Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #325, “Fleurble the Fake”
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: This is MuggleCast, the Harry Potter podcast discussing everything about J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. Welcome to Episode 325 of MuggleCast. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: And I’m Micah.
Andrew: Happy Father’s Day to… well, none of us.
Eric: [laughs] Yet.
Andrew: Yes, we are… yet.
Micah: However, I think it’s appropriate that we mention that one of our fellow cohosts just became a father, actually, yesterday.
Andrew and Eric: Yes!
Andrew: Thank you for bringing that up. Mikey B. had a child yesterday – I believe it was a girl – with his lovely wife Leslie. When somebody brought up that the kid was born the day before Father’s Day, I actually teared up a little bit. I was like, “Oh my God, that’s so beautiful.”
Eric: What a beautiful gift. What a perfect gift for Mikey.
Andrew: Her name is Amelia, and great news, so congrats to Mikey. Any Harry Potter fathers in the Harry Potter books we should shout out to? Maybe Lupin?
Eric: Definitely Mr. Weasley.
Andrew: Mr. Weasley, of course. James. Poor Snape; did Snape want kids?
Eric: I don’t know.
Andrew: I wish Dumbledore had a kid.
Eric: Yeah, Dumbledore probably has a kid, though. We haven’t found out about them.
Andrew: [laughs] “Probably has a kid.”
Micah: Somewhere.
Eric: Probably has a kid, yeah. When you’re 150 years old, you get around. He traveled the world. I’m sure he’s got a kid somewhere.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, I guess so. Guess so. Wanted to experiment with a woman one day and didn’t practice safe sex.
Eric: Yeah, or magical concep… I have no idea. Yeah, but other dads, other dads. Lucius Malfoy, of course.
Andrew: Oh, to hell with him.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Yeah, I was going to say, is that one you really want to shout out?
Eric: Well, he’s a dad.
Andrew: How about, in honor of the Cursed Child being a year old, to Harry, to Draco…
Eric: Oh, yeah. Ron.
Andrew: They’re all grown up. You know, we were supposed to be growing up with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, etc., and suddenly they jumped ten years ahead of us and had kids, and we’re like, “Well, wait a second. We were growing up with you.”
Eric: We’re behind the curve now.
Andrew: “Slow down.”
Micah: And I know you mentioned Dumbledore, but I would say there’s probably a higher probability that Sirius has some kids someplace in the UK.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Why?
Andrew: Yeah, why?
Micah: He just seems like that kind of character.
Andrew: Gets around?
Eric: What, like he’d hit it and quit it? That he’d leave and not support a child?
Micah: No, no…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: Just trying to get at the core of what we’re…
Micah: No, I’m saying there’s a high probability that maybe he just doesn’t know that he has a child out there.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Maybe.
Andrew: Fair enough.
Micah: Because from everything we know, he seemed to be kind of the bad boy, along with James at Hogwarts, right?
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Eric: No, I’m with you 100%. Yeah, I’d say it’s likely. I’d say it’s more likely.
Andrew: And we have a couple people listening live on Patreon.com/MuggleCast right now, and they’re bringing up the most obvious one we’re forgetting. Alex and James say, “Happy Father’s Day to Voldemort.” [claps] Happy Father’s Day, Voldemort.
Eric: Ohhh, shoot me in the face.
Andrew: We never would have thought we’d be saying that was canon, but here we are. [laughs]
Eric: Happy Father’s Day to Voldemort. I guess it’s fitting. We have to celebrate now. Thanks.
Micah: I’m going to also wish a Happy Father’s Day to Aragog.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: I don’t think he gets the attention that… I’m assuming it’s he.
Eric: Oh my God.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s a he.
Eric: He’s a grandfather.
Micah: Yeah, I mean, all of his children were in Chamber of Secrets, so I mean… and I think… didn’t they show up in the Battle of Hogwarts? Or maybe I’m making that up. But anyway, Aragog.
Eric: Yeah, I think they were… that might have been more in the context of they were defending their forest from being… yeah, I don’t think they sided with the humans in the way that the centaurs chose to, but I think if they were in the battle, it was a well fought thing.
Andrew: All right, I think that’s enough dad talk.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And Happy Father’s Day to all of our listeners out there who may be dads.
Eric: Everybody, call your dads.
Andrew: I just mentioned Patreon. People are listening live right now; thanks to everybody who does support us over on Patreon.com/MuggleCast. I wanted to plug a little new feature we have right on the homepage of our Patreon. You can now see a section on the left side called “Featured tags,” and these break down the posts into categories. We created three featured tags with the best stuff, some of our best content. There’s a “Bonus MuggleCast” tag, there’s a “Chapter readings” tag, and there’s a “Benefits” tag. The “Benefits” tag is particularly helpful if you sign up in the future, because you will find there posts that help you get set up with the exclusive material that we release on Patreon, including the form to sign up to be a cohost here on MuggleCast if you are at the Slug Club level.
Eric: Oooh.
Andrew: We also have instructions on how to add the bonus material to your podcasting app, and that’s one of the best new features of Patreon in the past year. You can now subscribe to our Patreon audio material through the app that you already listen to MuggleCast with, so maybe iTunes, or I personally use a podcasting app called “Casts” on iOS. It’s also on Android. So you can just easily get the content how you listen to the main MuggleCast show.
Eric: Yeah, that’s a great feature. And all these links, these features, were previously existent but very spread out, and we always get asked, “How do I do this? How do I add this to…?”
Andrew: Right.
Eric: And so it’s nice that they’ve… I like the redesign. I need to spend more time sifting through it, but it looks very much easier, and just more… yeah, it’s just more accessible.
Andrew: Yeah, they really… yeah, Eric is referring to the new design that Patreon released, I assume you mean, right? The new logo and all that?
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, it looks good. It looks good. Anyway, on today’s show… so we were going to have a character discussion on Newt – we’ve been leading up to that – but a opportunity came up that Eric has been working on behind the scenes, and…
Micah: It was actually my idea.
Andrew: Was it? Oh.
Eric: Yeah, it actually was.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Well, Eric’s been the one who’s in contact.
Eric: It’s a group effort.
Micah: Eric did all the leg work; I just had the idea.
Andrew: Oh, okay. “Eric, do this.” “Okay.” [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, there’s a surprise coming for our Newt episode; we have plans for it, so instead, that’s getting pushed off just one week, and today instead we’re doing something equally exciting.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re talking about the 20th anniversary Harry Potter books, the House Editions. So Micah and I ordered them, and they came in from overseas because they’re only available in the UK and Canada, so we’re going to talk about them in a little bit. I was so excited to get mine. I don’t know about you, Micah.
Micah: Yeah. Well, I have a bit of a story around their arrival, so I’ll save that.
Andrew: I do too. Okay.
Micah: This could be… maybe we have similar experiences here, and they’re not very positive.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Here we go, complaining about Harry Potter again. God.
[Eric laughs]
News
Andrew: All right, but first, we’re going to talk about some news. It’s been a rough week for me, you guys, Harry Potter-wise.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: It’s been really stressful. Pottermore released a new infographic commemorating 20 years of Harry Potter, a really beautiful infographic with all the characters, and they’re trolling us again with this Lavender Brown dead or alive stuff. So you mouse over all these characters in the infographic; for example, you’ll mouse over… let’s pick out characters we know who are definitely dead: Fred, Snape, Tonks, Dumbledore, Lupin, Colin Creevey. They all mention specifically that they died. They say, “This person died.” And then you mouse over Lavender, and what do you get? “She would sadly be mauled by Fenrir Greyback during the Battle of Hogwarts.” No mention of if she actually died like every other character who died in this infographic. So our listeners know my stress with this very well at this point, so people started tweeting me once they saw this infographic.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: And I wrote an article about it to not let them down. But I just feel like there’s some… I’m starting to think that there’s this information bank at Pottermore, and they just rely on that. They don’t go to J.K. Rowling; they don’t talk about things there. They just have this encyclopedia, if you will, of information, and they just rely on that all the time, and that does not state whether she’s dead or alive, and they don’t bother to clarify that.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: This is just… do you think, though, it’s…? I don’t want to say running joke, but I feel like it’s become a bit of a…
Andrew: [laughs] It certainly has with us.
Eric: Yeah, I do feel like the more we press J.K. Rowling, the less likely she is to answer, because we’re all… I came out in support of you. I retweeted you; I was like, “We need to know this right away. There’s no reason not to know.”
Andrew: Right.
Eric: And you’ve got ’em… I mean, with this article, you’ve got ’em dead to rights. What they’re doing now is… it was funny at first; now it’s just unacceptable.
Andrew: Yeah. Come on, come on. I just want to know.
Micah: Maybe she’s going to end up with her own spinoff series.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: That’s the big reveal; she’s going to appear in the Cormoran Strike novels, the next one that’s going to be released.
Eric: Yeah, as a werewolf, or werewoman. I don’t… yeah, I guess it’d still be werewolf.
Andrew: To be fair, someone did point out to me that there’s a… they linked me to this featurette; I’m trying to find it in my tweets right now. A featurette, “The Making of Deathly Hallows,” where the actress who plays Lavender Brown, Jessie Cave, she says specifically that Lavender dies, because David Yates came up to her… she’s retelling a story, and she says, “David Yates came up to me and said, ‘You’re going to die,'” and she was like, “Oh, oh, okay.” So she was kind of taken aback by that.
Micah: That’s a positive conversation.
Andrew: But my point is that in the movie, she definitely does seem to die. I don’t… but still, book-wise, we don’t know.
Micah: Does she, though? I remember the scene; it’s almost like he’s feeding on her, right? And then is it Hermione that blasts him away?
Eric: Blasts him away, yeah. And he’s sort of defeated before he completes the job, I think.
Andrew: [laughs] Somebody else brought up in my tweets that she was like, “I’m going to go with her living, because Hermione always saves everyone.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Hermione doesn’t let anybody die.
Eric: Hermione would take it personally upon herself to do that. Well, I think so too. And Fenrir is known for not finishing the job, actually, also. He purposefully turns people into werewolves, children into werewolves. Lavender is pretty old; I mean, she’s 17 or 18, versus how old Lupin was when he got changed, but I don’t think it’s unlikely that Lavender Brown could be a survivor of that attack.
Andrew: Carrie brought up that Hermione point to me, and Tom brought up that video, so thanks, guys, for sharing those thoughts.
Micah: But talking about the actress who plays her, the movie could in fact be different from the books, right?
Andrew: Right.
Micah: That’s the flip side of this, in that there’s no concrete proof, unless of course J.K. Rowling is willing to just own up to it at this point. I think it’s going to be one of those things that just is not answered.
Eric: Well, I mean, it was up there. Wasn’t it up there and they removed it, and that caused this controversy to begin with?
Micah: Yes.
Andrew: Right. Well, it originally said on Pottermore that she was “presumed dead.”
Eric: “Presumed dead,” oh.
Andrew: And then we were like, “You’re Pottermore; shouldn’t you know if she died or not?” [laughs] And then they just deleted that.
Eric: And then they removed it, yeah. [laughs] So I think we caused this issue to begin with.
Andrew: Yeah. I just… anyway. Stay tuned for the next update. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Here’s a little more news that stressed me out this week…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: … so Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, they have an online store. You can buy all the stuff that you can at the play itself. And they…
Micah: Can you buy the owl?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Stop it with the owl.
Andrew: They did have owls for sale at the store in person.
Micah: I just hope that he’s getting royalties, because he did not get the opportunity to do a full year-long performance. He was cut early.
Andrew: Justice for the owl.
Eric: Well, wait, can you buy the…? Even the ones that after… only available in Part 2, like Voldemort Day? What was it that you could buy?
Andrew: Right, you could buy “Voldemort Day,” a T-shirt and pencils.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Are those available?
Andrew: On the online store? That’s a good question, because I guess that would kind of be a spoiler, wouldn’t it?
Eric: Hashtag #KeepTheSecrets.
Andrew: Yeah, so anyway, you can now purchase Albus and Scorpius’s Cursed Child wands online. So these are the first two new wands from the Harry Potter world; I mean, other than Fantastic Beasts. They don’t really introduce wands too often, I don’t think, because they had released all the characters’ wands a while ago, and that was it. So if you really love Albus or Scorpius, you can purchase the wands. I know Cullen, who listens to the show – and big Scorbus shipper – he purchased both of them immediately. [laughs] But I wrote in my article, “Don’t let the wands touch, because they are straight.” But I also found it interesting that they didn’t introduce Rose’s wand, because she’s kind of a major character, so why not release hers as well?
Micah: Aren’t they the two main ones, though?
Andrew: Yeah, but Scorpius ends up with Rose, and… I don’t know. Well, we don’t know for sure if they end up together in the long run.
Eric: I seem to remember her role being sort of small in the books. She is…
Andrew: It is small. No, it is, because what am I going to complain about if I don’t…?
Eric: No, yeah.
Micah: Sorry, we didn’t mean to provide…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah, I’m looking at this store, and there’s this Dark Mark with a snake that has a claw thing coming out of it, logo design. It just says “Dark Mark T-shirt.” I don’t see a Voldemort Day… does the thing actually say “Voldemort Day” on it?
Andrew: No, no, no. It’s just the logo, yeah.
Eric: Oh, okay. Then I think that it’s available on the store.
Andrew: Scorpius’s wand, by the way, actually is kind of interesting because there are Roman numerals on it, and there’s an interview with the wand designer for Cursed Child, and she said, “I imagine he might have carved them himself as a way of forming his identity by marking time and his presence in the carvings.”
Eric: You’re going to run out of wand, little boy.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, he basically… it looks like it counts up to nine? What does it mean?
Eric: What does it mean? I don’t know. I think I’ve stated a couple times before how I feel about these wands being overly recognizably different on the outside. I hate that, actually, how in the movies, every… Voldemort’s got the bone wand, and if you believe canon… I have a James Potter wand that’s got spiderwebs on it, and I just think it’s unnecessary. I love the infinite…
Micah: Spiderwebs?
Eric: Yeah, actual spiderwebs. And Hermione’s has leaves on it. It’s just… and that’s the official wand that she had in the films. It’s just… I don’t see the… I understand the movie prop department having to distinguish, but I think as far as book canon goes, they’re unique, they’re infinitely diverse, because of the core and the wand wood and the length. They’re not distinguishable from the outside in such a clear way. That’s my canon version of the wands, so I don’t like these extra ridges, and “Oh, let’s one-up ourselves and create an even cooler wand.” Scorpius’s… wait, which wand got the Roman numerals on it? Was it Scorpius? No, it’s Albus Severus.
Andrew: No, Scorpius.
Eric: Yeah, the other wand’s got a bunch of bumps on it, like it wasn’t cut properly. I don’t know. I just… this is for somebody else other than myself, these wands.
Andrew: Yeah, I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never really had the urge to purchase a Harry Potter wand. I have one or two, but I’m not like, “Ooh, my wand.” I value the books and other memorabilia, but I’m just not… I guess I’m just not a wand guy. I’m not a wizard.
Eric: I could give you some of my wands. I have 10 or 11.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: That’s what I was going to… it’s got to be a collector’s item, right? I mean…
Eric: It comes in a cool box.
Andrew: It does. The box is pretty.
Eric: But it says “The eighth story” on it.
Micah: And are these…? Wasn’t it the Noble Collection? Is that who originally made wands? Or Alivan’s?
Andrew: It doesn’t… yeah, they still do. I assume it’s still the Noble Collection who’s making these, but it doesn’t say.
Eric: Yeah, the Noble Collection has the officially licensed, and then Alivan’s was one of those fan-made wand crafters who were able to early on sell a lot of wands, which, I love their wands; I have about seven.
Andrew: Oh, wow.
Eric: Yeah, because they do special wands for all the different cons throughout the years. And those are more of the low-profile, low-key, really cool kind of just quick and swishy wands that I like that aren’t engraved with the souls of the dead or something.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: To show that he’s a bad wizard, ooh boy.
Andrew: Yeah, I got you. So they’re not character wands.
Eric: They’re not character wands, yeah.
Andrew: Because they couldn’t technically legally do that. So you guys, believe it or not, the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is coming up on June 26.
Eric: That’s so soon!
Andrew: Yeah, in the UK. We’re less than a week now. And what is J.K. Rowling doing for it? I mean, shouldn’t she be celebrating somehow?
Eric: She’s probably going to graffiti another bust at another hotel in the Scotland area.
Andrew: [laughs] I just feel like she should be doing something. And I have this theory – don’t take it too seriously, anybody – but there is a Harry Potter 20th anniversary event happening at a bookstore in Chepstow, England, and technically it’s happening at a hotel, at a Marriott, that looks like a castle.
Eric: Oh, God. My prophecy has come true. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, so they’re hosting this event, and Bloomsbury is promoting this event heavily, and they keep calling it “a special event.” It’s the only event they’re calling special. I did a whole analysis of this; I was digging around.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: And it’s also hosted by this person called Fleurble Laffalot. Who the eff is Fleurble Laffalot?
Eric: That checks out.
Andrew: Now, they’re claiming it’s an actor, and maybe that’s true. But I feel like between… oh, and by the way, here’s the kicker: This event is happening right next door, the town over, from where J.K. Rowling spent the ages of 9, 10, and 11 during her childhood. I just feel like there’s too many pieces here; there’s too many little things that add up to a potential J.K. Rowling surprise appearance. Because I feel like she’s got to do something for the 20th anniversary, and what better than a “special event” in a hotel that looks like a castle next door to where she grew up at the reading age where kids start reading Harry Potter, at an event hosted by supposedly Fleurble Laffalot?
Eric: You know what? Yeah, Fleurble Laffalot does not exist. I’ve confirmed.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: The top ten Google results are all Chepstow Books announcing that this person will be at this 20th anniversary celebration.
Andrew: Yeah, I just… now, I’m not convinced by any means, so don’t go to this, anyone, thinking she’s going to show up, but…
Eric: I think she will. I think this is really excellent detective work. This has to happen.
Andrew: Thank you. Thank you very much. And here’s the other thing: These new 20th anniversary editions just came out. How about a book signing? Sign these new books.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, this is as close to a sure thing as I would ever venture could exist. Everybody should get themselves over to Chepstow on the 26th.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I’m being completely serious. I would 100% show up in expectations to… I mean, it just seems like the pieces are coming together. I mean, your article lays it out, but…
Andrew: Yeah. Well, and the kicker for me is why does Bloomsbury keep featuring this event? Because there’s a bunch of events happening all over England. They have this events map, and there’s tons of things. But why this one?
Eric: Yeah, surely Waterstones is doing something. I mean, surely…
Andrew: Anyway, we’ll keep an eye on that, see what happens next week. At the least, we’d better get some good tweets from J.K. Rowling.
Eric: Fleurble Laffalot is fake!
Andrew: It’s her new pen name.
[Eric laughs]
Main Discussion: 20th Anniversary House Editions
Andrew: Okay, so let’s talk about these 20th anniversary House editions of Philosopher’s Stone. Like I said, Micah and I both got a couple copies. What was the problem you had, Micah? What’s your story?
Micah: So I received them, I guess, earlier this week. Or maybe it was last weekend; I don’t remember. And I got the package, which is… I mean, it’s Amazon.co.uk, so it’s exactly the same as Amazon for the most part. And I get the package, and first of all, it’s pretty busted up.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: And not only is it busted up, but it’s damp. It’s wet.
Andrew: Ew.
Eric: What?
Micah: And it hadn’t been raining here, and I found it kind of hard to believe that even if it was raining over in the UK when it was shipped that it would still be wet right now.
Andrew: Yeah, right. Ew.
Eric: Well, owl post has gotten so unreliable these days.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Eric: Just take it back; get them to replace it. I’m sure it’s a…
Micah: Well, one of them…
Andrew: The books weren’t damaged?
Micah: The Slytherin one was in fine condition, and then the Ravenclaw one was a little bit… you know how when pages get wet, they kind of…? I don’t know what the right word is for it.
Eric: And they’ve dried, but there’s still a discoloration or…
Micah: They’re not even discolored; they’re a little warped, but in the sense of just their look.
Andrew: A little bent?
Micah: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Andrew: Okay.
Micah: So I guess overall not a good experience, having ordered from Amazon.co.uk, so that was just my initial reaction to it, knowing that I spent money to have these shipped from the UK over here.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah, it’s depressing that that experience leaves something to be desired in this day and age.
Micah: So I have… yeah, go ahead.
Andrew: Well, so my books… I was in LA last weekend, and I come home and they’re already arrived, and it’s on the table and the box is open. And I say to my dad, “Why’d you open it?”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And he’s like, “I didn’t open it. It came like that.” I was like, “What?”
Eric: What?
Andrew: Yeah, so the frickin’ box… I ordered three books. Somehow I ordered two Gryffindor editions; I don’t remember doing that, but okay. So yeah, the box was open, and unfortunately… the one Gryffindor edition and Slytherin, everything looks fine on those, but on the second Gryffindor edition, the cover… what is it called? The slip cover, whatever, it’s a little bent at the top, and it kind of annoyed me, because I’ve kind of tried to lay it flat on a desk to smooth out the bump, but it’s still there. And it’s frustrating, because like Micah said, you order this brand new, and it already comes a little beaten up.
Eric: From overseas.
Andrew: So I was thinking maybe when it went through customs, they decided to open it up for whatever reason.
Eric: They should still reseal it. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, right.
Eric: Amazon is sending wet, opened boxes to us from… I mean, you know we’re going to podcast about it, so they should have thought about that before…
Andrew: Right, don’t they know who we are? I mean, my dad encouraged me to send it back, but I was like, “If it was Amazon US, I probably would, but UK, it’s going to have to… it would take forever to get a new one.”
Micah: Yeah, I thought the same thing. I was thinking about potentially sending them back – well, at least the Ravenclaw one – and just… yeah, it’s not at the level of being completely… it’s not like the cover was ripped and the pages are pulled from the binding or anything like that…
Andrew: Right.
Micah: … but it definitely kind of sours the experience a little bit, because these, I would assume for most people, would be collector’s editions, right?
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Micah: I mean, we all have copies of Sorcerer’s Stone; it’s not like we’re going out and getting these to read them. We’re getting them to collect and store on a shelf for 30 or 40 years.
Andrew: Display them, yeah.
Eric: The intention would be, yeah, to have them as pristine as possible, as in mint condition as possible now, while 40 years from now, they can still look good.
Micah: Yeah, I mean, I think I have stuff that you or Andrew have brought back from the UK that are in better condition than these books.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: Yeah, I mean, the last thing I bought off Amazon.co.uk was actually the Philosopher’s Stone PAL format DVD, because I wanted to see what was different, and I had to buy a special DVD player for it.
Andrew: Oh, boy. Super fan over there.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, but my $400 DVD player that plays PAL – which I don’t know where that is, because this was 2004 – that came… the shipping was fine, so I don’t know what… they’ve gone downhill since then, apparently.
Andrew: So overall, though, that all aside, these books really are beautiful. They live up to the expectations. So depending on which book you get, the cover is the House crest, and it’s in the color of the House. So for example, Gryffindor is red and black, Slytherin is green and black, so on and so forth. The spine of the pages… the pages themselves have House colors; the Gryffindor one is red and gold…
Eric: So it’s like a scarf, right, where it’s…?
Andrew: It does actually look like a scarf, yeah.
Eric: The stripes, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, Slytherin is green and silver, and so on. And then you open… it’s got a “20 Years of Harry Potter Magic” sticker on the cover, which is kind of nice. It’s gold. And then you open it up… oh, also on the cover, it says, “Courage, bravery, determination,” on Gryffindor’s, of course. And then you open it up and it has House-exclusive information. So I’m just going to keep referring to Gryffindor’s. There’s the Gryffindor introduction, and it has a beautiful, beautiful portrait of Godric Gryffindor, very finely detailed.
Eric: Oooh.
Andrew: I’m not an artist, so I don’t know what kind of art design this is. [laughs] I’m using the wrong word. But they also have sections like “Making Gryffindors Proud,” and they talk about the House founder, the House relic, the House ghost. And then there’s this – and this is in all editions – they have this beautiful Hogwarts grounds map, and it’s got the Hogwarts castle, it’s got the Quidditch stadium, the broom shed, Hogsmeade Station, the greenhouses, the Whomping Willow, Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade, all that. And then you get into the actual book. [laughs] And then at the end there’s more content. There’s a little quiz, there’s the Sorting process, and they also have notable characters from that House. So overall, it’s a very cool collector’s item. We still don’t know what Scholastic is going to do for the 20th anniversary in the United States next year. I assume it’s going to be something like this, if not these exact books, because these really are fantastic.
Micah: Yeah, I mean, I agree with a lot of what you said. I think it was interesting that the quote that they pulled for all of the different Houses were from the Sorting Hat. I didn’t know he was the authority on all things related to the four Houses, but apparently he is.
Eric: Yeah, he’s a relic of the founders, of course he is.
Micah: And I just found it cool… I know there’s some information that we’ll get to that they provided that was on all four of the Houses, and some of this information may have already been released on Pottermore, but I think some of it may be at least things that I was hearing or reading for the first time. And yeah, I think it’s cool. I think that it’s something that Scholastic definitely should do if they’re not planning to. And we’ll see, but overall I may have to pick up the other two at this point. I think that I feel a little bit…
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Well, I don’t know. I might have to go over there and get them myself, bring them back…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: … instead of trying to order them through…
Eric: Make sure to take them through a rainy street.
Micah: [laughs] Yeah, exactly.
Eric: Just so they look like your other ones. So I didn’t get mine yet, but I absolutely 100% will. Hufflepuff tried and proud and true. But fortunately, I had Donya’s article to refer to. Donya, of course, over at Hypable, wrote a review of the 20th anniversary editions and focused specifically on Hufflepuff’s, but in addition to talking specifically about what the Hufflepuff stuff is, she happened to mention that the letters, whenever there are letters in the book, Philosopher’s Stone, the handwriting is done up special, and this is something that US fans don’t know any different about, because that was always the case with Scholastic. If you remember, I think in particular, Prisoner of Azkaban, the tear-dropped letter when Buckbeak is sentenced to death, there are those little teardrops along his things. But from the get-go, all the letters, including Harry’s welcome letter to Hogwarts, were all done up with a different font than the original… than the rest of the story. So that was not the case with the UK editions, and I know because I have them. From the get-go, the entire book, letters and all, was done in… I think it’s Garamond, the same font, so there’s no… and that was always a big deal for me reading, because I really felt like, I don’t know, the British were more proper; it didn’t add to the escapism, whereas if you’re reading the Hogwarts letter and it’s got this crazy loopy font, like Mafalda Hopkirk is doing this loopy thing, with McGonagall’s and all the other fonts, it’s special, right? It’s extra special. It seems like for the first time, a UK edition has embraced that. And in particular, Donya wrote that Charlie Weasley’s handwriting was neater than she expected, or tighter than she expected. But yeah, so it looks like they’ve finally done added a little flourish to an otherwise very stolid, respectful UK version of the book. It seems like they’re having more fun with these.
Andrew: Still missing chapter art, though. I guess kids just are more focused over there. They don’t need chapter art…
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Who needs that?
Andrew: … and handwritten letters.
Micah: No, but one question that I just thought of was for future anniversary editions – and I’m sure there’s a lot of different things that Bloomsbury and Scholastic can come up with – but the focus of Sorcerer’s Stone/Philosopher Stone is the founders specifically and the four Houses. What would you do for Chamber of Secrets? What would you do for Prisoner of Azkaban? Do you focus more on some of the characters as opposed to what they did in this particular edition?
Eric: Yeah, maybe it’s a one-off thing. I mean, I do think it is weird, and sort of eggs all in one basket-y, to be talking about famous Huffle… I mean, Hufflepuff in particular; I’m surprised they’re mentioned in Philosopher’s Stone at all. They play no role. They’re much bigger in Chamber of Secrets, and by that I mean still not very big, and even more big in Goblet of Fire when Cedric becomes a school champion. But the Hufflepuffs are so omitted from the general Harry Potter story, they’re the least House to be featured, and yet this edition, reading this edition, going through, you would expect that they were as big a House as the others, because the detail here, the level of care that’s been put into explaining what embodies a Hufflepuff and all this stuff, is there. You’d think it would actually be in the books; it’s not, but it is in this version, and that makes it sort of special, but also a little weird, to be honest.
Andrew: What’s also cool is there’s a sketch of the entry to the common room in each of these.
Micah: Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.
Andrew: Yeah, and in this case, I’m looking at the Fat Lady, the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, which was very cool. So yeah, they really thought these books out well. There’s nice extra material. Micah, you bring up a good point; I think I want the other two House editions as well that I’m missing now. It’d be cool to have the complete collection.
Micah: Yeah, because you don’t know… I mean, to Eric’s point, this could just be a one-time thing where they’re just doing it for Philosopher’s Stone because it was the first book.
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Micah: Similar, wasn’t there a…? Was it the tenth anniversary edition of Sorcerer’s Stone here in the US?
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: Yeah, Scholastic. But let’s be clear, they always intended to do more; it just didn’t sell well.
Micah: Is that fact?
Andrew: Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to do House editions.
Eric: I’m pretty sure that’s fact.
Andrew: I don’t know if it’s a fact, but they definitely…
Micah: Fake news.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: “Fake news.” I do feel like there was the intention of doing more anniversary editions, but yeah, they did… because why? The only difference was I think there was a new cover on the Sorcerer’s Stone tenth anniversary edition. I don’t think there was anything new inside the book.
Eric: No, there wasn’t. I mean, I think…
Micah: There was a drawing, I think, right, of Hagrid and the first years going across the lake?
Eric: Oh, maybe. I feel like if there’s… at least with these editions, there’s enough new different stuff that you can’t get anywhere else.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Maybe on Pottermore. But the fact that this stuff appeared on Pottermore previously, or some of it did, does not make this set unappealing, and I think you’ll all agree with me, because we’ve always wanted what we saw on Pottermore in a book form. And I don’t… it’s not a dealbreaker that this stuff is out there, but reading it in a book, holding it in your hand, is far superior.
Andrew: But I don’t even think it’s that so much as the… Harry Potter fans love showing their House pride, and what better way than getting the first book in the series, the book that made you fall in love with Harry Potter, than getting a House edition specific book? I don’t think, by the way, they’re going to be doing House editions of all the books; it’s just this one because it’s the first.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: And it’s the 20th anniversary of the start of the Harry Potter series, so that’s why we’re getting it. Maybe for the 30th anniversary we will get hybrid Hogwarts Houses editions. [laughs]
Eric: Now for the 30th anniversary, I want more Harry Potter. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, right. But we wanted to mention also the notable students that they shout out in each of these books, because that’s kind of interesting to see who they selected. In Gryffindor, of course, they picked Harry Potter; also Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore… and they have a little bio for each of them. Nothing new in these, really. They also mentioned McGonagall, of course, because she’s the Head of the House. There’s a nice sketch of her. But yeah, it’s just those five. How about Ravenclaw, Micah?
Micah: Yeah, and as mentioned, I think some of these may have shown up on Pottermore when they went through the different Houses. But Ignatia Wildsmith, best known for being the inventor of Floo Powder…
Eric: Oooh.
Micah: … Garrick Ollivander, Sybill Trelawney, Moaning Myrtle, which I did not know, or did not remember, that she was in Ravenclaw.
Andrew: Huh.
Eric: That is interes… I sort of remember that, but it always bears repeating, because I find that to be very interesting.
Andrew: Very forgettable.
Micah: Gilderoy Lockhart.
Eric: Yeah, it’s forgettable, but to me it combines… it really makes Myrtle seem more of like a Luna figure who is just misunderstood, picked on constantly, just misunderstood.
Micah: Yeah, there isn’t too much information in her bio. There’s not much that’s really known about her, so even though this is supposed to be additional information, the fact that there isn’t much on her I thought was kind of interesting that J.K. Rowling didn’t go into more detail. Gilderoy Lockhart was kind of a surprise to me also; I don’t know if that’s explicitly mentioned in Chamber of Secrets, but…
Eric: I think it might be.
Micah: Really?
Andrew: You would think so, but…
Eric: I feel like… because we’re reading that chapter now over on Patreon, but I feel like if it’s not mentioned, then it might actually be mentioned either again in Book 5 or by J.K. Rowling in an early interview, because I feel like he was one of the first people that I knew was Ravenclaw, because again, Ravenclaws, there aren’t a lot of them. Maybe Penelope Clearwater; she gets name dropped in Chamber of Secrets. But yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know where that would have appeared before, but I feel like I’ve heard it before.
Micah: And it’s explicitly mentioned that he’s a mama’s boy, which…
Eric: [laughs] What?
Micah: Yeah, it talks about how he has, I believe, a Muggle father and a witch for a mother, and yeah.
Eric: “Me dad’s a Muggle, mum’s a witch.”
Micah: Yeah, exactly. Just like Seamus.
Eric: Lockhart?
Micah: Yes.
Eric: Huh.
Micah: I can double check because I have the book right here, so I’ll…
Eric: No, yeah, I’m not… I just think it’s so funny.
Micah: And Flitwick, obviously. No surprise there, but he is called special attention to, actually. There’s a drawing of him in this book. And then just a couple other notes that I put down here, kind of going off the Flitwick point: He was a dueling champion, or that’s at least the rumor, when he was a young lad; he has some goblin ancestry, which would explain, I think, his height at least; and that he and Sprout had a long-term relationship that did not work out.
Andrew: Oh, wow.
Eric: Huh.
Andrew: I could see that.
Eric: What, not working out?
Andrew: Well, at least in the movie, Sprout is kind of short, so two shorties falling for each other.
Eric: [laughs] Oh, God.
Andrew: I don’t know. [laughs]
Eric: I will say, it’s so interesting comparing how Ravenclaw has Ignatia Wildsmith, inventor of Floo Powder, because it’s drawing attention to sort of the overall magical accomplishments that each House can claim, and it’s very much the same over on the Hufflepuff side, where there is a person named Eglantine Puffett, who invented the Self-Soaping Dishcloth. It’s during a paragraph where it says…
Micah: I don’t think they’re comparable, though, quite honestly.
Eric: Well, hang on. Hey, I will fight you on that, sir.
Micah: You’re gonna lose.
Eric: You and your House pride.
Micah: You lost before you even opened your mouth.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Okay, we’re going to Dueling Club this. That was rough. That was real rough. We’re going to Dueling Club on Eglantine Puffett versus Ignatius Wildsmith, because Floo Powder gets you places, but…
Micah: Yeah, way more people probably use it.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: No, no, no, no. How many people use air travel, versus how many people there are in the world, versus how many people use soap? Come on, it’s not even a contest.
Andrew: Okay.
Micah: But how many brands of soap are there? Is she the only one that makes soap?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: No, the Self-Soaping Dishcloth…
Andrew: She’s the inventor of soap.
Micah: Okay, also just some quick notes – and we could talk more about this on a bonus segment or something – but it was noted that Rowena and Helga were close friends. And they also threw out Luna’s mother’s first name, and I don’t ever remember hearing this before. I don’t remember hearing it from Luna or from Xenophilius. Pandora Lovegood was Luna’s mother’s name.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: God, that’s fitting.
Micah: And also – yes, it is, actually – made mention of the fact that Ollivander sent Luna a new wand that she used during the Battle of Hogwarts, after they spent all that time together at Malfoy Manor.
Eric: Aw.
Andrew: Interesting.
Micah: Again, yeah, these could be things that are on Pottermore I just overlooked, but they kind of stood out to me.
Andrew: Yeah, little tidbits. That’s good. I found it interesting… so all the Houses have the “Making [House] Proud.” So for example, “Making Slytherins Proud,” which I thought is kind of funny, because for Slytherins and Hufflepuffs in particular, they kind of get… everybody’s like, “Oh, Hufflepuff is useless, and all Slytherins mean.” The “Making Slytherins Proud” section says, “It would be a mistake to assume that Slytherin is always on the wrong side of wizard history. In the Battle of Hogwarts…” Blah, blah, blah. Well, in this case, I guess I should read it.
Eric: Wait, they actually mention…?
Andrew: “In the Battle of Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall challenged Professor Slughorn and Slytherin House to decide where their loyalties lay, and anticipated that they would abandon Hogwarts Castle and save themselves. Having apparently left the school, Slughorn returned, bringing reinforcements, in a moment that typifies the shrewdness and cunning of Slytherin House.” So there’s kind of a…
Eric: Shrewd and cunning. “You thought we were all going to leave, but I, the one of me, has come back with reinforcements.”
Micah: No, he rallied the Hogsmeade shopkeepers, right? From what I remember?
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: That sounds right.
Eric: It’s redemptive for Slughorn, but I wouldn’t say the House is redeemed.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: And some of the other creatures.
Eric: There’s only so far you can…
Andrew: The point is, though, that if you’re buying one of these books, presumably you are a major fan of this House, so this book also kind of… it tries to make you… it reinforces how proud you are of being in that House.
Eric: I wouldn’t bring up the Battle of Hogwarts at all; that is a scar on the mark of Slytherins.
Andrew: That was the best they could do, so maybe… never mind. Slytherins shouldn’t be proud. [laughs]
Micah: Considering many of them were on the opposing side… I mean, they were there; they were just not fighting for the winning side in the end.
Eric: Yeah, that’s a bit rough. I don’t know. Must be rough to be a…
Micah: Notable Slytherins, though… I think we talked about this on a previous episode, but the first that they call attention to is Merlin.
Eric: Crazy.
Micah: Who we don’t know a whole lot about, at least as J.K. Rowling… in her world. Obviously, we know a lot about him from King Arthur and other sort of legendary tales.
Eric: He’s flippin’ Merlin. [laughs]
Micah: But he was in Slytherin.
Andrew: Interesting.
Micah: As well as Voldemort, Snape, Bellatrix, and Draco. Those are the ones that get profiled in the 20th anniversary edition for Slytherin. And a couple things that I pulled out… one related to Draco; it says that he was an Occlumens. I did not know that.
Eric: Wait, who is an Occlumens?
Micah: Draco.
Andrew: Draco?
Eric: That’s unbelievable.
Andrew: Is that a later in life revelation thing? Is that in Cursed Child? [laughs]
Eric: Later in books revelation, at the very least. Why is this information in Philosopher’s Stone at all? I don’t care if it’s a collector’s edition. If this were some person’s first Harry Potter book, reading this intro would contain lots of spoilers, about the Battle of Hogwarts, for instance. Hmm. Question mark. I’m making that emoji face where the little hand is on the chin.
Micah: Yeah, it says, “Skills: Quidditch Seeker, Occlumens.” But I will say, though, to that point, they do write a lot of this stuff in a way that is not spoiler-y.
Eric: Right.
Micah: So I noticed that when I was going through and reading the Ravenclaw and Slytherin editions, that I don’t think it would completely spoil you. Certainly, there are things that are in there that go all the way through Deathly Hallows, so you may want to be somewhat careful. Also, if you’re looking to buy a copy of this for your child, I would say hold on to that and let them read the original, and you can give this to them once they finish the series.
Andrew: That’s a good point, yeah.
Micah: And then, again, this could have been something that we all knew and I just forgot, but that Snape is the only Death Eater that is able to produce a Patronus.
Eric: I like that.
Andrew: Huh. Wow.
Eric: I like that and hate that, now that I’m thinking about it, because there’s a very real tie between… there’s a reason that Voldemort can’t produce a Patronus. J.K. Rowling, in an interview, has said Voldemort is not human enough to produce a Patronus, or something about, I mean, his soul, but also the happy feeling sort of thing. I just don’t buy that only good people, good characters – presuming that’s the inference – can produce a Patronus, that Snape is the only Death Eater. Does that just mean he’s the most accomplished wizard, or is there something functionally flawed with bad people who become Death Eaters? Is the fact that they can’t cast a Patronus some kind of way of tracking them down and exposing them as Death Eaters? I don’t really get it. I don’t get what she’s going for by saying that.
Micah: Well, it’s drawing upon an extremely happy moment, and it’s not to say that those Death Eaters can’t have happy moments, but I think their happy moment would probably be predicated on something extremely evil.
Eric: That should still work, though.
Micah: But would it still be a Patronus? I’m not sure.
Eric: Or a Dark Patronus? I think it’s… a Darktronus. I think it’s dangerous, though, to do what J.K. Rowling has just done by saying that, so late in the game, too.
Micah: Well, it’s in print.
Eric: You know what I’m saying, though? I mean, I think it leads to a very uncomfortable position whereby bad people are just bad and can’t cast a shield. It just seems like it’s this extra-canonical retconning where if the trials in the Ministry had wanted to hunt out Death Eaters, look no further than just asking these people, these accomplished witches and wizards, to cast a Patronus, and if they can’t do it, they’re going in Azkaban, where they surely can’t cast a Patronus.
Micah: Well, they have their own means of communication. I mean, we know that Dumbledore’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix, they used Patronuses to be able to communicate with each other. And then really, they’re used to ward off Dementors, right? So why would a Death Eater need to ward off a Dementor?
Eric: Well, it’s sort of like an additional shield. They’re also used against Lethifolds, and they’re just useful in general. I like the idea that the good side would be able to find more use for them, I get that 100%, because the using Patronuses as a messenger thing is very, very unique to Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. But just casting a Patronus as a general thing that wizards are able to do I think should be open to everybody. I think it’s weird or dangerous, not to hark on this for too long, but to just say that all Death Eaters, except Snape, can’t produce a Patronus. Because none of them have Horcruxes. I understand why Voldemort can’t do it.
Micah: Yeah, I understand where you’re going.
Eric: Okay.
Micah: I just think that it was probably made a notable fact because Snape truly, at the end of the day, is not a Death Eater. He’s a force for good.
Eric: Right.
Question of the Week
Andrew: So getting to our Patreon Question of the Week… this is one of the benefits over on Patreon.com/MuggleCast of the Dumbledore’s Army level; we regularly ask a question of our supporters, so thanks to everybody who answered this question. We wanted to do a question about the first book, since, like we mentioned earlier, we’re about to hit the 20th anniversary. What would you change about Philosopher’s Stone? [laughs] If you got your House edition and read it, and while you’re reading, what would you be outraged about or bothered by? We got some interesting ones.
Eric: Yeah. Here’s why I like this question in general: I often think of the first Harry Potter book as being mostly flawless, right? This is your introduction to the wizarding world. This book isn’t flawed; the future books are flawed. If there’s anything you don’t like about the wizarding world, it shouldn’t be in the first book, because the first book is the one that just strikes me as being the most meticulously crafted over a period of a decade. This, that, the other… you know what I’m saying? So I love all of the answers that we got about this, because they think of things in ways that I simply can’t.
Andrew: Let’s start with a really short but sweet one: Chad says the title he would change.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: No, that title’s been changed enough, man.
Andrew: Well, we should come up with alternate titles. And he doesn’t explain why, but Ashley chimes in, thinking it has to do with a spoiler, but I don’t know if he just means changing it from the UK edition or what. But we should come up with alternate titles on a future episode for fun. Let’s just change everything about the book in honor of the anniversary.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Irvin says, “I would change the ending re: House points, because Dumbledore was just a total dick about it.”
Micah: Wow.
Andrew: “Sure, the Slytherins aren’t all great people, but they’re still children to whom this means a lot. To essentially begin celebrating them, and then snatch it away at the last possible moment by going ‘neener neener,’ really rubs me the wrong way.”
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Andrew: “Either have Dumbledore award the points before the leaving feast, or just drop the plot point altogether.”
Micah: I like this. This is a great change. And one of the other things that I noticed at the end of each of the 20th anniversary editions is they do talk about the House Cup specifically, and it’s the same in each of the books. I wondered why they paid such close attention to it, but maybe it’s because of what transpires, and the fact that Dumbledore really just snatched glory away from Slytherin.
Eric: It is a very “neener, neener” moment. It is. But yeah, you’re right, Micah. Because even in the Hufflepuff edition, I was reading that it says that Hufflepuff came very close to, if not snatched, the House Cup one of Harry’s years.
Micah: And by the way, for those of you who are looking to delve a little bit deeper into that, you can go see Puffs off-Broadway.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah!
Micah: They draw specific attention to the fact that they were very close to winning the House Cup, and actually, it’s a recurring joke year after year. So check it out.
Eric: Oh, God. I like that. I like that a lot, yeah.
Andrew: Isn’t it kind of a…? But it’s also a redemption moment; it’s a feel-good moment as a reader. You’re not thinking about the Slytherins… well, Irvin was. But you’re not thinking about the Slytherins’ feelings in that moment; you’re thinking about Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who just did something very impressive for 11-year-olds, and you’re identifying with them, and you just want to see them win, see them be rewarded. So I think it’s just kind of a feel-good moment, both for the characters and the readers.
Eric: I would add more Hufflepuffs in general in Philosopher’s Stone. I think that’d be cool. That’d go a long way to setting the stage for them to be bigger players in the series overall. Andy writes in,
“In reality, I wouldn’t want to change a thing. But if I had to pick something, I think it would be cool to add a part where Hermione finds herself in front of the Mirror of Erised. While most may think that she would see herself as a well-accomplished witch finishing Hogwarts with a successful future, we find out in future books that she too has insecurities. Maybe what she would see would shed an earlier light on those and make her seem more down to earth.”
Book 1 is definitely the Mirror of Erised book. It goes away and disappears, and may or may not be seen later on. I’m trying to remember if it’s in the Room of Requirement later; I don’t think it is. So yeah, if Hermione was ever to come face to face with the Mirror of Erised, it would have been in Book 1. It’s a big part of Book 1. Harry and Ron spend time with it. Harry spends months with it, or weeks, at least. And I like this suggestion from Andy.
Micah: I do like what Erika Downing says here. “I want Neville to win more than ten points for standing up to his friends. Neville is worth more than the trio combined!”
Eric: [laughs] Yeah, I agree. But again, that’s Dumbledore’s dick move, right? He’s just adding up ten because it’s the number they need to put them over.
Andrew: Adam says,
“I would like to better understand Vernon and Petunia’s rationale for not telling Harry he was a wizard. All we know is that they said, ‘We swore when we took him in we’d put a stop to that rubbish… swore we’d stamp it out of him!’ How does this reconcile with the letter Dumbledore left for Petunia?”
They’re just very averse to magic, aren’t they? And so that’s their rationale. I don’t think they have much rationale. They’re simple thinkers; they are people who are set in their ways, who don’t want to accept people who are different. That’s one of the recurring themes.
Eric: Yeah, I’m very satisfied with how that’s played out in the existing book. I mean, let’s be clear, the opening line of the series is all about that exact part. So it’s just.. it peaks early. The explanation for the Dursleys really is centered around the first chapter of the book that goes through Vernon Dursley spending his day avoiding people in the street who are dressed funny. I think that’s the entirety of what you need to know about the Dursleys, is in that chapter.
Andrew: I like… this one’s kind of funny, from Virtuous Steve. “A few too many plot developments depend on Hagrid giving away secrets. If you want to keep something quiet, don’t tell Hagrid.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Good point. “I should not have said that.”
Eric: That’s a good point. You know what, it’s funny that the movie invented that little line, that “I shouldn’t have said that,” because I was thinking back, even in Chapter 1, right? Doesn’t Hagrid spill the beans? I mean, not about his mission, but something about feasts or parties or… I don’t know, it just seems like a very Hagrid thing to do. Oh, McGonagall calls that out; she’s just like, “Do you think it wise to trust Hagrid with…?”
Andrew: Oh, yeah. With Harry.
Eric: Because he is known even back then for having such a big mouth.
Andrew: Well, was it the mouth, or was it..? Yeah, I guess it was partly the mouth. I don’t know. Hagrid is just kind of a messy… just a disorganized character, so putting him in charge of the baby seems maybe a little irresponsible from McGonagall’s point of view.
Eric: Katy wrote in and said, “Jo should have included what happened during the ‘missing day’! We never found out!” I like that idea.
Micah: That’s why it’s missing.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Micah: Maybe in the 30th anniversary edition of Philosopher’s Stone, you’ll find out exactly what happened.
Eric: And Jeanna writes in, “I would have liked more information on side characters like Dean and Seamus. They’re a pretty big part of the books, and to know that Dean’s story got completely cut out is a little annoying.” Yet there’s that information that we know exists because Jo keeps talking about it in interviews, that it does exist. All she’ll say about it is that it exists, but got cut due to time or pacing or whatever it is that she wants to say. But that’s an example of something… with Dean Thomas’s backstory, she said that he would end up having played an even larger role than he did, and that his backstory is very relevant, but we don’t know what it is, and we still don’t to this day, and it seems like if it’s already written, it’d be something that’s easy to throw in tangentially to one of these House edition books, or even put up on Pottermore.
Micah: Yep. And Nat Hawkins had similar feelings, but as they related to the professors at Hogwarts. He said that “Philosopher’s Stone would have been a brilliant time to get more detail into McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and all of the other professors besides the evil ones and Snape and Slughorn. Even if it’s just what Harry hears from gossiping students. All that detail that was left for Pottermore could have been slipped into this tiny book.”
Andrew: I like this one from Thunderpuffer. This kind of goes back to a discussion we were having last episode about maybe seeing the Hufflepuff common room in Fantastic Beasts 2, if we’re going to see teenage Newt and Leta.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Thunderpuffer says, “Trio experience Hufflepuff common room!” And Ashley adds, “Noooo! The Hufflepuff common room is so well hidden; there has never been another House in ours! Because we are the actual smartest House.”
Eric: You know what? Talking about the Huffle… that reminds me, in the Hufflepuff House edition book, it says that Hufflepuff is the only House where you get punished, actively punished, if you don’t get in properly. If you don’t give the right password, apparently you’re covered in something sticky. Not having the book, I don’t know what it is, because Donya didn’t write what it was, but she said that it’s the only House that actively punished… in addition to not being able to get into the common room, Hufflepuff has that sense of humor where something unpleasant happens to you if you don’t have the right password.
Micah: Right. Well, yeah, for Ravenclaw, you just have to wait to have somebody come along that has the answer to the riddle.
Eric: Yeah, same as Gryffindor.
Micah: Or Gryffindor’s password, if you forgot it, you need somebody who remembered it. What’s the deal with Slytherin again? I don’t remember. I should.
Eric: It’s in the dungeons. Is it a couple of bricks or something?
Andrew: Well, yeah, actually, I wanted to mention that earlier. There’s a sketch of the entrance to the Slytherin common room.
Micah: It’s just a wall.
Andrew: Yeah, it is just a wall. But it looks like it’s a sliding door.
Eric: Well, you speak a word.
Andrew: There’s somebody standing outside of it in a cloak with a hood on, so it’s kind of mysterious. But yeah, it’s a very large… it doesn’t look dungeon-y to me, because the ceiling is so darn high, and usually dungeons, they’re kind of a low overhang.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: But yeah, it looks like a sliding door. It looks very, very simple. [laughs] It’s still a cool portrait; I would love to have that hanging up. Any others we want to read here? This one from Sam kind of jokes, “When Harry, Dudley, and Piers went to the zoo for Dudley’s birthday, it would’ve been great if the snake ate Dudley instead of just scaring him.”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Next time.
Andrew: Yeah, but then we wouldn’t have gotten that sweet redemption from Dudley at the end of the series.
Eric: Yeah, anyway.
Andrew: That great scene. That was so great that they cut it from the movie.
Eric: So great.
Micah: And it’s likely Nagini would have choked on Dudley.
Andrew: Oooh, ouch.
Eric: That wasn’t Nagini, but okay.
Micah: Yes, it was confirmed.
Eric: No, it was not confirmed.
Andrew: No! That was some weird theory.
Eric: That was a boy snake, and Nagini is a girl snake.
Andrew: And then the Dursleys would have hated Harry even more. [laughs]
Eric: That’s true.
Andrew: He would have never went back to that house again, I don’t think. That would have been interesting, though.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: And… go ahead.
Eric: I was going to say these were all good.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. I think we’ll wrap it up here for now. Yeah, these were interesting. Micah suggested this question, and I was kind of hesitant at first because I didn’t want people to think we’re complaining, but any work is open to criticism, and these are fun plot changes. So thanks, everybody who submitted stuff over on Patreon.com/MuggleCast. Our Patreon is what keeps this show going, especially weekly. We hit that goal a few months ago, and we love everybody who is supporting us. We try to give you great benefits. We’re going to be changing some things around over on Patreon in the near future, and we would love your support, for as little as $2 a month. For just $2, you’ll get ad-free MuggleCast, you’ll get access to show notes, you’ll be able to listen live as we record, and then Dumbledore’s Army and the Slug Club levels have additional benefits, including bonus MuggleCast installments, chapter readings, and we send you stuff in the mail. For the stickers, I needed something to safely mail the stickers to all of our Slug Club members, so I wanted cards to put them in, and I just went on Amazon, and I couldn’t find Harry Potter greeting cards in bulk, so I just found these really cute Happy Birthday cards, so I sent all of our Slug Club members Happy Birthday cards.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: I love it. I saw the one with the flamingo? People are taking pictures of them.
Andrew: Yeah, there’s different animals. They were just so cute. I was like, “Why not?”
Eric: I think they’re great. Also, it’s our birthday coming up in August, so Happy Birthday to…
Andrew: It’s true. I’ll have to write a card… I’ll just send a card to our PO box for you to open.
Eric: Yeah, please do. Then I can have one. [laughs]
Andrew: So next week’s episode should be a good one. We’ll talk about Newt. We’ll have a guest on the show. It’s not J.K. Rowling.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: No.
Andrew: I just want to put that out there right now.
Micah: Yes, it is. You’re deflecting.
Eric: Oh, if it was, it would be the Lavender Brown episode. You just know it would.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: And by saying it’s not J.K. Rowling, you really mean that it is J.K. Rowling, right?
Andrew: Right, it’s Fleurble Luffabalo.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Whatever that person’s name is.
Eric: That’s not a real person. Fleurble Laffalot is not real.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: No, but I think it’s fair to say that it’s somebody who has ties to Newt, so how appropriate that we’ll be discussing him on our next episode?
Andrew: Can we just say it’s not…?
Micah: J.K. Rowling? No, it’s not.
Eric: No, no, no further clues or hints.
Andrew: All right, fine, I won’t give any more clues. I just want to manage expectations. [laughs] But no, it’s a good guess.
Eric: I don’t know what that means, but okay.
Andrew: No, no, it’s a good guess. So yeah, that’ll be a good episode next week. That’ll be a lot of fun. Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: And I’m Micah.
Andrew: We’ll see you next time. Goodbye.
Micah: Bye.