Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #726, Fame W…alrus (HBP Chapter 4, Horace Slughorn)
Cold Open
Eric: Micah thinks he’s going to make it in the Slug Club. Boy, do we have news for him.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, is this your audition?
Micah: These things exist.
Laura: I mean, there genuinely are academic societies for high-performing students to network in.
Andrew: Oh, I wouldn’t know. [laughs]
Micah: Exactly.
Laura: I’m not saying whether or not that’s fair, but it is a thing.
Micah: As Ravenclaws, Laura and I would find ourselves invited by Professor Slughorn.
Andrew: Spoken like a true Slug Club member.
Micah: You’re in his House! You’ve got to get an in somehow, Andrew.
[Andrew laughs]
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Welcome to MuggleCast, your weekly ride into the world of Harry Potter. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: Hello, everyone. I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: I’m Micah.
Laura Tee: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: We’re your Harry Potter friends, here to talk about the books and the movies and the upcoming TV show, so make sure you follow us in your favorite podcast app so you never miss a week with your Harry Potter friends. And this week, ooh-ooh, we hope you’ve studied up on Albus’s favorite jam, because Chapter by Chapter continues with Chapter 4 of Half-Blood Prince, “Horace Slughorn.” That’s how I imagine that “Oho” sounds.
Eric: I was going to say, that’s a unique take on that.
Andrew: Like the Pillsbury Doughboy. [in a high voice] “Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh!”
Eric: Kind of sounds like Super Mario. “Woo-hoo! Wah-hah!”
Andrew: [laughs] If you love MuggleCast and want to help keep this show tidier than a home Slughorn has blown through, we invite you to become a member of our community at Patreon.com/MuggleCast, and by joining, you’ll get instant access to two bonus MuggleCast episodes every month, plus ad-free episodes, access to our livestreams, a personal video “Thank you” message from one of the four MuggleCasters, a new physical gift delivered by owl each year, and much more. Laura, what are we doing in bonus MuggleCast this week?
Laura: In bonus this week, we’re going to be playing an old school game of “Would You Rather?”, except it’s going to be wizarding world edition, so think things like, “Would you rather have Snape as your Head of House, or Umbridge as your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?” I heard from a little bird before we started recording that the lineup of “Would You Rather?” scenarios we have for this week is not dirty enough to go behind the paywall, so I have a feeling there’s going to be a follow-up segment to this one where we get a little more fast and loose.
Micah: Hey, who are you calling little?
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: “Who are you calling a bird?”
Eric: You’re the little bird?
Micah: Big bird.
Laura: I was trying not to throw anyone under the bus.
Andrew: Well, it’ll be a fun edition of bonus MuggleCast, so don’t miss that on our Patreon. But if you’re looking for other ways to support us, you can leave us a review in your favorite podcast app, you can tell a fellow Muggle about our show, and you can visit MuggleCastMerch.com to buy official show gear. And a reminder, our merch store now has some lower prices on things like T-shirts, so visit MuggleCastMerch.com, click the overstock store link at the top, and you’ll find previous year’s Patreon gifts that we still have some extras of, and we’ll get those gifts out to you if you want to order from our overstock store.
Chapter by Chapter: Pensieve
Andrew: All right, let’s get to Chapter by Chapter, and this week, we’re discussing Half-Blood Prince Chapter 4 – ooh-ooh, woo-hoo – “Horace Slughorn.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Now I’m just going to be thinking about Mario the rest of the recording.
Micah: That’s Mario. That is not…
Eric: “Waahhh!” We last discussed Chapter 4 of Half-Blood Prince on MuggleCast number 381, which had a fun title! It was called “Chair Today, Gone Tomorrow.”
Andrew: Ooh, clever.
Dumbledore: What you are looking at are memories. This is the most important memory I’ve collected. It is from MuggleCast Episode 381.
[Sound of memory uncorking]
[Sound of plunging into Pensieve] /
Andrew: Dumbledore says he’s reading a magazine in the bathroom, and he’s like, “I do love knitting patterns.” Between this and his admission that he loves a raspberry jam, we should have known after reading this chapter that he was gay, no question. I can’t believe we were all so shocked.
Eric: I don’t know what you mean, Andrew.
Andrew: Well, it’s just a little gay to love knitting and raspberry jam. Pat, you actually knit. Did you know he was gay once you read that line?
[Andrew and Pat laugh]
Pat: I always thought he was well before this, because it always talked of him wearing high-heeled boots.
[Eric laughs]
Pat: And always a lot of… not that purple’s a gay color, but…
Andrew: [laughs] Okay.
Pat: … more voluptuously purple robes and stuff.
Andrew: Vibrant, yeah. Gay in the classic sense. Happy and colorful.
Eric: But why raspberry jam? Why is raspberry jam gay? Because it’s fruity?
Andrew: That just seems… it’s just very fruity.
[Pat laughs]
Andrew: I don’t… it’s just… it’s beyond strawberry. It’s just extra. [laughs]
[Sound of exiting Pensieve]
Dumbledore: This memory is everything.
Andrew: I was so annoying. I’m sorry.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Laura: “This memory is everything.”
Eric: I love that discussion!
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: I feel like we’ve had a couple of those now at this point, haven’t we?
Eric: What?
Micah: Andrew calling out Dumbledore?
Eric: Oh, maybe.
Laura: But it’s with love, right? Because you’re a Dumbledore apologist.
Eric: Times change.
Andrew: Yeah. The knitting pattern thing, I still stand by. The raspberry jam thing, that’s a stretch now, I believe.
Laura: Oh, have you evolved on that? Is raspberry jam no longer gay?
Andrew: No, it’s just a jam. It’s just another jam that anybody could enjoy.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: Well, that’s good to know. That means I can start buying it again.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Laura: Well, it’s a good thing that we focused so heavily on Dumbledore’s interest in knitting patterns and basically what he was doing to keep himself out of the room and leave Harry and Slughorn alone last time, because we’re not going to focus on that too much this time. But it goes without saying that so much of this chapter is focused on the Dumbledore and Harry dynamic with the introduction to Slughorn. So this chapter picks up with Dumbledore and Harry traveling to recruit Horace Slughorn, and Harry asks, “Yo, Albus, why do I need to come for this? How can I help with this?” And Dumbledore is, per usual, super cryptic about it, and he just says something like, “Oh, I’m sure you’ll find a way to be useful,” ever the chess master that he is. But what is so interesting about the setting that we are seeing is this is a Muggle neighborhood, so we’re getting a glimpse of normal life after the chaos of the previous book. So we’re really exposed to this suburban calm, which feels really strange given the rising tension in the wizarding world. But an interesting contrast, Andrew, that you called out here – I want to throw to you – is we’re wandering into this Muggle environment. Harry has spent the vast majority of his life living in a Muggle neighborhood, and he has a bit of a strange idea about how he and Dumbledore could track Slughorn down, doesn’t he?
Andrew: Well, yeah, he says, “How about we just Apparate into this mystery man’s house?” And I thought this was funny, because Dumbledore says, “To Apparate just into this man’s house, sight unseen, would be just as rude as kicking down the front door.” But this is the same guy who just, in the last chapter, basically invited himself into the Dursleys’ home, and I think this shows just how little respect he has for the Dursleys. He does have respect for fellow wizards; he’s not going to Apparate into their homes, but the Dursleys, he’ll just waltz right in.
Eric: Yep, and it’s even later in the evening.
Laura: Well, he kind of coerced them, right? Sorry, go ahead, Eric.
Eric: Yeah, it’s even later in the evening. It was 11:00 p.m. when he showed up on the Dursleys’; now it’s about midnight!
Andrew: Yeah. But it also got me thinking about this idea of Apparating into a wizard’s home, and could you imagine if wizards didn’t, A, have the common courtesy to not Apparate into others’ homes, and B, have their own protection charms in place? It would be a disaster. I mean, imagine you’re sitting in your room right now, and somebody just Apparates in. Or you’re asleep, or you’re doing funny business in your bedroom or bathroom, and somebody just Apparates right in.
Micah: Well, Slughorn was taking a bath.
Andrew: He was! Yeah, good point.
Eric: There’s got to be something like a doorbell, right? Something that prevents somebody from just barging in, but I guess probably, then again, maybe not.
Micah: Mev does raise a good point in the Discord, though, Andrew; she says that at least Dumbledore did let Harry know that he was coming to Privet Drive. It’s not like he just showed up unannounced.
Andrew: Yeah. My point is the Dursleys didn’t want him to come in, and he did anyway.
Eric: Well, something that interests me is just how the past few chapters have really shown how much in the minority wizards are. Snape lives in this Muggle home in the middle of Muggleville. The Dursleys, obviously – as you just said, Andrew – the Dursleys are in a huge Muggle area. And now Slughorn, too, does not have this grand, sweeping estate; he’s bumming on couches at these other homes of Muggles that he finds, because there just aren’t many wizards at all in the world. It’s mostly a Muggle world, and the wizards are just stones skipping on the river of it.
Andrew: Slughorn probably enjoys crashing in Muggles’ homes, I would think.
Eric: I think he likes the variety, yeah.
Andrew: And this concern that Dumbledore has about entering a wizard’s home without their permission, while Slughorn is literally moving into Muggles’ homes every week…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: This is all so messed up. And then Dumbledore asks Slughorn if he can use his bathroom. I mean, it’s just… [laughs] It’s so weird.
Laura: I mean, he’s just treating it like an Airbnb. Slughorn has just been hopping from Airbnb to Airbnb for the last year.
Andrew: Yeah, without the Airbnb owner’s permission.
Laura: Right. Well, I mean, when you’re magical, who needs permission? Except don’t Apparate into someone’s house, apparently.
Micah: But Muggle homes makes sense, though, because he’s not going to go stay with other wizard folks. He needs to be undercover, and what better place…? There’s so many more options available to him if he’s going to go into Muggle homes.
Eric: Right.
Laura: Yeah, so I mean, clearly Slughorn is a little bit ahead of the game, if you were to compare him to the Ministry, for example. We also get this mention of the pamphlets that the Ministry sends out with the Daily Prophet. And remember, a few episodes ago we were laughing about how pretty useless these things seem to be, and Dumbledore pretty much confirms that for Harry in being like, “Well, for example, you didn’t ask me my favorite flavor of jam. Or apparently that my favorite flavor of jam makes me gay.”
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Laura: So it’s just very clear that… say what you will about Slughorn; he does have a pretty good understanding of what’s going on, and that’s why he’s taking all the precautions that he’s taking.
Eric: I think, too, maybe the precautions that he’s being shown to have taken set you up for believing that he’s going to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, because it is not revealed – his true profession – until day one of Hogwarts in a little bit. So you tend to think, “Oh, he’s good at concealment. We’ve heard Aurors do that as part of their test.” So it’s kind of a neat little red herring, I think, to have you suspect something entirely different than what it is we’re getting here.
Laura: Definitely.
Micah: And I don’t think the raspberry jam thing really is that bad; the advice that the Ministry is giving isn’t that bad, because Harry should have known better than to have not challenged Dumbledore at Privet Drive, especially given the fact that a Death Eater posed as his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for his entire fourth year, and Harry has just left what we know to be his only place of protection outside of Hogwarts, and he’s Apparated to this village in the middle of nowhere. I say what better way, what better ruse, to lure him out of his safety net and murder him?
Eric: Than to pose as Dumbledore.
Micah: Dumbledore could have been somebody totally different.
Eric: Thank you!
Micah: And let’s not forget – I was going to bring this up later – but this hand, right? This black hand that’s been referenced four times in this chapter.
Eric: Well, it could be a sign that he’s not…
Micah: Maybe that’s a tell. Maybe that’s not who he really appears to be.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: I was kind of seeing the numerous times that Dumbledore brings up the hand as a way to kind of test Harry’s critical thinking. He says he’ll tell Harry later, but maybe he wants him to start thinking now about what could possibly be going on with his hand. And ultimately, he’s not going to come to the answer himself, but it’s probably good practice for Harry to be thinking about that on his own without Dumbledore giving him the answers.
Eric: But that’s such a good point about how often Harry has been around imposters and people who would want to do him harm. He should absolutely be taking the Ministry’s decent advice and asking a follow-up question here or there. I don’t know where Dumbledore and Harry both get off on insulting these pamphlets.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: They both kind of have a laugh about it! And it’s like, look, these are the type of people that just because a solution that’s touted out is not 100% foolproof or interesting, you’re going to crap all over it and get fewer people to put stock in it? Come on, guys.
Andrew: Well, these are the two people who believed most that Voldemort was back while everybody else was ignoring them.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: So I can see why they’re like, “Oh, now they’re getting serious about it.”
Eric: They’re very chummy about it.
Andrew: But I agree with you; it is still good advice.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Laura: It is too little, too late, though, I think, in a lot of ways. This is advice that would have probably been really helpful a year ago, but at this point, Voldemort and the Death Eaters kind of have their claws sunk in to society and the Ministry, so it really becomes a question of, “How helpful is Ministry advice at this point?”
Eric: Right.
Laura: But we’re also reminded of the political instability and the violence that’s going on. Harry hears about this a little bit earlier in the book, but Slughorn brings it up again in talking about his reasoning for being in hiding the way he is: the assassinations that have happened recently, Madam Bones as well as Emmeline Vance. And Slughorn opines… he’s like, “Hey, if those two got taken out with all of their Ministry protections, how safe am I?” And I guess my question to that would be do we think their Ministry protections were foolproof? Because I think at this point, the Death Eaters have a death grip on the Ministry, so I just wonder how effective a safety detail is at this point.
Eric: Like if there was a mole or something?
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: It’s hard to say. We hear that Voldemort himself came to do the killing, at least for one of the murders, so I think that if Voldemort really wants to find you, he’s going to find a way. Anything short of the protection for Lily and James – and even that failed – is not going to do it. So it’s pretty scary to think.
Micah: The Ministry is probably the one place you don’t want to be working right now…
Laura: Right.
Micah: … if you’re somebody who is on Voldemort’s bad list, right? Or hit list, I should say. And the other place you probably don’t want to be is in the Order of the Phoenix, and those are the two areas in the people that you mentioned that were targeted, that were mentioned, in Emmeline Vance and Amelia Bones. But I agree with what was said about if Voldemort wants to get you, he will. It’s just a matter of time.
Laura: He will. And something else that gets called out in this pamphlet that Harry gets to learn about – very convenient timing for this, because it’ll become relevant later – we get to learn about the Inferi, which are Voldemort’s undead army. Dumbledore says, “Yeah, he killed enough people the first time around to have a whole army of Inferi.” And it’s perfect timing for Halloween, but it also reminded me of all the theories that were going on back in the day around what dead characters we might potentially run into as Inferi. I do remember there was a particularly dark fan theory that Harry’s parents might have been enlisted into the Inferi army and that he might come face to face with them. Thankfully, that did not come to pass. But it does kind of feel a little shocking to me that there wasn’t an opportunity for Harry or Dumbledore or someone to see an Inferi that they recognize. Do we think that they’re too decayed at that point to be recognizable, or…?
Micah: From later in this book?
Eric: I think that Dumbledore is simply too distracted to recognize the completely distinct face and visage of Regulus Black at the cave at the end from the watery depths that have preserved him. Dumbledore’s just got other stuff on his mind. It’s terrifying. I think the Inferi are in this book exactly as much as they need to be, and not a page more.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: I’m grateful for that. There’s actually… I’m reminded of a song by The Mudbloods called “Inferi Are Terrifying” or “Scary.” It’s really good stuff. But yeah, they’re horrifying. And you wouldn’t want to see… it’s next level insult to not only murder these people, but then to use them for your army.
Andrew: Well, that’s sort of… I was wondering if the author maybe thought it was too dark to have, let’s say, Harry’s parents, or Sirius… I guess Sirius wouldn’t come back, because of the veil. But other dead characters, Cedric Diggory [laughs] coming back as Inferi, because it’s just too dark a thought, I think, for Harry to have to face his parents, who are now his enemies, and then potentially kill them again? I don’t know. That might be a step too far.
Micah: It’s very reminiscent of Game of Thrones with the White Walkers.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Micah: And their ability to resurrect. Won’t spoil too much. But yeah, I do remember those theories, and they were definitely scary to think about, that that could happen somewhere down the road. It also makes me think about Hogwarts Legacy and how much of a pain in the ass it is to deal with the Inferi sometimes.
Laura: Oh my gosh, they’re so annoying.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: They’re not hard to beat; it’s just there’s so many of them. Wow, that took me back to Hogwarts Legacy days. But anywho, as a true crime girly myself, I really appreciated the job that Slughorn did trying to disguise his hideout. So Harry and Dumbledore enter a scene fit for a true crime story. There’s smashed furniture, ripped open cushions, feathers everywhere, glass, blood spatter on the walls… but Dumbledore is pretty quick to realize that this is all a ruse, and he gives an armchair, a.k.a. Slughorn, a nice sharp jab with his wand, which reveals Slughorn’s true identity as an armchair.
Eric: Man. Dumbledore really leans into it too. Slughorn… the first thing he says is that, “You poked way harder than you needed to,” and I think this Dumbledore… there’s an edge to him; there’s an edge to Dumbledore. I think Dumbledore is either angry with Horace, or not afraid of, I guess, just even having that edge. Despite what he told Harry, he’s not being polite. He’s here to basically ensure that Slughorn goes back to Hogwarts, and I don’t think he thinks very highly of Slughorn; what he thinks highly of or respects is the missing puzzle piece that Horace has in his memories. But you can just tell that Dumbledore has almost an axe to grind, and even is just like, “Harry, you deal with this man.”
Andrew: The poking kind of lines up with what I think I’ve said in recent episodes, that Dumbledore doesn’t really feel like wasting any time right now; he just wants to get down to business. So he’s not going to play any games, like, “Oh, where’s Slughorn?” He’s just going to poke and activate him.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: And then I will say, though, the movies did it better, where his head kind of pops out of the couch first before fully turning back.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Whereas reading the scene a couple times, it seems like he just instantly transformed from armchair to Horace. But that’s besides the point. I will also say Dumbledore is in a bit of a good mood overall throughout this chapter, and I think it speaks to how confident he is that he will – he and Harry – will be able to get Slughorn to go back to Hogwarts. He’s not stressed about this; he knows parading Harry in front of Slughorn is going to do the trick, and that’s why he’s just generally in a good mood this chapter.
Eric: I agree.
Laura: Yeah, and we see Slughorn is a little bit grumpy at first, because he’s onto Dumbledore’s plan. Slughorn definitely has an ego on him, but he’s not dumb. As soon as he lays eyes on Harry, he puts two and two together and realizes exactly what Dumbledore’s plan is to get him to come back to Hogwarts. [laughs] And in hindsight, it’s pretty clear this is another one of Dumbledore’s chess moves to get the right pieces in place, using Harry to lure Slughorn back to Hogwarts, and then also use Harry to get the unaltered memory from Slughorn. I wanted to ask, just because we criticize because we care, but one of the characters that we do criticize a whole lot is Dumbledore. How do we feel about this plan?
Micah: I think, as you like to say, Laura, multiple things can be true. I think the move is good for Dumbledore, but it’s also really good for Slughorn, because I don’t think there’s a safer place for him to be than at Hogwarts. And if anybody… going back to what we were talking about earlier with Amelia Bones and Emmeline Vance, if there’s anyone who has a target on their back right now, it would be Slughorn, knowing what he knows. I mean, he holds the key to Voldemort’s immortality. We don’t know that at this moment, but that memory really is everything, and I say protect him at all costs.
Andrew: I think Slughorn does start talking himself into the idea that Hogwarts is the safest place for him to be, but he also hints that he doesn’t like being on the move so much, because Harry asks him how his favorite students currently stay in touch with him, and Slughorn is like, “Well, they don’t, because I don’t have a permanent address. I haven’t… I’ve been on the move for the last year.” He isn’t getting those precious Quidditch tickets or the inside gossip at Gringotts! This sucks! He has to hide as a couch to avoid Dumbledore; this isn’t good at all. Only good thing is maybe that tub he’s got in his house right now. But he’s also shaken up about Amelia being killed, and as I observed on the show a couple chapters ago, if she isn’t safe, as the Ministry of Magic’s top cop, who is? So maybe Hogwarts is the best place to be protected right now.
Eric: It’s uncanny how they just kind of walk into this. Harry has not been prepped beforehand, right? He just happens to ask… and Harry has no idea what he’s doing too. He’s making polite conversation with this guy who he doesn’t even really like, because Slughorn, among many things, is not altogether very likable. He’s kind of prejudiced, and we’ll get into all that later. But Harry just kind of stumbles into saying exactly the right thing that convinces Slughorn to return, and it’s really neat. It’s uncanny to see it unfold, because we’ve known Harry for five years now, and this is the kind of stuff that he would normally say to keep a conversation going, but it’s exactly what Slughorn needs to hear to make the decision. It’s kind of clever.
Micah: Yeah. And one of the things that I found to be interesting – or at least a little bit curious – is that he mentions that he’s been on the run for a year, and so this means that he went on the run not long after the events of the Triwizard Tournament. So my question is, was he getting intel from all these connections that he had? Did the Dark Mark from the Quidditch World Cup scare him? Maybe was he corresponding with Dumbledore? Because the other question here is how did Dumbledore find him? He would have had to be doing some kind of recon. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, I was wondering that too.
Micah: But being on the run for years seems like a pretty long period of time.
Laura: And it does really make me laugh at his whole “Why would I be hiding from the Death Eaters? What would they want with little old me?” routine that he tries to pull at first…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Laura: … because Dumbledore is like, “So this whole masquerade… you did this for me, huh? Not for the Death Eaters?” And he’s like, “Oh, of course. Why would they want me?” It’s like, “Come on, man. We know exactly why you’re hiding.”
Andrew: “Little old me!”
Laura: But I wanted to ask, what does it say about Slughorn that he clearly isn’t pro-Voldemort, but he also doesn’t want to stick his neck out there to fight the good fight? And does that make him the most morally gray Slytherin we’ve met so far? Asterisk: Snape doesn’t count at this point in the series.
Micah: I think he feels responsible. I think he truly is holding himself accountable deep down inside for the fact that Voldemort is who he is right now, and I think that in and of itself is holding him back from moving forward.
Eric: But he’s also a man of startlingly low conviction, right? He’s not going to do the right thing. Even if he comes back to Hogwarts, it’s an entire year before he finally gives up the unedited version of the memory. He knows what Dumbledore is about; he knows that Dumbledore is trying to find Voldemort and the secrets of Voldemort. Why not just give Dumbledore the memory as a piece offering saying, “Hey, thanks for letting me be safe all year back at your school. Here’s the piece of info that you want to know; I hope you don’t fire me now that you’ve got it”? Something like that would be more courageous. So I do agree that he’s a gray area character, and probably the most gray area Slytherin at this point.
Andrew: Yeah. I used the word coward; I’m hesitant to really call him a coward, but he is just somebody who’s sort of just… as Robert is putting it, he’s content with sitting on the sidelines and just waiting for it to play out, and he could stay in hiding for as long as he needs to and wait for this to blow over.
Eric: Yeah, he’s not… I think a Gryffindor trait would be righting an injustice in the world, or going out there and fighting evil or whatever. For Slughorn, unless it directly affects him… and even then, he has to be guilted for so long to finally do the right thing. I think that that shows who he is, really, because this is not something that’s affecting him. What does it matter to him that Voldemort is out there longer? And the secret to defeating him, which only Slughorn basically can confirm, because he’s the only one that Tom Riddle ever confided in about this… he’s not going to do the right thing because it doesn’t… he’s not incentivized to do it, especially given… eh.
Micah: No, I don’t disagree, but in fairness to him – and we’re a ways from Deathly Hallows – he does duel Voldemort, and I think there is something to be said for the fact that, after everything that’s happened, the history between those two, that he would, as the Head of Slytherin House, step out there and duel his former student.
Eric: I’d have to reread it, but if Voldemort is coming at you, you’re going to duel Voldemort, if you don’t want to die. [laughs]
Micah: Or run. I mean, he could have ran.
Eric: He could have run! Well, that’s the thing. Okay, I’ll say this to his credit, in case everybody thinks that I’m going against good old walrus-y mustache man: He sticks around! He’s at Hogwarts in year seven, isn’t he?
Micah: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.
Eric: That’s a full year that he’s there.
Micah: Him, McGonagall, Shacklebolt. All three of them at once duel Voldemort.
Eric: Amazing.
Micah: Max that.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I think it is an interesting observation to point out that Slughorn is kind of like the patient zero of enabling Tom Riddle to do what he ultimately goes on to do, because we know it’s not just Slughorn, right? Snape is part of it too; Peter Pettigrew is part of it. All of these people enable him to do what he does, but Slughorn is the start of it, and I think he knows that, and he’s deeply ashamed of it and, probably for his reputation’s sake, terrified about that information getting out there. I think it’s fair to say that Slughorn is really self-serving. At the same time, when Voldemort finally shows up at his doorstep and he’s forced to make a decision, he does make the right one, but I think it does say something less than admirable about his character that it takes that long. Especially since it’s his fault.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Yeah, I mean, everyone can benefit from him doing the right thing sooner, and it’s a real shame that he doesn’t. But here’s the thing where I relate to Slughorn the most: Dumbledore says he likes his comforts. And I could see myself… you know how sometimes we just distract ourselves for a little bit if we have something we know we should do. And I mean, I’ve never withheld a huge secret that could change the course of wizarding history, but at the same time, you can distract yourself with a routine of new city every week, and travel, see the world, see places… it’s easy to forget that you’re sitting on this time bomb, or that people might seek to use you or whatever. And I’ve completely distracted myself; I’ll bury into a new video game. All of a sudden, 80 hours later, I still haven’t set up a doctor’s appointment I should set up. [laughs] It’s so easy to get this comfort. What Slughorn has set up for himself is actually quite impressive, a network of students that…
Andrew: And being on the run, actually – to your point, Eric – probably helps distract him from the realities that he’s afraid to confront, if you’re kind of mentally staying on the run. And I think the fact that the first thing we hear about him is that he was just in the bath speaks to his laid-back attitude right now. It’s symbolic of just his position on the war.
Eric: Wow. I like that a lot. Also, he knows that this is the last chance he’s going to have all year to take a bath, because there’s no real facilities at Hogwarts.
Andrew: [laughs] Well, the prefects’ bathroom. That has some nice tubs, I think.
Eric: Yeah, but that’s for the prefects.
Micah: I think also, it really comes down to how he probably thinks he’d be perceived by others, especially those that he collected over the years, to be revealed as the one who was responsible for Voldemort’s rise to power, ultimately. Not that… I mean, I want to be careful here, too, because it was clear Voldemort was up to no good before he asked what he did of Slughorn; it was more that Slughorn affirmed what he was looking to ultimately create. But still, the fact that he knew how Voldemort was able to survive, and he didn’t share that information with anybody… I think if he knew that it was somehow going to come out, he’s more concerned about his own reputation.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Well, especially since at the time, you would think… I mean, clearly we see in the memory, it makes him uncomfortable that Tom asks for this, and the fact that he doesn’t think to go to Headmaster Dippet and be like, “So we might have a problem…”
Micah: With one of our students?
Eric: “Little psycho has now asked me how to do this,” yeah.
Andrew: Just a little heads-up about what just happened.
Laura: Right.
Andrew: Speaking of his relationship with Tom Riddle, I’m wondering if this line… “Harry had been sure Slughorn would be one of those wizards who could not bear to hear Voldemort’s name spoken aloud, and was not disappointed: Slughorn gave a shudder and a squawk of protest.” Is this line a mild foreshadow alert? Or maybe a purposeful misdirection? Because Harry might think he’s just another wizard recoiling from the name “Voldemort,” but perhaps he’s recoiling because he’s in denial about helping Voldemort with Horcruxes. [laughs] “Don’t remind me of that man.”
Laura: I think you’re on to something there. I think it’s probably deeply troubling to him in a way that he doesn’t feel like he can express without outing himself as the creator…
Eric: There wouldn’t have even been a Voldemort if it weren’t for what Slughorn did. I mean, not in the same way, right? It just would be Tom Riddle, and he would have died after the first battle if he never found Horcruxes.
Andrew: I’m going to lean on purposeful misdirection here, not necessarily a foreshadow alert.
Eric: Yeah, but it’s clever. I mean, this just shows his character, too… and we talked about this before; I don’t think Slughorn is a full-on coward, but he’s exhibiting cowardice here. But even Hermione or Ron shy away from saying Voldemort’s name, and these are two Gryffindors too. So I think the difference is for Harry, especially because he’s with Dumbledore, and Harry and Dumbledore both never have had a problem ever saying Voldemort’s name, that it really pits… it shows you where Slughorn stands between Harry and Dumbledore, and everyone else. And if Slughorn were the kind of character that wasn’t afraid to say Voldemort’s name, well, that would actually be really interesting. I don’t know too many characters that don’t have a problem with it, so they would be very heroic and brave and not fearful, and that’s just not who Slughorn is.
Laura: I was struck, in rereading this chapter, in realizing that Harry, by meeting Slughorn, gets a very different reaction to fame than the one that he’s used to getting. He’s usually used to just being met by shock and awe, and certainly people would love to get in tight with him so that they could name drop him and all of these other things, but that’s not something Harry has ever been… it’s not something he’s ever fallen prey to. But it’s clear that Slughorn kind of fancies himself the mentor and influencer of the rich and famous, and I feel like we all know someone like this, right? Someone who likes to brag and name drop and overemphasize the perks they get for who they know.
Andrew: Yeah. Slughorn would have loved Instagram. He would have loved taking selfies with his group, with his Slug Club gang, and showing off…
Micah: In the tub.
Andrew: [laughs] I don’t know about in the tub, but tagging all the friends in the Slug Club, hoping they would all repost it to their feeds. He would be a total fame W-word.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: And what might that be?
Laura: What’s that word?
Andrew: Walrus. Fame walrus.
Laura: [laughs] A fame walrus. There we go.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I wanted to ask y’all, too, how much do we buy Slughorn’s story here? He kind of runs through this list of all of these amazing perks and benefits he gets by remaining in contact with these students who’ve gone on to do really big, important things, and in some cases, become famous. Do we actually think he is as highly regarded as he says he is? Or do these people just give him this stuff to make him shut up and go away? [laughs]
Eric: Well, it’s impossible to know. I do get the distinct impression that when he says he calls up the editor of the Daily Prophet, who will always take his call just to hear his opinion on any day’s news that he wants to call… that’s BS, and that guy is tired of Slughorn calling.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: That sounds exhausting, yeah.
Eric: No, because what editor of a major paper has time for that? Absolutely none. In fact, that relationship, I can say with 100% certainty, is grating for that poor person, and because you feel like you owe this guy your time, but he keeps calling…
Andrew: And you’re hearing opinions from people within the newsroom every day about the news of the day. That’s your job.
Eric: Yeah, let him do his job, man! But what I find endearing is I actually do totally believe Slughorn… this is where he finds his joy. He’s really proud of these relationships.
Andrew: He’s a people person!
Eric: Yeah, he’s really proud of his top ten lists of all of his friends.
Andrew: Yeah, I do think that these people he surrounds himself with do enjoy Slughorn’s company. He can just get along with any person that he wants. Will he get a little grating sometimes? Sure, I can imagine that happening. But I think these people like to be with him, because otherwise, I do think they would shut him out permanently.
Eric: Well, and there is… it’s a truism in life; it’s a fact of life that it is who you know, in some cases, that get you these types of prime positions that Slughorn offers. And so there’s… Slughorn really is offering a concrete kind of social status that is a class above… we’re going to get into this when it happens later in the book, but I think that the reason he has so many contacts still is because people are actually also genuinely grateful for knowing him.
Micah: He’s really one of the first – and maybe only, in these books – Slytherin who we see willingly branch out beyond the comforts of his own House, because he wants the best of the best, right? Regardless of what House they’re in or what their blood status may be. And I just think that… I think he talks a good game. I think he’s married to fame. We don’t know much about his personal life, whether or not he has a partner or children or anything of that sort, and I would likely assume that he doesn’t, because I think the most important thing to him is that web of influence. It is the Slug Club, both those that join it in this book and those who are alumni of it, that he constantly taps into. Now, in terms of how much he’s fluffing this up, I’m not sure. I could totally see all of it being true. But I like what you said earlier, Eric, about the editor just getting so annoyed by Slughorn’s calls.
Eric: He has to, yeah. But think about this, too, is that Slughorn is trying to maybe impress Harry, or show Harry how connected he is, so these are the examples he gives. And it’s nice that you can kind of see maybe that it isn’t all super peachy, only mostly peachy. But Slughorn at his core is a teacher who… I think those who should be teachers are the ones that would give it away for free without any kind of expectation of something in return, and Slughorn is not that kind of character, right? So the instilling knowledge in others… Slughorn chooses to be a teacher because of what it’s going to give him maybe in the end, other than the satisfaction of having instructed people. So it’s just a different type of person that it is capable, possible, to be.
Andrew: Make the real life connection: Do y’all have somebody who maybe calls you too much, texts you too much? I have an uncle like this who I wish would never call me.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: He’s calling me for tech help. I’m like, “You have three children younger than me who can help you with your Apple problems. Why are you coming to me for this?” [laughs]
Laura: He just misses you.
Andrew: That’s probably what it is. But come on, I don’t need this. Talk to your kids about how to…
Eric: So Andrew, should I not call you for tech help all the time? We speak at least three times a week…
Andrew: No!
Laura: In Harry’s conversation with Slughorn – because of course, at this point, this is when Dumbledore has conveniently excused himself to the bathroom to go read about knitting patterns – Slughorn proceeds to tell Harry that Harry’s mother was actually one of his favorite students, and she herself was a member of the Slug Club. And he ventures this opinion that he was shocked at learning that she was Muggle-born, because she was so good, he’d have assumed she would have been pure-blood, and this is where we really get to see how Slughorn’s need to collect top talent outweighs his casual bigotry. Because to him, it’s like, “Well, yeah, she’s Muggle-born, but she’s really, really good, so that kind of cancels out her being Muggle-born, right?”
Andrew: [laughs] So no problem.
Laura: And Harry is like, “Hey, my best friend is Muggle-born, and she’s the best in our year,” and Slughorn is just like, “Huh, funny how that happens sometimes!”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: “I guess she’s one of the good ones!”
Laura: That’s basically what this is. And I really do love how this aspect of his character is reflected. I think a lot of times in these books, we think of the most bold and overt examples of bigotry…
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Laura: … but the reality is – in this series, but also in real life – that many otherwise well-meaning people carry these biases, oftentimes unconsciously. Just adds a different, unsettling layer of interpretation to all of this.
Eric: Here’s a red flag/rule of thumb that I’ve picked up over the last, let’s say, ten years in the real world: If you have to start a sentence with “You mustn’t think I’m prejudiced, but..” you’re lost. It’s too late. It’s too late. You’re gone.
Andrew: Right. “I’m not racist, but…”
Eric: “Not to be racist…” or “I know this sounds bad, but…”
Andrew: “I don’t see color, but…”
Eric: Yeah, you’ve lost the plot there a little bit. Maybe rephrase.
Andrew: I think it just demonstrates a lack of self-awareness that Slughorn carries as well. He’s talking about Harry’s deceased mother and not realizing the bigotry.
Eric: Well, that’s funny, because he thinks he’s relating to Harry, and instead he’s turning Harry off from him, and his foot is firmly in his own mouth here.
Micah: Well, it starts when he’s talking about Sirius and he just doesn’t have the context to the Harry/Sirius relationship. And then there’s also the comment about wanting the set of him and Regulus, and he never ended up getting Regulus – important name drop, right? That he’s included as early on in Half-Blood Prince as he is. But yeah, it’s just… there’s something very sleazy that comes across about Slughorn and his character, and I wonder… we don’t necessarily get it as much, because I feel like there’s a softer side in the movies with Jim Broadbent’s portrayal of Slughorn, where he’s almost kind of just like this… I don’t know. He’s more of a lovable character.
Eric: He looks like he’d be soft to sit on, just like the couch version of him was soft to sit on.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: But yeah, I feel like Broadbent’s portrayal of Slughorn… the Slytherin doesn’t come through as much as it does in the books.
Eric: Well, and to put a cap on that, this whole scene where he’s talking to Harry about his mom and Mudbloods – or sorry, Muggle-borns – being talented reminds me of the conversation in year one with Draco Malfoy. “You don’t want to be making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there. Shake my hand, Potter.” And Harry doesn’t touch it! Harry doesn’t want anything to do with this Slytherin view of the world that Draco and now Horace Slughorn are shown to embody.
Micah: Yeah. Well, and one other fun fact that we learned earlier this week is that in the new audiobooks, Horace Slughorn is going to be played by Bill Nighy, so definitely a conflict of character there going from Scrimgeour to Slughorn.
Laura: Yeah. I’ll be interested to see his portrayal, because I do agree; I think the Slughorn that we got in the films was a softer Slughorn. I mean, I liked it; I thought Jim Broadbent was brilliant, but he was a good deal more likable in the movies than he was in the books. Is that fair to say?
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, and I like him in the books, but yeah, there’s this distinct tone of… I want it to – in the eventual HBO Max series, too – I want it to sit and be uncomfortable, because that is where you show the full breadth and width of these deep characters in this series, and the ones that are especially gray. We need to spend some time in that discomfort and figure out if we even like this guy. Harry is not sure.
Andrew: And a little clarification for our audience: When we say Bill Nighy, we do not mean the Science Guy. We mean Bill Nighy, who was in the movies.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: [imitating Bill Nighy as Scrimgeour] “These are dark times, there is no denying it.”
Andrew: [to the tune of the Bill Nye the Science Guy theme song] “Slug, Slug, Slug, Slug!”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Bill Nighy… as Horace Slughorn.
Laura: Amazing. Well, before we wrap up the chapter here, I did just want to pose the question: I think it’s really easy to look at the Slug Club and kind of be dismissive of it, think it’s unfair. But is it really such a bad thing in principle? In real life, we have academic societies and fraternities, professional networking. We have all of these things, and oftentimes… at the very least at a collegiate level, oftentimes there are professors who are the sponsors of these things. So is it really that unusual?
Andrew: The problem to me is that this is a teacher running the organization. This is his group, his club. Yes, teachers will run or help run clubs at schools, but this is the Slug Club. This is like either you’re cool enough to be pals with one of the professors, or you’re not. I just think it’s so blatant with how he’s playing favorites, and if I were a student at the school and I wasn’t invited into the Slug Club, but people I knew were, or just seeing the club and seeing who’s on the list, it’d make me feel insecure and like I’m less than these other students.
Eric: Yeah, that’s 100% it. And I appreciate that in this book, we see people get jilted about it. Ginny is not involved until she’s witnessed by Slughorn. Hermione is pissed. Ron is upset, but… oh well, think that’s the right call. But to your point, Andrew, with Slughorn being at the center of it all, when I was in my one year of undergrad in Chicago, the school that I was at was very much making a point to have professors that worked in the field they teach, right? So when the time came and when it was… the reason for that is that they have an in or can actually speak to experience. Now, Slughorn has a network of people, but he himself has not been wherever he’s sending his students. The purpose of the Slug Club… like you said, it’s his club, and everyone knows it. It’s all about Sluggy. It’s all about Horace.
Andrew: It’s in the name!
Micah: Sluggy-bear.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, if you had a name like that, the best thing you could possibly do with it is make a Slug Club.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: It’s pretty neat.
Micah: I don’t really have any issue with it.
Andrew: Wow.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: I really like the fact that he is building a network of Hogwarts alumni. All schools have alumni networks, and…
Andrew: Alumni, but the Slug Club is actively happening within the school, too.
Micah: Yeah, but he’s curating it for when they graduate Hogwarts.
Andrew: You’re just saying this because you’re in the Slug Club.
Micah: He’s thinking about their careers much more than any other professor is.
Eric: Micah thinks he’s going to make it in the Slug Club. Boy, do we have news for him.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, is this your audition?
Micah: These things exist.
Laura: I mean, there genuinely are academic societies for high-performing students to network in.
Andrew: Oh, I wouldn’t know. [laughs]
Micah: Exactly.
Laura: I’m not saying whether or not that’s fair, but it is a thing.
Micah: As Ravenclaws, Laura and I would find ourselves invited by Professor Slughorn.
Andrew: Spoken like a true Slug Club member.
Micah: You’re in his House! You’ve got to get an in somehow, Andrew.
Andrew: [laughs] I don’t want it!
Eric: To settle this part of the discussion, it’s Dumbledore himself that tells Harry that Horace really does have a knack for picking the students that will excel at whatever it is that he puts them into. And sure, some of that is like, had he given someone else a shot, could they be just as good? We’ll never know. But for the most part, Dumbledore is giving Horace, who he is annoyed with right now, credit for actually having some level of talent in his curating. As creepy or as bad as it feels or seems to collect people and all the ways in which it’s characterized as not being a good thing – and Horace is a giant spider and all of this other stuff – he still ultimately is getting people to find success, helping students find success.
Laura: Yeah, helping them make connections in the real world and everything too. Well, Dumbledore dangles Harry – the crown jewel, as he says he would be – in front of Slughorn just long enough to waltz out of the bathroom and say, “You know what, Horace? I know a lost cause when I see one.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: “So you have fun breaking into Muggle homes for the foreseeable future, and we’ll just be on our way.” And of course, Slughorn breaks, and he’s like, “Okay, fine, Dumbledore, I’ll go. But I want a raise!”
Andrew: [laughs] I love that line.
Laura: And that’s where we leave him. Hey, you know? He knows what he’s worth.
Andrew: Dumbledore played him like a fiddle.
Laura: You’ve got to give it to him.
Odds & Ends
Andrew: And we do have some Dumbledore-related odds and ends.
Laura: I was going to say, you want to kick us off with those?
Andrew: Sure! Let’s start by praising Dumbledore.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: He shines at the end of the chapter here. We didn’t discuss it today; we don’t need to, but confronting Harry over the loss of Sirius, encouraging Harry to tell Ron and Hermione about the prophecy so that he’s not alone in his thoughts and feelings, and then telling Harry he’ll be teaching him some lessons this year. And I love this line: Harry is like, “What are you going to be teaching me?” And Dumbledore is like, “Oh, a little of this, a little of that.”
Micah: “I’ll teach you how to knit and make raspberry jam.”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: It’s home economics with Albus Dumbledore.
Andrew: Really two great chapters for Dumbledore in a row.
Eric and Micah: Yeah.
Micah: I agree with that. We talked about Dumbledore’s hand earlier, and it does – at least, by my count – get mentioned directly or indirectly four times in this chapter, so we’re meant to be paying attention to what’s going on with Dumbledore’s hand. And then one other thing: Dumbledore alludes to Harry still taking Potions in this shady shed convo that’s going down, because he says to him… because Harry is very hopeful about the fact that he’s not going to have to deal with Professor Snape, both for Occlumency lessons and potentially for Potions, to which Dumbledore says, “Don’t count your owls before they are delivered.” So that’s a little tip of the cap.
Eric: [laughs] Dumbledore has peeked at Harry’s test results.
Micah: Right.
Laura: Well, and he also knows that Slughorn doesn’t have as strict standards for Potions as Snape did.
Micah: Exactly. But we don’t know at this time that Slughorn is going to be taking over that post.
Laura: Yeah. Well, and I love that you pointed out all of the mentions of Dumbledore’s hand, Micah, because there is one point where he makes kind of an exaggerated gesture of showing off the hand, the injured hand that also has the ring on it, and Slughorn definitely takes notice of that ring.
Andrew: [laughs] “Oohoo!”
Eric: Pretty interesting.
Micah: Yeah, good call.
Eric: It was a Horcrux.
Laura: Yep.
Superlative of the Week
Laura: All right, well, now we’re going to get into our MVP of the Week. This week’s: best perk Slughorn gets from his Slug Club alumni.
[MVP of the Week music plays]
Andrew: The Quidditch tickets! That’d be so much fun to get tickets to games that you want to attend.
Micah: We could go together, Andrew.
Andrew: Yeah, sure.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: I’m going to hand it to crystallized pineapple. I don’t quite know what it is, but it sounds delicious. I once had a tropical drink that was put into a pineapple, like the pineapple was hollowed out and it was the cup, and it was delicious.
Micah: I wonder if it’s just dried pineapple.
Laura: I think it’s just candied pineapple, yeah.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: Y’all are going to want to make friends with somebody who responded to the Lynx Line in a couple minutes. You’ll see them talking about…
Eric and Laura: Ooh.
Micah: I’ll back you up, though, Eric; I’ll go for the hamper of sweets that Slughorn says he gets from Honeydukes, and the reason why is I looked this up: “hamper” is high end.
Eric: Oooh.
Micah: This is high quality candy that he’s receiving. He’s not just getting the stuff that the other Hogwarts students pick up on their trips to Hogsmeade.
Eric: That’s funny because in the US, “hamper” is where you put your dirty laundry.
Micah: I know.
Laura: I was imagining a laundry hamper full of sweets. I was like, “Oh, they’re just sending him a lot of candy, okay.”
Eric: Just a rucksack. A bindle.
Laura: [laughs] And I’m going to go for that Gringotts insider knowledge. I’m sorry; money doesn’t buy happiness, but it doesn’t hurt. That’s all I’m saying.
[Andrew laughs]
Lynx Line
Laura: All right, now we’re going to get into our Lynx Line. MuggleCast listeners who are Slug Club members – the very special Slug Club members, as we spent so much time talking about today – over at Patreon.com/MuggleCast have answered this week’s question, which is: Tell us about a talent or accomplishment that would get you recruited to the Slug Club. We wanted everyone to brag on themselves this week.
Eric: This is honestly one of my absolute favorite Lynx Lines that we’ve ever done.
Laura: Aww.
Andrew: It’s too perfect.
Eric: It’s just so inspired, and it’s like, talk yourself up. What an opportunity.
Andrew: Matthew said, “I make cakes that look like things that aren’t cake. Perhaps I am cake, too. Slughorn would never know.”
Eric: If so, this is the first time we’ve read cake’s message to us on the show, for sure. Zachary says, “I think Slughorn would have me as the caterer for his events, rather than the house-elves. I’d bring a variety of Texas-style barbecue of smoked sausage, ribs, and brisket, along with cheesecakes made to his requests.” Zachary, if you are for hire, let us know. That sounds delicious.
Micah: Susan says, “I have made a few good cosplays and props over the years. Slughorn would be impressed with how convincing I was able to create a railgun out of a Nerf gun, foam, and paint with an impressive Zagreus cosplay (from the franchise Hades.)” Hopefully I said that correct.
Laura: Very cool. Oh, this is for you, Eric. Leah says, “I make small batch crystallized pineapple and pair it with candied ginger and chocolate honeycomb.” Oooh.
Eric: Okay, this sounds delectable, and I…
Laura: Leah, I’m going to need a hamper of that.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: Leah, please tell me that it’s actually delicious, and not… I’ve been burned before on Turkish delight…
Laura: Oh, no, Turkish delight is disgusting.
Eric: … so if it’s something I read in a book and it’s actually good, I’m excited.
Andrew: Rachel kept it simple. She said, “I’m really good at untying knots.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: That’s a cool talent. With your tongue?
Laura: Hey, comes in handy.
Eric: That’s very useful. If you rescue someone who’s tied up on a boat or a train track, who’s also in the Slug Club, they could be like, “Hey, come join. You’re really good at that.” Jessie says, “Are you kidding me? Of course Ol’ Sluggy would want me in the Slug Club! I’m famous! No big deal, but I’m kind of big name… I played Villager #8 in my high school’s production of the musical Beauty and the Beast.”
Micah: Wow.
Eric: I love that. Are you sure you don’t play Gaston, Jessie? Because you’ve got the right temperament for it.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Robert said he would offer Slughorn “a free physical gift each year, and the opportunity to cohost MuggleCast! (And, of course, a monthly Floo hangout.)”
Andrew: He created our Slug Club! Get it? Well done, Robert.
Eric: I love that.
Andrew: The Lynx Line is a great way to have your voice heard on the show, whether or not you’re listening live. We ask a new question every week, so become a member of our community today by going to Patreon.com/MuggleCast, and receiving this and many more benefits, like bonus MuggleCast. If you have feedback about today’s episode, you can contact us by emailing or sending a voice memo that you record on your phone to MuggleCast@gmail.com, and next week, Chapter by Chapter continues with Half-Blood Prince Chapter 5, “An Excess of Phlegm.” And this was just coming up in our Discord live chat right now, so I’ll also add next week we will be able to offer a review of the first full cast Harry Potter audiobook. We got a review copy from Audible, and we’ve been able to dive into it, and we’re excited to share our thoughts on that, so stay tuned for next week. Visit MuggleCast.com for links to our social media, Patreon, transcripts, our favorite episodes, and a lot more. And if you’re looking for more podcasting from the four of us, listen to our other shows, Millennial and What the Hype?!, for more pop culture and real world talk.
Quizzitch
Andrew: Now it’s time for Quizzitch.
[Quizzitch music plays]
Eric: This week’s question: Upon his death, the famous playwright William Shakespeare left most of his property and fortune to his daughter, Susannah. However, he did leave something to his wife, whose name was Ann Hathaway. What did Shakespeare will to Ann Hathaway? The correct answer – and this is a very interesting case of last will and testament – the correct answer: his second best bed. I don’t know what that says about his relationship with his wife.
Laura: Oof.
Eric: Nevertheless, 46% of people did not look this up, which is very impressive. And correct answers were submitted by Ashley B.; Elvis Dumbledore; Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog; Hathaway-Hath-thy-Way; Janie Six Seven; Julie Anne Fae; Smiley Fries, Smiley Fries; Somebody showing up at Micah’s at 3:00 p.m.; Tangled Yarn; Tofu Tom; Very Best Bort; WallySaurus; and We Are Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On. Okay, thanks to everyone who submitted. Here is next week’s Quizzitch question: This one’s about knitting! There are two basic kinds of stitches in knitting. The first is called a knit. What’s the second called? Hopefully more people know this without looking it up. Submit your answer to us on the Quizzitch form located on the MuggleCast website. MuggleCast.com/Quizzitch is a way to go directly to that page, or if you happen to be on our website – maybe you’re checking out transcripts, or our must-listens page, or any other cool thing that happens to be on there – click on “Quizzitch” from the nav bar at the top.
Andrew: Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Laura: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: Bye, everyone!
Laura and Micah: Bye.