Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #412, Determinedly (HBP 21, The Unknowable Room)
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 412. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: I’m Micah.
Laura Tee: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: We are going to discuss Half-Blood Prince Chapter 21 this week, and we have some feedback about last week’s episode, and we’re going to start with some news.
News
Andrew: So a couple of weeks ago, we told everybody about this scandalous story in J.K. Rowling’s world. One of her former personal assistants had been caught using J.K. Rowling’s credit card to buy stuff that she wasn’t supposed to be buying, and now the case has concluded. This woman, Amanda Donaldson, has been ordered to repay nearly £19,000 after fraudulently misusing the money to buy herself lavish gifts and meals. [laughs] Listen to these details; it’s funny. So she spent £3,600 on toiletries from Molton Brown, which I guess is a fancy toiletry store, not here in America; £823 pounds on cakes and baked goods from two luxury cake shops; £2,100 on cards and stationery from Paper Tiger; and 120 transactions at Starbucks and Costa worth £1,600.
Laura: This whole story just feels so gross, though. I feel really bad for J.K. Rowling in this case, because you’re learning a lot of really personal details about her through this testimony, like talking about how she would never buy perfumes from that particular store because she and her husband don’t like really strong-scented perfumes, and that’s what they sell there, and it’s all of this palace intrigue that kind of made me uncomfortable to read. It’s just… it kind of feels like an invasion of privacy, which it is.
Andrew: It does, yep. “One Christmas, Donaldson gave her employer, J.K. Rowling, a Liberty notebook as a present. That item turned up on Rowling’s credit card bill.” [laughs] “Merry Christmas, J.K. Rowling. Here’s a gift that you bought yourself that you didn’t know you bought.”
Eric: I was reading a different article than this Guardian one, too, but the real pain out of all of this, too, I think, is there’s still some very collectible Harry Potter merchandise that has gone missing, and the judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to prove – just to prove – that this woman had removed them. So even though she’s being made to repay the money that they could prove she took, she actually bought a lot of foreign currency as well with J.K. Rowling’s money that ended up not going to J.K. Rowling, but even though she has to pay it back with interest, there’s also some priceless artifacts that are just gone.
Micah: So are you saying, though, that this woman was also responsible for stealing those items? Or is that not proven at this point?
Eric: It’s not proven, and that… so the case resolved, and that is just… they’re gone now. They’re just gone. So J.K. Rowling, I’m sure, vetted this woman very carefully over the years, and as a personal assistant, to have somebody that close to you that was dishonest stealing in more than one way is a huge blow.
Andrew: Right. Not to mention – I think I mentioned this last time we were talking about this woman – presumably, if you are working for J.K. Rowling, you’re making a good salary.
Laura: Right.
Andrew: So why do you need to go and use her credit card? Don’t take it for granted. And now she was caught, and she has to pay this money back.
Micah: Or if you’re struggling a little bit, I’m sure J.K. Rowling would be more than willing to help you out.
Eric: Yeah, if you’re honest.
Andrew: Yeah, give you a raise after a few years! Yeah, “You’ve been a great employee. I’ll give you a raise. We’re releasing these new illustrated edition books; I’ve got some extra cash. Here you go.” [laughs]
Micah: That’s a hard hit.
Laura: But clearly, this wasn’t a case of this person struggling based on what she was being paid, because she was just using J.K. Rowling’s money to buy herself really lavish things. It’s not like she was using it to go buy groceries. I’m sure if J.K. Rowling had seen, “Oh, that’s weird; my credit card statement shows £100 pounds spent at the grocery store. I didn’t go there,” and then put the pieces together and realize that for whatever reason, her assistant was suffering financially, that would have been a completely different conversation. But this woman was using it to buy herself perfume and Starbucks. That’s the definition of privilege. [laughs]
Andrew: Right.
Micah: $25,000 worth of that stuff.
Laura: Exactly.
Eric: That’s like, five cups of coffee from Starbucks.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: One other news item to discuss this week: Bloomsbury has announced that Quidditch Through the Ages is also getting an illustrated edition. So this means that the Hogwarts library boxset will now be completely illustrated, because Beedle the Bard, that’s already been illustrated; Fantastic Beasts already has an illustrated edition, so Quidditch will be the third and final one. Won’t be out for a while, though; October 2020. I guess that makes sense, because this fall, Goblet of Fire is coming out. Jim Kay is going to need another two years to do Order of the Phoenix, so they’re hiring another person to fill that gap year, and that person’s name is Emily Gravett. She has not illustrated one of these books previously. So something to look forward to.
Eric: Where, Andrew, on earth did you find this old image of Dan Radcliffe picking up his Quidditch Through the Ages back in 2001?
Andrew: [laughs] Isn’t it great?
Laura: It’s so cute!
Andrew: Little Dan, yeah, helping promote the release of Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages. Where did I find it? I can’t remember, but you’ll see… I think it was on Google images somewhere; I just happened to come across it when I was searching for one of these books one day. But if you see in the background, you can see… I believe that’s Goblet of Fire on the store shelf behind the woman…
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: … and Dan Radcliffe is handing over the money and smiling into the camera while paying for it.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: “I’m rich now because I’m Harry Potter! I can buy these, no problem.” [laughs] Yeah, it’s a great pic. One other thing just wanted to mention quickly: Team StarKid, a lot of you know them from A Very Potter Musical. They have announced they’re hosting a tenth anniversary event in Los Angeles. They started raising money for it. Everybody will be there, it seems like, including Darren Criss. It’s going to be a big event. So if you’re into Team StarKid, you might want to take a peek at that, because they’re hosting an event in LA this fall. And congrats to Team StarKid. Can’t believe it’s been ten years already.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Finally, a little news item about us: Don’t forget to follow MuggleCast on Instagram, Instagram.com/MuggleCastPod. And you can follow Eric on Twitter if you want all of our story posts.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: And miss them, because he’s been ripping them.
Eric: I just rip them. I don’t like that the stories disappear forever, so I’m immortalizing them by sharing them on my own social.
Andrew: I think we’re going to save them within our own story archive feature as well. There is that ability, so we’ll do that.
Eric: I’m new to this whole “Day of, we’re recording” thing. I used to get snaps for Micah – of course, he worked in social media – so I’m learning fast that it’s something that is really engaging for people to post, “I’m in the middle of doing this.” So that’s kind of cool.
Andrew: Yeah. We have hired Jule, her name is. She’s a longtime listener of the show, and she’s managing our social media. She is an expert at it; she does it for her day job. She’s a fan of the show and what we do, and she’s also handling social media for another podcast Laura and I do, Millennial. So yeah, our social media presence will actually be heating up this week, so now is the time to follow, and thank you to everybody who has followed us. We have a good 1,200 followers on Instagram! I think that’s a pretty good start, for sure.
Micah: It’s more than I have.
Andrew: Not as many followers as I personally have yet…
Micah: Yeah, I was just saying that.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: Aww.
Andrew: Not to brag.
Laura: Andrew, we can’t all be you, okay?
Andrew: Maybe one day the show will be bigger than me. I don’t think so, though. I’m a pretty big deal, with my 3,000 followers or however many I have on there.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: I don’t keep track.
Eric: Yeah, I will say, if you’re listening to us podcast right now and you happen to have an Instagram account – even one you don’t log into that often – open it up and search up @MuggleCastPod, and please just click follow. We’d really be delighted.
Andrew: Yeah, the goal is… how’s this for a starting goal? Beat my follower count. I think we can do that. [laughs]
Laura: I think we can.
Andrew: Also want to let everybody know that we are beginning the process of signing our 2019 album art. Laura, you received them this past week, right?
Laura: I did, yeah. I came home from work and there was a huge box, and then a second, smaller box on my doorstep, and they’re just packed full of this album art. And it is beautiful, guys; they came out so nice. And I’m actually going to start signing those today, after we wrap recording.
Andrew: Oh, awesome.
Laura: So my plan is to sign them for myself in Ravenclaw blue. I don’t know what y’all’s plans are.
Andrew: I haven’t decided what color I’m going to use yet, but it’s always fun mixing it up and drawing little extra things on the cards and whatnot.
Laura: Exactly.
Eric: Yeah, I know Micah loves doing that.
Laura: Oh, I remember. With the Millennial album art, he did that.
Eric: Oh, man!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: And the MuggleCast one, too, our last round.
Eric: I was going to say, did Dobby show up on the Millennial album art as well?
Andrew: [laughs] I don’t think so.
Laura: No, but Micah, I remember, tried to turn Millennial into an anagram for something about himself.
Andrew: [laughs] “Micah is longing…” I don’t know.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Huh, love that. Learning more about Micah every day.
Micah: This was when I was in California, right, Andrew?
Andrew: Maybe.
Micah: Yeah, I mean, I don’t ever remember signing album art outside… because I was only on Millennial for probably, what, five episodes or so? And I think I was out in LA for something and met up with Andrew and Matt for lunch, and you guys may have been signing album art, and you were like, “Why don’t you just sign a couple of these?”
Andrew: Oh, that’s right. Yep.
Laura: No, so what happened was then y’all mailed it to me and Elysa, who was another host on Millennial at the time, and we started going through this album art, we’re signing it at a bar, and she’s like, “What the hell? Why did Micah sign these?”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: And we just kept finding sporadic pieces of album art that Micah had signed and drawn on. It was funny.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. So please pledge as soon as possible if you want to receive one of these new ones – Patreon.com/MuggleCast – and if you remain a patron for three months at the $5 level or higher, you will receive one. You will also receive our 2019 gift, so please pledge as soon as possible, and we will announce the 2019 gift once we get all the details sorted out; we’re still working through that. But we think it’s a practical item that will be useful in your everyday life. And update your address on Patreon now if you haven’t done that already. Instructions are available on our Patreon.
Listener Feedback
Andrew: Couple pieces of feedback regarding last week’s episode on the Defense Against the Dark Arts curse. Voldy’s Moldy Nosey wrote, “Maybe the real reason Dumbledore never lifts the DADA curse is because he and the staff take bets each year on how the new professor will be forced to leave, and he’s got a good winning streak going.”
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Laura: He’s like, “I think this one’s going to be forced out because he’ll be discriminated against for being a werewolf. What do you think?”
Eric: Easy guess. Low-hanging fruit.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: So Dumbledore is playing roulette with his teachers? I don’t think that’s a very good idea, but also not the worst theory.
Micah: That’s interesting, though. I mean, do you think he picked people who he realized wouldn’t last for longer than a year in the job?
Eric: Well, and you look at Lockhart and you think, “Yeah, probably.”
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: You’re saying he picked people he wouldn’t want to last longer than a year?
Eric: You can’t pick anybody you’re really, really that attached to, although when you get to Remus Lupin, you’re like, “Oh, that’s unfortunate.” I think that Dumbledore was looking more short term, need to fill the gap, kind of like… especially by the time we get to years three and four, and then year five takes care of itself. Mad-Eye Moody never wanted the job; he was a retired Auror, and Dumbledore was just like, “Well, can you help me out this year and not have to worry about it a year later?” So I think that he just was looking at short term appointments. But if you realize it’s probably been about the 19th or 20th time he’s done that come the Harry Potter books, so it is pretty weird.
Micah: That would be an interesting question for J.K. Rowling, if she could actually map out who were the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers from the time that Voldemort cursed the position all the way through… obviously, we know the ones in Harry’s year, but…
Andrew: And Hilary said, “Great episode. Do you think Voldemort’s DADA curse was how Albus Dumbledore knew for sure that Voldemort hadn’t died the night he murdered the Potters? 12 months later, their DADA teacher left/died/vanished; Albus Dumbledore could assume Voldemort was out there somewhere still as his curse continued.”
Eric: Amazing.
Andrew: I love that.
Eric: You’re taking the least significant detail of all the Harry Potter books and going, “This is the most important detail in all the Harry Potter books.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: I love it.
Andrew: “The role is still screwed. He must be out there somewhere.”
Eric: It makes perfect sense.
Micah: Yeah. Did nobody notice, though, that this position had a very high turnover rate?
Eric: I think…
Andrew: I’m sure they did.
Laura: I don’t think they have Glassdoor in the wizarding world, Micah.
Andrew: [laughs] And there’s so many problems at Hogwarts, it’s just another one on the list. It doesn’t stand out because there’s too much going on there that’s problematic.
Eric: Yeah, I’m trying to think how many of them could just play it off. Gilderoy Lockhart… I mean, people would clearly know… it probably would have been big news that he lost his mind and was in St. Mungo’s. But I was going to say, “Oh, he’s just so famous and popular, he moved on to other things,” but that’s not true at all, actually.
Andrew: Yeah. Got an email here. Laura, could you read it, please?
Laura: Sure. This is from Christine. Christine says,
“I just started listening to your podcast, and it’s great hearing others geek out on Harry Potter! I’ve been a Harry Potter fan for years, and finally decided to give you guys a listen. Sorry it took so long.”
That’s okay, Christine.
“On last week’s episode, you discussed how the Defense Against the Darks Arts position was cursed. I’m wondering if that’s why Dumbledore didn’t want Snape to have the job. He wanted to protect him from the curse… even though he did let him have it eventually, but maybe because he had no choice. Just a thought.”
Andrew: I think that’s a great point.
Laura: Yeah, I think it is too.
Andrew: Does that check out?
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: Agree.
Laura: And I mean, it works out really well because Dumbledore makes that point to Snape that I think we see in Book 7 through his memories in the Pensieve, where Dumbledore says he doesn’t want to put all his eggs in a basket that so frequently dangles on Lord Voldemort’s arm. And so I think it serves a dual purpose, right? He doesn’t necessarily want to give Snape tons of exposure to students through Defense Against the Dark Arts as a subject, but also he needs Snape, and he doesn’t need Snape being driven insane or killed or whatever might happen to him over the course of being in this position. And obviously, being in the position does end in him being killed, so yeah, he waited until it was the right time. The right moment.
Andrew: As always. JR Billington says, “Hi MuggleCast. With Chapter by Chapter, I believe that Dumbledore is disappointed with Harry because he needs to be sure that after her dies, that Harry will put every effort into the plan and not be distracted or find excuses why he can’t do it.” So responding to our question about why is Dumbledore so harsh on young Harry?
Micah: I don’t know if I totally agree with that. I think it’s more so what happens to Dumbledore at the end of this book that’s the ultimate driver for Harry to focus on the Horcruxes and defeat Voldemort.
Andrew: Ultimate, sure, but this is some preparation. “Harry, take this seriously.”
Eric: If it weren’t for the level of manipulation going on and the copious detail that Dumbledore – critical detail – that Dumbledore is intentionally leaving out, then I would say this theory has merit, but because Dumbledore is holding so much back still from Harry, I don’t know that this is a test of Harry’s reliability. If he would come clean with Harry, Harry would have a chance to prove that he cares about the information. I don’t know.
Andrew: And finally, this is from Kayla.
“On a recent episode, you mentioned what the untested powers of the Hufflepuff cup could be. I’d like to think that it makes the drinker a particularly good finder! Or gives them one of the other Hufflepuff qualities. The Gryffindor sword is obtained through an act of courage, so linking the cup to a Puff trait would make sense to me.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So it’s like Felix Felicis. Instead of getting lucky, you…
Laura: That’d be cool.
Andrew: Well, you’d get lucky at finding things, I guess.
Laura: So what you’re saying is Harry should have put the Felix Felicis in the Hufflepuff cup and then drank it and then gone to Slughorn. He would have been covered.
Eric: Well, not while the cup was a Horcrux. I’m sure it would have killed him.
Laura: That’s true. [laughs]
Eric: But I will say that it’s important to point out what is canon and what is fanon. A Very Potter Musical established the whole “Hufflepuffs are good finders” sort of thing, so that is very much a StarKid thing. Congratulations to ten years to StarKid.
[Andrew to Eric laugh]
Andrew: Of fanon.
Eric: Ten years of confusing Harry Potter fans. Although it’s basically been teased by JKR, or acknowledged by her. It’s seeped so much into the consciousness of Harry Potter fandom that even J.K. Rowling said something about finding. But it came from A Very Potter Musical originally; important to point that out.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. I’m looking… so I think it’s gotten so out of control, Eric, that the Harry Potter Lexicon wrote an article on it, and it’s saying what you said here, that yeah, the finders thing is just from Team StarKid.
Eric: [laughs] But it’s brilliant.
Andrew: That’s interesting.
Eric: It’s brilliant, and as a Hufflepuff, as a Pottermore Hufflepuff, I’ve got to say it’s important… the more traits we can pick up and have people generally know that are great and that we are great for, we’ll take it.
Andrew: Are you a good finder?
Eric: Not particularly. I lose shit all the time. I’m fairly disorganized, a little lazy… I don’t know.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Okay. You’re a good editor. Are Hufflepuffs good editors? Is that a trait?
Eric: Maybe. Well, we’re patient enough to handle the… patient and competent. I think that is two skills that an editor should have. Thank you.
Andrew: Yeah, there you go. All right, before we get to Chapter by Chapter, it’s time to hear a word from one of our sponsors, Robinhood.
[Ad break]
Chapter by Chapter: Seven-Word Summary
Andrew: All right, time for Chapter by Chapter. We’re discussing Half-Blood Prince Chapter 21, “The Unknowable Room.” Time for the Seven-Word Summary, which just scares me these days.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: It’s very intimidating.
Eric: Oh, man. Yeah, this is a… I’m finally starting one, but it is not one I would love to start.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I’ll just go… Harry…
Andrew: … searches…
Laura: … for…
Micah: … Draco…
Eric: … unsuccessfully…
Laura: Oh, God.
Andrew: … but…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Laura: How do I end that?
Andrew: I don’t know.
Eric: Diligently?
Andrew: You’re a wordsmith; you can figure it out.
Laura: Harry searches for Draco unsuccessfully, but… damn it, guys. You had one job. One job.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Just say “Tonks.”
Laura: “… but Tonks”?
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Is that your final answer?
Laura: No.
Eric: Say diligently, right? Like he’s trying real hard.
Laura: Yeah. I’ll say determinedly.
Andrew: Determinedly. Got it. I was thinking, “but wins.” Don’t even explain it; just say, “but wins.”
[Laura laughs]
Eric: That’s why Seven-Word Summary is cool. It forces us to come up with words like “determinedly.”
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Laura: I’m not going to lie; I was sitting here for a moment, and I was like, “That is a word, right? I’m not making that up.” And then I googled it really quick just to make sure.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Andrew: So this is a chapter in which we finally learn where Draco has been going and how he’s keeping it all secret. We get a couple of “Aha!” moments from Harry, and it starts off with Dobby and Kreacher. But actually, before we even get to that, there’s one of those great foreshadowing lines that you just miss on your first read, but then once you revisit this, you’re like, “Oh, maybe this was a little clue.” Harry and Hermione are talking about saving Ron, and Harry says, “Don’t worry, Hermione. If it hadn’t been for the Prince, Ron wouldn’t be sitting here now.” And then Hermione replies, “He would if you’d just listened to Snape in our first year.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I feel like that’s a subtle reference, right?
Laura: Yeah, and what I love about this is later in the chapter when they’re in class with Snape, he talks about Inferi, which are coming later in the book. And Ron actually makes the great point, when Snape starts berating Harry for describing the difference between Inferi and ghosts as being that ghosts are transparent and Inferi are solid, and Ron shouts back at Snape, “Well, if we actually encountered these out in the real world, that would really be the only thing that mattered.”
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Laura: And it’s true!
Andrew: So the chapter begins when Dobby and Kreacher, they offer a report on Draco, and I think as a reader, we were all really excited to hear what they had discovered. Dobby’s still got this impulse to jump into the fire after talking ill of Draco, and he also hasn’t been sleeping. But Hermione is like, “Harry, did you tell him to work on this around the clock?”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And Harry is like, “No.” And I guess the presumption is that Dobby is just trying to do his absolute best, and finally he has an exciting task to do, so he’s just working on it around the clock.
Eric: It’s just… I love these two. It’s a great comedic moment in the scene. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in the common room, it’s late at night, they’re the only ones left, people are really working late, burning the midnight oil to deal with Snape’s stupid Dementor essay, and all of a sudden, crack. The mood changes, Kreacher comes in, Dobby follows, Dobby is like, “Kreacher should have told Dobby he was going to come and report so that they could do their reports together!” I love the idea that both Kreacher and Dobby were assigned to the same task, but even Kreacher is like, “I’m not going to deal with Dobby right now.” [laughs] Trying to get the slip on him.
Andrew: So to Kreacher’s credit, he does decide to report to Harry what he has discovered, but it seems like Dobby does all the work in this scene. I don’t think we can give Kreacher really any credit.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Right?
Eric: Well, Kreacher is still just so in love with pure-bloods and the bad guys that when he talks about where Draco has been, he begins the whole recap with “Master Malfoy moves with a nobility that befits his pure blood. His features recall the fine bones of my mistress…”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: And it’s just like, “Kreacher, shut up.” And it’s just… you can’t get anywhere with that. Who has the patience?
Laura: Well, this is all just evidence of the fact that Harry is learning he has to be really explicit when he’s giving orders to Dobby and Kreacher. The fact that Harry didn’t think ahead of time to tell Dobby, “Don’t work on this around the clock; please be sure to sleep,” is what allowed Dobby to work on it around the clock. And the fact that he didn’t think ahead of time to tell Kreacher, “I don’t want your reports to be filled with your love for the Malfoy family,” is what allowed Kreacher to do that, and that was when Harry had to step in and say, “Okay, we don’t want to hear about how much you love Malfoy. Just tell me the facts.”
Andrew and Micah: Yeah.
Micah: And I think it’s even more important, given what Kreacher has already proven himself capable of in the last book, that Harry be as explicit as possible. I mean, we could give him a little bit of a buy, given the fact that he was coming off a concussion when he first gave the orders to Dobby and Kreacher, but I think it is, to your point, Laura, really important that he be as explicit as he possibly can. Because especially with Kreacher… it’s kind of the two sides of a coin, right? Kreacher will try and take advantage of the situation, where Dobby will just do everything in his power to make sure that he gets what it is that Harry is looking for. So be explicit. That’s the moral of the story.
Andrew: And again, fun as a reader, because you’re sitting here making sure yourself that Harry has laid out all the correct guidelines. You want him to be successful, so it’s very fun to see Harry work this out and make sure he does it right.
Eric: You know what’s interesting is… so they discover that Draco has been going to a room on the seventh floor, and immediately Harry… I think it even says he wants to hit his head. “Of course,” he says, “it’s the Room of Requirement.” And so even though the trio has been outside the Room of Requirement multiple times this year so far, and they’ve even found sentries standing outside of it, the connection comes late, but it’s part of JKR’s writing, why it’s so brilliant, that we’ve been going there the whole year already. And Harry and Hermione and Ron especially, too, having used the room so extensively last year, should be more familiar with that corridor in general. It’s got that famous statue of the hunchback or something across the way. It’s a recognizable… it would be my second bedroom, honestly, the Room of Requirement, if that were a thing that my school offered, and you just walked by it. It just slipped their mind. But the interesting thing that Dobby reports is that it’s impenetrable to Dobby and to Kreacher, and if a house-elf can’t get in there, you know that it’s really secure, right? Because house-elves can even Apparate and Disapparate in Hogwarts, and that’s not supposed to be doable. So if even house-elves who are ordered to find somebody can’t get into the room, Harry should really not feel bad, the fact that he tries so unsuccessfully this chapter to get into the room. Because if Dobby can’t do it, nobody can.
Laura: Yeah. So I have a question; I wanted to get y’all’s opinion on this. What do we think of the fact that Draco chose the Room of Requirement for this task? He already knows that Harry, Ron, and Hermione know it exists. So was this just Draco taking advantage of something… knowledge that he was given by the “enemy,” or is this another representation of his half-hearted attempts to complete this mission?
Andrew: I wonder if he just felt like there was no better option than the Room of Requirement.
Laura: I mean, isn’t there, though? Who says that he necessarily has to do this at Hogwarts?
Eric: Well, specifically it’s the Vanishing Cabinet that he’s been trying to mend all year, right? So he kind of would have come into it just by happenstance, in searching for where that cabinet is, really.
Laura: Yeah, I guess I just wonder, can the cabinet be moved? Could he have theoretically moved it to a location, not necessarily far away from Hogwarts, but maybe somewhere where it would be less likely to be discovered by other people who knew about the room?
Eric: But that’s… I think we can best answer this question using the future to inform it. It turns out it was a brilliant plan, because even though the trio knew about this room, they spent seven or eight months not realizing that it was being used the way that it was, and another couple of months, I think, still not being able to get in. For all of the variations that Harry attempts to get in later in the chapter, and he’s unsuccessful, and I think that actually means it was a brilliant choice for Draco. It was so, so, so good. And even Hermione says, when Dobby and Kreacher are here reporting, she says, “You can make the room unplottable if you ask it to be.” And I think that really is the kicker, is that Draco had the foresight to build in… whatever request he did while spinning three times around on the seventh floor, he made it so that Harry, for the life of him, cannot get in, and therefore it was a smart choice.
Micah: I agree.
Laura: Yeah, and I think that does also speak to the fact that Draco is a pretty smart character. I don’t think that in the books – or especially the movies, where he’s kind of the comic relief bad guy, for the most part – I don’t think that we really get to see this side of Draco, so it’s really nice to see him in the light of being able to outsmart Harry.
Micah: And I think to the point of whether or not the attempts were half-hearted, I think the plan itself isn’t necessarily half-hearted, but how much work he may have actually been doing throughout the course of the school year inside the Room of Requirement, which we may never know – I know we’re given a bit more of a glimpse during the films into him trying to mend it – but if his heart was truly in it, if it really took however many months it did for him to do that, is probably up for discussion. I think we know deep down that his heart really wasn’t in it. But I also found it a bit comical that he is using the very thing that I believe it’s Mr. Weasley talks about as really a means to escape from Death Eaters, to escape from Voldemort, and the Vanishing Cabinet actually ends up being the way that the Death Eaters enter Hogwarts.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: So in the past, it’s been used for what we would consider the good side to escape, but now it’s being used for evil purposes.
Laura: Yeah. Well, doesn’t…? Am I making this up? Doesn’t Harry hide in the sister cabinet in Book 2?
Micah: He does, yeah.
Eric: But the door is left open a little crack, a little teeny, tiny crack, because he wants to spy on Draco and Lucius
Andrew: Connecting the threads.
Laura: So beautiful. God, she’s… this is the kind of stuff I want to see in Fantastic Beasts.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Well, you’ve got to wait for it to play out, and we probably will see it. The Vanishing Cabinet, by the way, also in the Wizarding World theme park in Orlando, in Borgin and Burkes. I don’t know if y’all ever noticed that. It’s kind of dark in there, so it’s hard to tell.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: But speaking of forward thinking, Micah, you have this point about Dobby and Kreacher?
Micah: Yeah, so they’re kind of a dynamic duo that come together in this book, but it’s not the first time… or I should say it’s not the only time that they’ll end up working together. They are tasked with tracking down Mundungus in Deathly Hallows, and the movies made it seem like that was the first time that they were coming together, but in fact, it’s in Half-Blood Prince to track down Draco.
Eric: Oh, that’s a good point.
Laura: Yeah. Another thing that I wanted to bring up here, because we’ve had this common theme over the last few episodes of talking about the treatment of magical creatures in the wizarding world, and what I love about the way that J.K. Rowling narrates the story is that she’s really good at interpreting the story from Harry’s point of view, even when she’s doing the third-person omniscient narration. So when Dobby and Kreacher pop up, it says, “He had not told Hermione about setting Kreacher and Dobby to tail Malfoy; house-elves were always such a touchy subject with her.” So this just goes to show that Ron is not the only one who has some development to do when it comes to the rights and autonomy of creatures that he perceives to be beneath him. I don’t think Harry is quite as bad as Ron, but this definitely does show that he doesn’t have the same level of regard for their personhood as Hermione does.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: And speaking of that – Micah, I think you wanted to bring this up – if we had our choice, who would we have used to track Draco? I feel like the house-elves are the best choice, because as we see with Dobby, he is dedicated to the role, and unlike a lot of wizards and witches, he would be able to move about relatively undetected.
Eric: Yeah, I mean, you can read along with this and go… I mean, in that previous chapter, when Harry thinks of Dobby or thinks of Kreacher and calls him, I remember clapping. I thought it was the most brilliant idea ever.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: But there is definitely something going on here – Laura is right – where Harry doesn’t want to deal with Hermione’s natural pushback to that. Harry has sort of decided on his own that this is the best course of action and taken it, and he’s not getting along with her about the Half-Blood Prince still yet either, so this whole chapter, they’re arguing about how much he’s relying on these little, teeny-tiny comments in the margins of these books. We know how that’s going to turn out once he finally uses that spell “for enemies.” But he’s just ignoring the things that Hermione would give and bring to the friendship and to his decision-making process. He’s shutting her out.
Andrew: How about you, Micah? Who would you use?
Micah: Hagrid.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That would go well.
Eric: He would see him coming a mile away.
Andrew: [laughs] So Harry does start making these attempts at breaking into the Room of Requirement. And it was interesting; we were just talking about how you have to pick your words really carefully. Harry is trying to do that here with the Room of Requirement, like he was in assigning Dobby and Kreacher their mission. It was fun, again, as a reader to see the words he was choosing, and you as a reader are hoping that he is going to unlock it in these multiple attempts that he’s making, but it doesn’t go well. And to our point earlier, it ends up working well for Draco for now.
Eric: Yeah, he’s using phrases like, “I need you to become the place you become for Draco Malfoy,” and “I need to see what Draco Malfoy is doing inside you,” and they’re all Draco-focused, whereas I think how he eventually gets in is “Become the room where all things are stored” or whatever. So he’s just not being very true to how the room works, I think. He’s so hyper-focused on Draco that he’s kind of saying the things that will evoke the protections, versus thinking more broadly about what Draco needs the room for and going from that angle. So I think there probably were ways to get in, but when you specifically name drop somebody who’s previously said, “Don’t let anybody else in this room,” for me, it’s not going to work.
Andrew: Right.
Laura: I was wondering, given the chapter title, if what Draco had asked for was an unknowable room.
Andrew and Eric: Hmm.
Laura: Because I remember after reading the chapter, I was like, “Well, it’s the Room of Requirement. Why is this chapter called ‘The Unknowable Room’?” And then I’m wondering if this is something outside of the purview of what we see as readers, if that is what Draco asked for.
Eric: That’s a good question.
Laura: Let’s call up Jo.
Eric: Yeah, I love that.
Andrew: What other phrases would we use to get into the room? I’m thinking, “Bring me the blonde.”
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: “Give me the blonde. Give me the room where the blonde is.”
Laura: And then it just shows Luna Lovegood. She just pops up.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: “Damn it! Not you, Luna. The other one!”
Eric: Yeah, I don’t know what I’d guess to get in here.
Laura: I don’t think you can. I think Hermione already pointed this out earlier in the chapter, that you can make the room unplottable if you want to, and once that’s done, I don’t think Harry can access… at the very least, he can’t access exactly what Draco accessed, at least not in this moment. That said, I did want to talk about… I felt like this was some really brilliant foreshadowing. So we all remember that in the “King’s Cross” chapter in Book 7, Dumbledore was talking to Harry about why he had set things up the way he did, and they got on the topic of why he gave Hermione The Tales of Beedle the Bard, why he left that to her in his will. And he said, “I am afraid I counted on Miss Granger to slow you up,” and that was all in the service of making Harry learn about the Deathly Hallows so that we could see that contrast to Horcruxes. And ultimately, Harry has to choose to defeat Horcruxes in order to defeat Voldemort, and I think this is some brilliant foreshadowing of that, because Hermione is so focused on the Slughorn situation that she’s really trying to slow Harry up on stalking Draco. Because really, Harry’s focus shouldn’t be on Draco, or at least Dumbledore doesn’t want it to be, because Dumbledore’s already got that part covered, right? He wants Harry to lay off of that. And I think Dumbledore probably knows that Hermione is going to slow Harry up on this as well.
Andrew: And so this is another reason why he’s like, “Harry, you need to prioritize Slughorn over everything. I don’t care about these other problems that you’re having.”
Laura: Basically Harry Potter would be dead if it weren’t for Hermione Granger. The only reason he makes it to the end of the series is because of her.
Eric: Yep.
Andrew: Why isn’t it called “Hermione Granger and…” all these titles?
Laura: [laughs] I know, right? “Hermione Granger and That Time I Saved This Dumbass Again.”
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: I know we touched on it before about the… it was kind of a slap upside the head with the Room of Requirement, and kind of going off what you just said, Laura, I find it hard to believe that the thought would have never crossed Hermione’s mind that Draco could be going into the Room of Requirement and that’s why he wasn’t showing up on the map.
Andrew: Yeah, it is bizarre. And I mean, the Polyjuice situation, too; it’s like, “Kind of surprised you haven’t thought about that sooner either.” But yeah, especially the Room of Requirement.
Laura: I think she has. There’s actually a part in the chapter where Harry… we’re sort of seeing this narration of his thoughts, and he’s frustrated that she won’t participate in the discussions about Draco and the Room of Requirement, because he thinks that she could actually be really helpful if she would, and I think it’s intentional. I think it’s intentional because she has her eyes on the prize about getting the information Dumbledore has asked for from Slughorn, because she knows that Harry can’t access the Room of Requirement for the purpose that Draco has, so she doesn’t see the point in wasting efforts trying to do so.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: Interesting.
Micah: Why doesn’t he try and utilize either Crabbe or Goyle to his advantage?
Andrew: Like how?
Laura: Well, they don’t know, right?
Micah: That’s true. They don’t know what he’s up to in the Room of Requirement.
Andrew: So we get a Snape class in this chapter, and he is as brutal as ever. We wanted to discuss why he’s so mean, but I was reading it again this morning, and I’m like, “Maybe he’s just having a bad day.” But one of the subject matters… because Seamus asks how you differentiate a ghost from an Inferi, and Snape gets these inadequate answers from Harry and he is just brutal towards him.
Eric: After already deducting points for him being late, which is this week’s Quizzitch question. But yeah, Snape is definitely having a bad day. He’s got to be, because he’s just sour to everybody.
Laura: Well, yeah, he’s having a bad day. He’s on this year-long mission that he knows is going to culminate in him killing his boss…
[Eric laughs]
Laura: … and somebody from the Order, it was just reported that he was arrested in the Daily Prophet. So yeah, he’s kind of having a bad day. He’s not having a good time of it. And I think we also have to address that Snape is kind of an ass, and…
Andrew: Is he?
Laura: Yeah, just because he’s on the right side of an unjust war doesn’t automatically make him a 100% good person. And this is kind of what I love about what J.K. Rowling is trying to do in Fantastic Beasts, which is take a more nuanced approach to characters. She even said so herself in the DVD extras, that in war, it doesn’t just break down to goodies and baddies; everybody has shades of gray in their personality. So you look at people like Snape and even Mundungus Fletcher, who are on the right side of the war, but they’re not great people, and that’s how it is in the world.
Eric: What do you guys get out of this whole scene? I know you touched on it earlier, Laura, too, but Ron calling out Snape… and Micah, you were saying… I don’t love this scene; I think it has its merits, but it’s kind of like the children versus the teacher, and it feels a couple of years beneath where it’s at, as far as character-wise. There’s an argument to be made about practicality. When you’re in the situation, sure, it matters if you’re facing off against something transparent; it’s how you’re going to distinguish. What is Snape’s point really about? Snape wants them to take the more high-level approach to discussing ghosts and where they come from, versus Inferi, but it’s just… nobody’s having it. I don’t know what people get out of this scene that’s not me, really.
Laura: Well, I think the main point of it was to place some emphasis on the Inferi, so that later on when we encounter them, we have some context for what they are, or at least some recent context. I don’t remember if they had been brought up before this point.
Eric: Barely.
Laura: And I think also it’s pretty well-established – and we learn this towards the end of Book 7 – which is that Snape has no love for Harry, but he’s protecting him out of obligation because he loved his mother. So he’s doing all of this for Lily, not for Harry, and it’s kind of one of those… it’s kind of a Dursley-esque situation, where he’s doing the bare minimum to meet his obligation, and in order to live up to the promise of protecting Harry, that doesn’t require him to be nice to Harry.
Eric: Right.
Laura: He just has to make sure he doesn’t die. Until the right moment, of course.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Micah: Part of me, though, wonders the effectiveness of Snape as a professor. I think that clearly there are moments – and it’s proven in this chapter, even with the bezoar – but his behavior towards Harry is not one of a teacher. And we’ve talked a lot about this, I think, in previous episodes; if you look around at the other professors that Harry has, yeah, at times, they may be tough on him, but the behavior that Snape elicits towards maybe not just Harry, but Gryffindors in general – or anybody who’s not in Slytherin House – is not really reflective of somebody who should be in that type of a position. He should be a bit more mature. I think he’s very immature at times, and he has this arrogance about him, and it just completely overtakes his effectiveness as a teacher. I mean, he’s supposed to be educating these kids, not treating them like crap, and he’s probably, what, 20 years older than them?
Andrew: Probably even more.
Micah: He should know better, and he doesn’t.
Andrew: What’s the one thing we always used to hear in our own classrooms? “No question is too stupid,” right? They encouraged you to ask questions and not to shy away from that. And here’s Snape, shaming people for asking questions and giving inadequate answers. That is completely the opposite of what you’re supposed to do as a teacher.
Laura: Eh. I mean, I don’t know. I have an academic background, and I remember…
[Eric laughs]
Laura: So the biggest disappointment of my graduate school experience was working with people who were preeminent names in my field; the reason I chose my program was because I had read numerous studies that were written by professors that were in that program. They’re brilliant. And then I got into the classroom, and some of these people were horrible teachers! And it just goes to show that just because you’re a brilliant scholar does not make you a brilliant teacher, and this is a problem, a very common problem, in the academic world. So I don’t think this is too terribly out of place. I also think that Snape being there isn’t just a function of him being brilliant at Potions; I think it’s also as a result of Dumbledore needing to keep him close.
Micah: Yeah, I don’t disagree with that. I just think that you have teachers or professors throughout your academic career that you know are necessarily tough on you, but they are tough on you because they see something in you that they hope will mature and grow. I don’t think that’s what’s happening here with Snape; he doesn’t necessarily see anything in Harry other than his mother’s eyes, and he just treats him like absolute garbage throughout the course of the series. And I think that maybe in this case, he’s having a bad day, but I think anything that is not the norm for Snape, he still treats Harry like crap. So I don’t know.
Eric: And Snape is definitely a teacher who is of the opinion that there are stupid questions, and stupid people asking stupid questions.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: He even… I think it’s Chapter 8 or 9 of Book 1, where he’s like, “As long as you aren’t a batch of dunderheads like I usually have to teach.” Snape has a very low opinion of questions being asked by students.
Andrew: So one of the final elements of the chapter is Tonks. By the way, we don’t have it in the doc, but we also do encounter Moaning Myrtle, who is foreshadowing what we learn about Draco spending time with Moaning Myrtle, which is very weird to me.
Laura: Yeah, he also spends time crying in the bathroom.
Andrew: That’s just so surprising to me, but I guess it just is there to exhibit the troubles that Draco was experiencing.
Micah: Yeah. And it goes to Laura’s point, though, of Draco’s attempt being half-hearted. If he’s crying in the bathroom to Moaning Myrtle, then there’s a good chance that his heart is really not into what it is that he’s being tasked to do.
Eric: Oh, I get the opposite… because I feel like he’s so passionate, he wants it to work, and it’s just not working for him, and that’s why he cries. That’s what I thought.
Micah: It also is reminiscent of Chamber of Secrets with Tom Riddle and his ability to develop a relationship, shall we say, with Moaning Myrtle.
Laura: Yep, exactly. And she even bemoans the fact that Draco hasn’t been back to visit her.
Andrew: “I miss that blonde boy.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: So like I said, Tonks, we run into her. Harry runs into her at Hogwarts.
Micah: This was weird.
Andrew: Yeah, I didn’t like it either. It kind of just bummed me out. She seems to be worried; Harry doesn’t totally understand what’s up with her, but it’s clear that something is, and we learn later that she’s torn up about Lupin because he’s not sure if he wants to get into a relationship. She might be worried about the attacks. Harry thinks that she’s upset over the loss of Sirius. Why do you think this is weird, Micah?
Micah: It just doesn’t fit. There’s something about it that just seems off. Why is she there to visit Dumbledore in the first place? Which she tells Harry about. Or maybe that’s just a cover; maybe that’s not the reason why she’s really there. And as is mentioned, this is the second time in this book that she’s found Harry on the floor in a precarious situation, and… I don’t know. It’s just odd. Maybe others feel differently.
Andrew: Is it odd to you…? And maybe this is why I don’t really like this either, is because we don’t really get a payoff for these scenes.
Micah: Yeah, exactly. It’s just… he’s trying to get into the room, and all of a sudden, Tonks kind of surprises him, and they have a conversation, but there’s no real payoff to that conversation.
Andrew: Yeah, I’m with you on that.
Laura: I also think it’s weird that Harry goes to this place where he thinks that it’s because Tonks was in love with Sirius. Weren’t they cousins? Or distantly related?
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Sure, but you get that a lot with pure-bloods.
Andrew: Hermione… I don’t know if she’s considering this in this scene, but she’s like, “That’s a thought.”
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: I mean, yeah, pure-bloods do intermingle in their genetics.
Micah: Game of Thrones.
Laura: Yeah, but I always thought that was the more antiquated pure-bloods who are trying to remain pure, but I don’t get that impression of Tonks and Sirius.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Laura: They’re more progressive. So I wouldn’t… I don’t know. It was just weird to me that Harry went there. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, well, he goes there, but he’s allowed by J.K. Rowling to stay there in that head space, basically, the whole year. And these interactions don’t change any of that. It’s all very daytime soapy, the way Tonks has been reduced from this badass Auror. Remember, she was the youngest Auror in the Advanced Guard in the last book, and now she’s just a complete wreck who can’t even finish sentences.
Micah: Right.
Eric: And I think it’s a disservice to her character that whatever subplots there may have been… I’m guessing there was just more originally, and that’s why things… these series are so meticulously planned. For there not to be a payoff to why she was trying to visit Dumbledore… what can Dumbledore do about Remus not loving her? All that kind of stuff that feels weird may indicate that it was cut, and whatever subplots used to be in here, I would have liked to have read.
Micah: Unless, really, what we’re supposed to take away from the conversation is that Dumbledore is traveling again.
Eric: Yeah, which… that’s what you take away from it.
Andrew: It’s an important factor. But I think another element to this is just the trouble that werewolves have. That’s one factor in why Lupin doesn’t want to get with Tonks, and that tears Tonks up.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: So I don’t know. I think these scenes have a bunch of different points, but not one really strong point.
Eric: Yeah. But she abandoned her post, too, and I guess that’s the most significant aspect of her being there, is that she has a thing to be guarding somewhere around the grounds. Hogwarts is less safe because she’s here, so you almost want there to be a good reason for it specifically.
Andrew: So that is Chapter 21 of Half-Blood Prince. Next week, pretty big chapter: “After the Burial,” where Harry will finally get what he is looking for.
Rename the Chapter
Andrew: Let’s rename this chapter. I’m calling it Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 21, “DUH! Part 1,” referring to the Polyjuice Potion and the Room of Requirement.
Micah: I went with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 21, “Losing Focus.”
Eric: [laughs] And I went with what I intended to be a Hamilton reference. “The Schuyler Sisters.”
Laura: Oh my God, I was just wondering if that’s what you did. I love it.
Eric: Yeah, so you know how there’s Angelica and Eliza and they’re the Schuyler sisters, and then there’s Peggy? The way that Dobby showed up when Kreacher appeared to Harry to give his report; he’s like, “And Dobby is here too, Harry Potter!” So I went with Half-Blood Prince Chapter 21, “Dobby Is Peggy.”
Laura: Oh my God, I love it. I can imagine him popping in and being like, “And Dobby!”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Exactly, yeah, the syllables work out.
Laura: Yeah, it’s perfect. I went with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 21, “Hermione is (almost) always right.”
MVP of the Week
Andrew: And MVP of the Week. Eric, who’s yours?
Eric: Draco. I’m going to give mine to Draco Malfoy.
Andrew: Wow.
Eric: I know we talk about him being careless, and his previous attempts that were unsuccessful were very, very, very careless, but he seems to have really mastered how the Room of Requirement works, and Harry, who spent a year in there last year, can’t figure out how to get in. So definitely huge props to Draco for seemingly understanding more about the room than anyone else at Hogwarts.
Laura: I said Dumbledore. He’s not even in the chapter, and yet he’s still so present, because he’s the puppet master of everything. He’s already set all of the pieces into motion.
Andrew: Damn him.
Laura: I know. Damn it, Dumbledore.
Micah: I decided to go with Ron for no other reason than the fact that he was able to successfully Apparate.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Laura: Yeah!
Micah: He did something good, finally, before Harry officially did…
Laura: He did, yeah.
Micah: … and I feel very proud of Ron in this chapter.
Andrew: Aw.
Micah: And also, because I really didn’t understand the point of the chapter outside of our discussion, [laughs] so I figured, why not just go with a random person like Ron?
Laura: And I think it’s reflective of the fact that different people have different learning styles, and learning how to Apparate into a hula hoop is not real world practical application. Ron just needed to get out in the real world and try it, and look, it worked. Mostly.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: Yeah, he only ended up in the wrong… where did he end up? Somewhere in Scrivenshaft’s, as opposed to the… was he supposed to end up in the Three Broomsticks? I don’t remember.
Andrew: I don’t remember either.
Micah: And also for the fact that he got called out by Hermione at the end of the chapter for his ongoing “relationship” with Madam Rosmerta.
Andrew: [laughs] And finally, my MVP of the week is Dobby, just for pulling through his demons and getting the job done. Good work, Dobby/Peggy.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: If you have any thoughts on this week’s discussion, write in! MuggleCast@gmail.com, or tweet us; username is just @MuggleCast. Or hit us… slide into our DMs, as the kids say, on Instagram. Our username there, again, is @MuggleCastPod. Don’t contact us on Facebook. I don’t like their messaging system, and we don’t like Facebook in general.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: But follow us on Facebook.
Laura: Really, yeah, the world is just trying to get away from Facebook. It’s not making life great.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: They leak our passwords; they don’t take care of them. And other privacy issues.
Quizzitch
Andrew: It’s time now for Quizzitch.
Eric: Yes, and we did get a submission from Arlie, who wrote in last week.
Andrew: Oh, good.
Laura: Yay!
Eric: Yes, and Arlie said the answer to this week’s Quizzitch… well, I’ll read the question. So the question was how many points does Harry lose for being late to Defense Against the Dark Arts? Arlie and others got the right question. Arlie’s response was, “The answer is Harry lost ten points,” and she said, “Like you said, I’m still getting used to Twitter, so I hope I did this right. And yes, I know what a hashtag is.”
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: Ooh, told you.
Andrew: “Duh!”
Laura: Burn.
Eric: I mean, it was a… she did the smiley crying face, so I’m sure it was fine. But yes, Harry loses ten points, and the correct answers were submitted by Dumby the Bumblebee, Jenniffler, Young Susie Blood, Fluffy McNutters, Karin Fröjdh, Count Ravioli, who we hadn’t heard from in a while…
Andrew: Miss Count.
Eric: Somebody named Justice for Hokey… [laughs]
Laura: Man, poor Hokey.
Eric: Poor Hokey. Amy Hill, Hayley White, Sarah Davis, Erika, and Stacey. And then Stacey added this whole GIF of Dumbledore, Michael Gambon, shaking his head, going back and forth, saying, “Guuurl.” And I don’t know if that’s relevant to the answer, but that was funny.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: So yeah, anyway, next week’s question, of course, will be based on the chapter that Andrew previewed a little bit, “After the Burial,” and it’s a very specific question, again, to see how many people we can get. Slughorn takes some leaves from Professor Sprout. Which group of students are they for? Which group of students does he say they are for? Very specific reference found in the next chapter, and submit your answers to us on Twitter, hashtag #Quizzitch, and at reply @MuggleCast when you do.
Andrew: Really funny chapter, too. I already read it for MuggleCast.
Eric: Yeah, you were saying. I’m looking forward to discussing it.
Andrew: Yeah. So thanks to everybody for listening to today’s episode of MuggleCast. If you have any more feedback, call us. 1-920-3-MUGGLE; that’s 1-920-368-4453. Just keep your voicemail around a minute, and make sure you are in a quiet place. We listen to all the voicemails, and we appreciate everybody’s feedback. We can’t air them all, and sometimes we can’t air them because [in an intentionally muffled voice] the quality is just really bad; it’s hard to understand what you’re saying, so…
Eric: What, Andrew?
Andrew: You didn’t hear me? So make sure you’re in a quiet place. Don’t use a Bluetooth headset; don’t call in via your car. Sometimes people do that, [laughs] and it just doesn’t sound good, and we try to have the best audio quality possible here on the show. Can also just write in to us the old fashioned way; MuggleCast@gmail.com, or use the “Contact us” form on our website. Thanks again to this week’s sponsor, Robinhood. You can get a free stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint by going to MuggleCast.Robinhood.com. If you visit our advertisers, you will also be supporting us, so we would really appreciate that. Or support us at Patreon.com/MuggleCast; you’ll get instant access to tons of content, including bonus MuggleCast installments, the livestreams, the signed album art, the physical item in addition to the signed album art that you’ll be receiving later this year, and also the chance to cohost MuggleCast. I know we’re due to have another patron on, so we’ll do that in the next couple of weeks. Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Laura: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: Bye, everybody.
Eric, Laura, and Micah: Bye.