Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #387, Evil Pickett (HBP Chapter 7, The Slug Club)
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Welcome to MuggleCast 387. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: And I’m Micah.
Andrew: So on today’s show, we are going to revisit the Crimes of Grindelwald trailer. People called in, and we’re going to hear from a bunch of our listeners right at the top of the show, actually. We have a few great voicemails to listen to. And then we will continue Chapter by Chapter; this week, we’re talking about Half-Blood Prince Chapter 7, “The Slug Club,” which is also the name of one of our groups on Patreon.
Eric: Yay.
Crimes of Grindelwald updates
Andrew: So we’re actually just going to dive right into it, because there really hasn’t been any other news.
Eric: Yeah, I think it’s kind of been quiet since the uproar earlier of this week.
Andrew: Yes. Yeah, it’s been interesting to see everybody’s reactions to the trailer. Fan out. I tried to defend J.K. Rowling on Twitter; it didn’t go over perfectly well.
Eric: J.K. Rowling tried to defend J.K. Rowling on Twitter, too, and that was just kind of weird.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Yeah, actually, thanks for bringing that up. We should… we didn’t talk about this on the main show, I guess, on the last episode. So yeah, like we mentioned on the trailer analysis episode, there was some backlash concerning Nagini being cast as a person of color and the tropes that that plays into, and people are saying it might be a lazy idea by J.K. Rowling. So somebody had tweeted her – it was pretty sassy – “Listen, Joanne.” [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, gosh.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, using her full name, Joanne. I mean, who calls her by that anymore? [laughs]
Eric: Got her attention. Maybe I need to start doing that with my tweets.
Andrew: Yeah, there you go. “Listen, Joanne. We get it, you didn’t include enough representation when you wrote the books, but suddenly making Nagini into a Korean woman is garbage. Representation as an afterthought for more woke points is not good representation.” [laughs] So then J.K. Rowling replies, “The Naga are snakelike mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name Nagini. They are sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake. Indonesia compromises a few hundred ethnic groups, including Javanese, Chinese, and Betawi.” Hope I’m pronouncing that right. “Have a lovely day.” So it doesn’t answer everything.
Eric: [laughs] No, it does not.
Andrew: But it does answer Nagini’s origin in J.K. Rowling’s mind.
Eric: Well, it answers that there’s a degree of research that J.K. Rowling has done, enough in the general region of where she’s pulling the name from. She’s still not explaining much, except that she’s versed in… she can name a couple of different cultures in that region. And that matters a little bit, that she has that recall, or has that information handy. It does not answer why a character with an Indian name is being played by a Korean woman; that’s a lot of other people’s problem. It doesn’t actually answer that question at all. She’s kind of pushing back, but not addressing the real concern in the room. I don’t know. It’s just kind of… blech. I wouldn’t have necessarily called her out.
Andrew: We’ll see what else she has to say. Maybe she’ll write a blog post about it or something, as she does from time to time.
Eric: I hope so, because over the last couple days, she’s kind of retreated into retweets of Lumos Foundation, the real good that she’s really doing in the world, and a bunch of other posts, but she’s been very absent. And I’m not sure a blog post is coming, but I also just wonder if she’s going to ignore it like she did the magic in North America problem.
Micah: I’m interested to know, though, these same people that are raising these concerns: How do they feel about the excitement that Claudia Kim has in playing this character? Because I feel like this is obviously a very slippery slope to go down, and I certainly am not going to go there, but I think that there’s two sides to this, or there’s multiple sides to this, right? I don’t think… when you go and you’re making the general argument now that she’s over-compensating for what she failed to do in the Potter series, that’s a slippery slope argument in and of itself. It’s true that there was underrepresentation in the Potter series; there’s no question about that. But now that she is starting to include more characters of color and of different backgrounds, it seems like she’s not doing it in the right way, and so then you have a whole ‘nother argument that comes to the surface. So I don’t know.
Andrew: To get back to your original question, Micah, I think the people, if you ask them what would they say about Claudia Kim being very excited to play her? They would probably say, “Look, this is an actress who’s very excited to have a big role in the series, and maybe she’s not thinking about it in the same way that we are.” That’s all.
Eric: Yeah. And I’m on the train where I do believe J.K. Rowling… I guess I’m in the minority that I believe that J.K. Rowling always knew that Nagini was once a human, and isn’t just making it up for diversity points in the year of our Lord 2018. I really believe that. So I don’t really have a horse in this race, as far as…
Andrew: You mean “woke points,” like the person who tweeted?
Eric: Oh, yeah. Woke points, right.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: So it just… I believe J.K. Rowling at the moment, but I just wish she would address the controversy, because people – not me, not you – but real people out there are hurt by some of these actions, and I think that is not something to be brushed off.
Micah: No, absolutely not. And that’s why I’m saying when you have three white males who are hosting this show, it’s very hard for us to necessarily speak on those topics without coming across as somehow being offensive, even though there’s no intention of being offensive as we present different sides of the argument.
Eric: Yeah. And my question to you guys is: What’s the big deal if J.K. Rowling were to actually come out and say, “Okay, here’s why Nagini, which is a name that derived from Sanskrit, which is Southern Asian, is played by a Korean woman. Here’s why. The character emigrated from South Asia to upper Asia in the late 1800s, blah, blah, blah.” What would really be the big freaking deal if J.K. Rowling were to come out and say that’s the deal and actually address the core concern there? What spoiler is J.K. Rowling trying to avoid by not giving us that information? Because presumably…
Andrew: I think that’s a good point. A lot of people would say, “J.K. Rowling, we would like an explanation, and how could this possibly spoil what you’re going to do?” I mean, my issue with this whole situation is that we might actually not know the truth about Nagini until Movie 4 or 5, and that’s six to eight years away from now! So that’s way too long to let this all linger.
Micah: But do you feel that…? Not you personally, but I think there are people out there who would say, “Does she need to give an explanation?” I mean, these are her characters. She’s created the world; she’s written the story. It is what it is.
Andrew: Right. I think a lot of people are thinking that as well. I mean, a lot of people are also bringing up that, “Look, this is a fictional wizarding world here. This is her story. It’s a fake story.”
Eric: It takes a lot of gall to just call Jo out on not being diverse enough, or…
Micah: Call Joanne out.
Eric: Yeah, call Joanne out. Oh, man.
Andrew: Anyway, since we are going to be talking about Nagini more, let’s get into this feedback we’ve been getting from our listeners. This first one is an email. This is from Sherry.
“I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say thanks. I appreciate how you break down all the trailers for the Fantastic Beasts movie. I am totally blind, but I’ve been a movie nut since my earliest memories, and I loved the first Fantastic Beasts movie so much. But the trailers are always extremely visual, and even when they have a little dialogue, there’s no context if you can’t see it. After listening to the three of you, I can then go find the trailer on YouTube and be able to understand it for the most part, so thanks!
As for the Nagini bombshell, it wasn’t much of a bombshell for me. In fact, I found it disappointing. I don’t care about Nagini. I didn’t care about her in Harry’s saga, except that she seemed willing to eat anyone Voldemort told her to, and for her being a Horcrux. But her history, the big news about her in Fantastic Beasts, well, I thought it was kinda blah. I’m probably the only person you’ve heard from with that opinion! Maybe it’s because in a way, I didn’t want any links to Voldemort in this story, or at least not so soon. It’s so much more fun having this all be so new. Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. Thanks again. The podcast is terrific and I look forward to it every week.”
Andrew: [laughs] I like this:
“As soon as I get the Patreon email saying it’s been posted, I ask my Amazon Echo device to play it.”
Micah: That’s really cool.
Andrew: Yeah, and that is a good reminder; you can ask your Amazon Echo device to play the show, and it’ll play the latest episode for you. Pretty convenient.
Eric: Is that because we’re on Spotify?
Andrew: No, it’s because we are on TuneIn.
Eric: Oh, cool.
Andrew: I set that up for us a year or two ago. I’ve got us covered.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Anyway, so that’s interesting. She doesn’t really care about Nagini. And look, I think, yeah, she is the only person I’ve heard say that. And I’m excited for Nagini, but I’m very curious to see what J.K. Rowling is actually going to do with Nagini.
Micah: I would also say, though, it’s because J.K. Rowling set it up. She was willing to go and make that announcement about recognizing a name in the trailer the day before the trailer dropped, so would there be this level of response. Or would it be the same kind of response if she had just kind of let it play itself out without saying anything?
Eric: I’m glad that she said something, because I think there really would be similar backlash from the marginalized communities that are coming forward and saying, “Wait a minute, you can’t make this character a woman who’s somebody’s pet.” I think that would exist, but what it does by her prefacing it the day before at that influencer event, by her doing that, it took ownership of the fact that she’s controlling that bit of information. She would just kind of look aloof had she not said that and then the news came out, or the trailer came out revealing this huge secret from the movie, and she would… I think she got out in front of it. She got out in front of this controversy by saying that. And if she hadn’t, the question would be, “Well, who’s on what page about when this information gets leaked to the public? And is somebody internally trying to undermine J.K. Rowling by stating what this very large problem is, rather than waiting until the movie?” We’ve got plenty of people… I’m sure we’ll hear people say, “I wish they would have waited till the movie itself to reveal this.” People don’t like that it came out in a trailer. I’m of the opposite team, but I think J.K. Rowling definitely tested the waters there.
Andrew: Yeah. Look, it is all part of the plan to release the Nagini bombshell before the movie comes out. That was absolutely part of the plan. That said, Sherry, I would remind you that J.K. Rowling did signal last week that there is still one big surprise to come. I have to think there are several surprises in this movie and every Fantastic Beasts movie going forward that they’re not going to spoil in the trailers. I saw somebody get all mad that a website was talking about Nagini in the headline, and they were like, “Thanks for spoiling it for me.” They did it in the trailer! If it’s in the trailer, that is not a spoiler; that is marketing material. [laughs]
Eric: I don’t know how I feel about that, but I’m in general agreeance.
Andrew: Here’s an interesting point from James, who’s listening live on Patreon, and it’s a hard pill to swallow, but I think it is a angle we have to consider. “I can’t stand the controversy that this has caused. Voldemort is a bigoted, racist character who looks down on everybody, especially Muggle-borns, and feels everybody is beneath him. Diversity is not exactly one of his strong points. Him keeping a woman of color as a pet is 100% in character with him and is a racist characteristic of the villain, Voldemort, not the author, J.K. Rowling. People attacking Jo on Twitter are forgetting this.” I guess what sits uncomfortably with people is that she has to double down on Voldemort’s racism?
Eric: Yeah, in laying the groundwork. It’s kind of like if an author were to exclusively write about racist characters. What does that say as a reflection on the author? But that’s not what Jo is doing; I’m just saying in general.
Micah: And just to add to James’s point, right now we don’t know Nagini’s story; we just know where she ends up.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: So let’s see how that all plays out based upon J.K. Rowling’s writing. And I agree; I think he makes an excellent point. It’s that it’s an indictment of Voldemort as a character, not of J.K. Rowling as an author. And Voldemort knows no diversity; he is, to James’s point, again, racist and pure evil, and he’s not going to skip over one person just based on any sort of characteristic or culture or…
Andrew: You’re saying he’s not going to skip over somebody for woke points?
Micah: Correct.
Eric: That’s a thoughtful…
Andrew: Oh, interesting. I thought Voldemort wanted woke points.
Micah: Unless they – well, hold on – unless they conform exactly to what it is that he is looking to create, much like Grindelwald.
Eric: It’s just that if you were a person of color, or someone of Korean descent or someone of Asian origin, and you want to see what wizards from your area of the world are doing in this new global franchise that promises to globetrot and go around the world, and your first glimpse at representation – apart from Cho Chang, which is an offensive name to start – is this character who is a victim…
Andrew: Going to be Voldemort’s pet.
Eric: … who is currently imprisoned in a zoo, forced to do what it is that she does, which is a curse, which is going to one day remove her of all her agency, leave the zoo, maybe find love a little bit, and then go on for decades to eat people on the hands of this evil dictator… that’s bullshit. I wouldn’t want that for any character.
Micah: Okay, but I will say, though, Claudia Kim was this character before it was revealed that she was Nagini. She was still a Maledictus. She still had a blood curse; she was still going to transform into a snake. Now you just have the name attached to it, so you have a little bit more insight into what happens to her character. So I don’t recall this sort of backlash when it was originally announced that she was going to be playing the Maledictus. So it seems, though, that more of the backlash has come knowing that she is now Nagini.
Andrew: That is a good point.
Micah: I’m just throwing that out there. I’m not taking any specific sides; I’m just saying that.
Andrew: But remember, still, being Voldemort’s slave, pet, whatever you want to call it.
Micah: Right.
Andrew: That was the new wrench thrown into it. But anyway, let’s get on to these voicemails now, because people have more to say about the trailer and Nagini.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hey, MuggleCast. It’s Jenny from Denver. I’m currently listening to your latest episode talking about Nagini in the trailer. I think it could be totally believable that J.K. knew of her being human beforehand, because it always kind of bugged me that Voldemort could kind of ride in her for a while, I guess. I don’t know if that makes sense. [laughs] But he lived off of her like he lived off of Quirrell, and it’s said before he tried living off of smaller animals like rats and snakes, but they had a shorter lifespan, so until he found Quirrell, and also found Nagini, he had to go through a lot of animals. So just that little tidbit. Have a good day, bye.”
[Voicemail ends]
Eric: Yeah, I think that… I often forget that little point that Voldemort possessed animals while in the forest, and that that carried with it a shorter lifespan for the pets, but once he found Nagini, things seem to have changed. So I wonder if part of the Maledictine blood curse, whatever, allows her to retain some special properties of living longer. I don’t know. It reminds me of what the lady in Magical Menagerie says about Peter Pettigrew. “If this rat doesn’t show some mysterious power, there’s no reason he should have lived this long.” And I think Nagini is probably right up there in that same kind of category.
Andrew: Yeah. Okay, next voicemail.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hi MuggleCast, this is Stephanie from Austin, Texas. I’ve been listening to your show for about a couple years now; you made my hour commute last summer for my internship extremely better. But I’m calling about your trailer discussion and about Nagini and the Maledictus in terms of whether or not she’s going to become evil. I have a theory that there is going to be something that leads to her instincts and her humanity coming into conflict, because when she transforms into a snake, she’ll have her reptilian instincts, but you can see something where there may be humanity left in her, and Voldemort manipulating that humanity to give her some agency, or to be able to reclaim that humanity, because she’ll have a piece of a human ‘soul,’ if Voldemort really has a soul. Just my thoughts. I can totally explain further if need on the next episode. But love to hear your thoughts. Okay, cool. Bye!”
[Voicemail ends]
Andrew: I thought that was an interesting point.
Eric: There’s been some talk about what having Voldemort’s soul in her, or as a part of her, will do to Nagini. We know what it did to Harry; it allowed him to speak to snakes, and allowed him to share a window into Voldemort’s brain, unintentionally. We know very little about what giving a part of your soul, giving a Horcrux to another living creature does. Dumbledore theorizes about it a little bit. But since Harry was an accidental, or maybe not full or not all the way Horcrux, we really have no way of predicting what traits Voldemort is going to give to Nagini, or how Nagini changes as a result of having part of his soul.
Andrew: They’re probably not going to be good ones.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, but like our listeners said, maybe it’s a positive thing. Maybe it makes Nagini feel more human in the way that Voldemort is human. I don’t know. Very interesting.
Micah: I think you raised a great point on the last show about Voldemort being able to speak to Nagini and somehow sympathize with her situation and be able to manipulate that, and I think that is probably the initial connection that the two of them are able to make. Now, we don’t necessarily know when the transformation fully happens, but what is interesting is that there is this thread now that exists between, presumably, Grindelwald and Voldemort, though the photo that we see at the end of the trailer that was just released may lead us to believe that she’s going to fight on the side of good for a period of time. The question is, what is the trigger that causes her to fully transform into Nagini permanently?
Andrew: Yeah, I think it was presented on the last episode, but her being able to talk to one another could be very beneficial to manipulating her if they could speak to each other, because she currently… once she’s a snake, she might not be able to talk to many people, and she could be drawn to that.
Eric: Yeah. And I’m pretty sure that it isn’t until Frank Bryce is murdered that Voldemort makes her a Horcrux.
Andrew: That is correct. I looked into that.
Eric: Ooh, look at that.
Andrew: Did my Nagini research, yeah.
Eric: [laughs] So that means – and that’s weird in and of itself, but we don’t have time to talk about that – but that he makes an additional Horcrux after he already sort of survived Harry Potter’s encounters. But I guess he’s missing one, although he might not know it. But anyway, that means that when he met her, all this stuff with her killing Bertha Jorkins and all this other stuff before Book 4, he’s known her for a while before she’s actually a Horcrux. So not too much changed, because the Nagini that we see in Book 4 that eats Frank Bryce is not yet a Horcrux, or does not yet have part of his soul in there. So she’s pretty much pretty standardly what we are used to seeing or being introduced to. It’s not going to be much different from that.
Andrew: All right, next voicemail. This is a short, sweet crackpot theory. This is very crackpot, but I’m going to play it anyway.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hey, MuggleCast. This is Sean from Naperville. Just had a crackpot theory. I was wondering, do you think that Voldemort was actually in love with Nagini, and then he had to kill Credence to make her a Horcrux so she would live on forever? What are your thoughts? Thanks, bye.”
[Voicemail ends]
Eric: No.
Andrew: [laughs] I assume he’s saying that Voldemort gets jealous of the Credence/Nagini relationship and then kills Credence? And then… I don’t know. But yeah, I think it would be extra creepy if Voldemort was in love with Nagini. I think that would definitely make this situation worse, the situation we’ve been talking about.
Eric: No, I don’t think that… I mean, Voldemort is an infant, everybody. This is your…
Andrew: No, no, no. We know… yeah, I think he’s talking about maybe 40-50 years from now.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, this is your weekly reminder that Voldemort is three months old. When he meets Nagini, in my estimation, it will probably be too late for him to ever have seen her as a human, and…
Andrew: Probably.
Eric: I don’t know. Voldemort can’t love. J.K. Rowling said Voldemort can’t love, so there you go.
Andrew: Oh, good point. What if…? But maybe Nagini was the final gal he loved?
Eric: Lusted, maybe. Not loved.
Micah: No, but Tom Riddle can love. No? Never?
Eric: No, he’s fundamentally…
Andrew: Yeah, no, because… right, because he was born without love. What was it? His dad couldn’t love? His mom couldn’t love? Something like that.
Eric: Well, it’s the love potion that his mother used on his father.
Andrew: Oh, yeah, he was forced.
Eric: Yeah, because it was coerced, J.K. Rowling has said that Voldemort can’t love.
Andrew: Slash Tom Riddle. [clears throat] Okay.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hey, MuggleCast. My name is Sydney. I’m calling from Maine. Quick shoutout to my sister Mackenzie, who just started listening to you guys. Anyway, I watched the trailer and I’m super excited for the movie, and noticed that you guys didn’t talk about that scene at the very end where Newt and Tina run into Theseus and they magically bind him to a chair for whatever reason, and I’m so intrigued and curious about that, because I really think that Theseus is going to have some play in either having some ball in Grindelwald’s court or something like that. I think he’s going to be evilly influenced. And also, I miss Queenie, and she’d better not turn. But I know it’s probably inevitable, so I hope the whole third movie is about saving Queenie. Anyway, would love to hear your thoughts about that scene between Newt and Tina and Theseus, and keep up the great work. Thanks.”
[Voicemail ends]
Andrew: Fantastic Beasts: Save Queenie, coming November 2020. I think Theseus and Newt are definitely going to be at odds, but the question is, to what extent? I mean, there’s already that awkwardness between them, because Newt seems to have used to have loved Leta, and now Leta and Theseus are engaged. And then Theseus works for the Ministry. And what was the letter that he wrote to Newt that we uncovered?
Eric: It says… I’m trying to think.
Andrew: Tracking Grindelwald. Wasn’t he tracking Grindelwald?
Eric: Yeah, well, he was the man foremost in charge. The Ministry of Magic put Theseus Scamander in charge of finding and capturing Grindelwald, so it’s pure coincidence that his little brother Newt is the one who actually does that. But Theseus, if he were a bad guy… I don’t know. I read a theory I can’t get out of my head; see if you guys like it. Those posters that were released… somebody on the Internet… and I did a quick search: “Fantastic Beasts poster left right.” Some people are facing left, and others are facing right, and I read a theory that all the people facing the same direction are on the same team. So where that leaves us… so it’s Dumbledore, Tina, Newt, Jacob, and Credence are looking, I guess, to their right, our left. They’re all on one side. But the ones who are looking right are Grindelwald, Queenie, and then Theseus and Leta. So if Theseus, the man in charge of tracking Grindelwald, is on Grindelwald’s side, or is perceptive or persuasive to… amenable to Grindelwald’s persuasion, we’ve got a problem. And same with Leta.
Andrew: I think… I don’t know if I buy into a theory. It would be very J.K. Rowling to do that, but I don’t know if she would have that sway over Warner Bros. to do something like that. Theseus’s poster, by the way, says, “Under Ministry orders.” Micah, what do you think of Theseus? Where do you think his loyalties will lie?
Micah: I think his loyalties lie with the Ministry, kind of like Percy. I don’t know if he’s a little ignorant to start, but then kind of comes around to exactly what it is that’s going on. It seems like in that scene, he’s just in the way, and Tina and Newt are trying to get out. I don’t think it’s anything harmful that she does to him. But one of the things I wanted to bring up – and I know we touched on it briefly in the last episode – but somebody did a very nice side by side shot in our MuggleCast patron group over on Facebook, and I wanted to get your thoughts on this, just kind of going off, Eric, what you said about people looking left, looking right. Who makes it through this film? Where do loyalties lie? So I’m going to put this in here, maybe right at the bottom of the voicemails, and see what you all think.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. So this Hogwarts bridge. It does look pretty darn similar to me. I mean, that almost… that’s exactly it.
Eric: Yeah, except that in the back, in the bottom image, it seems to open up at the end, and I don’t know that… oh, wait, it does.
Andrew: It does, yeah.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: So yeah, again, as I said on the last episode, I think this is at the very end of the movie. They all look tired. It looks like the morning after. I mean, Nagini is wearing this jacket, like I said, and Newt is covered up. Actually, everybody’s wearing a jacket. So it’s just a cool morning, the morning after, 6:00 a.m., they just defeated Voldemort…
Eric: Grindelwald.
Andrew: [laughs] I’m kidding.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: Yeah, so I don’t know what… where do you want to go with this, Micah? Are you saying there was a battle at Hogwarts?
Micah: I think if you look at who’s absent from the photo, that could give you a sense of where certain loyalties lie.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Yeah, Queenie is not in it. But Theseus is. Theseus and Newt.
Micah: There’s no Leta. There’s no Credence.
Andrew: Amanda says, “I hope Theseus doesn’t go bad. He’s, uh, rather attractive, and I’d rather not have a crush on an evil guy.”
Eric: [laughs] How far we’ve come from thinking that Theseus would die just to further Newt’s cause, just to harden Newt’s resolve in these films.
Andrew: Here’s our next voicemail. This one’s pretty funny.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hi MuggleCast! This is Claire from Indianapolis, calling in regards to the new trailer that just dropped today. I cried profusely; it was kind of embarrassing. But I think there’s something so unique about Harry Potter trailers and Fantastic Beasts trailers dropping, just because it’s the sense of something new and exciting in the Potter fandom, but tied in with a little bit of nostalgia. And just all those references that we got to see for the new trailer were so cool, like seeing Dumbledore and the Mirror of Erised and seeing Jamie Campbell Bower as young Grindelwald! I’m so excited about that. I was so hoping that they were going to bring him back to act as young Grindelwald, so that’s really exciting to me. That being said, I’m not sure how I feel about the Nagini thing. So every single time you guys brought it up, or I’ve heard people talk about it as a theory, I just kind of rolled my eyes and assumed, ‘Oh, this is just too obvious of something. J.K. Rowling would never do this.’ Maybe Nagini and the Maledictus are related, but I never actually thought that it was going to be Nagini. And so when that dropped, I was shocked. That being said, I’m also really excited about that, because that’s something new and exciting. And it makes me wonder, have we seen Maledictuses before? I think I saw J.K. Rowling tweeted something about it being a female, and so is Mrs. Norris a Maledictus? We don’t know. Will that appear? I don’t know! But super exciting. I’m really excited to hear your guys’ analysis of the trailer, and to hear what other people think about Nagini. I’m still so torn about it. It’s exciting, but also it just seems too perfect and too obvious. But I think J.K. Rowling usually does a really great job of intertwining past and present, so this is just a really fun nostalgic way to get tied back with Harry Potter. So really excited about your trailer analysis. Those are my favorite episodes, so have fun with it. Can’t wait to hear what everyone else has to say, and keep doing a great job. Love you guys. Bye.”
[Voicemail ends]
Andrew: Jamie Campbell Bower!
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: All right, and one more voicemail today.
[Voicemail plays]
“Hey, guys. This is Nolan calling. I wasn’t sure if you’re taking voicemails for the new trailer, but I just wanted to share my thoughts on Nagini appearing. I think it’s mentioned in Harry Potter – I might be wrong – but I’m pretty sure it’s mentioned that animals aren’t typically Horcruxes. So Nagini being a Horcrux, on one hand, it’s kind of cool, and it explains, ‘Okay, animals aren’t Horcruxes, but people with souls or whatever, they can be a Horcrux.’ On the other hand, though, I feel like this kind of takes away from the specialness of Harry being the only known human Horcrux. But overall, I don’t really mind that Nagini was human, on one condition: I really hope Voldemort didn’t know that she was ever human. It seems to me that if Voldemort knew she was human, he might have been more prepared and even known about the possibility that Harry could become a Horcrux, and he would have made a plan for, ‘Oh, crap, I turned Harry into a Horcrux,’ but he never really knows or even considers the possibility of Harry being a Horcrux. My only flaw with this thought process, though, is that if Harry and Voldemort are both Parselmouths, wouldn’t Nagini tell Voldemort or Harry realize that when he’s in her thoughts at some point that she was formerly human? My hope is that this curse that’s turning Nagini into a snake takes away all her humanity once she finally goes full on snake for good at the end. This way, Voldemort can still be in a period where he never knows that she was human. But yeah, let me know your guys’ thoughts on Nagini being a person at one point. Thanks. Bye.”
[Voicemail ends]
Andrew: So I love that point about Nagini’s humanity is so far gone that she’s not even able to communicate to Harry, because you would think there could have been some communication between Harry and Nagini if there is still some good left in her, some humanity still left in her.
Eric: Yeah, like a Parseltongue “You up?” kind of thing.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: “You up? I’ve got some bombshells to share.”
Eric: [laughs] “I was the boa constrictor at the zoo in your first year.”
Andrew: “Facebook theory confirmed.”
Micah: And then just on the one point that he made, though, about Nagini becoming a Horcrux, still having that human element within her, I think, Eric, you brought up before that she doesn’t become a Horcrux until after Harry has already been a Horcrux, correct?
Eric: Yes.
Micah: So there wouldn’t be that knowledge on the part of Voldemort to say, “Oh, well, there’s this chance that Harry could become a Horcrux, because I already made Nagini into one.” At this point, Nagini is not a Horcrux, so he wouldn’t have had that knowledge going into the Harry situation. So that’s just one kind of counterargument to the point that was made. But yeah, we’ll see.
Andrew: We’ll see.
Micah: As these movies get released.
News
Andrew: So I popped in a news story while we were recording, so get ready for a surprise. I saw this on Twitter yesterday, and I forgot to add it. There is a battle brewing concerning Cursed Child opening in San Francisco.
Eric: What?
Andrew: The biggest commercial theater presenters in San Francisco are trying to block productions of Cursed Child and Dear Evan Hansen from opening at a competing venue. “Nederlander of San Francisco, which operates that city’s Orpheum and Golden Gate theaters, this week asked a judge to prevent an ally-turned-rival, the producer Carole Shorenstein Hays, from staging the shows at the nearby Curran Theater, which she owns and has lavishly restored and ambitiously programmed. In its new legal filing, Nederlander of San Francisco asked the court to revisit the dispute, arguing that allowing the Curran to present Dear Evan Hansen and Cursed Child would cause the Nederlander theaters ‘irreparable harm’ in breach of an agreement between the families restricting competition.” So this court battle is over Dear Evan Hansen and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child being so popular that they’re going to kill the business of the other theater, which used to be a friendly rival, but now is a not-so-friendly rival. So I don’t know; it just seems weird. This might not go anywhere, but maybe it does. Can you really…? [laughs] Is a judge going to say, “Yes, we’re going to stop this production because the show is going to be too popular”? I mean, come on. That’s stupid.
Eric: Well, in the monopoly law, there’s probably something to do with reasonable, fair commerce and fair competition. And we’re living in a world now where Disney owns pretty much everything and is a functioning monopoly. Amazon corners the market as well that it is in. This is a real thing now, where I think there might be a claim having something to do with just how unfair it’ll be on the local businesses. I don’t know. They can move to Chicago instead, because we no longer have a Skywalker museum to look forward to.
Andrew: Aww.
Eric: And Chicago has been trying to build up people’s attention to its theater for a while.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, if this happens to not work out, maybe Cursed Child should just move down to LA, not that there’s many theaters there.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, I also don’t see why there needs to be so many Cursed Childs in the world.
Andrew: Well, you’ve got to help the… so Cursed Child New York. Okay, that’s the eastern half of the US; they can somewhat easily get to it. And then you’ve got to cover the western half of the United States. San Francisco is well-positioned for most of the west. Everybody from LA can easily get there. Portland, Seattle, Phoenix…
Micah: They should do Vegas.
Eric: But isn’t it playing in Australia too?
Andrew: Yeah. What are you saying? People in LA should fly to Australia to see it?
Eric: Yes! More people should go to Australia. Australia is great.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: People go to London.
Andrew: So I thought that was interesting. We’ll see how this goes. I bet the judge is going to throw this out. They’re going to say, “This is stupid.” So I mentioned Dear Evan Hansen; Dear Evan Hansen is going to be the show that is at the Curran Theater at the end of this year, I believe, before Cursed Child moves in, or maybe next year. But so they’re squeezing in a production of Dear Evan Hansen, which was very popular – won lots of Tonys – before Cursed Child moves in. Speaking of Hollywood, Eric, how’s Evanna doing on Dancing with the Stars?
Eric: [laughs] I mentioned on the last episode…
Micah: Same as the last episode.
Eric: Yes, Evanna and Keo Motsepe, her dance partner, have moved on to week two, but we seem to be recording… it’s going to be weird; we’re going to take a week off where there’s no news. So there’s no news right now, because Dancing with the Stars comes back Monday, October 1 and Tuesday, October 2 at 8:00/7:00 central. But on the last episode, I gave their voting hotline. Be sure to vote for them; it only helps them out, as far as going further on the program.
Chapter by Chapter: Seven-Word Summary
Andrew: All right, now it’s time for Chapter by Chapter. Half-Blood Prince Chapter 7, “The Slug Club.” And as we’ve been doing, we are going to start this segment with a Seven-Word Summary. We’re going to take turns contributing to this Seven-Word Summary. Eric, you’re going to start this week.
Eric: I don’t want to go first. Somebody else go first.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: It’s too much pressure! Remember last time I started with “Diagon,” and everybody freaking hated me? They were like, “Oh, that’s so limiting to the rest of the seven words. Now I gotta say ‘Alley.'”
Andrew: I’ll go first.
Eric: All right.
Andrew: The…
Eric: … tasty…
Micah: … pheasant…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: What? What are you referring to? Phlegm? Fleur?
Eric: Did you read this chapter?
Andrew: Yeah! Pheasant?
Micah: It’s something that gets served up at the Slug Club.
Andrew: Oh, okay. Boards…
Eric: [laughs] … scrumptiously…
Micah: … Belby’s…
Andrew: What?
Micah: Belby’s, as in Marcus Belby.
Andrew: … mouth. That was the worst one. [laughs]
Micah: That seems, yeah, pretty good.
Andrew: “The tasty pheasant boards scrumptiously Belby’s mouth.” I was hoping we were going to… I was trying to guide you guys towards, like, “The Hogwarts Express something, something, something…”
Eric: Oh. I was like, “What is ‘boards’? Is pheasant laying out?” Like you get a flight of beers that’s on a board; it’s on a wooden board. I was imagining pheasant prepared in that way.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: Anyway. So this is why this segment can never exist again.
Andrew: I love it.
Eric: Yeah, it’s good. I like where we went with that.
Connecting the Threads
Andrew: So you wanted to start with connecting some threads. We’ve spoken previously about how 1 mirrors 7, 2 mirrors 6, 3 mirrors 5…
Eric: Yeah, your standard ring theory, saying that these books have more in common with their opposing partner than they do with the one prior or after. So in today’s connections between Books 2 and 6, this chapter that we’re going to get into is all about Harry suspecting Draco of something that is very serious, and which has serious implications to the plot of the book. He thinks that Draco is a Death Eater, and this is big. And if you remember, the last time that Draco was really suspected of something heavy was Book 2, when Harry thinks – and Ron and Hermione actually agree with him – that Draco might be the descendant of Salazar Slytherin, a.k.a. the Heir of Slytherin. So just a kind of… and that stretches across chapters, much in the same way that this sort of theory does, although this one…
Andrew: So if the trio thought that he was the Heir of Slytherin, was it that hard of a stretch to think that he may also have been a Death Eater in this one? Because, as we’ll talk about later, Ron and Hermione – and Mr. Weasley – are really in denial about this idea.
Eric: Maybe it’s because he wasn’t the Heir of Slytherin? And they learn from their mistake of “Let’s just innocently suspect…” They’ve stopped questioning whether… well, no, they haven’t stopped questioning whether Snape is still a bad guy. So I guess there are some theories that are just too rampant. [laughs]
Micah: Well, they’re also older, too. Chamber of Secrets, they’re still a little bit…
Eric: Green.
Micah: Not immature, but they’re growing up, much like they do throughout the course of the series. But in Half-Blood Prince, I mean, they’re a little bit more self-aware, I think, and the idea that Draco could be a Death Eater just seems so far-fetched, though the evidence is much more overwhelming than I think it was in Chamber.
Eric: Yeah, when everybody’s 12 years old, it’s like, “Oh, students are dying, and Malfoy made a mean comment in front of everybody; he must be the Heir of Slytherin!” kind of thing.
Micah: One thing I was going to bring up is I don’t understand why… if there’s all this speculation about him being a Death Eater, somebody just point their wand at his sleeve and say, “Roll-up-is,” or whatever the spell is.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: And reveal the Dark Mark.
Andrew: That was exactly right. J.K. Rowling confirmed that one on Twitter, “Roll-up-is” was the spell.
Eric: Oh, oh, yeah. No, that’s a real tactic, especially because Harry thinks that it’s definitely there. He could just prove to Ron and Hermione by waiting for Malfoy to pass and do that. You’re right; that would have saved him much more time.
Andrew: And these next two connecting the threads, they’re a little flimsy. Slugs? [laughs]
Eric: Well, this is the one that… I forgot about this until I was taking these notes. But remember how in Book 2, Ron has a spell backfire, and it forces him to vomit slugs? What a weird choice of animal, or bug, or whatever slugs are. I’m going to look that up later.
Andrew: So J.K. Rowling, in Book 6, she was like, “Okay, I need something. What creature should I use?” She flips open Book 2. “Ahh, slugs. Ron throws up slugs.”
Eric: It’s just weird that a guy named Slughorn is throwing these dinner parties, and it’s just… slugs. Just the presence of slugs. That’s the connection.
Andrew: Okay, okay. And then the third one that I came up with was you meet a Horcrux in Book 2, being Tom Riddle’s diary, and then we’re kind of reintroduced to them in Book 6. We’re learning more about them. Do you guys like this one?
Eric: Yeah, more than Books 3, 4, or 5.
Andrew: Exactly.
Eric: You’re not dealing with a Horcrux as your central kind of…
Andrew: Oooh, so you guys like this one. Yes.
Eric: Yeah, it’s good. Unless you count Nagini in Book 5, but yeah.
Andrew: Well, we don’t destroy or really know that she’s a Horcrux.
Eric: Exactly.
Andrew: I used to also think Nagini was a guy. I’m just going to admit that right now. There came a point a year or two ago on the show when somebody referred to Nagini as a she. I was like, “Wait, what?”
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: [laughs] Random aside there. Anyway, so let’s jump into this…
Micah: Well, then, I mean, if Pettigrew was milking Nagini, I don’t know exactly what he would be getting back.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Finally, some LGBT representation!
Eric: Can we set the record straight once and for all, for a vast majority of people who may be confused, that milking Nagini means…
Andrew: The venom.
Eric: … procuring venom, exactly. Procuring venom from her fangs, and not any…
Andrew: That’s correct.
Micah: So it’s not like milking a cow.
Andrew: No.
Eric: It’s not like milking a cow, although there is fan art of something, of a baby Voldemort suckling on Nagini with… it’s weird, but it’s very prevalent. And I think the Rowling Library recently tweeted it out.
Andrew: You want to know something? It’s actually not fan art. That was official concept art for a film. I learned this on the Studio Tour; the guy created it not knowing what milking a snake looks like.
Eric: Right, it’s confusing.
Andrew: So he has Voldemort actually sucking on Nagini. It’s very disturbing. After the show I’ll have to open up my Art of Harry Potter book, because I think it might be in there as well. But it’s definitely on display in the Studio Tour.
Eric: Oh, gosh.
Andrew: And I asked somebody… when I went on the Studio Tour, I asked them about that, and they shared that story with me.
Eric: But it is confirmed that that has nothing to do with nipples. [laughs]
Andrew: Right, right.
Eric: It’s only to do with, yeah, venom.
Andrew: The concept artist was just very unaware of how that works, so he screwed up. [laughs]
Eric: Well, as were we, but yeah.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Eric: So anyway, moving on. Let’s get into Chapter 7 of Half-Blood Prince, “The Slug Club.” As we mentioned, so coming off of “Draco’s Detour,” the trio all witnessed the same thing, Draco acting shadily in front of Borgin of Borgin and Burkes. But unlike Ron and Hermione, Harry is convinced that Draco is probably a Death Eater, and that he replaced his dad, Lucius, in the inner circle of Voldemort. And Harry has this downtime at the Burrow to sort of air these accusations to the point where everybody’s just sick of it; everybody’s sick of him. And I’m kind of… this is just something we’re going to have to put up with in this book for a very long time. Draco is a Death Eater; we know this as a result of having read the book, and Harry is pretty much 100% right.
Andrew: Yeah, for me, I can’t wrap my head around Hermione being so against this idea. It doesn’t seem like that great of a stretch for her. She’s somebody who can assume the worst sometimes, and she’s a very smart girl. So just between that, and Harry specifically mentions, “Hey, he’s rolling up his arm and showing Borgin something, and then Borgin kind of changes.” Come on, what else could that possibly be? Is Draco showing an itch on his arm? An evil Pickett hanging off his arm? What else is on his arm?
Eric: Dragon pox. An evil Pickett. I love an evil Pickett idea.
Andrew: Evil Pickett is red.
Eric: A menacing Bowtruckle. [laughs] He’s red.
Micah: Oooh, he’s red.
Andrew: Yeah, we’ll meet evil Pickett in Fantastic Beasts 4.
Micah: The points you make are so on point, really. It’s just… the evidence is overwhelming, especially when you think about the fact that he showed something on his arm. And what else could it possibly be? Aside from evil Pickett.
Eric: It’s definitely evil Pickett.
Micah: You have to beat Ron and Hermione over the head with this satchel of evidence that exists. It’s just… and it continues to build. And as readers… I know this happens a little bit later on in the chapter, but Blaise Zabini, who’s introduced to us at the Slug Club dinner, lunch, whatever it is, he almost makes it clear that Draco is a Death Eater, because they’re talking about how all these different people were invited to the Slug Club, and that Nott was uninvited after Slughorn found out that his father was a Death Eater. And I think the reader is meant to believe that the statement is in reference to Lucius, because they’re talking about how the fathers of these students are Death Eaters. But he says directly to Draco, “I don’t think Slughorn’s interested in Death Eaters.” And as a reader, you’re like, “Oh, here’s evidence, more evidence that exists.” It’s sort of an indirect way of saying that he’s a Death Eater, but there’s a line right from the book that I think we’re all meant to pick up on.
Andrew: I’ll play devil’s advocate. Yes, maybe the reader is supposed to pick up on that, but I’ll play devil’s advocate and say maybe Blaise was just referring to a Death Eater family. Slughorn is not interested in a Death Eater family.
Eric: I like that it’s vague. But still, after all that Ron and Hermione have been through – and they’re the same age as Draco – Hermione is like, “But he’s 16. I don’t think that Voldemort would… he’s 16. Draco is 16, Harry.” They just discount him based on his age. I don’t know. It’s weird. They’re not listening to Harry when Harry says, “Look, Voldemort is probably pretty pissed at Lucius, and Draco has probably had to take his place. Just saying.” They’re not listening. They accuse him of being blinded by his prejudice against Malfoy, which is well and good, sort of; they have a point that the two of those characters have history together. But this is just going to be a constant source of irritation for us readers. So listeners, please bear with us, because it’s not just this chapter. We know it’s the whole book! Harry just spends every moment of his free time collecting evidence on why this thing is true.
Andrew: So do you guys remember reading this for the first time? Do you remember believing Harry’s theory? I honestly can’t remember.
Eric: I feel like by the end of this chapter and the events that happen at the very end, I 100% believed it, which we’ll get to. But I think that, yeah, Malfoy… I didn’t know what else it could be, and I tend to… I expected maybe that it would change and not be the case, but I did believe Harry from the get-go, because the evidence was really compelling.
Andrew: What do you think, Micah?
Micah: I don’t remember either, but like you said, Eric, I feel like the evidence is just so compelling at this point that even… and we’re only seven chapters into the book; it’s not like we’re halfway through and there’s been all these defining moments for Draco. But I just think, especially going back to the “Spinner’s End” chapter, and then Draco separating himself from his mother and everything that happened at Borgin and Burkes, and just his behavior that Harry observes on the train, it just suggests that, yeah, he is a Death Eater. But I still go back to why Ron and Hermione are so unwilling to believe that this would be a possibility. It just… the three of them are so close and have been through so much that why would this not even be a thought that…? They don’t even want to entertain the thought, it seems like.
Andrew: It’s for the story. And I guess it’s kind of nice to see Harry, for once, being the only one to correctly suspect something. [laughs]
Eric: Rather than like the whole Scooby gang getting involved?
Andrew: Right, exactly. It’s different. It’s refreshing, I guess.
Eric: It gives Harry some kind of personal journey, I guess. I mean, this book is, I guess, in broad strokes, about obsession, and Harry’s obsession with the Half-Blood Prince, Harry’s thing about Draco. I think I recall, because of his obsession with Half-Blood, Hermione even uses it to discredit his Draco idea once Draco gets attacked, if I’m remembering correctly. So plenty of frustrating moments to come. And speaking of frustrating, Phlegm/Fleur Delacour is still annoying people at the Burrow. I found it funny. I’d forgotten about this, but Harry and Ginny are now bonding over insulting Fleur. Harry is going downstairs to get something, probably from his trunk, probably to pack for Hogwarts, and she’s like, “Be careful; there’s a lot of Phlegm downstairs,” and Harry is like, “Oh, I’ll try not to slip in it, thanks.” It’s just kind of ridiculous. We’ve spoken about this in the “Excess of Phlegm” chapter, but Fleur kind of gets the short stick here. Nobody really treats her with respect at this juncture, or wants her in their house.
Andrew: I understand Molly in this situation, though, because Fleur is trying to step in and speak for Tonks, and it seems out of place. So Molly has known Tonks for a lot longer, and then here’s Fleur, a relatively new character, a new character who doesn’t know much about Tonks. Why is she saying this stuff about Tonks? It does seem inappropriate.
Eric: Yeah, that second time, I’ll agree. Earlier they’re talking about wedding stuff, but once she starts talking about Tonks and how Tonks has “let ‘erself go…”
Andrew: Yeah. It’s mean.
Eric: Well, and Molly actually knows why Tonks is upset, and it doesn’t have to do with Sirius, like Harry would guess. So this whole scene kind of has a purpose of, “Oh, it’s on Harry’s mind that Tonks is upset about Sirius, and…” I don’t know. It’s kind of cruel, Fleur making a cruel comment about, I don’t know, Tonks’s appearance. It’s weird. It’s just… these women are not getting along in this chapter.
Andrew: I want to back up for just a second. Andrea, who’s listening live, just brought up a good point. “It just hit me that it’s interesting that Ron and Hermione spend this book not believing – or at the very least doubting – Harry’s instinct, when they watched him all the previous years be not believed by nearly everyone.” That’s a great point. Poor Harry had to convince everybody about certain things in the previous books. Now he has to convince his own friends, and they’re not believing him. They’re acting like the public did.
Eric: Harry needs to lean on that more and be like, “Hey guys, you’ve been with me how long? I’ve been right how much? And how often?”
Andrew: “Remember all this crap the Prophet put me through? And Fudge? Come on.” Anyway, also related to our previous Chapter by Chapter discussion, we were criticizing how Hagrid was sent to protect everybody at Diagon Alley…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: … and now they’re heading back to Hogwarts, and they get Aurors this time. No Hagrid. What changed? I mean, he didn’t do that bad when he went to Diagon Alley. Yes, the kids ran off and watched Draco, but there weren’t any attacks. So he didn’t necessarily fail them.
Eric: I guess Hagrid was just busy today or something. [laughs] Dumbledore wasn’t in a position to negotiate where he’s like, “Oh, Hagrid will be fine.” And so they got these stodgy Aurors who have no lines of dialogue, and pretty quickly… I mean, they’re just there to make sure that the trio boards the train safely.
Micah: Yeah, I think it’s just Hagrid needed to be there at the platform when the train arrives.
Andrew: But he’s not, is he?
[Eric laughs]
Micah: I haven’t read the next chapter yet, Andrew. I didn’t read ahead.
Andrew: That’s a good point.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Micah: So I don’t know.
Eric: Well, maybe he took up Tom at his word. He said he would hang around later. Or I guess you theorized, Micah, that Hagrid would stay around in the bar and drink a little bit, so I think that maybe that’s what he did. Maybe that’s where he is.
Micah: I’m just surprised, though, what is it about King’s Cross and boarding the Hogwarts Express that requires Auror security versus walking around Diagon Alley?
Eric: Well, they’re protected both… I think it’s because… I’m trying to cite some kind of statistic about security at borders being the weakest. Because this is a threshold into the wizarding world, there’s more opportunity, because this is a Muggle environment versus just a wizarding one, and so it’s easier for people who would do Harry harm to blend in, because they could just be some Muggle.
Andrew: That’s a good point, yeah.
Eric: Something like that.
Micah: And then what about the train itself, though? There’s no security on there.
Andrew: There isn’t.
Eric: Except the trolley lady.
Andrew: Yeah, but she’s just there to protect from kids escaping. Isn’t that what we are to assume from the Cursed Child? [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, you’re right. There’s no security actually on the Hogwarts Express, which is weird.
Andrew: Especially after the Dementor attack.
Eric: Yeah! I guess that is kind of…
Andrew: Hmm. Because I was going to say, maybe there’s some magical protection on the train, but there doesn’t seem to be. There’s not really room on the train to have Aurors either, along with all the kids. Not that that’s a reason to not have them on the train, but…
Eric: Yeah, I don’t know. And in my head, the train seems to vary in width based on the trains I’ve been on. I’ve been on the real one, but that was in 2004, so most of me forgets. The one at the Studio Tour, the one at… trying to think what else. No, those are the two.
Andrew: It’s tight. They’re not large.
Eric: The one in the movie, though, in specifically this Draco scene in the movie, which we watched recently, is pretty wide.
Andrew: It is.
Eric: It looks at least ten feet wide.
Andrew: For the sake of the scene, I think. That was probably built, though.
Eric: Yeah, but having to kind of, I don’t know, reconcile all of that means is there or isn’t there enough width to do what they do? That’s kind of the question. But Harry – not to be deterred, by the way, by his best friends of six years not agreeing with him – resolves to tell Mr. Weasley what’s up. And you know what? Harry and Mr. Weasley have this beautiful relationship in these books, I’ll say, strengthened probably only by the attack on Mr. Weasley last year, how Harry’s quick action and response notified the authorities and saved Mr. Weasley’s life. In the past, Arthur has welcomed advice from Harry, especially about the Malfoys and the Dark goods that they’re possessing. But this time, Harry is as clear as a bell and still gets resistance. Here’s what he says to Arthur Weasley: “If Malfoy wants something fixing, and he needs to threaten Borgin to get it done, it’s probably something Dark or dangerous, isn’t it?” Question. Snaps, everybody. And before that, he says, “He made it sound like it was the same kind of thing -“ that he was talking about “- that needed fixing. Like they were a pair.” Okay, we know that the Vanishing Cabinets are a pair. And it’s just…
Andrew: He’s got everything figured out and, again, is still getting screwed. It’s just for the sake of the book.
Eric: That’s all.
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, we kind of already discussed this.
Micah: I was just a bit troubled, though, because Arthur does seem to be placating him a bit where he should take him seriously, and in fact, he does, right? He does investigate, so it’s not like he just passes off what Harry is saying and doesn’t follow up on it. But in the moment, it just seems like he’s not willing to really do much about it; he’s just lending an ear.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: But there is a shining moment, though, when he talks to Harry and he says, “Harry, please, you’re forgetting that you’re looking at the man who raised Fred and George,” I guess talking about the capabilities of young people. So good stuff on that front.
Andrew: We get some love in this chapter as well when Ginny says that she’s going to go hang out with Dean, and J.K. Rowling writes, “He felt a strange twinge of annoyance as she walked away, her long red hair dancing behind her; he had become so used to her presence over the summer that he had almost forgotten that Ginny did not hang around with him, Ron, and Hermione while at school.” I was actually a little surprised that it was annoyance. I would have thought he would experience jealousy, jealous that it gets to be Dean.
Eric: Well, these are the origins of his stomach monster, his chest monster. Later in the book, it’s developed into a full-fledged, Alien style, this thing living inside of him that is jealous and says rude things to people. But this is the genesis of that. As soon as he realizes that the company that they’ve been sharing all summer is not going to last through Hogwarts, he kind of gives birth to this creature inside him. So it’s just… I thought it was…
Andrew: [laughs] Interesting how you’re putting this. “Creature.”
Eric: Yeah! Well, I mean, it’s given some weight later by J.K. Rowling, but it’s right here. It’s just a nice wording, I think, the “twinge of annoyance” and the “long red hair dancing behind her.” It kind of is, I don’t know, just some good imagery.
Micah: I think there is definitely jealousy, though, that can be a part of the annoyance, or jealousy that’s driving the annoyance, for sure, Andrew. And it’s also the fact that he seems to be striking out everywhere that he goes, right?
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Ron and Hermione need to go off and be prefects…
Andrew: True.
Micah: … then he runs into Ginny, and Ginny is like, “No, I gotta go hang out with Dean.” And it’s like, “Can I sit with somebody?”
Andrew: Yeah, right. And actually, speaking of sitting with somebody, so Romilda Vane invites Harry to sit in her compartment. And Harry is standing there with Neville and Luna, and Romilda says right in front of them that he doesn’t have to hang out with these losers, these weirdos like Neville and Luna, and then Harry, in a great character moment, says they’re friends of his. And it was a good lesson on how to treat each other, but also a reminder of our days as kids. Like, my God, in middle school in particular for me, everybody was so divided into these groups, and I unfortunately never experienced a moment where somebody stood up for me.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: I was always at the loser area.
Eric: I was in the loser lunch table as well.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, joke’s on all those cool kids, because now I’m a Harry Potter podcaster!
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Micah: You’re much more than that, Andrew.
Andrew: Aw, thanks, Micah. That’s so sweet.
Eric: This is also in stark contrast to the scene in Book 5. Remember when Harry is on the train in Book 5 and he has this visceral reaction of, “I would rather be anywhere but with these people here”?
Andrew: Right.
Eric: That’s a real moment. And he’s kind of a dick about it when he doesn’t want to be around Luna Lovegood, who’s quirky, and he doesn’t want to be around Neville, who’s depressing and always losing his toad. And this is a complete opposite of that, so good for Harry. Good for his character growth.
Andrew: And I mean, I think as he points out in this scene – I think he points it out to Neville or Luna – they helped him in the Department of Mysteries. Nobody else was there. Nobody else helped him pull off a successful mission, pretty successful. So these people are cool to hang out with. [laughs]
Eric: But between Ginny and Romilda here in this brief part of this chapter, you guys have any old crushes you remember who you would have loved to have been asked to sit in their train compartment who were not in your friend group or anything like that? We could do a little story time here real quick if one springs to mind.
Andrew: I had one girlfriend in middle school, and for the whopping week that we were together, I got to hang out at her table.
Eric: Whoa.
Andrew: Yeah, I know, right? I was cool for a week.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: It’s pretty cool. And it’s weird sitting at a different lunch table, because you get their friends and their personalities, right?
Andrew: Right. Yeah, it’s like a whole different world, hanging out at a different lunch table. People are talking about different things, and it’s just… it is kind of sad looking back on it. And these scenes reminded me of just how divided people are, and I’m sure that still happens in school.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: Just all these groups, all these cliques, the cool kids… really, there were people who were labeled the cool kids in school.
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Andrew: I was not one of them. And it just sucks to be that divided, especially when you look back at it in hindsight. It’s like, “Why?” What did we gain from that? I kind of wish schools could do something about it, but I don’t know what you could do. Force everybody to sit at the same table?
Eric: Right.
Andrew: Maybe a weekly challenge. “Everybody sit with different people this week.” Anyway, do you guys have any stories?
Micah: I mean, I would just say, Eric, when you mentioned somebody that you have a crush on that just doesn’t acknowledge you or react to you in any way…
[Eric laughs]
Micah: … there’s definitely a few of those. I don’t remember as much going and sitting at the cafeteria and having those moments where you try and sit with another group of people but they kind of give you those looks. But I do remember having my own table. It’s like the band of misfits that all kind of come together and just hang out and become really good friends as a result of that. So I mean, I think the one piece of it is, though, that whether it’s like you’re the nerds or the geeks or however you want to classify yourself, I wouldn’t trade those friendships, though, that I created with those people because we bonded over that kind of similar situation that we were all put in, and some of them are still some of my closest friends today. So there’s that that came out of it that I think that’s valuable. But I do also think it’s important to kind of break down those barriers that exist. Like you were saying, Andrew, maybe it’s a weekly thing that you bring together the different segments of students that often just naturally gravitate towards each other for whatever reason, and just to kind of remove those stigmas. I think it’s important.
Eric: Yeah, that’s all good points. And I think, like us at our respective lunch tables, too, Harry kind of has some self-reflection here, sitting in this train compartment. After Romilda has left, after Ginny has left, he kind of reflects on the fact that he’s sitting next to Neville, who the results of the excursion into the Ministry of Magic really revealed how closely Neville could have been in Harry’s shoes, and Harry just has… Harry is having some really good character moments in this chapter, and it just kind of shows that he has grown. He’s no longer this petulant, angry Harry that he was in the previous book. He’s really starting to reflect on what it means to be the Chosen One, what it means to be him, and how grateful he is to have the friends that he does.
Andrew: Right. It doesn’t matter if other people see these guys as weirdos. He knows that they’re genuinely good people.
Eric: Exactly.
Andrew: He’s above the cliques.
Eric: He’s above it! He’s not one of the Plastics.
Andrew: And it also just reminds me of the early days when he was looking for a compartment on the train, or Ron and Hermione were.
Eric: Yeah, and there was so much good will there back then.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. He’s setting a good example for people. If only everybody could learn from him.
Eric: So next, the first instance of what definitely recurs a lot in this book, I remember, happens. Somebody brings Harry a message from somebody else. Whether it’s Professor Slughorn or Professor Dumbledore, both of those dudes in this book use students that we’ve never seen before to bring Harry messages of meetings. So a breathless third year girl comes into the compartment and gives Neville and Harry an invitation to lunch, to something called the Slug Club. And the invitation comes from an H.E.F. Slughorn, which is weird. I don’t think we ever find out what Slughorn’s full name is.
Micah: That’s a good J.K. Rowling tweet question to throw out to her.
Eric: Yeah, what are the “E.F.”?
Micah: But I just thought about, well, maybe he’s like the wizarding world’s version of the Hef. Of Hugh Hefner, right? He throws these extravagant parties, he dresses up in these extravagant clothes, and everybody knows who Hugh Hefner is, right?
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Playboy.
Eric: Well, that imagery of him being in a robe, like a silk robe, kind of fits me for…
Micah: Smoking a cigar?
Eric: Yeah, picturing Slughorn. Absolutely.
Micah: I doubt that there’s any correlation whatsoever, [laughs] but it’s just funny that his initials are H.E.F.
Andrew: Yeah. And of course, one big difference is that Hugh Hefner wanted to invite lots of women to his parties. At the Slug Club, at least for this meeting, it’s all guys, except for Ginny. And I’ll go ahead and go through the list. We got Marcus Belby; his uncle invented Wolfsbane Potion. We got Cormac McLaggen, whose dad knows Rufus and Bertie Higgs. We’ve got Blaise Zabini; his mother is potentially a Black Widow. Neville is there because his parents were Aurors, Harry is Harry, and then there’s Ginny. Now, why is she there? She was spotted by Slughorn on the train performing a Bat-Bogey Hex. And so Harry wonders why Ginny was there, and Ginny explains this: “Oh, he just saw me performing a cool spell.” But it is still strange that Slughorn would invite her. Is it that he wanted to have a girl at his party? Because it does seem lame how it’s just a bunch of guys.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Yeah, it’s an all boys club, basically.
Andrew: Yeah! But it’s also kind of foreshadowing, I thought. She’s there because one day she’s going to be the wife of Harry Potter.
Eric: Oh, God. And Slughorn can claim that he made it possible by having them… even though they just spent the whole summer together living under the same roof.
Andrew: Well, you just think about how all these people are there because of their parents, and then here’s Ginny here, because she is going to be the wife of Harry… I don’t know; there’s kind of a correlation there. I don’t know if J.K. Rowling actually was foreshadowing here, but I think you could argue that.
Eric: I think you might be underestimating how scary and terrifying a perfected Bat-Bogey Hex is. I remember talking about this on the other podcast, Alohomora through MuggleNet, but the Bat-Bogey Hex, guys, if we could take one second to think about that, I’m pretty sure your boogers… basically bats fly out of your nose. Bats form from the mucus that is lining your nasal passages, and they turn into these winged creatures and then fly out of your nose and attack you. How terrifying is that?
Micah: That’s pretty terrifying, yeah. But I also think she demonstrated herself in the Department of Mysteries, and maybe Slughorn has some insight into that? Basically… I mean, I shouldn’t say that he ended up inviting all of the students that were there; that’s not true. But it seems like it’s a bit of a trial for some of the kids, though, because we know that not all of them end up being in the Slug Club. And you asked the question in the document, Eric, about “Are all fraternities, paternities, networking events this soulless?” No, but I think this is very elitist, and that’s who Slughorn is, and that’s what the initial attraction was to Tom Riddle. And he’s a collector; he’s a collector of people, and I would say that that is a flaw of his. It’s a personality trait that is not looked very highly upon, though Dumbledore obviously wants Harry to allow himself to be collected. I’m sure there’s benefits to the Slug Club, not just for Slughorn, but for bringing all these people from different Houses together; there’s something to be said for that. But it is very much “You’re here not necessarily, initially, of your own merits. You’re here because of your family. You’re here because of your connections.”
Andrew: By the way, I want to clarify the Black Widow remark. [laughs]
Eric: Oh, God.
Andrew: Blaise Zabini, his mother married seven wizards who each died in mysterious circumstances. Because you were trying to make a joke there, weren’t you? I was just reading your note.
Eric: No, no, no, no. I was not making a joke about the color of his mother’s skin.
Andrew: No, I know. I thought you were making a Marvel reference or something.
Eric: Oh, no, no. Black Widow is a kind of serial killer. They actually… this is a term that is coined. One of the fewer types of female serial killers are women who marry men and then kill them, I guess in succession. This is a… there have been a couple. I think that movie…
Andrew: Okay, but this wasn’t brought up explicitly in the Harry Potter books.
Eric: Well, it’s just a term, because it is brought up in this chapter that Blaise’s mother married seven wizards, all with large amounts of gold that transferred to her after their deaths.
Andrew: Got it.
Eric: So there’s kind of this… it’s weird that Slughorn would include him. Blaise is kind of an odd one out. But his mother is famous for the wrong reasons, right? His mother is famous because she’s sort of infamous. And it’s probably, if I had to guess, never been proven that her husbands were murdered. I think it probably all looks like tragic ends. But that would make her… the common pop culture term is Black Widow.
Andrew: Okay, I didn’t personally know that, so that’s why I also wanted to clarify. So the rest of this chapter involves Harry sneaking into Draco’s compartment to try and learn more information about what the hell he is up to. He sneaks into the compartment via the Invisibility Cloak, and he kind of squeezes his way in. He holds the train compartment door open. Malfoy says here that he might not be at Hogwarts next year after possibly “moving on to bigger things.” So he’s hinting at what he could be up to, and actually kind of does foreshadow what’s going on in the seventh book, because obviously Draco and the trio there, that is not an average year at Hogwarts for them. But Draco says that “Maybe the job he -“ referring to Voldemort “- wants me to do isn’t something that you need to be qualified for.”
Eric: [laughs] This is still… this is the mildly hopeful Draco talking about his mission from Voldemort, and how he, at this point, is giving himself the benefit of the doubt that he’s qualified to fulfill the obligation. I think it really breaks Draco over this year to have all these attempts on Dumbledore’s life fail, that really show him… I mean, by the time we see him at the end of the book, he’s a complete mess over this assignment. But right now in this chapter, there’s this gusto and vigor and confidence that Draco has about what he is sent to do.
Andrew: And by the way, I meant to bring this up earlier: Ron and Hermione and Mr. Weasley are like, “Oh, Voldemort would never make Draco a Death Eater. He’s too young.” What on earth is that idea? Voldemort does not care. As long as he thinks that Draco is capable of doing something like killing Dumbledore, he’ll make him a Death Eater. He gives no F’s.
Eric: Yeah, there’s no precedent that says he can’t be a 16-year-old Death Eater.
Micah: Right. And the flip side to this, though, too, is this is punishment to the Malfoy family. It’s not just about tasking Draco, or Draco being excited to potentially become a Death Eater and do all these great evil things. It’s that Lucius has screwed up multiple times. He screwed up in Chamber of Secrets, he screwed up in Order of the Phoenix, and now this is a way for Voldemort to get back at Lucius, to get back at Narcissa, and to compromise their only child.
Andrew: It might be punishment, but Draco likes it, right?
Micah: I think he likes the idea of it. I don’t think he likes the actual action that he has to inevitably take, and that’s seen as we go throughout this book.
Eric: I just don’t know to what extent Draco knows that he’s being dangled like a fish on a hook here, that he’s not actually supposed to succeed because, bless him, he tries. Narcissa and Bellatrix can talk in Spinner’s End about how Voldemort, yeah, probably doesn’t care if Draco succeeds or not, because he’s just trying to kill Draco or make sure Draco is in peril. But Draco doesn’t seem to… Draco would sort of reject… if somebody outright was like, “No, Voldemort is just trying to kill you to get back at your dad,” Draco has enough common sense that he probably would want to sort of push back against that. But it’s a realization he himself comes to, I guess, throughout the book. So I don’t know. But it’s funny we said Harry sneaks into the train compartment. I wrote that in there for a reason; it’s because his sneaks show, his sneakers.
Andrew: Ha.
Eric: Or trainers, as they’re called in the British version – I can never get over that – are visible. And Draco from the get-go knows what’s up. Unfortunately, Harry, I don’t know if he’s slowed down by the meal he just had or what, but he’s not thinking clearly. He’s very reactive. And unfortunately, Harry botches this whole thing.
Andrew: This is all so stupid because the train compartment is so small. How on earth are you supposed to sneak into here? It seems impossible. And to not bump into somebody.
Eric: Well, that’s exactly it. And so he’s just in everybody’s way. He nearly probably kicks Draco in the face, and then when Goyle goes to get his luggage down, just thwaps Harry, just real loudly, in the head, and Harry can’t help but gasp. So Draco knows what’s up, unfortunately, and this leads into, really, one of the very most terrifying moments of the series. I was not this scared when Harry was fighting Voldemort at the end. I just wasn’t. What Draco does to Harry – and I think it’s adapted pretty well in the movie – but the breaking of his nose, really, and then the subsequent covering him up with the Invisibility Cloak is one of the most malicious and revengeful and just horrible moments.
Andrew: It’s because it’s physical. It’s a foot to the face. That is rough. Plus, at the end of the series, you know Harry is going to win against Voldemort. So this was like, “Damn.”
Eric: Yeah, any kind of stomping. It’s just such a hugely aggressive physical act. No other character stomps on another character in this whole series.
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Eric: Unless Grawp counts.
Andrew: We keep a distance with our wands.
Micah: But I think this also proves that Draco doesn’t really have what it takes to be a true Death Eater, because you have Harry Potter motionless on the floor. Finish him.
Eric: Oh, wow. You went there.
Micah: But why not? I mean, it’s kind of like what Snape does at the end of Half-Blood Prince, where you have Harry right there. Why not take him with you?
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: That’s a good point. I was actually surprised that Draco doesn’t take the Invisibility Cloak, because that seems like that could be of use to him.
Eric: Oh, yeah! This whole book, he’s sneaking around trying to do stuff and having to use darkness powder and Polyjuice on Crabbe and Goyle. For all that stuff, he could have just taken the… you’re right, and Harry would never…
Andrew: But not just that. I mean, it’s a cool object to have anyway. Who wouldn’t want the Invisibility Cloak? It seemed better to secretly send Harry back to London? I don’t know; I’d rather take the cloak.
Eric: He’s thinking in the moment. He’s thinking in the short term. And we as readers are horrified. “Oh my God, nobody’s going to be able to find Harry because he’s under the cloak.” It’s kind of a good momentary body horror, or terror for you.
Micah: And this is why you need security, though. Why is there no security on the train?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Where’s the trolley witch right now, making sure that all the kids are off?
Andrew: Yeah, right.
Eric: This chapter might be proof that J.K. Rowling didn’t know what’s up about that. I don’t know.
MVP of the Week
Andrew: So that is the chapter, and now we’re going to wrap this up with MVP of the Week. Mine is Harry’s head.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: For facing a tough beating from Draco’s shoe. Like we were saying, that was rough to read and watch.
Micah: I gave mine to Luna, who just… I mean, brutal honesty in every interaction that she has with anybody. But she’s very appreciative of the fact that Harry considers her to be a friend. So I give it to her.
Eric: I love that.
Andrew: Was that a plug for Evanna Lynch on Dancing with the Stars?
Eric: It is now.
Andrew: A subtle reminder?
Micah: No, it was not, but it can be.
Eric: I just love the way it’s written, too, in this chapter. It’s like, “Luna had that peculiar way of saying very uncomfortable truths as though they were totally normal,” and Harry looks away and forgets all about it. My MVP of the Week is Draco, on the flip side of Andrew’s, for his smashing performance. It terrifies me, dude! It scares me! I’m afraid of Draco in this chapter, and it kind of shows Draco’s growth. We often think of – and Spinner’s End didn’t help – of thinking of Draco as like a child who can’t defend himself, but I will be damned if he does not completely and utterly get the best of Harry Potter right now.
Andrew: And now you’re recognizing him as the MVP? I am disgusted by you.
Eric: He just… hey, MVP can go either way. It’s neutral on the whole Harry meter.
Andrew: You are sick.
[Eric laughs]
Rename the Chapter
Andrew: So let’s rename the chapter. Mine is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 7, “Meanie Malfoy.”
Eric: Oh, I like it. It’s so alliterative.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Yeah, well done. Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince Chapter 7, “Nobody Wants to Sit with Me.”
Andrew: Aww, too real. That’s the chapter name for my life.
Eric: And mine – funny moment from the Slug Club – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 7, “Pheasant, Belby?”
Andrew: [laughs] Inspired by our Seven-Word Summary, or…?
Eric: Yeah, both that and just the moment where… I mean, Slughorn keeps trying to… he has no tact. He’s asking people who are mid-eating about themselves, and he just has no real… I think Slughorn is out of practice, frankly. This whole meeting does not seem to go the direction that he thinks it is, or be as successful.
Micah: It’s been a while, though, since he’s hosted the Slug Club.
Quizzitch
Andrew: So Eric, it’s time for some Quizzitch. I think you got in trouble, though. As you hinted last week, you may have been a little wrong. But what was the question and what do you think is the answer?
Eric: The question…
Micah: Oh, by the way, though, one other Rename the Chapter that we could have done very easily was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 7, “MuggleCast Patrons.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: “A.k.a. MuggleCast Patrons.”
Eric: That’s a nice little bonus name.
Micah: Since we do have the Slug Club.
Eric: Yeah, for sure. So last week’s Quizzitch question, or the one from the last time we asked this, was: Who does the trio run into in the train compartment on the Hogwarts Express? And Harry is actually separated from Ron and Hermione, because Ron and Hermione go to the prefects’ cabin. Harry finds a compartment with Luna and Neville in it, and then Ron and Hermione do join that compartment. So the trio is in the compartment with Luna and Neville and nobody else. But the phrasing of my question… the phraseology was a little off, and for that, I do apologize. So they all get there eventually. It’s Luna and Neville, are the correct answers. We got answers back from Scott, Andrea F., Lizzie, and Sean. Thank you to everybody who did power through that. I have a little bit easier question for next week because I’m now terrified of quick skim-reading for Quizzitch answers. But the question for next week is: Who comes to Harry’s rescue when he finds himself locked out of Hogwarts? Send us your answer on Twitter at MuggleCast and say, “This week’s Quizzitch answer is…”
Andrew: The winners will receive a two-hour open bar party here in Chicago.
Eric: [laughs] We’re stepping up our game.
Andrew: Yeah, we loved ours so much that we’re going to start doing it for our listeners.
Eric: For sure, for sure.
Andrew: It’s hard to believe, but we are approaching 400 episodes of MuggleCast. We’re going to do it by the very beginning of 2019. If you want to access any one of our nearly 400 episodes, you can visit MuggleCast.com; we have a complete episode archive right there. If you want to dive into just some of our favorite episodes, or just the Chapter by Chapter episodes, we have pages for those as well. You’ll find links to our Potter interviews, like I said, our favorite episodes, some of our biggest episodes, and then the Chapter by Chapter archive gives you easy access to all of our analysis as we slowly but surely go through all of the Harry Potter books. I also want to give a shout-out to our advertiser deals page. We have advertisers on the show from time to time; we keep the promo codes and links to these advertisers all on one page, so you can easily save a few bucks. And most of these deals last long after we do the ad reads on the show, so click on the “Advertiser Deals” page at the top of the website. And then finally, I’d like to plug our social media channels, Facebook.com/MuggleCast and Twitter.com/MuggleCast. Those keep you updated on new episodes of the show. I lied; not finally. I have one more plug: Patreon.com/MuggleCast. We really appreciate everybody’s support over there. Thanks to everybody who’s listening live today, and we will have one of our Slug Club members on next week, speaking of the Slug Club.
Eric: Yeah, and international mugs have now shipped, you guys.
Andrew: Woohoo!
Eric: Yeah, and that was the last batch of mugs to go out, was people as far as Norway and Sweden and Australia. And I have to say that within the next 10-14 days or so, worldwide, everybody should have gotten their “No Latte Is Safe” ceramic MuggleCast mug for being our patron over on Patreon. So thanks so much to everybody for their patience during this process, and it’s going to be great seeing all these international photos fly in to our Twitter and inbox, and people really happy with their their mugs, so we’re happy to do it.
Andrew: Yeah, one benefit of our Patreon is that every year, if you’re a member of Dumbledore’s Army or higher, you will receive a physical gift. So now the 2018 gift is finished – really crazy to think about – and on to the 2019 gift. If you have any feedback about today’s episode, please feel free to call in 1-920-3-MUGGLE or MuggleCast@gmail.com, or visit the contact form on the MuggleCast website, and we might read or play your feedback on the next episode.
Eric: Woo.
Andrew: And next week, we do intend to do Chapter 8 of Half-Blood Prince, by the way. So if you have any questions or comments regarding that chapter, feel free to send them in.
Eric: That chapter is called “Snape Victorious.” Uh-oh.
Andrew: I love that name.
Eric: That’s a good one.
Andrew: I’m not changing the title next week. Sticking with that.
Eric: [laughs] Okay, we’ll see. We’ll see.
Micah: Nice.
Andrew: Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: And I’m Micah.
Andrew: Bye, everybody.