MuggleCast 649 Transcript
Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #649, No Rest For Cousin Harry (GOF Chapter 19, The Hungarian Horntail) feat. Kierra Lewis
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Welcome to MuggleCast, your weekly ride into the wizarding world fandom. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: I’m Micah.
Laura Tee: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: Pull out your Invisibility Cloak and get ready to third wheel a date night to see how you’re going to die…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: … because this week we’re discussing Chapter 19 of Goblet of Fire, “The Hungarian Horntail.” And joining us this week – we are so excited – if you are on Harry Potter TikTok, you know this person: Kierra Lewis, welcome to MuggleCast!
Kierra Lewis: Thank you for having me!
Andrew: Oh my gosh, thank you so much for coming on. Tell our listeners about yourself.
Kierra: I feel like most people just know me for the girl that either throws books or cries all the time.
[Everyone laughs]
Kierra: But I consider myself a BookTokker/Bookstagrammer, so I read and review books; I’ve been doing it for almost two years full time. But around last Christmas of last year… I’ve always been curious about Harry Potter, because my dad, my brothers, everyone in my family was big Potterheads. But I was just one of those girls… I don’t know. I guess I was just obsessed with Hannah Montana, just my own stuff, so I’d never paid it no mind. But I was curious about it and was like, “You know what, I’ll just dabble in it. I’ll just read one book. If I like it, sure, whatever. We’ll decide going forward.” After I read the first book, I just started venting it, and then I decided to document my journey through BookTok and Bookstagram. And yeah, now we’re on a MuggleCast. My mind made it.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. I mean, your videos, I think one reason they’ve taken off is because you’re capturing what we were all feeling reading the books for the first time, for many of us 10, 15, 20 years ago, and now here you are reading it for the first time and it just brings back so many great and painful memories.
Kierra: Yeah, which is crazy to me because for me, experiencing it as a 28-year-old, I love that people continue to remind me like, “You’re feeling this now; imagine being 10, 11, 12 years old,” and I’m like, “I could not fathom reading the stuff that happened in this book and being okay, and still having to go to school and take a spelling test afterwards.”
Micah: And having to wait for the next book to come out to learn what was going to happen.
Kierra: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: Years!
Eric: Kierra, I guess your dad and brothers and your whole family were wise to keep it from you for this long.
Kierra: Yeah, they probably knew me. At that time, my dramatic self, I don’t even think I could have handled it.
[Andrew and Kierra laugh]
Andrew: What’s it like knowing that literally hundreds of thousands of people are eagerly awaiting your reactions to every big moment in Harry Potter?
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Do you sit there reading, thinking about your audience? That would be me.
Kierra: Yeah. I would say in the beginning… now I feel like we’ve set good boundaries, but in the beginning as it started to take off, I would have hundreds of thousands of DMS constantly, or people were like, “Hurry up, you’re not reading fast, you’re not reading fast.”
Andrew: [laughs] What?!
Kierra: And I would literally pressure myself and cancel plans with friends just trying to read faster, and finally I realized… I was like, “Just like y’all had y’all’s first time experiencing reading Harry Potter, this is my first time, and even though of course everyone’s doing it with their good intention, I don’t want anyone to pressure me or make me lose the joy and excitement of reading it for the first time.” So I’m like, “If you get one video this week, that’s okay,” because you have to remember the highs, the lows, I’m dealing with that as well as posting the videos and pushing out content as well, so it’s double the work for me.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Well, good for you for setting those boundaries. I can’t believe people are putting pressure on you to read it faster. [laughs]
Kierra: Yeah, I had to get a little sassy. I was like, “Ooh, the Potterheads, y’all crazy.” But I was like, “I love y’all, though. I love y’all.”
Andrew: [laughs] That’s too funny. So has the remainder of the series been spoiled for you yet? You’re just starting Order of the Phoenix now.
Kierra: Yeah, just starting it. Barely a few pages in. No, I feel like… what I love about the… I don’t know why I call them Potterheads; I don’t know if that’s correct term.
Andrew: No, that’s right.
Eric: That is. I was actually surprised, yeah.
Kierra: Oh, okay, okay. So what I love about the Potterheads is that I feel like since everyone knows I’m going through this for the first time, people are kind of protecting me in the comments, as well as the DMs.
Andrew: Aww.
Laura: Good.
Kierra: And I also had to do better in the sense of I have friends sometimes who’ll use my account and delete if there’s any slim chance of a spoiler.
[Andrew gasps]
Kierra: Yeah, because I like reading the comments; I don’t want to turn them off. But I do want to… if I’ve made it this far, five books into the series with no spoilers, I want to keep it, especially with the last three books.
Eric: Oh, man.
Laura: Seriously.
Eric: I’m going to have to mentally prepare here. Let’s issue a spoiler warning, if anybody hasn’t read Books 5, 6, 7… wait, no, we just won’t spoil her past the beginning of Book 5.
Andrew: No, of course, yeah.
Eric: Okay. I’m going to have to think about that. That’s… okay.
Kierra: Please. I don’t want to take off my earphone and chuck it.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Can you imagine if Kierra agreed kindly to come on MuggleCast, and then we spoil something for her?
[Kierra laughs]
Eric: It would make for a great video, let me tell you.
Andrew: No! No! I would end the show, Kierra. That’s my vow to you. If we spoil you, the show’s over permanently. I couldn’t live with myself.
[Kierra laughs]
Laura: Yeah, then we would be those people that we remember all too well from the early 2000s when these books were coming out who intentionally spoiled it for people. We don’t want to be those people, so we’re going to be good today.
Eric: By shouting, “Redacted…” yes, yes, yes.
Kierra: I was going to ask, how did that go? Because at that time… I’m acting like this is the dinosaur age. I’m kidding.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Thanks, yes, we feel that way as well.
Kierra: No, I was still a kid. I was around that time, but there wasn’t really social media, so how would y’all…? Would you just talk to your friends at school? How would you express yourself?
Laura: And to each other. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, so we were all working on a Harry Potter fan site together, so we all communicated through that fan site. But we mentioned before we started the show that we started in 2005; one reason our podcast took off is because we were a place for people to discuss Harry Potter or hear discussions about Harry Potter, because that was before social media.
Eric: We were the original Bookstagrammers.
Andrew: [laughs] BookTok. BookPod.
Kierra: Y’all walked so we could run.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Listeners, if you don’t already follow her on TikTok or Instagram, on TikTok it’s @KierraLewis75, and we’ll have the link in the show notes. Is it the same thing on Instagram or different?
Kierra: No, the Instagram is @Kierra_Lewis1.
Andrew: Okay.
Kierra: As you can tell, I made both accounts before I started doing social media, so that’s why it’s just random numbers.
Andrew: Got it, okay. All good. We’ll have links in the show notes and of course on our social media as well.
Chapter by Chapter: Seven-Word Summary
Andrew: So Kierra, you’re joining us today for Goblet of Fire Chapter 19, “The Hungarian Horntail.” And we’ll start like we always do with our Seven-Word Summary, and we’re going to create a summary of the chapter off the cuff right now.
[MVP of the Week music plays]
Andrew: Karkaroff…
Laura: … sneaks…
Eric: … around…
Micah: … Hogwarts…
Kierra: … suspicious…
Andrew: Suspiciously?
Kierra: Suspiciously, yeah.
Andrew: … one…
Laura: … night.
Andrew: Yes, yes, we did it! [laughs]
Laura: We did it, y’all.
Eric: Okay!
Andrew: Yeah, it’s stressful.
Laura: Great job.
[MVP of the Week music ends]
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Andrew: So we’ll get to Karkaroff in a little bit. I’m calling the first half of today’s discussion, [sings] “Meet me at midnight.” So Hermione encourages Harry to head to Hogsmeade with her to clear his mind of the goings-on, and while at the Three Broomsticks, Moody’s magical eye catches Harry hiding under the Invisibility Cloak. Harry was trying to be undercover to avoid all the backlash and attention that he’s been getting, especially in light of the Rita Skeeter article. Mad-Eye is there with Hagrid, and Hagrid invites Harry to meet him at his cabin that night for reasons unknown. Harry is a little hesitant, but he’s willing to go. He was a little hesitant because he’s got a busy night; he’s going to go see Sirius as well in the fireplace.
Micah: And one fun nugget that I caught – and I think this is actually on the first page of the chapter – it’s as they’re describing how anxious Harry is feeling about this first task; it says that Harry felt as if the first task was “crouching ahead of him like some horrific monster.” And I’m thinking to myself, as I’m reading this, I’m like, “Damn, J.K. Rowling. You just slid that in there and nobody noticed.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: The task was Barty Crouch-ing ahead of him.
Laura: We also get a little bit of foreshadowing here. This is just another setup to really deliver on the whole Mad-Eye Fakey plot point that we get in this book – Kierra, that’s what we call Mad-Eye Moody in this book, because he’s imposter Moody – but this is set up so that in the future, it’ll come in really handy for Moody to be able to see through Harry’s Invisibility Cloak.
Kierra: Wow.
Laura: There’s a little midnight excursion that’s coming up in a couple of chapters where this comes in really handy.
Eric: Yeah, Moody’s eye, I’d forgotten that it could see directly through the Cloak. That’s more than Dumbledore can do; it’s a really powerful eye. Kierra, I’m very excited for you because there is one more moment in Book 5 that I’m thinking about where Mad-Eye’s eye comes into play, and it’s a tiny little tidbit, low stakes, but it’s one of the coolest moments ever what that eye can do, so look forward to that. It’s coming up.
Kierra: Oh, I’m excited.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Laura: Build the anticipation. [laughs]
Kierra: Oh, yeah.
Eric: So one thing that occurred to me… the joy of rereading this series after X number of years, question mark? Back in the dinosaur age, I wouldn’t have picked this up, but today, I was actually wondering if Moody, who we know is secretly trying to help Harry along, actually would have convinced Hagrid to share this information with Harry. We see that… they’re kind of unlikely pub companions; Mad-Eye Moody, this ex-Auror, and Hagrid, who didn’t even finish school? So I’m wondering what would have been the… what would they have to say to one another?
Andrew: [laughs] An Auror and a dropout walk into a bar…
[Andrew and Kierra laugh]
Eric: Yeah, yeah, so…. Auror is one of the extra schooling that we know about for career wizards. So anyway, I thought it would be interesting because Moody spoke with Neville a few chapters ago. We know that that is set on a path to clue Harry into some things. What if in fact, this isn’t just Hagrid saying hello to his friend and trying to give his friend a leg up? What if he was pushed to by Moody? Because otherwise, I think Hagrid would keep a secret, question mark?
Andrew: Well, I think Harry needs an assist from somebody, and I think Hagrid maybe thought that he could be that person for him. I mean, remember, Hagrid is one of the people who actually believes Harry that he didn’t put his name in the Goblet, and of course, Harry is underage, so that’s not okay either, so somebody has to help them.
Kierra: Well, I can agree with Moody wanting to help, but also, I think Hagrid is just… Hagrid can’t hold water, especially when it comes to the animals he loves. So I think even if he didn’t show Harry at that time, he would have found another way to help Harry out and assist him with the first task or the third task or whenever it was.
Laura: I agree. I think Hagrid is uniquely vulnerable to this precisely because of what Kierra just mentioned, and I think all it would take for Moody to convince him and to act as the tipping point is to say, “Come on, Hagrid, you know Madame Maxime and Karkaroff are doing the same thing for their champions. Why not level the playing field?”
Andrew: And we’ll talk about that, because it’s very interesting how all those dynamics play out.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Eric: But I mean, currently, that argument of “All the other team heads are doing it, the school heads,” that doesn’t actually happen until after the events of tonight, so it’s a very interesting psychology moment there.
Andrew: So despite that midnight timeframe that I mentioned pushing up against his meeting with Sirius in the fireplace, Harry is intrigued by this offer and decides to take Hagrid up on it.
Micah: Yeah, I think Harry is just eager to spend time with somebody who actually believes in him, and so when Hagrid comes over and says, “Meet me tonight,” he’s all about it.
Andrew: [sings] “Meet me at midnight.” I’m just making Taylor Swift references.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: Ohh.
Eric: It does sound romantic.
Micah: Well, and we do get a bit of romance as well.
Andrew and Kierra: Yeah.
Eric: Well, there you go, yeah. He said “Meet me at midnight” to somebody that wasn’t Harry, actually.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: But for me, too, I have to just shout out Hermione in this moment. Two weeks have passed since the end of the last chapter, and this whole time… there’s a moment where Harry is like, “Yeah, Hermione is not the same; I’m spending much more time in the library…” It’s not Ron. He’s missing Ron. That said, Hermione seems to really and uniquely be able to find things to do that are getting Harry out of his shell, that are helping him emotionally deal with all of this stress. And case in point, they’re in Hogsmeade; he probably would have stayed behind in the castle if she hadn’t said, “Come on; let’s go. Be social, even if you’re under the Cloak.” It gets him out of the castle. It’s good for him.
Laura: Kierra, I know that you had a pretty strong reaction to the falling out that Harry and Ron have in this book. Is that something you’d care to expand on here while we’re talking about what Harry’s friendship now looks like with Hermione?
Kierra: Yeah, I think my reaction, which you’ve seen on TikTok… I got emotional at a coffee house when I found out that they weren’t friends anymore, mainly because… I mean, I’ve been there with my own friends, but I joke about cousin Harry and Ron being my cousin, but to see them so young, and to know that from Book 1 to Book 4, they’ve been each other’s support system, they’ve been each other’s backbones through thick and thin, and then to see them have a friendship break up over something so… I wouldn’t say small, but something so miniscule. It just… I don’t know. It tore a piece of my heart. It tore a piece of my heart. But to also go off of the Hermione thing, I think it actually also shows that we always talk about Hermione, she’s always so serious, she’s always so focused on schoolwork, but to see her take the slack off of Ron not being friends with Harry and to make him go get the butterbeer, to make sure he’s doing research for his task, it just shows that… I don’t know how to describe it, but… I don’t know; I just feel like my girl Hermione needs more love. I stan her so much, especially after this friendship, because she had to carry Harry, she had to carry both sides. She would go talk to Harry, then she would run to Ron, and that’s tiring. And plus, that girl is doing God knows how many hours at Hogwarts, so yeah.
Andrew and Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: And SPEW, she’s trying to organize that, and Snape is calling her ugly, and in this chapter somebody calls her ugly; it’s just all these things she…
Kierra: And Rita Skeeter.
Andrew: Rita Skeeter, yeah. It’s a lot.
Laura: Hermione does not get enough credit, and that’s a problem throughout the entire series.
Kierra: No, don’t tell me that.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: It turns out that Harry gets to third wheel Hagrid and Madame Maxime’s date night, and they’re going to go check out a spectacular sight – just a beautiful, wonderful date night in danger – [laughs] and giving Harry a little behind-the-scenes scenes glimpse of what he has to deal with. I really liked this strategy from Hagrid, giving Harry a heads up about what’s coming without really even talking to him. He’s just like, “Follow me under the Cloak, and where we go will tell you all you need to know.”
Micah: And I’m sure we’re going to talk about who’s using who in this situation, but part of me wonders if Hagrid is being utilized and taken advantage of by Dumbledore, knowing that he will get close to Madame Maxime. Is this intel for Dumbledore in terms of what Madame Maxime is up to? Like, he dangles a little carrot in front of her by telling her what the first task is all about, but is he getting more information back from her that he can share with Dumbledore? Does Dumbledore have a board up in his office somewhere of all the possible suspects of who put Harry’s name in the Goblet? Now, after tonight maybe he can cross Madame Maxime’s name off of it?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I don’t know. Unfortunately, I don’t think Dumbledore cares that much, really, or he would have gotten to this.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Eric: No, but Dumbledore has an army of pawns. We’ve seen it before; we’ll see it again. Vague, vague, vague, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler. So I think that it’s definitely an interesting question. As far as if Hagrid would have been sent to get information on Madame Maxime, we know that he would do it willingly, though. He’s very attracted to her. They have some things in common. And this definitely does make it so that Madame Maxime owes Hagrid one, and the whole school of Beauxbatons is in Hagrid’s debt, I think, twice now, so it’s an interesting strategic position.
Andrew: See, even though Hagrid seems to invite Madame Maxime without her knowing where they’re going, I’m still wondering if Hagrid is being used by Madame Maxime, because she might suspect he knows what’s going on in the tournament since he works at this school.
Eric: If she does, she’s got some point; she’s onto something because inevitably, if you’re going to have these dangerous tasks, odds are you’ll come across a fantastic beast, which are bringing the danger. The beasts are involved in all three tasks, we find out, and Hagrid’s own Skrewts are used in the maze at the end of the year. So the gamekeeper and generally all around competent as far as beasts go guy is going to have the answers you seek, so it works for Madame Maxime as well.
Andrew: So under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry watches as Charlie and his team try to tame the dragons. And Kierra, I don’t know if you’ve caught on to this yet, but Hogwarts: total security nightmare. I mean, the fact that these poor kids are going to be facing these dragons…
[Kierra and Laura laugh]
Andrew: There’s eight wizards handling each dragon, and each of these dragons is very hard to control; one has to get hit by I think up to eight Stupefies in unison in order to knock it out. And Charlie says to Hagrid, he doesn’t know how exactly the dragons will be used in the competition, but they’re obviously extremely dangerous, and it’s just like, how can they put Harry in this situation?
Laura: Yeah, well, Harry also gets to see the dragon he’s going to be up against in the first task, and it’s also just easily the most deadly-sounding of the lot of dragons. It feels pretty clear as a reader, even as a first time reader, probably – Kierra, I don’t know if you can speak to this – but feels pretty obvious that that’s the one Harry is going to get stuck with.
Kierra: Literally.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Charlie is like, “Watch out for that one, Hagrid.”
Kierra: And then Harry trying to be so positive, like, “Well, I’m glad I got to see it now,” and not when he has to face it in the task. Regardless, I probably would have pissed myself.
Andrew and Laura: Yeah!
Andrew: I would have bailed out of the competition. “Hey, you know what? I actually don’t want to be in this anymore, Albus. Sorry. I’m peacing out of here.”
Kierra: “I’ll see you in the Great Hall. I’ll be feasting.”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: “I’ll do the exams. It’s fine. I’ll take back my exams that you excused me from.”
Kierra: Honestly!
Eric: I know, it might be worth facing the wrath of the Goblet of Fire rather than facing a dragon. It might be safer.
Micah: So this all made me think, though, was the Horntail always in the mix? Or was it a late addition, given that Harry’s name ended up coming out of the Goblet?
Eric and Kierra: Ohh.
Micah: Because presumably, there would have only been three dragons.
Kierra: I didn’t even think about that.
Eric: [laughs] Do you think they heard Harry’s name came out and they were like, “We need a more dangerous dragon for this 14-year-old”?
Micah: “We need a Horntail.”
[Andrew and Kierra laugh]
Andrew: Or maybe they had the fourth as a backup dragon just in case one of the dragons was sick that day.
Micah: I mean, if that’s the backup, oof.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I’m just trying to imagine how Crouch justifies this. Again, he’s a stickler for the rules. Is he sitting here thinking, “Eh, the 14-year-old only has a 25% chance of getting this dragon. What are the odds?”
Andrew: Well, if he already took on Voldemort, I mean, a dragon is going to be no big deal. The writing here does lay some groundwork for what’s to come in this first task; they want nesting mothers, so as if they weren’t going to be vicious enough as dragons, you’re also going to be stealing an egg from one of these dragons. It’s just absolutely insane to be asking kids to do this, Harry or an older wizard.
Eric and Micah: Yeah.
Eric: I wouldn’t trust a 17-year-old to be able to do this. I wouldn’t trust a grown adult. I wouldn’t trust the real Man-Eye Moody to be able to survive a dragon. There’s a reason that dragons are kept far away, away from people safely so that… because they’re killers; by nature of what they are, they’re very dangerous.
Andrew: How about just flying on a dragon’s back? How about just petting the dragon’s nose?
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Or standing… get as close to it as possible, to the dragon. There’s so many other competitions they could have had for the first task involving a dragon.
Eric: Getting as close as possible before what? [laughs]
Andrew: Before you’re scared and want to run away.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Kierra: Who can last the longest?
Micah: Yeah, I mean, I think the extra edge to this is you’re trying to steal their unborn children, so they’re going to be even more vicious than they otherwise would.
Andrew: Kierra, you having just finished reading this relatively recently, do you read stuff like this as an adult and wonder how could this be allowed at Hogwarts?
Kierra: Maybe in the beginning. Now at this point, I’m like, Hogwarts, they just make their own rules. They do whatever.
[Andrew laughs]
Kierra: It don’t matter your age. I think someone pointed out… they tagged me in a post and they were like, “I’m reading Harry Potter for the first time, but I’m just now starting to see how many times the kids sneak out after midnight at 3 a.m. like it’s just a normal common thing, even though they’re sneaking out.” But I’m like, Hogwarts world is different, I feel. I wish I was a part of that.
Andrew: [laughs] And there’s no tuition, from what we hear.
Kierra: Oh, yeah.
Laura: Right.
Kierra: Even if there was, the food looks so good, I’d pay whatever, honestly.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: So you won’t be joining SPEW.
Kierra: I feel like I’ve kind of got to. I’ll just be like my cousin here; I’ll be the treasurer or something.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Kierra: I’ll still be back, though, putting something on my plate. Thank you.
Andrew: Can you tell us why you call him cousin Harry? Because you always call him cousin Harry in your videos, too, and it’s great.
Kierra: I do, because I feel like we’re family now.
Andrew: You’re family.
Eric: Aww.
Kierra: We’ve made it so far, yeah. We’re family now, so whenever my cousin hurts, I hurt. Honestly, I would say we’re more like twins, because they say there’s the twin telepathy? I feel whatever cousin Harry is going through, so yeah.
Andrew: Aww, that’s so sweet. [laughs]
Kierra: That’s my bestie.
Laura: Yeah, I mean, it’s just a testament to the stories, too, that even after all this time, people are still resonating with them as strong as they did back when the books were first coming out. So thank you for capturing that, Kierra, because honestly, you’re doing what we endeavor to do here on the show every week, which is tell people why these stories matter and why they resonate so much with everyone, and you’re doing it in this wonderful, bite-sized format.
Kierra: Thank you. And I would also say, it just shows how powerful or impactful these words are, after what, two decades? How someone in her late twenties was able to pick up this and still feel the same feelings that someone that probably read it in 2015, 2017, so kudos to that.
Andrew: So we’re going to talk about the relationship between Charlie and Hagrid, and another person who’s spying on the dragon situation. This whole thing is rigged. We will Floo right back after this break.
[Ad break]
Eric: One thing that I love, as best as I can follow the plot of behind the scenes that happened here, is that Charlie Weasley is in town. He is obviously in some capacity keeping the dragons safe on the grounds of Hogwarts, and he must have invited Hagrid – his old friend and gamekeeper probably inspired the love of dragons in Charlie to begin with – to come and witness and see the dragons. That said, as nice of a gesture as that was, there’s a funny bit which I definitely missed before, where Charlie warns Hagrid that the real eggs are counted, and warns Hagrid not to touch.
[Kierra and Laura laugh]
Eric: Because he trusts Hagrid, but not too well, apparently.
Kierra: Yeah, when I was reading it today, it says something like… I guess when they brought out the eggs, Hagrid did a moan out of awe, and that’s when he said that, and I was like, “Gotta love Hagrid.”
[Andrew laughs]
Kierra: Him and his animals.
Laura: Well, Charlie has to be thinking back to the end of Sorcerer’s Stone, when he and his friends had to come pick up Norbert.
Kierra: He said, “I’m not making another trip.”
Laura: Yeah, that’s a not too distant memory for him, and he’s probably thinking about the sketchy means by which Hagrid obtained his last dragon egg and making sure to put it out there that the eggs are all accounted for, so stay away.
Andrew: Yeah. So Harry has seen enough; he’s delighted that he now knows what’s happening in the first task, let’s say. And as he’s on his way out, he bumps into Karkaroff, who’s going to spy on the scene too, and now he’s going to be relaying this information back to Krum. So now Harry knows, Madame Maxime knows and is going to tell Fleur, of course, and then Krum is going to be finding out as well, so it’s just poor Cedric at this point who does not know. This whole thing is rigged.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Should the Ministry have known that the teachers were going to do this? That three of them were going to be spying? I mean, it’s just ridiculous there weren’t measures in place to prevent them from spying.
Kierra: I guess you can also say it was because… throw the blame on it being their first year, since they said they haven’t done it in a few years or so because it got so dangerous.
Eric: I think the idea is even if it does get out, you have a monumental task in front of you; that’s why it’s so extra challenging. Because the dragons weren’t going to be on the grounds until the week of, or really soon to, it’s still an enthralling challenge, even if the information does leak.
Andrew: Are we to believe that Dumbledore doesn’t know what the tasks are?
Micah: Oh, he knows.
Kierra: He definitely knows.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: He knows due to spying? Or he knows because he’s talking to Ludo and…?
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Andrew.
Kierra: Is he not supposed to know?
Eric: Well, he had to know, because you otherwise… I bet there’s a rule about bringing dragons into the school. I bet you can’t bring dragons onto the school grounds without Dumbledore having to lift a protection or something.
Andrew: “So we’re bringing four dragons on the grounds; we can’t tell you why…”
[Eric and Kierra laugh]
Andrew: “… or we can tell you, I guess, since it’s your school,” but then it’s unfair if Albus knows and Karkaroff and Madame Maxime don’t know, isn’t it?
Micah: Well, I mean, benefits of the host school, maybe.
Andrew: Cheating? [laughs]
Micah: To your point, though, they’re housing dragons, they’re about to set up this huge task in his lake, and they’re going to bring in this maze with all these dangerous creatures. I mean, for security reasons alone… oh, wait, never mind.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Yeah, that’s the end of that sentence.
Micah: Dumbledore loves the drama! You say it all the time, Andrew. He’s just sitting there.
Laura: He’s at it with the Dumble-drama again.
Andrew: [imitating Dumbledore] “Ooh, this is fun. This is so much fun.”
[Laura laughs]
Eric: This chapter did remind me, though, the heads of their school don’t know what the challenges are, and that does raise this question about Dumbledore because who planned these tasks? Who actually devised “This is what we will be having them do”?
Micah: Ludo, probably.
Eric: But I would have assumed it would have been in consultation with Dumbledore, and if it is in consultation with Dumbledore, then it’s also right for Maxime and Karkaroff to be there.
Laura: I also just wonder if the idea of keeping it secretive but then the headmasters of the various schools finding out what the tasks are going to be is an unspoken tradition at this point. This tournament has happened hundreds of times in the past, and it just seems unrealistic to expect that these things wouldn’t come out. I mean, we see Dumbledore talk about secrets breaking out at Hogwarts as early as Book 1, where he’s like, “Hey, everybody who knew anything about what happened between you and Quirrell down in the third floor corridor has been sworn to secrecy, so naturally, the whole school knows.” He knows that this is the reality of working in a school with adolescents; it’s just really hard to keep the lid on things like this. So I don’t know. I feel like it might be a matter of best intentions to say they keep it secret, but it doesn’t really happen.
Micah: I guess it’s just interesting that Karkaroff and Maxime are actively trying to get the information and support their champions, but in the case of… Harry seems to also be getting that support, through Moody, through Hagrid, and through others, as we’ll see in later chapters, but what about Cedric? He’s just… nobody’s helping this guy out, actively. We don’t see Sprout coming in on his behalf as his Head of House. We don’t see Dumbledore doing anything. I don’t know; that’s kind of messed up.
Andrew: It is messed up.
Micah: [laughs] Poor Hufflepuff.
Andrew: Although, this opens an opportunity for Harry to help him out, of course. But it was raised earlier, could it have been Mad-Eye Fakey who put Hagrid up to it? But maybe Dumbledore could have put Hagrid up to it; insert a middleman there to avoid catching blame for sending Harry over to check out the dragons himself.
Kierra: I can see Dumbledore. He’s always like the wise grandfather looking out for Harry.
Andrew: Yeah, he’s a little trickster. What are your impressions on Dumbledore so far? Because I’m a big fan in general.
Kierra: Yeah, I was going to say, so far I like him. I like his wisdom. I love that he’s always there to comfort Harry or to guide Harry. He’s like his guidance system while navigating Hogwarts and this world.
Andrew: Yes.
Kierra: So I stan him, yeah.
Andrew: So the second half of this discussion I’m calling “Meet me at the fireplace.” So Harry gets back for his rendezvous with Sirius, and he gets to unload on Sirius like he’s a therapist. He’s sharing all the things that have been bugging him. Here’s one of the few people that are actually on his side, will continue to talk to him, that believe him, all of that. And it’s a relatable moment, when a lot has been boiling up inside you and you feel like you don’t have anybody to share it with and then you finally are able to let it all out on somebody, but maybe Sirius is up to something else, too, Micah, besides being a therapist?
Micah: Yeah, I think he’s also, besides being a therapist… or maybe part of his job of being a therapist, as we all know, probably, is he’s taking notes, right? I think we’re going to talk about this in a little bit, but he’s actually really good at putting the pieces of the puzzle together from reading the Daily Prophet. And Harry’s info dump might have important nuggets that right at this moment Harry can’t see for himself, so I think Sirius is intently listening. He’s letting Harry just pour it all out, but with kind of a side quest in mind.
Andrew: And so we also get a bombshell from Sirius: Karkaroff is a former Death Eater who got out of Azkaban after making a deal with the Ministry to give up names of other Death Eaters. And Sirius also suspects that Karkaroff is the one who put Harry’s name in the Goblet, and it doesn’t matter that Karkaroff was feigning outrage at Harry’s name coming out, Sirius says, because Karkaroff is a good actor; he was a good enough actor to cut a deal with the Ministry.
Micah: Yeah, we don’t know it at this point in Goblet of Fire, but this is the deal that also landed Barty Crouch, Jr. in Azkaban, which is…
Eric: And the circles, the truth, the spirals… that’s wonderful.
Micah: And the other thing that I think is important – we’ve talked about this in prior episodes – is that we also get that confirmation from Sirius from his own time in Azkaban saying that the Death Eaters that are there are not very happy with people like Karkaroff, who kind of sold himself for…
Kierra: Snitched.
Micah: Yep, exactly. Snitched. And there’s probably a few others like him we can we can reference here.
Eric: It’s just so wonderful, from a lifelong Sirius Black fan, to not only see Harry’s godfather be able to interact with him, that Harry gets to interact with him. I mean, this is the first real conversation they have since that amazing night when he escaped on Buckbeak. But the ability for Sirius to be able to use the information he has from being in Azkaban, very few people could tell you what it’s like in Azkaban and even fewer people could tell Harry relevant information that pertains to the plot of this year at Hogwarts. So it’s a wonderful and I think really feels organic way for this information to be conveyed to Harry and also for the world-building that’s being done. To have Sirius be able to be in the position where he can help Harry out is fantastic.
Laura: So speaking of helping Harry out and using the knowledge he has to help Harry be aware of how many former Death Eaters he might be around, I find it really curious that he doesn’t share anything about Snape here, because in the same trial that we see Karkaroff having a little bit later in the book, he names Snape as a former Death Eater. He tries to use that as collateral to get himself out of Azkaban; Dumbledore vouches for him in that instance. But I think it’s really interesting that Sirius here says, “Hey, this professor who you’ve only known for 30 seconds, because he’s at your school for the tournament, he used to be a Death Eater,” but “The guy who tried to get me the Dementor’s Kiss last year, and who has tormented you during school, is also a Death Eater.” I just find it really interesting that he doesn’t do that.
Eric: Laura, I think you’ve uncovered the biggest proof that Sirius has emotionally grown since childhood.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Laura: Good for him.
Eric: We always talk about how stunted Sirius is from that time in Azkaban, but given a chance to throw his school rival under the bus, he doesn’t take it, so I don’t know.
Laura: And he could.
Eric: I think for me, Snape has been vetted by Dumbledore. That’s what you said. It works; Sirius can’t…
Andrew: [imitating Dumbledore] “I trust him. What can I say?”
Eric: Yeah, he might feel like it’s not his place to reveal that sort of thing, but if it were to protect Harry, he absolutely would. But yeah, I think it’s just… given how heated things got between Snape and the Marauders at the end of the last book, I think Sirius is just taking this moment to set it out. If Snape were at all guilty, Sirius surely has the confidence that Dumbledore would be getting to the bottom of it. It has to be an outsider, which it is; it’s just not who we think it is.
Andrew: Kierra, I’m curious. Thinking back to reading this a couple months ago, did you have any prime suspects?
Kierra: I had a whole whiteboard. It’s probably over there.
Micah: Ooh.
[Andrew laughs]
Kierra: I had a whole whiteboard. I’m trying to think… I had Karkaroff. I had Moody. I’m trying to think who else? It was mainly just the new characters that pop into Goblet of Fire, because even though my suspicion, I never thought it was who it turned out to be. I just had a feeling like what you all said that it wasn’t somebody that’s been in the Hogwarts circle in the previous books. It had to be somebody different. Which it was, somebody I cried over.
[Andrew and Kierra laugh]
Andrew: Well, I mean, you were right about Mad-Eye, in a way.
Kierra: In a way? Oh, yeah!
[Andrew laughs]
Kierra: I remember screaming and everything! I said, “I knew it!” Everyone commented, “Just keep reading.”
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Kierra: I said, “Okay.”
Micah: Were you ever suspicious of Ludo?
Kierra: Yeah! Briefly. He was on my list, too, briefly, but in the end, I want to say after a while I just forgot about it.
Andrew: [laughs] Aw, Ludo doesn’t want to hear that he’s forgettable.
Laura: He is, kind of.
Andrew: He is, yeah.
Kierra: Well, wasn’t he the one that kept helping Harry Potter out?
Eric and Micah: It’s Bagman.
Kierra: That’s why he was on my radar.
Andrew: So Sirius also believes that someone attacked Moody the night before, and here’s more evidence that maybe it could be Moody or an imposter. Sirius believes that someone attacked Moody the night before he started at Hogwarts and tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts, and he talks about Bertha, and Harry and Sirius wonder if she told Voldemort about the Triwizard Tournament after she was lured into a trap. Now, there’s also some foreshadowing here, maybe. The line goes, “Mad-Eye’s heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn’t mean he can’t still spot the real thing.” And that caught my eye just thinking about Mad-Eye being an imposter, not the real thing.
Micah: I like it. Yeah, and it’s amazing how spot on Sirius is here. It’s just like… it’s kind of similar to Prisoner of Azkaban where he’s telling the truth, but nobody believes him. Now he’s telling the truth, but he’s not in a position to talk to anybody because he’s still on the run. Who is he going to share this theory with, right? He’s actually 100% on the ball, but who is he going to go to? He can’t go to the Ministry. Maybe he can go to Dumbledore.
Andrew: But he’s thinking it’s Karkaroff, or at least he thinks he…
Micah: He is, but all the other stuff he has right. Everything about Bertha Jorkins is on the nose. I don’t know; maybe Dumbledore already has this intel, knowing him, but I don’t know.
Andrew: Yeah. What I find interesting about these… well, I mean, some of it was correct, but he’s blaming Karkaroff. It’s interesting that Sirius is blaming the wrong person when Sirius was blamed as the wrong person previously.
Eric: That’s interesting. Maybe it’s the thing where you’re like, “Well, I know I was in Azkaban prison, and I know I was innocent, but surely there’s not two innocent people in Azkaban.”
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: Everyone else, to Sirius, is an inmate, is a bad person; he’s the only good guy, so it challenges that worldview to picture Karkaroff as anything other than a loyal Death Eater still to this day.
Andrew: We’ve talked a little bit today about if Dumbledore… what were other adults and faculty thinking at this time? Did they also think it was Karkaroff? Did they think it was, I don’t know, Ludo Bagman? I’m wondering what’s going on in Dumbledore’s mind right now.
Laura: I think he’s keeping an eye on him, just like he keeps an eye on everything that happens at Hogwarts. I mean, he remembers… and I have to think that for other members of the faculty who remember the first war, they’re probably a little uneasy being around this person. And honestly, we could look at a number of historical examples of people who “learn the error of their ways” and changed their perspectives, changed their tune, and went over to the light side, as it were. And I mean, some of them are still very much members of society today, which can be a little bit unsettling. But I think, again, that’s another way that these books are taking examples of things that happen in real life and putting them in the story. It makes it so much easier to resonate with.
Andrew: I wonder if there’s a feeling of being stuck between a rock and a hard place because there’s no evidence to convict Karkaroff or anyone else, so it’s sort of just business as usual until the answers are unearthed. But it’s still pretty messed up that it is business as usual, as something very strange is afoot.
Kierra: I also feel like with Dumbledore, he’s like a life teacher or a life coach. He lets the students or people do what they’re doing while also overseeing them, and then when they do need help or when it is time for him to step in, he steps in.
Andrew: Yes.
Kierra: But yeah, just because people might not think he doesn’t know what’s going on. I feel like he’s always observing; he always knows what’s going on, but not every second of every moment does he need to be there or does he need to be telling you his theories. That’s why he is the headmaster.
Andrew: It’s almost like he’s letting them live and learn themselves, instead of…
Kierra: Yeah, until he feels like he needs to step in to help.
Laura: You’re right on the money.
Eric: It’s really interesting how Dumbledore’s strategy mirrors that of previous years; the Chamber of Secrets can be open, people can be nearly dying, and he’s like, [imitating Dumbledore] “Let’s wait it out.”
[Andrew and Kierra laughs]
Eric: It’s interesting.
Micah: You were talking about how Karkaroff was there. I think it allows Dumbledore to watch the moves of a former Death Eater at a time where there’s been significant Death Eater activity, right? Going back to the Quidditch World Cup. What better way than to have a former Death Eater in your own presence? You can monitor all his moves, and this goes back to what we were talking about with Hagrid and Maxime; he’s got somebody on each of these headmasters that are in from foreign schools, because I think we learn later on Snape has been tailing, Moody has been tailing Karkaroff to some extent, so he’s got eyes everywhere, to Kierra’s point. He knows what’s going on in his school; he just lets it happen, which, I mean, that’s a whole other conversation.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Is it better? Is it worse? It’s worse, right? But if he did have any concrete proof, I think he would have requested a different person to represent Durmstrang. They’ve got to have a deputy in charge.
Micah: Or maybe not. I mean, he likes the drama, Eric.
Andrew: He loves mess.
Micah: He does.
Andrew: Loves it. Dumble-drama. It’s like a “Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer” type of thing, Micah, the point that you’re making.
Kierra and Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Keep your enemies so close that they could strike their intended target at any point if they wanted to.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: That’s quite close.
Andrew: And if they do, well, you know it was them.
Laura: Well, I think he’s probably thinking if Karkaroff is indeed secretly conspiring to help Voldemort, that at least he can keep an eye on him at Hogwarts. If he’s all the way in Bulgaria or wherever it is that Durmstrang is located, he’s not going to be able to keep a tab on what any underground Death Eaters are up to, so I think this benefits Dumbledore in a few different ways to have Karkaroff here.
Andrew: All right, well, Sirius is about to tell Harry how to defeat the dragon when Ron comes downstairs, boo. He’s been wondering where Harry was, and tensions, as if they weren’t bad enough, now they’re at an all-time high because Harry just lost some good intel on how to defeat this terrifying dragon, and they don’t try to make amends this evening. So yeah, as if Harry didn’t have enough reason to be mad at Ron, now he missed out on dragon-fighting strategizing thanks to him. It’s just a downer of a end to the chapter.
Eric: Yeah. And Harry is very witty in this moment. He’s very upset with Ron, and he even… after two chapters of the book saying that Harry wants to hit Ron in some way or another, he actually chucks one of the “Potter stinks” badges at him, hits his face, and then says, “Oh, maybe it’ll scar. Isn’t that you what you want?”
Laura: Oof.
Eric: But as good of a line as it is, and I think it’s one of the best lines that Harry ever says, you can really sense the pain behind it. You can really sense how Harry is trying to communicate that it is not an honor to have a scar, it is not something anyone would really actually want, and you’re a moron for thinking that. And so Harry is lashing out. Yes, he’s witty about it, but you can see the pain as a reader. I think your heart breaks in this moment.
Andrew: Well, yeah. And I mean, the scar brings him a lot of unwanted attention. People just automatically know who he is when they see that scar. Their eyes go to that scar; it’s just like… he just needs to cover it up with makeup. I think that’s the only way he’ll be able to get past this. But Harry doesn’t get to speak with Sirius again before the first task, but Sirius does later share what he was planning on giving Harry in terms of how to defeat the dragon, and it was going to be a [struggles with pronunciation] Conjunctiviss… I should have practiced this before.
Laura: Conjunctivitis.
Andrew: Conjunctivitis Curse, as a dragon’s eyes are its weakest point. Of course, Harry is able to defeat the dragon himself, however, Krum does use this curse himself, and we learn that in Chapter 23, “The Yule Ball.”
Odds & Ends
Andrew: So one odd and end I just wanted to address: We do get Rita Skeeter’s piece from the Daily Prophet here. It was crazy inaccurate – you can see why Rita brought him into the cupboard to interview him – and just another reminder of how shame should be brought down on the Daily Prophet. Kierra, we’ve been talking about this a lot. She apparently doesn’t have editors at the newspaper; she could publish whatever she wants.
Kierra: Yeah, I mean, she definitely doesn’t care. Even if she did have an editor, she’ll send it to print.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Kierra: It just shows that also… because isn’t there nowadays you have to have proof of what you’re saying, or you have to use the word “alleged”?
Laura: Right.
Kierra: So at that time with her newspaper, you can just say whatever you want. And it’s crazy because everyone will believe it, knowing that it’s Rita Skeeter and she likes to go… her stories are very outrageous. But like they were saying, Ron’s mom read the Prophet and was weary and worried about Harry, even though she knows that Rita Skeeter has told lies and been absurd about everyone in the Hogwarts world.
Andrew: Yeah. She just sucks on that Quick Quotes Quill to get started, and then she gets to say whatever she wants, which is…
Kierra: Somebody needs to take that quill from her.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Kierra: But it’s okay; my cousin Hermione handled business at the end.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: She does.
Laura: Oh, I can’t wait to get there. That must have been so fun, by the way, as a reader, as someone reading it for the first time. Getting to that point in the book, I remember feeling so gratified.
Kierra: Yeah, because it honestly happened, what, the last three, four, or five pages, so I was like, “What’s going to happen with Rita? What’s going to happen?” And then knowing that Hermione did what she did, it just made me so proud too.
Andrew: [laughs] “That’s my cousin right there.”
Kierra: She was like, “Don’t worry.” Yeah, I was like, “That’s my cousin.”
Laura: We’re big Hermione fans here at the show, so you’re in good company.
MVP of the Week
Andrew: All right, well, it’s time for our MVP of the Week awards.
[MVP of the Week music plays]
Andrew: And I touched on this a little bit earlier: I’m giving mine to Hermione for being able to ignore hurtful insults basically to her face from Pansy Parkinson, and just a chapter after Snape insulted her. And like Kierra brought up, all the other drama that’s going on in her life, she has to deal with these attacks too.
Eric: I’m going to absolutely give my MVP to the makers of these “Potter stinks” badges.
[Andrew gasps]
Eric: The Gryffindors spend real time in this chapter trying to dismantle or get them to say something different, and whoever made those badges seems to only make it worse, so they must have done some real good anti-tamper proof spells. It’s real good.
Micah: I’m going to give it to Charlie Weasley for holding down the first task dragons by himself, and probably not getting paid enough by the Ministry to do it.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: True that. True that. I’m going to give mine to Hagrid. He gets two for the price of one this chapter: He gets to go on a date, and he does Harry a solid.
Kierra: Wow.
Laura: Good for you, Hagrid.
Kierra: Yeah. I mean, I was going to say Hagrid as well, just for putting my boy Harry on, because God knows what would have happened if he would have saw the dragon the day of the task.
Laura: Yes.
Kierra: It would have been over.
Andrew: You said earlier Hagrid couldn’t hold water, so I guess he’s good for something. [laughs]
Kierra: He is good for something, just like my grandma.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: What?! Anything you want to share about your grandma? Never mind.
Kierra: Maybe. How long you got?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: If you have any feedback about today’s discussion, you can contact us by emailing or sending a voice memo recorded on your phone to MuggleCast@gmail.com, or by using our phone number, which is 1-920-3-MUGGLE. That’s 1-920-368-4453. Get your feedback in now, because next week’s episode is a Muggle Mail episode; we’ll be reading feedback we have received from listeners about our recent discussions.
Quizzitch
Andrew: And now, Kierra, it’s time for our weekly Harry Potter trivia game, Quizzitch!
[Quizzitch music plays]
Kierra: I didn’t know about this.
Andrew: No, no, we’re not we’re not quizzing you. Don’t worry. Don’t worry.
Kierra: Oh, okay.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You just sit back and enjoy.
Kierra: I was like, it’s only my third day out here…
Eric: You’re in the hot seat. [laughs] Kierra, for $1 million dollars…
Kierra: Oh, now I’m all ears.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: Now you’re talking.
Andrew: Grandma is finally going to be proud.
Kierra: [laughs] Literally.
Eric: Oh my God. Okay, last week’s question: In honor of the Hungarian Horntail chapter, we were asking what is the capital of Hungary? Trivia question relating to the chapter title. The correct answer is Budapest, or as some pronounce it, Budapesht. Kierra – be honest – did you know that?
Kierra: Oh, baby, I don’t even know where I’m at, and I’m in the US.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Honestly, same. This is what… I will admit, I didn’t know it when I came up with the question either.
Andrew: Normally, these are more Harry Potter-themed questions, not geography. [laughs]
Eric: Every once in a while, I love to throw a little bit of a curveball, because I do believe that having a well-rounded portfolio of information is good for…
Andrew: We’re educating our listeners, right.
Kierra: That curveball would have smacked me.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Laura: Let’s be honest, we’re educating ourselves too.
Eric: Absolutely.
Andrew: Next week will be a biology-themed lesson.
Eric: Okay, well, anyway, correct answers were in fact submitted by many people, including a Pint of Purple Pygmy Puffs; Buff Daddy; Carter, aged 10, and Margaret, aged mom; Stuck in LA traffic longer than an entire episode of MuggleCast; Colonel Fubster has submitted to Quizzitch – wow – Dobby Wanted Socks, Now Dobby Wants Blood… okay…
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: … Dumbledore’s audacity; Elizabeth K.; George Ezra’s golden grand piano… thank you for that reference. Hagrid’s broken comb; Hannah D.; The Expert Wrackspurt Professor; Hermione Granger or Hermione Danger; Jiggly Jane; the Banana Republic Harry stopped at before the Battle of Hogwarts…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: … Wonky Faints; Tofu Tom; Micah’s newlywed…
Andrew: Oooh.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: … Stu-pee-fy; Gray; and Meer-anda. Miranda. That’s… it was weird how I said Miranda just then. It’s probably Miranda.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Thank you to all who submitted. It was actually a really robust week for Quizzitch; over 50 people entered. And Kierra, if you haven’t caught on yet, people really love making up usernames or fake names to submit.
Kierra: Clearly. Dobby Wants Blood?
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I’m going to be thinking about that one for a while. So here is next week’s Quizzitch question: What class does Cedric Diggory have next when Harry catches up with him in the school corridor to tell him about the dragons? Submit your answer to us over on the MuggleCast website. Go to MuggleCast.com and click on “Quizzitch” from the main nav, or you can just type in your handy dandy URL MuggleCast.com/Quizzitch.
Andrew: Kierra, thank you so much for joining us on today’s podcast. It was so great having you.
Kierra: Thank you for having me! This was fun. Quite insightful. Love it.
Andrew: Yeah, glad you had a good time. Where can our listeners find you? Can you plug your handles again, please?
Kierra: Baby, you can catch me all over the world. Hello.
[Everyone laughs]
Kierra: Mister Worldwide. [laughs] You can find me on TikTok at @KierraLewis75. Like I said, I’m either screaming, crying, or chucking a book, hello.
[Andrew laughs]
Kierra: And you can find me on Instagram as well; @Kierra_Lewis1. And I’ve actually just started uploading hour-long Harry Potter vlogs on my YouTube channel, so you can find me on there as Kierra Lewis as well.
Andrew: Awesome. We’ll have links in the show notes for listeners. And yeah, you just uploaded the Goblet of Fire one today, I think, right?
Kierra: Yeah, it was 80 minutes long. I was so worried that people would tune out, and people were like, “Why is this show so short? Make it longer.” I was like, “Say less. I’ll make it two hours.”
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: That’s the thing about Potterheads, honestly. We’ve had times where our show, we feel like it’s gone really long, but they’re hungry for more. That’s the really special thing about the Harry Potter community, is there’s always something to talk about. So yeah, keep the 80-minute YouTube videos coming, because I know your audience loves them.
Kierra: Oh, 100%. Yeah.
Micah: Can I ask one more question? So putting aside Harry, Ron, and Hermione, do you have a character that you really like at this point in the series?
Kierra: Well, it’s like a small squad, but I would say one of my favorite side characters, whenever they’re in the book, I really love Fred and George. Just their banter and how they always are shaking it up, whether it be with their mom or just at Hogwarts. And then daddy Snape. Love me a Snape. Even though he hates my cousin, I love him.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That’s family, right? I mean…
Laura: Eh, true.
Kierra: I really just like his sassiness, because the first book I didn’t like him, and then as he started to point out things, I was like, “It’s kind of true; my cousin does get away with a lot of stuff.”
[Laura laughs]
Kierra: So I can understand that from his POV. And then in this book, he said something to my cousin Harry; it was just like, “Watch your drink,” or “Next time I might slip something in it.” I don’t know what it was, but it just made me laugh because I was like, “This grown man is this bitter with like, a 13-year-old.”
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: Right!
Kierra: I like the pettiness. I wouldn’t like it in real life, but it’s just humorous to read about.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, I think he was willing to poison him in that chapter, actually. [laughs]
Kierra: And he was like, “Your bite-sized fame,” when Harry was in the Daily Prophet. I was like, “Dang.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: So based on this, I have to ask, Kierra, what’s your House?
Kierra: I’m a big G! I’m a Gryffindor!
Laura: Oh my gosh!
Kierra: Yeah, a lot of people thought I was going to be a Hufflepuff, but yeah, I’m Gryffindor.
Laura: Really?
Andrew: Okay, good for you.
Laura: See, this is perfect; we have a really balanced panel today on the show. It’s pretty rare that we end up having a Gryffindor join us, so…
Kierra: Really! What are y’all? Oh, Slytherins? Hold on, I’ve gotta get out of here.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I’m a Slytherin!
Micah: Just Andrew.
Andrew: Yeah, Slytherin. Micah and Laura are Ravenclaws, and Eric is a Hufflepuff.
Eric: Recovering Gryffindor.
Andrew: And then we have you.
Kierra: Which is actually funny, because Andrew, I feel like you were giving me Hufflepuff vibes.
Andrew: Oh, really? Okay.
Laura: Ohhh.
Andrew: Well, see, I used to be a Gryffindor, then after a breakup, I converted to Slytherin and I’ve just been here ever since.
Kierra: It makes a lot of sense now.
Andrew: Yeah, right? Right?
[Andrew and Kierra laugh]
Laura: He decided to be a baddie.
Kierra: Literally a baddie. A Slytherin baddie.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Poisoning people, telling them they’ve got gigantic teeth… no, I do none of that.
Kierra: Everything.
Andrew: [laughs] So listeners, visit MuggleCast.com for transcripts, and our social media links, our full episode archive, our favorite episodes, and to contact us. And if you enjoy the show and think other Muggles would, too, tell a friend about the show. And last but not least, the show is brought to you by Muggles like you. We don’t have any fancy corporate or network funding; we’re just proudly an independent podcast. So you can support us by tapping into the show on Apple Podcasts and subscribing there, and you’ll get bonus MuggleCast installments to thank you for your support, or you can go to Patreon.com/MuggleCast and you’ll get those bonus MuggleCast installments plus access to our livestreams, our planning docs, a new physical gift every year, a video message from one of the four of us, and more. So that does it for this week’s episode. Thank you again, Kierra, so much for joining us. We were so thrilled to have you on, and we’ll continue watching your Harry Potter journey. I’m more invested than ever now to watch you go through these remaining books.
Laura: Same.
Kierra: Oh, yeah. I’m at the start of Order of the Phoenix; I have it over there. I’m about to start it right after this.
Andrew: Awesome!
Laura: Oh my gosh.
Andrew: That’s my favorite book, so I am so jealous. I’ll live vicariously through you. [laughs]
Kierra: Okay.
Eric: And don’t hesitate just to stop and breathe and talk about where you think it’s going to go, because that’s something that I definitely… we all got to enjoy the speculation part because there were so many years between books, so take your time with it and ask yourself, “How do I think this is going to end?”
Kierra: Will do, will do.
Andrew: Thank you, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Laura: I’m Laura.
Kierra: And I’m Kierra, and you’re watching Disney Channel.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Bye, everyone. [laughs]