MuggleCast 96 Transcript
Show Intro
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Andrew: Today’s MuggleNet podcast is brought to you by Borders. In May, thousands of Harry Potter fans descended upon New Orleans for the Phoenix Rising Conference. Borders was there to take in the sights and share a lively discussion of the series that has bewitched the world with some of Harry’s most dedicated fans. Listen in and watch the action yourself. Check out the Phoenix Rising Border’s Book Club discussion at Bordersmedia.com/HarryPotter, or click on the Borders banner at the top of the MuggleNet page.
Ben: This week’s show is brought to you by audible.com, the internet’s leading provider of spoken word entertainment. Get a free audio book download of your choice when you sign up today. Log on to audible.com/mugglecast today for details.
[Intro music begins to play]
Micah: Because we will announce our plans for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows next week, this is MuggleCast Episode 96 for June 24th, 2007.
[Intro music continues to play]
Andrew: All right, well, Jamie.
Jamie: Yes.
Andrew: We’re back.
Jamie: We are back.
Andrew: And Greg Porter’s back this week.
Greg: Hello.
Andrew: Greg, it’s been awhile.
Greg: Yeah, it has.
Andrew: I’ve been having fun promoting your website, XalerStudios.com, on the podcast. That’s relax-backwards-studios-dot-com.
Greg: That it is. [laughs]
Jamie: Hey, Greg, wasn’t I the first person to give you a reference for that website?
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Jamie: Because someone mentioned it a few weeks ago, and I just remembered that. I think that was quite good. I think I called it a web design palace. Which is…
Greg: I believe you did. Yeah. It might actually still be on the website.
Jamie: Good, because that’s what it is, a web design palace. So, go to XalerStudios.com for your – all your web design needs.
Andrew: That’s relax backwards studios dot com.
Greg: You know what, the funny thing about that testimonial you gave me…
Jamie: Yeah.
Greg: …is that originally I asked Emerson to do it, but he refused.
Andrew: Aww.
Greg: And then you were my other guy to do that.
Jamie: I was your back-up? I was your back-up choice?
Greg: You were.
Jamie: Right, well, I take it all back now.
[Greg laughs]
Andrew: All right, things will definitely be awkward now for the next hour. Thanks for bringing that up, Greg.
Greg: Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that.
Micah: And I’m not back this week. I’m just here, I guess.
Andrew: Oh, Micah’s here too. Forgot about that.
Micah: Thanks.
Andrew: Hey Micah.
Micah: Hey Andrew.
Jamie: This show hasn’t started off that well, has it? It’s sort of…
Andrew: I think it’s been just fine.
Jamie: Yeah, but Greg telling me I’m a back-up, you thinking Micah wasn’t here last week.
Andrew: Well, I have one more complaint to add to this intro real quick.
Jamie: Oh wow.
Andrew: I am not very impressed with how Jamie keeps my room clean. Not very happy about it.
Jamie: Well, yeah, but…
Andrew: But we’ll get to that in a second. I’m Andrew Sims.
Jamie: Well that’s fair enough, Andrew, because you know, I’m Jamie Lawrence.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Greg: I’m Greg Porter.
[Intro music continues to play]
News
Andrew: Micah Tannenbaum is in the MuggleCast News Center with the past week’s top Harry Potter news stories. Hey Micah.
Micah: Thanks, Andrew.
Reports circulated online earlier this week saying that a hacker allegedly broke into a computer at Bloomsbury Publishing Place in London and managed to obtain a digital version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The hacker subsequently posted what he says are “key plot details” from the book on the Internet.
Bloomsbury has told us that “there is so much material on the Internet at the moment that people claim is from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but anyone can post anything on the Internet and we’re not confirming or denying these rumors.” Well, that’s reassuring.
In a press release Thursday, Wal-Mart announced its plans regarding the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. All of Wal-Mart’s 24-hour stores will be holding celebrations on July 20, which will include trivia challenges and giveaways.
Senior Vice President Andy Barron commented on the release, saying:
“Harry Potter book release weekends are very exciting for fans and we expect the July 20th weekend to make literary history… We are committed to the best price and plenty of copies, and want to create a purchase experience our customers will enjoy and remember that weekend.”
On to movie news, the London radio station Capital 95.8 is reporting auditions will be held for two roles in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The producers of the sixth Potter film are looking for two young actors between the ages of 15 and 18 from the UK or Ireland to play Lavender Brown and young Tom Riddle. Auditions for Lavender will be held on Sunday, July 1st, while auditions for Tom will be on Sunday, July 8th, at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is scheduled to be released in the United States on November 21, 2008.
And a trailer for the IMAX version of the Order of the Phoenix movie has been posted on IMAX.com. The trailer looks fantastic and contains some new shots from the film.
The official Order of the Phoenix press junket was held late last week and it was noted that in the original draft of the screenplay Order of the Phoenix, they had decided to remove a character from the story. Rowling read over the screenplay and said “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” that they were free to do whatever they liked, of course, but “if you make a 7th movie you’ll have tied your hands.” Speculation is abound on what person or creature (no pun intended) was critical to the fifth film. We’ll have a full report from the junket up early this week.
And tomorrow, Sunrise, a morning television breakfast show, will broadcast a story about the upcoming Harry Potter movie, with the official website quoting: “We go one-on-one with the stars from the latest Harry Potter installment.” The show airs from 6-9 AM on Channel Seven in Australia. Plus, there are loads of new interviews with actors from the fifth movie available on MuggleNet.com.
Finally, JK Rowling has updated her site indicating that the final WOMBAT results are “in the post.” This means that we will find out how well we did on the third and final WOMBAT very soon.
That’s all the news for this June 24th, 2007, edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show.
Andrew: Okay, thank you Micah.
Micah: Yep. Whoa.
Slow Tuesday
Andrew: Micah, it’s been a slow news week.
Micah: Yeah, it has. Just a little bit. Not as crazy as last week, that’s for sure.
Andrew: Then again, it’s only Tuesday, so if something breaks later this week, we’re in trouble.
Jamie: It’s been a slow half week.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. Exactly.
Jamie: It’s been a slow two days.
Andrew: It’s been a slow Tuesday. It’s a slow Tuesday.
Jamie: But Andrew, Andrew, going back to the – actually, two points. You just said, “A slow Tuesday.” Why does everyone pick Tuesday as the slow day when they…
Andrew: Because today’s Tuesday.
Jamie: No, no no, but everyone does it. Like, I once read a Chuck Norris quote that said that he calls something a slow Tuesday. Tuesday just seems to be a slow day in general, because everyone picks it for their slow anecdotes.
Andrew: Because maybe it goes with slow Tuesday. I don’t know.
Jamie: Oh, that’s pretty good actually. That’s definitely it. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Greg: Well, it’s Tuesday, it’s not Monday. It’s not Wednesday even. Wednesday’s a bit more fun than Tuesday. What do you do on Tuesdays.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah, you’re right because Monday is the start of the week and anything can happen in a week, but by Tuesday you’ve realized ‘no, it’s just my boring, sad old life again,’ and that’s when…
Micah: Hey, hey, hey. I actually get to work from home on Tuesday’s, for me, it goes by a lot faster.
Andrew: And I used to have Web Club on Tuesdays.
Jamie: Well that is an exception to the rule I think…
Andrew: And that was an exciting day.
Jamie: That’s the exception to the rule. For those of you who have boring lives, you know.?
Andrew: And Wednesday’s is Hump day. So, like, it’s the middle of the week.
Jamie: I’m sorry… It’s what?
Andrew: Hump Day. It’s called Hump Day.
Jamie: I won’t lie. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. Is that
just an American thing?
Andrew: Hump Day. It’s in the middle of the week because it’s hard to get up the hump, but then by Wednesday…
Jamie: Andrew, I think you should stop now.
Andrew: No! I’m being serious. I’m being serious. Get your mind out of the gutter. You go down the hill…
Greg: How can you get your mind out of the gutter when you’re talking like that…
Andrew: And the second half of the week.
Jamie: When you’re talking like this…
Andrew: Because it’s Hump day.
Jamie: But, but, but…
Greg: It’s Hump day obviously, Andrew. Is this G-Rated enough for this show?
Andrew: Yeah, we have to keep this show G-Rated. This is a family podcast.
Jamie: Andrew…
[Andrew laughs]
Greg: Kids, it’s Hump like a camel. Hump like a camel.
Jamie: Exactly.
Andrew: That’s what I meant.
Jamie: Some of us are lying in the gutter. Actually, I screwed that up. All of us are lying in the gutter, and some of us are looking at the stars.
Andrew: I don’t know what that’s from.
Jamie: It’s a quote. It’s a quote. Everyone -It’s the standard AIM profile quote.
Andrew: [laughs] Oh, okay.
Jamie: That everyone has had at one point in there life. I think I might have it now actually. So, uh.
Andrew: It’s actually pretty weird recording setup now. Jamie’s actually here, but he’s in my basement because we couldn’t find the headphone splitter. [laughs]
Jamie: Yeah, so…I was banished to the Netherworld, and it’s freezing
down here. I’m about to freeze, if I go half way through.
Tangent: Other Packs
Andrew: I think we are going to start out a Cucumber Pack in order to
raise enough money to get a real studio.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: That would be fun.
Jamie: It’s awesome, and from vegetables, we go onto fruits and then to meats and…
Greg: Pastrami Pack.
Jamie: Exactly.
Andrew: [laughs] Pastrami Pack?
Jamie: That’s going to be a good one.
Andrew: Oh, Greg. Okay, well, back to what we were saying. It was…
Greg: What were we saying..?
Andrew: It was a slow week.
Jamie: That’s it.
Order of the Phoenix Soundtrack
Andrew: Something about news and it got to Hump day, and I don’t know. Whatever. Jamie, everyone, It’s been a pretty slow news week, but there was one thing that came out right before we released Episode 95: Hell Froze Over. Order of the Phoenix Soundtrack samples. All 18 songs were released in small little previews.
Jamie: Yes.
Andrew: There’s a 13 second clip of each on a website called Soundtrack.net. Warner Brothers, of course, Soundtrack dot net this preview, and it’s a great sneak peak because not only does it give you clips, but soundtrack dot net listened to each one very carefully and basically reviewed each preview. So, do you guys want to go over a couple of the songs that we thought were pretty interesting?
Greg: Why not?
Jamie: Well, I know what I wanted to talk about specifically was 12: The Death of Sirius. What I thought was it combined sort of, and I’m going to sounds ridiculous here, but it combined sort of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and hyped them up into one big thing and I was reminded of The Fellowship of the Ring when Frodo was running away from The Nascol and he jumped onto the boat, and then sailed away to the Prancing Pony inn, and it was very- I don’t know because I always pictured that scene as being silent because Sirius falls down, you hear him scream, and that’s it. And then Harry starts screaming, so it’s going to be weird to see that to music, but I think it is really good piece of music and it is going to build up. And I can hear everyone listening to it now. [laughs]
[Song clip plays]
Andrew: It sounds like this, right?
Jamie: Yes.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s it. Okay.
Andrew: Yeah, we are playing it right now as everyone can hear. Yeah, so that was a good one. My favorite one, though, most different. It was strange. It was weird, I can’t picture it for Harry Potter, but this is just what– I forgot his name… This is what Nicholas Hooper is creating with this new soundtrack, this new fresh mix on Harry Potter and I really like it. The first song: Fireworks. Which I assume…
[Song clip starts to play]
Andrew: …is from when Fred and George start causing trouble.
[Song clip fades]
Jamie: That does sound very, very good.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s…
Greg: I love that guitar in there.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s got a guitar!
Greg: Dude, that’s…
Andrew: Have you ever heard a Harry Potter song with a guitar in it?
Greg: No. That’s awesome…
Andrew: Besides our intro.
[Greg chuckles]
Greg: It’s very upbeat.
Andrew: it is…
Micah: You know…
Andrew: I like it.
Micah: You know what I was kind of wondering, though? Was that when the drums sort of get louder and louder, are those the proclamations that start to smash?
Andrew: Maybe. Yeah, that’s a good point. I didn’t even think of that. We’re playing it right now. But yeah, it’s a great song; I really like it. And I almost thought maybe we should steal it and use it for MuggleCast. [laughs]
Jamie: Now, that would be good. It does…
Andrew: Because I think it fits with the rest of the show.
Jamie: What? That we’re zany and upbeat and we have a guitar playing, you know? And we’re all scene.
Andrew: Whoa! Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah. Let’s do that. I like it.
Andrew: Exactly.
Jamie: It is a really nice piece of music, though. It really is.
Andrew: It is. And I’m very impressed with Nicholas Hooper now. I mean, this is some good stuff that he’s got on this album, here. There’s one other one that I want to talk about. All these really encompass the theme of the novel and the movie.
[Music starts]
Andrew: But this is Umbridge’s Theme.
[Umbridge’s Theme plays]
Andrew: So it’s sort of like this little, like, waltzy…
Jamie: It is. Very…
Greg: Yeah…
Andrew: Sort of, you know, Umbridge…
Greg: Sickly sweet, you know?
Andrew: Yes.
Jamie: It is very sickly sweet. Pomp and Circumstancy.
Andrew: Yeah, and I can just picture her walking down one of the corridors with this music playing in the background.
Jamie: With her frilly collar going everywhere.
Greg: And with that ungodly smile she has in the trailer.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then, what other ones? Oh, The Sacking of Trelawney, I love. I can just picture her walking out of the school with this music.
[The Sacking of Trelawney plays]
Andrew: It’s…
Jamie: It’s very..,
Andrew: It’s so good.
Jamie: …subdued. Extremely subdued, though.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s so slow and so depressing.
Greg: Yeah.
Jamie: I wonder if that marks like a turning point in the film. Where, you know, before then it’s more upbeat, and then after that…
Andrew: Pretty fast.
Jamie: Yeah, it’s just…
Andrew: Yeah, it really slows down. I was thinking, maybe she’s walking out of the school really slow. Because I mean, that’s really slow.
Jamie: She could be. Yeah, it is very slow.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Jamie: Very slow.
Andrew: Let’s see, what else do we have here? We have The Kiss You guys want to hear The Kiss music?
[Greg laughs]
Micah: No.
[Jamie laughs]
[The Kiss plays]
Jamie: It’s very Snow White-y.
Micah: Yeah. I was going to say, it sounds Disney-like.
Jamie: It is very Disney-like.
Andrew: It is. It is. I guess because it’s magical, because it’s their first kiss.
Jamie: But, it isn’t – I mean, it’s a very special scene, but it isn’t a magical scene. Because, it isn’t as though Harry then proposes to her. And they dance off into the sunset, holding hands. It’s, you know, it’s just an exploration of who they are, more than anything. It isn’t like a big, big, big thing in the series as a whole.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: And I’m sure that you could argue that, yeah, it teaches Harry the importance of love and friendship and all that kind of thing. But it is just a kiss when it comes down to it.
Andrew: Yeah. And then there’s…
Jamie: I sounded so heartless then. But…
Andrew: No, that was nice. That was nice. Good explanation.
Jamie: Oh, thank you very much.
Andrew: And then there is The Journey to Hogwarts. Which is basically like Hedwig’s Theme remixed. It’s pretty good.
[The Journey to Hogwarts plays]
Andrew: So, it’s like a more triumphant…
Jamie: It is.
Andrew: Hagrid’s – [laughs] Hagrid’s. Hedwig’s Theme [laughs]
Jamie: The entire, sort of, score. Although it’s very sort of, you know, energetic and powerful, it’s very subdued as well. Which could be, sort of, the theme of the movie as well. You know, there’s deaths in this one. Just like in the last movie. But you know, this one sort of marks a change in the Harry Potter books as a whole. In that it all goes downhill from here. Kind of.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s a good point. In the article on SoundTrack.net it says, and this was my favorite part of that song, Another Story, it’s called, “..the horns never get to finish – instead it transitions into piano and some distant atmosphere…” So, it’s sort of like the song never finishes. Hedwig’s Theme, in the [sings] Do-do-do Do-do-doo.
Jamie: So, you mean likeHedwig’s Theme will continue forever more? Which is probably a nod to John Williams as well as well as the Harry Potter movies as well.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, if we want to look at it that deep. [laughs]
Jamie: Well, that’s what we do here.
Andrew: It is.
Greg: I do enjoy the way the reuse music in these movies.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Definitely.
Greg: It kind of ties them together.
Andrew: Well you have to have Hedwig’s Theme. That’s a given
Jamie: It’s a staple part of the score, yeah.
Andrew: Everything else seems pretty original. Of course you can go on Mugglenet.com and find the story on the front page, and also on the Order of the Phoenix section of the website. Overall, a great preview. I don’t think we’ve gotten this from Warner Brothers in the past. I know AOL hosted a music listening party.
Greg: Indeed.
Andrew: Maybe there will be something like that. Overall, Nicholas Hooper? I’m liking him.
Jamie: Thumbs up, definitely.
Andrew: Thumbs up to Nick Hooper.
Micah: Hoopie.
Announcements
Andrew: All right, so moving on now. We have a couple of announcements. We want to remind everyone to vote for us at Podcast Alley. It’s being going very well over there. Also, Jamie…
Jamie: Yes?
Andrew: Micah, myself, and I – and Ben. Micah, myself, and I? That didn’t make sense.
Jamie: Andrews coming twice to this thing.
Andrew: Jamie, you, me, Micah, and Ben will be at Enlightening 2007, July 12th to the 15th.
Jamie: We certainly will.
Andrew: We’re going to be doing a little lesson on podcasting, right?
Jamie: Yeah, we will. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to teach just yet, but I’ll work on it before then, and hopefully I can give some sort of tip.
Micah: Teach how to come up with all your jokes.
Jamie: Yeah, well for that you have to bring a computer, and you have to have Google…
Micah: Don’t tell people now or else they won’t come.
Jamie: I’m not…
Andrew: Then they won’t come!
Jamie: No, no, no, no, no! You think it’s just a case of bringing up Google and typing it out, but there’s a distinct, sort of step-by-step sort of way of finding the best one. There are certain sites you avoid, certain sites you go to, certain boullian searches you use on Google. It isn’t just a case of typing it in, what do you think I am?
Greg: Oh!
Andrew: Makes sense, makes sense. All right, I guess we got the wrong impression from Jamie. I just assumed he typed in “funny jokes” and…
Jamie: It’s probably that, yeah. It’s about that, but…
Andrew: But then also at Enlightening 2007 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania, there will be Premiere Fest, where we will be doing a live podcast, and it’s also going to be featuring some wizard rock bands, including the Moaning Myrtles, the Hungarian Horntails, DJ Luna Lovegood, and the Cedric Diggorys. Plus there is going to be a lot more going on there. There’s going to be fanfiction reading, fan art, stuff like that. Premiere Fest is on July 13th. It’s going to be an evening-live podcast. Premiere Fest is called Premiere Fest because it was the night the movie is released, but of course the movie release date was changed, so that sort of fell through. So, here’s still going to be a lot going on at Premiere Fest; it’s going to be a great time. We will be there. We’re going to be hanging out with everyone.
Jamie: So be there. It’s going to be absolutely awesome, we’re going to have a great time.
Andrew: Right, for more information go to Enlightening2007.org. You can purchase premiere fest tickets if you’re not already going to Enlightening 2007. The cost is pretty cheap, so we will see you there. Also, another big convention, Jamie, Prophecy.
Jamie: And this will be the convention to end all conventions, I’m told.
Andrew: It really is the one to end all conventions, because it’s going to be huge. I mean, Ben’s been on this book tour – Greg you have a little story about that – but Ben’s been on this book tour, and he says that every place he goes to…
Jamie: There’s people talking about Prophecy.
Andrew: There’s people going to Prophecy, yeah. It’s unbelievable. So that’s a huge convention going on August 2nd through the 5th.
Jamie: There are more people going to Prophecy than are on MySpace right now, and that is a lot of people.
Andrew: I didn’t know that. Is that true?
Jamie: Yep.
Andrew: I didn’t know that.
Jamie: There are one hundred and eighty million sign-ups for Prophecy, and Myspace is only like one hundred and sixty million, so…
Andrew: All going to the Sheridan in Toronto.
Jamie: Yeah. It’s going to be a bit of a squeeze, but we’re all friends, you know. Harry Potter fans are all friends. We’ll be able to do it easily. It’s fine.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re all tight. No pun intended. So the live Podcast there, along with our friends at Leaky and PotterCast, will be on Saturday at 12 a.m.
[Greg laughs]
Andrew: So technically it’s Friday night. It’s going to be a midnight podcast, which is pretty cool. It’ll be dark.
Jamie: No, really? [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Thank you.
Jamie: Sorry. Zing.
Andrew: Zing. And that one will be a lot of fun as well. Also, we’re working on a couple live shows. By a couple I mean a few, and by a few I mean…
Jamie: Many.
Andrew: Many. [laughs] We’re finalizing details right now, and we announce to do that soon. Let’s put it this way, well – actually I was going to say it’s not on the West Coast, but it is on the West Coast. We’re going to be hitting up many locations in the United States.
Jamie: We are.
Andrew: If this all works out. It’s almost all finalized. Hopefully we will have more details next week on episode 97. So look for that if you’re anywhere in the US, definitely plan to be seeing us in late July. I’ll say that, okay?
Jamie: Yep. And also…
Andrew: And also, also – oh, as for the book release, we’re not so sure about that yet, right, Micah? [laughs]
Micah: Yeah, we’re still working some things out, but it seems like three places are probably the best shot for us, right?
Andrew: Yeah, we’re looking at three places right now.
Micah: We can’t reveal…
Andrew: We’ve narrowed it down to three.
Micah: …their locations.
Andrew: Well I’m going to give away one.
Jamie: But it’s not Antarctica.
Andrew: I’m going to give away one.
Micah: Well…
Jamie: Well, it could be. We do need to do one from there at some point.
Micah: Yeah, the penguins feel neglected, so…
[Jamie and Andrew laugh]
Andrew: I’ll give away one. We’re considering a live show – all right Jamie, go ahead you tell the people.
Jamie: I – well, we’re considering two main locations. It’s a throw up between Congo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Andrew: We picked those two locations because they’re very central to where our audiences are. There’s a big focus of listeners in those two areas.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: It’s a nice place to do a podcast.
Jamie: Both are, in fact, both are. So it’s a tough call for which one we’re going to do for the main podcast.
Andrew: Yeah, we used the Pickle Pack money to fly out there and scout out locations.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: We found a few and so we’re working on that. Hopefully next week we’ll know more. There are a couple other locations.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: But we’re leaning towards Congo and…
Jamie: And…
Andrew: …whatever that Yugoslavia one was.
Jamie: Yeah, and we bought, using the Pickle Pack money again, a lovely sort of a villa there complete with five swimming pools. So after the podcast, you can all come and hang out there with us and we’ll party it up into the night.
Andrew: You have to pay for a Cucumber Pack…
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: …first.
Jamie: You do have to have the Cucumber pack and Grape Pack.
Andrew: Grape Pack.
Jamie: Yes.
Andrew: I like that one. [laughs] And what was the one you had Greg?
Jamie: Strawberry Pack.
[Andrew laughs]
Greg: Oh what was that? Pastrami Pack?
Andrew: Oh, [laughs] Pastrami Pack.
[Jamie and Andrew laugh]
Jamie: Pastrami Pack, yeah and the…
Greg: Eventually we’ll have a whole sandwich.
Jamie: Yeah, we will.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Filet Mignon pack, that’s going to be the platinum plus one.
Greg: Oh that’s delicious.
Andrew: Collect all ten.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Guys, why do we make fun of ourselves?
Jamie: I don’t know, why do we make fun of ourselves?
Andrew: I don’t think we should be doing this, this gets me down. Oh, and then also Episode 100 is creeping up very soon. I think it’s just going to be an all-around party.
Micah: Yep.
Jamie: Yeah, all day.
Andrew: Here, what should we – should we set up a poll – no. What should we do? I think we should do something where we send – we ask people to email in their favorite moments from the show and read them?
Jamie: No, no…
Andrew: Their favorite moments.
Jamie: No, re-enact them. See if their better the second time around.
Andrew: We should re-enact them?
Jamie: Yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: Should we do that?
Jamie: Well, yeah. I don’t mind. It probably isn’t the best idea because it won’t be funny because you know things…
Andrew: Well, if it’s not going to be funny.
Jamie: You know things aren’t as funny the second time around, probably.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: But we could try or we could just do a pole where people send in their thoughts of what they want us to do for Episode 100.
Andrew: To do for the future.
Jamie: Well, no just for Episode 100.
Andrew: Well, people have – we already told people to e-mail…
Jamie: I knew that.
Andrew: Nobody really gave…
Jamie: I did know that.
Andrew: Nobody really gave…
Jamie: I was just testing.
Andrew: …any good ideas that really stood out.
Jamie: Oh really.
Andrew: I was just like, Oh forget it.
Jamie: Ok, well we could keep that open a bit longer, and we could set up a pole listing a few ideas and people could vote for the one. You know, it should be a very special one, 100, centurian.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah so we have been getting ideas, keep them coming, and I’m sure what we’ll all do, we’ll all get sentimental, we’ll all be hugging.
Jamie: Yes, we will be hugging.
Andrew: And stuff.
Greg: E-hugging.
Andrew: E-hugging.
Jamie: We will be hugging, yeah; it’s going to be a sentimental moment.
Andrew: Yeah, actually a few of us will be together when Episode 100 occurs, so we’ll all be personal, actually hugging each other, so…
Listener Rebuttal: Town on JKR’s Website
Anyway let’s move on to rebuttals this week, the first one, quick one, from Lindsey 16 in New Jersey, no I did not pull this one out.
Micah: I did.
Jamie: Ohhh.
Andrew: Micah did.
Micah: So you can’t blame Andrew.
Jamie: Oh so there’s a…
Micah: East coast…
Jamie: East coast corruption going on.
Micah: …power.
Andrew: Favoritism.
Jamie: Wow.
Andrew: It reads, “I just noticed today that if you look out the window on JK Rowling’s website, it looks like the town that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are flying over in the deluxe cover.” Ummm…interesting.
Jamie: Does it? Or – because I haven’t checked it.
Andrew: I don’t think it really – it sort of does. Micah what…
Micah: A couple people sent that in.
Andrew: …do you think? Oh.
Micah: I don’t know. It’s a little too hard to tell. I can’t really see much from what she has there. I always thought those red things were flowers that were growing outside but…
Jamie: [lauhs] As opposed…
Micah: …that shows you how much I know.
Jamie: As opposed to houses, they do look similar, Micah, I can understand…
Micah: Yeah, don’t you.
Andrew: You thought they were flowers.
Greg: …how you could get confused.
Jamie: What I’d say about this is that it could be because Jo loves double entendres: something that means one thing and in other words can mean something else. So I think she’d go in for that. You know, two pictures, one here slightly turned around and one on the cover, and then it’s up to us to realize that the significance in what the mean together.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: If they mean anything, unless it’s just a red herring. And this is just – oh, and also, last time I was on this show, or a couple of times before, I said quite blatantly that there were no towns or villages in England that look like that cover. And I’d now like to apologize in the strongest sense, because I got a lot of [laughs] e-mails saying that there were, especially in Scotland.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: So, it shows what a big fan I am of my own country. But I think it’s a very good point and it could be important, it’s just up to us to figure out – everyone just to figure out what it could mean.
Andrew: Yeah, it would be pretty cool if J.K. Rowling did throw in a little something like that.
Jamie: It would. It really would, yeah.
Andrew: However it was Mary GrandPre who came up with this artwork to begin with, so. Unless she did – J.K. Rowling did come up with that setting in her mind, put it on her website, then told Mary GrandPre to – I don’t know.
Micah: Well I’m sure Mary GrandPre has been on the website, too.
Andrew: Well, yeah.
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Andrew: Mary GrandPre was like, “Hmm, how am I gonna draw this? Oh, there’s a picture.”
Micah: Yeah, there’s definitely – they don’t look like flowers at all.
Jamie: Who wrote these books? I can’t remember. [laughs]
Andrew: They actually kind of do to me. I, is it just my preference?
Micah: It depends on how you look at it I guess, I don’t know.
Andrew: Well they are houses because at night they light up.
Jamie: No, they could just be fake flowers with LEDs in them or something.
Andrew: That light up.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Good point, good point. Any other thoughts?
Micah: It looks like there’s a church there though.
Greg: I don’t know, I think it’s – I mean, how much planning does J.K. Rowling really put into that, of her website as opposed with her book covers. I mean, it just seems like a fan noticing things too much.
Andrew: Right.
Greg: Happens a lot.
Andrew: Yeah, well thanks anyway Lindsay for the – well, thank you Lindsay for the feedback.
Greg: That’s my personal no conclusions theory.
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Jamie: And Greg, that’s what we’re here for, so well done.
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Jamie: I like it very much.
Listener Rebuttal: Bellatrix’s Wording
Andrew: The next rebuttal comes from Will Stone, 12, of Gastonia, North Carolina. He writes:
Hey MuggleCast! Love the show more than any other podcasts.
Aw well thank you.
Jamie: Thank you.
Andrew: To tell the truth, I really thought all podcasts were really boring, but then came your show, and that changed my philosophy.
Andrew: Well, thank you again. However, I would recommend – never mind.
So, anyway, I was reading back over ‘Order of the Phoenix’ and read what Bellatrix said to Voldemort when he appeared in the Ministry. She said: “I was fighting the animagus Black…Master, you should know…he is here…he is below.” My question/theory is does Bellatrix know something about the Veil that we don’t?
Jamie: Oh, that’s brilliant.
Andrew: Could Sirius still be alive? This has probably been asked before but I haven’t heard it so, thanks..
Jamie: That’s a really good point.
Jamie: I mean, when I first read that I thought she meant he is below as in he is down on the level, you know, that is below the Atrium, the one they’re on now. But I guess below could be a synonym for the, you know, sorry, a metaphor for like the other world, the netherworld where Sirius is now. But, I’m not too sure if it means he could be alive, it could just be that he, as in what he stands for is in the other world. So, he could be dead and still in the other world rather than alive in the – but he could be alive.
Andrew: Well,l so the veil takes, if we were to believe Will’s theory here, that would mean that the veil takes you somewhere below, under the ground.
Jamie: No, no, no, no.
Andrew: Or could it be a secret level?
Jamie: No, no, no, I think by below he means that below as in two different things. One world and then a second world. Not that the veil is a transporter to take you in this world to a different place lower underground.
Andrew: Oh.
Jamie: But he is below our world. Like if you were talking about in Lord of the Rings, if you’re talking about people who in the Ringwrathe world and you just said that they’re there. By there you just mean a different – okay that doesn’t make sense, but by this thing you could mean that they’re in a difference place from where you are now. So, you know, and if two people understand that reference then it doesn’t have to mean what everyone else takes it to mean.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: And Jo loves these double meanings, so I think it’s a really good theory.
Andrew: Right. Well, that’s what I was thinking, it sort of relates to the prophecy because wasn’t there one line we were talking about where it might have a double meaning?
Jamie: Yeah, we were talking about when the prophecy – the line that says “the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches” and at that moment Snape was walking towards the room.
Andrew: Mmmm.
Jamie: So, approaches means, you know?
Andrew: Oh my god.
Jamie: His birth was coming, imminent, and it could also mean that, you know, someone was walking towards where the prophecy was being made. I think that is one of the best things I have ever heard in my life, ever.
Andrew: That is very good, that’s very good.
Jamie: I wake up every morning just to hear that. Go on.
[Andrew and Greg laugh]
MuggleCast 96 Transcript (continued)
Listener Rebuttal: Rowena’s Wand and the Sky
Andrew: Okay, the next rebuttal, and Greg you can feel free, I know you might not have had any ideas for that one, but you can feel free to butt in anytime.
Greg: Alrighty.
Andrew: The next one comes from Logan, 19 of Arizona. He writes:
I may be completely off my rocker here, but I was just listening to Episode 94 and you guys kept mentioning the sky. This made me immediately think of Rowena Ravenclaw’s wand (according to the [mispronounces] Tarot, wand equals sky).
Jamie: [pronounces correctly] Tarot, tarot.
Andrew: [mispronounces] Tarot?
Jamie: Tarot card.
Greg: That’s – that’s horrible.
Jamie: Actually, that is…
Andrew: I always say [misprounouces to rhyme with “carrot”] tarot.
Greg: Your pronunciation is [mispronouncing to emphasize his name in the word] egregious.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: “According to the [mispronounces] tarot…”
Jamie: No, tarot. Tarot.
Andrew: [mispronounces] Tarot.
Jamie: Say it t-a-r-r-o-w. Tarot.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
According to the Tarot, wand equals sky. This somehow led me to my next, more feeble, theory of the different bits of the symbol representing the founder’s objects/Horcruxes. The vertical line representing either Ravenclaw’s wand or Gryffindor’s sword, the circle representing Slytherin’s locket, and the triangle representing Hufflepuff’s cup – the most feeble of all: the triangle is similar to the symbol used in ‘The DaVinci Code’ for the chalice or cup. Again, I’m probably completely off course on this one. Thanks!
Jamie: That’s really good, and…
Andrew: That is pretty good.
Jamie: …the Dan Brown reference is brilliant.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Because, you know, we love these…
Andrew: But I’ve never read the books.
Jamie: Well, you should, you should.
Andrew: I know I should.
Jamie: I love these, you know, jewel, sort of, connection things. You know, anything; you can make a connection between anything. It’s really good, though.
Andrew: Yes.
Jamie: I like…
Andrew: It’s our “Make the Connection” section.
Jamie: Exactly, which is coming up soon.
Greg: I do have to wonder…
Jamie: Sorry, Greg. Go on.
Greg: I do have to wonder what religion is going to play in the seventh book.
Andrew: Yeah.
Greg: Because “hallows”…
Jamie: Oh, yeah, completely.
Greg: Deathly Hallows, is kind of, it’s a direct contradiction of words.
Andrew: Right.
Greg: So, it makes you wonder.
Andrew: And that’s just going to start more debate.
Greg: I only thought of that because of the DaVinci Code reference.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s kind of scary. I mean, Laura Mallory could jump all over that if religion really does get involved.
Jamie: She could, she could. And she’d get shot down again.
Greg: Why?
Andrew: Yeah.
Greg: Because she’s so – she’s funny. She makes my day.
Andrew: You know, Greg, we’ve tried to call her many times during the show, but no luck, no luck.
Jamie: Yeah. It must be – what it’s like – it must be running into a brick wall, getting knocked down, fainting, then going back and just, doing the entire thing over and over again.
Greg: Doing it again.
Jamie: Yeah. Because she’s been…
Greg: You mean like a bird just running into a window…
Jamie: Precisely, yeah. It just doesn’t learn.
Greg: …over and over and over again.
Jamie: It doesn’t learn. And I love comparing her to all manner of lesser animals, because, you know…
[Greg and Andrew laugh]
Jamie: …I think it’s a viable reference, yeah, to be honest. Back to his theory, though. I think it’s also good, because, you know, the founders of Hogwarts were a group, and whatever they turned it in to be, they started out as a cohesive group. So, you know, this whole, one symbol representing everything that they stood for, I think is, the kind of thing Jo would go in for as well. So, I think that’s very good, very interesting theory.
Andrew: I agree. All right, so we’ll move along now to – oh, Micah, you want to take over?
The Road to Deathly Hallows: Where are the Horcruxes?
Micah: Sure. This week we’re continuing the road to Deathly Hallows, taking one of the questions, or, actually two, that Scholastic puts out as we get closer to the release of the seventh book. And this question, that we were supposed to get to last week that we didn’t, was “Where are the Horcruxes?”
Andrew: Yes.
Diagon Alley
Micah: So, we’re going to spend a little bit of time discussing where the remaining Horcruxes could be located. And the first option that’s giving is Diagon Alley. What do you guys think?
Jamie: I agree, move on.
Greg: No way, too obvious.
Andrew: It is too obvious
Jamie: Not only that, but it’s too open.
Micah: Why not? What about…
Greg: It’s in a shop. It’s being sold.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. You can go and buy it. How much is that Horcrux in the window?
Greg: Yeah. [laughs]
Andrew: Well, it could be…
Jamie: No, but, the thing is…
Andrew: …buried somewhere. I mean, obviously, it’s not for display. I mean, that’s…
Greg: Yeah, but Voldemort really took care of where he – I think he really took care of where he put his Horcruxes so only he knew where they were.
Jamie: Precisely. It’s…
Greg: They wouldn’t be somewhere where someone could just stumble upon it and say “Oh, that’s cool.”
Jamie: Exactly, exactly. And he likes security, you know, peace of mind and stuff like that, and that doesn’t come from having your Horcrux where people walk through every day. “Mommy, Mommy, I found a Horcrux.” “Oh that’s nice, dear.” Picks it up and puts it in a bag, you know?
Micah: Well, what’s to say that you’d know, though?
Greg: That statement kind of limits out these other ones that we have listed here.
Jamie: Oh, but these are kind of more secretive, and I mean…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: …there’s nothing about Diagon Alley that sort of pertains to Voldemort. It isn’t an evil place, you know, the residents there aren’t sort of with him, completely. I mean, I could understand Knockturn Alley a bit more, but…
Micah: Well, that was one thing I was going to bring up: what about Borgin and Burkes? Since we know that he worked there at one point.
Jamie: But he doesn’t like trusting people, and would – he’d be entrusting another person, and someone as oily as and thieving as, and you know, non-caring as Borgin, I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, and that probably isn’t that far.
Micah: But who’s to say that they would know? Say there’s a Horcrux in Diagon Alley. I mean, we talked for a very long time on a couple of episodes about Ollivander’s shop and the wand that was sitting on the cushion in the window.
Jamie: But, it would be all very clever…
Micah: He wouldn’t know necessary
Jamie: No, but it would be all very clever if that was the whole mystery. You know, Voldemort was so clever, he hid it in the one place that people wouldn’t look, which is something out in the open, but that’s…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: But that only works if it works, if that makes sense. He wouldn’t risk people thinking, “Oh, that guy’s really clever,” just on the off chance that people didn’t suspect it. And also, the only important thing to him is retaining his immortality, so “show” and “brilliance” sort of come second to that and – you say why couldn’t he hide in Diagon Alley? Because, you know, it’s a public place, so to get there, he would have to go back and people would see him there and there’ll be people there all the time; it’s a public place. People could find it, whereas if you bury it down 1,000 feet down a hole in the ground, it’s a private place. If it’s, say, in the middle of a field, you know, people won’t be walking around there. And it just seems like a foolish choice for someone who values his immortality above anything.
Hogsmeade
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. I guess that rules out Hogsmeade then.
Jamie: Oh, well…
Andrew: Because what’s the difference?
Jamie: I think it’s because – I agree, there’s not much difference, but I think it’s a historic town, Hogsmeade, and it must hold secrets – not only magical secrets that Diagon Alley obviously does hold – but it also must hold secrets and history that it could potentially make it easier for someone to hide it there if they wanted to, because I’ve always thought that places with history and intrigue that hold secrets – people who are more powerful that other wizards can always use that to their own advantage because intelligence is obviously a valuable tool when it comes to the magical world. So, a place like Hogsmeade where there we goblin rebellions and stuff like that – there must be stuff left over that Voldemort can possibly use. I’m not sure what though.
Micah: But, again, what about your point of going back there?
Jamie: That people would walk through? Exactly.
Micah: Wouldn’t he be in danger?
Jamie: He would, of course, yeah.
Micah: Yeah.
Jamie: So it’s unlikely, I think. Very unlikely.
Gringotts
Greg: Would you ever think that maybe one could be in Gringotts?
Jamie: Yes, I do. But…
Greg: Because with the goblins…
Andrew: Absolutely. We talked about that.
Jamie: But the problem is the security that keeps people away from it also keeps it in and keeps Voldemort out, so I’m sure they have a lockdown system.
Greg: Yes, but if Voldemort – if the goblins ended up on Voldemort’s side…
Jamie: But it’s trust again. If they turned – if Dumbledore offered them a height charm or something to make them bigger and…
[Greg chuckles]
Jamie: …this is beyond their wildest dreams and they moved away from Voldemort, he wouldn’t be able to access his part of his soul and it’s so important to him. Trust doesn’t even come into the equation, so it has to be somewhere where he doesn’t need anybody’s help to get at it or in need to safeguard it.
Micah: Would they let him into his vault, though? If he went there? I mean…
Jamie: I don’t know.
Micah: …say the goblins are indifferent, but they know who he is. It’s not like they’re just going to say, “Oh yeah, sure,” you know, ‘come open the vault.'”
Jamie: Yeah, well, exactly. [laughs] Well, they might do it. If he’s a Platinum Plus Key holder or something like that, you know?
[Greg and Andrew laughs]
Jamie: One more Dan Brown reference. When I go to the Depository Bank of Zurich and use the Gold Key account. [pauses] Sorry, yep, went off on a tangent there. Someone please step in.
Andrew: Well, I don’t think – didn’t we have a discussion about this a few weeks ago? I feel like we did, but I wasn’t on it.
Jamie: [laughs] That’s pretty impressive, then.
Micah: We discussed – didn’t we discuss it being whose vault it would be that was displayed on the Deluxe Edition? Not the Deluxe Edition, but the Children’s Edition.
Andrew: Oh, the UK, yeah.
Micah: But I almost see Voldemort as somebody who would make it a Horcrux and then have it locked sort of unexpectedly to the person who it belonged to.
Jamie: Exactly. And he wouldn’t make it something that looks like treasure. Two references, Pirates of the Caribbean when Jack Sparrow, says, “Not all treasure is silver and gold,” you know? So, what most people see as treasure, Voldemort wouldn’t want to make his Horcrux that. Because then everyone would think it was valuable. Second reference: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when Indiana Jones has to pick up the Holy Grail and the previous guy picks up the biggest jewel-encrusted trophy, you know, and he chooses foolishly and he gets turned into a skeleton and dust.
Andrew: Mhm.
Jamie: Then Indiana Jones picks up the wooden, old, decrepit cup on the floor and it’s the Holy Grail, so it just goes to prove that what people think is valuable, it doesn’t work the same way for everyone, and Voldemort doesn’t care what it is as long as it’s safe. You know, he has an extremely meticulous mind and he’d rather entrust it to – I mean, obviously, he likes trophies, the things that are valuable to him, but I don’t think they’re more important than the safety of his Horcruxes. Like, I don’t know, if he thought Rowena Ravenclaw’s item was not safe, I think he’d rather use something that was safe but meant less to him, but I don’t know. I could be wrong on that. What do you guys think?
Hogwarts
Andrew: That’s a good point. What about Hogwarts?
Jamie: He obviously feels a sentimental attachment to it.
Andrew: He does, and Harry said at the end of Book 6 that he wouldn’t be going back unless he had to, so I think that would be the perfect way to get back to Hogwarts, and not just that, but Hogwarts is where Tom Riddle was a student.
Jamie: Created, basically. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, it was where he was created. He should have a part of his soul there. [laughs]
Jamie: But – sorry. Go on.
Andrew: And there are so many places where he could hide a Horcrux in the castle that – who knows? There could be another Chamber of Secrets or something similar.
Greg: Well, if he made a Horcrux out of Moaning Myrtle…
[Jamie and Andrew laugh]
Greg: …it could be in Hogwarts, and there are many passageways.
Jamie: He couldn’t grab her, though. He’d try to, and his hands would just go straight through her. So, he’d have to…
Greg: No. I’m not saying that Moaning Myrtle is a Horcrux. I’m saying that maybe he created one off of her…
Jamie: Oh, I see what you mean. Sorry.
Greg: … thus being able to hide it within Hogwarts.
Jamie: In Hogwarts, yeah.
Greg: In the Slytherin common room, or…
Micah: I think there are two possibilities.
Jamie: The thing that I would say – oh, sorry. Go on.
Micah: There are two possibilities at Hogwarts that I like. One is the Trophy Room, and the other is the Room of Requirement.
Jamie: Yes. Definitely.
Andrew: Hmmm.
Micah: The second one more so, because a couple of people again have e-mailed in with the whole goblin-made tiara that the Weasleys talk about at the end of Half-Blood Prince, about how Fleur’s going to wear it during the wedding, and I guess it comes up a couple times during the series, and there is actually a tiara that’s in the Room of Requirement when Harry goes to hide Snape’s potion book.
Jamie: See, that’s interesting.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Oooh.
Greg: That would be funny if to retrieve his soul, he had to wear it.
[Andrew, Jamie, and Greg laugh]
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs again]
Jamie: I was going to say about Hogwarts is that it’s possibly the place on earth that is filled with the most secrets.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: And the problem with places that hold a lot of secrets is that there’s always the possibility that there’s someone that knows more of the secrets than you do, and Tom Riddle – Voldemort only ever feared Dumbledore, and considering Dumbledore’s attachment to Hogwarts and how clever and powerful he is both in terms of intelligence and magic, I think that Tom Riddle would always have a thing in his head that thought, “Well, perhaps Dumbledore knew all along what I was doing, and even if he didn’t, could he access it,” and you know, things like that, and also about the Room of Requirement: I think it’s an awesome place to hide it, but I was just thinking about the name “Room of Requirement,” and this is kind of off on a tangent as well, but if you think about the name, it isn’t about what you want. It’s what you are required to do, you know, “Room of Requirement.” What do you need to help you do what you’re required to do? The only type of requirement that I can think of is a moral obligation, because I can’t think of any other reason why you would be required to do something. So, like, Harry created the DA, you know, to fight evil, so perhaps that’s a moral obligation…
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: …but he couldn’t get to Malfoy’s thing. Because perhaps Malfoy had to do that to save his family. So…
Micah: How do you explain Dumbledore needing to go to the bathroom? [laughs]
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Well, it would be pretty embarrassing if he weed himself…
[Micah laughs]
Jamie: …and I don’t think that fate deals that kind of dirty hand, so – no pun intended. So…
Andrew: That’s what I was just going to say. I mean, ultimately, you could spin anything to be “required.”
Jamie: No. No, no, because…
Andrew: I think you could, and Dumbledore having to use the bathroom is a perfect example.
Jamie: Not if the room is – has its own mind, and makes it’s own judgments.
Andrew: Well, that’s the one thing. However, how could – I mean, Dumbledore [laughs], you know, I don’t want to keep going back to that example, but what is it that he used to relieve himself?
Micah: Chamber pots.
Jamie: A chamber pot.
Andrew: Chamber pots.
Jamie: Well, he didn’t actually use that, but he went in there, and it was filled with chamber pots, but it’s… [scoffs] I just don’t think you can use it for whatever you want. That would be ridiculous, and Harry couldn’t get to the place that Dralcoy – Draco Malfoy went to, and Malfoy could say, his requirement could be, “Well, I need a room that no one could enter, ever,” and Harry’s could be, “I specifically need a room that Draco Malfoy has been into, even if he said that no one could enter it ever.” So, what…
Andrew: Wouldn’t it have to justify it as well?
Jamie: Wouldn’t – well, no, but I mean, what’s more important? The room obviously has to make its own judgments, which also means that it must judge what people require and what they don’t require. So, I think again that that’s a trust issue. How could Voldemort trust it to something he know exactly how it works. And he would be falling foul to his own game. He uses things with brains to trap and con people, and I don’t think he’d want to be a victim of his own determination and intelligence.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: I’ve also always wondered though if that was Dumbledore’s just way of planting the seed in Harry’s head that the room existed.
Jamie: That’s – yeah. That’s also very true.
Micah: Not necessarily that…
Andrew: By doing what?
Micah: Not necessarily that he needed the room to use for chamber pots, but that he was just making Harry aware of the fact that the room existed, and that was kind of his story behind it.
Death Eaters
Andrew: Oh, okay. All right, well moving down our list here, only with Death Eaters. I don’t think they’re vulnerable, are they?
Jamie: They…
Greg: I doubt it. After what happened with Lucius and the diary, I doubt Voldemort would entrust a Horcrux to any other Death Eaters.
Jamie: Amen.
Andrew: Yep.
Jamie: And also, again, it comes down to the trust issue. They aren’t his friends, and…
Andrew: But he does rely on them.
Jamie: …even with…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: No, he doesn’t, though. He keeps them – it’s – you know, he’s a dictator, basically. He keeps them there out of fear. I’m sure most of them would want to go away. They’re terrified when they’re around him. And…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: …A) he can’t trust them, because trusting people – it’s something Voldemort doesn’t do. And, also, they aren’t his friends, at all. He consistently makes this clear. And Dumbledore always says, he liked to do everything alone. He like to work alone, he like to act alone, he liked to do what he was doing alone, so he wouldn’t want people helping him along the path to immortality. A) because they’d know what he was doing, and B) because they were holding a fragment of his soul.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: If you could split your soul, how many people in this world would you entrust it to? Because I bet the list would be exceptionally thin.
Andrew: It wouldn’t be seven people. [laughs]
Jamie: It wouldn’t be seven people, no.
Andrew: [laughs] Sorry guys.
Jamie: I’d entrust it to my cat.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Greg: Here, Fluffy, hold my soul for a while.
[Andrew, Jamie and Greg laugh]
Jamie: And don’t eat it.
Godric’s Hollow
Andrew: Okay, then we also have Godric’s Hollow, which seems to be a very popular choice because everyone seems to think that Harry needs to go back to Godric’s Hollow to – for some specific reason, and Godric’s Hollow would be a great place to hide a Horcrux, because, after all, that is where Harry’s parents were killed.
Greg: Well, the question of that is, is if it’s still a functioning…
Andrew: Town.
Greg: …town, like Hogsmeade is.
Andrew: Well whether it is or not. Even if it’s not functioning, anymore, and Voldemort – are you talking about when he left the Horcrux there?
Greg: Well, yeah, I’m saying if it’s something like Hogsmeade, that our same theory would work for the – that worked for Hogsmeade would work for that, but if it’s a decrepit place, now, then it would change that quite a bit.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s a good point. Micah, what do you think?
Micah: Godric’s Hollow? I don’t know.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: It seems like a weak place to me. And the reason why I say that is because unless there was an accidental Horcrux that was created, which a lot of people theorize was Harry, I don’t really see a need to put a Horcrux in Godric’s Hollow. I think Voldemort went there, sort of as a one time thing, to kill the Potters, and having one there would really serve no purpose.
Andrew: Yeah.
Greg: I think it’s probably too convenient – that Harry’s going there, anyway, and he’s going to, what? Step on a Horcrux and go, “Oh, wait! Oh, what’s that?”
Andrew: Yeah.
Greg: “Oh, it’s a soul!”
Jamie: Exactly, yeah.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Well, say the town is intact; would it be in the Potters’ old home?
Jamie: But you say “it” like it’s just…
Andrew: The Horcrux.
Jamie: …there’ll be a piece of soul, as Greg says, just floating there. He needs to – you can’t make Godric’s Hollow a Horcrux, so he’d have to obviously put an object in there – into Godric’s Hollow. And I can’t think of…
Greg: But other than the Potters dying…
Jamie: I just don’t know what…
Greg: …what is special about that? What would be special about that before…
Micah: Right.
Greg: …he killed them?
Andrew: I guess.
Micah: That’s my point, yeah.
Jamie: But does he have to plan these Horcrux makings? Because Slughorn says that there’s a spell you use to encase the torn portion of soul into an object, you know? But do you have to use that spell immediately? So would – so, say when he made his locket Horcrux, did he have to have it there with him? Did he have to use the spell immediately, and then did it go straight into the locket? Or could he save up his soul, and then later on –after dinner, after he’s watched American Idol…
[Greg laughs]
Jamie: …he can then put it into a – into his soul when he’s ready for it. Or, sorry – into an object when he’s ready, or does it have to be straight away? Because if it has to be straight away, then he obviously went there prepared.
Andrew: I think it has to be straight away. We talked about this – didn’t we? It has to be straight away, because otherwise…
Jamie: Well, then…
Andrew: …it disappears – the soul.
Greg: This is random, but I’d love to see Voldemort voting for Sanjaya.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Thank you, Greg. Greg, you’re awesome. You’re random. You’re awesome.
Jamie: So, I don’t know. Godric’s Hollow just seems like – obviously – Dumbledore said that he reserved Horcruxes for extremely significant deaths, so Harry – after hearing the prophecy, Harry must have been the most significant death ever, so he obviously went there with the intention of making a Horcrux. If, as we said, you have to do it straight away, then he went there with the intention of making a Horcrux. So, if he was reserving Harry’s death for a Horcrux, then James or Lily couldn’t have been used to make them. So, it just seems unlikely that – the only Horcrux I think he could have made then, and the only possible explanation is the “Harry is a Horcrux” theory, because he obviously couldn’t have split his soul and then done it…
Greg: Yeah.
Jamie: …because the curse rebounded. So, I think the only Horcrux that could have possibly come out of Godric’s Hollow was Harry, if indeed he is a Horcrux, though. That’s why I just don’t think there could be one in Godric’s Hollow.
Micah: We don’t know anybody else, either, that lived there that he would have killed that would have been of any significance…
Jamie: No.
Micah: …to create a Horcrux out of.
Jamie: I don’t think so.
Micah: Just because it’s called Godric’s Hollow, doesn’t mean that there’s…
Jamie: Well, that’s the big…
Micah: …a Horcrux there.
Jamie: That’s the, sort of, $900,000 question. It isn’t as big as the one million one, but it’s pretty big.
Micah: Yeah, because we don’t even know…
Jamie: Yeah.
Micah: …is it related to Godric Gryffindor?
Jamie: We don’t know, do we?
Andrew: We don’t.
Micah: It would be a pretty smart assumption, but you know what happens when you assume.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: It would be a smart assumption, but, you know, it shouldn’t be – it’s almost too obvious.
Jamie: It is, yeah.
Andrew: Like, Jamie, there’s a Camden here in New Jersey…
Jamie: There is.
Andrew: …and there’s a Camden here in England. Er, there in England.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Not there, because you are actually here, but…
Jamie: Yeah. I know what you mean.
Andrew: …out there in England. [laughs] But…
Micah: In the basement.
Andrew: So, I mean, they – where was I going with that? I mean, they don’t both have the same meaning.
Jamie: Precisely. No
Andrew: You know? Take it literally. There could be another Godric’s Hollow, for all we know.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Is there a real Godric’s Hollow? There might be.
Jamie: No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t sound right.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: But it just seems so unlikely, it’s unbelievable.
Ministry of Magic
Andrew: Yeah. Well, moving down the list here, Ministry of Magic.
Jamie: That’s – that’s…
Andrew: I don’t know about this one.
Jamie: That’s like putting your biggest secret and weapon inside your enemy’s hands. It’s ridiculous.
Greg: Well, it would be like…
Jamie: Why would you do that?
Greg: It would be like Saddam trying to hide out in the White House. It just doesn’t make sense.
Jamie: Exactly. And – yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. In the Oval Office, underneath Bush’s desk.
Andrew: I don’t know. It is sort of different, because it’s not a human, it’s an item that could be hidden in the Ministry of Magic.
Jamie: But why would you do that? How could he go in and get it? You know, Dumbledore said that he took a huge risk going into the Ministry on – you know, Order of the Phoenix, when they were battling there. He can’t just walk into the Ministry. He’s a ridiculously powerful wizard, but with 60 Aurors there, he won’t stand a chance, you know?
Andrew: What if the Horcrux was the Fountain of Magical Brethren?
Jamie: But, that’s like the wand in Ollivander’s. It would be clever if it worked out, but he wouldn’t risk it being clever.
Micah: And who would he have killed…
Jamie: It’s just…
Micah: …in the Ministry of Magic…
Jamie: …you know…
Micah: …that he would have been able to make the Fountain…
Jamie: Yeah.
Micah: …a Horcrux?
Andrew: That’s a good point. That’s a good point.
Jamie: It just seems so unlikely that you’d put your biggest weapon and secret inside your enemy’s back pocket.
Andrew: Mhm. You’re right, it’s too – it’s a little too simple for J.K. Rowling.
Jamie: No, but, Andrew, I know exactly what you mean, but only if it’s a weapon. If you hide – it’s like if you. if you hide a gun on Air Force One, the people can find it, but then it’s in the prime location for if you want to hijack it. So – but it doesn’t work with a Horcrux, because a Horcrux isn’t an AK-47.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: So, it doesn’t work like that, but…
Azkaban
Andrew: Well, next up, Azkaban. Immediately, I’m starting to think, “Who would he have killed…”
Jamie: Well, exactly, and…
Andrew: “…in Azkaban?” [laughs] That’s a good question to bring up about all of these, before even start really discussing them…
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: …because that’s a great point.
Jamie: And Azkaban – you know, the dementors – who said that they’re his natural allies? Dumbledore, I think. No, no, sorry. It was Voldemort. I think in Goblet of Fire. “We will recall the banished giants, the dementors are our natural allies.” Or something like that. But, that makes sense. If he could walk unaided, freely, into Azkaban, then it’s an extremely secure place. No one wants to go in, and only Dumbledore, probably, can break out easily, apart from Sirius, obviously, but he was the exception, rather than the rule. So, Azkaban would be a very safe place. But, again, it’s risky, because he’s allying himself with somebody.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: Or rather, a race of people – the dementors. And although they’re naturally evil, and will side with him, you know?
Micah: And there’s a small setback to that, also, in that dementors like to suck souls out of things. So…
Jamie: [laughs] Ah, exactly. Yeah.
Micah: …his Horcrux would be in a little bit of trouble, I think.
Jamie: It’s like a buffet. They go to a buffet and there are souls all over and say, “Oooh…”
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: “Ooh, are you some of that?” “Well, yeah, yeah.” “That’s very nice.”
St. Mungo’s
Andrew: Moving along, St. Mungo’s. A hospital. Again, who would he kill?
Jamie: Again, it’s just – you can’t – why would you – it’s a ridiculous place to hide it. It’s filled with – A) it’s filled with people.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: B) it’s filled with healers; clever people.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: C) although it’s – somehow people say it could be allied with Malfoy and evil, it doesn’t matter. It’s still a place with people.
Other Places
Andrew: Yeah. So, Jamie, is there one place on this list…
Jamie: With mixed agendas.
Andrew: Is there one place not on this list that you think a Horcrux could be?
Jamie: Yeah, it’s somewhere that isn’t a place…
Andrew: Remote? Secluded?
Jamie: Remote, secluded…
Greg and
Jamie:
A cave.
Greg: Ohhh.
Jamie: A cave has no significance at all, which makes it perfect.
Micah: Well, it did to him, right?
Greg: Yeah.
Micah: I mean that was the whole point.
Jamie: Precisely. Exactly. It had significance to him. And Dumbledore said – you know, he found a chain out of nowhere in there. Obviously, secrecy – hidden, you know? These words are important to Voldemort, so…
Micah: Right.
Jamie: …not only was it a place that no one would – in their wildest dreams would think of – you know, that he had one of his Horcruxes there. It was a place that, even if you went in and you weren’t a very, very, very clever and intelligent person, you couldn’t find it, anyway. So it’s – he’s not going to hide it in a hospital, or a prison, or a village, or a bank, or something like that where it’s ridiculously vulnerable with all these people swarming around – clever wizards. And the Ministry of Magic is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Yeah, if he’s got a suicide wish then he’d hide it there, but it’s just…
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: What about the orphanage?
Jamie: Well…
Greg: Well, that was kind of covered by the cave, wasn’t it?
Micah: Yeah, they’re tied.
Jamie: It is, but I think that’s – but going back there, you know?
Andrew: Yeah, I was going to say…
Jamie: I don’t know…
Andrew: …why would he go back there? I mean, that’s where…
Jamie: It’s a different part of his life.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: I’d say he’s moved on. He’s a different person. And although the cave kind of disproves that, I think it just had significance. And it was a perfect location as well, so…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: …you know?
Andrew: All right, well – does anyone have any other ideas about that?
Micah: So, where are they, then?
Andrew: Or we’ll move on… [laughs] So, where are they?
Jamie: Where are they? Well, one’s probably in a…
Andrew: Cookie jar.
Jamie: …abandoned coal bunker in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, so we’re going to look for that when we do our podcast.
Andrew: But it just makes me wonder how Harry is going to find out where these Horcruxes are, if they are in such random locations.
Jamie: Well, he’s going to have help. He’s going to – it could be something that we don’t know about, yet, because you know, he can’t just – he can’t just, you know, do a fingerprint dusting thing in all of these places and hope something comes up.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: You know, it’s – you can’t – you can’t just go looking for these things. You have to have outside knowledge of them, that Dumbledore had.
Greg: What about the Riddle House? He murdered his father and grandparents there, so that would be a significant place of some sort.
Jamie: Exactly, yeah. And it’s a place that obviously holds secrets. You know, secrets are so important to these – to this story – the entire seven books.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: And, you know…
Greg: Well, in the fourth book, he didn’t stay there for no reason.
Jamie: Yeah. Exactly, yeah. It was…
Greg: I mean, maybe he stayed on at the Riddle House in the fourth book to check up on a Horcrux, or…
Jamie: Perhaps he did, yeah.
Greg: But he – yeah.
Jamie: It isn’t just anywhere that he’s going to hide parts of his soul. Andrew, I’ll ask you again. If you could split your soul, and the – you know, you had to entrust it some – I mean, to somewhere or someone, the list of people would be very short that you’d give your soul to, wouldn’t it?
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: And I imagine you’re slightly – well, I hope you’re slightly more trusting than Voldemort. So…
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Jamie: You know, it’s ridicu – these places are just stupid.
Andrew: Would you give me one of your Horcruxes, Jamie?
Jamie: Oh, I’d give you anything…
Andrew: Awww…
Jamie: …darling.
MuggleCast 96 Transcript (continued)
The Road to Deathly Hallows: Who Will Be With Who?
Andrew: So, moving along now, we’re going to do another little bit. Who will be with who? This was another question.
Micah: Who cares?
Andrew: Oh, come on, Micah!
Jamie: I don’t get it. What’s the thing?
Andrew: Who will be with who? This is another question by Scholastic. Who will be with who?
Micah: Well, you know why I said that? You know why I said that?
Andrew: Well…
Jamie: I don’t know, can you just – sorry, go on.
Andrew: I have a rule for this part, but go ahead, Micah.
Micah: Well, I just don’t see it as significant. I was kind of surprised to see this question.
Andrew: See, I think the fact that they’re bringing up this question means that it’s significant.
Jamie: Can you explain what it is first? Is it…
Andrew: Who…
Jamie: …relationships?
Andrew: Who’s going to be with who? Yeah. It’s relationships.
Jamie: Ahhh.
Andrew: The fact that they’re bringing the question up makes me believe that it’s going to be important. Because why would they bring it up if it wasn’t going to be in the book at all?
Jamie: Because people love relationships and romance, and…
Andrew: Well, I know that.
Jamie: …everyone thinks that everyone’s been climaxing, and it’s going to…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: …come to the book, and everyone’s going to live happily ever after. I think Bill and Fleur. That’s going to be a certain one.
Andrew: But it’s like asking the question, “Which food store are they going to be going to in the book?”
Jamie: No, it’s not. Of course it’s not. Andrew – Andrew, that’s…
Andrew: But what if…
Jamie: …so untrue, because…
Andrew: Okay, maybe something a little broader.
Jamie: …we talked about before – no! No, because…
Andrew: “What color will Hermione’s hair be in this book?”
Jamie: How is it – how is it like that at all?
Andrew: I’m sorry.
Jamie: Harry fighting Voldemort – it could be that his love for Ginny could, you know, force him to do – to kill him, which he couldn’t do normally. It could be that because they’re together, Voldemort will go after her, and in doing so, release Harry’s anger. It could be because they can’t be together…
Andrew: Right, we’re say…
Jamie: …that, ummm…
Andrew: Yes. But…
Jamie: …that he beat him, because he’s so incensed. Or because Hermione and Ron are together, Harry feels that…
Andrew: All right, all right. All right.
Jamie: …he doesn’t have such a burden to…
Andrew: All right, Eric.
Jamie: …leave back. Well, Andrew, what sort of a point is, “It’s like asking what color Hermione’s hair is going to be?”
Andrew: Because I’m saying they – that they’re asking because it plays a role in Book Seven.
Jamie: Well, obviously. Obviously.
Andrew: They wouldn’t be asking – yeah, that’s what I’m saying! But I’m saying – because that’s – because that’s why Micah was saying “Well, why were they asking?” And I’m saying because they’re going to play a role in Book Seven.
Greg: Well, I think the major point – I think the reason why there’s a lot of love triangles, and things like that, in the Harry Potter books is kind of to show that good can go on while there is a war, while there is evil. So I think it’s just a lot – I think that J.K. Rowling integrates it ‘ecause it kind of shows that true love can exist while bad things are going on, however corny that sounds…
Jamie: Of course. It’s true…
Greg: I think that’s…
Jamie: It’s absolutely true.
Greg: Yeah. I think that’s the only reason why that’s really in there.
Jamie: And also it’s to show because throughout all the books there’s been this whole thing – love is, you know, is above magic, superior to magic. Love can do things even magic can’t do. So, it’s…
Greg: And that was actually brought up in Book 6 a lot when – oh what was her name – well, it would’ve been Voldemort’s aunt – no his mother actually…
Jamie: Merope.
Greg: …seduced Riddle with a potion and then it just showed that that type of thing doesn’t last.
Jamie: Precisely. Precisely. And also in Book 6 when Slughorn was like, you can’t manufacture love. This is merely lust. Love is above any other form of, you know, romance. So it’s obviously, you know, and if love is above it, then obviously it has powers and secrets that can make you do things that you couldn’t normally do or cause you to act like you wouldn’t normally act.
So like – you know?
Andrew: Yeah. So now let’s actually ask the question: Who will be with who? And I thought for this segment we could talk in our [switches to a flirty, valley girl voice, slurring the s’s into a ‘th’] gossip voices.
Jamie: I don’t have a gossip voice.
Greg: In our what voices?
Andrew: [using the same voice] Our gossip voices.
Greg: Gotha?
Andrew: [Still using his gossip voice] Gossip!
Greg: Gothip!
Andrew: [Still using his “gothip” voice] So like, Ron and Hermione. Do you think they’ll be together?
Greg: [adopting the gossip voice] Like totally.
Jamie: This is painful. I’m going to have to go. Sorry.
[Greg laughs]
Andrew: So, in Half-Blood Prince…
Greg: That’s enough.
Jamie: Andrew, do you own a noose?
[Greg and Micah laugh]
Andrew: [Switching back to his normal voice] You guys don’t want to talk about – you don’t want to talk in your gossip voices?
Greg: We can just talk in our normal voices. That’s always good…
Andrew: Come on. [Does the valley girl voice again] Like, oh my god!
Greg: Like, no!
Andrew: Okay! Fine, party poopers!
[Greg laughs]
Andrew: We’ll just talk in our boring voices on this audio podcast.
Jamie: Okay, let’s do that…
Greg: Our voices aren’t boring!
Jamie: Let’s do that.
Greg: Come on.
Andrew: Greg, yours isn’t, but…
Greg: That’s because I’m awesome.
Ron and Hermione
Andrew: Okay. So Ron and Hermione. I think there’s a good chance of this.
Jamie: What’s it mean by together? ‘Cause like…
Andrew: As a relationship. As a couple, like Harry and Ginny. Like how they were.
Jamie: But it’s also, you know – together’s a very – a very weird word. They could be sort of – they could sort of have – have…
Greg: You’re over thinking.
Jamie: The beginnings of a relationship.
Andrew: No, no, no.
Jamie: Like they’re like, “I’m going to…”
Andrew: No, the question is who will be with who? That’s Scholastic’s wording. So who will be with who in the – well, wait. Did they ever give it an official explanation because that could also mean who’s – who will be on whose side.
Micah: Yeah, I was just thinking about that…
Jamie: I doubt it’s that, though. I doubt it’s that. It sounds like…
Andrew: Yeah, it probably is related – they have to touch relationships because that’s what sells.
Micah: There’s really only one flip-flopper in the books that stands out, in my opinion.
Jamie: What?
Andrew: What?
Micah: Well, Snape. Well, when you’re talking about who will be with who…
Andrew: Right.
Micah: It’s pretty much set, you know. You know the answers as far as…
Jamie: Yeah, I agree.
Micah: You know, sides in the war.
Andrew: Yeah.
Snape and McGonagall
Jamie: Oh, I thought you meant Snape and, you know, who he’ll be romantically linked to.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: [in a sing-song voice] McGonagall!
Jamie: No, but…
Greg: That’s creepy.
Jamie: I can see them meeting in a hallway being [impersonates McGonagall], “Severus, we must stop meeting like this!”
Greg: You know she’s like 70 and he’s like 35 or something?
Andrew: Is it? That’s called tadpole-ing isn’t it?
Jamie: No, it’s called cradle-snatching.
Andrew: Is it?
Jamie: Didn’t Jo say that some of the Hogwarts teachers have spouses and we’ll be seeing them at some point?
Micah: Yep.
Jamie: And we haven’t, as of yet, seen them.
Back to Ron and Hermione
Andrew: But, all right, back to Ron and Hermione. You’ve got to remember this. Ron was jealous of Hermione when he was dating – when Hermione was dating – what was his name? Mclaggen?
Micah: Cormac something.
Andrew: Cormac Mclaggen?
Jamie: Cormac Mclaggen. Yeah.
Micah: Mclaggen, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. And then, Hermione was jealous when Ron was in a relationship with Lavender.
Jamie: Yes.
Andrew: So, you know, I don’t think they’re jealous that they’re getting to spend less time with each other lest they might be interested in a relationship…
Jamie: Of course they’re interested, but the whole point of, you know, throughout all the books we’ve seen that they don’t ever agree on anything. They like each other, but they’re afraid to show it. They don’t, you know – neither of them shows their feelings and these books aren’t a fairy tale, so it isn’t all going to end with everyone who likes each other getting together and living happily ever after and, you know, especially with a war going on it could be that it ends where we know they want to be together, but they can’t ‘cause one of them kicks the bucket or something like that, you know?
Andrew: Bites the dust?
Jamie: Yes! Bites the dust, kicks the bucket, travels to the other world.
Harry and Ginny
Andrew: Now, how about…
Jamie: Paroxysm.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. How about Harry and Ginny? Harry wanted to end it…
Jamie: We’ve discussed this to death, haven’t we?
Andrew: Have we? I guess…
Jamie: We have.
Andrew: Yeah we have. We have. But final conclusions – I’m going to say no.
Jamie: I’m going to say no as well. Harry’s too, you know, proud and hero-ish, and martyr-ish, and – you know, I have to do this thing on my own, which is a trait he shares with Voldemort, interestingly.
Andrew: Yeah. Yes. Micah? Harry and Ginny – yes or no?
Micah: If he lives, yeah. I think so…
Jamie: Well, yeah, that would be a bit weird if they were having a relationship and he was dead.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: No – it’s hard, I guess, because, again, this is something that I don’t really see as holding much importance in the series overall. This is more sort of – this is what’s going to happen at the very end of the book as opposed to what’s going to linger over the course of Book 7, so I really – I don’t know.
Jamie: That’s a fair point, definitely.
Andrew: Yeah. What about Draco and Pansy?
Jamie: Well that is a pretty key…
Micah: Couple.
Jamie: …couple.
Andrew: It’s not key, but I’m going through the couples page on MuggleNet.com. There’s a whole list here.
Micah: But Jamie, you should know all about this, though. Didn’t you write a book about who falls in love in Book 7 – well, that’s part of the title.
Jamie: But I’d hate to spoil it by discussing it on here.
Micah: Oh, okay. Okay.
Andrew: No, don’t say that because we’ll get people complaining, “You’re not talking about stuff on the show because you want us to buy that book!”
Jamie: I can’t remember what I wrote, Andrew, so I can’t talk about it.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: Who else?
Lupin and Tonks
Micah: Lupin and Tonks?
Jamie: Yeah, but it’s an important thing because two people are important and you can’t underplay when they like each other but this thing is about Harry and I don’t see how – even if they’re together – it will affect him. Only in so far as that it could be that if Tonks and Lupin get together amongst all their adverse situations, then perhaps Harry realizes, “Well, perhaps Ginny and I can be together as well.” And that’s the only reason I can see it’s important.
Andrew: Well it doesn’t really affect him but neither does Bill and Fleur.
Jamie: Well no, it’s true, yeah.
Andrew: So I mean, Tonks and Lupin, I can’t picture any new adult relationships building in the book.
Jamie: I agree. It’s too late.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s too late, there’s not enough room. Sometimes I swear J.K. Rowling just throws these in to excite the fan fiction writers.
Jamie: I’m sure she does.
Andrew: And/or ‘shippers. You know, ‘shippers used to be big. They’re not so big anymore. That whole fade…
Jamie: Well, with the advance of planes, it isn’t as important.
Andrew: Hey!
Greg: You know, the delusional thing kind of ruined everything.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: The what thing?
Jamie: Delusional. Delusional.
Jamie’s British Joke of the Day
Andrew: Yeah, I was just going to say – that’s what really riled everyone up with ‘shipping. But that sort of disappeared. So if anyone has any feedback about that discussion, just email it on over to mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com, and who knows, maybe it will make next week’s listener rebuttals. Jamie, can you enlighten us with a British Joke this
week?
Jamie: I can, yup. Well I was in a terrible car accident the other day, I was driving, wasn’t looking at what I was doing and I…
Andrew: Hey wait a second, you’ve been here. How’s that possible?
Jamie: Well this was a few weeks ago, Andrew, I’ve been here two weeks.
Andrew: Oh, oh, okay.
Jamie: So, it was before I left. So, anyways, I was in this terrible car crash and I was driving along, wasn’t looking where I was going, and went straight up the back end of this person’s car. He got out and he was a dwarf, and he said, “I’m not happy!” And so I said, “Well which one are you?”
[Forced laughter]
Andrew: Ummm…I don’t get it.
Micah: I do – the seven dwarves.
Jamie: The seven dwarves – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Andrew: Oh, I get it! I get it, I get it, good one, Jamie! Good one!
Jamie: Thank you.
Make The Connection
Andrew: That was good, that was good. [laughs] Okay, let’s move on
now to “Make The Connection.”
Jamie: Ah, “Make The Connection,” yes. Greg, do you know about the segment?
Greg: No, I do not.
Andrew: No, enlighten him and all our new listeners.
Jamie: Yeah, to Greg and to all of our new listeners, this is a weird segment, really. It doesn’t really pertain to Harry Potter except in that you use Harry Potter as one side of a two-pronged thing. And what you do is, you have to make some connection between Harry Potter, the one thing, and the other thing which could be anything – absolutely anything. I tried to make it as random and as difficult as possible just for the sake of – you know, funniness, comedy, and stuff like that. So Greg, you go last so that you can get the idea of it, okay?
Greg: Okay.
Jamie: So Micah, you ready?
Micah: Okay.
Jamie: Okay, your Harry Potter Make The Connection is between Harry Potter and Julius Caesar’s body armor. [laughs]
Micah: Oh boy.
[Jamie laughs]
Micah: Where did you come up with this one?
Jamie: I just make it up. [laughs]
Micah: We should play the Jeopardy theme on them.
Greg: I was actually about to start singing that, yeah.
Micah: Well there’s some body armor on the cover of the UK Children’s edition for Deathly Hallows and it’s very possible that Harry may have to wear body armor at some point during the book or that may be a Horcrux and he’ll have to destroy it. And Julius Caesar – well, his body armor didn’t end up doing him too well did it?
Jamie: No, it didn’t!
Micah: So hopefully Harry doesn’t suffer the same fate.
Jamie: Very good, very good.
Andrew: It was good.
Jamie: Okay, Andrew, I’ve gone quite easy on you,
considering last week’s performance…two years ago.
Andrew: Yeah, I’m still learning.
Jamie: So your one is a very specific and obviously picked song, considering what we’ve been listening to in your car during this entire trip. So yours is between Harry Potter and the Queen song “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Andrew: Oh my god. [laughs]
Micah: Just think of the first couple of lines of the song, that sound help you.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly! [laughs]
Andrew: Okay, well first of all, yeah absolutely, you have the beginning of the song. This is almost too easy, but I love this song. So of course, “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” You know, sometimes Harry may be thinking, “Is this real? Or am I in a fantasy – in my fantasy?”
Jamie: Keep going.
Andrew: You know what I’m saying? He can’t get out of reality and sometimes he just wants to open his eyes and look up to the sky and see that he’s just a poor boy and he needs no sympathy…
Jamie: Okay, Andrew, no. That is not a connection, come on. Come on
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: Well how’s that – what do you mean? Connection to the song itself?
Jamie: You can’t just go through every line and add “Harry” before it. You have to actually – you know?
Andrew: Well, okay. Well in the one…
Jamie: So you could say – sorry, could I say for an example – you could be like, “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ mentions Beelzebub, the devil…
Andrew: Mhm.
Jamie: …and it says, ‘what can he do for me?'” And you can bring that in the whole good versus evil thing, whether Harry Potter – you know, what part religion plays in Harry Potter, can evil triumph, that kind of thing.
Andrew: Okay, well, “Bohemian Rhapsody” goes on about death a little bit – and of course there’s death in the Harry Potter novels. But during the “I see a little silhouetto of a man” part of “Bohemian Rhapsody…”
Jamie: The foe glass. [laughs]
Andrew: There’s a part where Freddie Mercury talks about a poor boy that nobody loves. And this sort of relates to…
Jamie: Oh, good, good, good. Very good.
Andrew: The connection here is that Harry is still a poor boy today. Sometimes he feels very lost and alone and, you know, I think that’s how it relates. The person in “Bohemian Rhapsody” is lost and alone and a poor boy, and so is Harry.
Jamie: Good, good.
Andrew: I love that song, by the way. Love…
Jamie: Yes.
Andrew: …love, love, love, love it.
Jamie: It is an awesome song. Very good. Okay, Greg, you ready for yours?
Greg: Okay, yeah.
Jamie: Okay, this is a very specific one, and this was originally for Eric, so it’s quite tough. It’s to do with decisions. So, I want a connection between Harry Potter and the decision faced by the contestant on Deal or No Deal? when they have to either stick with their original box or change to the next box, continuing the Deal or No Deal? theme from two weeks ago.
Greg: Thank you, by the way.
Jamie: You’re welcome.
[Greg and Jamie laugh]
Jamie: I can switch it if you want.
Greg: Oh, I’ll try it. God, I suck at impromptu.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: This is a very difficult one, I won’t lie. I can change it.
Greg: Go ahead, yeah. I’m a wimp.
Jamie: Okay, okay. Okay, I want a connection between Harry Potter and rising fuel prices.
Greg: Well, as you all know, wizards don’t drive cars. But, they fly. And unfortunately, the rising twig…
[Jamie laughs]
Greg: …cost is causing a wizard recession, and ummm, ummm, yeah.
Andrew: It started off good.
Greg: Broom costs are really expensive and…
Jamie: Yeah, it started off excellent. [laughs]
Greg: Yeah, this isn’t working.
Jamie: That – I thought that was, for a first attempt, I thought that was very, very good.
Andrew: Yeah.
Greg: Oh, well, thank you.
Jamie: Round of applause.
Greg: Can I give you one?
Jamie: Yes, of course you can.
Greg: Okay.
Jamie: And…
Greg: Your comparison is Harry Potter and the iPod nano.
Andrew: Oooh.
Jamie: Okay, well, I think we can talk about the iPod in both its sense as an object, and in its small size compared to the regular iPod. So, I think I’d have to first of all say that the iPod, as a device, has become very close to everyone’s hearts. You know, it’s sort of a state or symbol only among the people who own them, so, like, you know, you have an iPod, you feel – you feel special; everyone wants an iPod. Just like Harry Potter has become, to its fans, a very, very, very special thing. I won’t lie, I judge people on whether they read Harry Potter. “Do you read Harry Potter?” “No, I don’t.” “Well, I’m sorry, I don’t like you.”
Andrew: Awww.
Jamie: You know? That kind of thing. So, I think Harry Potter has, just like the iPod, climbed gracefully into the ranks of very personal, personal, you know, merit. I think on an emotional level for Harry Potter, but more on a sort of technical level for the iPod, you keep it very close to you. Everyone likes to listen to music nowadays, yeah?
Andrew: Yes.
Jamie: It used to be everyone liked to read, but now with Harry Potter, everyone likes to read again. So, you keep it close to you. You never know when you might want to open the book and read a few chapters, just like you never know when you might want to turn your iPod on and listen to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
Andrew: Good point.
Jamie: Very good song, by the way. Secondly, the iPod’s diminished size can be compared to Harry Potter in a size sense, you know? The books are very small, you can take them with you. And also, how the iPod has grown. The first book was very, very small, however many pages it was. 150 pages? 200 pages?
Andrew: Something like that.
Jamie: And it’s grown bigger.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: The iPod has grown, as well, both in terms of popularity and in size, and in hard disk space, as well. So it’s a three-way. It’s a three-way.
Andrew: Great connection, great connection.
Jamie: Yeah, I think I’m out now.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: I think I’m exhausted.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: Good work.
Jamie: By the way, by the way. Can I just ask, do people like this segment? Because I haven’t had…
Andrew: I think it’s fun.
Jamie: …much feedback on it at all. So…
Greg: Well, you got to hear me bumbling around for a while, so…
Jamie: Can you e-mail and – sorry?
Greg: They got to hear my bumbling around for a while.
{Andrew laughs]
Greg: So, should be fun.
Jamie: If you have any thoughts or comments on this segment, please e-mail me. Or if you have any connections, make them wacky as possible, e-mail jamie at staff dot mugglenet dot com. Thank you.
Chicken Soup for the MuggleCast Soul
Andrew: Excellent. We’re going to wrap things up today with a Chicken Soup – actually, two Chicken Soups for the MuggleCast Souls.
Jamie: Andrew, we should make a special one. A Chick-Fil-A for the MuggleCast Soul.
Andrew: [laughs] Chick-Fil-A for the MuggleCast – yeah. The first one comes from Angela Shier, 14, of Edmonds, Washington. She writes:
After a long day at school, I was eager to get home, but on the bus, as I was looking through my bag, I noticed that I had left my house key at home, and my phone was dead. In result, I was stuck outside for three hours waiting for somebody else to come home and let me in. Without an iPod full of MuggleCast episodes to listen to, I don’t know how I would have gotten through those three hours.
So, Angela, we’re glad to hear we saved you…
Jamie: It…
Andrew: …from your silly mistake.
Jamie: It goes to show that we’re called the – we’re no substitute for a qualified locksmith.
Andrew: [laughs] True that. This next e-mail comes from Joel, 20, of Zealand, Missouri:
Hey, MuggleCasters. I’m a college student in between my freshmen and sophomore years at Grand Valley State University. Last summer, I got a summer job working at a factory, a job I have this summer as well. I started listening to MuggleCast on my iPod, going through each episode, and really came to enjoy listening to you guys. I wasn’t able to listen to you during the school year, but the upside is I had another year’s worth of MuggleCasts to go through. I started back at Episode 1 (wow, amazing how far you’ve come since then!)…
And let me pause for a second to say, we really have come far. I was listening to like, Episode 1 or 2 earlier this week.
Jamie: It’s insane, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s crazy.
…and worked my way through them all. I finished them all last week Thursday, which omened a bad day, which it was: I kept messing up at things and was really feeling down. I push myself pretty hard to be seen as a good worker, so to keep making mistakes really brought my morale down. At lunch time, I thought about listening to some depressing music…
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew:
…to fuel my equally depressing mood, but I remembered all the Chicken Soups about how you uplifted people listening to them, and thought I’d finally test it out for myself. Sure enough, after ten minutes I was feeling much better about myself and my job and was laughing at what you guys were saying, particularly the Pickle Pack bonus segments with Eric going off about the movies, and Jamie’s pleading with Laura to go to bed. So, a big thank you to all of you for what you do, not just as “Harry Potter” fans, but as just entertaining people in general. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Joel, that’s very kind.
Jamie: Thank you, Joel.
Andrew: That is very kind.
Jamie: That is very nice.
Show Close
Andrew: So, on that note we’re going to end the show and upset people who are using this show as a Chicken Soup right now. We want to remind everyone about our contact information. Jamie, if people want to call us, say they want to use their cell phone.
Jamie: Oh, 1-218-20-MAGIC.
Andrew: That’s the United States.
Jamie: Am I right?
Andrew: Yes. Do you remember United Kingdom?
Jamie: 020-81-200. No, I don’t know.
Andrew: No. 020-8144-0677. Then in Australia you can dial 02-8003-5668. Laura, what’s the P.O. Box?
[Andrew and Micah both start imitating Laura in a high voice]
Andrew and Micah: Hey guys, the P.O…
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: No, go ahead, you do it.
Micah: Should I do it in that voice?
Andrew and Jamie: Yes.
Micah: Let me find it first. Where is it?
Andrew: P.O. Box 315…
Jamie: What, the voice?
Micah: [laughs] No, no.
Andrew: P.O. Box 3151.
Micah: Hold on. Yeah, okay.
Andrew: Laura, what’s the P.O. Box?
Micah: [imitating Laura in a high voice] The P.O. Box is:
P.O. Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia
30028
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Thank you, Laura. You can also Skype the username MuggleCast on Skype. To leave us a message just remember to keep it about a minute long and take out as much background noise as you p-p-possibly can.
Jamie: Very good, Andrew. But I think it’s more [breaks up his voice to imitate Andrew] “…and eliminate as much background noise as possible.”
Andrew: As possible. So, you can also use the handy feedback forum located on MuggleCast.com, just click on “Contact” at the top for all the contact information and use that handy feedback forum. Or, contact any one of us, our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com. Greg, do you have a MuggleNet e-mail address, or…
Greg: I don’t believe so.
Andrew: Where can people contact you, then?
Greg: You can use the feedback forum on XalerStudios.com.
[Show music begins]
Andrew: Oh.
Greg: Which is “relax” backwards studios.com.
Andrew: Perfect.
Jamie: The one stop web design palace. Sorry.
Andrew: That’s it.
Greg: I should also mention that MuggleCast viewers, listeners…
Andrew: Oh, I forgot about this.
Greg: …get a 15% discount…
Andrew: Awesome.
Greg: …when you put in MCMUGGLE into the form.
Jamie: McMuggle?
Andrew: McMuggle. [laughs]
Greg: McMuggle.
Jamie: Do you have to be Scottish to get it?
Greg: MuggleCast muggle. Yes.
Andrew: That’s excellent.
Greg: Yes.
Andrew: Yeah. Greg, you are a great web designer. I mean, you’ve done – you did the Pickle Pack…
Greg: I know!
Andrew: …website for us, you’re very good. Don’t come off as arrogant. People won’t buy you.
Greg: Oh, I’m sorry.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Just kidding.
Greg: I’m okay.
Andrew: Greg’s very good. Greg’s very good.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: You can also use any of our community outlets to get in touch with fellow MuggleCast fans or to get in touch with us. Just use – we have the MySpace, MySpace.com/MuggleCastFans. We also have the
Facebook group. You can visit our YouTube group, our Frappr group, our
LastFM group, or you can visit MuggleCastFan.net for the fanlisting and forums.
Jamie: Basically – sorry, go on.
Andrew: Digg the show at Digg.com, vote for us once a month on Podcast Alley, and rate and review us on Yahoo! Podcasts.
Jamie: Basically, there’s no way you can’t contact us.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s…
Jamie: You just sit there and you send us messages. Just moving. There’s no… [laughs]
Andrew: It is pretty easy. That does it for us today. Once again, I’m Andrew Sims.
Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Greg: And I’m Greg Porter.
Andrew: We’ll see everyone next week for Episode 97. Bye-bye.
Jamie: Bye.
Micah: Bye.
Andrew: Bye.
Greg: Bye.
[End show music]
Bloopers
Greg: Yeah, I’m podcasting. That’s why I hung up on you.
[Andrew laughs]
Greg: I am a loser.
Micah: Chicken.
Andrew: Chicken.
Jamie: Sorry?
Greg: Butt.
Micah: Okay.
Greg: Chicken butt.
Micah: What were you going to say, Jamie?
Greg: Okay.
Jamie: No, I was just going to… Poultry Pack, Andrew, that’s going to be the good one. No, I…
[Andrew laughs]
Greg: You know who’s doing the hot dog ad for tailgating.
Andrew: [laughs] Hot Dog Pack. That’s just like Pickle Pack, though. It’s the same form factor.
Jamie: Yes, it is exactly the same form factor.
Andrew: Would you give me one of your Horcruxes, Jamie?
Jamie: Oh, I’d give you anything, darling.
Andrew: Awww. Okay, so…
Greg: That’s cute.
Andrew: Huh, Greg?
Greg: That’s cute.
Andrew: Oh, thanks. [laughs] Yeah. We’re going to make out after the show.
Jamie: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Greg: But you know that she is like 70 and he’s 35, or something.
Jamie: Is it?
Andrew: That’s called Tadpoling, isn’t it?
Jamie: No, it’s called Cradle Snatching.
[Greg and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Is it?
Greg: I think that’s just a bit creepy.
Andrew: An older man – well, it was, like, a movie or something.
Micah: It’s called Rod Stewart.
Andrew: Heyyy!
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Today’s show is brought to you by Audible.com, the leading provider in spoken word entertainment. Audible has over 35,000 titles to choose from to be downloaded and played back anywhere, just like MuggleCast. Log onto Audible.com/MuggleCast to get a free audio book download of your choice when you sign up today. Again, go to Audible.com/MuggleCast for your free audio book.
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