MuggleCast 91 Transcript
Show Intro
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Andrew: Today’s MuggleCast is also brought to you by Borders. It won’t be long before the much-anticipated release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Do you have your mind made up about where Severus Snape’s loyalties lie? Do you think he’ll betray Harry and his friends, or will he help them to triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Find out more about this complex character in the hot new book The Great Snape Debate available only at Borders. Remember to reserve Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Borders and save 40 percent.
[Intro music begins to play]
Andrew: Because we have no limits and no lives, this is Mugglecast Episode 91 for May 19th, 2007.
[Intro music continues to play]
Andrew: Hey… [holds out the word for a ridiculously long time]
Eric: Yeah. [holds out the word]
Andrew: …everybody I’m back. Ben is back, too. Laura is…
Ben: I was here.
Andrew: Oh. Sorry.
Ben: I guess technically I still would be back, though. I’m back again. Back again this week.
Andrew: No, you would be back. The Ben is back, as one of the shows is called.
Eric: [sings] Ben is back.
Andrew: Laura’s back though.
Laura: Finally.
Andrew: Laura, a lot of people missed you.
Laura: Awww, well that’s good to know.
Ben: How are you feeling, Laura?
Laura: A lot better. Thank you for asking, I appreciate it.
Andrew: Oh, I don’t get it. Why would anyone get the idea that Laura was sick?
Ben: I don’t know. She was gone.
Eric: By subscribing to our Pickle Pack.
Andrew: Correct, Eric.
Laura: Oh, yep.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: Pay $30.00 dollars to see me sick.
Eric: Well the correct answer, Andrew, is – yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: [in goofy voice] That’s why I paid. We have a good show for everyone. We have a lot to go over this week. Just yesterday, we didn’t have the show planned at all, but now we have a jam packed schedule.
Ben: [laughs] Just yesterday. We’re here – yeah.
Andrew: No joke. That’s the funny thing.
Ben: You wouldn’t ever believe it.
Andrew: Yeah, you will not be able to tell after we’re through with you. I’m Andrew Sims.
Ben: I’m Ben Schoen.
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Micah: And I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
[Intro music continues to play]
Andrew: Micah Tannenbaum is in the Mugglecast news center with the past week’s top Harry Potter news stories. Hey, Micah.
News
Micah: All right, thanks, Andrew.
J.K. Rowling updated her website with a new diary entry which reinforces a recent editorial made on Leaky about spoiling Deathly Hallows for the fans. We also would like to stress that MuggleNet will not reveal any spoilers to fans prior to the release of Deathly Hallows. Just like you, we don’t want it ruined. We will also take the necessary steps after the book is released to ensure that you are not spoiled if you have yet to read the book.
Warner Brothers has officially confirmed their plans for the Order of the Phoenix premiere on July 8th in Los Angeles, California. From the press release:
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson will be in attendance. The screening will begin at 5:00 p.m. at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Both the official UK Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix site and HarryPotter.com have been updated with news design for the upcoming film, so be sure to check those out.
Speaking of the fifth film, a new clip will air on the Ellen DeGeneres Show this Monday, May 21, and this past week we caught new versions of the trailer during both the finale of Survivor: Fiji and Supernatural. You can check out all of the videos and get the latest Order of the Phoenix news on MuggleNet.com.
The June/July issue of Teen Vogue magazine has a new spread featuring Potter actors Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. Scans from the entire article can be viewed here in our galleries, and each of the three actors contributed interviews.
Finally, coinciding with their 25th anniversary, UK bookstore Waterstone’s has named Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone the best book in the past 25 years.
That’s all the news for this May 19th, 2007 edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show.
News Discussion
Andrew: All right, thank you Micah.
Ben: Actually, I want to do a little bit of news discussing this week. Something that I thought was pretty cool was the Waterstone’s thing, because aren’t they the bookstore in London?
Andrew: Pretty much.
Ben: Aren’t they the bookstore over there? Is that right, or…
Andrew: Yeah, they’re – Waterstone’s is like the…
Ben: Barnes and Noble?
Andrew: It’s like the Border’s. or the Barnes and Noble, yeah.
Ben: That’s awesome. And they named, as Micah said, Philosopher’s Stone the best book in the past 25 years.
Andrew: That’s a really bold statement.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: Best book.
Ben: They don’t leave any – yeah,there’s no grey area there. Best. I mean…
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: …best is the best, so I thought that was pretty cool.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Hey guys, that’s like us at the Podcast Awards. Oh, we were People’s Choice.
Ben: Oh yeah. [laughs]
Eric: Sorry.
Andrew: Actually, reading this now, it’s the top 25 books of the past 25 years voted for by you. So.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: This wasn’t completely…
Laura: Oh.
Ben: It wasn’t me, it was you. It was you who did it.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: It’s probably based off of, like, total sales and stuff. I guess. So, it’s still pretty big. Rounding out the top 5: The Time Travelers Wife, Northern Lights (His Dark Materials). One of those Philip Pullman novels), Bird Song…
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: …and the DaVinci Code. So…
Eric: Hmmm.
Andrew: Interesting.
Eric: DaVinci Code is a good book, but I wouldn’t consider it one of the Top, you know 5…
Laura: No, me neither.
Eric: Of the best… It’s not very well…
Micah: Eric, it was voted on by you, so…
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, so it’s your fault.
Ben: Oh, yeah. I don’t know why you did that.
Eric: There’s room for – yeah.
Andrew: Actually, It’s kind of strange that one of the novels in the His Dark Materials series was No. 3.
Ben: That is kind of strange because that- to me, it doesn’t carry the same clout that Harry Potter does.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Right.
Laura: No, it really doesn’t.
Eric: Or any book. I mean, there are a lot of good books in there, like Steven King and also – I mean, what was it…
Ben: Does anything really compare to this, though? In all honesty? Do you really think you can compare it too Harry Potter? Do you know what I mean?
Andrew: No, no. I don’t think so.
Laura: No, I don’t think so.
Micah: No.
Andrew: I’m looking at the details of this Philip Pullman book and it was released in March of this year. So… [laughs] Okay, maybe not the most accurate list they can put together.
Eric: You J.R.R. Tolkien has a new book out.
Andrew: Oh, really?
Eric: And he’s been dead for a couple of decades.
Andrew: Oh, a Life of Pi is in this list. I’m a Life of Pi fan.
Eric: What happened is his son, naturally, edits, or illustrates, or co-writes the books, but it was actually like J.R.R.’s ideas in half-written books, is my impression? So, it’s his new book
that we got in at Borders where I work: The Children of Hurian. Hurian, as in H-U-R-I-A-N. So, it’s really cool because we are selling this J.R.R. Tolkien book. People come in asking for the new J.R.R. book and we are like you know, “Wow.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But it’s cool.
Andrew: Eric thinks…
Ben: Eric, since you work there, I was going to ask do you ever have people come in and ask, ‘do you have the new Harry Potter book?’ Really niave people who don’t know that it’s not out yet?[laughs] Do you know what I mean?
Eric: It’s really interesting. Yeah, I know what you mean, and it’s really interesting. We have some people that will do that, but we have big signs by the entrances that say ‘Pre-order, release July 21st’. So, unless they don’t read then the door pretty much stops them.
Andrew: Are you guys making preparations already for the book, or have you heard any ‘talk’ about all this stuff we’re going to do.
Eric: Well, we do have a few really cool ideas. I’ll be, of course, wearing my robes. You know how that goes does at all these cool events.
Andrew: Yeah.
Book Security
Eric: No, but what you guys don’t realize is that bookstores are actually taking a very, very, very larger than ever kind of – there’s, like, so much security on these books.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Like, even more than was before. There is absolutely, like, major, major security that Warner Brothers has obviously binding every single bookstore…
Andrew: Or Scolastic…
Eric: That is selling the book.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Or Scolastic. Sorry, did I say Warner Brothers?
Andrew: Yeah. Yes, you did.
Eric: I give them more credit, then they have, but no, it’s – you can’t actually, we can’t actually put the books, I think on the floor until, like three hours before we sell the books? Like wecan’t actually shelf them, or anything. They have to be in the back room, locked in a safe with a tarp that is fireproof and flame retardant and all sorts of stuff.
Andrew: [laughs] No.
Laura: Oh my god.
Andrew: Fire retardant?
Laura: YOu got to be kidding me? [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, I’m dead serious. It’s actually – they supply the flame retardant blanket, but we actually have to… Yeah, so it’s pretty intense. So, yeah, we have cool plans going on, but uhhh…
Micah: Isn’t that a little a bit overboard? I mean, I…
Laura: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking…
Micah: I remember when the news first came out about how the books were supposed to be delivered and how Scolastic is keeping them at these secret areas around the country.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: And when they get to the stores, there only going to get there, something like the day before and there locked down in these padlocks. And nobody can even open them until the hour before…
Ben: [chuckles] Yeah.
Micah: …the book is suppose to come out.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. No, no. It’s true. But it’s because they don’t want it spoiled. I mean, this is like…
Micah: It’s a book, though! I don’t know… It seems a little intense to me.
Andrew: You know what?
Eric: Hey, hey, hey! Are you saying it’s just a book?!
Andrew: Hold on a second. Hold on.
Eric: Just a book?!
Andrew: Micah’s got a good point, and I remember with Half-Blood Prince I was talking with my dad about this right before it came out and he’s like ‘Why is there so much ‘I think Jo’s just trying to, you know, create all this hype so she can earn some extra money.’ And I mean, that’s not necessarily true, however, Micah’s right.
Ben: It was your dad that said that.
Andrew: Yeah, because he was kept seeing the report on T.V. Well, you know, Micah’s right. There is a lot of security for this book and this doesn’t happen with any book. However, this is the final book, and this sort of is a good transition into the spoilers thing that Jo talked about on her website earlier this week.
Micah: Can I just say, so I don’t get a lot of e-mails. I know I said that it’s just a book, but I kind of meant that in a – I don’t know. I didn’t mean it… I know it’s the last and final book, but it’s still a book.
Laura: No…
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: I know what you mean.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Like, I remember…
Micah: Why not just have the delivery trucks be surrounded by a motorcade as it comes to the store, you know?
Laura: Mhm.
Micah: You know, I just think that it’s a little bit overboard for, you know, a book.
Eric: Well Micah, they don’t have the motorcade because then that’s petrol prices and the warin Iraq.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Those are going up.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: All because of the war in Iraq. So actually the security measures are because of the war in Iraq.
Andrew: Well you know what, though?
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: It’s probably because, Micah, there already is so much hype about the books that they know people are going to try to get them. So even if they lowered their security, people would just try to get the books and then release the information online. You know what I’m saying?
Micah: It’s going to happen anyway.
Andrew: Well yeah, it’s bound to happen anyway…
[Ben and Eric laugh]
Andrew: But, you know, this way…
Eric: Still, but it…
Laura: You know, they’ve always had some of weird restrictions on the books around release time. Like, whenever I went to Baltimore for Half Blood Prince, they wouldn’t let us take pictures of the boxes. Like, they had all the boxes up by the window at the front of the store.
Ben: Yeah, you told me that. That is so weird.
Eric: Well, Laura…
Laura: And they were like, “You can’t take pictures!” And we did anyway. And then they put a tarp over it. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Well actually Laura, I know why that is too. And this is just a rumor. All these things that I’m disclosing are just ideas that I’ve gotten. I haven’t actually been privy to any special information. But what I’ve heard is, seriously, they will stop you from taking pictures. Because what they don’t want to happen is if Scholastic catches any bookstores doing any of the things that violate their strict code of conduct – we’re talking the insane rules that we just kind of laid out there. If they violate that, Scholastic will actually – and this is just an idea, just a rumor I have. That they’ll actually pull all of the – they’ll stop further Scholastic books from coming to that bookstore. So, the store itself can actually not sell anything from Scholastic.
Ben: Yeah, that does sounds right.
Laura: That’s crazy.
Ben: There’s an embargo. An embargo. Because I remember with The Order of the Phoenix, there was a store in New York City. A health food store that order three copies of the book to sell. Okay? They ordered just three copies of the book to sell and they got them in about a week beforehand and they just threw them up on the shelf. And then, [laughs] they don’t get Harry Potter anymore because of that.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Even though it’s a health food store. Don’t know why.
Laura: That happened with a Walmart store for Goblet of Fire too.
Eric: Yes. So, I guess it is true. But, I mean, that’s what I heard. It sounds really crazy. But for a bookstore to actually not be able to get those books in – like, they lose money, it’ll go out of business. That’s a serious threat for a bookstore. So, it’s fun to get yelled at by people for taking pictures of your, you know, your Harry Potter book, but seriously.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: I have open here a – Scholastic has a little webpage on their website with all the details for booksellers. And they actually have online their On Sale Date policies. And I’m reading one of them and it says that, “Restricted titles, blah-blah-blah blah-blah-blah, you must ensure that restricted titles are kept secure and not placed on any selling floor and/or in any display areas and are not sold or otherwise distributed. All resellers must ensure that their account/retail locations are aware of and abide by the on sale date. Any retail location that sells, displays or otherwise distributes a restricted title prior to its on sale date for the first time will be required immediately to take the restricted title off sale until the on sale date.” Which isn’t too bad. And they’ll also be placed on a 12-month watch list. And then the second time, they will still be on the watch list and they will not be shipped any restricted titles until the actual on sale date. For the duration of the 12-month period.
Eric: I’m sure it’s actually more scary than that.
Andrew: It is. Because it goes into, you’re liable for any lawyer costs and all that stuff.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: So, you know, they’re very serious about this.
Ben: Yeah, I wouldn’t… [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] But then again, it is the last Harry Potter book. So… [laughs]
Ben: Well how tempting would it be? I mean, would any of you mind spending 15 years in prison for breaking the embargo…
Andrew laughs
Ben: …or whatever it is….
Eric: Well…
Ben: …for stealing the book?
Andrew: Depends on how much money I make by releasing the book early.
Eric: Because there aren’t any…
Ben: Call Vegas. [laughs]
Eric: Well, there aren’t anymore Harry Potter books coming out. So I can’t really read them in prison. I suppose maybe if you read a word a day…
[Laura laughs]
Eric: …for the rest of the 15 years.
Andrew: There you go.
Jo’s Update on Spoilers
Eric: You could read Book 7 and have it, like, spread out. But I’m not even going to entertain that idea any longer. Micah, what did JKR say?
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: What do mean, what did she say?
Andrew: On the website. On the website, she made an update.
Eric: On her website, what did she say about this and about spoilers? Because you got your wish again, didn’t you?
Micah: Well, I did get a little bit of some of a update, I guess, from her.
Eric: Oh, don’t downplay it. You downplayed it two weeks in a row.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: No, no, I’m not. Okay, look, I’m not downplaying this.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: I won’t downplay it, all right? Geez, guys. No, she made an update on her site. She addressed the whole spoiler policy issue. And I know that we at MuggleNet also do a pretty good job about warning people, as far as Book 7 is going to be concerned. We did it with Half Blood Prince. We even did it on MuggleCast. I know our early episodes, we had some spoiler warnings in there.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: To ensure that people did not listen to it if they hadn’t read the book.
Andrew: Yeah. And we’ll do it again with Deathly Hallows. I mean, you know, we are going to let people know ahead of time. We’ve been getting e-mails already, [whiney voice] “What are you guys doing? Don’t spoil us!” And, granted, we did spoil a lot of people…
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: …back on our April 1st show. That was a mistake. Forgot to add in a little spoiler warning.
[Ben laughs]
Eric: We’re reformed spoiler-holics.
Laura: We won’t do it again.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: We promise.
Andrew: Harry dies in Book 7. But, basically…
[Ben, Eric, and Micah laugh]
Laura: [gasps] Andrew!
Andrew: We will warn people ahead of time…
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: Of, you know, if we – We’re not going to talk about spoilers on this show. [laughs]
Ben: Yeah. That’s not going to happen.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re going to try to avoid that.
Ben: Well, we will. But if we do, there will be fair warning, so don’t worry about it.
Andrew: If we talk about them, it’s out of anger, before the book comes out. Because someone will have spoiled it for us.
Ben: Oh, before the book comes out, you don’t have to worry about spoilers.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: But if, post-book…
Andrew: Yeah. I’ll start my, “and don’t worry…and yes, there are spoilers.” [laughs]
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Well, we are a discussion podcast. I mean, I think…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: What do you think? Do you think we’re actually going to take a break? Like the week after the book is released…
Andrew: Nooo.
Eric: Just so we can read it, and then formulate out thoughts for, maybe an episode or two after that?
Andrew: I doubt it.
Laura: It’s not going to take us a week to read the book.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: Oh, it took me a week to read.
Andrew: It takes me about a month.
Laura: We’re going to have that thing wiped out in less than…
Ben: Well, the thing is…
Laura: …24 hours.
Ben: A question for you guys: Do you think it’s better – okay it’s like saying, it’s the equivalent of, you get a carton of ice cream, okay? Do you eat it all the first night, you just devour it, and then once it’s gone, it’s gone? Or do you spread it out over…
Andrew: Depends on what flavor.
Ben: …a few weeks, over a week?
Eric: And depends on how hungry I am.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Well…
Ben: So it’s going to be dependent on how hungry you are for Harry Potter?
Andrew: Which, the answer is very hungry. Everyone will…
Ben: Yeah, I guess so.
Eric: Those are really capitalist answers.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: How hungry are you for Harry?
Eric: Depends on what flavor, depends on how hungry…
[Laura laughs]
Eric: I love that.
Micah: I think based on what we do, it’s going to be hard not to talk to each other and, you know, be careful about what we say.
Laura: The thing is, I’m going to have to be in a separate room by myself because I’m that paranoid.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: I really am.
Ben: Actually, I run MuggleNet’s Feedback Form, and so I’ll probably get it spoiled for me first.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Thank you, whoever e-mails in.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: And Laura, I plan on telling you first thing, so…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: …you don’t have to worry about locking yourself in a room either.
Eric: You can’t escape Ben’s…
Laura: Yeah, if you…
Ben: What?
Eric: You can’t escape the wrath of Ben Schoen.
Andrew: So that was Jo’s update.
Micah: It was a good update.
Andrew: It was good. Micah, I don’t think we’re going to be getting any real facts or anything new like in the ‘Rumours’ section, or in the ‘About the Books’ section until the book comes out.
Micah: Oh, I don’t know about that.
Eric: Don’t stir him up.
Micah: I think we’re, I think we’re leaning towards the door opening very, very soon.
Andrew: [laughs] What else is…
Ben: Oh, geez.
Andrew: …there big to reveal? Chapter titles? Maybe chapter titles.
Micah: Oh, you never know.
Andrew: Or a quote from the book.
Micah: You never know. You don’t know what’s going on in her mind. I mean, hey, she could…
Laura: Only Micah knows that, right?
Micah: She could decide, “May is the month for me to go out there and update my site a couple times.”
Andrew: Well, she has.
Ben: It’s true.
Micah: Exactly, so, I mean, little things are starting to change around the site. I wouldn’t be surprised, guys.
Andrew: I guess.
Micah: I’m telling you.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Well, just remember, Micah. Keep this philosophy at heart: when Jo closes a door, she opens a window.
Laura: Something that I’m kind of expecting an update on is what she’s going to do for the book.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Oh, yeah! Yeah, you know, that would be a good door thing.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Like, her big announcement for the – yeah, yeah, well, yeah. [laughs] It should be soon, right?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: I mean…
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: …we found out in May…
Laura: I’m kind of surprised we haven’t heard anything yet.
Andrew: Yeah. We found out in May, when Half-Blood Prince – for the Half-Blood Prince release. That was, that was a May announcement, wasn’t it?
Laura: I thought it was April.
Andrew: Okay, well, point is it’s time. [laughs] So…
Laura: Yeah, it really is time.
Eric: What’s next?
Harry Potter Site Updates
Andrew: Well, HarryPotter.com and HarryPotter.co.uk both received Order of the Phoenix updates. MuggleNet gave everyone an exclusive preview of the .com site the day before it went live. What do you guys think? I like it. It’s okay.
Eric: I like the music.
Laura: Yeah. I mean…
Ben: I just don’t…
Laura: I think it looks a lot like all the other sites they’ve put up.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I, I – it’s fairly standard.
Laura: Yeah.
Ben: I wouldn’t say it’s impressive, really.
Andrew: Yeah. I think the most interesting about both websites is that the music sounds like it’s from the movie. It’s not just your…
Laura: Yeah, it does.
Andrew: …generic, you know, like, lame music. And…
Ben: What that reminds me of, is if you – it reminds me of the DVD menu on the – when you buy the DVDs.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: I know it sounds weird, but…
Andrew: Right.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: I’m going to turn it up now.
[Music from website begins playing]
Andrew: And, I mean, I really like it. It’s very whimsical.
Laura: I really like it, too.
Andrew: I really – and I made this mistake. It’s actually Nicholas Hooper who is composing the soundtrack. And I really like it. He puts a new spin on John Williams, his work.
Laura: Mhm. Yeah, I like it a lot.
Andrew Yeah.
Laura: I thought the Goblet of Fire soundtrack was kind of boring, so…
Andrew: It was…
Laura: I kind of like hearing this stuff.
Andrew: It was all right.
Eric: I found it – it was an adventure movie, I mean, action kind of…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: …dominated.
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: But this seems less – maybe we just aren’t using the military kind of, totalitarian, because this sounds more like Chris Columbus’s movies.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s very happy.
Eric: It’s very rich.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: It’s very happy, but very rich in all sorts of instruments that sound magical, obviously.
Andrew: If you listen to the whole clip, it’s about – the whole loop that plays on the site is close to five minutes long and it seems to me, listening to it, it seems to me that it’s broken up into sections, like it’s six songs mashed into one.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: It goes from the whimsical stuff to Hedwig’s theme, like remix. It’s got some different effects to it, which I really liked by the way. It seems to jump around. So, they’re really giving people a nice little sneak peak, and I really like it. You guys do too?
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, so when’s the soundtrack due out?
Andrew: Uh, I don’t know, actually, no. I don’t know.
Ben: Who here owns all of the soundtracks?
Andrew: Errr, I don’t.
Laura: I don’t.
Micah: I don’t.
Eric: I own one, two, and three.
Laura: I only have three.
Eric: I have the Richard Harris version of Chamber of Secrets, and I think I also bought the Harry version, because remember they had five different characters for the Chamber of Secrets soundtrack?
Laura: Yeah. Why would you want to buy the same CD five times?
Eric: That’s the unfortunate thing.
Andrew: I’m looking on Amazon.com right now, and they have the release date set at July 10th, so…
Eric: That’s cool.
Andrew: Three days before the movie comes out, which is not bad. Yeah, so you guys might remember that we had a little Goblet of Fire soundtrack contest on MuggleCast last year, and we gave away some CDs and that was a great success. So maybe, hopefully we can do that again with the Order of the Phoenix soundtrack. I’m looking forward to it, I think it will be good. I think Nicholas Hooper sounds like a good composer. Nothing really else big happened in the news this week, right Micah?
Eric: But, this summer we have plenty of stuff.
Announcements
Andrew: Yes we do. Moving onto the announcements, we have – let’s see here – five live podcasts scheduled so far that we’ll be at.
Ben: Five? Five?
Andrew: Yeah, we’re going to kick it off with the UK premiere as a Leaky Mug, the US premiere as another Leaky Mug. The UK premiere is looking like me, Jamie, and Kevin, and then also with Melissa and John from Leaky, and the US premiere is Ben, and Laura will be there, too, with Leaky Folks. Then Enlightening 2007 is going to be me, Ben, Jamie, and Micah. The Deathly Hallows release is hopefully going to be everyone. Eric, are you coming state side for the book or no?
Eric: No, but I’ll mention in another – like in a minute.
Andrew: Okay.
Ben: Are you going to be working that night?
Eric: Uh, I’ll let you know in a minute.
Andrew: And then we also have Prophecy. We’re going to wrap it up with Prophecy. We’re looking into maybe doing a couple other shows, nothing guaranteed yet, but we know that a lot of people – well, I won’t say anything yet. So…
Ben: What are you talking about?
Andrew: Doing a couple extra shows this summer.
Ben: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: So, we’ll keep you guys updated. It’s a very busy summer, though, and it’s hard getting everyone around.
Eric: Yeah, so…
Andrew: So, that is that. Eric go ahead.
Eric: So, I don’t know exactly. I actually won’t be at Prophecy this year guys, I wanted to let you know.
Ben: Weren’t you already registered?
Andrew: Yeah, weren’t you?
Eric: Yeah, it actually was…
Ben: If anyone’s looking for a Prophecy registration…
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: No, no, no no. I’ve actually got a few ideas that Prophecy is going to be really good, and really, really fun.
Andrew: It is.
Eric: A little birdie told me, so I want you guys to have fun. I won’t actually be there. I know, I’m sorry, I’m just completely overwhelmed with school here because we don’t get a summer break until November. So…
Andrew: That stinks.
Eric: This southern hemisphere thing is kind of funny. The UK/US premieres and stuff, I really don’t think I’ll be there, but I’ll be there in spirit, and if anyone is in New Zealand or Australia, come to the Borders in Wellington, because that’s probably where I’ll be. In my robes.
Andrew: Sweet. Well, you can hold a sort of MuggleNet event.
Ben: You should hold one.
Eric: I was thinking about that. I want to invite you guys to New Zealand, actually. You can come here.
Ben: Ummm, sorry. We won’t be there.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: We have plans.
Andrew: Yeah, sorry.
Laura: We’ll be there in spirit, though.
Eric: Come on, guys. Actually, there’s a lot of Australian hype. You guys would be surprised…
Andrew: No, no, no I’m sure it is. We actually have a lot of MuggleCast listeners in Australia. I don’t know about New Zealand exactly, but Australia, you know…
Eric: Yeah, yeah. No, it is a big deal. I’ve been getting some comments and e-mails saying are you going to do something?
Andrew: Cool.
Eric: Right now I don’t know. I’ll keep you posted on it. What I’m doing for Book 7.
Andrew’s Apple Store Appearance
Andrew: Keep us posted. You know what I was doing the other day? I was at the local Apple store, where I had a sort of mini-event. My Shawnee High School TV tech program, we put on a little student showcase event, and I did a thing on MuggleCast and how MuggleCast is made, and I posted on Mugglenet earlier in the day about it, and we had about 15 people show up. It was a lot of fun meeting all the fans, there are some pictures on Facebook if everybody wants to see some pictures, and everyone got a shirt, and they really enjoyed their time, so I want to thank everyone who did come out to that. Also, birthday shout-out to one of the girls who was there, Hannah E. who recently turned 13 the other day. We usually don’t do birthday shout outs on the show, but she was a very nice little girl who came out. She was very cool, she was there with her friend, and that was a lot of fun. Also, Laura, one of your big fans was there.
Laura: Oh, really?
Andrew: Yeah, a girl named Ashley.
[Phone rings]
Andrew: Age ten, actually. She is…
Laura: Awww.
Andrew: Yeah, she was very cool.
Micah: She is calling you right now, actually.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: So maybe not your biggest fan, Laura, because she is a little ten-year old.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Yeah, but she wanted me to tell you on the show that she also thinks that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the best Potter film yet.
Laura: Thank you, I appreciate that. I am telling you from the mouth of the future generation, right there.
Andrew: [laughs] And we tried calling you but you did not answer your phone you saw that it was me, so maybe next time. [laughs]
Laura: No, I was at work, I was at work…
Andrew: That is what I told her.
Micah: Oh, come on you could have picked up the phone.
Laura: I was slaving away at the Target Guest Services desk.
Micah: Andrew picked up today in phone during class when you called him…
Andrew: Yeah, return the favor.
Micah: You could pick up the phone at work.
Laura: You were in class?
Micah: Yeah, trying to get him in trouble.
Andrew: Yeah, I was in class, yeah I was.
Laura: You are so full of crap.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: No he is not.
Andrew: Somehow Micah knows all the details. [laughs]
Laura: You had me feeling really bad for a second.
Andrew: Yeah so shout out to Ashley and Hannah and everyone else who came out it was a lot of fun and about 15 people came up and I posted that the day of, so it was pretty cool having all those people come out and all the kids from my school could not believe it they were like, “Who are all these MuggleCast fans?” [mumbles]
So, also don’t forget to vote for us in Podcast Alley and do’nt forget you have a little under a month to sign up for Pickle Pack, it’s the official membership service of the MuggleCast. You will get a new video blog everyday from one of the co-hosts. So, I’m on Sundays, Ben’s on Saturdays, Laura you’re on Tuesdays?
Laura: Monday.
Eric: Monday.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Eric is Tuesday, Jamie is Wednesday, Micah is Thursday, Kevin is Friday.
Andrew: It’s a lot fun.
Ben: Thank you.
Andrew: We’ve been doing some crazy stuff and…
Eric: And by the way – sorry to cut you off Andrew, I just have to know: were you or were you not wearing your seatbelt in your latest Blickle?
Andrew: I was, I was, I was. In my latest Blickle I was recording my Blickle and driving at the same time. You have a little under a month. We will stop taking registrations on June 16th at which it will be closed for at least a year. Don’t know if we’ll ever open it up again so, you know, buy now. And, of course, all proceeds go to the show for all of our summer plans and we appreciate your support very, very much. I think that is about it for announcements, just a little side note: my birthday is on Tuesday, so if you want to send me gifts, just e-mail me and I will provide you with a mailing address.
New P.O. Box
Eric: Oh, if you want to send him gifts, do we not have a new P.O. Box for that?
Laura: Oh, that is right. We do.
Andrew: [laughs] We do have a P.O. Box.
Ben: This is another announcement isn’t it?
Andrew: It sort of is. Laura, go for it. [laughs]
Laura: We now have a P.O. Box that is going to be:
P.O. Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia 30028
Ben: And if you just love writing Moundridge you can still send it here. It’s gonna end up in Georgia.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I did the forwarding thing today. Oh by the way, Emerson Spartz, the ever – you know you never hear anything about him anymore, we are going to have a real Spy On Spartz on my Blickle next week.
Eric: Oh.
Ben: Because Emerson is going to be here for my graduation, so come watch, get Pickle Pack, you can see me and Emerson having a good time at the Schoen residence.
[Eric laughs]
Listener Rebuttal: The Symbol and Azkaban
Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Lets move onto a couple of rebuttals now. Just a couple. We got some feedback last week about the symbol, that symbol that you guys did a great job discussing. The first one comes from Dusty Stout, 25 of Utah. He writes:
“I wondered why no one had noticed that Azkaban was a huge triangle. It hit me right away that it resembled the Rune Symbol on the UK Cover. Do you think there is a connection? If so, do you suppose the trio pays a visit to the famed wizard prison? You guys are great. Keep it cool, I mean, Pickley. Thanks, Dusty!”
Micah, what do you think about this?
Micah: I think that it is a good theory. It’s just another one of those things we can add. I know Ben was going over it last week saying we have so many good theories but we really have no basis to go on.
Ben: Confirm or deny…
Micah: Yeah, exactly.
Ben: …whether or not it’s true.
Micah: It is just a symbol. It is just complete speculation at this point. I think it’s cool, I mean, why not? Why not send the trio to Azkaban at some point? But, I just don’t know. To me it jjust seems like a symbol to me than anything else. I do not know if it is representative of the prison, per se.
Laura: Do you think Jo would work with the movies on that? Like…
Andrew: That’s a good point.
Laura: …tell them they specifically needed to make Azkaban look like this?
Andrew: that would make sense.
Ben: She would actually. Because I remember hearing that she had a lot of say in something in the first movie with how…
Eric: It was the Voldemort and going back to…
Ben: Yeah, the Voldemort entering the Godric’s Hollow. She had a lot of say of how that was filmed. So, if something was crucial, if that symbol really matters as much as we seem to think it does, then…
Micah: If it is Azkaban then what does the circle represent, you know, with the line down the middle? You know, how does that play in?
Eric: Time.
Micah: Well…
Ben: Oh, a line.
Eric: Time is circular.
Ben: It means Azkaban is going to be split.
Eric: In half.
Ben: Then they’re going to form a circle around it.
Eric: By a giant circle.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Yeah. [laughs] By a giant circle.
MuggleCast 91 Transcript (continued)
Listener Rebuttal: The Symbol and Spelling Out Voldemort’s Name
Andrew: Well, actually speaking of shapes, we got another email from Chrissy, 15, of Tabernacle, New Jersey. I know, I know. It’s from New Jersey.
Eric: That’s a cool name.
Andrew: Chrissy?
Eric: Tabernacle.
Andrew: Oh, Tabernacle. That’s actually a nearby town to me. Close to me.
Eric: Well it’s a holy name, but…
Andrew: Okay, yes, you’re right, actually. This is a long email; I’ll try to get through it quick.
I really enjoyed your discussion of the symbol on the cover of ‘Deathly Hallows,’ but while listening I came up with a theory that you didn’t mention. I thought that because this book is probably mostly about Voldemort’s Horcruxes, maybe the symbol has to do with Voldemort. I know that he already has the Dark Mark but that has more to do with his Death Eaters. And if you wanted to make a Horcrux of some kind the Dark Mark would be far too obvious. The triangle and the split circle could very easily represent Voldemort. You were talking about the points of the triangles representing three things. So I thought what values does Voldemort most care about? Power, fame, and wealth. This seems to be all he wants out of life and the triangle could represent these things. The split circle could be eternal life and that has been what Voldemort has been looking for all along, right? The split in the circle could represent that fact that Voldemort lives divided lives; he is both Tom Riddle and Voldemort. Or the fact that he split his soul when he created the Horcruxes.
Interesting point. She goes on to say,
And I know this is going to sound crazy but you can create every letter in Voldemort from this symbol, that’s on the spine. If you don’t believe me then look at this picture.
She attached a photo that we’ll put on the site if you guys want to take a look at this, go ahead. It’s kind of clever; basically, every letter of Voldemort’s name could somehow fit in the triangle. So…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …take a look at that.
Eric: That’s pretty sweet.
Andrew: It’s actually kind of interesting because they all seem to fit pretty well, except for the “R.” You can’t really make a – you can make a lower-case R out of the word Voldemort.
Eric: Ohhh. Oh, yeah.
Ben: And the sideways “E,” that doesn’t look…
Andrew: Yeah. But I mean…
Eric: Well, no, I thought it was very clever.
Andrew: It is. It’s a good idea. Because I mean, yeah, you couldn’t do the letter “H,” you couldn’t do it with the letter, like, “Q” or the letter “B” – well, you might be able to do it with “B.” But as follow…
Ben: I think it just spells – I think it just spells “Ooooooo,” like…
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: With all the circles, I think it just spells “Ooooooo.” [laughs]
Micah: I don’t really know about the whole power, fame, and wealth aspect of it, because – power I can definitely see, fame sort of, but wealth? I don’t really think he’s out to achieve wealth.
Eric: No, no, that’s what flawed.
Micah: Or that in any way…
Eric: Just a…
Micah: … represents him.
Eric: Specifically naming three things is a little bit different from saying it’s still Voldemort’s symbol. Like, that might be power, fear, and infamy, you know. I mean, it could be anything.
Micah: Right. No, I know, I mean she was probably just throwing out a couple of things that…
Eric: Ideas.
Micah: …they could represent. Yeah, but the wealth one I’m not too big on.
Eric: The wealth one not so much.
Andrew: I guess, but I like the idea that the triangle is split, so split lives, split ideas.
Eric: Split lives.
Andrew: You know…
Ben: But I don’t think Voldemort…
Andrew: …split Horcruxes.
Ben: …leads two lives though. I think if that symbolized anybody it’d be Snape.
Andrew: Oh, oh, yeah.
Ben: Split lives, wouldn’t that be Snape?
Eric: That’s true.
Laura: Yeah.
Ben: Because Voldemort – Tom Riddle he’s not – he does not consider himself to be Tom Riddle any longer. The only person who calls him that…
Eric: No, no, no.
Ben: …is Dumbledore. So…
Eric: He’s more machine now than man. Jamie would so pat me on the back for that one.
Main Discussion: Lily’s Secret
Andrew: All right, so this week, we’re going to have a main discussion on Lily’s secret. We haven’t really discussed this much in detail and Laura or Micah, I think you guys got the idea for this discussion from an e-mail?
Micah: The e-mail that we got came from Alexander Miller, 15, from Pennsylvania, and he said that he:
“…was inspecting Jo’s website and found one of the easier unlockable accomplishments, a few pages that were cut from ‘The Sorcerer’s Stone.’ And in these pages the reader finds that originally the Sorcerer’s Stone was found in Lily and James’ vault at Gringotts, not vault seven hundred something.”
Andrew: Thirteen. [laughs]
Micah: Yeah. [laughs]
[Ben laughs]
Micah: “This cut information, plus her skill in potion making caused me to think that maybe Lily was an alchemist. I want to know what you guys think, your show is awesome. Pickles.”
Lily The Alchemist?
Laura: I think it’s definitely possible because of how good she was at potions, and you would have to be good at potions to be a good alchemist. Because the two kind of go hand in hand, you know?
Micah: And I could be completely wrong here – I don’t know alchemy at all, but I remember a couple of theories that came in originally was that, that there’s three main elements, or three main colors in alchemy. Is that true? I think white, black and red…
Laura: Yeah, that’s right.
Micah: …and so far we’ve seen Sirius, Albus, and whoever the third is going to be – they’ve all died.
Ben: Weasley. [laughs]
Micah: Or – yeah.
Eric: Ruby. Or a Weasley, yeah.
Micah: Or, Rubeus, yeah. Hagrid. So, this would kind of – I think there’s definitely an undertone of alchemy in the series, and it’s referenced a bunch of different times. So, for her to be an alchemist, I think, would be kind of interesting, and the fact that the stone was initially considered to be in the Potters’ vault, I don’t know if we should take that as a clue towards anything.
Ben: What about…
Laura: Well, also…
Ben: What was I going to say? Didn’t J.K. Rowling say that Harry’s parents’ jobs were significant?
Andrew: They…
Ben: She should’ve…
Laura: She said that James didn’t need a high-paying job because he had money from his family, but she didn’t mention Lily’s, and I think that her job might be her secret. Just because, I mean, why would…
Ben: Do you think they were doing the same thing or do you think they would be in separate occupations?
Laura: No, I don’t think so. I think – just kind of the impression I got from Jo – what she said was that it would be separate occupations because she almost made it sound like that, James had so much family inheritance that he could’ve been doing something like working in a store in Diagon Alley, whereas Lily could’ve been, like, working as an alchemist…
Ben: Bringin’ in the big bucks?
Laura: Exactly.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: Like every woman should.
Ben: Bringin’ home the bacon.
[Laura laughs]
What Does Thrice Defied Mean?
Eric: I think it’s interesting, Lily’s possible occupation being alchemy. What I was thinking about the other day, though – this is quite interesting – was that, you know the prophecy says that the parents of the one who has the power defied Voldemort three times. Thrice, thrice defied Lord Voldemort? Well, if you guys think about it, what exactly does that mean, thrice defied? Does that mean that Lily and James Potter specifically were up against hand-to-hand combat with Voldemort, just like Harry has been, three separate times and lived? Like, what exactly would – I mean, we read these books, and they’re structured kind of like…
Ben: Well, yeah…
Laura: Well, yeah, I think they would.
Eric: …well, they’re structured like Voldemort has spent all year looking for the stone, or he’s spent all year trying to come back. You know? What exactly would the plots have been, I’d be interested to know, where Voldemort would specifically have tried to do something, and Lily and James specifically would have gotten in his way? Not to mention Frank and Alice Longbottom, who were also candidates for that. Do you think it was actually just the whole Order that was thrice defying him or, or is it specifically Lily and James were out there on their own, on a battlefield with Voldemort, as Harry has now been, defying him three times?
Laura: I think it was specific.
Ben: Yeah, I think it was, too.
Eric: I think so, too.
Laura: Because when Harry talked to Voldemort, he pretty much confirmed that both the Longbottoms and the Potters had confronted him three times each, alone. So I think they definitely did.
Eric: Yeah, but that’s so interesting. Like, what would they say, “Fancy seeing you here again, Voldemort.”
[Micah laughs]
Ben: How do they – yeah – how would they defy him, though? You know what I mean?
Micah: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. If…
Laura: They didn’t die.
Micah: Well, no. Defied means that…
Ben: No.
Micah: …that you would have to not listen to something that he said. Almost like they were…
Ben: Right. Like, how do you do defy your parents?
Micah: Right. So, were they…
Ben: You know, you don’t do chores.
Micah: …in some alliance with him? You know?
Laura: Well, I guess that could go hand in hand with, I mean, everybody thinks that – a lot of people think that Voldemort didn’t…
Ben: I wouldn’t say alliance. I don’t think alliance…
Lily The Unspeakable?
Laura: No, I don’t think so either. But, a lot of people think that Voldemort wanted Lily on his side for some reason, possibly because she was an alchemist, maybe. But that would sort of explain…
Ben: Well, something I see here is that, also, there’s the thought that she might be an Unspeakable, which would make sense…
Laura: Yes.
Ben: … why he didn’t kill her unless he had to.
Laura: Yeah.
Ben: You know, how he tried to pardon Lily. But some people think that the reason that he did that was because of Snape, because of Snape’s love for Lily. But, I don’t think Voldemort…
Laura: I don’t think so.
Ben: …would understand love enough to be sympathetic. He wouldn’t be sympathetic of that enough to make anything else.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: I don’t think he would care enough about any of his followers to care about their feelings. So, I think… Yeah.
Ben: So the Unspeakable thing makes more sense, then.
Voldemort, the Elixir of Life and Immortality
Laura: Yeah. I think that either the alchemist thing or the Unspeakable thing makes sense, because if Voldemort was looking for the Elixir of Life and Lily was an alchemist, well, there you go. But, I know that a lot of people – sorry.
Eric: Well, was he looking for the Elixir of Life before he lost his body?
Laura: No, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was looking for it anyway…
Micah: No.
Laura: … because he goes out of his way to…
Micah: Yeah, I mean, he wants immortality.
Laura: Yeah, exactly.
Ben: But I guess he thought he’d already achieved immortality because, something about Voldemort is, you have to remember what type of character he has and he’s a very arrogant person. So, he thinks his Horcrux plan is invincible. He does not recognize weakness, I don’t think. So, I don’t think Voldemort would be on a quest for the Sorcerer’s Stone because he already thinks that he has a foolproof plan right now.
Laura: Well, if he thought he had a foolproof plan, why go and kill Harry?
Andrew: Because Harry’s…
Eric: Well, I thought that was to make his seventh and final Horcrux.
Ben: Because of the prophecy. Because the prophecy drove him to do it.
Laura: Yeah, but if he thought that his Horcruxes would save him anyway, why would he go do it?
Eric: Yeah, that’s true.
Laura: That’s my point. I’m saying that even though he thought his Horcruxes were foolproof, I wouldn’t put it past him to go the extra step. I think he would.
Ben: Well, no, the reason that he went to kill Harry was because the prophecy said that this boy is basically going to be his downfall, didn’t it?
Laura: It did, but it didn’t say anything…
Ben: The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.
Laura: Yeah, but it didn’t say anything about Horcruxes, it just said the Dark Lord. I think that if Voldemort truly thought that his Horcrux plan was completely infallible, he would have – I think that he would have been more likely to try and coerce Harry to come to his side instead of trying to kill him. But, the point is, he doesn’t think that he’s foolproof and I think that he would go out of his way to try and do whatever he could.
Eric: You guys forget that Voldemort only had six Horcruxes at the time of his death – or only had five Horcruxes?
Andrew: Six.
Eric: His soul was only split into six pieces. Based on, I think – I’m actually almost positive about this – but based on Half-Blood Prince, he only had five Horcruxes there for six pieces of soul at the time that he went to kill Harry, so he didn’t think his Horcruxes were imperfect, because he was aiming to have seven pieces of soul. He was aiming to have his soul in seven pieces.
Micah: Yeah, I mean, he wants immortality. That’s the thing, and he fears death. The way to make sure he’s immortal is to have the Sorcerer’s Stone. And what Laura was saying, I think, is correct – if Lily was an alchemist, then she would definitely be on the top of his list of people to have on his side, and maybe even Snape used that as a reason to keep her alive if he really did have feelings for her, by going to him and saying, “spare her,” because she’s useful.
Ben: He convinced her that way.
Eric: Well, there’s an argument.
Micah: She’s useful to you.
Eric: We’re saying that Lily might have been an alchemist because she was good at potions. Well, guess who else was good at potions? Snape. And Voldemort had him. So, is it possible that the good side had Lily and the bad side had Snape for potions?
Lily and Snape
Laura: Well, you know, someone actually pointed something out about Lily and Snape – how they were both good at potions. And you know, whenever you read back on Snape’s Worst Memory, I almost get the impression that Lily is offended beyond the point that a normal person would be when someone you don’t like insults you. And someone kind of thought that maybe they were friends – you know, a lot of people think that there was a whole secret love affair going on. I don’t. But they think that they might have taken some upper-level classes together and that Lily might have actually helped Snape the way that Hermione helps Harry.
Ben: Lab partners, or something.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Well, lab partners is plausible, but I think it was unrequieted, whatever it was. She felt sorry for Snape.
Laura: No, I – I don’t think that they liked each other that way.
Eric: No, I totally think that she felt sorry for Snape but didn’t actually – I mean, she… Lily’s the kind of person who strikes me as – she respects, you know, humanity. She’s not going to insult Snape because he had bad parentage. She’s not like that. She’s smarter than that. But, at the same time, I don’t think she was in love with Snape at all…
Laura: No.
Eric: I just think she was nice enough – nice enough to him and genuinely nice enough that it just sparked… He had a crush on her and he wanted to act on it, but she just didn’t feel that way. But at the same time, she’s going to stop James Potter from completely humiliating him.
Laura: Do you really think that he liked her, though? Like…
Eric: I’m saying if he did, I don’t think it was…
Laura: As a crush? I don’t know…
Eric: I don’t think it was plutonic.
Laura: I don’t really think he did.
Eric: I don’t think it was returned love.
Andrew: There had to be some sort of connection there, if they’re both into potions and they are sort of what Ben was suggesting to be, lab partners. Because if two people are working together and they might have been helping each other with homework or something, or you know, just a simple thing like a lab, they would have a connection.
Laura: Yeah, exactly. And I always got the impression that, yeah, Snape was good at potions, but he always wanted to be a Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher because that’s what he was better at. That’s what I always thought and it would sort of make sense that Lily would be a better potion maker than Snape and that maybe she helped him out while they were in school together.
Eric: That’s an interesting analysis.
What Would Lily Provide Voldemort?
Laura: Aside from the prophecy, what do you think would be in the Department of Mysteries that Voldemort might want to get to if Lily were an Unspeakable?
Micah: The door. Whatever’s in there, I don’t know.
Eric: If he knows about the door.
Laura: You don’t think that it would like – he would melt if he opened it? If it’s love?
Eric: Oh, he would do more than melt.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Melting isn’t just – I mean this is Voldemort, come on.
Micah: What about the weapon that he has now that he didn’t have previously? Do you think she could provide him that?
Eric: Well, that’s what they thought. Wasn’t the prophecy the weapon that everyone was talking about? Because we found out in Book 5…
Ben: The love was the weapon, wasn’t it?
Eric: I don’t know, was it? I don’t think so. I think the prophecy. Because he wanted the prophecy and the Order was talking about him maybe getting a secret weapon that was more powerful than ever.
Ben: Well, I…
Micah: But he never heard the prophecy. He still hasn’t heard the prophecy.
Eric: Yeah, I know.
Ben: And what was the weapon, though? What was the – what is the weapon? Do we know?
Eric: I’m saying what if the prophecy was the weapon? Knowing exactly what…
Micah: But didn’t Lupin say that he has it now, and he didn’t have it before? Or was it Sirius? I forget, but I think it was Sirius that said it.
Laura: Ah, the connection to Harry through his blood.
Eric: I think they said they were looking to have it now. They were looking to have something now that they didn’t have before. I don’t think they actually have it.
Why Didn’t Lily Have a Wand?
Andrew: Another point that we wanted to bring up was, did she loose her powers at some point before her death, because in neither the book or the movie do we see or hear mention of Lily holding a wand or trying to fire curses at Voldemort. She just pleads with him. So if she had a wand or was able to perform wandless magic, why wouldn’t she have done so to protect Harry? Uh…
Ben: Oh! That is another anomaly – another abnormality about that night. We just don’t know. [laughs]
Andrew: Well it just seems to me that…
Ben: Why wouldn’t she? Why wouldn’t she? If you had a gun, why wouldn’t you use it if someone is trying to kill you?
Andrew: Because she was caught off guard. Maybe she couldn’t get – it would seem right, but…
Laura: I don’t think so.
Ben: Here is the question: Do wizards carry their wands with them absolutely everywhere they go? Because if you think about – I guess there is no real equivalent to what we have right now, but I’m sure you’d leave it somewhere. “Oh geez, I forgot my wand.” You know? I bet that happens.
Andrew: Well, they’ve come to rely on it though, so maybe they do carry it with them all the time…
Laura: Yeah. And see, at a time of heightened danger like that, they were already barricaded in their house, hiding from them…
Ben: They thought they were okay, though? They figured when you choose a Secret-Keeper – if I was to choose a Secret-Keeper, I would choose someone that I trust.
Eric: Well, they should have chosen Dumbledore, but that’s beyond the point.
Laura: Yeah, but I mean the thing is…
Ben: Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
Laura: I think that Lily and James were probably very smart people, and I think that they were aware of all the risks that were out there, and even if you have a Secret-Keeper, a Secret-Keeper can be tortured, and they can spill your secrets. So I think that they were perfectly aware of what was going on. I don’t see why they wouldn’t be on guard for something like that, especially considering that they had defied him three times before…
Ben: Well, what if they were putting the kid to bed? You know? They’re not – I’m just saying, what if…
Eric: Oh yeah, “I’m going to put Harry to bed.”
Ben: What if they were getting ready for bed? What if their wand – what if she had already stowed it away at her bedside, and Voldemort busted in? See…
Eric: Ohhh…
Ben: There are so many individual factors, individual details that we don’t know, that we can’t really know…
Andrew: Well…
Eric: I think it was…
Ben: We can’t really make any type of judgment.
Laura: I don’t know. The impression that I have gotten from the way the scene was written, was that they were in a living area type-thing, like a living room.
Ben: Now in the movie, they were in…
Andrew: They were in a bedroom
Laura: Like a kitchen or a public area of the house…
Ben: And in the movie they were in Harry’s bedroom, correction?
Eric: Well, not at first…
Laura: Well, Lily was. Lily ran in there.
Eric: If you listen to – if you read the book, Prisoner of Azkaban actually, when Harry is playing Quidditch and he hears his parent’s voice, isn’t it that James says, “Lily, take the boy. I’ll fend him off.” You know, “for now” or something – doesn’t he say something like that, “Lily take Harry up…”
Laura: He says, “Take Harry and run.”
Ben: So, then she wouldn’t need her wand, so that whole discussion was pointless. [laughs]
Micah: Well… No well…
Andew: No, why wouldn’t she?
Laura: I don’t see why she wouldn’t need her wand. She’s running from Voldemort…
Ben: She wouldn’t…
Laura: Of course she needs her wand.
Micah: Sorry. [laughs] I was going to say…
Eric: I think it is interesting… Yeah, Micah.
Did Lily Know The Prophecy?
Micah: What if Lily’s big secret is she knew the prophecy, and that is why she didn’t have her wand? She knew that she had to die to protect Harry.
Eric: Ohhh. You know what actually…
Andrew: That is not bad, but…
Eric: That is an interesting question.
Ben: Yeah it is.
Eric: What if Lily and James both knew the prophecy? What if Dumbledore shared it with them?
Andrew: Well if Lily knew, I think James…
Laura: Do you think Dumbledore would lie to Harry about that though?
Andrew: Dumbledore would lie to Harry…
Eric: Did he lie to Harry? Did he tell Harry that he didn’t tell…
Laura: Well, at the end of Order of the Phoenix, he said that there were…
Micah: I know what you are saying.
Laura: Only three people who knew, and that was Harry, Dumbledore, and Trelawney, but she didn’t…
Ben: All right.
Eric: Three living people who knew? Yeah, three living people who knew. Honestly, if you knew the prophecy…
Laura: Yeah, but I would think that…
Eric: …the responsible thing for Dumbledore to do would be that he would have shared that prophecy with both Frank and Alice Longbottom and the two Potters.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, no, no! That would be a bad idea, because…
Andrew: Why?
Laura: Yeah.
Ben: Because, that gives – there are more people now that know that prophecy, and who here has read MacBeth? Anybody familiar with the story?
Micah: A while ago.
Laura: Uh.
Eric: You shouldn’t say, “MacBeth.”
Ben: MacBech hears the three witches’ prophecy about…
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Ben: About him becoming this duke or this king, the king of the whatever – someone send in an email and tell me the exact story, but anyway…
[Micah laughs]
Eric: It’s slightly different, but…
Ben: The point of the story is that – I was taught in my English class at least – was that when MacBeth hears the three witches prophesizing his greatness, him becoming great and all these things and his downfall, that’s when MacBeth goes nuts. Okay, it’s because he creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Okay, so it’s the paradox, when these people say these things, are they really going to come true, or do they come true because of the choices that you make? And, if if Voldemort – if Lily and James, and Frank and Alice were to know that their kid could be pinpointed as the one that is going to destroy Voldemort, it could just, it would just completely mess things up. I mean, what would you do if you were told that your kid was The Chosen One, you know?
Eric: Well, that…
Ben: You know? Beause they have that over their head the rest of their lives.
Eric: No, no, no, no, I think they would respond – yeah, but I think they would respond more amicably than that. Why weren’t Frank and Alice under the Fidelius Charm, hiding from, you know, what’s the deal with that? Why weren’t they – why were they…
Laura: Because…
Ben: Because Dumbledore was sure that Volde – wait a second, why wouldn’t they be? Why wouldn’t they?
Eric: That Voldemort would choose…
Ben: But were they though?
Laura: Yeah, I don’t think that we’ve ever really heard anything about that.
Eric: Well Bellatrix got to them.
Laura: I think they’d already been tortured.
Eric: And tortured them. I dunno, wasn’t that on the same night though?
Ben: No no, they hadn’t, they hadn’t because Voldemort was already gone, they hadn’t already been tortured. Or had they?
Laura: No, I think that…
Eric: Oh, I’m forgetting again.
Laura: I’m saying that they’d been tortured by the time Lily and James died.
Ben: Hold on a second, weren’t they – weren’t they tortured after Voldemort was vanquished?
Eric: I – yeah I think they were because they were holding… They were…
Laura: Really?
Eric: Held in court with Barty Crouch for the torture of Frank and – uhhh.
Laura: Yeah, but that just means that’s when they caught them.
Eric: Uhhh.
Ben: Right, but I thought it was a sort of after-the-fact thing.
Eric: But I mean it’s interesting.
Laura: I always thought it was before they died.
Ben: It was before they went crazy and on a rampage, and decided
to…
Eric: Yeah it’s interesting in retrospect that – well I think it might have been before the Dark Lord died though, because all his Death Eaters were kind of disbanded after he disappeared, they were all scared, they had to go back to leading normal lives.
Ben: Right, but look who it was here.
Laura: Yeah, so…
Ben: It was Bellatrix.
Eric: Yeah it was Bellatrix and Barty…
Ben: She’s the one who is loyal.
Eric: And a bunch of punk kids, you know? Yeah, yeah. So…
Ben: Here, I’m Googling it.
Eric: Yeah, so it’s – it’s really curious I think that…
Micah: But why wouldn’t they know about the prophecy, though? I mean, think about it, why would they just go into hiding? I mean, Dumbledore…
Eric: No I don’t think it means…
Micah: …just comes up and says, “Hey Potters, you have to go into hiding, but I’m not telling you why.” You know?
Eric: Yeah I don’t think it’s one of those…
Micah: They had an idea, yeah.
Eric: Self-fufilling prophecies either.
Laura: Yeah, I really don’t think they knew, because Dumbledore pretty much came out to Harry in that chapter and said, everything that I’ve ever lied to you about, I’m going to tell the truth right now.
Micah: But see…
Eric: Oh pish posh, he didn’t tell them anything.
Laura: So I don’t think he would leave out…
Eric: Pish posh. He still won’t tell him anything.
Micah: No, no. Okay, a secret. But is it a secret though? Is it a secret to us, or the entire wizarding world. That’s my thing. Is it, you know – because if we say Lily was an alchemist, well obviously people would have known that she was. You know? It’s – but if, like we’re saying, if she knew the prophecy, that’s a secret she’s keeping from everybody. If that makes sense, I don’t know.
Eric: Yeah, I don’t think they go boast to their neighbors.
Ben: Yeah, I don’t think she…
Laura: Yeah, that’s true.
Eric: Well I don’t think – I don’t know, I don’t think they’re going to go an boast to their neighbors. “Hey, my kid is better than you kid. Hey, my kid’s going to grow up to have the power to vanquish the Dark Lord.” And I don’t think there is any rivalry between Frank and Alice’s result to that, I think it was just a responsible thing to do, to tell them about the prophecy. And whereas I understand your point Ben, with Macbeth, where like, you know, you can’t change fate and the more you try to – once you hear a prophecy you try everything to stop it, but it just comes true as a result of you, you know, trying to mess up – mess with fate. But the person who’s responsible…
Ben: Trying to stop it, yeah. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, yeah well the person who is responsible for that is Voldemort, because Dumbledore has also said the prophecy doesn’t have to come true unless Voldemort acts on it. If Voldemort chose to leave it…
Ben: They could both just walk away.
Eric: So. So yeah, they could both just walk away, but because Voldemort wasn’t going to walk away – like Frank and Alice, and James and Lily aren’t the ones who have to worry about tempting fate. You know? I think it could only make sense if they defied Voldemort three times, then they’re bound to either be killed or have another confrontation. I mean, they are the, apparently the fore-runners who go up against Voldy, so it only makes sense, kind of, that they were going to die, but I just think it would have been responsible for Dumbledore to tell them that secret. And why else would they have gone that much into hiding? I mean, I – according to Hagrid I think they said the Potters knew Voldemort was going to come looking for them. But, at the same time, that goes back to my other question. Why weren’t Frank and Alice under the Fidelius Charm?
Laura: The thing is I don’t think it would be responsible to tell four people about a propchey, something that’s supposed to be that top secret, even if it might possibly concern them. The point is, you don’t know who it concerns. For all you know, there’s another wizarding family with a kid somewhere on the other side of the country whose defied Voldemort three times…
Ben: Well I just don’t think it would be very customary I think…
Eric: No, no. Actually, I disagree with that
Ben: I bet in the magical world they have sort of taboos around things like prophecies where a per – I bet Dumbledore wasn’t even supposed to hear that prophecy. He just happened to be the witness of it. You know what I mean?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I bet if there’s a prophecy that’s made. Because you know it says at the top so-and-so Trelawney to Albus Dumbledore, and then it says who the prophecy’s about, too, right? Am I right? In Order of the Phoenix it has that. And so I bet it’s – you don’t go around telling people what’s been prophesized, cause it’s for the people in the prophecy, it’s their…
Eric: Well I think they would know…
Laura: No, considering …
Eric: They would that trying to screw with the prophecy would bring results. They aren’t stupid. They aren’t dummies.
Laura: Yeah, but how many people – how many people actually know that much about prophecies? Because when they got into the Hall of Prophecy, even Ron, who is a pure blooded wizard, who was brought up in a family – didn’t know what the orbs were.
Eric: Doesn’t mean the Potters wouldn’t’ve known.
Laura: He had no clue.
Ben: Well, isn’t Ron exceptionally ignorant though?
Eric: Especially if Lily was…
Laura: But the point – no – what I’m saying is that…
Eric: Well, yeah and, well if Lily was an Unspeakable, if Lily was an Unspeakable, she would definitely know what the prophecies were about, or a little bit more about them than the average bear.
Laura: If she were, but the point is, not everybody in the wizarding world is going to know what a prophecy is, and the . . .
Eric: Not everyone in the wizarding world was told about the prophecy. I’m suggesting that Dumbledore told Frank and Alice and James and Lily, because it concerned their children.
Laura: I just don’t think he would do something like that…
Andrew: Eric…
Micah: I’m suggesting that he told Lily and that’s it.
Laura: Yeah, I don’t think he would tell more people than he had to.
Ben: And to me it would make more sense to tell the female over the male, too, wouldn’t it? Because, it depends on how . . .
Eric: What are you, sexist?
Ben: No.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: No.
Laura: Yeah! Actually, I think it does make more sense…
Andrew: Why?
Laura: Because even Jo said that there’s no – like in her interview with Emerson and Melissa, she said that James’s love wouldn’t have saved Harry. That it was only his mother’s love that could’ve done that.
Eric: That’s crazy.
Micah: And maybe that’s the ancient magic. Maybe she had to do what she did – sacrificing herself – in order to, you know, because she knew the prophecy, she knew what she had to do effectively. I don’t know..
Eric: I think – I think it makes sense. Guys, I have to go.
Andrew: Okay. Well, all right. Well, Eric, I had a crackpot theory for you, but we’ll wait until next week.
Eric: I’m off, I’m off, I’m off.
Andrew: Why do you always have to leave? What the hell do you do?
Eric: Oh, did you?
Andrew: You’re in New Zealand . . .
Eric: Well, I’m working. I work at Borders, man, I have to go to Borders…
Andrew: Oh. Oh, okay. I was just wondering.
Eric: …beause we always record at this specific time.
Andrew: All right, okay. Well, thanks for coming on.
Eric: So you had a crackpot theory for me?
Andrew: I do. We’ll save it until next week.
Eric: All right, so bye everybody!
Andrew: All right, goodbye…
Ben: Bye.
Laura: Bye.
MuggleCast 91 Transcript (continued)
Discussing Jo’s Quotes on Lily
Andrew: Also, in the Leaky/Mugglenet interview Jo says that she can’t tell us why Voldemort offered Lily so many chances to live, which is also kind of interesting because that’s foreshadowing probably something else we’ll learn in Book 7.
Ben: Well, something we’ll have to learn if she can’t tell us…
Andrew: [laughs] Well, yeah.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: So, there are a few quotes about Lily in the interview. I’m looking
at it now.
Ben: That one split second decided it all, though. Isn’t that crazy?
Andrew: What? When she killed – when he killed her.
Ben: That one decision that she made.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. Why, why, why did Voldemort offer Lily so many chances to live? That wouldn’t make sense if she knew the prophecy.
Laura: I think…
Andrew: Would it?
Micah: No, you’re right, it wouldn’t make sense. No.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: So that completely, you know, throws that out, but…
Laura: Well, if she knew the prophecy – if he wanted to try and force it out
of her.
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: But what – hold on a second – where’s the contradiction there? Why does it – why couldn’t she – why does it matter, if she knows the prophecy, why wouldn’t – why would that make him not try to kill her?
Laura: Yeah, I think…
Ben: Why would that make him want to kill her?
Laura: I think he was – yeah, I think he would want to keep her alive until he forced it out of her and then kill her.
Andrew: Actually, no wait, maybe that does make sense. Yeah. Yeah! Okay. Yeah, that does make sense, actually. Micah, what’re you talking about?
Micah: I don’t know, I – well, you sounded…
Andrew: Yeah, okay, maybe Voldemort…
Micah: You sounded right and then you contradicted my whole argument.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: No, no. Now, I’m contradicting me.
Ben: Who here’s done sudoku?
Andrew: Oh, I hate those. They’re no fun.
Ben: Do you know how…
Laura: I have. I love those things…
Ben: You know how you can try and keep track of all the numbers and stuff…
Andrew: Yeah…
Ben: And try and keep track of everything?
Laura: Yes. [laughs]
Ben: That’s exactly what we go through…
Andrew: I know.
Ben: Every week, pretty much – just trying to keep track of all these little specific things.
Andrew: Well, all right. No, Laura’s right. Maybe Voldemort just got so fed up with trying to get the prophecy out of her that he killed her.
Laura: And I mean, I guess he would figure that by killing Harry, he was at least eliminating 50% percent of the threat, which he ended up not doing.
Ben: Yeah…
Andrew: Right. Well I think it’s one of those two things.
Ben: So Voldemort’s – Voldemort essentially is the Macbeth of Harry Potter, I think.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Because he knows his own fate.
Laura: In a way, yeah.
Ben: If you know your own fate, you’re going to go crazy and if someone told you this is how things are going to be 20 years from now, and if it’s something that particulary, that’sdispleasing to you, you know, if someone tells you you’re going to die, then you’re going to [laughs], you’re going to freak out.
Laura: Well, you can also look at it as Harry being in the same position.
Ben: It’s weird, because…
Micah: Harry knows the whole prophecy.
Andrew: However…
Micah: Whereas Voldemort doesn’t.
Andrew: In this interview, which sort of does take away from the prophecy theory, in the interview, if Lily had stood aside and let Voldemort kill Harry, she would’ve been allowed to live. So, wouldn’t Voldemort . . .
Ben: So, it isn’t like he would’ve killed her a little later on…
Andrew: Right.
Ben: She would’ve actually, this would’ve actually been a real pardon.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: Genuine.
Micah: Here though, Andrew, your argument stands up…
Andrew: That’s not…
Micah: …because she would have been allowed to live.
Andrew: …correct.
Micah: Then, you know, the prophecy would be no reason to allow her to live, because Harry would be dead. So the prophecy means nothing, then. So it would probably have to be…
Laura: So, do you guys think that…
Micah: …one of the other things that we brought up.
Laura: …he would just – he would let her live on her own? Like he wouldn’t – there would be no strings attached. Like she would just be free, or would she be allowed to live, as in he would use her for…
Ben: That’s the thing.
Laura: …whatever.
Ben: I mean there’s always theories out there that she was evil and J.K Rowling shot that down…
Laura: No.
Ben: Yeah – or you – yeah. There’s no way, but I don’t if – I guess that that’d be the only way she could live…
Laura: I just really…
Ben: …if she’s not in cahoots with Voldemort.
Laura: I think the best possible option is that she had some sort of skill or some sort of job that would have benefited Voldemort, and that’s why he wanted to keep her alive. If he killed…
Micah: And I think that’s probably why we haven’t learned what her occupation is, yet.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Ben: Good job, Micah.
Why Did Lily Get a Choice?
Laura: What I don’t get, though, about that whole scenario, why wouldn’t Voldemort, he had a wand, she didn’t – if he didn’t want her to die – like if she really had something that would benefit him, why didn’t he just do something like perform the Full Body Bind curse and then just kill Harry…
Ben: Because I think…
Laura: …like just get her out of the way.
Ben: …it’s because it’s all part of the – it’s all part of the choices, I think. I think that’s why…
Andrew: Maybe Voldemort didn’t want to treat her…
Ben: …you have to choose, I’m not going to force – you have to choose to do this. Because if she chooses that’s all…
Laura: Since when does Voldemort care…
Andrew: Because if Voldemort wanted…
Laura: …about people’s choices, though?
Andrew: …Lily to work for him, then he would’ve been – have a little – he wanted to have a little more respect for her.
Ben: And prove that she has loyalty towards him.
Andrew: And not want to kill herself, basically.
Ben: Yeah, and what more loyalty…
Laura: I don’t think…
Ben: …would she have than to step out of the way? Do you know what I mean? If she’s offering him – if Voldemort’s offering Lily a pardon, because she – you know what I mean? I don’t know, maybe you don’t.
Laura: I guess it’s because it’s something he would do. I guess, maybe he would see it as a sign of strength on her part.
Ben: Yeah, because – if she allows him to complete the prophecy, to kill the only person that can stop him… [laughs] I don’t know.
Laura: Well, actually, I think that there’s…
Ben: Not to mention her own son.
Laura: …an important – there’s an important thing we need to remember here, that the prophecy isn’t actually about who’s going to kill who. It just points out that there’s someone coming who can kill Voldemort, and that’s it. So, really, the prophecy doesn’t state who’s going to die or who’s going to triumph. It’s just about who could possibly win.
Ben: Yeah, that’s true.
Andrew: Well, [sighs loudly] I think that wraps up the discussion. That was – that was pretty deep…
Laura: My brain hurts.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: We didn’t – we didn’t even think it was going to go for as long as it did. That was a good half hour – 40 minutes. So. Unedited.
Dueling Club: Ginny vs. Dobby
Andrew: So, do you guys want to do a little dueling club action? Because we haven’t done that in a while.
Ben: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: This one we got from Sam Spracker, 13, of Alaska. She writes:
“Yeah, it’s an old segment but I love the dueling club. I was wondering who you thought would win in a duel: Ginny vs. Dobby. A young and fairly talented witch, going up against a small bat-like creature with a powerful magic of his own.”
I think Dobby would win – I think Dobby’s got clever magic whereas Ginny sort of has regular magic.
Laura: I don’t know. I think Ginny has clever magic, too…
Andrew: Like what? Prove it.
Laura: …we have to look at what she did in Order of the Phoenix. The bat-bogey curse, for instance. I mean – come on.
Ben: I don’t know, Ginny? I don’t know. They’re two different…
Andrew: That’s – that’s the whole point. It’s supposed to be…
Ben: …styles. But Dobby… Dobby kind of… Lucius Malfoy… he kind of side-stepped him in the movie.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: I don’t know. [laughs]
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, I never – I never got the impression that Lucius was really all that powerful, anyway.
Micah: Well no, I mean in the movie – I can’t remember if it’s the same in Chamber of Secrets, but he’s about to perform Avada Kedavra on Harry and Dobby just steps right in the way.
Laura: Well in the book he didn’t – he wasn’t going to do that, but Dobby, I think he… I think he did shoot him backwards in the book, though. I know he did something…
Andrew: Well…
Laura: But I don’t know. I mean, Ginny is definitely a really powerful witch. We really haven’t seen a lot much of what house-elves can do. I mean, we know that they have magic that’s unlike that of wizards. They kind of have the advantage where they can do things like Apparate inside Hogwarts, whereas witches and wizards can’t. So we don’t really know…
Micah: But that wouldn’t be an advantage in a duel, though? I mean…
Laura: Well no, but I’m saying that obviously house-elves have certain powers that witches and wizards don’t.
Andrew: Right.
Laura: Which goes without saying that witches and wizards would also have the upper hand in certain departments.
Andrew: But Dobby can, unless my brain is mixing thoughts with the movie, again, Dobby can also disappear and reappear.
Laura: But wizards can disappear and reappeartoo.
Andrew: Yes, but Ginny couldn’t at her current age.
Laura: Just not inside Hogwarts.
Micah: I give…
Ben: I think I’d give it to Ginny. You’ve got to give it to the human.
Andrew: Well…
Laura: Yeah…
Andrew: I disagree there.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Yeah, I disagree.
Andrew: Ah, no – I’m going to go with Dobby, because I don’t think Ginny – Dobby’s been around for a long time. Ginny is still a young wizard.
Ben: I know, but wouldn’t it be easy to just zap, boom, bye Dobby, in all honesty?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: But I guess if he knew something was coming, he could…
Andrew: Yes.
Ben: Whip out some – he’d bust a bowl of pudding over her head.
Andrew: Yeah.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Well, I guess if anyone else has a good Dueling Club for us, or even a What If – We know you guys are missing the older segments and we want to bring them all back. We’ll get Crackpot Theories started again soon. Hey, Ben, maybe you can give us a Butterbeer sometime soon.
Ben: Yeah.
On The Road to Deathly Hallows: Will Hogwarts Reopen?
Andrew: And, you know, all that. Also, Micah you had an idea to start a new segment this week. Well, I sort of thought of it too, but…
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: …sort of like an on the road to Deathly Hallows sort of thing, where we take one big question from Half-Blood Prince or just the series in general, and try to answer it. We figured we’d try to go with Scholastic’s questions, right? Because they’re the seven big questions. Although, I mean, you know, anyone could predict them. The most recent one was, “Will Hogwarts reopen?” Which we’ve discussed – I think we spent a whole episode discussing once, didn’t we?
Laura: We did a debate on it, as well.
Andrew: Oh, okay, yeah. So, I thought we could just go around the table, and – since we are at a table right now, in the MuggleCast studio – and give our thoughts. Micah, do you want to start
Micah: Sure.
Andrew: Just basic, you know, it doesn’t have to go into detail. Just…
Micah: Yeah, I do. I do think it will reopen. I think that we’ve been there for seven books or six books, now, and we’ll be there in the seventh book and I think even if Harry and Hermione and Ron aren’t necessarily there that we’ll see it at certain times. I think that even though there are events that took place there, it’s still the safest place for students, and…
Andrew: Well the question is, will it reopen?
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Not if we are going to see it again.
Micah: No, no. [pauses] Oh. No, no. Yeah, I think it will reopen, because it is a safe place for the students to go to, and Dumbledore said, “As long as those are loyal to him, Hogwarts…” or something. I don’t know. I’m screwing that up. But anyway, I think it’s – it’s a safe haven. It’s a place where they can go, they can rally, they can use to their advantage. So, I think it will reopen, it will have classes, and, you know, we’ll definitely see it in Book 7.
Ben: I think that you can’t let the bad guys win. So, Hogwarts has to reopen, because by people hiding in their homes, by running away and shutting down Hogwarts, they’re just going to be saying, “Come get us, bad guys.” [laughs] “We’re in our homes, now.” I mean…
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: …it doesn’t make any difference whether or not Hogwarts is open. I mean, there’s a battle going on, and get them in their homes, get them at school, whatever, it doesn’t – I think Hogwarts is a safer place for them to be than their homes, probably. Even with Dumbledore gone. Because you’re still going to have a staff of trained witches and wizards who know what they’re doing, for the most part. I wouldn’t – I don’t think that they’re going to close it, I think it will reopen.
Andrew: I think…
Laura: Yeah, I agree.
Andrew: Well, I think it will reopen, but I think it’s just going to be so different because there’s going to be so much going on outside of Hogwarts that I don’t think students will be able to stay as focused as they have been able to, you know, stay concentrated on their studies. And now, with all of this going on, with this war going on…
Ben: You know, I’d be playing it up.
Andrew: What do you mean, “playing it up”?
Ben: Ohhh…
[Micah laughs]
Ben: …you know me, if I was there I’d be saying, “Oh, can’t study tonight…”
Andrew: [laughs] Oh, right, right, right.
Ben: “…Voldemort’s on the prowl.”
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Well, Ron will be doing that, but – oh, geez, I don’t know. Imean I guess that’s another good question to ask – Laura you can get your thought in, too – but, you know, what teachers are we going to be seeing new at Hogwarts?
Laura: I don’t really think that we as readers are going to see too much about the teachers at Hogwarts, because I don’t think Harry, Ron, or Hermione are going to go back. I think if they do go back at all it’s going to be for a very short amount of time, and it won’t be for school.
Andrew: Do you think Mrs. Weasley…
Laura: I also think that…
Andrew: …would let Ron go out?
Laura: Mrs Weasley can’t tell Ron what to do, he’s legal. [laughs]
Andrew: Okay, but, well, she still yells at Fred and George.
Laura: And did that ever stop them?
Andrew: No, but Ron’s not like them.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Ron’s whipped.
Laura: I don’t think so. I really don’t think so. I think if Ron were whipped, he would have listened to his mom and not joined in with Harry in Dumbledore’s Army. So, I definitely think that…
Andrew: Hmmm.
Laura: …they won’t be at Hogwarts, and I think that Hogwarts might serve multiple purposes. It might just not be a school, it might actually be opened as a safe haven for people who want protection.
Andrew: That’s a good idea.
Laura: For people who…
Andrew: Sort of like shelter. A Red Cross shelter.
Laura: Yeah. I really think so. I think that’s something that Dumbledore would do. And I think that’s kind of something that McGonagall would let the school do, as a kind of a legacy-type thing for Dumbledore.
Andrew: But what would happen if, like, an impostor got in? I mean, that would be an easy way for someone to get into the school.
Micah: Well, that’s happened before.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, exactly, but I’m saying…
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: I’m saying, like, you know, to – pretending to want, or need, shelter. Know what I’m saying?
Micah: Mhm. That’s interesting.
Laura: It can happen.
Ben: Well, I guess there is validity to both sides.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: There really is no clear thought of whether or not they should reopen Hogwarts. We had a debate on this a while ago…
Laura: A long time ago.
Ben: Yeah. But I just don’t think – part of me says, well, it doesn’t make sense in a time of war to get all of your youth together in one spot, so they can all be killed together. But at the same time, as I said before, you can’t back down. So…
Laura: I think that they should…
Ben: …I think that takes precedence.
Laura: …I think they should just leave options open for people. If they want to come to school, they come to school, if they don’t, they stay home. It’s as simple as that.
Micah: Well, I think…
Andrew: I…
Micah: …the big thing, though, is…
Andrew: Wait. Do you think they’re going to leave it open as an option? Because what are kids going to do? Re-take, or, you know, take their fifth year, whatever, the following year?
Ben: Well, we don’t know…
Laura: Well, no.
Ben: …what schooling requirements there are, but if…
Laura: Yeah.
Ben: I’m sure if your parents don’t want to take you…
Laura: Don’t want you to go to Hogwarts, then you don’t have to go.
Ben: Right.
Laura: I mean we saw that…
Ben: It’s probably the same thing. If you don’t go to public school, or Draco wants to go to Durmstrang, because his mother or his father…
[Micah laughs]
Ben: …wants him to go to Durmstrang.
Micah: Wasn’t…
Laura: I mean, we saw at the end of Half-Blood Prince that tons of parents were coming and taking their kids away from the school.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah.
Micah: Yeah, but what I was going to say, though is, is it all goes back to the Sorting Hat and saying that the Houses would need to be united. And I think that in order for that to happen, the school has to be open.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Mhm. I think so, as well.
Andrew: That’s true. Okay, well, I guess we’ll try to take one of these questions every week, and how many weeks do we have left?
Ben and Micah Discuss Music
Micah: We should get that music. We should get that music, you know, Ben, the Road to the Final Four music, since we’re calling it The Road to Deathly Hallows.
Ben: Oh, yeah! We should, we should.
Micah: [laughs] We should play that. I love that song.
Andrew: Okay. Is it short? Is it…
Micah: I have it.
Andrew: …long? Okay, send it to me.
Micah: Well, you can just play a part of it.
Andrew: Okay, well is there like a cool intro or something?
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: All right, cool.
Micah: I’ll send it to you.
Andrew: Okay. I mean, the other questions that Scholastic has posted so far, well, are, “Who will live, who will die?” That’s one question. And, “Is Snape good or evil?” So, I mean…
Micah: We could spend shows on that. I think we have too.
Andrew’s Birthday
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, actually, you’re right. So, the next question they’re going to release is on May 29. I guess we’ll try to cover some other stuff in the mean time. By the way, my birthday’s on Wednesday, so if anyone wants to send anything just let me know.
Micah: I thought it was on Tuesday! You said before…
Laura: I thought it was Tuesday.
Andrew: Sorry, sorry…
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: It’s actually on Wednesday. I’ve been getting stuff screwed up with stuff planned next week. It’s actually on Wednesday, I’m sorry. So that gives you an extra day to go buy me something.
Listener Rebuttal: Location of Godric’s Hollow
Andrew: So anyway, one last e-mail that we have for today from Vivian, 15, of Australia. She writes:
I think I may have found the general area were Godric’s Hollow may be. These quotes are from ‘The Goblet of Fire.’ This is Chapter 7, ‘Bagman and Crouch’: “They set off across the deserted moor.” That was on pg. 70. And then later on in the book the Sorting Hat says, “Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor.”
Micah, you put this in here. Is… I mean, I don’t… This doesn’t really answer where Godric’s Hollow is.
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: It’s in a moor?
Andrew: It’s in a moor.
Micah: I mean, moors can be very large places.
Laura: There are also a lot of them in Britain I hear. [laughs]
Micah: Yeah, there’s a few here and there. We’d have to get Jamie’s word on that, but I don’t know. It – I know she says it seems like too much of a coincidence that they’re mentioned twice in the book, but I don’t know. Just because – well, I don’t know. Saying that he’s from a wild moor – I don’t know. And it says “deserted” back on pg. 70 which would make sense, because of after what happened there. We don’t know exactly after the Potters fell if that place, sort of, became deserted.
Laura: Wasn’t that pretty close to where the Weasleys live, though?
Micah: Yeah, it was.
Laura: So, why wouldn’t they know that that’s where…
Micah: Well, I mean…
Laura: …all that went down.
Micah: …that’s like a lot of things in the series, though. It’s just, well, why don’t they tell them this? Well, why isn’t this revealed? It’s just… Maybe it’s just something…
Andrew: It’s for the story. [laughs]
Micah: Yeah. Exactly. It’s never come up in the conversation and Jo has done a good job of writing around it.
Andrew: That’s such a pointless question, though, because it’s like, you know, “Why wouldn’t Snape just say if he’s good or bad?” Because the story wouldn’t make sense!
Micah: Yeah, exactly.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: Yeah. [laughs]
Laura: I don’t think so though. [laughs] I think a lot of people would be like, “Oh by the way, this is where Godric’s Hollow was.” You know, it’s like – I think that it’s an important…
Micah: No, but it’s just…
Laura: …area.
Micah: …nobody knows what Lily’s job was? Nobody’s told Harry? I mean – it’s just what we were discussing before. That seems kind of stupid that nobody would’ve told Harry what his parents did.
Laura: I guess, but it’s just…
Micah: It’s kind of the same idea.
Laura: I would think that if like – and I know that you all think that Ron is, like, a moron…
Andrew: He is. [laughs]
Laura: …but I would think that he would at least know if a neighborhood was blown up close to his house when he was a baby. [laughs]
Micah: “On your left is Godric’s Hollow.” [laughs]
Annoucement: Listener Challenge Winners
Andrew: Announcement! Update on my listener challenge. Thank you to everyone who entered. I posted the winners on MuggleCast.com. I’m not going to reveal them here because all the links go to YouTube, so visit MuggleCast.com and check out the winners and the – I’ll provide links to everyone, but the top winner receives a free MuggleCast t-shirt and I’ll be in touch with them very soon if I’ve not emailed you already. There’s no Chicken Soup.
Show Close
Andrew: So, I think that does it for the show today. That was pretty good, guys!
Ben: Good job.
Micah: Solid!
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Good work, good work! Yaaay! High five! Okay, so if you guys want to get in touch with us, we have many ways.
You can always call the MuggleCast hotline. That’s 1-218-20-MAGIC. I got an e-mail from someone the other day saying, “What is MAGIC? How do you type that into your phone?” It’s 1-218-206-2442. Also, if you’re in the United Kingdom, you can dial 020-8144-0677 and if you’re in Australia you can dial 02-8003-5668. Those all go to the MuggleCast voicemail line. Maybe we’ll get to some voicemails next week.
You can also Skype the username MuggleCast. For all those, whether you’re dialing or calling in via Skype, keep your message under 60 seconds and get rid of all that darn background noise. Laura…
Laura: Yes.
Andrew: What’s the P.O. Box?
Laura: You can also – you can also send parcel mail to our brand new P.O. Box at:
P.O. Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia
30028
Ben: Don’t send any to Moundridge.
Andrew: And you can…
Ben: I’m not going to be here. I’m going to be gone.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That is why we are moving the P.O. Box. [laughs] You can also contact us…
Laura: So my mom can do it while I’m at school.
Andrew: [laughs] …via the handy feedback form. Just visit MuggleCast.com and click on “Contact” at the top. You can also e-mail any of us at our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com.
Small note: Phoenix Rising is going on right now, and Mikey is down there having a good time. We’re all jealous we couldn’t be there. It sounds like a lot of fun. So, next time he’s on the show we’ll get a little review of Phoenix Rising. ‘Kay?
Ben, Laura, and Micah: ‘Kay.
Andrew: And don’t forget all of our community outlets. There are lots of fun ways to interact with fellow MuggleCast fans just like you. You can visit our MySpace at MySpace.com/MuggleCastFans. There’s a couple other MuggleCast MySpaces out there, but the link to the one on MuggleCast.com is the – the official one, I guess you could call it. We’re getting close to 9,000 friends. So definitely be a friend of MuggleCast. And it’s MySpace, if you haven’t done so already. We’ve also got a group on Facebook, we have a YouTube group, we have the Frappr map which lets you tell us…
Ben: What don’t we have, Andrew? That’s the real question.
Andrew: You know, we don’t have lives, that’s the problem.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You can tell us where you live by visiting our Frappr map, which you can put a little point in this map. I’m refreshing everyone’s memory, ’cause we haven’t really described all these in a while.
Ben: Yeah, we haven’t done…
Andrew: I’m looking…
Ben: …any of these things for a while.
Andrew: Yeah, we really haven’t. I’m looking at the Frappr map now. I’m going to click on members. It doesn’t give you a total – maybe stats. Okay. No, this doesn’t tell you anything. So, we have quite a few members on the Frappr map right now. You can also go visit our Last.FM, which is a cool, like, music community where you can join up with other MuggleCast members to see what everyone’s interested in, music-wise. I’m looking at the top artists from MuggleCast fans right now. Number one is the MuggleCasters, of course. Number two is Fall Out Boy, number three is The Beatles, then Death Cab for Cutie, Muse, Snow Patrol, Maroon 5, The Killers, Coldplay, and Killer Queen. So check those out over on Last.FM.
[Show music begins playing]
Andrew: Finally, the fanlisting and then forums over at MuggleCastFan.net is a great way to meet up with some other MuggleCast fans who are just as into the show as you are. You can also Digg the show on Digg.com. Vote for us once a month at PodcastAlley, and rate and review us on Yahoo Podcasts.
Ben: You got all that? Are you done yet?
Andrew: So there you go.
Ben: Are you done yet? Thanks!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That’s a little refresher. You know? We should start refreshing people because we are getting new listeners as we’re getting closer to the book. We’re going to have some cool new promotions – ways to promote the show within the next couple weeks. Also, hopefully soon we are going to have a tour page up with, like, dates for all the places we are going to be and how to make sure that you can get a seat at any of the shows we’re going to be doing over the summer. I think that’s it.
Laura: I think so.
Andrew: Goodbye, everyone.
Laura: That was almost as long as one of Eric’s spiels.
Ben: Goodbye.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Bye.
Andrew: See everyone next week for Episode 92.
Laura: I don’t think we outroed, did we? [laughs]
Andrew: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ninety-one – oh, by the way, for the 100th show, a lot of people have been saying that we should all, like – we should do every single segment we’ve ever done, except for maybe Chapter-by-Chapter. What do you guys think? Good idea?
Ben: Definitely. The “except.”
Laura: Yeah, sure.
Ben: I like the “except.”
[A pause and then everyone laughs]
Andrew: Okay. So, that’ll be a nice way of sort of recognizing everything that we’ve been doing for the past 100 episodes.
Ben: Can you believe that it’s been that many episodes?
Andrew: So, I think that just about does it. Once again, I’m Andrew Sims.
Ben: I’m Ben Schoen.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Micah: And I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Andrew: We’ll see everyone next week for Episode 92. Bye, everyone!
Ben: Bye.
Micah: Bye.
[Show music ends]
Bloopers
Ben: [sings] We’ll do what we’re told, before we get too old. [stops singing] Sorry. [laughs]
———————–
Written by: Micah, Briana, Christina, Cindy, Eloise, Haley, Hannah, Jessalyn, Jessica, Jessie, Karen, Laura, Leah, Luke, Margaret, Marya, Matt, Meredith, Rebeca, Samantha, Sapna, Shannon, Shelly, and Tina