MuggleCast 66 Transcript
Show Intro
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[Intro music plays]
Andrew: Because if I weren’t listening to MuggleCast, I’d actually be
getting paid to do my job. Thank you, Melissa Reid, 26, of Moore, Oklahoma.
This is MuggleCast Episode 66, for December 3rd, 2006.
[Music continues to play]
Andrew: Guys, girls, and Micah, I am absolutely infuriated…
Kevin: Are you?
Andrew: …this week.
Laura: And why is that?
Andrew: Yes.
Micah: Why?
Andrew: I can’t even talk about it.
Kevin: You’re so angry?
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: WB is cheap. That is my – that is what I’m saying. I think WB is cheap. Anyone else agree?
Eric: Well, we already knew that, Andrew.
Kevin: I agree, definitely.
Eric: We already…
Andrew: Laura, you agree?
Eric: I don’t know.
Laura: I would say regarding some evidence that we’ve been sent, that, yeah.
Kevin: I think they’re trying to pull a fast one.
Eric: I don’t think WB’s cheap, it’s just that WB is a corporation, and
that’s what some of you have been saying. They do as corporations do; they
recycle footage. Say, if it were movie – Goblet of Fire movie footage
in an Order of the Phoenix trailer, they can do that. They do that.
Andrew: Way to spoil it for everyone, Eric.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: Everyone was going to have to wait until after the news.
Eric: Darn.
Andrew: Teaser is no longer a teaser.
Eric. Oh no. Okay.
Andrew: I’m infuriated, I can’t go on. I quit my wizard rock band, I quit
the pickles catch phrase. I’m done.
[Eric laughs]
Eric: The pickles catch phrase, not the pickles catch phrase, Andrew.
Andrew: All right, I like doing that, I admit that. Pickle, pickle, pickle,
pickle…
Eric: Okay.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: …pickle, pickle, pickle.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: That made it into the Caption Contest this week, Andrew.
Andrew: I am Andrew Sims. Oh, I’m very glad.
Kevin: I am Kevin Steck.
Eric: I am Eric Scull.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Micah: And I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
[Music continues to play]
News
Micah: Throughout this weekend’s presentation of Harry Potter Weekend on ABC
Family, new previews of Order of the Phoenix have been airing.
Fourteen high-quality clips can be seen on MuggleNet.com, as well
as descriptions of each video. The clips feature interviews with the cast as
well as some amazing new shots from the film. Don’t forget to check out the
world premiere of the extended version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC Family.
Jason Isaacs and his character Lucius Malfoy have made The San Francisco
Chronicle‘s list of the Sexiest Men Never Alive. This is Lucius’ second
honor recently as he was also on the Forbes list of richest fictional
characters.
And for the first time in five years, JK Rowling has won a literary prize in
her own country. In a poll of 3,000 schoolchildren, aged 8 to 12, Half-Blood
Prince was voted the best Scottish children’s book. Jo was unable to attend
the awards ceremony, but did pass along a message, containing news of
progress on the seventh Harry Potter book.
Warner Bros. has tentatively announced that starting in 2007, fans will be
able to not only legally download movies but also burn them to DVD from the
Internet the same day they become available in stores. This will include the
Harry Potter films as well, so fans can look forward to watching Order of
the Phoenix on their computers.
Information about the Australian version of the Order of the Phoenix trailer
has been released by the government’s Office of Film and Literature
Classification. They list the trailer as being two minutes long – which is
longer than the American version – and the international trailer should be
released within the next month.
Finally, Forbes released an article this week about the controversial
burning of the Harry Potter books. The series has often been the target of
many Christian fundamentalists who claim that “Rowling has a world
platform.” Over the past five years, half a dozen book burnings have been
planned, their organizers claiming that the books, as well as Potter fan
sites, promote witchcraft. Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, defended
the books, saying, “There’s nothing wrong with the Potter books, because
they’re not promoting witchcraft. They’re promoting being wise.” That’s
right, you tell them, Ray!
That’s all the news for this December 3rd, 2006 edition of MuggleCast. Back
to the show.
Andrew: All right, well, thank you Micah.
Micah: [pauses then laughs] I was trying to think of something creative to say
and it just didn’t happen.
Andrew: Leave the creativity up to me, please. Thank you.
Eric: What’s this conspiracy now?
Goblet of Fire in Order of the Phoenix Trailer
Andrew: Ummm, well, Micah, would you like to explain to everyone what we’re all
upset about?
Micah: Sure.
Eric: Yeah, Micah, what’s bugging you?
Micah: Well, actually thanks to Valerie, 16, of Colorado because she did a
really good thing. She sent us in an e-mail, here, after I mentioned on last
week’s show that when I paused the trailer, I think it was around 28
seconds, there’s this weird woman’s face in the bottom right-hand corner,
but that wasn’t really the only thing. We found out that that was Bellatrix.
However…
Andrew: Great, wonderful.
Micah: However, the clip is from Goblet of Fire and it’s in the
Order of the Phoenix trailer.
Andrew: What?
Micah: What’s up with that?
Andrew: What?
Eric: What?
Andrew: No wonder it made me want to go see Goblet of Fire
again.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Eric: Wait a minute now, now… [Laughs]
Laura: You’re on notice, WB, I’m telling you.
Eric: Let’s clarify. Bellatrix, the whole Bellatrix face thing and all that,
that is not in Goblet of Fire, but the scene that it’s overlaying,
the scene that that whole woman’s face is overlaying is actually part of
the graveyard scene in Goblet of Fire, showing Voldemort apparently
casting a spell. But you can clearly make out in the right-hand side the
statue – the gravestone of the graveyard of Goblet of Fire.
Andrew: Well, not just that, you see Voldemort and he’s in the exact same
position…
Eric: Oh yeah.
Andrew: Same exact face, same exact background, everything’s the same.
Eric: Same exact clothing, I mean, who doesn’t change their clothes? Yuck
Andrew: It is extremely amusing that that – they took a clip from Goblet
of Fire to insert into the Order of the Phoenix teaser trailer,
but this just answers the fact that none of the special effects are done
yet.
Eric: Well…
Andrew: So, they have to take from what is done. And what’s done? Goblet
of Fire. That’s it. [laughs]
Eric: I don’t think that Goblet of Fire is done, I think they’re going
to come out with an extended edition.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I heard WB was in talks with George Lucas. Now, Kevin Steck, now that
we’ve uncovered the dilemma, Andrew has one theory, what do you think is
going on with this whole footage reuses…
Micah: Fiasco.
Eric: The fiasco, this recycling fiasco.
Kevin: They needed filler.
Eric: They needed filler? I agree with that
Kevin: Totally needed filler.
Eric: I don’t necessarily, I don’t necessarily believe that not – like, no
effects are done, but I think simply that Warner Brothers was not ready to
show us the new Voldemort. So, in order to…
Micah: They needed 50…
Laura: Well…
Micah: Sorry, they needed filler for the 50 seconds.
Laura: …they’ve released like posters already…
Micah: I mean, come on.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: That’s ridiculous.
Andrew: Just cut the trailer down to 45 seconds, then you won’t have to add
anything.
Eric: It actually is 47, some of them were 47 and incorrectly labeled as 57.
Kevin: And it is labeled a teaser.
Laura: It’s not exactly a teaser.
Andrew: It’s weird. I got a weird desire to watch the Goblet of Fire
film right after that.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Now you know why.
Andrew: Now I know why.
Eric: Because it’s…
Kevin: Subliminal.
Andrew: I saw that, yeah.
Eric: So…
Andrew: There was also – I also had a weird desire to drink Coke right after
I saw that. Anyone else feel that too?
Eric: That’s because of that voice. If you turn your speakers up loud enough, you can actually make out, it says, “Drink more Pepsi.”
Andrew: Oh. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: That would not explain why I wanted to drink Coke.
Laura: Yeah,
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: No, no, no. But the Coke one is on a higher frequency, Kevin can explain it.
Kevin: No, you have to play it in reverse.
Eric: Oh…
Andrew: Well, we’re getting too nerdy here.
Eric: Pepsi backwards is Coke.
Andrew: Let’s get back on track. This is pretty amusing, and what’s even more amusing is that nobody picked up on this until a couple of the MuggleCast listeners did. So…
Eric: Yeah, so…
Andrew: Good work!
Eric: …this new Order of the Phoenix teaser actually has some Goblet footage forwarded.
Andrew: Now, with that said, Harry does revisit the graveyard in his dreams in the opening chapter of Order of the Phoenix, but this still does not really explain why they would reuse a clip from Goblet of Fire.
Eric: I don’t think it’s necessarily a travesty. I mean, we all knew that the opening part of the…
Micah: It’s cheap.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: …trailer. Well, it’s kind of cheap.
Andrew: I wouldn’t say it’s cheap [Laughs] I mean.
Eric: Well, the opening part of the trailer is from Chamber of Secrets, you know, when the…
Andrew: No, no, wait a minute, hold up for a second…
Eric: When the Warner Brothers thing came up, that is so from Chamber of Secrets.
Andrew: There is no proof that that is a direct copy.
Eric: It is a direct copy.
Andrew: It’s not like they open up their video editor and they took the little clip they opened up the Chamber of Secrets file from the WB archives…
Eric: They did.
Andrew: …copied and pasted. I don’t believe that.
Laura: And the Chamber of Secrets one, it wasn’t even nighttime when it started, it was evening. So…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: It’s not nighttime in this trailer.
Laura: Yeah, it is.
Eric: What low quality version are you watching?
Laura: No, okay, whenever…
Eric: It’s a – the sky is pink and blue.
Laura: No, it’s not.
Eric: The sky is Easter-colored, just like in Chamber of Secrets.
Laura: …Whenever they go through the clouds, it’s nighttime.
Eric: It’s not nighttime.
Andrew: It is pink above – anyway, we don’t need to debate. That’s just silly.
Eric: Okay.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Well, they ripped off Chamber of Secrets – no, well, put it this way. What was it? One of the trailers used the scene where Harry finds out that, “You’re a wizard, Harry,” when it shows him in Ollivander’s. I thought another trailer like Chamber of Secrets or something did that.
Laura: Yeah, but that was a little different because it was the second year and they were kind of doing a recap.
Eric: A recap. Well, what’s to say they can’t do…
Laura: This is not a recap. This is… It almost…
Kevin: Filler.
Eric: This is making you think you see something new when you don’t?
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: Exactly.
Andrew: It would make sense like if it said…
Kevin: If it had some dialogue.
Andrew: If Sirius was like – yeah.
Eric: “Fourteen years ago, Voldemort…”
Andrew: “Last year…”
Laura: Yeah, exactly…
Andrew: “Voldemort cast a spell on Harry,” and the other thing is that it’s only fifteen frames. I mean, so, you know, we’re not going to sit here and criticize WB. I was kidding when I said that – we were kidding when we say WB is cheap.
Eric: Yeah, absolutely kidding.
Andrew: What was I going to say?
Micah: Notice how I didn’t say anything.
Laura: Yeah.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Dobby in Goblet of Fire
Andrew: This reminds me of, I guess it was about a year ago, when someone found out, and I think they actually e-mailed this to MuggleNet, that Dobby was in Goblet of Fire for, like, half a second. When they were…
Kevin: Oh, I remember that…
Andrew: …he and another house-elf, yeah, were riding on the backs of camels. And….
Eric: [laughs] What?! [laughs again]
Andrew: They were all excited. Yeah, you didn’t see it?
Eric: Camels.
Micah: Yeah
Kevin: Yeah, it was…
Andrew: It was during the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Kevin: …a really big deal. Like, everyone got…
Andrew: Yeah, like everyone was all excited. It was like, “Oh my God, Dobby is back!”
Eric: What, are you serious?
Micah: And you spent so much time. I remember that. You spent so much time putting that clip together and then somehow, it got taken down.
Andrew: Yeah, the post got deleted. Yeah, because that was when our news was just funky. But, yeah, so it got – someone caught it, but this was like, a few months after the film was released, so, in a way, this doesn’t surprise me [laughs] that nobody caught this because not everybody is going frame by frame and analyzing all of this.
Eric: Wait, so he was actually in the movie?
Andrew: Yeah, Dobby, he’s in there for, like, two seconds…
Eric: Oh my gosh.
Andrew: It goes by. The camera is going one way and the camels are going the other way
Eric: That’s like, in Star Wars, the aliens from E.T. are in the Senate. It’s kind of funny.
Kevin: Yeah, they do that as, like, “Easter Eggs.”
Eric: “Easter Eggs,” yeah. Different things like that. I don’t know
Andrew: That’s the big revelation of the week.
Eric: But didn’t that guy say that it cost, like, $150,000 every time Dobby sets foot on stage?
Kevin: Yeah, but…
Andrew: We talked about that on last week’s show.
Kevin: Yeah, he meant close-ups thought.
Eric: That camel back thing was just…
Kevin: This was so brief that it probably cost them no time at all.
Eric: At least a hundred grand?
Kevin: And it wasn’t in the fore- you know…
Eric: At least five grand, whatever
Kevin: …It was in the background, so.
Announcements
Andrew: You know what’s not going to cost $10,000 every second?
Micah: But make you feel like a hundred thousand bucks.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Oh, Micah. Oh, that was perfect.
Eric: That was great.
Andrew: Your very own MuggleCast t-shirt. On sale now, only for a limited time.
Eric: And we actually mean that. It’s not like the Disney Vault.
Andrew: As we’ve said multiple times now, MuggleCast T-Shirts are going out of sale starting December 31st, so pick up yours today. Many are being purchased. I bought four of my own, as I mentioned, because I am stocking up. I hope everyone else is stocking up. It’s like squirrels in the wintertime; right before winter, what do they do?
Laura: Except winter is not going to end in this case.
Eric: They freeze to death? [laughs]
Andrew: Well, they freeze to death, but they stock up on nuts. Squirrels stock up on nuts so – when they go in to hibernate. This is, like, you’re hibernating.
Kevin: Oh, okay. So you want people to wear multiple layers of MuggleNet t-shirts – MuggleCast t-shirts so they are warm for the winter, right?
Andrew: Yes, they are being purchased by squirrels. There was one addressed to “My house, but the tree in the backyard.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So I didn’t understand that, but I guess it was a squirrel.
Kevin: That’s cute, Andrew.
Andrew: Yeah, but, [laughs] moving along. Don’t forget it’s a new month, so vote for us on Podcast Alley for the month of December. We need your vote to help kick out Keith and the Girl from the number one spot
[Eric laughs].
Andrew: I like messing with them so that their fans come after us, although their fans haven’t yet, but now that I’ve challenged them…
Eric: Oh, it’s on, baby, its on.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: They can’t beat us.
Eric: I feel bad for the girl.
[Kevin laughs]
Eric: She doesn’t even get named on the podcast and now her fans are being stolen.
Andrew: I just like the sell of it all. Keith and the Girl. Who’s the girl? I don’t know.
Now here’s an announcement that we’re going to have to wing this week because Ben and Jamie are not here. Little update on them, Jamie – it’s past his bedtime. We’re recording past his bedtime. Despite the fact he’s on AIM.
[Andrew, Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: And Ben is at a – some knowledge bowl? Or something intelligent…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …that I would never be invited to, but they would like us to remind you that MuggleNet’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Who Falls in Love and How the Adventure Finally Ends is now on your local bookstore shelf pr bookshelf.
Kevin: Or you can message me and I can give you the PDF version.
Andrew: Oooh.
Kevin: Yeah.
Andrew: I’m messaging you right now.
[Andrew and Kevin laughs]
Eric: Kevin, what’s…
Andrew: You’re going to distribute that…
Kevin: Yeah.
Andrew: …on all the websites, aren’t you? I figured you would.
Eric: “Author: Kevin Steck.” [laughs]
Kevin: Yeah, cut their profits in two.
Andrew: The book is written by Emerson, Ben, Jamie, Andy G, and Gretchen, who works on the Encyclopedia.
Kevin: But we don’t talk about Gretchen.
Andrew: Yeah, and I have actually a confession to make. I am actually not Andy G. I know I’ve been saying that’s my penname for a while, but the reason I’m revealing it this week is because…
Eric: Andy G. threatened to sue you.
Andrew: Well, that. That’s true.
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: And Ben and Jamie aren’t here this week so I can actually announce something that I don’t want them finding out about. I am actually working on a sequel to this book.
[Eric laughs]
Eric: What Might Happen Later than Harry Potter 7?
Andrew: Well, I’m glad you asked for the title. It’s actually going to be called MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7… [laughs] Hold on a second.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: It’s actually called…
Eric: “Who comes back to life…”
Andrew: No. [laughs]
[Laura laughs]
Eric: “Who might not have died to begin with…”
Andrew: No.
Eric: “…and which relationships last?”
Andrew: It’s actually called MuggleNet.com’s [laughs] What…
Eric: That was good.
Andrew: …Will Happen In Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Harry Will Finally Discover the Internet and I have struck up a few theories and I think it’s going to be a big-selling book.
Eric: Or you could just contribute to MuggleNet’s editorials, you know? I’m sure they’d love to have you.
Andrew: No, I want to be a published author.
Eric: Oh, okay.
Andrew: And I don’t want to pretend like Andy G is my penname.
Eric: That’s what it’s all about.
Andrew: So, it’s a sequel and I ask that nobody tells Jamie and Ben about this via e-mail, so please keep this a secret from them and it’ll be in bookshelves, I guess, a few months from now.
Micah: That’s fine, because neither of them actually listen to the show, so you’re safe.
Andrew: If anyone wants to help me write it, just let me know. A co-host.
Micah: Sure.
Eric: Yeah, I’ll write something.
Andrew: Anyone?
Eric: Sure.
Andrew: Okay. All right. All right, cool.
Eric: It’ll be the other half of MuggleCast that didn’t get on the first time.
Andrew: All right, I will talk to you about that later. And we’d also like to remind everyone, MuggleCast Episode 70 – 70 is going to be our variety show that is made up of your segments and your filks, whatever you want. Just send them in to mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com. We’re looking, of course, for stuff like MuggleCast remixes, stuff like that. We’ve been getting a few submissions and they’re all pretty entertaining, and we want to share them with the rest of you. And that is also going to be our New Year’s show, when we won’t be around to record our regular show.
Andrew’s Wizard Rock Band
Andrew: Now, the real reason everyone is looking forward to MuggleCast 70, because – is because that is when I will premiere my first Wizard Rock single.
Eric: I’m so excited.
Andrew: It’s nameless for now. I’m still working on a name.
Eric: Awww.
Andrew: Actually, I have a little update. Anyone care to hear this?
Eric: Not really, but go ahead.
Laura: Go right on ahead. [laughs]
Andrew: All right, it’s just a little update. It’s not like it’s going to take up your time.
Eric: Too late.
Andrew: I’ve got to admit, I’m – I’ve got to be honest, I actually hit a little writer’s block. I know this happens to JK Rowling, it’s happening to me now.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Now I know how she feels. Yeah, the first – the first night that I came up with the idea to write this, I was throwing out lyrics left and right, I had it all down. And now I’m having a hard time coming up with new lyrics, but I think I’ll have that done within the next few weeks. And right now, I’m actually looking for – I’m looking for venues to start playing some live gigs. And Micah, you live up in the New York City area. I’m thinking Madison Square Garden?
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Do you think that would hold our…
Micah: You’ve heard of that place?
Andrew: …listening audience? Yeah.
Kevin: I…
Andrew: Now, how many seats does that place have?
[Laura laughs]
Kevin: I was thinking more the Port Authority.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: No, I’m actually…
Eric: Can you imagine…
Micah: Yeah, you can open your guitar case and people walk by and throw you some spare change.
Andrew: I’m serious about this. Micah, how many seats does…
Micah: Wow, I’m going to get…
Andrew: …Madison Square Garden have? Just ballpark.
Micah: I want to say probably 20-25,000.
Andrew: All right, that is going to be a problem…
Micah: It’s a very small venue.
Andrew: …because we have about two million listeners.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: This is going to be an issue. We’re going to have to look into a bigger place.
Laura: They just have to stand, you know, outside.
Andrew: Ah, good point.
Laura: You know, way, way back. You can put up big screens.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Yeah, you know what they can do? There’s a TV above Penn Station.
Laura: Yes.
Micah: They can broadcast you live up there.
Laura: There you go.
Andrew: Oooh, okay.
Eric: Can you imagine the mosh pit? For Andrew?
Andrew: I don’t think Penn Station can hold the amount of listeners we have either.
Micah: No, but they’ll be outside and they can watch you on the TV on top.
Andrew: But we have – all right, all right.
Eric: Andrew, trust me.
Andrew: All right, I think we can do that.
Eric: If they show up to do the New Year’s with, you know, Dick Clark, I’m pretty sure that they…
Andrew: [sighs] All right, okay. I’m just – you know, we have a big audience. I just don’t want to, you know, leave anyone out.
Micah: Here, I found it. It holds 18 for hockey and 19 for basketball. So…
Andrew: That is – that is actually really small. [laughs]
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Wow. Hmmm. Okay, we’re going to have to find somewhere…
Micah: You need a bigger venue.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re going to have to find somewhere else.
Micah: How about the Meadowlands – in Giants Stadium?
Kevin: Oh, yeah.
Micah: There you go.
Kevin: There you go.
Andrew: I like that.
Micah: Now you’re talking like…
Andrew: Good thinking, Micah.
Micah: …like 75,000 thousand, at least.
Enlightening 2007
Andrew: And we also have a new announcement, everyone, that we will keep bugging you about up until mid-July. MuggleCast will be at Enlightening 2007, which is a conference similar to Prophecy 2007 and Lumos 2006. We announced this earlier this week, along with the Wizard Rock band Moaning Myrtles, and I’m actually hoping to open for them. I’ve got to let them know, you know, about my new Wizard Rock band. Maybe they’ll let me open for them. But anyway, the point is we will be doing a live podcast from Enlightening 2007. Me, Ben, and Jamie are definitely signed on. No word yet on the other co-hosts. Eric, you’re going to be in New Zealand?
Eric: Yeah, but I might come home depending on – I’m going to go to Prophecy, so I don’t know…
Andrew: Right.
Eric: …when I’m coming in for that.
Andrew: It’s, like, three weeks before Prophecy.
Eric: Yeah, so I don’t know, depending on school.
Andrew: All right. Micah, Laura, and Kevin are still undetermined. Ben, Jamie, and I are actually going to be in – we’re going to be here chilling in South Jersey, so it’s going to happen to work out. But we’re also going to be teaching a workshop on podcasting. It’s going to be four like, hour-long sessions – probably, this is all very still in the works. [laughs] But we’re going to be teaching a workshop on podcasting, so if you want to learn more about podcasting, maybe how to start your own, we’re going through everything. We encourage you to come to Enlightening 2007. Also, they’re going to have some seminars. They’ve got a lot of great stuff planned. Just go to light…Enlightening07 dot…
Oh, no, no, it’s Enlightening2007.org, and you can sign up. It’s going to be in Philadelphia and it’s going to be a lot of fun. So, that is…where are the dates? July 12th to the 15th, 2007 at the University of Pennsylvania, and we’re looking forward to it a lot. So, sign up right away and actually, we’re going to be doing the live podcast at Enlightening the night of Order of the Phoenix‘s United States release, so there’s going to be a lot of excitement going on that night.
Eric: Andrew, you, maybe…
Andrew: We’re going to be talking about the film.
Eric: …you can open for the live podcast.
Andrew: Yeah. That would be like Bono opening for U2, though.
[Eric and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: Doesn’t make sense.
Eric: Well, or you could just break out in song in the middle of the podcast. I don’t know.
Andrew: That’s true, that’s true.
Eric: Just a few ideas to play out with, I mean, you know?
Andrew: I don’t know, I might get stage fright. I’m not sure. I don’t know how this Wizard Rock band is going to work out.
Eric: Stage fright? Oh
Andrew: Yeah, I’m not sure yet.
Voicemail: Ginny and the Veil
Andrew: And, as we’ve been promising for the past few weeks, Episode 66, this is our all voicemail show! Yaaayyy!
Eric: Wooo! Except half of it was talk.
Kevin: [laughs] Yeah, no kidding.
Andrew: We’re hitting up the phone lines – yeah. We’re hitting up the phone – it was just me ranting. We’re hitting up the phone lines tonight with lots of voicemail questions from you guys. Let’s get started. Let’s get this party started.
[Audio]: Hi guys, my name is Nick from Illinois and you guys mentioned a couple of shows ago that Ginny can hear the voices beyond the veil, but she would have to see someone die, and we don’t know if she’s seen anyone die so far, but do you think that she could have seen Moaning Myrtle die through Tom Riddle’s diary? Thanks, I love the show! Bye!
Andrew: Does Nick mean see Moaning Myrtle like when she went into the actual diary?
Laura: Well, I think that that would be the only way that it would’ve worked, and I’m not sure Ginny did go into the diary. Did she?
Kevin: Not to mention, how plausible is it that she saw someone die through a diary that she thought was actually good?
Laura: Well, the only this is, Nick told Harry or, not Nick [laughs]…
Andrew: [laughs] The voicemail caller told Harry?
Laura: [still laughing] No.
Andrew: I didn’t know that they talked.
Laura: I got confused. No, Tom Riddle told Harry that he got Ginny to trust him by showing her things, but he wasn’t terribly specific about what exactly it was he showed her, or if he just, you know, kind of let her read his diary or whatever. I don’t know if he actually took her into that and showed her things, though.
Andrew: Well, I would think that that would definitely gain her trust, showing how Moaning Myrtle died, because – sorry, Eric’s calling. Because I’m sure she was really curious about that. So if Tom was like, “Alright, you want me to show you her death?” and she saw it.
Laura: But – but then wouldn’t she have known that he was the one that killed her? And why would – why would you trust someone like that?
Eric: Well, actually, he was.
Kevin: Yeah, and would he have…
Eric: Yeah, because when Moaning Myrtle recounts this – the tale of her death, she said she hears or she heard, a boy’s voice…
Laura: Yeah, it was, but…
Eric: …in the bathroom, like calling up – because he opened the [phone rings] sorry, phone.
Laura: No, but he would probably…
Eric: Sorry, phone. Because he opened the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, and apparently like right then and there – like when Moaning Myrtle poked her head out to see, you know, to tell the boy to get out of the girls bathroom, that the basilisk came and she saw the…
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: …eyes. So, technically…
Kevin: But then again, would – why would that instill trust in Tom Riddle by showing that?
Eric: No, I don’t necessarily think that.
Laura: Unless, I mean…
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: Unless he showed it to her from the point of view that he wasn’t there. You know?
Eric: I don’t think…
Laura: I mean, Tom Riddle was obviously a very powerful wizard. If he wanted to show her something…
Kevin: I would think it was sort of a long stretch though.
Laura: Yeah.
Kevin: When you see, you know? There’s war videos when you see – technically, you’re seeing people die. But you don’t – it’s not the same as being there.
Laura: Yeah. I think the only way it could have worked would be if Tom had taken Ginny into his diary the same way Harry went into his diary. And I’m not sure that’s what happened.
Kevin: But even then, does it have the same impact?
Eric: Well, no. What I’m thinking is that he wouldn’t – I don’t think he even would show her when he killed Moaning Myrtle, you know? That wouldn’t instill trust or anything. I just think it’s a matter of Voldemort shares a part of himself with Harry, that’s why Harry can speak Parseltongue, because some of his powers transferred. I think in the possession of Ginny some certain aspects like the ability to see Thestrals or hear voices or any of that sort, Voldemort has certainly seen death. So, why can it not just be like that vague connection that Voldemort shared with Ginny that allows her to hear the voices? Instead of this whole, “Oh, he showed her someone dying, and therefore she knows what it’s like.” Why can’t it just be the connection that Voldemort shared with her? Maybe anybody Voldemort possesses, at any point, would therefore be able to see Thestrals and hear voices because of Voldemort’s strict connection with death.
Kevin: Did we even establish that the Veil was related directly to death?
Andrew: Well, no. What we were talking about in, like, a couple weeks ago was that maybe it’s a near death that lets you hear the voices beyond the Veil. Wasn’t it?
Kevin: Yeah, that’s what I thought we had said. But in that case, then, just the whole fact of Ginny’s experience in Chamber of Secrets…
Eric: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that’s true, because…
Laura: Yeah. I think…
Kevin: …could account for that.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Laura: I think Eric brings up a good point, because if you’ll remember Riddle said something about like how he would pour a little bit of his soul back into Ginny to keep her alive long enough to carry out his plan and stuff.
Eric: Or something like that.
Laura: Yeah. What if there is something there? I mean, obviously…
Eric: Well, what Kevin said.
Laura: …Harry…
Eric: Yeah. Kevin was quick to point out, too – Nick said, “Who has Ginny seen die?” But Ginny herself was in a near death experience. I think we sometimes seem to forget that she was lying on a floor for, you know, on a chamber floor, on a cold, wet chamber floor dying, near death as her energy, her life force, was being sucked out of her. I mean, that’s a near death experience if there ever was one. So, Ginny is very well qualified to see these things and hear these things. Just because of that.
Micah: I don’t know. I kind of relate it back to Harry and the whole idea of Thestrals with, why didn’t he see it before if he was – he experienced death at such a young age? And it said because at that point he didn’t really understand what it was. I don’t necessarily know that if Ginny was in a trance and she really knew what was going on.
Kevin: Yeah, that’s a good point.
Micah: And she would remember anything that would allow her to recall the death, if she even experienced it in the first place.
Eric: Well, whether or not she knows what’s going on, Voldemort knew what was going on when he did it, and he was just showing her his perspective, his whole – I think if you touch Voldemort, if you stand in Voldemort’s presence, I think something happens to you where death is just all around you. I mean, that’s a sign of his evil. That’s the kind of thing I’m imagining. Maybe it’s far-fetched.
Micah: How come Tom Riddle didn’t die from the basilisk?
Eric: Well, maybe he…
Laura: Because he controlled it.
Kevin: Yeah.
Eric: [laughs] Because then there would be no Harry Potter series.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: So, what if Harry started speaking Parseltongue? Would the snake listen to him?
Eric: Well, it did almost.
Andrew: Probably not.
Eric: Well, didn’t it? It was either in the movie or in the movie and the book, where Tom Riddle made it only listen to him instead of like…
Laura: I know that was definitely in the movie. I can’t remember if that was in the book.
Eric: It was definitely in the movie, because Christian Coulson said that, “It only obeys me now.” But, you know, something like that. Technically Harry could speak Parseltongue, and that’s how Harry can understand it later. I think it – I can just see Harry using Parseltongue to infiltrate Voldemort’s lair in Book Seven or something like that, using it further. But I thought it was cool that Harry had to pretend that the sink faucet was a real snake and said, “Open,” and that it worked, and he kept saying, “Open,” to the various doors. That kind of stuff, that kind of stuff is cool, but almost underplayed; but we kind of know it’s there. So I think it’s going to play a bigger part later. All these…
Andrew: Back to the original question.
Eric: Yeah, back to the original question.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: All these connections with Voldemort, I just think the fact that Ginny was connected or that she had that near death experience.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: It doesn’t necessarily mean one of her aunts or uncles – that reminds me! Molly’s brothers, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, died and maybe through seeing Molly’s woes, you know, mother-daughter kind of thing, maybe Molly talked about them to her, I don’t know.
Kevin: I think it was… I think it still…
Andrew: I think it has to do with the Chamber of Secrets.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: That situation was just too…
Kevin: Yeah.
Andrew: …dark.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Well, if your mother is as overbearing as Molly is, too, I’m pretty sure you get a good enough idea of what she is talking about. Like if she says, “Look out for this,” you really have to find out what “this” is.
Andrew: Alright, next voicemail. I honestly thought that question was going to take us like five seconds to answer.
Eric: Yeah, I thought so, too.
Laura: [laughs] Me, too. I did, too.
Voicemail: Pensieve in the Cave?
[Audio:] Hi, MuggleCasters! I’m Nicole, 14, from Virginia. I have always thought the stone basin that Dumbledore had to drink out of was actually a Pensieve with the memories of the children he had tortured there. That’s why the children did not tell anybody what had happened, because they couldn’t remember. Another thing that convinced me is what Laura said in a previous episode: You guys were talking about the Brain Room and how the brain had attacked Ron and maybe left him with memories. Laura compared Ron’s acting to Dumbledore when he drank from the basin. So, if Ron was reacting that way because of the memories, maybe the basin was actually a Pensieve. Love the show! Jamie, you’re my favorite.
Eric: Oh. Well, you know, isn’t it…
Laura: [in flirty voice] Oh, Jamie.
Eric: Isn’t it great to hear that Jamie is her favorite, and she thought of this when hearing something Laura had said on a previous episode?
[Laura laughs]>
Kevin: Yeah, that’s great.
Eric: Wait a minute! Wait a minute!
[Micah laughs]
Eric: As I recall, I mentioned a very similar theory I brought up. And a ten year-old told me it was the worst constructed theory he had ever heard.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: He said, “It’s a pretty weak theory, isn’t it?” [laughs]
Andrew: When was that? At the LIVE podcast?
Eric: Yeah, the podcast -not we did in New York or Vegas, but the one that we record…
Andrew: L.A.
Kevin: I’ve actually got…
Eric: No, the one that we…
Andrew: Oooh, that one.
Eric: Yeah, and somebody told me…
Andrew: I remember that. That kid was awesome.
Eric: Somebody told me he was the same guy who said he was Yoda from the MuggleNet chat room. You know, from so long ago?
Andrew: Who left a voicemail?
Eric: Yeah, who left a voicemail.
Andrew: Oh, good old Yoda.
Laura: Oh.
Andrew: I’m going to write a book on classic MuggleCast moments.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: That’s definitely one of them.
Eric: It’s a good question, so let’s answer it.
Micah: Well, I think I brought this up on an earlier show, actually. And I think he’s seeing either what’s going on right then, or what’s going on – or what’s going to happen very soon in the future. Because the school is coming under attack, and he is constantly talking about, “No, not the children, not the children.” And I think he is seeing his worst fear come true, and that’s Hogwarts coming under attack and him not being there to defend it.
Laura: I think so as well. Not to mention the liquid in the stone basin was green. Pensieves are white.
Eric: It’s…
Kevin: Yeah, but I always thought that it was like Voldemort’s view of the future. Like, his, I don’t know.
Laura: Well, that could also be Dumbledore’s worst fear – would be Voldemort’s…
Kevin: It’s possible, yeah. I suppose so.
Laura: …like, outlook for the future.
Andrew: Greatest desire. Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: So, wait, Micah, you’re saying that Hogwarts is going to be under attack?
Laura: Well, it was in Half-Blood Prince.
Micah: No, I’m saying right at that moment that’s exactly what was happening. When he was in the cave…
Andrew: Oh, oh, okay.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Gotcha.
Eric: I think Dumbledore muttered a lot and muttered a lot less, “not the children,” than he did, “the pain, make it stop, I know I did wrong.”
Laura: Yeah, but he says, “don’t hurt them.”
Eric: Well, kind of. But maybe. He said a lot of other things.
Laura: No, it’s not kind of. He says, “don’t hurt them.”
Eric: In that episode I brought up a lot of the other things he said that supported my theory then, including, “the pain, make it stop,” and, “I know I did…” It seemed like what the children would say if Riddle was torturing them in that cave. So, I venture the theory that maybe all of…
Micah: No, he wouldn’t be saying that. I mean, that’s almost coming from another person’s perspective, saying, “don’t hurt them.” If you’re saying that “them” is the children, the children can’t be referring to themselves.
Eric: No, but I don’t think if Dumbledore was seeing the children get upset that he would actually behave that way.
Micah: Yeah, but he’s got to be reliving somebody’s moment right there.
Eric: Well, yeah, he could be reliving – what I’m saying is, maybe in order for someone to obtain the Horcrux properly, you have to fully be able to live, like, the experience that Voldemort wishes to encase in this Pensieve or this basin, which is the memory of his torture, his cruelness, his cruelty, to these children. So, you relive – it’s kind of like a mark of why this place is significant. It was almost as if you collect the puzzle pieces you can get inside into Voldemort’s favorite moments if you go on a Horcrux – it’s like a photo album. Think of all Voldemort’s Horcruxes as – Horcrux locations as a photo album and you go back to it, like the Gaunt house was smashed and nobody knows exactly what he had to do to get it, but you had to understand a little bit about Voldemort’s past to find the Gaunt house. I’m just saying, I thought it tied in more with what he did than with anything that was going on in the future.
Micah: It’s possible.
Laura: I don’t know, I just don’t think that that liquid behaved like a Pensieve, because…
Eric: It was…
Laura: …whenever…
Eric: …obviously different and you couldn’t tap it with your wand and put it in your brain or anything like that.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: You couldn’t make it show you anything. It didn’t have to be…
Micah: It was there for a while, it was a little moldy, you know? So…
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Moldy Pensieve.
Eric: Moldy memories. Yeah.
Micah: But, it almost looked like he knew what he was about to drink, so I don’t know.
Laura: Yeah. I think Dumbledore…
Andrew: He must have known what he was getting himself into.
Laura: I think he did, too, absolutely.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, it’s like Pensieve Juice, basically.
Eric: I agree with you because he wanted water afterwards.
Andrew: Makes you go mad and it doesn’t pull memories.
Laura: I’d have to say that that’s my final conclusion on that topic.
Eric: So, maybe a Pensieve, maybe something related to memories. It makes sense but we don’t know what, and it was definitely a little bit different at any rate because it could only be drunk and things like that.
Andrew: Yes.
Laura: All right, next voicemail.
Voicemail: Where is Krum?
Audio: Hey guys, my name is Tamara and I’m from Chicago. And briefly you guys mentioned on your last show, Viktor Krum, and it occurred to me that I think Jo said that he’d be back, or we’d hear from him again. So if we do in Book 7, what do you think might happen if he returns to Hogwarts, or the Hogwarts area and he and Hermione meet up again, considering Hermione and Ron are “together” now? Love to hear what you guys think… Love the show!
Andrew: [in a high-pitched voice] Gossip time!
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: I think if he comes back, I think Ron will get ticked off about it, but I don’t think that Hermione would get together with him or anything.
Andrew: Yeah, if Ron and Hermione are together now, I think Hermione is probably over Krum.
Laura: I don’t think she was ever…
Eric: I was going to say, was she…
Laura: …really that much in – really infatuated with him to begin with.
Andrew: Why don’t you think so?
Eric: Well, she liked him. She liked the attention.
Laura: I think, yeah, she did, but I think she was using him to get to Ron. [laughs]
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: Well, I don’t know about that. Initially, but she did like – I mean, he liked her, he genuinely thought she was this pretty girl, which she had never gotten from Harry or Ron, and she realized immediately, she’s a smart enough girl that Viktor wasn’t particularly loquacious or whatever it was. But, I just don’t think that Viktor – if Viktor came back, I think if this… If Tamara is asking about whether Viktor will play a part in a relationship that would make Ron jealous or whether Viktor will be jealous to find Hermione had moved on. In Book Six Hermione did say she was still writing to Krum, I think, didn’t she? Like, just…
Laura: I know she was in Book Five.
Eric: Or maybe it was Book Five.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And so, I don’t know when J.K. Rowling said that we were going to hear back from Viktor Krum. I don’t know that it would be like the same situation with Fleur where it’s like all of a sudden, big character again from Book Four. I don’t think that will happen.
Andrew: And why would Krum return to Hogwarts?
Micah: I think he would fight on the side of the Order.
Andrew: Well, I guess because Jo said that he’s going to make an appearance.
Laura: Yeah…
Micah: And actually…
Andrew: Or we’d hear from him.
Eric: When did she say that, though? That’s my only question.
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Eric: Because depending – if she said that before Book Five, there you go, Hermione is still writing to him.
Micah: No, I think she has bigger implications. And…
Laura: No, I think she meant like an actual reappearance.
Micah: And at the end of Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore makes a point of saying…
Laura: And I know she did say it, I just don’t remember where.
Micah: …”these connections that you make this year are going to be important in the future.”
Laura: Yeah, he said, “You’ll always be welcome at Hogwarts.” So…
Kevin: Yeah, you sort of expect that the people that you’ve been seeing throughout the books are going to play a role in helping Harry, so, you sort of expect he’ll show up somewhere.
Eric: I think Viktor would be a good leader and be a good helping hand to Harry. It seems there was some confusion whether or not he’d be like a jealous kind of boyfriend. Like, if Hermione went with Ron or something. I think Viktor, especially in the movie, portrays him as a very understanding, very mature kind of guy in addition to being this sports hog, which the books didn’t. As far as him understanding and being able to cope with a lot of things. The books made him a lot, “Hermy this, Hermy that,” he couldn’t even get her name right. And the movie kind of made him more flesh and blood, more humane, kind of like – kind of more like a role model.
Laura: The movie portrayal really doesn’t have any bearing on what he’s going to be like in the book.
Eric: Which is why we have to see. Well, what was he like in the books? He was kind of duck-footed, kind of not really…
Laura: But, at the same time, I don’t see him being the jealous type, really.
Andrew: J.K. Rowling said at the World Book Day chat back on March 4th, 2004, after Order of the Phoenix‘s release that, the question was, “Will we be seeing Krum again any time soon?” Jo replied, “You will see Krum again, though not soon.”
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: Which implies to me, “not soon.” If it was “soon” it would be Book Six, “not soon” would be past it.
Kevin: Yeah, the next book, right.
Andrew: Right. Yeah, so, there you go. So, it doesn’t have to do with Book Five, so that does mean…
Eric: So, maybe Viktor Krum will show up at the end of Book Seven, help Harry defeat Voldemort, and then he’ll be looking down at his elbow which now has a scar.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: And Viktor Krum shows up way later in the series. It works. Never mind.
Kevin: Okay.
Andrew: All right. Next voicemail.
Kevin: Yeah, please. laughs
Andrew: That quote came from Accio-Quote.org. Thanks to them.
Voicemail: Tiara Horcrux?
[Audio]: Hi, MuggleCasters! This is Roxanne, 15, of Ontario. I was doing some research on theories in the forums on the Ravenclaw Horcrux, and a bunch of these people think that it could be a tiara, possibly Great Auntie Muriel’s goblin-made tiara mentioned at the end of Book 6. It’s shiny enough for Voldemort, and could represent the encirclement of the mind, very appropriate for Ravenclaw. Just wondering what you guys thought. See ya! Oh yeah, Happy Pickle Day!
Andrew: Pickle Day! Woo! Ow!
Eric: God, that’s an old voicemail.
Andrew: Did I tell you guys how I celebrated? 6:30 AM: Wake up, cut school, go to the supermarket, purchase ten jars of pickles and I eat them all day in my room, while going to myself, “Pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle,
pickle, pickle, pickle, pickle.” But it was my mouth full so it sounded like [makes muffled noise]. But anyway, that’s how I celebrated.
Kevin: Then you skipped the next day because you were sick.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: I was – no, Kevin.
Eric: The next three days you were subsequently home sick from school from eating that many pickles.
Kevin: Exactly. That’s what I’m saying.
Andrew: Oh! That’s not true. I can take pickles like nobody else.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Moving on!
Micah: Where did this thing come from? Sorry. I really don’t remember.
Laura: The tiara? It was at the end of Half-Blood Prince, whenever they were talking about Fleur and Bill’s wedding, and Mrs. Weasley and Fleur got all teary with each other. She said that she had a goblin-made tiara in the family that she was going to let Fleur wear at the wedding.
Micah: How would Voldemort get a hold of it, though?
Andrew: Mhm.
Laura: Now, if that’s…
Kevin: Yeah, but he’s a pretty resourceful person.
Laura: Yeah, exactly. But assuming that it’s true – and let’s just discuss
this for a second – what kind of connection could the Weasley family have to the Ravenclaw house?
Eric: Oh my god, wait a minute. If you realize, wasn’t Hepzibah Smith like a direct descent of Hufflepuff? And she had some of those family heirloom thingies? And we don’t know that the Weasleys are directly related to Ravenclaws – that would seem unlikely – but the Weasleys are a pureblood family, even though they’re blood traitors or whatever, but aren’t they a pureblood family, and we know that in the past pureblood families such as the Malfoys have potential to have Slytherin possessions and, therefore, makes sense that if the Weasleys are pureblood, they could, not necessarily even be related to Ravenclaw, but I guess pureblood families are who you look to first if you wanted to find some of the old relics of famous wizards such as the Founders. Is that making any sense?
Kevin: Yeah, it’s plausible. I like how the voicemail said, “shiny enough for Voldemort.”
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Kevin: As though shiny is one of these…
Eric: As opposed to it being Ravenclaw’s…
Laura: But doesn’t Molly saying, “I have it,” imply that she knows where it
is?
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: I mean, why would Voldemort make something into a Horcrux and leave it
at the Weasley house?
Eric: Well, what about Peter Pettigrew?
Laura: What about him?
Micah: [laughs] Is he a Horcrux?
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: No, he’s not a Horcrux! But look at that. What is the…
Andrew: Eric’s implying that Pettigrew could of taken it.
Eric: No, no, no. I’m not even implying that. What is this faithful servant of Voldemort’s doing under Percy’s pillow, or sleeping with Percy at night?
Kevin: Wait, what? [laughs]
Eric: Strange things, strange tragedies and strange things befall the Weasleys. That’s all I’m saying. How did a rat, who was actually a man, hide out for years and years under the Weasley family? They accepted him as a pet. Why are you questioning the unlikeliness or the likeliness of a tiara…
Laura: Well, I’m just… Do you think that…
Eric: …that Mrs. Weasley has being a possible Voldemort thing? Voldemort and the Weasleys have been connected before. Voldemort possessed their daughter. I think there’s more connections between the Weasleys and Voldemort than there is a lot of other people.
Laura: Yeah, but you have…
Kevin: Yeah, but, but…
Laura: …to consider that – sorry, Kevin.
Kevin: No, it’s okay, go.
Laura: That Voldemort… I mean, it’s a piece of his soul and we’ve seen
that he does a lot to protect those. Why would he choose something that was
in the possession of a family he would consider blood traitors?
Eric: Ah, now I see your point and I actually agree with it.
Kevin: Yeah, it’s true.
Eric: Because the only reason the diary was even out there was because
Voldemort…
Laura: Because Lucius gave it to Ginny.
Kevin: Was because of Lucius.
Eric: Well, Voldemort personally gave it to Lucius. He removed it from
wherever it may have been hiding it at the time. So, do you think that by
those means that all of Voldemort’s Horcruxes are hidden? Therefore, not
likely to be things you would find outside of booby-trapped things, with the exception of the locket, which has obviously been removed from the cave.
Kevin: Yeah, but the locket could be booby-trapped.
Laura: Yeah, it could.
Micah: Is the locket removed from the cave, though, that’s another
question.
Eric: Well, the locket
Laura: Yeah, the locket was at Grimmauld Place.
Micah: Well, don’t you remember when Harry was in the cave and he said, however you say it, “Accio Horcrux,” and the thing flew up from under the lake?
Laura: I always assumed that was an Inferi.
Eric: That was just something trying to block the Accio spell; the summoning spell.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Because immediately after Dumbledore said, “As I would have guessed the summoning spells, it won’t be that easy.”
Micah: Oh, okay. Sorry.
Eric: Basically, yeah. So, I think that was, what are they called? What are they called, what are they called? The dead people.
Laura: Inferi.
Eric: Thank you. And I think it was one of them just jumping up and down and he’s
like, “We’re not alone.” But the Horcrux wasn’t in the lake, and if it was that would really, really stink.
Voicemail: What are Dementors?
[Audio]:
Hi, MuggleCast. This is Tracey, and I have a question about the Dementors: I was wondering what they’re classified as, because they’re not in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at all, and they’re not human at all. So I just wanted to know what you guys think. I love MuggleCast! Bye.
Eric: This is a good question, and…
Andrew: A ghost because they float.
Eric: …I have a theory but you guys go first. A ghost?
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: A specter?
Eric: A specter? You think so?
Kevin: I don’t know if they would be classified in any of the Fantastic
Beasts classifications, if that’s what they mean. I mean…
Eric: Well, Lethifolds were.
Kevin: Yeah, but these are sort of like a class of their own, kind of.
Andrew: Mmm. I don’t know.
Eric: Let’s look at Dementors. Okay, they feed on human emotion, on
happiness. We don’t know if it’s strictly limited to humans or we might, but…
Laura: It is limited to humans.
Eric: It is limited to humans? Okay.
Laura: Yeah, because Sirius escaped by turning into a dog.
Eric: Oh, right. Well, they detect, yeah, they detect strong emotion and they thought he
was getting ready to die or they thought Barty Crouch was getting ready to die because he was getting weaker. So, it’s humans – strictly the human range – but they suck the happiness out of a place, we know they mate in like cold weather conditions. Kind of misty, muggy, coldness.
Laura: Fog. [laughs]
Eric: Fog. [laughs] That’s the word I was looking for. I heard a theory once that and I know it’s been speculated but it’s actually been quite cool. I want to know what you guys think about this: That Dementors may be man-made creatures, as in wizard-made creatures, to guard the facility. Think about it: What if Dementors were man-made?
Laura: I don’t think so, because…
Kevin: I don’t think so.
Laura: …why would it talk about them breeding?
Kevin: Exactly. That’s the whole…
Eric: Man-made things can breed. That’s like a robot. That’s like
building an artificial intelligence that can duplicate itself.
Andrew: But they don’t exist.
Kevin: But, we haven’t. There is no robot that can breed.
Andrew: But then again, who is to say that you couldn’t create something that could reproduce? I think that makes sense.
Eric: We alter flowers. We change their colors and things like that. Like,
why can’t wizards create something that…
Laura: Yeah, but have we ever created a flower?
Eric: Well, we’re not geniuses exactly.
Kevin: Exactly.
Eric: I mean, we’ve created new breeds.
Andrew: If you can create it to kill, why couldn’t you create it to reproduce? It’s magic. I think that makes sense.
Eric: I think if you can create something that’s actually like – I mean, obviously we’re talking about the top people, but if you are a wizarding government and you need to keep inmates in. You know, if you need to keep criminals at bay, why would you not create a creature that is disgusting, is absolutely terrible, it feeds on human happiness.
Laura: But Dementors weren’t created for Azkaban. They used to be on Voldemort’s side.
Eric: Well…
Kevin: And I don’t see them creating – any good person would not want to bring a creature into the world that was so bad.
Eric: Oh yeah?
Laura: Well, I don’t doubt that someone stupid would make the mistake of creating something like that, but I don’t think it was, just because we knew that the Dementors were on Voldemort’s side during the first war and they probably are now.
Eric: Couldn’t they have been in Azkaban before they were on Voldemort’s side, or would that have said they had rebelled before or something? What I’m saying is their origin is very unknown, so I just wanted to pose that because I…
Kevin: Well, the origins are unknown, but if you’re describing Dementors to someone who doesn’t know what Dementors are and you know they were created, you don’t say, “They are the creatures guarding Azkaban.” You say, “They were the creatures created to guard Azkaban.”
Eric: No, but who said that?
Kevin: You know what I’m saying?
Laura: I was always under the impression that they were considered so, you know, kind of disgusting that no one really took the time to classify them.
Eric: Well, in Lord of the Rings, you get trolls and what am I saying? Trolls. Orcs – they were kind of like elves or something in mythology of Lord of the Rings? They were like…
Kevin: In Lord of the Rings? Oh, no.
Eric: Elves are trees, but if you burn trees or something…
Kevin: Lord of the Rings it goes – no, because in Lord of the Rings there’s a long back story that involves, somewhat of demigods….
Eric: Oh.
Kevin: …coming down and creating. One of the demigods was jealous of the others and created…
Eric: Kind of like a fallen elf.
Kevin: Right, but in that case – Lord of the Rings – it was actually godlike. He had to be…
Eric: Well, I know to build the Uruk hai, the super elf, you have to burn the trees and like do this. What I’m saying is, you know like with Dementors – just the heinous beasts that they are.
Kevin: Well, it was also, like many of the creatures in Lord of the Rings, was a mutation of a creature that already existed, like an elf like Eric was saying.
Laura: Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Voicemail: Luna’s Parents in the Order?
[Audio]: Hi MuggleCasters, this is Miranda, 17 from Idaho and I was just wondering what do you think of the possibility that Luna’s parents were in the Order? It seems really likely to me since Luna is so willing to fight against Voldemort, and with her dad owning The Quibbler maybe there’s something they could communicate, however, we never hear from Moody that they are in the picture or anything, and we never hear anything else. So I just wanted to know what your thoughts were. Thanks! Love the show!
Kevin: You have to remember that the Order was a very select group of people…
Eric: Yes.
Kevin: …that was put together by Dumbledore and people that were directly next to Dumbledore and had been taught by him to fight Voldemort. It’s not saying that her parents didn’t fight Voldemort and didn’t stand against him, but I don’t think they were in the Order, no.
Eric: This is a problem as a result of JKR writing about a select group of people, about focusing on, you know, the people in the Order. You say – it comes down to – you think it’s Order and Voldemort but really, just like Kevin said, you know, the Order is a select group of people and it doesn’t mean they weren’t on the good side, Luna’s parents. It seems clearly that Luna’s father is kind of whimsical, kind of like, you know, has the right idea at least being politically aware that things could be wrong with the world and her mother seems like a great witch. So, I’m sure they would be on the good side, but not in the Order. I don’t think it’s going as far as to say, “Okay. Seamus’ parents are good, where are they in this photograph?”
Laura: Yeah, and the Weasleys weren’t…
Micah: Well, even the fact that the Weasleys weren’t…
Laura: Right.
Eric: Yeah, the Weasleys weren’t even in it.
Micah: Good thought, Laura. Very good thought. [laughs]
Laura: Great minds think alike, Micah.
[Kevin laughs]
Voicemail: Will Harry’s Patronus Change?
[Audio]: Hi MuggleCasters, this is Posey from Sydney, Australia. I was just thinking of something the other day: In book six we learned that Tonks changed her Patronus because of a great emotional upheaval. Do you think Harry will have the same thing happen to him? I mean, do you think that his Patronus will change in Book Seven because of the change that he’s having around him and his great battle with Voldemort? And if he does survive Book Seven, do you think his Patronus, at the end of his battle with Lord Voldemort, will be changed forever? Just thinking. I think you can answer my question. Thanks a lot. Bye.
Kevin: No.
Micah: No.
Laura: Why not?
Eric: Well, it happened once, will it happen again?
Andrew: Why? What’s the…?
Kevin: Not to mention it’s – no. It hasn’t happened once. His Patronus has always been the image of what his father was: the Stag. Right? So, it’s sort of like that one whimsical thing about Harry that she’s not going to change.
Laura: What if it’s like – if it becomes Harry though? What if it’s not like mirroring his dad anymore? For once he’s stands up and people see him…
Andrew: On his own, yeah.
Laura: Yeah, you know?
Eric: Harry does mirror his dad.
Kevin: Yeah, but…
Laura: He does, but…
Kevin: …I never thought of it like that.
Laura: But everybody always says, “You look just like your father.”
Kevin: But I’ve always seen it as the piece of his father that he never got to actually see. You know? Like…
Eric: He treasures most.
Kevin: It represents his father in him.
Eric: In such a great way.
Kevin: Exactly.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: You know if emotion was going to change Harry, you know if high stress was going to change Harry’s Patronus, wouldn’t that have happened already?
Laura: I don’t know. I mean…
Eric: You know, high enough stress in Books Three, Four, Five and Six.
Laura: I don’t know. There could be something really horrible that happens in Book Seven that causes it to change.
Eric: It’s kind of, I want to use the word enigmatic, which is kind of you know a cool word. Somebody’s going to give me five points for using that word. But it’s enigmatic that Tonks…
Micah: Or take five away for using it the wrong way.
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Eric: Oh. Oh, crap.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: You know Micah, you’re right.
Micah: I’m just kidding, go ahead.
Eric: It’s…[laughs] All right, Tonks. You know? The whole emotional thing that she went through? Tonks’ Patronus changed, but it turns out in the end of Book Six it was just because she was having some kind of relationship anxiety with Lupin, you know. She kind of wanted to try something with him, but he was totally like, “Yeah. I don’t really want to do that. I’m too old for you, kid.”
Laura: Yeah, but people process stress differently.
Eric: So, but she took it… Yeah, and she took it to heart and that’s why it changed her Patronus. Even though, I mean, it’s interesting that JKR, and it’s enigmatic, that JKR should introduce this kind of idea that a Patronus can be changed by heightened emotion or stress when it doesn’t seem to apply to a lot of other people. I mean people are like – yes, your Patronus can change, but that doesn’t mean if you go through stress that it will change.
Laura: That doesn’t mean for sure, but I think it’s a possibility.
Kevin: Right.
Andrew: Yeah. I think…
Laura: Because Harry has this enormous weight on his shoulders. The entire wizarding world is – I mean, if he doesn’t succeed, they’re screwed.
Andrew: Yeah. I think this would just upset Harry even more. I think he likes having his dad’s Stag, to be honest with you.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: It’s true. If his Patronus changes because of stress he’s going to be more stressed out because his daddy won’t be there to protect him. I mean, that’s what his Patronus is essentially – is a way for Prongs to really live. Like in Book Three, they said, “Prongs rode again tonight,” just because of the…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Harry’s Patronus…
Andrew: In a way, his father is helping him out.
Eric: His father is helping him out, and…
Laura: I always took that as James living on through Harry.
Andrew: That’s really nice.
Laura: But I don’t know. I just don’t think that…
Andrew: Well, that’s what we’re saying, basically.
Laura: I know, but I think that a big theme of Book Seven is going to be Harry standing up on his own, and I think that…
Eric: Well, it’s not going to change to him. Your Patronus can’t be yourself, or that would be really stupid, if, like, it…
Laura: No, I’m not saying it can be yourself, but it can be something that relates more to you.
Eric: Than your father?
Laura: It’s…
Eric: Than your father, whom you love, and would have given anything to meet? I don’t know.
Laura: I’m talking about, for instance, Hermione’s Patronus is an otter.
Kevin: Something personal.
Laura: Yes, exactly.
Kevin: Yeah.
Laura: And I’m not saying that a father isn’t personal, but…
Eric: Hmmm.
Laura: …something that is more like Harry’s personality.
Eric: Okay. Well, I think that’s the difference between a Patronus and Animagus. If Harry were to turn into an Animagus, it wouldn’t be a stag, that’s safe to say. It would be something that relates more to him, like, maybe a beaver. [laughs]
Kevin: I just don’t think…
Laura: Okay, but does Hermione’s Patronus turn into an otter just because her mom likes otters?
Eric: No.
Andrew: How does an otter scare away Dementors? [laughs] I don’t get that at all.
Eric: Well, it – no, it doesn’t matter what it is. A Dementor – what a Patronus is, it’s an essence of concentrated nothingness. [laughs]
Andrew: It – it was meant to be a joke. Sorry.
Eric: Yeah, okay.
Andrew: But, I mean, just kind of laugh. [laughs]
Micah: My thought was that Tonks changed it herself, that she didn’t change it because her emotions changed, because when she goes up to the castle to bring Harry back right off the train after Draco broke his nose…
Eric: That was a good scene.
Micah: …what happened was that Snape obviously makes a snide comment about her Patronus changing, and I thought she said something along the lines of, “Well, I did it because….” So, that implies to me that she changed it, not that it just automatically changed.
Eric: Oh.
Laura: I don’t remember her saying that, but I could be totally wrong.
Eric: So could I.
Laura: I just remember Snape saying that it’s weak.
Kevin: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, yeah, and that – she totally flushed then, but he knew what it was. He knew she changed it to look like Lupin, which is what it was, even though it was like a creature on all fours that Harry quickly mistook as Sirius, but I think it was actually Lupin, or the werewolf, or like a werewolf form.
Laura: I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to…
Andrew: Very interesting.
Laura: …wait to find out about that. Yeah.
Andrew: That was good, though.
Eric: That was a good answer.
Voicemail: How Do You Kill a Werewolf?
[Audio]: Hey, MuggleCast! This is Peter, age 13, of Atlanta, Georgia. “Pickle!” as Andrew says on the message. I was calling with a theory. Well, not so much a theory, more of a question. Jo said on her site that Remus Lupin will not be killed by Peter Pettigrew’s silver hand, and I agree with that. I think that would be really dumb, but she said the only thing that could kill a werewolf is a silver bullet. Does that mean that Remus wouldn’t be killed if he was hit with the AK? And if so, where would a wizard get a silver bullet to shoot Remus with, since that’s a Muggle item? Thanks so much! Love your show! See you later!
Andrew: Well, I mean, all you’ve got to do is go into the weapon store and pick it up. [laughs] To be honest…
Laura: Yeah, well, I think the important part of that question is she said that, yeah, the only thing that kills…
Andrew: A silver…
Laura: …a werewolf is a silver bullet, so could he be killed by Avada Kedavra?
Eric: That’s such a – like, a weird question. It’s good, but it’s, like, it’s weird.
Kevin: Well, a werewolf…
Eric: Yeah.
Kevin: … can’t be killed, but Lupin in his human form…
Laura: Form probably could, yeah.
Kevin: Probably could.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: So, he’s not indestructible. [laughs]
Kevin: Right. It’s sort of like the benefit of being a werewolf, if there is one, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: When you are uncontrollable and you can’t help yourself…
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: That is the one time you’re invulnerable to the Killing Curse.
Eric: But I don’t think you’re ever invulnerable to the Death Curse. I mean, if you’re living and you’re…
Micah: We’ve talked about this before. Ben mentioned one time – well, if Hagrid got hit with a bunch of them, would it take, like, ten of them to kill him, or would he just take one, and that’s it?
Eric: Because of thicker skin or something, and I know a few of us were under the impression that…
Andrew: Being a half-giant. Yeah
Eric: … thick-skinned or not, one soul, one life force, but then everybody else was like, you know, dragon hide, or armor, or Avada Kedavra armor. Or… [laughs]
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Right.
Eric: So, yeah, but I think when Jo was talking about this, it was kind of about the mythology of werewolf, because, you know, Pettigrew’s silver hand, obviously, and that was like, okay, so that’s kind of plot foreshadowing, or it could be; silver and werewolves, what about Peter Pettigrew killing Lupin? And JKR, I believe it was something, said that that won’t happen, as this voice mail mentions, but I don’t – but by saying that only a silver bullet can kill a werewolf, at the same time, it’s not really saying that only a silver bullet can kill a werewolf, as in Avada Kedavra can’t? If somebody went up and hit – what’s the bad werewolf’s name, that Draco threatens Borgin with that he knows?
Micah: Fenrir Greyback.
Eric: Gren – Greyback. Fenrir Greyback. Thank you, Micah. Fenrir Greyback, I mean, Dumbledore – well, Fenrir got the crud beat out of him that night on the tower, and if somebody AK’ed him, I’m pretty sure that would have worked.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: You know, human form or not, I think even in wolf form, the Avada Kedavra should kind of work.
Micah: I don’t see any silver bullets in Book Seven, sorry.
Laura: No, I don’t, either.
Eric: There aren’t any guns.
Kevin: I don’t, either.
Laura: I don’t know.
Eric: Were there ever any guns in the Harry Potter series?
Laura: I don’t know, but I think the point is that Jo words her answers very carefully, and if she’s saying the only thing that can kill a werewolf is a silver bullet…
Kevin: Yeah.
Laura: … it’s not out of the realm of possibility to say that werewolves can’t be killed by the Avada Kedavra curse.
Eric: It’s true. It’s just interesting, also, because Moody emphasized it in Goblet of Fire, and this is my final point on this, in Goblet of Fire, Moody said that Harry is the only survivor of the Death Curse, and plenty of people have said that. So, would that be not including werewolves? Only human survivor of the Death Curse, or only living being that survived the Death Curse? Because how important is Harry in this whole thing? Is he just the only human boy who survived it if werewolves are impervious?
Laura: I believe he’s…
Micah: Then there would be a mass transformation to like [laughs] all different types of creatures, so they don’t get killed.
Eric: Yeah, that’s…
Laura: I think that Moody said, “the only person known ever to have survived it.” So, yeah.
Eric: Huh.
Voicemail: Spending Time at Privet Drive
[Audio]: Hi, this is Jessica from Florida, and I have a general voicemail question. I was just wondering if there was a specific time limit to the amount of time that Harry has to spend at the Dursley’s for Dumbledore’s magic to keep its effect? JKR mentioned that the time he spent during Half-Blood Prince at the Dursley’s was the shortest time that he had ever spent there, which was two weeks, so I would think that he would spend two weeks there during Book Seven just to be safe. Additionally, do you even think that the magic still exists because of Dumbledore’s death? I love the show, and I’ve been wondering this for a while, so I’d love your input. Thanks, bye!
Laura: I don’t think that it was a spell that Dumbledore used…
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: I think that it’s magic that’s created…
Micah: I agree.
Laura: …because of Petunia’s connection to Lily, so I think it is still there.
Eric: Yeah, it was, it was a blood connection, even though Voldemort… [laughs] Sorry, even though Dumbledore performed that spell on Privet Drive, it should still hold, as long as the blood relation is there.
Laura: Yeah, as long as Petunia will take him in.
Eric: Or as long as Harry calls it home or whatever.
Laura: Yeah, exactly. So, and – yeah.
Andrew: With that said…
Laura: But, I mean…
Andrew: Well…
Laura: Theoretically,
Eric: Oh, good, that means that…
Laura: …it kind of answered your question: Could Harry be protected for another year if Petunia just invited him into the house for dinner? [laughs] Or does he actually have to stay there for a certain amount of time?
Micah: Well, he has to go back.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s – that’s what we’re…
Micah: There’s no question about it.
Laura: Well, yeah, of course.
Micah: He was pretty much told, wasn’t he?
Laura: But how much time? How long does he have to stay?
Eric: Well, until he turns a man, until he turns 17.
Andrew: No, no, no, no. We’re talking about how long does he have to go before he can go back to Hogwarts again.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: How, how…
Laura: Like, how long does he have to stay with them…
Andrew: Like what he’s been doing over the past few summers?
Laura: …that summer, yeah.
Micah: Until the wedding, probably.
Eric: Until he turns 17. No, and…
Kevin: Yeah, and they get sort of like a – it’s a limitation to the protection, kind of?
Micah: I would say until the wedding.
Kevin: I mean…
Micah: That would be my guess.
Andrew: Why?
Eric: Not until the wedding, because…
Andrew: Why?
Eric: …he turns – Dumbledore says that as soon as he becomes of age, the protection will wear off, so…
Kevin: Right. It’s sort of like the family protection of a child. Once you are considered a man, you are now responsible for yourself and are responsible for protecting yourself.
Eric: The two weeks just has to deal with the fact that by the time Hogwarts is over and they go home, it’s actually mid or late June, or maybe even July, so that it’s only two weeks or so until his birthday. That’s what I thought it meant.
Micah: Do we know when they’re getting married, though? I mean it would seem like an easy way out, for him to leave. I think also that he might realize, “Hey, well, when this protection wears off, there’s a good chance that the relatives that I do still have alive, as much as I hate them, are going to be in danger.”
Eric: Yeah, that’s true. It’s very true. Once the protection is off, then people, then Voldemort can set foot in Privet Drive if he wanted to, and really turn things upside down. So, it makes sense, that yeah, that he would turn seventeen – but the voicemail’s asking when is the protection good for. I think that’s until his birthday.
Laura: You think it’s good until his birthday?
Micah: But…
Kevin: Right, same here.
Laura: I think that’s probably the best answer.
Eric: There’s no saying – yeah. There’s no saying he won’t leave Privet Drive only to go to wedding right away. I mean, that’s cool. But, I think it’s still his birthday.
Andrew: I think he’s going to want to be out. I cannot picture him sitting there while all this is going on.
Eric: Well, he did…
Andrew: I mean, he’s done it in the past books, I know. But in this situation, especially with Dumbledore dead.
Laura: Hey, that could be… Yeah, that could be… What if Harry decides that it’s not worth the protection to stay, and he leaves?
Eric: Whoa!
Laura: No, and then he’s without the protection. What if something extremely drastic happens and he refuses to stay there?
Andrew: Right. Because, he’s going to want to – the protection’s going to wear off, come his birthday, anyway, so why hold out?
Kevin: Why stay there…
Andrew: An extra month or two.
Kevin: Yeah. And what are they going to be expecting? I mean, Death Eaters, they know he’s chilling around the house…
Andrew: This Book Seven should just…
[Everyone laughs]
Kevin: Come his birthday, they are all going to on the door, at the door, you know?
Eric: Okay, seventeen, let’s all go.
Andrew: This Book Seven should just be called Order of the Phoenix 2 because there’s going to be so much stuff involving the Order.
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, there will be. [laughs] There is going to be a lot of stuff involving the Order.
Andrew: It’s meant to be a joke.
Micah: [mockingly] Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Kevin: [mockingly] Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Andrew: It wasn’t well recepted.
Eric: Funny.
Andrew: It’s true, yeah it is.
Micah: I thought he has to stay there for at least one night. I thought that’s what he was told.
Eric: One night? Oh, one night after his birthday, do you mean? Or…
Micah: No, he has to return to Privet Drive for at least one night.
Laura: I thought that…
Eric: To seal the protection.
Andrew: What does that do? Renew your protection juices?
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Maybe there’s something we don’t know. Do you know what I mean? Maybe there’s something that’s going to happen as a result of him staying there.
Laura: Yeah, I thought that Dumbledore always said that so long as Harry could call it home.
Eric: Well, that was, for all intents and purposes, it was that long in Book Three, when he said it or something.
Andrew: But I think what we’re saying is, how long do you have to stay in the house to renew your…
Laura: Subscription to your protection.
Andrew: Whatever. Your subscription. Yeah, exactly.
Eric: I think basically what all was said was, “The protection will no longer be good once Harry’s on his own,” and along those same terms he said, “The power will still be good while you can call it home, until you come of age,” is basically the whole perspective of what I think was going on. I don’t know.
Andrew: Yeah. All right. Let’s move along.
Voicemail: Luna the Seer?
[Audio]: Hi MuggleCast! I was just wondering if I could get your opinion on whether you thought Luna Lovegood was a Seer of some sort, since she seems to always be coming up with these strange thoughts, and Professor Trelawney is pretty strange herself. So, maybe. Anyways, just wanted to hear what you think. Thanks, guys! Love the show! Pickles!
Laura: I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s possible, but at the same time…
Andrew: I think it’s a silly question.
Micah: No, no. She doesn’t have that prophetic name.
Laura: There are no stupid questions.
Micah: Not Cassandra or Sybil.
Andrew: She’s Loony Lovegood!
Eric: She’s weird!
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Like Andrew’s saying. She’s a little weird…
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: She has little stray thoughts that her father probably implants in her brain, and…
Laura: Although I do have to say, to her credit, if she were, she wouldn’t run around bragging about it.
Eric: That’s true.
Andrew: Why not?
Laura: Because she’s not that kind of person.
Andrew: Oh yeah.
Laura: She’s not like Trelawney, she wouldn’t run around saying, “Oh, I have this ability, and I can do this and this and this,” because she’s just not that kind of character.
Eric: Yeah, she doesn’t preach. She doesn’t preach. She doesn’t throw the Rotfang conspiracy around in everyone’s faces, saying, “Fudge has got this Ministry guard of werewolves and we’re all going to die.” She doesn’t say it to people, she just believes it.
Voicemail: Do the Dursleys Have a Stable Marriage?
[Audio]: Hey guys, this is Paige from Maryland. Quick question for you: I wanted to know if you thought that Vernon and Petunia’s relationship was stable, or what you thought they were about, because apparently Petunia knows some stuff that Vernon doesn’t know, and they’re hiding stuff from each other. So, just wanted to know what you thought about that. Thanks! Love you all! Bye!
Andrew: Not to judge, but, don’t all…
[Laura laughs]
Laura: Andrew’s going to say, “Don’t all marriages…”
Andrew: Don’t all wedd – don’t all relationships – yeah. Isn’t there something hidden?
Eric: Marriages have secrets? Well, yeah. That kind of goes along with the first sentence of the book. You know? “Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Dursley were proud to say they were perfectly normal.” Unfortunately, being normal entails marital problems or secrets or some kind of ghosts in the closet. Who doesn’t have ghosts in the closet?
Kevin: Yeah. Skeleton in the closet, you mean?
Eric: [laughs] Did I say ghosts in the closet?
Laura: Yeah, but I think the point here is that Petunia knows much more about magic and the wizarding world than she is willing to let on to to Vernon.
Andrew: Well, maybe Vernon doesn’t want to know.
Eric: There’s part of that.
Laura: He seemed to want to know in Order of the Phoenix though.
Eric: Well, kind of. The Order of the Phoenix really accentuated Vernon’s situation, because here he has owls flying in and out, and Vernon’s here, and his wife told him a long time ago that she didn’t like her sister very much at all, or her husband, and Vernon accepted that. And then Harry shows up, and of course it’s this tie that Petunia doesn’t really like. And so, Vernon keeps quiet about it. He’s an obedient husband, and he grows or this dislike for magic grows on him to the point where he’s ripping up Harry’s letters from Hogwarts all on Petunia’s behalf. Then, all these owls start coming, his son is attacked, and he’s completely flipping out, which is exactly what Petunia would have wanted him to do, except at that very moment Petunia says, “This boy has to stay here.” And Vernon is in such a pickle.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: And I did just say pickle.
Kevin: Yes, you did.
Eric: But he’s in such a pickle because here he’s this guy who didn’t ask too many questions because he knew it would upset his wife. We’ve had the leisure, the privilege of having that insight into Vernon before. You know? He’s that kind of guy. He doesn’t want to upset his wife, but yet she knows so much more about him that she doesn’t let on, and it’s just this ongoing kind of thing where he won’t ask but he kind of should know because it’s just a matter of time before Petunia has to divulge it.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: With Harry’s situation, I just love that character aspect about the Dursleys. It’s easy to see them as comical people, but they are a real family, and something’s really going on with Vernon and Petunia. Is it a stable relationship? Probably not, but I don’t really see Vernon packing his bags and walking out and saying, “You don’t tell me nothing.” I mean…
Andrew: I think it’s just rocky now. They were obviously in love when they got married and Harry got in the way, but they knew they were going to pull through it eventually. It’s not going to be soon. Not until Book Seven is long gone.
Laura: Yeah, I agree…
Andrew: I don’t know.
Laura: I think that despite the fact that they’re not the world’s best people, I think that they do love each other.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But obviously the crux is that Vernon doesn’t know, and he doesn’t really have the nerve to ask too much.
Andrew: I just think he’s afraid to know?
Laura: Yeah, and he doesn’t…
Eric: He is afraid.
Laura: …want to upset her, either. He said so in the first book, that he didn’t want to ask too many questions because it would tick her off.
Eric: Right. But this hatred for magic and different people…
Micah: Yeah, where does it come from?
Eric: …really is brought out in Petunia. Well, it’s brought on by Petunia to begin with, is what I think.
Laura: Yeah, because he loves Petunia, and he doesn’t want anything to upset her.
Eric: So, he adopts her morals, but now she’s kind of betraying that. She asked him to become this guy who says, [imitates Vernon] “Enough effing owls.” But, really, it’s kind of, you know? She’s now going back on that, and she has to kind of admit, “Yeah, the Dementoids guard Azkaban.” So…
Laura: Okay, so next one.
Voicemail: Did Dumbledore and Petunia Make an Unbreakable Vow?
[Audio]: Hi guys, this is Dara from Santa Monica, California. This is a very late response to Episode 57 about Aunt Petunia, but while I was listening to it in the car on the way home today, I was thinking of a theory that could possibly answer the, “What is Dudley’s fear?” question, and, “What it is about Aunt Petunia that we don’t know?” My theory is that Aunt Petunia maybe made the Unbreakable Vow with Dumbledore before Harry was left with the Dursleys. There is obviously many enchantments left over Privet Drive to ensure Harry’s safety until he is of age, but do you think that Aunt Petunia has made a vow to keep Harry there until he is 17? That would explain why she said he had to stay in the fifth book, when Vernon obviously wanted him to go away. But, [laughs] I can’t quite get over the fact that he did leave Privet drive in the third book, but since he was immediately taken in by the Ministry, maybe it doesn’t count. Maybe the Unbreakable Vow was told to Dudley, in which case his greatest fear is Harry leaving and his mother dying from breaking the Unbreakable Vow. [laughs] Tell me what you think. I know it’s far-fetched, but I couldn’t get it out of my head while listening to Episode 57. Thanks a lot, and I love your show! Pickles rock!
Laura: I think what she’s saying is that perhaps Dudley’s worst fear could be his mother dying as a result of breaking an Unbreakable Vow, or as a result of…
Micah: No.
Laura: …something to do with Harry.
Micah: No, no, no. Okay, he wasn’t even old enough to witness it.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: If the vow took place. I mean, he wouldn’t even know what was going on.
Laura: No, I don’t think so either.
Micah: So, I don’t think there is any chance.
Eric: He’s an obnoxious boy, and…
Laura: I’m not sure it’s because of the vow. I think that his greatest fear could be something to do with…
Micah: His greatest fear is an empty fridge, all right?
[Eric and Laura Laugh]
Laura: I don’t know. I think, though… I mean, I think that – we were just talking about with Vernon and Petunia, they’re not the world’s greatest people, but they love each other. And I think that Dudley loves his parents, despite the fact that he’s a little twit. And…
[Micah laughs]
Laura: …I think that he realizes that especially after Order of the Phoenix that…
Micah: Hey, Laura, how do you feel about Dudley?
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I think he’s great. But I think that he realizes especially after Order of the Phoenix that what Harry is tied up in is very dangerous, and that it could be a threat to his family. So, his worst fear could be…
Kevin: Yeah, I think so, too.
Laura: …Death Eaters or Dementors, or whatever, raining down on his house.
Eric: The greatest fear is the unknown, but there is the thing, if we’re talking about Dudley’s fear, there is the thing that Dumbledore alluded to about the mistreatment of Dudley, like, “I will not abuse your son any more than you have.” And Dudley went silent, and everybody else was sort of like, “Okay, what the heck is he talking about?”
Laura: I don’t think that he’s talking about that kind. I think he’s talking about abuse, like being spoiled.
Kevin: He’s talking about…
Eric: Oh.
Kevin: Right.
Eric: Kind of like Willy Wonka said to Augustus Goup’s parents. But would you guys say that – this whole vow thing, I just want to put an end to this, at least as far as my thoughts go. I think when the Dursleys agreed to take him in to begin with, when the Dursleys picked Harry up in his little blanket – plaid blanket, if we’re to believe the movies – and took him into that house. As soon as they took him into that household, I thought that that was sealing the deal.
Laura: Yes.
Eric: That was doing a vow. That was – I don’t think there was a separate occasion where Petunia met Dumbledore for tea, and they had to lock hands and do a vow. I think just – the letter probably would have explained, “By taking him into this house it is sealing this magical enchantment that I put on it. Try and give him enough of a home. I mean, otherwise the protection won’t work.”
Laura: And I think that Petunia realizes that despite the fact that she doesn’t want anything to do with this world, that her world could be in danger as a result of not taking Harry in.
Eric: Exactly, and there’s only…
Kevin: Yeah, that’s true.
Eric: …so much you can be ignorant, too, before you have to start understanding what’s going to affect you.
Micah: And Dumbledore would never put somebody else in a position where they would risk their own life, so to speak, in terms of a vow.
Laura: Yeah, I don’t see him forcing someone to take an Unbreakable Vow.
Eric: Yeah, that’s what we said to begin with, as far as in – you know, when Book Six first came out. Would he do a vow? Well, no, because he trusts people. Plus, it could be sealed in other magical enchantments.
Andrew: All right. Well, phew! That was a lot of voicemails, boys and girls and Micah.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: So, like Dementors aren’t…
Kevin: Yes, it was.
Laura: They’re not human and they’re not animals, Micah is just Micah? He’s not…
Andrew: Micah. He’s his own species. I’d take that as a compliment. Micah?
Kevin: It’s true.
Micah: I do. I take it as a compliment.
Andrew: Oh, okay. Good.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: He’s – you’re an anchorman. You’re not a man, you’re not a woman, you’re an anchorman. That’s what it comes down to.
[Micah laughs]
Update on Robin’s Challenge
Andrew: We have an update, now, on Robin’s Challenge, which we brought to you last week, from a mature listener, who e-mailed asking for other mature listeners to e-mail in and let us know that they listen.
Eric: Let’s differentiate between mature and older. I mean…
Andrew: Yeah, because we got an e-mail about this earlier today. They were like, “Well just because – the younger listeners aren’t immature!”
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Andrew: And I replied and said, “Well, mature doesn’t mean…”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: “Robin doesn’t mean mature as in older, Robin means…” Oh, no, no, no. “Robin means…”
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: “… mature as in older, not as in immature.”
Eric: [laughs] Yeah. Basically adult fans.
Andrew: Right. Yes. Thank you. Okay. The first one comes from Terri, 53, of Saint Louis, Missouri. She writes:
“Hi Guys! I’m 53 years young and have been listening to MuggleCast from the first episode. I have three grownup sons, so I’m used to listening to video game talk. I’m not a gamer but listening about the new Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix game might make me try it! Great show.”
Eric: Wow!
Andrew: “I also listen to PotterCast and SnapeCast, but since you are the first podcast I ever listened to, you have a special place in my heart.”
Laura: Awww.
Eric: Awww.
Andrew: Well thank you, Terri. How nice of her. Lauren, 54, of Connecticut writes:
“Okay, I fess up, I am a MuggleCast fan who is of ‘a certain age’. I have been listening to you guys since the third or fourth show, and I get a lot of laughs and good feelings from it. I just think that with all the negative things that are going on in the world, it is encouraging to hear young people put their attention into putting out something that makes people feel good. It may be true that it is important not to put your head in the sand about the state of the world, but I am a firm believer in creating your universe, so I am completely in support of what you are doing.”
Eric: Oooh!
Andrew: “If more people were like some of the characters of Jo’s books, and courageously made efforts to resist the temptation to be cynical instead of making a difference with their words and actions, we will be a much better world for it. Go MuggleCast!”
Thank you, Lauren, for that. Another one, Diana, 41, of California writes:
“Hi, I am addicted to the show – Diana.”
[laughs]
Micah: She’s 41.
Andrew: That’s what I said.
Micah: I thought you said she was addicted to the show.
Laura: No, he said Diana, 41, of California.
Andrew: Oh, she put…she wrote…
Micah: Oh.
Andrew: “Hi, I am 41 and addicted to the show.”
Another one. Actually, I’m surprised we got this one. Albus Dumbledore, 150-ish…
Eric: Whoa.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Writes – er, from – he heard of us through word of mouth. Location: If I told you, Jo would really kill me.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Albus writes:
“I have a few confessions to make. I was moved by Robin’s letter on last week’s MuggleCast episode. I am a mature listener, at 150 years of age, and I am ‘coming out of the closet,’ if you will.”
That’s very nice of him.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: “Not only am I a very mature listener, but I am not really dead. If I were dead, I wouldn’t be able to e-mail you right now. I assure you, there is no Internet reception behind the veil. Yes. Well, that is all. Signed Albus.”
[Eric laughs]
Laura: I think we need to change our little captions on the main page, to say, “Appearance by Albus Dumbledore.”
Andrew: Yeah, well that, too. Yeah. [laughs] And who other, oh, Narcissa. The next one; Sylvia, 23, of Boston writes:
“Well, I’m not really ‘of a certain age,’ because I’m only 23, however my father and sister do fall into the category of ‘a certain age.’ My father is 66 and finds Harry Potter to be a pleasant enough read, that I was encouraged to buy him a copy of The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works. My sister’s 31, and she loves the books. I am the only one who is a MuggleCast listener, however, because I am the only one with the time to play with iTunes. My mother is, unfortunately, not a Harry Potter fan, because she is not a fan of the fantasy genre. Just isn’t her cup of tea.”
This last one comes from Emiras, 35, of the Fresh Meadows in New York. She writes:
“I am a 35-year-old Harry Potter and MuggleCast fan. I have been listening to the Podcast for about a year now. Like Robin, I enjoy hearing people exchange ideas and theories on a subject I hold near and dear. Between working full-time and being a mom to my own 11-year-old Weasley twin.”
“Twins,” I guess she meant.
“I don’t have much time to myself; I look forward to my weekly MuggleCast listening times – if it’s on the bus, on my way home from work, while cooking dinner for my family, or listening while in the bath after a long day, I look forward to each new episode. Some working moms have yoga, I’ve got Andrew, Ben, Kevin, Jamie, Micah and Laura to keep me sane. Keep up the great work, guys!”
What?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Oh, oh, she missed you. Oh, wait, that… [laughs]
Eric: Ummm…
[Andrew and Laura continue to laugh]
Laura: Oh.
Andrew: Well, I will admit Eric sometimes drives us all insane.
“Keep up the great…”
Eric, I’m sure it was just a mistake.
Eric: [Grunts skeptically] Uhhh.
Andrew: “Keep up the great work, guys. Your enthusiasm is…”
Does she mean “contagious” or “contiguous”?
Eric: It’s “contiguous.” She’s cool.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: “Your enthusiasm is contiguous, and…”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: “…inspiring to us older listeners.”
Eric: I got Andrew to say “contiguous.”
Andrew: “Thanks for the smiles.”
Eric’s Crackpot Theory of the Week
Andrew: We have a Crackpot Theory for everyone, this week.
Eric: Oh, crap. I mean, crack… pot.
Andrew: Eric Scull!
Eric: Uh.
Andrew: This one comes from Jacob, 24, of Texas:
“Percy Weasley will help Harry contact Sirius behind the Veil.”
Yep.
Eric: Uh. Well, Percy – as a Ministry official – would have, maybe, some information regarding the methods of doing anything, I guess. I don’t know. The Unspeakables – Percy is not an Unspeakable, but he is an Undersecretary to the Minister or was, at one point. I – it’s not too unlikely that if Percy is, in fact, good, in fact, or is, in fact, willing to help Harry, that he would know where to go about obtaining any information, be it, well, more specifically, stuff that goes on in the Ministry. If he’s the Undersecretary to the Minister, and the Minister would need to write a note to the Unspeakables, Percy would probably dictate or Fudge would dictate, he would write it down, he would know where to take it. What I’m saying is Percy would have the information, because he works at the Ministry. Doesn’t mean he knows everything about the Veil, but it seems likely that Percy would be able to access any kind of data or findings on the Veil, that were up-to-date, if he should, perchance, want to find it.
Andrew: Okay, well, Jacob actually took a different approach. He went on Wikipedia, and he found the, not the definition, but the name origin, Micah, of “Percival,” and it derives from Old French. “Percival” in Old French, meaning, “pierce the veil.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So, that’s what he’s thinking. That’s kind of interesting…
Eric: It’s because of… [laughs] I know why. It’s because Percy has such a pointy head, that when they throw him through the Veil [laughs] it’s going to pierce it. Sorry.
Andrew: Yeah, well. I guess so…
Eric: Because it comes to a point.
Andrew: And then two other points he brought up, was:
“That he works at the Ministry and, of course, could potentially have access, and he has to do something to make up with his family.”
Kevin: This is true.
Andrew: Okay, that’s Crackpot Theory of the Week.
McDonald’s Update
Quick McDonalds update; hopefully we got all of our submissions in. They were due by the end of November. It’s now – what? December 2nd?
Kevin: Yeah.
Micah: Yes, sir.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Third. Third.
Andrew: Third – December 3rd. Recording early in the week, folks. This is a different type of show for us, for once. But yeah, so I’ll be posting the McDonalds Challenge winners. Well, I’ll be posting everyone’s entries hopefully within the next week or so, and the winner will be receiving a free MuggleCast t-shirt.
Eric: And a book.
Andrew: So look forward to those.
Eric: And a book. And a book.
Andrew: Oh, and a copy of the book. When my sequel comes out, I’ll also sign that for you and get that off to you.
[Eric laughs]
Show Close
Andrew: Now, that does conclude MuggleCast, Episode 66.
[Closing music plays]
Andrew: Hope everyone’s enjoyed the show. If you would like to contact us, you could always dial 1-218-20-MAGIC in the United States. If you’re in the United Kingdom, you can dial 020-8144-0677. If in Australia, you can dial 02-8003-5668. You’d think after how many times now I’ve announced these, I actually would remember them. No. Still don’t remember them. You can also Skype the username “MuggleCast.” Leave a voicemail question. I think we’ve been through enough voicemails today to last us…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: …another year. [laughs] At the rate we’ve been going.
Eric: I think we just caught up for the past 20 episodes we haven’t had them on. So…
Andrew: Yeah. And let us know what you thought of doing an all-voicemail show.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Maybe we’ll do them more often. Of course, we need the voicemails to supplement the episodes. And if you want to send us something, something, an actual item you can mail it to the MuggleCast PO Box. That’s PO Box 223, Moundridge, [stumbles] Kanja – K, K, K – Kanjas? Kansas, 67107. You can also contact us on the MuggleCast Feedback Form. Just go to MuggleCast.com. Or, if you want to contact us directly, it’s our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com.
So, once again, that concludes MuggleCast, Episode 66. I am Andrew Sims.
Kevin: I am Kevin Steck.
Eric: I am Eric Scull.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Micah: And I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Andrew: Bye, bye.
Laura: Bye.
Micah: Bye. [laughs]
[Music concludes]
Bloopers
Andrew: MySpace, MySpace, MySpace, MySpace.
Eric: LiveJournal.
Laura: Oh, my God! MySpace.
Andrew: Don’t forget our MySpace.
Micah: Frappr.
Andrew: Become our friends, Frappr, Facebook – I’m going to make a song…
[Micah and Laura laugh]
Andrew: That’s going to be my next Wizard Rock single. It’s going to be promoting all of our outlets – our community outlets. [sings] MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Frappr, Last.FM! Fanlisting Forums. MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Frappr, Last.FM! Fanlisting Forums.
Eric: [joins in] It’s the Frappr Map! It’s the Frappr Map, it’s the Frappr Map…
Andrew: Not bad for a first try.
Eric: …Rap.
Andrew: I’ll have to demo that.
Eric: Frappr Map Rap! Frappr Map Rap!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I like that. I like that, Eric. I’m signing you on.
Eric: Sweet.
Andrew: Come over to my house and we’ll record a new song…
Eric: The Frappr Map Rap. Yeah!
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: When… [laughs] I like it, I like it. The YouTube…
Eric: Uh, sing, The YouTube Cube?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: The MySpace…
Micah: Place.
Andrew and Eric: Place! Ah!
Andrew: Bye, bye.
Eric: I wonder what the outtakes are going to be.
[Laura and Eric laugh]
Andrew: It’s going to be an awesome new single.
Laura: Yeah, me too.
Micah: That’s all the news for this December 2nd, 2006… No, today’s the 3rd. That’s all the news for this December 3rd, 2006 edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show.
———————–
Written by: Micah, Adrienne, Amanda, Briana, Eloise, Jessica, Judy, Mandie, Margaret, Martina, Matt, Megan, Sarah, Shannon and Shelly