I think that wraps up Chapter 9 of Half-Blood Prince. It concludes with Harry seeing the name on… I think it’s the back cover of the book, when it falls to the floor and it reveals that it’s the property of the Half-Blood Prince. And we now have the title of the book in play…
Eric: Eponymous.
Micah: … and who knows what’s going to happen now?
Andrew: Yeah. Well, we do have MVP of the Week and Rename the Chapter, and this week we are going to ask our patrons to contribute. We haven’t done that yet, so we’re going to do that, but first…
Micah: This week’s episode of MuggleCast is also brought to you by Bombas.
[Ad break]
Andrew: All right. Thank you, Bombas.
Rename the Chapter and MVP of the Week
Andrew: So like I said, our patrons are participating in Rename the Chapter and MVP of the Week. We’ll start with theirs first. Morgan said Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “Harry Reads a Book.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Okay, this one’s really long. I’m going to try to do it in one breath. This is from Michael. He says Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “That Time Harry Beat Hermione at Potions and She Never Forgave Him so She Didn’t Believe His Theories the Rest of the Book and Dumbledore Ended Up Dead.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Damn.
Eric: That really does a good job of conveying the stakes that are at stake.
Andrew: Yeah. Irvin says Harry Potter the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “Harry Gets Lucky.” Andrea says Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “Awkward Hagrid Waves.” [laughs] That’s probably my favorite. Oh, this one’s good. This is from Erika. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “Hermione Almost Reveals She’s Attracted to Ron.” [laughs] And then as for MVPs, Andrea says, “Minerva McGonagall, for giving Neville an out when he didn’t do well enough on OWLs to get into Transfiguration and standing up for him against his grandmother.” Michael says, “Harry, for taking a risk.” Irvin says, “Ginny, for learning from her past and calling Harry out about the dangers of books.” [laughs] Though, as we said in this discussion, eh, maybe not justified. But Irvin, you’re a smart guy, so I’ll give that one to you. Gabriela says, “MVP: our Harry for taking risks, following his instincts, and not giving up on his Malfoy theory.” He does deserve credit for that, not giving up on that.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: He could throw his arms up and focus on other things, but no, he doesn’t. And finally, Erika says, “MVP: McGonagall, for having her students’ best interests at heart.” So I agree, that is my MVP as well, McGonagall, but from just making Neville happy. Poor guy. He never gets any credit, and now there’s McGonagall, really doing them a solid.
Micah: I agree with Irvin; I gave my MVP of the week to Ginny. I thought it was just important to have that reminder there about not trusting things you just randomly come across, especially in the wizarding world.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, I gave my MVP to the Half-Blood Prince. Whoever this person is, they seem to be really good at Potions.
Andrew: Hmm. I like this person, whoever it is.
Eric: [laughs] They’re so benevolent.
Micah: Uh-huh. And then rename the chapter; I went with Harry Potter the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “Potions for Dummies.”
Eric: Oh, nice. I kept mine pretty eponymous, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “Chapter 9.”
Andrew: Oh, interesting. I was kind of going to do something similar. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 9, “See Book Title.”
Eric: [laughs] Nice.
Quizzitch
Andrew: Time for this week’s Quizzitch!
Eric: Last week’s question was: What is the subject of Snape’s first Defense Against the Dark Arts class? The correct answer was nonverbal spells, and the correct answers… we actually had a lot of winners this week, which is good. It’s what I like to see. Can’t stand it when I only have to read one or two names off of it. Sara a.k.a. Weensie, Steph, Emmy, Sean, Ryan, Allie, Paul, Lizzie, Ranvi, Jason, and Erica Targaryen are all winners. Congratulations. To enter, be sure to hashtag Quizzitch. When you at reply MuggleCast with your answers each week, it’s very important you use the hashtag Quizzitch, because it’s increasingly difficult for me to search the actual correct answers and get everybody that way. But next week’s question is: What is the topic or title of Hermione’s essay? And that’s relating to Chapter 10, “The House of Gaunt.”
Andrew: If you are a new listener of the show, check out MuggleCast.com. You can follow us on Twitter from there; you can like us on Facebook. Both ways, you’ll get updates about the show. You can also access our Chapter by Chapter archive; our advertiser deals page, where you can get the discounts on all the advertisers we talk about on this show. You can also support us on Patreon from there, or you can just go to Patreon.com/MuggleCast. And in today’s bonus MuggleCast, we’re going to be talking about this new interview with Johnny Depp. It’s actually his first one talking about Fantastic Beasts, so that’s a pretty big deal.
Eric: Headline says, “Johnny Depp finally breaks his silence!”
Andrew: [laughs] It’s always so dramatic when an outlet uses “breaks their silence.” I don’t think he was being silent on purpose in this case. [laughs]
Micah: No, probably not.
Andrew: He just doesn’t give many interviews, but he did in the buildup to Crimes of Grindelwald. So we’re going to talk about that, because he did share lots of interesting information. That’ll be available exclusively Patreon.com/MuggleCast. And finally, if you have any feedback today about today’s episode, feel free to email it to MuggleCast@gmail.com. Call us, 1-920-3-MUGGLE; just remember, keep your voicemail as short as possible and make sure we can hear you clearly. Or if you go to MuggleCast.com, there is a contact form right there.
Micah: And Eric, you mentioned the House of Gaunt, but I think one thing we left out in the chapter discussion that is important is that Harry will now be starting his lessons with Dumbledore.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. Saturday night with Dumbledore, time to party.
Micah: That’s right.
Andrew: Sounds like a good Saturday night to me.
Micah: Fo’ sho.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: All right, so yeah, next week we will talk about that chapter, barring any big, gigantic news that we have to talk about. Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: And I’m Micah.
Andrew: See you next time. Goodbye.
Micah: Bye.