Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #388, Grudge Victorious (HBP Chapter 8, Snape Victorious)
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Eric Scull: Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 388. I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: I’m Micah.
Eric: And we’re joined today by our special Slug Club member, Lottie! Hello, Lottie.
Lottie: Hi, guys!
Eric: You’re joining us for a exciting episode. We are Andrewless at the moment; that’s not what makes it exciting, but it’s going to be a good episode. We’re talking about Chapter 8 of Half-Blood Prince, “Snape Victorious,” as well as some news that we’ve got going on this week. But before we get to all that, please, Lottie, tell us a little bit about yourself. In one breath, what’s your favorite Harry Potter book, movie, Hogwarts House, Ilvermorny House, Bertie Bott Every Flavor Bean, and all that. You know the drill.
Lottie: [laughs] All right, yeah, so my favorite book is a twist-up between Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix. My favorite movie is Half-Blood Prince. I am a Hufflepuff, I am also a Thunderbird, and my favorite Bertie Bott’s flavor is either grass or earthworm. I can’t decide.
Eric: Ohh. [laughs] Earthworm?
Lottie: I know. It’s disgusting.
Eric: I was blown away by… I recently did a taste test sort of thing of the Bertie Bott’s Beans, and I was completely shocked at how realistic the earthworm tasted. Not that I’ve eaten earthworms, but it kind of… same with grass; it tastes like it smells, you know? So something about that.
Lottie: Yeah, and I love the smell, so maybe that’s why I enjoy the taste. I don’t know.
Micah: I just noticed that I don’t think I’ve ever had a Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean.
Eric: Micah!
Micah: We always ask this question on the show, and… where do you get them? In the Wizarding World?
Eric: Yeah, for all…
Lottie: You can get them at Barnes & Noble.
Micah: Oh, okay.
Lottie: I got some at Five Below!
Eric: [laughs] Five Below?
Lottie: Yeah, I use them in my classroom as a reward.
Eric: So you’re a teacher.
Lottie: I am. I’m a special ed teacher.
Eric: Love it, love it. So Micah, for all the times we’ve been to Honeydukes together, I can’t believe it; I’ve never gotten you a bean. I tend to not ever want them either; the only reason I tried them is because I was doing this whole thing about a taste testing – which is on YouTube, actually – but I think that, really, they’re just designed to be disgusting. There’s no good flavor. Maybe tutti frutti, but tutti frutti looks a lot like the vomit one, so you’ve got to be really careful.
Lottie: Very true.
Micah: Oh, so there’s no way to really distinguish. You’re just kind of rolling the dice.
Eric: Yeah, they put a legend on the back of each box, each of the little boxes, that’s supposed to help you, but the coloring is a little bit different in reality than it is on the back of the box, so you really do not know which what you’re going to get. It’s pretty weird.
Lottie: It reminds me of BeanBoozled, that game where you have no idea what you’re going to get.
Eric: They have a BeanBoozler tool for the Bertie Bott’s Beans too now, where you push on it and then a bean just presents itself.
Lottie: That’s amazing.
Eric: It’s crazy.
Micah: Sounds very Fred and George.
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Micah: This is something that should be in their shop, where they totally mess around with the display on the back of the box so you think that you’re eating something really good, and it turns out to be something really nasty.
Eric: It is definitely a cruel trick of the world, every Bertie Bott Bean. A couple of other questions for you here, Lottie: How did you first discover Harry Potter?
Lottie: So when I was in second grade, my teacher, Miss Covert, decided to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as a read-aloud. It was right after the book had come out. And my family and I were really big in the Catholic church at that point, and so when I came home, my mom freaked out, but luckily, when she called my grandpa about it, my cousin had kind of forced my grandpa to read it, and since he was a deacon and he liked it, my mom said I could read it.
Micah: Ooh, wow.
Lottie: And I’ve been obsessed ever since. [laughs]
Eric: I hear that story not-not often of family members who were religious, but actually took the time to read it, and they’re like, “Oh, this is just…” Any complaints are just off, right? It’s not a satanic book or an invitation to not worship God.
Lottie: Right.
Eric: So bless everybody who actually takes the time to read it and clears it for the rest of your family. That’s pretty cool for your grandpa.
Lottie: Yeah, I was very grateful. And my cousin still takes credit for the fact that I’m allowed to love Harry Potter.
Eric: [laughs] Well, who’s a bigger fan? You or your cousin? Should we have them on?
Lottie: Oooh, that’s a toss-up. She threw a pretty wicked Harry Potter birthday party for her sister. My uncle dressed up as Voldemort and everything.
Eric: [laughs] Okay.
Lottie: So we might be tied.
Eric: Your uncle dressed up as Voldemort?
Lottie: He did. He did all of it; the nails, he got rid of his eyebrows, he shaved his beard that he’s had for 30 years… it was intense.
Eric: So your family is just really intense.
Lottie: Yes, we are. [laughs]
Micah: That’s commitment, though, to shave off a beard that you’ve had for 30 years.
Lottie: Right? I walked into the house and I did not recognize him. I was like, “Where’d your beard go? You’ve had it my entire life.”
Eric: Just wow.
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Eric: That’s funny. And then, besides your crazy family, what is your most prized Harry Potter possession?
Lottie: Okay, this is going to sound really lame, but I’ve already made myself sound lame, so I’m fine. I have this shirt that I wore when I met Matthew Lewis. It’s from when Order of the Phoenix came out; it’s got Neville on it, and it says “My hero” underneath. And I met Matthew Lewis back in February, and I wore that shirt, and ever since, I’ve just kind of had it on display in my house.
Eric: Never wash that shirt. Never. [laughs]
Lottie: No, no. It will always just be on display.
Eric: Did he comment on the “My hero” thing?
Lottie: So as he was getting ready to come around the table to take a selfie with me, he just kind of said, “Oh, nice shirt,” and I was like, “Oh my gosh, thank you.”
Eric: [laughs] That’s fantastic.
Lottie: Yeah, it was pretty great.
Eric: Good for you. So we’re excited… you also mentioned loving the Half-Blood Prince movie, and big fan of this chapter that we’re going to read, I think?
Lottie: Yes, I’m very excited for this chapter. It’s definitely not one that was represented well in the movie, and so I’m excited to talk about it.
Micah: For sure, yeah. There’s a number of movie differences that are pointed out, so interested to get your thoughts on those.
Lottie: Yeah, I’m very excited.
News
Eric: So before we get to Chapter by Chapter, we have some news items. It was actually a pretty big news week. There’s not as much Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald; thankfully, we had a reprieve in some of that news, and we just got a good kind of old-fashioned Harry Potter in various different directions news coming at us. So since we were talking about Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans earlier, I’m actually going to start with the last and least important news story, but there is a new scratch and sniff book coming out, if you guys remember scratch and sniff books.
Lottie: Yes.
Eric: Micah, you ever have a scratch and sniff book?
Micah: Yeah, I don’t remember what it was, but I definitely had a few back in the day.
Eric: Yes, same. This one is Honeydukes-themed, and it’s the snacks and sweets of the wizarding world. And it’s a book that… I’m reading a story from Buzzfeed. But I don’t know; it’s designed to be the perfect gift for Harry Potter fans. It’s called Honeydukes: A Scratch & Sniff Adventure. From the cover, it looks like there’s Bertie Bott’s Beans and Chocolate Frogs and Tootsie Pops… or not Tootsie Pops, just lollipops. [laughs] I look at lollipops and I think Tootsie Pops.
[Lottie laughs]
Eric: But I don’t know. It’s kind of one of the more interesting products for Harry Potter that have come out, that have hit the store shelves, I think, recently.
Micah: I think you should buy one and do a test on the show live.
[Eric laughs]
Lottie: I agree completely.
Eric: But speaking of Honeydukes, which is located in Hogsmeade, we actually have some new news. This is the first time in several years we have news about Hogsmeade. Hogsmeade, of course, Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Orlando, the Hogsmeade section in Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. We got some new information about the ride, or at least Universal released the first poster that advertises this new Wizarding World ride, which replaces the Dragon Challenge that was there previously. And so we’ve talked on the show about how the Dragon Challenge is no longer there, and they’re building just this massive… Andrew and Patrick, when they were in Universal a couple weeks ago, said that just the land that’s available for it is massive, and they’re building a ride, but we don’t know what. Well, this new poster just advertises or teases “A magical new adventure,” with Hogwarts in the background. There’re also two items of note: Appears to be some kind of castle-ish structure that’s elevated from the tree tops of the Forbidden Forest, and then in the lower right, and I think a couple other places in the poster, there’s a Cornish Pixie, as in from Chamber of Secrets, Cornish Pixie. So what do you guys think of this?
Micah: So this is a Lockhart-themed ride? Is that what you’re saying?
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Eric: I think it’s going to be Lockhart’s… a journey to get Lockhart’s memory back with loop de loops and… yeah, yeah, I think that’s pretty much it.
Micah: Are we surprised, though, that it’s a coaster? I thought there was a lot of speculation that it was going to follow in the footsteps of Escape from Gringotts and the Forbidden Journey ride.
Eric: Yeah, you’re right. I mean, I think we all thought it would be more of a hodgepodge kind of thing. And Universal has also canceled their annual Celebration of Harry Potter, and this is something that has been going on since, I think, 2014 – they may have had a year off or not – but they definitely have a year off in 2019, and they canceled it, citing the upcoming ride.
Micah: Lottie, have you ever been to the Wizarding World?
Lottie: I have not, but I’m going in May, so I’m really hoping this new ride is open by then.
Eric: Oooh.
Micah: Yes.
Eric: Is it early May or late May that you’re going?
Lottie: I’m going the very last week of May, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Eric: You know, they might do a soft open, even if it’s not fully open yet. I have pretty high hopes for you, actually. So yeah, good luck with that.
Micah: Yes.
Eric: And then this was also huge news this week; apparently, there’s this video game that’s coming out. Have you guys all seen the video for this?
Lottie and Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Okay, walk us through it, Micah. What is this video showing? And what is it? What is this that leaked, exactly?
Micah: It looks like a new Harry Potter wizarding world-themed game is in the works, and a unofficial trailer for it… maybe it was being worked on, and just the final touches need to be put onto it, and somebody leaked it. But I actually thought – looking at it with no other background information, not reading any of the articles – to me, it seemed almost like a Fantastic Beasts-style game, and I thought that you were playing as Newt, though the description that is online would lead you to believe that that may not necessarily be the case. But there’s a lot of beasts in there.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, there are. It’s kind of… your character’s always in action a little bit, and he’s always moving. And they’re taking care to show… I think I saw those Mooncalves or whatever that are in the first Fantastic Beasts film, very recognizable. It’s those cute little creatures that are eating the, I don’t know, floating bubble food that Jacob, I think, or Newt feeds them. But yeah, it’s kind of interesting, but your character is clearly going around a castle/Forbidden Forest area, and there’s a troll in there. I think I agree with your take, Micah, that it’s more of a Fantastic Beasts thing. But alongside this video, which was, I think, at least 90 seconds long, and there was music, so I think what happened is maybe it was a trailer that was being worked on, like an official trailer, but somebody ripped it and leaked early, because it’s kind of also at an angle. I think somebody’s taking a video of their screen playing the video; at least, that’s the impression I got. Alongside this video is a description, which I think is even more titillating. So here it is: “Set in the 19th century -“ which is the 1800s “- wizarding world, this third person open-world action RPG game centers around your character with unique abilities who has earned a late acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You are a newly arrived fifth year student to Hogwarts that demonstrates a latent gift for magic with a unique ability to track and identify remnants of a potent ancient power. Upon arrival, strange events begin to materialize in the Forbidden Forest, and trouble begins to brew within the castle walls. Together with Professor Eleazar Fig, you embark on a journey through both familiar and never-before-seen locations to bring to light the truth behind these mysterious occurrences. On your quest you will craft potions, master new spells, and discover fantastical beasts.” There you go, Micah. “You will battle Dark wizards, goblins, and other supernatural enemies and uncover the truth about your destiny – the fate of the wizarding world lies in your hands.” So all of a sudden, you’re part of this world. In the fifth year, you come to Hogwarts. A late arrival! What’s that all about?
Micah: They’re just finding new ways to tell these stories, and the fact that it’s in the 1800s, again, is distancing us more from the Potter series. I think it gives them a little bit more flexibility to do the things they may want to do and not run into legal issues or other things like that. I think it’s the same reason why they decided to do the Hogwarts Mystery game in the 1980s, limited character involvement from the Potter series. So this game, though… the trailer, from what I saw, looks amazing, and it really is the first Potter video game outside of the LEGO games that I would want to play. I think we finally have gotten to a point where they may be making a Potter game that Potter fans are going to really, really enjoy. The fact that it’s open world… and you think Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and what you were able to do in that game. So I would very much be looking forward to this if, in fact, the trailer is real, the game is real, the description is real…
Eric: [laughs] Yeah. Lottie, what do you think?
Lottie: I don’t know. I’m really excited about it. The first couple seconds when they show the character creation, it reminded me a lot of Hogwarts Mystery, and so that made me a little nervous to start out, but as the trailer went on, it just looked like it was going to be a really good game.
Eric: And you’re still playing Hogwarts Mystery, right? You and Patrick are the two humans left on earth who are playing that game?
Lottie: We are the last two, yes.
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Lottie: I don’t play it as often as he does. It is still one of my “Oh, I’m in a waiting room; I’m just going to play Hogwarts Mystery,” but I am still playing.
Eric: So a lot has happened with that game, too; they’ve introduced pets and Animaguses. Are you an Animagi?
Lottie: Not yet. It is a goal, but I’m not there yet.
Eric: A goal, okay.
Lottie: And pets are expensive.
Micah: They are.
Lottie: They’re really expensive.
Micah: And it’s funny you mention that, though, because I actually asked Andrew to ask Patrick what I can do with these coins that I am accumulating…
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Micah: … and I have so much “money,” but you can’t do anything with it. I mean, maybe you can buy some new clothing, but really, you can’t use currency for what it’s supposed to be used for. It’s just a very weird thing about that game.
Eric: Because everything costs gems, right? Not coins.
Micah: Correct.
Eric: Okay.
Micah: For the most part, yes, that’s right.
Eric: That’s real weird.
Micah: Also, listening over on Patreon, Sarah says that she still plays it, so that’s three. We’re at three people that still play that game.
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Micah: And then, actually, Sam brought up a really good point. He said, “Dumbledore was in school in the 1800s, I think. Maybe we’re classmates.”
[Eric laughs]
Lottie: Can you imagine just running into Dumbledore walking through the corridor?
Eric: Oh my God. Nose buried in a book like Belle. I feel like it’s so funny because they have to keep going earlier to distance – like you said, Micah – from Harry Potter, because the 1990s, Harry Potter is set; the ’80s, Hogwarts Mystery; the ’20s or ’30s for Fantastic Beasts… they have to keep going back in time – this one’s in the 1800s, for crying out loud – just to make sure that… although, even in the ’20s, the plot is directly feeding into Harry Potter. So I wouldn’t be surprised if your character is Dumbledore’s dad or mom or something, to be perfectly honest. But yeah, I think Dumbledore is such an iconic Harry Potter character, he will probably show up in some form. I just would not be surprised.
Micah: He’s the centerpiece. He really is. If you think about all the different spinoffs that have happened, whether it’s the Hogwarts Mystery, whether it’s Fantastic Beasts, he seems to be right there.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. You’re right. And I mean, I think that even the producers characterized the next film as understanding Dumbledore in it, and how the Dumbledore of Harry Potter came to be, through Fantastic Beasts. So yeah, I think that’s pretty apt. The other details we have on this game – just wrapping up – is that you can actually… it’s one of those games where your choices affect the outcome of the game. You can actually “become one of eight different wizard types,” whatever that means. You “experience Hogwarts, make new friends, uncover new secrets, and change the fate of the wizarding world.” So “experience a new magic system that creates countless possibilities to master magic.” You can “freely explore the wizarding world for the first time, choose your House and your friends at Hogwarts, and decide to pursue a path of good or evil, create your own witch or wizard, and experience an all-new story separate from the books or films.” So it really does look like… especially with some elements of Hogwarts Mystery there. “Choose your House, choose your character, whether they’re a boy or girl, what some of their choices mean, the friends you make” sounds particularly like Hogwarts Mystery to me. But it’s all 3-D and you can actually move around, so rather than click an arrow on the screen to go to the other side of the room, you’re going to be in a room and you’re going to walk to the other side of it. Super exciting, super high tech.
Micah: Yeah, like I said, it reminds me of Zelda, and that game was just so much fun to play because growing up, you play the Zelda games and you’re so limited in what you could do, where you could go, and if you have that ability with the wizarding world, for it to be open world, that’s really cool. And I think a lot of people are going to enjoy that, because you can also keep expanding it. Let’s say you start in the 1800s but then they do an expansion pack that takes you into the 1900s and on and on it goes. So there’s a lot of opportunity there.
Eric: I’m probably just going to do what I do in Hogwarts Mystery, which is sit in a poofy chair in the Hufflepuff common room and read. It’s going to be great. And our last bit of news, besides our obligatory Dancing with the Stars update, is that Lethal White, the new Robert Galbraith book which just came out three weeks ago, is coming to the BBC and will be adapted into a four-part television series. And this has happened before with all of the Galbraith books; they’ve now aired on BBC and BBC America with Holliday Grainger as Robin and Tom Burke as Strike. Have you guys seen this adaptation before?
Lottie: I have not. I’m also really behind on reading these books, though.
Eric: Oh no! How behind?
Lottie: Oh, really behind. I’m still… I finished the first one and I haven’t started the second one yet. But grad school is occupying.
Micah: Yeah, that’s more important.
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Micah: I mean, your studies are paramount, of course. I have caught a little bit of one of them because I think that they also air… is it on Starz or on Cinemax? I forget which have bought the rights.
Eric: Oh, yes, United States is Cinemax, and Canada has it on HBO Canada.
Micah: Got it, yeah. I just haven’t had the time to sit down and watch it. I actually have a coworker who is asking me on the regular if I’ve watched it; she’s really enjoyed it, so I have to make a point to check them out. And also have to make a point to finish Lethal White before this ends up coming to the BBC. It’s actually… I’m about 60 or so pages into the book right now, I would say, and I’m trying to do my best to pay attention to what’s happening, because I’m sure there are things that are happening in this first 100 pages or so that are relevant to the rest of the plot and the outcome, and I’m just completely missing all of it.
Eric: [laughs] Yeah, yeah. That’s usually how I feel the first half of the book, and then the second half, I’m like, “Take my hand, Jo. Show me all the clues I missed.”
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Micah: And it’s funny; just looking back over at the Patreon chat, there are many more people still playing Hogwarts Mystery than I think we initially thought.
[Lottie laughs]
Eric: Yeah, I guess I’ll do a retraction. That was a joke from a previous MuggleCast that I was just… because Andrew came out and said that Patrick was the only one playing left. So I would play it, but I’ve got to admit, I’m still in year one. So I’m one of the people who isn’t, but plenty of other people are playing that game, and thank you for all speaking out. Actually, it was cool when the Animagus thing came out and people in our patrons-only Facebook group were posting pictures of them in their Animagus forms playing with Fang, baby Fang, because I guess you go on a play date with Hagrid and Fang if you’re an Animagus. [laughs] And that concludes the news, and onward to our Dancing with the Stars update. Evanna Lynch, of course, who played Luna Lovegood in the films, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, is on Dancing with the Stars. She and her partner, Keo Motsepe, performed a samba dance and received a combined score of 24 this week. That’s an eight from all three judges out of a possible ten, which is not bad at all. They survived Las Vegas and are going to be performing next week, and your vote does count on this, by the way. You’re going to get ten votes next week on Monday at 8:00/7:00 central, if you want to watch them dance and vote for them. Micah, I know you caught the first dance. Did you catch the second?
Micah: I did. Yeah, I watched last week, and I voted last week.
Eric: Very nice. You’re a proper listener there.
Micah: I’m wondering how many Harry Potter references they are, in fact, allowed to do before it just gets old, though.
[Lottie laughs]
Eric: It is exciting just to see… well, Evanna is clearly working so hard for this, and learning to dance is not easy.
Micah: Yeah, it’s very impressive to watch, so kudos to her, and hopefully she goes all the way to the end.
Eric: And we’re going to get into Muggle Mail and then our Chapter by Chapter, but first, here’s a message from Andrew, our fearless leader.
Andrew: Hey, everyone, sorry I couldn’t make it this week. I had a wedding to attend, so I was out of town for the weekend, but I wanted to jump in to tell you about our sponsor this week, BeachBody on Demand.
[Ad break]
Eric: Thanks, Andrew.
Listener Feedback
Eric: And now on to Muggle Mail. We got a message from Arthur Dent. Micah, take it away.
Micah: Yeah, so this actually ties right into Chapter by Chapter; we were talking about this last week, and it’s about Slughorn’s real name. He was not named after Hugh Hefner, even though there was much speculation there.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Arthur did a little bit of digging for us over on Pottermore, and says that his full name “was revealed in Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics, and Pesky Poltergeists; it’s Horace Eugene Flaccus Slughorn. J.K. Rowling explains that two of his Christian names come from the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, and the surname Slughorn comes from the Gaelic word…” Oh, wow. Anybody want to try that?
Eric: Um…
Lottie: No.
Eric: Gaelic word “Sluagh-ghairm.”
Micah: Okay, which means “war cry.” So thank you, Arthur, for letting us know that Slughorn does, in fact, have a full name, even though it wasn’t revealed in the Potter series.
Eric: I think it’s brilliant. Like you said, though, HEF. H.E.F. Slughorn. HEF.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: I thought that was a stroke of brilliance when you mentioned it.
Micah: Yeah, I like my idea better.
Lottie: I definitely laughed in the car.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: We know J.K. Rowling, though. I mean, double meanings, double entendres, are her thing.
Micah: True. We could ask; we could tweet at her. I’m sure she won’t respond.
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Eric: “Hey, J.K.” I’m not wasting my one get-an-answer-from-J.K.-Rowling-free-card on that question, but still, yeah.
Micah: Right.
Chapter by Chapter: Seven-Word Summary
Micah: So Chapter by Chapter this week is Chapter 8 of Half-Blood Prince, “Snape Victorious” – Lottie, a favorite chapter of yours – and we’re going to start it off as we do with every chapter. We’re going to do a Seven-Word Summary to describe what happens in this chapter, and Lottie, you’re going to start things off for us, and hopefully we do a better job than last week.
Lottie: [laughs] All right, so my word is Harry.
Micah: Eric?
Eric: … feels…
Micah: … really…
Lottie: … frustrated…
Micah: … by…
Eric: … Snape’s…
Lottie: … attitude.
Eric: There we go!
Micah: Well done.
Eric: Yeah, we did it. It’s at least coherent.
Micah: Yeah, it’s a full sentence.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Harry feels… what is it? Harry feels real frustrated over Snape’s attitude?
Micah: It will make much more sense in the show notes this week.
Eric: Yes, yes, in post.
Connecting the Threads
Eric: But that’s a good place to start, I think, anyway, because the relationship between Harry and Snape is a big deal here, and for a chapter that’s so ominously titled as “Snape Victorious,” going into it, do you guys remember what you were just thinking? Opening the book to this page, and kind of, “What am I going to even see?”
Lottie: At this point in the series, I was still very anti-Snape, and so I really hated that we were getting another chapter in this book that I thought was going to be dedicated to him.
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Micah: It’s interesting because now we’ve had… this is maybe the second chapter that has had a little bit more of a Snape focus. We had “Spinner’s End” earlier on, and now this chapter, and I think what we’re not meant to realize is that this book, inevitably, is about him, and it’s titled after him, and we’re starting to get more and more of a focus on him. But to your point, Lottie, we don’t get a lot of detail; we just see him being this big ass essentially to Harry, to Tonks. And I’m honestly quite surprised that he was the one that shows up, but we can get into that discussion a little bit later. One of the things I know that we like to do, with Half-Blood Prince in particular, is connect the threads back to Chamber of Secrets, and much like Chamber of Secrets, Harry encounters Snape after arriving late to school, and what I found funny was that Snape even references the Ford Anglia when they’re walking up to the castle, kind of sticking it to Harry. So definitely a parallel there.
Eric: Wow, that was one that I missed, and when I read it in the notes, I was blown away just by how many connections – even the ones we’ve spotted in the first eight chapters of the book – between Books 2 and 6. It’s alarming.
Micah: Well, it’s intentional.
Eric: Oh, yeah. But I mean, still, how many can she do without it just feeling like, “Am I reading Chamber of Secrets or what?” [laughs]
Lottie: I love that Snape actually referenced it, that he made that connection for us.
Eric and Micah: Yeah.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Micah: So the chapter starts out with Harry being essentially motionless under his Invisibility Cloak on the train, and this actually caused me to think – and Lottie, I know you’re the Half-Blood Prince expert here, so I defer to you if I’m maybe remembering this incorrectly – but it’s not the first time that Harry will be motionless under his Invisibility Cloak. I think there’s a pretty big scene later on.
Eric: [gasps] Oh, you did not!
[Lottie laughs]
Micah: With Draco also present.
Eric: Wow.
Micah: That’s true, right? I’m not making that up?
Lottie: You’re right.
Eric: Yeah, no, you’re really good at connecting the threads. [laughs]
Micah: I’m trying. I’m trying here, you know? It actually ends up being Tonks who finds Harry on the train. And this is much different from the films; it was actually Luna. We spoke about her just before, or the actress that plays her. I actually really like that scene in the movie; I thought it was a good moment between the two of them. They bonded a little bit. It really spoke to their friendship, in a way. And the other piece of this that really troubles me… I know Tonks obviously is an Auror, very well accomplished, but why aren’t there bells, whistles, sirens going off all over Hogwarts? I mean, you think about the amount of security that was put in place when Harry goes to Diagon Alley, when Harry goes to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, right? He’s got all this protection, and yet he’s missing from the school. This should be Code Red.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Dumbledore should be on the move, looking everywhere for him. I just see this as just being surprising, right? I mean, you think about the amount of security that was put in place just to get him to Hogwarts, and he doesn’t get off the train, or he’s not up at school? There should be a full-on search going on here.
Lottie: Well, and it’s not even like Dumbledore sent Tonks to go look for him. Tonks just noticed that he hadn’t come off the train yet, and so she took it upon herself to go look for him.
Eric: Well, she’s looking, but she’s not sure, or Hermione and them are not sure if Harry is under his cloak, being moody. He did just spend a whole year kind of at odds with everybody, so maybe he’s just being reclusive, I think, is the goal. As to the lack of security, it’s one of those things where it’s like, “Well, he’s at Hogwarts now. He’s safe.” Just this illusion of… all that protection was to get him basically onto the train, and now that he’s on the train, it’s at that weird threshold where all of a sudden there’s a very real possibility he’s going to be left behind and gone to go back to London, because the security is kind of just assumed. But you’re right, Micah, he doesn’t have a strict almost bodyguard. Maybe this is the year that they could probably get away with assigning him a bodyguard, a proper… but I mean, Tonks just happens to notice that he didn’t get off and that there’s a train compartment with the blinds closed, and that’s how she just kind of comes in. I’m unclear with how she just pulls off his cloak, and it’s just like, “I assume you had this on,” and finds him? I don’t know if she’s doing what J.K. Rowling later said Dumbledore is doing, and casting Homenum Revelio and getting an idea that there’s a human in there, and that’s how she finds him, but it’s much different than in the movie, which I know, Lottie, you said was your favorite movie, so which version of finding Harry under the cloak immobile do you prefer?
Lottie: I like the idea of Tonks finding him, because I think she doesn’t get enough attention, at least in the movies, but I love the way that Luna finds him. I think that’s fun, and it speaks a lot to her character, and so I think I prefer the movie with Luna finding him.
Eric: And in the movie you get to see the vision of the Spectrespecs. It might honestly be Nargles that are pooling around the body of where Harry is laying, which I just… there’s those little dust particles that are kind of just swarming where Harry is, so I think that’s a really cute way of showing things up. But I mean, the conversation that Harry and Tonks have is really important, but also completely… it just serves book points. It helps Harry wonder, again, what is up with her, and you kind of get a little bit of an update on what’s going on with Tonks. But for me… oh, and they talk about security. They talk about the Aurors that are assigned to Hogsmeade, which we’ll talk about in just a moment. My question is, when Tonks and Harry jump off the train, the train is in motion, and this whole time, Draco kicks Harry in the face and says, “Enjoy your journey back to London.” Where exactly does the Hogwarts Express have to be that it’s in such a damn hurry to get there?
Micah: Maybe it’s just magic. It needs to go back. You’d think she’d also be able to stop the train. If she’s going in to search it, she could just tell the conductor that she needs a couple minutes because she’s looking for Harry.
Eric: I mean, she’s an Auror, for crying out loud. You’re right.
Micah: It’s more dramatic, though, and that’s why this is almost a movie scene, right? Jumping from the train onto the platform before it goes back to London. I think, more than anything else, it sounds like something that would be well adapted to screen. I don’t really see the point of it in the book.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Justin Sharkey says, “The conductor has to go back to their family, duh.” [laughs]
Eric: But Hogsmeade is a wizarding village, duh, so why can’t his family just live there? I don’t know.
Micah: You mentioned earlier, though, the increased security measures, that there are other Aurors that are present in Hogsmeade. We learned about a few of them, Dawlish we already know, name is very familiar to us, but two others that stood out to me were Proudfoot and Savage.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: I don’t even remember hearing these names ever, and so this was a bit of a surprise to me. But when you look at all the different security measures that have been put in place, I’m assuming by the Ministry and by Dumbledore, Hogwarts is much different than what we’re accustomed to seeing. Dumbledore has secured the gates with his own magic, and there’s been these anti-intruder jinxes that have been put in place, so it’s very much like a prison as opposed to a school.
Eric: Yeah, you’re always going to kind of blur the lines as far as that goes, if you want. Hogwarts is a target no matter what, so those lines are going to be blurred, but you can’t even scale the wall. Harry and Tonks get to the gate; he’s like, “I can climb this,” and she’s like, “No, you can’t.” [laughs] I just had to laugh, because he tries Alohomora; it doesn’t work. It does signal the increased security. The fact that Dawlish is one of the three or four Aurors that’s guarding Hogsmeade, and Harry even brings up, “Wasn’t that the Auror that Dumbledore got the best of last year?” It kind of raises some concerns over safety. You’re only as strong as the weakest link, and there’s always that kink in the plan. I think us as readers are supposed to be like, “Well, Hogsmeade isn’t as safe as it could be if this guy’s there,” so there’s still an air of doubt, which I think is really clever from a writing standpoint, that something still could go wrong in Hogsmeade because it’s not like… and we don’t even know Proudfoot and Savage, so it’s basically like, “Well, there’s still room for error there.”
Micah: Yeah, yeah. And I think the other piece that I just thought of as we were talking about security is it’s not all that dissimilar from Deathly Hallows; it’s just a different group that has taken over Hogwarts and is posted up there. Thinking about when Harry and company end up showing up at Hogsmeade, the Death Eaters that are there, Snape and different security measures that have been put in place. So I almost wonder is this a bit of a precursor to what’s to come in the next book?
Eric: Probably. I mean, I think, too, what really grinds my gears is that Snape knows the magic that Dumbledore has put on the gates, because he’s the one who unlocks the gates, and he does it nonverbally, and just kind of shuts the gates in Tonks’s face when he comes to take possession of Harry. So it’s just sort of garbage, because here’s this horrible person. [laughs] But Tonks is great; she’s going through some stuff right now, but they have a nice conversation, and it’s just kind of, “I’ll take it from here, and also gonna insult you, and then close the gates on you.” Nobody knows how he does it, because he’s doing it nonverbally. Snape is such a damn showoff in this scene, and he’s not the headmaster, but he’s been given the keys. He knows enough about how the gates are reinforced to unlock them right now and then re-lock them, so it just kind of pissed me off.
Micah: Let’s talk about Snape. Of course he’s the one who shows up to retrieve Harry and bring him to the castle. Who else would make sense besides him? Though it seemed as if, based on what Tonks said, that he intercepted her message.
Eric: Yeah, how does that work?
Lottie: I was wondering that too, because she sent the Patronus with the intention of Hagrid getting it, so did Snape just step in front of it and be like, “What’s your message?”
Eric: [laughs] Well, furthermore, she sent it while talking to Harry, which is kind of cool. We know precious little about using a Patronus as a messenger. We see it with Kingsley Shacklebolt does it; we see maybe one or two other times, but here we actually watch Tonks cast it. She just sends the message ahead while her and Harry are on their long walk, and she doesn’t speak the message that she wants to say out loud like you would kind of think she would. So I don’t know if it’s part of the thought process that you cast or that you… because in order to cast a regular Patronus, you have to think of a happy thought, so I wonder if she’s thinking of a happy thought and the message that she wants it to carry. How exactly you compose a messenger Patronus is kind of fascinating, because Tonks does it without speaking.
Micah: And I think that the first time we see it is in Goblet of Fire when they find Barty Crouch, Sr.
Eric: Yes.
Micah: Hagrid sends it?
Eric: Really?
Micah: We should check that.
Eric: Yeah, I’ll actually do a quick search.
Micah: But I’m pretty sure that it’s not explicit. We don’t know what it is, necessarily, but communicating via your Patronus becomes something that we see more and more as the series goes on. It’s actually very smart.
Eric: You know what, you’re right, but it’s Dumbledore to Hagrid. This is from the HP Lexicon. It’s under… it’s called messenger spell. It was invented by Albus Dumbledore as a way to communicate with Order of the Phoenix members. It says in Goblet of Fire Chapter 28, “Dumbledore sent a message to Hagrid using this spell. He simply pointed his wand in the direction of Hagrid’s cabin and sent the messenger without saying a word. Hagrid came directly to Dumbledore, which suggests that it is possible to retrace the messenger’s path.” But unless it was actually told to him, “Hagrid, come to my office” kind of thing… weird. And the very next time we see it is Tonks sending it and it getting intercepted by Snape in this chapter.
Micah: And there’s also a reference there to the fact that Tonks has changed her Patronus, which is important.
Eric: Yeah, which is a clue. Yeah, it definitely furthers the whole character arc: Is Tonks depressed because of Sirius’s death or not?
Lottie: Do we know what it had been? I can’t remember.
Eric: It was a jackrabbit originally, according…
Lottie: Okay.
Micah: And it becomes a wolf.
Eric: Yeah, it becomes basically Lupin. But Snape says he preferred the old one and that the new one looks weak, which is a huge just… Snape is all about the old rivalry that he had with Sirius, with Remus, and he never just forgets about it, never doesn’t take an opportunity to just snidely trash any one of the Marauders.
Micah: Right.
Eric: And I think he probably has insight into how Tonks is feeling. Snape of all people, whose Patronus is changed now permanently because of who he loved, probably has unique insight that that’s why her Patronus has changed, so he knows what it signifies and still insults her to her face, and then closes the gates on her. So he’s just a jackass.
Micah: He certainly knows how to carry a grudge.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. But then, on the other hand, so does Harry. I mean, Harry sees Snape coming. He’s livid. After all that he’s gone through, Harry goes through these motions here where they’re walking up to the castle, and J.K. Rowling writes that Harry, over the summer, decided that it was Snape that he is going to blame most for Sirius’s situation. The fact that Sirius went to the Ministry and died, he’s going to lay pretty much at the feet… he has someone to blame, but he said it was Snape’s taunts of Sirius throughout the year last year of being cooped up and not contributing to the Order of the Phoenix that ultimately led Sirius to go to the Ministry, and I think that there’s some truth to that. But so Harry has kind of caught up over the summer when he had all this time to think; he’s just decided he absolutely, more than ever, loathes Professor Snape.
Micah: Do you think Snape can read this and see what’s going on inside of his mind?
Eric: I don’t know. It’s weird, dude, because there’s this moment where he’s… doesn’t it even say Harry wished that Snape could feel the heat of anger? He basically boils up thinking how much he hates Snape, and glares at Snape so that Snape feels the heat of intensity. It’s a very weird line. I’m going to try and find it.
Micah: But he is just on cloud nine at this point, you’ve got to imagine. He knows that he’s going to be taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts, which is Harry’s favorite class. He gets to go pick Harry up for being late. He’s throwing shots at him all the way up as they walk to the castle, and he knows that Harry is probably trying to do his best to keep his cool. And this is just everything he could want, all in an evening, right? And it’s just… I find it extremely inappropriate behavior for a professor, and we can talk a little bit about that. We know the backstory with Snape and understand why he may feel the way that he does, but at some point you have to be an adult, and I don’t think that he acts much like an adult. I think Harry acts like a kid many times, but Snape should know better, and the way he treats Tonks and the way he treats Harry is not how a professor should behave.
Eric: Lottie, what do you think?
Lottie: I definitely agree. I think you can tell that he’s loving every second of it. I mean, he makes quite a few little sassy comments to Harry, and when he’s taking points from Gryffindor because of Harry being late and having Muggle clothes and things, you can tell he’s loving it. I wish I could talk to some of my students the way Snape talks to Harry, but there’s just no way.
Eric: [laughs] What? Do you have…? I mean, I guess teenagers are assholes, but do you have students that you wish you could just tell them to their face that they’re showoffs who only want attention?
Lottie: Oh, yes. [laughs]
Eric: God.
Lottie: I mean, they’re teenagers. They want to be the center of attention, and so they act up. But it’s completely inappropriate and unprofessional for me to say something like that, so I of course never would, but Snape doesn’t care. Snape is like, “I’m just going to say it.”
Eric: Yeah, the interesting thing that I thought of while reading this is it’s obviously very horrible. Snape is a dick. But I think if Harry… Harry has spent the book up to this point, or at least since his trip to Diagon Alley, trying to convince his closest friends that Draco is a Death Eater. He’s got it all figured out. We’ve talked about this before, how Harry has all… literally by the start of term, by this chapter, he has most of the puzzle pieces figured out for the rest of the plot of the entire year at school. And what occurred to me is Snape is also somebody who knows what’s going on. We know from Spinner’s End that he knows exactly what Voldemort has told Draco to do, which is even more than Harry knows, and he knows that Draco is, in fact, a Death Eater and has sworn to protect him. If Harry could get over his… I know it’s a big if, because it’s a prejudice that these characters share, and Snape is just stoking the flames. But if Harry confided in Snape, weirdly on this trip up the stairs to the castle said, “Sir, I think Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater now,” what would that do? I think it would completely change the game, completely change the game that Harry knew. Because Snape is a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Harry would be saying, “I’m respecting the fact that you’re in the Order of the Phoenix, and I’m going to tell you my suspicions.” More than Arthur Weasley, more than Ron and Hermione, it would make sense, in a way, for him to tell Snape, especially the Head of Draco’s House. What do you guys think?
Lottie: I think Harry is still… I mean, he knows that Snape is a member of the Order of the Phoenix, but he still questions that. He still doesn’t trust Snape, and so it would change everything if he were to tell Snape, but I don’t think that that’s something that he would ever do.
Micah: I don’t think he trusts him enough, to your point, to confide that information in him. It seems like something he would be more willing to share with McGonagall or Dumbledore than he would with Snape. Though I think it may put Snape a little bit more on edge if he knew this early on that Harry suspected this, but there’s clearly a larger plan that’s taking place behind the scenes between Snape and Dumbledore, so I don’t know that it would ultimately do anything to affect the outcome, unless, like I said last week, Harry goes up to Draco and reveals this in front of a number of his classmates, which would obviously cause a much larger issue.
Eric: It just… you know what it reminded me of? Was actually Cursed Child. Lottie, have you seen the Cursed Child, by the way?
Lottie: No. I’ve read it three times, but I haven’t seen it.
Eric: When they confront Snape in the alternate universe – I think it might be Scorpius that does it – and just talks about… obviously they bring the foreknowledge of what Snape’s whole deal was to him, but he immediately kind of breaks and becomes nicer and sheds the illusion. I think maybe I’m just envisioning that being what Snape would have done here. I don’t know. It’s just kind of like it’s time to get serious if Harry says, “Draco is a Death Eater” right now, and “I’m suspecting this already, and here’s what…” Snape has a dual obligation, one with the Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco, but in order to do that, he might have to get real with Harry and be like, “Yeah, but let me take you to Dumbledore and we’ll explain this a little bit more.” I don’t know; it might have been a little bit more forthcoming a little bit sooner, but that was just a thought that I happened to have. I did find the quick reference of Harry sending waves of hatred. The quote is “Snape did not speak for a minute or so. Harry felt as though his body was generating waves of hatred so powerful that it seemed incredible that Snape could not feel them burning him.” So yeah, just kind of a weird way of putting that.
Micah: Very intense, yeah. Well, we end up making it to the feast, albeit a bit late, and Dumbledore is giving his speech. We’ve missed the Sorting Hat, which…
Eric: Aww.
Micah: Do we miss the Sorting Hat in Chamber of Secrets?
[Eric laughs]
Micah: I figured I’d throw that out there.
Eric: Yeah, we do, because they’re flying in the car and they crash and are immediately put in to Snape’s dungeon.
Micah: What a surprise.
Eric: [laughs] Is it, Micah? Are you surprised?
Micah: No, I’m not. But I will give the Cliff Notes version of Dumbledore’s speech. We find out that Slughorm… [laughs] Slughorm. Actually, let me redo that. We find out that HEF will resume his post as Potions Master, and that Snape will take over Defense Against the Dark Arts. Cue gasp.
Eric: No! I love how Harry in the book is just like, “No!” [laughs]
Lottie: He just yells it out.
Micah: I thought it was interesting that Harry notes that nobody lasts more than a year in this position. So did we as readers make the connection in terms of what this meant for Snape?
Eric: It’s kind of open-ended. I mean, it’s not open-ended, but it is kind of… Ron suggests right away that maybe he’ll just go back to teaching Potions next year, so there’s kind of… J.K. Rowling is writing herself an out. It is weird that Harry ruminates on it and directly points it out, though, because he’s like, “Well, here’s a silver lining. Maybe Snape will die. I’m rooting for death.” He literally says this. [laughs]
Micah: The question of did we remember this is always so hard, because I don’t remember when I first read the book if I thought to myself, “Oh, well, if Snape is in this position, then he’s definitely not coming back in Deathly Hallows, or he’s going to have a much different role than what would be expected,” if you just look at the history of this position and all the professors that have come before, but I think that was Dumbledore’s way of setting Snape up. Do you agree?
Lottie: Yeah, probably.
Eric: I mean, he ends up… Snape gets a promotion, to Headmaster. [laughs] He gets Dumbledore’s job. It is ominous, but I think it works in this book as a… she’s actually using this thing that seemed like weird, crazy happenstance to inform this and kind of embed this sense of looming unease and… what’s the word? We get nervous as the book is heading towards its conclusion, because it’s foreshadowing that something is going to happen. No matter what, there will be a shake-up, and we are probably with Harry on the side of hoping for death like Quirrell for Snape, but we just don’t know. I think it’s just the reason she points it out is because after this book, J.K. Rowling could no longer play that card of “the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is going to change at the end of every year.” So she really waited until now to overtly point it out. We know we get the full explanation later in the book, which is really satisfying, but now it’s just used as a plot device to make us dread the end of the year for all of its uncertainty.
Micah: Right. And you’d mentioned about Ron; he makes a comment about Slughorn, “Maybe he won’t want to stay longer than a year,” and also references the fact that Moody didn’t, but is he not aware of what actually transpired here with Barty Crouch, Jr.?
Lottie: I was wondering that, too, because I was like, “Moody was held captive for his entire term, so of course he didn’t stick around,” but then I was like, “Wait, do Ron and Hermione know that?”
Eric: This is such an interesting question that I did not expect, but reading it, I’m kind of… yeah, because it was never Moody. I mean, saying Moody didn’t want to stick around after teaching for a year is kind of incorrect because he didn’t teach for a year. Moody was appointed to the position, subsequently imprisoned for a year, and then just decided not to do the job that he was originally going to do. I don’t know. Yeah, that’s the one that J.K. Rowling could have gotten away with, having real Moody for a year. Real Moody could have taught for a year before something went wrong, and it wouldn’t have broken the curse, because he was never teaching in year four.
Lottie: Loophole.
Micah: Right. And I think we just take for granted the fact that Ron and Hermione know everything that Harry does, but this would be an interesting question to pose to J.K. Rowling as to whether or not they knew that Moody wasn’t, in fact, Moody. It wasn’t public knowledge, of course, what happened, what transpired, but you would think there would be some people who would be in the know in the inner circle.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, I agree. It’s definitely a titillating… because the language is just vague enough you’re not sure.
Micah: Yeah. And then the last piece of information we get from Dumbledore is that Voldemort is back. “If you see something, say something. Yada, yada, yada.”
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Micah: He’s just so calm, and it’s just kind of matter of fact, the way that he talks about it. But clearly we get the sense from all the security measures that have been put in place that this is a very, very serious situation at Hogwarts.
Eric: He has a way of bringing it home. He has a way of really just kind of… he implores each and every student to just not get out of bed and wander the castle after hours, and I think that’s true. A lot of security issues stem from people’s own carelessness. And it’s not really a threat, but when he says, “Just as an FYI, we’ll no longer be as tolerant of carelessness,” he’s talking about things like what Neville did in leaving a list of passwords around for Sirius Black to find, which we know isn’t exactly what happened; Sirius persuaded Crookshanks to steal the list. But the carelessness that Hogwarts has seen is just not going to be tolerated, and so there will be more of a punitive kind of… there’s something in Dumbledore’s statement which is bolder, I guess, in a way, but it has to be, because they just can’t at this point take any chances.
Micah: Right.
Eric: And that’s all he’s saying, really, is that we just can’t take chances this year.
Micah: Harry also lets Ron know exactly what happened on the train with Malfoy, and Ron is still refusing to believe the fact that Malfoy could, in fact, be a Death Eater.
Eric: [sighs] Poor Ron. Poor, ignorant Ron.
Micah: And Eric, I know you said this is a reoccurring theme throughout this book, and it gets very frustrating.
Eric: It does, but I think it happens at least differently enough or in different enough situations. What’s the reason in this chapter? Just that Ron thinks, “Oh, he was clearly showing off for Pansy Parkinson because she was in the room.” I don’t even know what it is that’s going through Ron’s head at this point. But yeah, it’s just a no-win situation for Harry. He should have confided in Snape; that’s what I’m saying.
Lottie: This time almost seems, though, like Ron doesn’t want to believe it. It’s not that he doesn’t necessarily believe it, but he doesn’t want to believe it. He’s going to come up with any excuse as to why it can’t be true.
Eric: Yeah, that’s true. I mean, this is basically a tipping point, because this is Harry, who actually witnessed this scene playing out, and came back covered in blood, for crying out loud. When they see Harry beaten up and they don’t know what’s going on, Harry imagines talking about Death Eaters attacking or whatever. [laughs] Draco wouldn’t have needed to overreact if it weren’t something that he was covering up. I don’t know. That’s the actions of a guilty dude. And Ron is just like, “No, he’s just angry from what happened last year.” So I don’t know.
Micah: So to wrap up the chapter, Harry runs into Hagrid before making his way up to the dorms.
Eric: Aww.
Micah: And we find out that Hagrid was a little bit late because he was hanging out with Grawp in his new mountain home.
Eric: Yeah, here’s an interesting tidbit about that: Dumbledore actually made the accommodations. Dumbledore is a headmaster of Hogwarts, he’s Supreme Mugwump of the Wizengamot, and also realtor, apparently. Good real estate agent. He knows all the hot spots north of Hogsmeade, high in the mountains. I couldn’t help but think that this may play in, in a way, to the Fantastic Beasts series. J.K. Rowling has established now that there is a cave. We know about the cave in Hogsmeade where Sirius hangs out in Goblet of Fire, and I think Buckbeak lives there with Hagrid for a time during Book 5? That’s a different cave. This is somewhere up in the mountains now, and I just… J.K. Rowling snuck in this new existing place that I don’t think we get to see in this book. It probably… now that that’s been established, why wouldn’t she reuse it? So there’s a reason that Dumbledore knows there’s some cave that’s big enough to fit a giant in it, which, how many caves do you know of that are big enough to fit a giant? An enclosed space is not probably a good idea for a giant, but Dumbledore totally set it up. So how does he know about this cave? Where does it come from? So now being in the unique position in which we are now reading this book deeply and looking forward to four Fantastic Beasts prequels, I’m thinking, “Okay, this cave is definitely going to come into play in the next couple movies.”
Lottie: I like that idea a lot.
Micah: Yeah, it’s definitely a possibility. And the last piece of information that we find out about is a little sad, but Hagrid mentions seeing Harry and Ron in class, and it turns out that they’re not going to be taking Care of Magical Creatures, and Hermione probably is not going to be doing that class as well, at least from the sound of things. So that’s pretty sad for Hagrid, I think. He enjoys having them in class. He enjoys teaching, but we know he’s not the best teacher, so the chapter kind of closes on a little bit of a sour note.
Lottie: Well, and I was wondering, did Hagrid not get a class list? Do the professors at Hogwarts not know who are going to be in their classes?
[Eric laughs]
Lottie: I mean, I get mine in the middle of the summer. Did he not know that Harry and Ron weren’t going to be there?
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Micah: Yeah, he just assumed.
Eric: Maybe he can’t read.
Lottie: That’s possible.
Micah: Well…
Eric: I don’t know. I guess that’s harsh. But you’re right; I mean, these are people who Hogwarts has their names down from the second they’re born on a scroll somewhere. You would think they’d be able to keep track of who’s taking what subject. But it’s just… this is sad, and I don’t think it’s resolved right away. I think Hagrid… it might not be until Aragog dies that Hagrid is just like, “You haven’t seen me all year. What the hell, dude?” And then he talks about how he was sad when he first found out that they weren’t taking his class. But it’s a missed opportunity for Harry and Ron to get in front of it and be like, “Oh, you know…” what’s going on. But in a moment it’s just something they weren’t counting on, really, is seeing Hagrid. It’s certainly not malicious. They didn’t all realize that they all aren’t taking his class. So yeah, I don’t know.
Micah: All right, well, I think that wraps up Chapter 8 of Half-Blood Prince, “Snape Victorious.”
MVP of the Week
Micah: And now it’s time to pick our MVPs of the Week.
Eric: Yeah!
Micah: And I gave mine to Dumbledore…
Eric: Okay.
Micah: … because he just completely upset the apple cart by letting Slughorn take over Potions, and Snape Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Eric: [laughs] Yeah, I agree. This is a big, big shake-up. But like they say in the chapter, they wouldn’t have just given Slughorn Defense Against the Dark Arts. He’s a Potions Master. I don’t know. For me, I gave it to Tonks because it’s still… I don’t know. There’s some kind of stick-to-it-iveness, some kind of… she’s really doing her job. I mean, where are Proudfoot and Savage, you guys, right?
[Lottie laughs]
Eric: They’re not searching compartments for Harry Potter.
Micah: Where’s Dawlish?
Eric: Yeah, where’s Dawlish? Exactly. It’s Tonks who finds Harry in the book, so good for her. And even under the Invisibility Cloak too. So yeah, just good for her.
Lottie: I gave mine to Nearly Headless Nick. I know we didn’t really talk about it, but while they’re at the feast, Nick comes over and is just like, “Hey, I’m the Potter authority among the ghosts. I want the real information to give out.” So he’s not making things up, and he’s trying to make sure things are accurate.
Micah: I like it. That he’s the Potter authority, as you mentioned, amongst the ghosts.
[Eric and Lottie laugh]
Eric: Yeah, I like that moment too. And when Ron spoils his good convo with Harry, and Nick says to him, “You have all the sensitivity of a blunt axe.” [laughs] He would know; he felt his head being chopped up by a blunt axe.
[Lottie laughs]
Eric: Oh, God.
Rename the Chapter
Micah: And let’s rename the chapter. I went with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 8, “Nice Patronus.”
Eric: I went with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 8, “Nearly Headless and Nosy.”
Lottie: And I went with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 8, “Sassy Snape.”
Micah: I like the alliteration from both of you.
Eric: Yeah, thanks.
Micah: Well done.
Eric: We try, we try.
Micah: So that wraps up Chapter 8. Definitely, for those listening, let us know what you thought. Did we miss anything? You can email us, MuggleCast@gmail.com, or tweet at us at MuggleCast, and definitely let us know, too, what your thoughts are as they relate to Chapter 9, which we’ll be discussing next week.
Quizzitch
Micah: And speaking of Twitter, Eric, that is where you host your Quizzitch game every single week.
Eric: It certainly is, Micah, except when we’re not doing a chapter and I say, “We’re not doing a chapter, so we’re not doing Quizzitch.” Quizzitch is back. We are answering last week’s Quizzitch question, which was as follows: Who comes to Harry’s rescue when he finds himself locked out of Hogwarts? And it’s a very… I don’t know how to say this, other than it was a specific question. I was looking for a specific answer. When Harry finds himself locked out of Hogwarts, Snape is the one who comes to his rescue, but as it was pointed out by Lizzie, Snape comes to get Harry, but is that really a rescue? I’m going to say it’s a figure of speech. So that’s… a lot of people sent in Tonks. Tonks does actually come to Harry’s rescue, but that’s when he’s stuck petrified and on the train. So specifically, who comes to get Harry at the gates? The answer is Snape. The winners for that question are… so Andrea, Lizzie, and Paul were the ones who got the correct answers on that. So what are you gonna do? Next week’s question here; I’ll be as broad as possible. What is Snape’s first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson about or regarding? Hopefully more people can win that one.
Micah: Yeah, I didn’t hear anything from Count Ravioli.
Eric: Yeah, Count Ravioli – your favorite person, Micah – has disappeared.
Lottie: Come back.
Eric: Where in the world is Count Ravioli?
[Lottie and Micah laugh]
Micah: Who knows?
Eric: Launch a TV series with a catchy tune.
Micah: Maybe he’s on vacation.
Eric: Maybe.
Micah: All right, well, I think that wraps up this week’s episode.
Eric: Yes, it does. As a reminder to all of our listeners, we have a new Chapter by Chapter archive page where you can find all of the episodes of MuggleCast in which we discuss a chapter of the books, including all of our recent Half-Blood Prince episodes. We did take a couple of weeks here and there to talk about the new movie developments, which is very exciting, but we plan on continuing Half-Blood Prince, and check that out on our MuggleCast website at MuggleCast.com. We also recently did a Half-Blood Prince movie commentary track, which was just a couple episodes ago. I think it’s 385, was the commentary for the Half-Blood Prince movie. So we did all watch it; it is all fresh on our minds, and you can basically turn on that podcast while you’re watching the movie and sync it up and listen to our thoughts during the whole thing, which is always pretty fun. And send us your thoughts for Chapter 9 of Half-Blood Prince, which is called “The Half-Blood Prince.” It’s that… what’s the word? Titular, or there’s another word for it. Oh, well. I forget. It starts with N-Y-M, because of the name. But anyway, definitely send us your thoughts on that to any one of our various outlets, including our email, MuggleCast@gmail.com. You can leave us a voicemail; I’d love to start playing voicemails again on this show. 1-920-3-MUGGLE; that’s 1-920-3-MUGGLE. And also, we have a P.O. box. As the holidays come in, we always have our listeners who send us lovely holiday cards, so we’ll just pimp our address one more time. 4044 North Lincoln Avenue, box 144, in Chicago, IL, 60618. Lottie, we want to thank you for joining us on this week’s episode.
Lottie: Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. This was fun.
Eric: You’ve got to tell us what you think of the park when you do get there.
Lottie: Oh, I will. I’m very excited.
Eric: Yeah, hope that new ride is happening. And yeah, that’s all we got. Thanks, everyone, for listening. I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Lottie: And I’m Lottie.
Eric: Bye, everybody.
Micah: See you next time for Episode 389.