Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #391, Sluggybear (HBP Chapter 11, Hermione’s Helping Hand)
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Welcome to MuggleCast 391. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: I’m Micah.
Andrew: And we’re joined by one of our Slug Club members this week, Nicole! Good morning, Nicole.
Nicole: Good morning.
Andrew: Welcome to the show. How are you?
Nicole: I’m great. How are you?
Andrew: Good. You are hailing in Florida?
Nicole: Yes, I am.
Andrew: But I learned before the broadcast, you live in Orlando, but you don’t have a annual pass to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Nicole: No, I make it there every year, so just I don’t feel the need to have a pass.
Andrew: Yeah. Do you have friends who get you in?
Nicole: Yeah, usually I have a way to get in. [laughs]
Andrew: Perfect, perfect. That’s the pro tip for anybody looking to visit any theme park down there; just befriend somebody who actually works in the parks, and then they’ll get you in. [laughs]
Nicole: Exactly.
Andrew: Well, it’s nice to have you on, and thanks for your longtime support of the show.
Nicole: Of course.
Andrew: Let’s get your fandom ID to learn a little bit about you. In one breath, give us your favorite book, movie, Hogwarts House, Ilvermorny House, Patronus, and the unique category this week is new Crimes of Grindelwald character who we haven’t met yet.
Nicole: Okay, my favorite book is Half-Blood Prince. Movie is Prisoner of Azkaban; don’t hurt me. [laughs]
Eric: Eugh.
Nicole: Hogwarts House is Gryffindor, Ilvermorny House is Thunderbird, Patronus is a basset hound, and for new character, am I allowed to say human Nagini? Does that count?
Andrew: Yeah, no, I think that counts.
Nicole: Okay.
News
Andrew: And I’m glad you bring her up, because Claudia Kim – getting into the news now – actually made a couple of remarks about the casting controversy that we spoke about a few weeks ago. This happened over in South Korea, so the translations of the remarks are kind of rough, but you can get a sense of what she had to say. She said she found the backlash to the Nagini controversy unexpected. She said, “When I found out that I’m playing Nagini, I thought it was meaningful, because it’s an important character in the Harry Potter series. Harry Potter is a franchise film with many Caucasian actors, so I thought many Korean viewers would be happy.” She said, “I’m looking forward to viewers being satisfied and the controversy fading away once the film premieres. I don’t perceive such controversy solely in a negative way. I believe changes can be made by giving attention to an Asian’s promotions -“ that was one weird translation, “- and through the people that look into such issues.” And she says she trusts J.K. Rowling and David Yates.
Eric: Huh.
Andrew: So yeah, thought we would just share that. But actually, in another week or two, we’re going to do a Crimes of Grindelwald prediction episode where we just make lots of different predictions, and then we can see how right we ended up being. But I wanted to ask you all, do you think that there will be anything interesting established about Nagini in this film, or is she just going to be Credence’s emotional support friend? Because if you look at the trailers, basically that’s all that’s happening right now. [laughs] She just keeps cuddling up to Credence when he’s all emotional because “I wanna know who I am.”
[Eric laughs]
Nicole: Yeah, I’m curious how much actual time we get with her as a human before she makes her full transformation.
Andrew: And that’ll probably be over the course of a few films, right?
Micah and Nicole: Yeah.
Eric: Ideally.
Micah: I think so.
Andrew: So do you guys think we’re going to hear anything interesting about Nagini in this movie, or is it just going to be about Credence?
Eric: [sighs] This movie just seems so packed, you know? It’s like, they’ve got to cut corners somewhere. I’m not expecting to get a full anything more than one meaningful scene between her and Credence that establishes their relationship and a couple of followups later in the movie. I’m really not expecting any kind of extensive backstory about her mom, what exactly the deal is, or anything in this film, because there’s… I mean, J.K. Rowling seems to be forgetting there’s three more films to play with! Unless she’s got that much detail on so much that the rest of the films are going to be this crowded with new characters, new angles, new everything, I don’t see why the Nagini thing can’t wait for another movie or two.
Andrew: Yeah. So it’s sort of like Leta’s situation in the first movie, where we just got a very little tidbit.
Eric: Exactly.
Andrew: Yeah. Oh, it’s so painful, though, because there’s two years in between each movie. We’ve got to wait so long, it feels like.
Micah: I’ll play the role of devil’s advocate, then. I’ll say that I think she’s more integral to the plot of this film than maybe we initially think.
Andrew: Okay.
Micah: Aside from just being the emotional support, because it looks like Circus Arcanus just has a complete breakout with all the different “beasts” that are… they look to be captured. I mean, they don’t really look to be willing to do the things that they’re doing at this circus; at least we get that sense. So I think Credence is going to be responsible for breaking her out, and they’re going to spend a lot of time together throughout the course of the film, and it’s just a matter of what ends up happening that… is she going to be on the side of good? Is she going to be on the side of evil? And remember that end shot that we got, which we thought was at Hogwarts? I’m pretty sure she’s in that shot, so that would lend us to believe, at least initially, that she’s on the good side.
Andrew: Yes, that’s true. And she’s also in those ending scenes in what looks like the mausoleum with Grindelwald, so she’ll have some sort of role there.
Eric: Do you think that she could be the love interest in this film? Seeing as how Newt is kind of too awkward for a love interest. In the first movie, it was like him and Tina were not… [laughs] They’re obviously going to get married eventually, but I mean, do you think Nagini and Credence’s relationship could be romantically explored in this film?
Andrew: Hmm. Beyond cuddling on rooftops in the trailers that we’ve seen? [laughs]
Eric: Hey, never underestimate cuddling on rooftops. [laughs] Cuddling on rooftops is great.
Andrew: Yeah, I’ve had rooftop cuddles when I’m wondering who I am.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I don’t know; I think… I actually don’t see their relationship… I actually don’t see them romantically involved. They just have a lot to relate to in terms of being these creatures unwillingly.
Eric: That’s fair. That’s fair.
Micah: Yeah, and they took the time to reveal this before the movie came out, so that’s why I think she’ll play a bigger role than we may think she will.
Eric: Because there’s probably more to focus on in the movie.
Micah: Yeah, I don’t think it’s just going to be a brief see-her-in-a-picture-frame and that’s it…
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: … like Leta was in Movie 1.
Andrew: So one more Crimes of Grindelwald story. The film hit the tracking services; these are companies that poll people’s interest in the movie so the studio can figure out if people are actually going to come out and see this movie in November. So it’s starting to hit the tracking wires, and the Crimes of Grindelwald is currently tracking for a $65-$75 million weekend box office in the United States. The first Fantastic Beasts movie made $74.4 million over its opening weekend two years ago. That was the lowest three-day domestic opening for a Wizarding World movie, but it wasn’t Harry Potter; it was a spinoff series. Things were just getting started. Now we have Dumbledore, we have Nagini… [laughs] Nagini alone probably adds $3 million to the opening weekend.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I would love to see an alternate reality where they didn’t announce that, and if that would have changed the box office, affected the box office.
Micah: I’m going to go lower than that, though, because I think despite Dumbledore, despite Nagini, I think there’s a lot of controversy around this film. We’ve talked about it on the show; I think certain people won’t go and see it because of Johnny Depp. I also think the second doesn’t normally fare as well as the first, and Fantastic Beasts was our first look back into the wizarding world, so I’m going to say… I’m going to go with $68 million.
Eric: Whoa.
Andrew: You know, I’m with you. I actually agree; it’s not going to hit that same amount that the first movie did, $74.4. So I’ll be a little more ambitious than you are; I’ll say $70.2 million.
Eric: I don’t know, guys. I’d like to believe that the controversy will win out and the film will score less, even though they’ve thrown all this stuff at it. I mean, to be clear, I don’t think any of us are actively rooting against the film, but we’re saying there are some real issues that people have with this movie, and I think that a decreased box office result, even in spite of Jude Law/Johnny Depp’s casting, would be a good thing to send a message. I think it’ll probably reach $80 million opening weekend. I think more people are excited about this film than were about the first film only because of Johnny Depp; it’s exactly what they wanted in the audience. More of Johnny Depp’s loyal fan base, moviegoers, are going to come to the movie, but we’re not hearing from them because they’re not strictly in the Harry Potter fandom, and also people are sensitive about this issue, as everyone knows, so people are less inclined to be loud about wanting to go see this movie. So I have a feeling there’s probably a huge swath of people that are just being a little bit more quiet about wanting to go see this film this year than they normally would be, and that this sequel will have a larger opening three-day than the first one.
Nicole: Yeah, I agree with Eric. I think we’re going to go over that, or close to that $75 million. I feel like a lot more casual fans are going to see this movie that maybe aren’t paying attention to the Johnny Depp headlines as much.
Andrew: And you think the more casual fans are interested in what, Nicole? Dumbledore?
Nicole: Yeah, they’re seeing Dumbledore, Nagini, like, “Oh, yeah, Harry Potter; I think I am going to go see this,” that maybe not have been as interested in the last movie.
Andrew: Yeah. I actually… I’m not saying the box office is going to be necessarily greatly affected by the controversy; it’s just more of the sequel-itis thing. Fewer people come out for a sequel in a lot of cases.
Eric: Well, but I mean, MCU is probably the great exception of that, right? Infinity War and all of the team-up movies – and a lot of the sequels, I think – have done better than the originals.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: They’re bigger movies.
Andrew: But look at Force Awakens versus The Last Jedi. The Last Jedi didn’t do as well over its opening weekend.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: It still made a ton of money, to be clear. I’m looking right now. Force Awakens made $247 million. Last Jedi made $220 million.
Eric: Oh, wow.
Andrew: It just took a little hit. And of course, that’s Star Wars; that’s a very unique property. But I just feel like people turn out to the original movie, because “Oh my God, new Wizarding World film; this is so great,” then the second one comes out, and there’s a little less excitement to see it over opening weekend. And we’re talking about opening weekend because that tends to be the most important.
Micah: Yeah. Do we know what it’s opening against?
Andrew: Paw Patrol: The Movie.
Micah: Oof.
Andrew: I don’t know. There’s probably not going to be any big movies that it’s going to go up against. [laughs]
Micah: Well, because one thing that I’m thinking about, too, is the weekend that it opens is the week prior to Thanksgiving. It could get an extra boost that following weekend, given that a lot of people are off from school or off from work; they have the chance to go and see the movie, versus that week just prior to it.
Andrew: True. Yep. I’m looking at the calendar right now. There’s no… the weekend before: The Girl in the Spider’s Web. That’s a new Dragon Tattoo movie; that’s happening. And also that week – again, this is the week before Fantastic Beasts – the animated Grinch movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the Grinch. So not much direct competition.
Eric: Yeah. Bohemian Rhapsody opens the first week of the month, and I expect that to be a big hit.
Micah: I also think the title doesn’t really draw people in very much who may not be as familiar with the Potter series, who are just sort of, as we were saying earlier, those casual fans. If they had gone with something that was maybe even related to Dumbledore, I think you would draw more people in.
Andrew: All right. Oh, we did ask people on Patreon. We said, “Hey, what do you think the movie is going to make?” 10 people said $55-60 million. 6 people said $60-65 million. 24 people – and this was the majority – they said $65-70 million. 23 people said a little higher than that; $70-75 million. Then $75-80 million had 18 votes. $80-85 million had 17 votes. And then more, “It’s going to blow away all expectations”; that had 9 votes. So most people seem to believe the tracking reports, so there you go. Eric, what’s going on with Evanna over at Dancing with the Stars?
Eric: Well, Andrew, it was a successful week as far as the dancing goes. Evanna and Keo danced to “When Will My Life Begin?” from Tangled. The judges… they continue to give her these comments that are just at this point in the game… I don’t know. They just say to her things like, “You have so much potential.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: But I don’t know. Micah, how do you feel about this?
Micah: I think that they have a lot of faith in her, and they think that she can go far, and I think that’s why they keep giving her that constructive criticism. And it may come across as being a little bit disconcerting, because then you don’t know how people vote based upon what the judges say. But I think getting eights across the board is pretty solid.
Eric: Yeah. So they’re still getting in the eights from every judge. Other dancers on the show are getting nines, are getting tens. But nobody was eliminated on Disney week, because they’re not going to shatter your dreams on Disney week.
Andrew: Oh, that was smart.
Eric: [laughs] Very on brand. So next week, Evanna and Keo are dancing a tango during Halloween Week. And again, if you follow Evy or Keo – I think he’s at @KeoDancer – you can actually see some rehearsal footage, short videos that they post; they go live on Instagram sometimes talking about the upcoming song and dance. So just kind of additional content, but…
Andrew: They’re engaging their viewers.
Eric: Yeah, but good luck to Evy and Keo. I mean, honestly, Evanna, this is the fifth week she’s on the… fifth or sixth week. They’ve gone much further than I think any of us could have hoped. They’re still fun to watch dance.
Andrew: Oh, I disagree. I knew Evanna was going to go this far. How dare you, Eric, say that it’s shocking that…?
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Hey, it’s hard work! You see how much hard work she’s doing. I think she’s doing flawless.
Andrew: Oh, I’m sure it is! I couldn’t stand that pressure. I would never be able to dance on live television; I would fall apart. I can barely live podcast, without a camera on me.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: But it’s just one of those things where people need to vote, right?
Eric: Yes.
Micah: Because there’s definitely people who are a part of the show that could easily go before she does, and it’s just a matter of making sure that fans get out there and cast your vote. Nicole, do you watch at all?
Nicole: I do go in and watch when she’s dancing, but I can’t sit through an entire episode of it. It’s just too long.
Micah: Yeah. It’s a little rough.
Andrew: [laughs] And by the way, if we’re talking about voting, can we also please encourage Americans to vote on November 6.
Eric: Yes. Or sooner, because in many cases, you have early voting options.
Andrew: Yes. Can we early vote for Dancing with the Stars? Is that a thing too? [laughs] I’m kidding.
Eric: Yeah, Evanna and Keo for Governor and Governess.
Andrew: Yeah, there you go.
Eric: But websites such as BallotReady.org will allow you to see all of the info on your candidates in your local office, so definitely go vote in the midterms.
Andrew: I already voted.
Nicole: Me too.
Micah: Now, if Halloween is your favorite holiday next week, do you get saved from being voted off? How does that work?
Andrew: [laughs] Because they don’t want to hurt you that week either?
Micah: Right.
Andrew: No, I bet there’s only one week where there’s no eliminations.
Listener Feedback
Andrew: Couple pieces of Muggle Mail now. This first one is from Laura in New Zealand. She said,
“I just wanted to send in an observation I had while listening to last week’s Chapter by Chapter. In Chapter 9, ‘The Half-Blood Prince,’ Slughorn says, ‘When you’ve seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love…’ It’s interesting that this quote is placed right before last week’s chapter, which demonstrates exactly how powerful obsessive love can be (Merope drugging Tom Riddle, creating Voldemort, etc.) Just thought it was another example of how cleverly J.K. sets up her plot, even down to small things like this!”
Absolutely. Slughorn doesn’t know this is happening, but the reader does.
Micah: For sure. Yeah, it’s definitely a great point, and I’m interested now about Sluggybear here. What kind of obsessive love is he talking about?
Andrew and Eric: Sluggybear?
Andrew: Where did you get that name from?
Micah: I just made it up.
Andrew: Oh. Was that on your ballot when you voted?
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: It’s a write-in for…
Andrew: This next email is from Arthur Dent.
“Charlie Weasley isn’t the only wizard whose job requires expertise in Care of Magical Creatures; one should think that people working in the Ministry of Magic’s Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures would need to be well educated on the subject as well, which would make it a rather important one at Hogwarts.”
Yeah, Arthur, but still, it’s a very niche field. But I appreciate you bringing up the other jobs that may need these studies, because we were kind of crapping on Care of Magical Creatures being useful for anybody.
Eric: I think the majority of the people in the Ministry of Magic’s Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures are probably behind desks, honestly. They probably have a few animal handlers, but as with anything in the Ministry, it’s probably a lot of paperwork. So maybe it’s… I wouldn’t say they’re all graduates of Hagrid’s Care of Magical Creatures class that are in that department.
Andrew: Yeah. Those emails came into our inbox via MuggleCast@gmail.com and the MuggleCast website, where we have a contact form. Feel free to write in at any time.
Micah: And wanted to let everybody know that today’s show is brought to you by Bombas.
[Ad break]
Micah: … and feels like a hug around your foot. I was going to say sluggy huggy or something…
Andrew: [laughs] It feels like a Sluggybear hug.
Micah: There you go.
Chapter by Chapter: Seven-Word Summary
Andrew: It’s time now for Chapter by Chapter. We’re doing Half-Blood Prince Chapter 11, “Hermione’s Helping Hand” – triple H – and we’re going to start with our Seven-Word Summary. Nicole, are you ready? There’s a lot of pressure behind this.
Nicole: I’m ready.
Andrew: Yeah, okay. So I got the first word this week. I’m going to do…
Micah: No “a.”
Andrew: No “a,” got it.
Micah: No “I.”
Eric: What…? [sighs]
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Eric’s already got that word slated for later on.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: It’s the one in the middle that he’s going to use that’s going to throw off the whole thing.
Eric: You see. You just wait.
Andrew: I have a motive with this first word that I’m going to use, but I’m afraid you guys aren’t going to catch on, but that’s okay. Harry…
Micah: … tries…
Nicole: … to…
Eric: … prune…
Andrew: [laughs] … Buckbeak’s…
Micah: … big…
Nicole: … lunch.
Andrew: Lunch. [laughs]
Micah: Way to keep it clean.
Andrew: I was going to say feathers. [laughs]
Nicole: [laughs] Yeah, that could have worked.
Andrew: But there’s no take-backs. It’s set in stone now.
Eric: Darn.
Andrew: I was hoping we could have gone for something that was like, “Harry/Hermione shippers are so very delusional,” or something like that. [laughs]
Eric: Oh. No, I was thinking of the Quidditch practice. He’s pruning… he’s weeding out good players from bad.
Andrew: Ohhh. Yeah, I was panicking. I was like, “What is Harry pruning? What is Harry pruning?” [laughs]
Eric: Oh well.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Andrew: So anyway, how does this chapter start off, Eric?
Eric: So this chapter starts off in the Great Hall. The students are dealing with a bunch of stuff. Obviously, Harry, Ron, and Hermione still feel bad about they haven’t been to visit Hagrid since term started, and also, everyone everywhere is using nonverbal spells, which is just real tough. But on Harry’s mind, most of all, is Quidditch practice! Tons of people have signed up; he’s a little nervous about it. And Hermione makes this comment – you mentioned Harry and Hermione shippers – this chapter is just rife with romantic inclinations, whether it be Harry and Hermione or Hermione and Ron. But Hermione says to Harry, “It’s not Quidditch that’s popular this year, it’s you!”
Andrew: Yeah, and I think that Hermione is absolutely right. But it is a little disturbing – and I think they need some sort of vetting – that these people are just coming out for tryouts just to, what, be in Harry’s presence? See him around? Be near him? It seems just very immature, and I think if they wanted to take these practices more seriously, maybe they should have had some more vetting involved.
Eric: I mean, it’s pretty ridiculous. Even Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws turn out to try out. [laughs] For the Gryffindor Quidditch team. It’s really… and Harry’s just got to go, “Get off the pitch!”
Andrew: See, there should be a rule at Hogwarts that you are kicked out of your House if you are going to try out for another House’s Quidditch team. That’s treason!
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: It is! I would be pissed at my fellow students.
Eric: But it’s clearly just… what they need to do is Harry needs to hold a town hall or something where they can just go and ogle him and talk to him there, because this… it’s so disruptive. Somehow the Quidditch practice still only lasts, I think, two hours the book says, which is much shorter than I anticipated, but it keeps getting held up, and Harry is just not happy about it, so it’s just a big deal. And the biggest deal of all is in the Great Hall at the beginning of this chapter. When Hermione is selling it, she’s talking about how Harry, he’s never been more interesting, the scars on his hand, and Ron feels the need to compete. He says things like, “Well, you can still see the scars where the brains hurt me from the Ministry of Magic,” and “I’m tall too.” [laughs]
Andrew: I loved that. I loved him kind of interjecting with like, “Hey, remember me?”
Eric: And nobody hears him. Hermione has no reaction.
Andrew: “Someone love me.”
Eric: It just… it’s not Ron’s best color, this whole needing to feel adequate thing.
Andrew: Is Ron, in this scene, trying to grab the attention of Hermione because he has feelings towards her?
Nicole: I think so, even if he doesn’t realize it yet. But that’s probably why he wants her attention.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: Yeah. Nicole, were you shipping Harry/Hermione or Ron/Hermione?
Nicole: Oh, no way. I feel like in the earlier books, when you’re a kid, it’s “Oh, Harry and Hermione,” because they’re the two main characters that are male and female. But I feel like most of the relationships were pretty organic, reading it. I was probably in middle school when this book came out, so I feel like the way that it was set up was pretty accurate, and I could relate to the characters and everything. So once the Ron/Hermione stuff started coming out, and Harry and Ginny, I was all on board for what Jo set up.
Andrew: Did you understand people who were Harry/Hermione shippers? Because I just heard you say, “Oh, no way” in regards to Harry/Hermione. [laughs]
Nicole: Before maybe Book 5 and 6, yes, but once this book came out, I don’t understand. [laughs]
Andrew: They were delusional, weren’t they? [laughs] Kidding.
Eric: There’s the D-word.
Micah: Easy with that word, Andrew.
[Andrew and Nicole laugh]
Micah: But in all fairness, J.K. Rowling did come out later and say that perhaps she should have gone the route of Harry and Hermione.
Andrew: Yes, she reconsidered the relationship. She said… what did she say? Ron/Hermione was wish fulfillment?
Eric: Yeah, well, she said pairing Ron with Hermione was partial wish fulfillment on her own part, like she was fulfilling her own wish for the geek girl, who she most identifies with, to get the comedic man. I think her and Emma Watson have a… they relate to each other over “We need a funny man, don’t we?” So there’s that.
Micah: So did you feel, though, that this was then more like a sisterly moment, just a friend to friend moment when she’s basically going through and creating his online wizarding dating profile?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: Yeah, I think it’s a friend… I also never shipped Harry and Hermione. Especially come this book, I was pro-Ginny 100% of the way for Harry; enough said there. But it’s totally a friend thing. It’s like she’s giving him the outside perspective that he needs, because Harry keeps small company, and especially with all this stuff that’s going on with the memories and Dumbledore, his friend circle is very, very, very small, and Hermione is giving him that much needed perspective. It’s not even necessarily that she’s right or wrong about this, but I think the crowd speaks for itself. She’s just preparing him for what needs to come. And she doesn’t ignore Ron in this chapter; the greatest thing of all in this chapter is that even though she’s ignoring Ron’s comments at dinner or lunch, she absolutely 100% is furthering Ron’s interests, as we will find out later.
Micah: And one other thing I always look back on with Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione is that this created a way to make them all part of the same family and bring them into the Weasleys…
Andrew: Yeah, that’s sweet.
Micah: … which I think was always an intention on the part of J.K. Rowling.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Eric: For sure. But while they’re still at breakfast, the owls do arrive, and we learn something a bit disconcerting in the Daily Prophet. First of all, this is pointed out as being a regular occurrence where Hermione will open the Daily Prophet and Ron will just be like, “Anybody dead? Anybody we know?” That’s kind of morbid and a bit upsetting, but not altogether unrelatable to today’s political climate in America, reading the paper to find out what else terrible has happened. It’s this foreboding kind of climate that J.K. Rowling is building on the… leading up to Voldemort’s domination. But we find out that Stan Shunpike has been arrested. Guys, I did not see this coming.
Andrew: But we were wondering about this in the planning of this episode: Did Stan actually do anything? Was he actually on the Dark side? And my response is this is a similar situation to what happens in the real world, where people joke about things that they shouldn’t be joking about, and then people report them, and then you get in trouble for saying these types of things. You can’t joke about very serious topics and expect that nobody might wonder what’s going on with you. Constant vigilance.
Eric: Yeah, he was overheard bragging about being a Death Eater, or about a secret meetup that Death Eaters were having. He was in a pub or somewhere, just for listeners for context.
Andrew: Yeah, and Hermione speculated that he was just guessing, right?
Eric: Well, that he was showing off.
Andrew: Showing off.
Eric: Here’s my thing: If that information is not actionable… he was overheard discussing Death Eater plans. If the Ministry acts on that and then doesn’t find anything, yes, you absolutely can still get fined. It’s like saying “bomb” on an airplane; you just don’t do it. That’s a good thing to point out. But he shouldn’t go to Azkaban. Unless that information was real, and it turns out there was a meeting of Death Eaters, well, then yeah, guilty as charged. Throw away the key, whatever. But it doesn’t appear at this point… and Hermione suggests that it’s just the Ministry wanting to look like they are doing something. But that’s actually horrifying, because Stan is innocent on the charge of being a Death Eater, and so they’re ruining this guy’s life, putting him in Azkaban with these Dementors who are going to slowly suck away all of his being. It’s a bad deal, and it doesn’t look good for a government to be doing that for people who aren’t strictly guilty.
Andrew: But they do have to look like they’re doing something, and maybe in this case, they’re kind of making an example out of him. Like, “Hey, don’t screw around here. Don’t screw around with saying these types of things.” [in an authoritative voice] “This is serious.”
Micah: I also think it just adds to the general atmosphere. It plays around with how much people can actually trust people that they think that they know, and that the ability of the Death Eaters and Voldemort to infiltrate could be at any level. And so that’s why – as you guys talked about – when he says the things that he does, they’re taken at face value, and there’s no chance to try and… I mean, he’s acquitted, right? Is that what you said, Eric?
Eric: No, he’s charged. He’s not let off. He remains in Azkaban until the Death Eaters all break out in the next book.
Micah: You mean later this book?
Eric: Or later this book, yeah.
Micah: So I’m just saying, though, that things that we normally thought were kind of safe, like, “Oh, it’s the guy who takes your ticket on the Knight Bus,” right? But even he could be compromised in some way. Whether it’s true or not is another story, but it’s just kind of making you feel uneasy about a lot of the things that you used to know and trust.
Eric: That’s a good point, yeah. And it is tragic, because at the point of the breakout from Azkaban, he is put under the Imperius Curse at that point, and he does the Death Eaters’ bidding. The actual real Death Eaters that they throw him in prison with, now they know him, and they use him, and then he’s forced to basically… so I looked this up: “Is Stan a Death Eater?” He’s not. By all accounts, he probably was just bragging. But the Death Eaters then find him, and they use him. They actually put him under the Imperius Curse, and he’s in the Battle of the Seven Potters. He’s the one that reveals Harry’s true identity, because Harry sees who he is and uses Expelliarmus to disarm him.
Andrew: So it’s a tragic story for him.
Eric: Yeah, very much so. It sucks to be Stan Shunpike right now.
Andrew: But on the other hand, you can kind of understand the Death Eaters rounding up, Imperius Cursing as many people as they can, because they want as many people, so it was almost inevitable.
Eric: Yeah, the government just gave them fresh meat, though.
Andrew: Right, right.
Eric: Yeah. Speaking of meat… no, that’s awful.
Andrew: Oh, that is awful.
[Eric and Nicole laugh]
Eric: Unfortunately, we do have a death of somebody that we know.
Andrew: Kind of.
Eric: Well, somebody that we… not really… yeah, kind of know. Hannah Abbott’s mother… Hannah Abbott was removed from Hogwarts the day before. Her mother died; was probably murdered by Death Eaters. A listener last week mentioned that… kind of brought up that we used to play a song for our dearly departed friends, fictional characters of these books, but I don’t think we’re going to do that this week. In the future, it’ll be…
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, with all due respect to Hannah Abbott’s mother, we don’t know her, so I don’t really think she deserves a song, to be frank.
Eric: We don’t know what song we would play.
Andrew: Right. We don’t know anything about her.
Eric: So Hannah Abbott, sorry for your loss. Not to sound insensitive, but no song for you.
Andrew: [laughs] Be a bigger character in the story; then we’ll pay attention to you.
Eric: God. More romance happens as we head down to the Quidditch pitch; this is the thing they’re doing before they go and see Hagrid. It just kind of… besides Ron’s pettiness, which we already touched on, Lavender Brown shows up. It’s not a good thing. She smiles at Ron and he goes crazy, and he just seems to really be latching on… almost out of feeling dejected, just seems to really soak up all of the affection that he’s getting from Lavender, and it just creates this unfortunate rift between him and Hermione.
Andrew: But also, just think about where he was earlier in this chapter. Harry and Hermione are ignoring him; Hermione is sucking up to Harry, just completely worshiping him in a way that she almost never has before. And now finally, somebody’s paying attention to him. So Ron is like, “Heck yeah! I’m sniffing this Lavender and loving it. This is a good smell.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: But yeah, I mean, I like this scene because I think Ron deserved it after what we were seeing this chapter. Nicole, what did you make of Ron and Lavender? Do you remember reading this for the first time? Was it something that you could see actually coming to fruition, or were you just…?
Nicole: Yeah, I didn’t love it, but it made sense considering the situation. He wasn’t getting the attention he wanted from Hermione, and Lavender is giving it to him, so why not?
Andrew: I gotta be honest, I never really cared about the shipping while reading these books.
Nicole: Oh, I was all about it.
Andrew: Were you?
Nicole: Yep. I mean, I was a 14-year-old girl, so it was the most exciting thing in my life.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Who else did you ship?
Nicole: Oh, I really just went with the book. Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny.
Andrew: Okay. Were you reading any of the fanfiction?
Nicole: Oh, yeah. But only ones that lined up with that.
Andrew: Yeah, with your own views, reinforcing your values.
Nicole: I was very closed-minded.
Andrew: I guess I just… I don’t know if it was just… J.K. Rowling, in my opinion, never threw a lot of romance into these stories, so I was never searching for it. I was never detecting much of it, except for little scenes like this, and so I just never cared. This series, for me, has never been about the relationships. That said, I do care about relationships in other book series, but this one, I just gave no Fs.
Eric: Yeah. It’s not heavy-handed until this book, really, and then you begin to get more pronounced, repeated mentions of this sort of behavior. But yeah, I agree.
Andrew: And they’re turning it up in the movies at the same time, which was kind of like, “Oof.”
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Micah: It is interesting, though, that you say that, because love is sort of a permeating theme throughout the course of the series, but we don’t really pay much attention to the relationships. If anything, it seems to be more about friendship than anything else.
Andrew: Exactly.
Eric: Yeah. So we get down to Quidditch practice and we meet… well, not really. I mean, we met him a couple chapters ago. But Cormac McLaggen, on the way down the hill, is trying to, I don’t know, schmooze Harry, really trying to charm him. I think this is probably done pretty well in the movie, too, but he just kind of… Cormac introduces himself to Harry; he says that he didn’t make trials last year because he was in the hospital wing when they held the tryouts after eating a pound of Doxy eggs for a bet, and Harry just, bless him, gives zero Fs about this. He’s just like, “Okay, well, the line is over there.”
[Eric and Nicole laugh]
Eric: “Wait over there. Wait your turn to try out.” And this whole McLaggen brand charm doesn’t seem to work on Harry, which, good for him. I question: Is Cormac just clueless in coming to Harry in this way, trying to win favor right up at the top of practice? Or is Harry the perfect antidote to toxic masculinity?
Andrew: I think it’s definitely the latter. I think J.K. Rowling just wanted to write in this college bro type character and… [in a low, slow voice] “Hey, man, I ate a pound of Doxy eggs for a bet. I lifted 200 the other day.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: It’s just adding in a character like that for some comedic effect. And we’ll talk about what Hermione does in a little bit, because I actually think what she did was just as horrible as these treasonous students who are trying out for the opposing Quidditch team.
Eric: [laughs] Yeah. So it goes about as… it’s just crazy. I mean, reading Quidditch throughout all of the Harry Potter books is always fun for me. I know J.K. Rowling expressed that it was hard for her to write, but she diversifies. I think that Harry actually, in this chapter, is a pretty good captain, breaking people into groups, seeing where their strengths are. He really, at the end of the day, really seems to know how best to do this, and it’s a success. Reading about it is… it seems very organized, it seems very effective, and it’s fair.
Andrew: So Cormac does screw up at the Quidditch practice, while Ron actually does very well, and we’re not totally sure why until what I just alluded to, and we’ll talk about that in a moment. But before that, the trio go and check in with Hagrid, and who’s that on the front lawn?
Eric: It’s Buckbeak.
Andrew: It’s just any old hippogriff. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Clearly not Buckbeak, the hippogriff that occupied Hagrid’s front lawn for all of third year. Maybe it’s that hippogriffs look alike, but I think this is way too in front of… under the nose of all of the students who probably very clearly remember the whole situation with Draco and the hippogriff, and I’m sure word got out around school because Draco, in the third year, probably wouldn’t have shut his mouth about how the hippogriff was going to be executed. Now Hagrid, having learned nothing after three years of Buckbeak being on the run or in the cave, just has him in the front lawn!
Andrew: I think Micah and I disagree with you on this point.
Eric: I can’t believe it.
Micah: Well, I don’t totally disagree with what he’s saying; I think there’s a lot of rationale to it. But I’m pretty sure earlier in this book, when we were going through the chapter at the Dursleys’ with Dumbledore and he’s reading Sirius’s will, that Harry suggests that Buckbeak go live with Hagrid, and Dumbledore thinks that that would be a great idea, and he doubts that the Ministry would be able to connect this hippogriff with the one who escaped years ago. And I also just don’t think the Ministry has time to worry about rogue hippogriffs…
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Micah: … and Draco is on his own mission that he’s also not going to care about the fact that Buckbeak is chilling out in Hagrid’s pumpkin patch. Fudge is no longer Minister; Lucius is in Azkaban, so that’s just…
Andrew: So yeah, no one cares anymore. And unless Buckbeak has a collar around him that has a name tag that says, “I’m Buckbeak, the bird that was supposed to be murdered,” there’s no way they’re going to figure it out that it is Buckbeak. As far as we know, there’s no animal registration system. He doesn’t have a numbered tag, like cows do on a farm.
Eric: It’s just lucky that Draco is distracted, because the Ministry at this point is looking for every reason to discredit Dumbledore and to discredit Hagrid and Hogwarts as a whole, that it would be like handing him that on a silver platter. If Draco were to just walk by once and see that hippogriff, he would say something, or presumably he would without… I mean, Micah, you bring up Lucius being in Azkaban; his father no longer has the sway over the governors or whatever, but presumably he could still complain, or lodge a formal complaint. I mean, I think the Ministry is waiting to come down on Hogwarts for anything, and if it gets out that Buckbeak is still around, it’s the same hippogriff that was there and supposed to be executed but miraculously disappeared, then Dumbledore is implicated. Dumbledore gets to be thrown in the center of all this controversy again.
Micah: But Hagrid is also the Care of Magical Creatures professor, so it’s not uncommon for him to have a hippogriff if he’s teaching students, right? And it also says… I have to go back maybe and check the text, but I believe it says that he’s gray, so he’s not the same color exactly that he was probably back in year three.
Eric: Oh, they dyed his hair. Look at that.
Andrew: He should have spray painted him pink or something. That’d just really throw people off.
Eric: [laughs] It’s Tonks, guarding the school!
Andrew: It’s Tonks.
[Nicole laughs]
Eric: So yeah, we’ve covered some ground on that. I think that honestly, though, when we get to this part where the trio is with Hagrid and you begin to kind of feel bad for him, I also kind of just appreciate Hagrid as a character. He’s written in sort of a pathetic way; he’s usually not sober, and he usually is really down and sad, but he kind of asserts himself to Harry. He’s like, “I am a Hogwarts professor!” And Harry threatens to burst down the door if…
Andrew: Yeah, which I found incredibly inappropriate.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Harry stepped over a line. Really, Harry stepped over a line. He’s trying to bust into a teacher’s home like that? I don’t care what kind of relationship he’s had with Hagrid over the years; that is wildly inappropriate.
Nicole: I feel like Hagrid kind of blurred that line, though, since he is professor, but also friend. Not that Harry has the right to do that, but Hagrid is also the adult establishing the relationship, and I feel like that’s why the line is blurred.
Andrew: Yeah, I just still think he took it a step too far. I understand that they’re close, but still. There are boundaries.
Eric: When Hagrid opens the door and it becomes a verbal sparring match, Hagrid quickly loses. [laughs] But he at least admits it; he’s like, “Well, you got me there.” So I don’t know. I find myself endeared towards Hagrid, especially in this chapter. He’s going through some stuff.
Andrew: Yeah. So what is that thing he’s going through? Besides class.
Eric: Well, it’s that big spider of his, Aragog. His old friend Aragog. The tricky situation here, and this is very… I’m wondering if we know what Hogwarts House Hagrid was in, because he’s braving his own life and stability to go and feed these footlong grubs – disgusting – to Aragog. Apparently, Aragog is dying; he’s sick, and his whole family kind of wants to eat him. That’s at least alluded to. All the other spider families would prefer to eat Aragog, that he die sooner than possible, because everybody’s pretty hungry, and Hagrid is keeping him alive. And it’s only… I guess Aragog is king or everybody’s dad, that they all kind of defer to him, but Hagrid is risking his life to keep his oldest friend alive, which is an honorable trait.
Andrew: Maybe Hagrid should have fed Buckbeak to Aragog’s family…
Eric: [laughs] Gosh.
Andrew: … to help delay them wanting to eat Aragog, and then they wouldn’t have to worry about Draco realizing that that was Buckbeak sitting there.
Eric: There you go. It’s the perfect plot.
Andrew: Solutions.
Eric: Can’t go wrong. But I mean, we know Aragog and Hagrid have history. Their history together dates back to, I mean, before, but being falsely accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets. People thought Aragog was Slytherin’s monster, and that’s another connection between Book 6 and 2.
Andrew: Well, and speaking of connections, this is also a reminder that there is that theory that Newt gave Aragog to Hagrid.
Eric: Yeah, which I look forward to seeing.
Andrew: And I don’t know who wrote this here, but after the Nagini reveal, anything seems possible.
Eric: [laughs] It certainly does.
Andrew: That’s going to be the big reveal for Movie 3. We’re going to get a quick scene in a trailer of Newt handing it to baby Hagrid.
Micah: What do you make, though, of Hagrid’s behavior? He seems a little bit immature in this scene.
Eric: How so?
Andrew: He’s always immature.
Eric: How so, though?
Micah: Well, he’s talking to three 16-year-olds, but acting maybe like a 13-year-old himself. And the fact that… I understand he feels slighted that they’re not taking his course, but this is also the first time that they’ve really interacted with each other since the start of term. And I guess you could lay blame at the feet of both of them for that, but Hagrid, being the adult, you would suspect would be a little bit more mature.
Eric: I don’t know; I think he comes around pretty quickly. As soon as they say they’ll make effort or it just… he admits to them he figured they’d probably be too busy to take his class forever. So I don’t know; it just… he is immature at first, but that’s because he’s hurt. I think they’re able to get to a good place by the end of it, though. By the end of their visit, they’re able to kind of reconcile in a satisfying way.
Nicole: Yeah, I think it was just an awkward conversation that needed to happen sooner, and it probably wouldn’t have gone on so long and Hagrid probably wouldn’t have been as upset if they had been upfront with him at the beginning of the year.
Andrew: Yeah, it was boiling up, wasn’t it?
Eric: He even apologizes. He says, “I’m sorry I’ve bin – yeh know – I’ve jus’ bin worried abou’ Aragog.” And then he really comes around when they… they do have to lie to him about Professor Grubbly-Plank being a subpar teacher for him to really come around, but I don’t know. I don’t know that it’s immaturity; I just think it’s low self-esteem, which honestly, if I had to choose between reading about Hagrid’s low self-esteem or Ron’s low self-esteem, I’m going to choose to read about Hagrid’s, because Ron’s low self-esteem is even more of a drag.
Andrew: So we do get an interesting piece of info about Time-Turners here, about the Time-Turners.
Eric: Yeah, this is the confirmation that all of the Time-Turners were destroyed during Book 5’s Ministry outing, and Nicole, you actually found the source of… so the question was whether or not it was actually confirmed sooner than this that they were destroyed, but there’s a quote from Order of the Phoenix you actually found where that happens?
Nicole: Yeah, in Chapter 35 when they’re in the Department of Mysteries, “the glass cabinet that Harry now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter, and repair itself.” And so we don’t know if that means that they can’t be repaired, or if they’re going to do that forever, but that’s the first mention of it.
Andrew: Yeah. And then supposedly, this moment where Hermione says, “We couldn’t have done. We smashed the entire stock… it was in the Prophet.” This allegedly confirmed that there were no more Time-Turners, except for the one that Hermione ended up holding on to for the Cursed Child.
[Nicole laughs]
Eric: Yeah. I mean, this is just a big… the reason this issue gets brought up is because Rowling kind of tried to paint herself out of – what’s the word? – a paradox, because if the Time-Turners had been allowed to have been left in one piece, all of the events of Book 6/Book 7 could be questionable, because if there’s Time-Turners around, you can always revisit it and fix it, which is what they end up doing in Cursed Child anyway. So it’s kind of like, “Who…?”
Andrew: Right. Yeah, well, I mean, I think it was a good idea what J.K. Rowling did, because you as a reader are thinking, “Oh, wait, maybe Time-Turners can come in now; maybe it’ll come in now,” because they would have been so helpful.
Eric: Yeah. I just think that it’s unrealistic to assume that the whole world’s stock of Time-Turners were all on that shelf at the Ministry at the end of year five. I don’t buy it one bit.
Andrew: That’s true. But then even in the Cursed Child, it’s not like, “Oh, I found this Time-Turner over in Albania.” No, it was readily available still. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, so interesting thing there. But let’s talk about Hermione. Andrew, you mentioned this earlier.
Andrew: Yes, I’m very upset at Hermione. So we find out that Hermione Confunded Cormac to make sure he didn’t do well at the Quidditch tryout, and that she decided to do that because Cormac was acting like this college show-off bro, so she Confunded him during the tryout and he failed. And it was for that reason that Ron made the team, but Cormac didn’t. And then Hermione shrugs off the fact that this was bad behavior, because Harry is like, “But Hermione, you’re a prefect,” and she was just like, “Meh, whatever.” If she hadn’t done it, Ron wouldn’t have made the Quidditch team, so she did Ron a solid. But still, Cormac was capable and better than Ron, and yet she still did it just because she didn’t like Cormac’s attitude. As a prefect, as a human being, that’s a terrible thing to do, and that’s so unlike Hermione, is it not? Why did she do this? Can somebody explain why this is acceptable, why we shouldn’t be judging Hermione for this?
Nicole: I don’t think it was acceptable, but I think her justification was the way he was acting, so that’s why she felt it was okay to do. But it doesn’t mean that it was…
Andrew: Yeah, but I still don’t really buy her excuse.
Eric and Nicole: Yeah.
Eric: I mean, it would appear that she’s acting out of her own best interest, maybe, because I mean, she would have to hear about if Ron hadn’t made the team, how he would have just been depressed pretty much all year. He already isn’t happy about them going to Slug Club dinners without him, and if they had to go to… or if Harry had to go to Quidditch practice without Ron, Ron would have just become insufferable. So I think she was saving herself some anguish by doing that to Cormac, her justification being, “Oh, you don’t really want somebody like that on the team.” And it’s true, Harry doesn’t, but it does cross a line, and Harry is right to point out that she is not behaving very prefect-like.
Micah: Yeah. I’ll take it one step further, though: I’ll say that it’s actually on the… it’s Harry’s decision now, though. Should he actually do a retry? Should he cut Ron from the team? Because he knows the truth. He knows that Hermione Confunded Cormac, allowed Ron to move through and get on the team, so why not do something about it himself? I think he’s just as culpable in this now.
Andrew: He is, but he’s stuck in a tough situation, because that would require Ron finding out why they’re doing these again, and he would realize that Cormac actually was the better player, and that would crush Ron.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: So he would be hurting his friend by doing that again.
Micah: Yeah, but this is not about friendship; this is about getting the best Quidditch players on the Gryffindor Quidditch team so that they can win the Cup.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Right! Which is also why it’s so wild to me that Hermione would do this.
Micah: So when Cormac mentions the fact that he let Ginny and Ron onto the team because of their close relationship, it’s actually, in part, true.
Eric: Yep.
Andrew: [laughs] It’s just so out of character for Hermione, who likes to follow the rules.
Micah: Yeah, I totally agree. And she kind of sets the course, too, for Lavender Brown to get closer to Ron, because don’t they hook up after that big win?
Eric: Oh, yeah. But I mean, if he were skulking around the Gryffindor dormitory, she would have a lot more access to him anyway. If he were skulking during a Quidditch game.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: That’s true too. Good point.
Andrew: Emotional friend.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: [imitating Credence] “I want to know who I am. Lavender, show me who I am. I’m not a Quidditch player. What am I?”
Eric: Oh, man. So the chapter ends back at Gryffindor tower when Harry gets a message from Demelza Robins, who also did a really good job at Quidditch tryouts. Nice work, Demelza. She has a message from Snape saying that despite Slughorn’s party invitation, and however many party invites Harry may get, his detention is on Saturday night. They’re going to be sorting out the bad flobberworms from the good, and there’s no need to bring protective gloves. So Snape is clearly pissed that Harry’s first detention was postponed and that it ran a risk of having the second one be postponed. But Snape as a teacher… Harry is just used to this bullshit treatment of “Don’t wear protective gloves.” Can Snape actually do that, though? You can’t get a student to handle hazardous substances without gloves. You just can’t. I don’t care if magic can fix it; you can’t do that.
Andrew: I just find it very horrible that Snape isn’t taking safety into consideration here. [laughs]
Eric: It’s like, “Really? You’re going to burn my hands? What are you, Umbridge? To prove a point?”
Micah: And I think he should have just told Slughorn to forget about approaching Snape altogether, because I think that probably just added to Snape’s anger.
Eric: And how not secure is it for Snape to be passing that message on to Demelza? Now a third party, another human being, hears this whole “Don’t wear protective gloves” thing. He’s spreading his hatred for Harry. It’s never been a question, but now it’s to the point where it’s almost comical.
Nicole: Well, that makes me wonder if it’s actually dangerous or maybe just uncomfortable to not have gloves on, because I feel like he wouldn’t spread that information around if it was actually dangerous.
Micah: Yeah, I think he just likes creating that type of… what do you call it? Persona? He wants to be known as that kind of tough-ass teacher that’s going to have these really horrible detentions that you’re going to have to go through.
Andrew: So don’t get into trouble, is what he’s saying.
Micah: Right, exactly.
Eric: That’s fair.
Micah: And I was interested, and we may get into this in the next chapter, but we know that when Harry goes off to have detention with Lockhart – and this may get into sort of connecting the threads – it’s the first time that he hears the Basilisk, right? And the Parseltongue. So kind of connecting that, I wonder if there’s anything that happens in the next chapter that you could connect to something related to the outcome of this particular book.
Eric: Definitely something to look forward to looking at.
Connecting the Threads
Andrew: So we do have Connecting the Threads in a moment, but first we have a word from another one of this week’s sponsors, Stamps.com.
[Ad break]
Andrew: Use the trial to send something to our P.O. Box.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So let’s connect some of the threads between Chamber of Secrets and Half-Blood Prince.
Eric: Here’s an interesting one.
Andrew: Who wrote this first one?
Eric: Yeah, I did. At the end of the chapter, Hermione pulls out a copy of the Evening Prophet, and this is where they find out – we skipped over this – but Malfoy Manor… Arthur took Harry’s advice and searched Malfoy Manor, which also reminds us of Book 2. But the Evening Prophet is a special edition sort of paper, and it only appears twice. We know of the Daily Prophet; that’s a daily thing, but the Evening Prophet is only published when some big news occurs, and we only see it twice in the entire seven-book series. Guess which books we see it in?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: It’s in this book, we just mentioned, and it’s in Chamber of Secrets.
Andrew: Huh.
Eric: The Evening Prophet is the evening edition of the paper that comes out when Harry and Ron crash the flying Ford Anglia that mystifies Muggles into the Whomping Willow. So sort of a weird appearance of this. It’s barely canon; it was just sort of something in Book 2 where, if it was the only time it ever appeared, we wouldn’t go on thinking that the Daily Prophet always did a night edition. It would just be like, “Oh, this one time thing.” But it’s a two time thing! Yeah.
Andrew: And I’m going to argue that this was just coincidental, not planned on purpose, that they appear in 2 and 6.
Eric: Oh, yeah. Maybe. But it is a coincidence, then.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: And we did mention Stan Shunpike, sort of his story trajectory. It’s very tragic at this point, because if he wasn’t a Death Eater going in, the Death Eaters do trap him coming out of Azkaban, so there’s that. And actually, who put in this third point here?
Micah: I did.
Eric: Oh, nice work. Micah has spotted another Book 2/Book 6 comparison.
Micah: Yeah, and I think we talked a little bit about it, but Aragog, the fact that he’s central to the plot of Chamber of Secrets and now is brought back up again in this chapter of Half-Blood Prince, and we know that there’s more to come with him as the story goes along.
MVP of the Week
Andrew: So now, MVP of the Week. Nicole, let’s start with you. Who’s your most valuable player?
Nicole: I actually picked Harry. I think he was being a fair captain, even though he found out later that Hermione did Confund Cormac. I think that at the time, he went with his gut, and Ron won fair and square, and he wasn’t going to take anything from Cormac. He said, “No, this is it. It’s done.” So I think at the time he was being fair, and he couldn’t really go back on that.
Andrew: Yeah. I’m going to say… and it’s also good on him for looking out for his pal. But speaking of Cormac, I’m saying Cormac is the MVP, because I’m a sucker for a good-looking Quidditch player.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: [sighs] And I’ve got to stand up for him. If Hermione is going to take him down, somebody’s got to look out for dreamy Cormac.
[Eric and Nicole laugh]
Eric: Yeah, he definitely would have saved all five of those goals if it weren’t for Hermione. I’m going to give my MVP – I mentioned this earlier – but to Hagrid. He is braving his life to go and prolong Aragog’s life, and I think that that is… I mean, Hagrid appears oblivious to danger most of the time, but this is one instance where he probably knows the stakes and he’s doing it anyway, trying to save his old friend. So MVP to Hagrid.
Micah: And I went with Hermione for rigging the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts.
Rename the Chapter
Andrew: And then let’s rename the chapter. Nicole, start with you again. And say, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 11…”
Nicole: Okay, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 11, “Ron Is Tall Too.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Nice.
Andrew: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 11, “Con-[censored] You!”
[Eric and Nicole laugh]
Andrew: Like that bad word. Because that’s what Hermione was thinking, not Confund, but Con-[censored].
Eric: Yeah, definitely. Mine was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 11, “Thanks for the Grub.”
Micah: Nice.
Andrew: Sponsored by GrubHub!
[Eric laughs]
Micah: I guess I could go with Sluggybear, but I’m not going to. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 11, “Shunpiked.”
Eric: Nice.
Andrew: Okay. What does that refer to, exactly? I’m not sure I’m totally following that one.
Micah: Stan Shunpike?
Andrew: Right.
Micah: I think it just means that he got basically the second half of what you bleeped out in the…
Andrew: Oh, okay. He got screwed, so Shunpiked is like a verb when you get unfairly thrown into Azkaban?
Micah: And Cormac got screwed in this chapter, and…
Andrew: He got Shunpiked.
Micah: He did.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Hagrid kind of got Shunpiked for a while by the trio, Aragog got Shunpiked by his kids and relatives…
Andrew: Ron got Shunpiked when Hermione was raving about Harry.
Micah: Yeah. See, there you go.
[Andrew laughs]
Quizzitch
Andrew: All right, it’s time now for Quizzitch. And actually, speaking of Shunpike, what was the answer to last week’s question?
Eric: Last week’s question… the question was how old is Stan Shunpike? And that was found through a Daily Prophet clipping here in this chapter; the correct answer is 21 years of age. So we got correct answers from Tyler, Sean, Paul, Vaping with Dad… everybody’s new favorite.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Poor Count Ravioli has fallen out of prominence. Susan, Lizzie, Maya, Parvati, Jennifer Rapp, Potter Habit, Gabby S., Brian, Evan, and Erica Targaryen, to name a few. So congratulations, all of those people, for winning our Quizzitch. Next week’s question: Who delivers the message to Harry about Dumbledore’s next lesson? We mentioned there’s tons of characters that are delivering messages for other people; Demelza Robins just delivered Snape’s message to Harry in this past chapter. But who does it next week for Dumbledore’s lesson? This game is played over on Twitter. Twitter at us, @MuggleCast; use hashtag Quizzitch with the correct answer to next week’s question to get your name read during this segment.
Andrew: This is a great way to get a subliminal message read on the show every week. All you have to do is correctly answer. We’re going to read your name, apparently no matter what it is.
[Eric and Nicole laugh]
Andrew: So if you’re trying to promote a somebody running in the midterms, maybe, or you’re trying to hate on me, you can make your Twitter name Andrew Sucks, and then Eric will read it on the air, potentially every week.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Eric, if somebody’s Twitter name was Micah Sucks, would you read that on the air? Would you change that or pretend like they didn’t…?
Eric: Well, usually, it’s only… Vaping with Dad – I mentioned this last week – it’s literally their profile name and their handle. So usually if there’s something offensive or questionable, I’ll just read the other one, like the handle and not the name, but Vaping with Dad is very sold on Vaping with Dad. It’s at @VapingWithDad on Twitter, and the show name is Vaping with Dad. They didn’t even do a Halloween name. A lot of people are doing that now on Twitter.
Andrew: Yeah. What if they were trying to promote a website, VapingWithDad.com, or something like that? Because you know how people at political rallies, they’ll hold up signs to promote websites? [laughs]
Eric: You know what, I’m going to look up Vaping with Dad and see if they have a…
Andrew: I Googled it; I didn’t see anything. What was that other one? Something Ravioli? Count Ravioli?
Eric: Count Ravioli, yeah.
Micah: Who gets mentioned every week, despite not participating.
Eric: Playing the game, yeah.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Talk about free promotion.
Andrew: I’m going to start participating, but I’m going to make up a wacky name. Shunpiked. I Love Micah. [laughs] Speaking of love, Nicole, you did a great job today. Thanks for coming on the show, and thanks for your support on Patreon.
Nicole: Oh, thank you. Of course.
Andrew: Hope you had a good time.
Nicole: I did.
Andrew: Good. I wanted to let everybody know about our website; MuggleCast.com is where you can get all the information you need about this show. I think we have one more episode with Chapter by Chapter coming up, and then we’re going to switch into Crimes of Grindelwald mode for the foreseeable future. I think we’ll spend a lot of time going into individual characters and plot lines. We have to see what happens in the movie first, but we’re intending on spending many episodes with Crimes of Grindelwald and taking a break from Half-Blood Prince Chapter by Chapter for a while. If you have any feedback about today’s episode, you can use the MuggleCast website, or just email MuggleCast@gmail.com. Or call us; 1-920-3-MUGGLE. That’s 1-920-368-4453. Or if pen and paper is more your style, our P.O. Box is 4044 North Lincoln Avenue, Box 144, Chicago, IL, 60618. IL stands for Illinois, for anyone who doesn’t know.
Eric: It certainly does.
Andrew: [laughs] If you have any feedback about next week’s chapter, because we will be talking about Chapter 12 Half-Blood Prince, send that in as well, and we might read it on air. And finally, we talked about the giveaway we were doing on Patreon, the “Win Andrew’s boxes of Harry Potter crap.” I have selected two winners, Megan and Jacqueline. One of them lives down in Australia, so one of my boxes of crap is going a long ways.
Eric: It’s going to cost you a lot of money.
Andrew: I know. [laughs] I’m going to use Stamps.com to figure out the most affordable price.
Eric: There you go, yeah. Price comparisons right there on the page.
Andrew: Yep, exactly. All right, thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Nicole: And I’m Nicole.
Andrew: See you next time. Goodbye.
Micah: Bye.