Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #665, A Face Only Bellatrix Could Love (GOF Chapters 32 and 33, ‘Flesh, Blood and Bone’ and ‘The Death Eaters’)
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: And this week, witness the return of Lord Voldemort himself after 13 years without a proper body. And to celebrate this rebirthing party – his words, not ours…
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: … we’ll be discussing two chapters of Goblet of Fire this week, Chapter 32, “Flesh, Blood, and Bone,” and Chapter 33, “The Death Eaters.”
Micah: Robe me, Andrew. Robe me.
Andrew: Oh.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: That was a visual I didn’t want to think about. Will they do that in the Harry Potter TV show? Hmm. Micah and Eric, did you have a good time in Portland?
Eric: We sure did. LeakyCon this year was a lot of fun; we had all of the events that we previously intro’d on the show, and really just a great, great weekend. Lot of fun, right, Micah?
Micah: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. A lot of different panels that we did with some of our friends in the podcasting world, including Fantasy Fangirls, Pottercast, and Potterless/The Newest Olympian. So it was great to meet Nicole and Lexi in person after doing a couple of episodes with them, and of course, we know the folks from Pottercast; we’re old friends with them, and Mike Schubert as well. But it was also great to do the MuggleCast meetup and meet our youngest listener in person.
Andrew: Youngest?!
Micah: Youngest.
Eric: Yes, yes. Baby Seb.
Laura: Aww.
Andrew: Oh, that’s sweet.
Laura: That is adorable. I’m so jealous.
Eric: Evidently, his mother would play the show in womb, in utero, to have…
Andrew: The parent who… what’s the parent’s name? Do you want to share?
Micah: Miranda.
Laura: Yeah, Miranda, from…
Eric: Miranda and Matt, so, lovely. Yeah, and it was great to spend so much time with Chloé. We have actually recorded a number of the sessions that we did in various forms, and so patrons can look forward to seeing some of that release in the coming weeks, and otherwise, it was just really good to see everybody in person, so thanks to everybody who made themselves known.
Micah: For folks who weren’t aware, this is the last official LeakyCon, so it was a lot of fun to close out the conference with Pottercast and Chris Rankin and getting a chance to reminisce on all of the fun that we’ve gotten up to – the rivalry, so to speak – over the last close to 20 years. And next year will be Enchanticon, taking place in St. Louis in August, so they are branching out. They are growing. They’re evolving, much like we did with What the Hype?!
Chapter by Chapter: Seven-Word Summary
Andrew: All right, well, without further ado, let’s get into Chapter by Chapter, and this week, we’re discussing, like I said, Chapters 32 and 33 of Goblet of Fire. And yes, we will do two seven-word summaries this week.
Eric: You know what’s funny about that, Andrew, is that Chapter 32 is barely seven words long.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Yeah, that’s why we’re doing two chapters. It’s not just because of the rebirthing party.
Eric: No, no, you looked this up earlier; isn’t this the shortest chapter in the Harry Potter books?
Andrew: Oh, I didn’t look that up. I just read it and was like, “Oh, this is short. Maybe we should do two.” [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, well, it’s seven pages, so let’s see what we can do here.
Andrew: Okay. All right.
[Seven-Word Summary music plays]
Andrew: Cedric…
Eric: … falls…
Laura: … to…
Micah: … his…
Andrew: … untimely…
Eric: … sad…
Laura: … demise.
Andrew and Micah: Aw.
Eric: [imitating Amos Diggory] “My boy!”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That should have been the whole seven-word summary. “My boy, my boy, my boy, my.”
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Eric: It’s true.
Andrew: “My boy, my boy, my big boy.”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: “My little boy.”
Eric: Oh, wow.
Micah: I did look this up, though, in terms of the shortest chapter: Not counting the epilogue, the shortest chapter is Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 20, “The Dementor’s Kiss.” 2,018 words.
Eric: Compared to this chapter, which has an unknown number of words.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Eric: Okay, here we go. So as we mentioned in the seven-word summary, this is the moment where Cedric Diggory dies. It’s Harry’s first brush with death that feels real; he does not really remember the death of his parents, even though he has experienced it when he is in the presence of Dementors. But Cedric died as he lived, a hero; his last moments are spent lifting Harry from the ground. They both feel kind of uneasy; Cedric suggests they draw their wands, and there’s sort of a distraction here because as Wormtail holding Volde-thing comes closer, Harry’s scar begins to pain him, and he doubles over. And I’m guessing that in those very, very last moments of Cedric’s, he was probably crouched over Harry, trying to help, trying to see what was wrong, and doesn’t see the spell coming.
Andrew: Yeah. That is a sad thought that his final moments might be trying to help Harry one last time.
Micah: A true Hufflepuff.
Andrew: Aww.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. And I wonder, too, because Cedric was a little bit wary about their surroundings, and he did suggest they take their wands out, that… not to put everything on Harry, but if Harry’s scar hadn’t exploded at that time, do you think Cedric would have had a little bit of defensive magic about him, that maybe he would have survived the initial attempt to cast the death curse at him?
Andrew: Maybe, but I don’t know. Voldemort had a plan and he was going to see it through, so even if he bought a few extra minutes or seconds, what’s the difference?
Micah: Though, Wormtail is very jittery this entire chapter, so I wonder how he even had the ability to cast the Killing Curse. He’s walking with baby Voldy in one hand and bouncing him up and down, making sure he’s feeling comfortable…
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Micah: … and then in the other hand, he takes out his wand – or takes out Voldemort’s wand, I should say – and kills Cedric. It just feels like not something he necessarily would be capable of doing. I don’t picture Wormtail as being able to multitask.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: No, that’s a good point. This is a high stakes night for them. And yeah, he’s always a Nervous Nellie, too, but he’s got Voldemort… his life is on the line, too, if he screws this up, so he has to make sure this all works.
Eric: I assume you’re referring to, Micah, the thing Bellatrix tells Harry, “You have to mean it” to get one of the three Unforgivables. And yeah, I think Peter is just so desperate at this moment that he does very much mean it. He’s like, “Yes, I need to kill this thing, this kid.” The other thing I would say regarding that is that Pettigrew… I always kind of related why he could do it to why Snape can do it, because they’re… you don’t have to have, necessarily, hate in your heart; you just have to have that force of will aspect. I think that’s what Bellatrix means when she says you have to mean it, and we see a lot of the Death Eaters just be able to just cast those types of curses, and I think it comes from practice, as sad as that is.
Laura: And Wormtail doesn’t want to die, so I think that’s all the motivation he needs.
Andrew: Yeah. What stood out to me about this scene is that now that Harry has witnessed the death of Cedric, or any human, as an adult, it does – well, a young adult, a kid, whatever – it sets up his ability to see Thestrals in Order of the Phoenix. And as we learned later in an interview with the author, the difference here is that Harry did see his parents die, but he did not understand what it meant to die when he was a baby. He did not understand the impact, what that is; he didn’t feel the emotional impact. So this is Harry’s first time – as not a baby – witnessing death, and so this, of course, sets up Order of the Phoenix and Thestrals.
Eric: Absolutely. We know that this moment will haunt him; he carries some guilt about it as well. Could he have been better? Could he have done better? But really, the big thing for me is a point here by Micah about Voldemort’s use of phrase.
Micah: Right, because to me, this moment showcases how little regard for human life Voldemort actually has, because he refers to Cedric as the spare. Not another human being, just somebody who’s in the way of him achieving his ultimate goal. And this is actually a turning point in the series; it’s Harry’s introduction into the real world where things don’t always happen for good reasons and aren’t always fair, and it just got real really, really quickly for him. I don’t even know that he’s able to fully process Cedric’s death in the moment; that’s why we see it play out over the course of Order of the Phoenix.
Andrew: Yeah, no, absolutely not. He didn’t even know he was about to be facing Voldemort tonight! I mean, this is a lot to process in one night.
Eric: [laughs] This was not on his bingo card for how this day would go.
Andrew: No. He thought he was going to wrap up this Triwizard Tourny with Cedry, and they were going to have a nice party, and that was going to be the end of that.
Laura: Cedry? [laughs]
Eric: Cedry. But it is these moments… these two chapters go really hand in hand together. You’re faced with this impossible revelation here, and Harry is put in another situation where he has to escape pretty much by the skin of his teeth, and it’s pretty wild. But in the meantime, we are going to get more world-building, including something that I guess I forgot the book really leans into, except the state that Voldemort is currently in. Voldemort is not a looker, and here’s a quote…
Andrew: Ouch, ouch.
Eric: Yeah, sorry, sorry. Maybe Ralph Fiennes’s Voldemort there’s something there, but not in child form.
Micah: Don’t tell Bellatrix.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: What? Oh, pfft, yeah.
Micah: She thinks he’s definitely a looker.
Eric: Okay, a face only Bellatrix could love. Here’s the quote from the book…
Andrew: [laughs] That’s a good episode title.
Eric: “It was as though Wormtail had flipped over a stone and revealed something ugly, slimy, and blind – but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face – no child alive ever had a face like that – flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes.” This is terrifying. And if you’ve been playing at home, you know that this is the form that Voldemort is now in after 13 whole entire years of being blasted from his body and literally clinging on to life – he’s about to tell the story of how that all worked – but this is the most that he could do, which goes to show how close to death I think he was, but it also shows how far from anything good in the world Voldemort is.
Andrew: He is described as like a baby in some ways, and I like the idea of him looking like a baby, because it is a rebirth as he uses in this chapter or the next one. Symbolically, I think it really works having him in this state, and I think this also just illustrates how badly Voldemort needs what’s about to happen to happen. He needs to put together this potion with Pettigrew’s help to bring him back to life, because after 13 years, to your point, this is the best he’s come up with.
Laura: And I think it’s fair to say, too, that it’s not just a baby, but it’s a perversion of what a baby is supposed to look like, and I think that’s what makes it so uncomfortable. And I always interpreted this – and as well as the way he shows up at King’s Cross in Deathly Hallows, where, again, he’s in a similar fetal type state – I think it’s representative of the remains of a vessel whose soul was damaged beyond repair. To your point, Eric, about this, this is the after effect of everything that’s…
Eric: It’s an abomination.
Laura: Yeah, exactly.
Micah: And he’s been sucking on snake venom for the last couple of months, too, which…
Laura: Oh, maybe that’s why he’s scaly.
Micah: … probably contributes to his look, yeah. And building off of what you said, Andrew, some of the symbolism here, could it be that it was a baby that ultimately destroyed Voldemort that night in Godric’s Hollow, so he takes a similar form until he is again reborn?
Laura: I love that.
Andrew: Yeah, me too.
Eric: So we get something like a recipe for how to rebirth a Dark Lord…
Andrew: Oooh.
Eric: … and we’re going to have some fun with this, yeah. It’s funny because in Harry Potter, all spells and things are Latin, until they’re not, unless they’re not, and this is an instance in which it’s not at all. Everything that’s done is done in English. Pettigrew is speaking to basically no one, except Harry is there, so I guess Harry gets it. But okay, so there’s three ingredients to the process of making a Dark Lord. Number one, bone of the father, unknowingly given. Or should we…?
Andrew: We have to say it in a fun way, like a curse.
Eric: Oh, okay, here we go. Okay, I’ll go first, and you guys do the others. You ready?
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: [in a creepy voice] “Bone of the father, unknowingly given.”
Andrew: Yeah. I’m thinking of like, the Wicked Witch in Snow White when she’s making her potion or whatever.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: [imitating the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz] “And your little dog too!”
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: There we go. So as far as this goes, he also states – Wormtail does – what it’s for, what each object is for. The bone of the father, unknowingly given, will “renew your son.” So why do we think that the bone needs to be unknowingly given? Because we seem to understand that it has as much to do with the ingredient as it does with this circumstance. So in order for this to work, the dad can’t know his bone is being taken?
Laura: I think that means he has to be dead.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: Has to be dead, and it’s almost a betrayal, too. So you’re betraying people in your family to bring yourself back to life; I think there’s something there with the betrayal.
Eric: Oh. Yeah, you’re desecrating remains. Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: You’re kind of reinventing yourself; you’re recreating a family member.
Eric: Yeah, because I keep thinking of it as a DNA thing, like Polyjuice; you need a bit of the person. So it’s like, “Oh, he needs the bone of his dad, because it’s his family line or whatever.” But I love this idea of you’re committing another horrible act to do this.
Micah: I actually wondered about this a little bit in terms of why it was necessary for him to use his father’s bone, given that the magic comes from his mother’s side of the family.
Eric: Ohhh. Voldemort’s, you mean.
Laura and Micah: Yeah.
Laura: I mean old, ancient Dark magic like this is bound to be extremely…
Eric: Sexist?
Laura: … patriarchal.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: So that’s probably why, Micah.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: Who wants to read ingredient two?
Andrew: I will. Eric’s voice was very good; it’s hard to live up to that.
Eric: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Andrew: So I don’t know what to do after that, but… [in a spooky voice] “Flesh of the servant, willingly given!”
Eric: Hey, that was excellent!
Andrew: Just going the opposite direction.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Very good.
Laura: Good job.
Eric: Gee willikers! I’m spooked!
Andrew: [laughs] And so this is to “revive” the master.
Eric: Here’s a question: Wormtail cuts his hand off for this, but it grows a whole body’s worth of flesh. So we know it’s pale, but where’s the math mathing on this? How much flesh of the servant is needed, and why?
Micah: Does that really matter, though? It’s not like you’re going to take a whole human body and dump it into the cauldron.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: It’s like, you’ve got the bones, you’ve got the flesh, and you’ve got the blood.
Eric: Little bit of this, little bit of that.
Andrew: Yeah, their powers combined.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: It’s like how bread rises; that’s what’s happening here. The skin, the body all rises and forms the final product.
Micah: And it’s all from people that he despises too.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Eric: We see that kind of come into play. I’ll tell you guys, when I first read this moment in particular, Wormtail cutting his own hand off, I gasped. And it wasn’t because of the self-mutilation, it wasn’t because of the body horror aspect, but it was because the hand that gets cut off is Wormtail’s right hand, the one that’s missing a finger, i.e. if anybody ever found Wormtail, his hand would be the one that proves that it’s really him, and would set Sirius Black free! Now that his hand is cut off and gone, we’re not going to be able to prove that Wormtail really is the OG Wormtail without that missing finger hand. And so I gasped because there it goes, the bit of evidence we had to save Sirius’s name. That’s when I knew that that was not going to happen in these books.
Andrew: Aww.
Laura: It’s a tragedy. But Eric, do you think that Wormtail might have intentionally chosen that hand for that reason? If his missing finger wasn’t a dead giveaway to his identity, would he have chosen to maim himself in a less terrifying, horrifying way?
Eric: Yeah, if he’s like, “I can get something out of this, more anonymity.” We do find out later in this chapter, or later in the next chapter, that he was spotted and outed basically by Bertha Jorkins; she recognized him in public, so the fewer identifying marks on him the better. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I mean, unless he’s a lefty, there’s no real reason to cut off your own right hand. Maybe Voldemort promised he would grow it back. But yeah, I think it’s a good call. I think it’s smart. And plus, if he cut off his left hand, he’d be one-handed and only have four fingers. [laughs]
Andrew: Well, so that’s what I was kind of thinking in that direction. He’s killing two birds with one stone here, Wormtail is, because by sacrificing that hand with the missing finger, Voldemort will give him a brand new one, and then all is well.
Micah: I just think he did it because he wanted to be known as Voldemort’s right hand man.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, that makes sense, too. [laughs] Eric with the fake laugh.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: It was genuine, but now it’s not anymore.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: So the third and final ingredient, Laura, do you want to take this?
Andrew: Oooh.
Laura: Sure. Man, I’m not good at this stuff.
Andrew: We believe in you.
Laura: Okay, all right. [in a hardcore voice] “Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken.”
Andrew: [also in a hardcore voice] Whoa, that was so cool.
Laura: [laughs] Shut up.
Eric: Oh my God, what’s it for?
Laura: It’s to “resurrect your foe.”
Eric: So the interesting thing surrounding this ingredient is that Wormtail has been asking Voldemort all year to use someone else. Anyone else at all could have actually been used for this stage; it does not need to be Harry. So do we think that it all pretty much would have been the same if he had used anyone else’s blood? Except for, of course, removing the magic protection. If your goal is to get a body back, it would still work, right?
Andrew: Yeah, and I think that’s noted in here. Doesn’t Voldemort say, “I want Harry’s blood”? “I want his, because he’s the one who brought me down.”
Laura: It is interesting, though, because the wording here is “blood of the enemy,” and I mean, I think Voldemort has many enemies, but it says not blood of an enemy, it’s the enemy, and Harry is the enemy.
Andrew: Ohhh. Yeah, interesting.
Laura: So maybe Wormtail was just… maybe it was just wishful thinking on Wormtail’s part that it could have worked with someone else.
Eric: Yeah, it’s interesting because Voldemort says it needs to be somebody that hates him, but he’s got that list of people that probably qualify. But again, this is the non-consent aspect. This is the Dark Magic aspect of it, is you’ve taken something from somebody that wasn’t yours to take.
Micah: I just see Wormtail as extremely antsy and wanting to get the job done, and that’s probably why he’s like, “Take anybody, take anybody.”
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: But it could also have to do with the debt that Wormtail owes to Harry, and he probably doesn’t want Voldemort to find out about that.
Eric: Yeah, things are really sticky around Harry when it comes to that.
Micah: But I did want to pose a question, though, because you brought up how it says that it needed to be somebody that hated him: Does Harry actually hate Voldemort at this point in the series? Because I don’t think that he does. In the first two books, he likely fears him. In Book 3, Voldemort is pretty much MIA minus the ties to the Dementors. And in Book 4, Harry is more or less indifferent towards Voldemort right up until this point where I think he’s, much like Books 1 and 2, pretty much pooping his pants, afraid of what’s going on right now. [laughs] So I don’t think… hate is a very strong word; I just don’t think Harry, at 14 years old, hates Voldemort.
Andrew: He killed his parents, though. You’re leaving that part out. I mean, that’s another reason to hate Voldemort.
Eric: Yeah, I think he does. I think it’s a deep enough adversarial sort of thing.
Micah: Not enough buildup.
Andrew: [laughs] Not enough buildup.
Eric: We needed that chapter earlier in the year where Ron and Hermione walk into the Gryffindor tower and Harry is in a corner going, “I hate him. I hate him.”
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: And they’re like, “What’s up, Harry?” And he’s like, “I really just hate Voldemort.”
Andrew: He’s also been hearing since he became a wizard that Voldemort is the Darkest wizard of all time, huge threat… I agree with you; he’s afraid of him, too, but I think you can easily justify that Harry also hates him at this point.
Eric: Yeah, Voldemort stands for everything Harry doesn’t, or Harry stands for everything Voldemort doesn’t, and so I think there’s a natural hate aspect to it. But I mean, let’s look at the risk; they took a huge risk waiting for Harry. Voldemort, really, after 13 years of waiting, could have had his body back a long time ago. The beginning of this year.
Andrew: And he just killed Cedric! “He just killed my friend. That’s mean; I hate him now.”
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I mean, that was also kind of stupid, because if we’re to believe that Voldemort could pretty much use anyone who hated him, I think we can assume that Cedric hated him, [laughs] and Cedric could have literally been the spare. If it didn’t work with Harry, you have a backup.
Andrew: Backup blood.
Laura: Now they don’t.
[Ad break]
Chapter by Chapter: Seven-Word Summary
Eric: We ready to dive into Chapter 33, “The Death Eaters”?
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Bring it on.
[Seven-Word Summary music plays]
Micah: Loyalists…
Laura: … arrive…
Eric: … and…
Andrew: … worship…
Micah: … Voldemort’s…
Laura: … triumphant…
Eric: … revival.
Andrew: Woo!
Laura: Yay, we did it.
Andrew: I was hoping it was going to end with stinky feet. “Worship Voldemort’s stinky feet.”
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: That’s kind of what I was hoping for.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Isn’t that a movie-ism?
Micah: His nasty toenails? Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Yeah, they do kiss the hem of his robes.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Eric: But yes, so okay, here’s what happens. Here’s what you may have missed in between chapters. Voldemort presses Wormtail’s Dark Mark, and it calls the Death Eaters to him. Yeahhh.
Andrew: The bat phone.
Eric: But actually, Voldemort is so happy to be back in a body because it grew out of that cauldron, and he did need Wormtail to robe him, which was last week’s Quizzitch question.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: “Robe me, Wormtail.”
Laura: Awful.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. But Voldemort, I would feel… I understand this feeling. Voldemort is feeling chatty right now; he’s going to monologue for a real long time.
Andrew: He’s got a tight five coming up.
Eric: [laughs] What’s that?
Andrew: Oh, in stand-up comedy, you have a tight five, a tight ten that you can easily do on stage.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that. Okay, so here’s his tight five…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: He compares his own Muggle father to Harry’s Muggle-born mother… [laughs] except probably doesn’t get any laughs. But he says that both of them were useful in the end. Okay, rude. He also gives a little bit insight into his own father; he tells Harry that Tom Riddle, Sr. was intolerant of magic and rejected his mother when he found out she was a witch. To this I’m about to call bullshit, or like, wait a minute, Voldemort, because we kind of know a lot more, thanks to Book 6. And the whole situation with Merope putting Tom Riddle, Sr. in a love potion, it causing this huge scandal long ago when the handsome young suitor Tom ended up running off with Merope, how much of that do we think Voldemort knows and is simply cherry picking here when he tells Harry?
Laura: I don’t know if we ever fully get an answer to that question. I would think that Tom would have been able to figure out at least the broad strokes of the story, but whether he knows it or not, I think that it’s convenient for him to reject his Muggle father in this way, because it’s really the thing that drives him in his hatred of Muggles and his pursuit of wizard supremacy.
Eric: But… yeah.
Micah: What I love about this moment, though, is that he is admitting… and I guess this is prior to the Death Eaters arriving, right?
Eric: Technically, yeah.
Andrew: Shortly before.
Micah: Okay, so then that kind of invalidates my point, because otherwise he would be admitting in front of all of his followers that he is not a pure-blood.
Laura: Right.
Eric: I think young Tom Riddle in the diary in Chamber of Secrets also mentioned it, his half-blood status. Could be wrong there. But the thing is, he just tells Harry in this chapter that Tom Riddle, Sr. was intolerant of magic. That’s not technically true. Tolerant… that’s a little bit different than not liking the fact that magic was used on you to hoodwink you, to sire a child that you didn’t know about. I think it’s fair for Tom Senior to not enjoy that that happened to him, and I’m sure the entire Riddle family would have told the younger Voldemort when he came calling that his mother had hoodwinked or bewitched or whatever, and I think the shame of it would have, in fact, been what caused Voldemort to kill all of them. The book, meaning this book, opens with the Muggle police finding their bodies and the Killing Curse had been cast on all of them, so I just see Voldemort coming to the house trying to figure out, maybe get answers, “Father, why’d you leave me?”, that kind of thing, and just being met with a horror show of stories about how his mother was in the wrong, and I’m sorry, but that’s too much for any young mind to really, especially in Voldemort’s state, to take, and he killed them.
Laura: Well, and I think that they would have rejected him too. And I think if there was any kind of conversation had – if he didn’t just show up and point blank kill them without exchanging any words – I think as soon as they realized who he was, they wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with him, and I think that would have just fueled that fire that leads to him killing them.
Micah: And he wanted to erase any trace of his Muggle lineage, so that certainly plays into this as well.
Eric: Right. I just think it’s very Voldy to cherry pick the facts here.
Laura: Oh, for sure.
Eric: When he tells Harry, “Oh, my Muggle father, worthless; he wasn’t tolerant of magic,” you can’t really take that at face value.
Andrew: Speaking of family lineage, it struck me how Voldemort, of all people, is giving a little lesson on chosen family here…
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: … because the Death Eaters show up and he says, “Oh, look, Harry, my true -” in italics “- family returns,” basically saying, “I have a new family, and it’s my people here. This is my chosen family.”
Eric: Who rescued who, honestly?
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: The Death Eaters or Voldemort?
Andrew: The thing is, too, I mean, Voldemort is just so misguided. Even Voldemort’s chosen family didn’t choose him, and he wonders why none of them came to his aid sooner over the last 13 years. Even Wormtail wasn’t loyal; he came to Voldemort because he was afraid of his old friends.
Eric: Must be a pretty rude awakening to realize none of your family like you at all as a person. [laughs]
Micah: Yeah, and it goes back to the very top of the discussion when you were talking, Eric, about how Voldemort presses Wormtail’s Dark Mark, and it’s a bit of a pump fake because Wormtail in that moment believes that Voldemort is coming over to heal him, to replace his hand, but in fact, it is only to activate the Dark Mark, and it shows that Voldemort cares very little for people beyond what he can use them for.
Laura: I do love in this moment how Wormtail is like, “Oh, Master, thank you,” and Voldemort is like, “Girl, sit down.”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Sucks to suck. So here we go, moving on a little bit. Once all of them arrive, the Death Eaters take turns bowing and kissing the hem of Voldemort’s robes, aw.
Andrew: Aww.
Eric: And also, they had an assigned order in the circle, apparently. I don’t know if they drew straws or had numbers or whatever, but they assume their old positions, and there’s gaps in between in the circle, and Voldemort is able to identify from the gap. It’s on the buddy system or something. He realizes who’s not there, even though they’re all wearing hoods, just because of where they stand in line. It’s very cute.
Micah: I will say this is one of the most magicky moments in all of the Harry Potter series, because it’s very much… like, you have a circle, and you have a Dark Mark, and you’re calling…
Eric: There’s a cauldron.
Micah: Yeah, there’s a cauldron. It’s in a graveyard.
Andrew: A prayer circle type thing.
Micah: Yeah, it’s like a seance, almost, and it’s probably one of the only main moments where we get this Dark magic happening.
Andrew: [imitating Voldemort] “The Lestranges are missing at my five o’clock! Where are they?”
Micah: Laura Mallory must have just read this chapter and set her off.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Probably.
Eric: Yeah, maybe. After seeing some familiar names – Macnair, Lucius Malfoy – there are ultimately some names that we haven’t heard before, or at least I don’t remember hearing before. Avery, for instance, is so apologetic for not finding Voldemort that he steps forward and Voldemort Crucios him. But I was like, “Avery? Who’s this?” I remember it bothering me that these Death Eaters who weren’t even on my radar before can still be out there, because I would have… you want the good side to have put most of them in Azkaban. It’s okay for there to be Death Eaters once they break out from Azkaban, because they were all put there, but knowing that there were so many – Harry at one point says he’s outnumbered thirty to one – and so there are that many Death Eaters that never got caught, and they’re able to just drop what they’re doing and support Voldemort again.
Laura: Yeah, and that’s a reflection of reality.
Eric: Don’t I know it?
Laura: Yeah, whole lot of people out there who either never got caught or never got held accountable.
Micah: I do just want to call out some of the discussion going on in the Discord because JKO17 is noting how Voldemort doesn’t have a nose, but says that there wasn’t enough flesh for one, to which Justin responded, “It was the missing finger.”
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: Guys, guys…
Micah: So Pettigrew’s missing finger is the reason that Voldemort has no nose.
Andrew: Whoa. You know what? Update the Wikipedia, because…
Micah: Can we Max that?
[“I declare canon!” sound effect plays with thunder]
[Laura laughs]
Eric: There we go. That’s the better one. Yeah, declaring canon on it.
Andrew: I’ll do both.
[“Max that” sound effect plays]
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: Those two work really well together. So here we go: It’s finally time for Voldemort to fix Wormtail’s arm, mostly because I’m sure at this point he’s just tired of him whining and crying. [laughs] He says, “May your loyalty never waver again, Wormtail,” to which Wormtail replies, “No, my lord… never, my lord.” Is this forming some kind of vow here and now? The magic around the hand is fresh, and it seems to be done for Wormtail with the intention of never wavering his loyalty. And this is really the moment to look at if you’re considering the way in which Wormtail dies eventually, and especially because I think, Micah, you mentioned, too, his life debt to Harry. Harry essentially calls that in, and it triggers the hand to go all haywire on him. So it seems like this is some kind of real agreement, like magically binding thing, between Voldemort and Wormtail here.
Micah: Yeah, I think that for Wormtail, he has just essentially been sentenced to death. Laura, you have this point here too.
Laura: Oh, yeah, he’s a dead man walking.
Micah: Voldemort doesn’t trust Wormtail as far as he can throw him, [laughs] and this is just a way of ensuring his loyalty. And I think if he would have known about the debt, he wouldn’t have even given Wormtail a hand. He probably just would have killed him right there.
Andrew: And what stuck out to me was that after Pettigrew thanks Voldemort for the hand, Voldemort replies, “May your loyalty never waver again,” and little does he know that hand is going to kill him if he does.
Eric: It’s a threat. Yeah, it’s a threat, and it’s sort of reprimanding. Honestly, for calling his Death Eaters his real family or whatever, he speaks to them like a scolding school teacher. He’s clearly the one in the room with the power, but he’s like, [imitating Voldemort] “Hello, welcome.” You know? It just… “Welcome, children, come in the circle.” The last time I sat in a circle, it was on a little piece of carpet and it was in second grade.
Andrew: It just underscores how broken Voldemort is and how he has no friends or family, no chosen friends or family, no real friends.
Eric: Yeah, he’s so removed from mortality and doesn’t really understand mortals. But we’ve talked about this before; Voldemort doesn’t have family. He has followers. And that’s kind of what… the idea that he’s conflating the two, that he calls his followers “family,” that’s way different. That’s off.
Laura: Do we think that he’s trying to emulate Dumbledore in a way here? In a very perverse, inverted way?
Andrew: Dumbledore is certainly on his mind; he wonders if any of the Death Eaters were teaming up with Dumbledore while he’s been gone, so maybe.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Yeah, he has a couple shots he throws his way.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. And just really, the whole demonstrating Wormtail’s arm in front of the others is to show that he’s merciful and can reward them for deeds done. He makes such a show of it, of like, “You too, kids.” He wants to reward good behavior, acts of service, and there’s just something very one-sided about it and kind of… I was going to say infantilizing, but I don’t even know.
Laura: I mean, there’s strings attached to everything.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. So here are some other names: We did mention Lucius Malfoy and Macnair. Crabbe and Goyle, presumably the fathers of the students that we know. The Lestranges get a mention; they’re both in Azkaban. And then Voldemort mentions three followers, one who is “too cowardly to return,” one who left forever and will be punished, and one who’s at Hogwarts. We now know that the one too cowardly is Karkaroff; the one who left forever is Snape, and that will be rectified soon; and the one who’s at Hogwarts is now Barty Crouch, Jr./Fakey. So I guess it is nice now that we have some of these names to really get a sense of who our enemy is. It really strikes me in this chapter that this is what this book has really been building towards. Surely, it’s about Voldemort, but it’s as much about the people that follow him, who at the beginning of the book and the Quidditch World Cup were just in hoods, and now we have names and personalities for some of them. And Harry is taking it all in, and he quickly remembers these names, mentally, so that he can tell Fudge in a few chapters who it all is. But it’s just really interesting to finally – and terrifying – to get sight of these people.
Andrew: And I think when you’re reading this the first time, you hear the one who is at Hogwarts, you automatically assume that is Snape the first time.
Eric: Yep.
Andrew: Harry doesn’t really reflect on that, though, but there’s a lot going on in the moment.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Eric: It’s really well done, and we just assume that Snape has fallen back into… we’re so used to suspecting him at this point.
Andrew: And something that also stuck out to me was that the Death Eaters are scared of Voldemort and what he’s going to do, like, will he take out revenge on any of them? We see Crucio, of course, being used. But I do think ultimately they are in a safe position; he needs numbers badly, and these are the people who showed up pretty darn quick when he activated the Dark Mark, so I don’t know. I think they got nothing to worry about. I’m sure it’s scary seeing him come back to life, but still, you guys are safe for now.
Eric: I think they all know it would be worse if they didn’t come back. If Voldemort really did the impossible and managed to get his body back – which he has – they would be hunted down, and it would be a lot worse for all of them if they weren’t here right now.
Micah: But I actually agree with that point; if Voldemort did start tracking down some of them for not showing up, doesn’t that diminish his own numbers? Or does he just feel like he’s all powerful, so even if he doesn’t have his followers… but then again, he does reference bringing others back into his fold, right? He talks about the giants, he talks about the Dementors, so he clearly has plans. But I just wonder how much he could actually hurt himself by taking out Death Eaters that maybe aren’t as quick to respond as they used to be.
Eric: Again, he has no value for life. I think to him it’s just sureing up loose ends.
Andrew: Well, speaking of loose ends, we’re going to finally find out how he did it all, but first, we’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be right back.
[Ad break]
Eric: All right, here’s how it happened: Voldemort reveals after killing Lily and James and attempting to kill Harry, he was removed from his body and was weaker than every other living thing, but he was alive. He was reduced to, essentially, really only saying to himself, “Stay alive. Stay alive. Stay alive.” Probably played the Bee Gees a little bit.
Andrew: Yeah, I was just going to say. [singing “Stayin’ Alive”] Ah, ah, ah, ah…
[Laura laughs]
Eric: But amazing, the idea… there’s a realm of thought or physics that says pretty much existence and creation is caused by conscious thought, so we exist because we say we exist. And that’s what this really speaks to here, is that’s how diminished Voldemort was. Yes, his Horcruxes worked, but he pretty much was nothing. Not just a soul without a body; less than that, even. It’s pretty wild.
Micah: Yeah, and I do like how Voldemort teases his Horcruxes in this particular moment; he does make mention of the fact that the Death Eaters knew of the steps he took to preserve himself. So do we think that all of them were aware? And just how much did they know? Was it a select few of them? And then I have a separate question as to whether or not he knows that Lucius bungled his diary a couple years ago.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Because I’ve got to imagine, if he did, he would be pretty pissed off.
Eric: No, no, he does find out, obviously, but I don’t think he knows that at this moment.
Laura: Lucius is so nervous at this point.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I would think Voldemort is trying to keep his plans in as tight of a circle as possible, because the more people you tell, the bigger risk you take of them spilling out into the open. Any one of these Death Eaters could betray him, and sure, Voldemort could just turn around and kill whoever betrays him, but by that time, the damage might already be done. The secret might already be out.
Eric: It’s a big deal that Regulus, a Death Eater, is able to discover Voldemort’s secret, and he says, “I’ve found your secret.” And so when Voldemort tells his followers, “You all know how I’ve taken steps to evade death and be impenetrable,” what he’s saying is they know that he’s done things.
Micah: But they don’t know the specifics.
Eric: Yeah, they don’t know what it is. It’s like, he calls them his Death Eaters, “Voldemort” itself means “flight from death” in French, so they know he’s an avoiding death fanatic.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: But I don’t think he would tell really any of them.
Micah: Well, and here’s the proof that it worked.
Eric: Yeah. Well, right, right, exactly. Here’s the proof that it worked. But if you’re not Bellatrix who stored something in your vault, and if you’re not Lucius who stored something under your drawing room floor, you really wouldn’t have any indication that there was even a physical artifact to be looking for, let alone several.
Andrew: Right.
Laura: I could definitely see him, too, sort of siloing all of these events and these people who were helping him. So it could totally be that Lucius thinks that the diary is the Horcrux and doesn’t know that there are six other ones out there, or at that time five?
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: And Bellatrix, maybe she thinks that she also is the only one who has something important to Voldemort. So it just seems like he would do that out of self-preservation, to have several people unknowingly working to help protect his literal life.
Andrew: That’s a really good point.
Laura: Yeah, do they even know that he had as many Horcruxes as he had?
Andrew: Yeah, probably not.
Laura: It’s on a need to know basis for the inner circle.
Andrew: And it’s not like these objects are medicine with a label on it that says “Brings you back to life.”
Laura: Right.
Andrew: It’s like, “What is he going to use this for? Why is this item so important to him?”
Eric: Yeah. In fact, I think it’s the fact that Malfoy doesn’t know exactly what the diary is. He just knows what it will do that allows him to sacrifice it to begin with, to use it to cause havoc for personal gain.
Andrew: So that is kind of one flaw in Voldemort’s plan. He should have said, “Be careful with this. Don’t lose it. Don’t let it get destroyed.”
Eric: [sentimentally] “This diary is like a part of me.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: So we are treated to a little bit of fate, and yes, fate works in wonderful ways sometimes, but it really is bad fate that occurred here: The gross moment that Wormtail escapes in Prisoner of Azkaban because Lupin didn’t take his potion eventually led to Wormtail, desperate for a decent meal, bumping into Bertha Jorkins in a pub. She recognized him, but he convinced her to walk alone with him at night. True crime buzzers going off. This is awful. Don’t do this.
Laura: Yeah! What is it with these characters and walking by forests at night?
Andrew: [laughs] Sometimes an evening stroll is nice.
Micah: Maybe she had a crush on Peter back in the day.
Laura: Maybe.
Eric: Well, I wouldn’t put it past anybody. Maybe Peter was less horrible back then. But yeah, I mean, he quickly overpowers Bertha, he takes her, he then finds Voldemort, takes her to Voldemort – there was this whole thing with the rats, where Pettigrew figured out where Voldemort was, which is sort of impressive – and then Voldemort was able to break Bertha Jorkins’s Memory Charm. She had the piece of the clue that said that Barty Crouch, Jr. is alive and desperate to return to your service, and so that allowed the entire rest of the plot to happen, basically. Here’s something: Voldemort does talk about the spell, or he made his own spell or two as part of his journey to becoming bodied again. Micah, I’m wondering if you could read this segment.
Micah: Sure.
“‘Poor wizard though he is, Wormtail was able to follow the instructions I gave him, which would return me to a rudimentary, weak body of my own, a body I would be able to inhabit while awaiting the essential ingredients for true rebirth… a spell or two of my own invention… a little help from my dear Nagini,’ Voldemort’s red eyes fell upon the continually circling snake, ‘a potion concocted from unicorn blood, and the snake venom Nagini provided… I was soon returned to an almost human form, and strong enough to travel.”
Eric: So Voldemort talks about being so weak that he couldn’t hold a wand, even. No body, right? So he eventually is able to figure out that unicorn blood, which he was using in the first year – which cursed him and comes with its own thing – mixed with the venom of Nagini can ultimately create the horror show that you see in this baby-like Voldy. I wonder… it’s interesting here because we’re getting Nagini, but we don’t have her backstory. She, of course, also met Voldemort in Albania, but that story is not told here. I also wonder, chronologically, where she fits in, because Voldemort has Nagini at the beginning of Goblet of Fire, and he trusts her well enough to make her a Horcrux once he kills Frank Bryce at the beginning of this book, which was confirmed by the author.
Micah: I thought it was Bertha Jorkins’s death that made Nagini a Horcrux.
Eric: I will look that up.
Andrew: I think that sounds right.
Laura: Yeah. Well, I guess we don’t know exactly how long Nagini has been with Voldemort. I mean, he was in Albania for a while.
Eric: Oh, it’s Bertha Jerkins. You’re right; sorry about that. So but yeah, still, when did they have time to develop this relationship? Was Nagini one of the creatures that Voldemort attempted to possess? Upon so doing, did he really learn more about Nagini? Because the later stuff that we got, the very heavily problematic Maledictus stuff from Fantastic Beasts era where… guys, do you remember Nagini is an actual character, a grown woman in the Fantastic Beasts movies?
Andrew: I kind of block it out when I read the books.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, but the eventual decline of her ability to transform back into humanity means she’s one day going to forget it. I actually had a really interesting thought, which is no wonder her snake venom helps Voldemort regain a human form, is because her blood curse, her unique condition, has some level of… that transformation between human and snake seems like it would be retained in DNA or something.
Micah: He’s getting the good eats, is what you’re saying.
Eric: Well, it’s very specifically designed to do one thing, and it’s change between the species. So maybe the fact that… maybe Nagini’s milk is actually the really, really incredible, important ingredient in that potion. And here’s something I think we can all relate to that Voldemort says, which is he didn’t just want to come back because he had already sacrificed time, and he already decided he wasn’t going for full immortality, so his plan to come back was to at least come back a little stronger than he was before he left. I think this is the sunk-cost fallacy. This is “I’ve already spent so much time on this.” And you know when you leave a job and you don’t want to take a job that would have been a lateral move, even though that’s good; you want a job that’s a promotion because you always want to be moving forward? That’s Voldemort waiting all year to get Harry’s blood. He wants to be better than he was before, obviously.
Andrew: In the words of Britney Spears, “Stronger than yesterday.”
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: That’s it. That’s what it comes down to. Stronger than yesterday.
Laura: I was going to say, listen, the man has a goal. He took his time. He put his eyes on the prize, and he did it.
Eric: He tries to touch Harry, and it works. We know a little bit more, having read the later books, that the removal of Lily’s protection in this manner by taking Harry’s blood also further doubles down and connects Harry and Voldemort to this world, which strengthens both of their bonds. I think it might, in fact, be – just speculating here – but Harry’s blood in Voldemort’s veins that actually gives Harry his take-backsie from death a little later on. I think just because they’re so connected that Voldemort is almost like an anchor point at that point for Harry to stay tethered.
Laura: Yeah, that makes sense to me.
Eric: If not explicitly said later, I think that that’s cool. So yeah, it just… Voldemort is on top of the world, and he’s bragging that he’s about to kill Harry, but first he’s going to let him duel, and that’s sort of where the chapter wraps up.
MVP of the Week
Andrew: So let’s go to MVP of the week now for both chapters.
[MVP of the Week music plays]
Andrew: I’m going to give it to Dumbledore, who Voldemort admits is the reason that he can’t get to Harry while he’s at Hogwarts. And I know that y’all here on the panel say, “Oh, Dumbledore, he’s not present enough. He’s not doing enough.” Well, here’s Big V saying Big D is scary, and he doesn’t want to touch Harry at Hogwarts. He does not want to deal with that. So well done, Dumbledore.
Eric: Andrew, I’m going to have HR talk to you about your use of Big V and Big D.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Big D and Big V; they’re the big bads!
Eric: I’m going to give my MVP to Snape in advance for going from the one that “left forever, will be punished,” to Voldemort’s Death Eater again. He’s got some ‘splainin to do, but we know from Spinner’s End in Book 6 that Snape did a most magnificent job up ahead. But here we only see Voldemort’s disdain for Snape, so good job turning it around, buddy.
Micah: And I’m going to give it to the Little Hangleton graveyard for hosting the first Death Eater rager in 13 years.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Laura: And I’m going to give it to Big V…
Andrew: What?
Laura: … as he will henceforth be known. Listen, the man had a plan; it finally worked. Fourth time’s a charm, and he got him, so congrats. [laughs]
Andrew: Remember when we used to have Tylor on the show, and Tylor would say, “Voldemort is my favorite character”?
Laura: He would’ve loved that.
Andrew: Yeah, you’re giving Tylor right now.
Laura: I know. Someone has to.
Andrew: Disgusting! [laughs] Listeners, if you have any feedback about today’s episode, you can email or send a voice memo to MuggleCast@gmail.com, or you can use our phone number, which is 1-920-3-MUGGLE; that’s 1-920-368-4453. And then we also have the contact form on MuggleCast.com, so there’s plenty of ways to contact us. Next week is Episode 666…
Eric: Oooh.
Andrew: … and Micah and Eric, you had an idea for that episode, right?
Eric: Yeah, and we could do another Voldemort episode, but why would we do that?
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Let’s actually go back to the very beginning of Harry Potter fandom and talk about the parents that tried to get the Harry Potter books banned from schools in the early ’00s because Harry Potter is anti-Christianity and promotes witchcraft. I have spent hours looking up old newspaper clippings and finding out what is the true history of that, and we’re going to go through it next episode as sort of a featured discussion.
Micah: I also think that it’s worth recycling some old MuggleCast clips. Remember, Andrew put in a phone call to one school here in the United States?
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: That was great.
Micah: That was looking to ban the Harry Potter books?
Andrew: That was great. We’ll have to find that.
Micah: And also, we mentioned her earlier, but Laura Mallory was really the villain of the Harry Potter fan community for quite some time because of her campaign to just obliterate the Harry Potter books from the face of the earth.
Andrew: Yeah, and to those of you who hear us occasionally mention Laura Mallory and you’re like, “What?”, you’ll finally get some backstory on that in next week’s episode.
Micah: She’s coming on. She’s a huge Harry Potter fan.
Andrew: [laughs] Hey, in the spirit of old times, maybe we should try to call her and see if she answers.
Laura: Hey, maybe she’s turned over a new leaf. I haven’t kept up with her.
Andrew: Yeah, maybe.
Laura: Probably not. [laughs]
Andrew: Check in with Laura.
Micah: Go knock on her door, Laura.
Andrew: Yeah, you live nearby.
Laura: Oh, yeah, she’s my neighbor.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: So I’ll let y’all know what she says.
Micah: You guys have Sunday dinner, don’t you? Go to church together?
Laura: Yeah. Oh, 100%.
Andrew: Only one Laura can prevail, so the big fight will happen next weekend.
Laura: “Only one…” [laughs] What is the prophecy?
Micah: Do it like Celebrity Deathmatch style?
Andrew: “Neither can live while the other survives.”
Laura: “While the other survives,” thank you, thank you. There can only be one.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Listeners, we’re having fun, we’re always having fun, and if you enjoy what we do, don’t forget that now is the best time of year to pledge at Patreon.com/MuggleCast, because we recently announced the MuggleCast 19 Years Later T-shirt commemorating our 19 years of Harry Potter podcasting. Slug Club members, check your Patreon for the link to the order form, and be sure to fill out the form by July 19. And if you are not currently a patron, it’s not too late. Sign up at Patreon.com/MuggleCast at the Slug Club level and fill out that order form, and we will get you a T-shirt in a few months. They’re really great shirts; we’re super excited about how they came out. And we couldn’t do the show without you, so thank you to everybody who supports us, and this is our way of thanking you, not just with a T-shirt, but we send… we offer all kinds of benefits throughout the year, including livestreams, ad-free MuggleCast, early access to episodes, two bonus MuggleCast installments every month, the MuggleCast Collectors Club… we just received our latest sticker designs; they look so great. Don’t miss out on all the benefits that we have at Patreon.com/MuggleCast.
Quizzitch
Andrew: And now it’s time for Quizzitch.
[Quizzitch music plays]
Eric: Last week’s question: What are Voldemort’s first words after he climbs out of the cauldron fully grown? And it’s “Robe me.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Because he’s nakey.
Andrew: Robe me, baby!
Eric: The cauldron did not provide clothes.
Andrew: [imitating Voldemort] “Robe me!”
Eric: Correct answers were submitted by Bill and Fleur’s Meet-Skrewt; Buff Daddy; Dedalus Diggle, Please Spare a Giggle; Dumbledore the Rizzler; Elizabeth K.; Hickory Diggory Dead… aw.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: That one hurts.
Andrew: Wow.
Eric: … I can touch you now, hey Alexa, play “Touch Me” by The Doors; JennPenn; Moldy Voldy’s “Did You Miss Me?” Comeback Tour; Portkey to the Future; Robbie the Rotund Rogue Robe Rigger; Stuck on Hogwarts the Forbidden Journey Ride SOS… hope you got off.
[Andrew gasps]
Eric: … The Brockdale Bridge… that’s a deep cut, and I love it. The Dark Lord (drip) shall rise (drip) again (drip); The longest sock of Dobby’s that was my sleeping bag… okay. And You’re a Quizzard, Harry. So thank you to everyone again for those lively and fun names. We bumped into the maker of Quizzitch, of course, the other day; Kyle was at LeakyCon this year. It was really good to hang out with him.
Andrew: That’s awesome.
Eric: And here is next week’s Quizzitch question: What does the shadow of James Potter tell Harry he must do? Harry and James time next week. Submit your answer to us on the MuggleCast website, MuggleCast.com/Quizzitch, or if you’re already on the MuggleCast website – maybe checking out transcripts, Wall of Fame, all that stuff – click on “Quizzitch” from the main nav.
Andrew: Yeah, like Eric said, visit MuggleCast.com for transcripts, social media, links, our full episode archive, our favorite episodes, Quizzitch, and more details about the show. And if you enjoy MuggleCast and think other Muggles would, too, tell a friend about the show, and we would love if you left us a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify; that helps us spread the good word about the show. So that does it for this week’s episode. Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Laura: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: Going to go grab my robe and tuck in. Bye, everyone.
Eric and Micah: Bye.