Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #735, Step Daddy Snape (HBP Chapter 12, Silver and Opals)
Cold Open
Eric: [sings a percussion-heavy, intense version of “Hedwig’s Theme”] That’s going to be it.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Bang, clang, clang, bang…
Eric: Bang, clang, clanging, banging…
Laura: There we go.
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: Welcome to MuggleCast, your weekly ride into the world of Harry Potter. I’m Andrew.
Eric Scull: I’m Eric.
Micah Tannenbaum: I’m Micah.
Laura Tee: I’m Laura.
Andrew: And we’re your Harry Potter friends, here to talk about the books and the movies and the upcoming TV show, so make sure you press that follow button in your podcast app, and you’ll never miss an episode. This week, we do have an update on the TV show, and be careful what you touch, because we will be discussing Chapter 12 of Half-Blood Prince, “Silver and Opals.” And helping us with today’s discussion is MuggleCast supporter, Channell. Welcome, Channell, to the show!
Channell: Hi, thank you.
Andrew: Let’s get your fandom ID.
Channell: My favorite book is Goblet of Fire, my favorite movie is Chamber of Secrets, my Hogwarts House is Hufflepuff, my Ilvermorny House is Pukwudgie, and my Patronus is the Saint Bernard. And my favorite spell that Snape invented is the Liberacorpus, which is the counter to Levicorpus.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: Yes, free the ankles. Free all of the ankles everywhere.
[Andrew and Channell laugh]
Andrew: Hashtag #FreeTheAnkles! And can you please describe what you’re wearing today? You’re popping today, Channell.
Channell: Thank you. I am wearing my yellow, black, and white plaid kimono coat that I made for my birthday last year so I could be all Hufflepuffed out. I’m glad I did it last year so I can wear it to see Tom Felton for my birthday this year.
Andrew: Oh, did you already do that? Or is that coming up?
Channell: It’s coming up.
Andrew: Okay. When’s your birthday?
Channell: March 1, the same as Ron’s.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Eric: Wow.
Laura: I love that. Well, happy early birthday.
Channell: Thank you.
Andrew: Yeah. And what was the comment you made about your sleeves earlier, before we started recording?
Channell: They’re cozy and kimono style?
Andrew: Yeah, but you were afraid you looked too much like Snape or something like that? [laughs]
Channell: Oh, this is a very long coat and I made it flare out at the bottom, so when I walk, it billows like Snape, and I feel very Hufflepuff-Snape, kind of.
Andrew: [imitating Snape] “You look fabulous for a Hufflepuff, I must say.”
[Channell and Micah laugh]
Laura: Well, isn’t it kind of implied that Hufflepuffs and Slytherins do get along fairly well? I mean, I’m specifically thinking about Newt and Leta.
Andrew and Eric: Oh.
Channell: They are matches.
Eric: Yeah, there’s some level of understanding between them when one is not shaking the other for lunch money.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I’ve dated Slytherins before.
Andrew: Oh, nice.
Eric: Longterm.
Andrew: Ooh, we should talk about that sometime on bonus MuggleCast. [laughs] Which Hogwarts Houses would we and would we not date?
Laura: And have we dated.
Eric: Yes, yes.
Andrew: [laughs] Well, welcome, Channell, and thank you for your support on our Patreon.
News
Andrew: And before we get to Chapter by Chapter, we do have a bit of news: It was announced last week that Hans Zimmer is going to be the composer for the Harry Potter TV show! Wow, that’s pretty significant. If you can’t get John Williams, seems like the next best thing.
Micah: I’m just waiting for Captain Jack Sparrow to jump into Hogwarts at some point.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Well, to that point, Hans Zimmer can create some really epic scores. Of course, Harry Potter has so many epic scenes, so it’s going to be fascinating to see what he and his team does.
Laura: Yeah, I just wonder if there’s going to be any clanging and banging, as we heard one of the prominent critiques of John Williams’s score indicate.
Eric: I have to say that, Laura, I’m so glad you mentioned that, but if there’s one thing that we can rely on Hans Zimmer for, it is some clanging, or at least banging; he loves his percussion. And in fact, this was my actual concern with this news, because I love Hans Zimmer. My favorite score of his is for Broken Arrow; it’s an early ’90s film with John Travolta and Christian Slater. But everything he does has a drumbeat, like war, Dunkirk and Inception, and I don’t know at this point that the Harry Potter universe has a drumbeat to it.
Andrew: I don’t know. [laughs]
Micah: I referenced Captain Jack Sparrow at the beginning of this conversation. That gives me a little bit of hope for some upbeat Pirates of the Caribbean high energy type of music for the Harry Potter series.
Andrew: Let me read the statement from Hans. He said, “The musical legacy of Harry Potter is a touch point for composers everywhere and we are humbled to join such a remarkable team on a project of this magnitude. The responsibility is something that [me and my team] do not take lightly. Magic is all around us, often just beyond reach, but as in the world of Harry Potter, you simply must look for it. With this score we hope to bring audiences that little bit closer to it whilst honoring what has come before.” So we will get “Hedwig’s Theme.” They have to include “Hedwig’s Theme,” 100%.
Micah: That was going to be a question that I had.
Eric: If they did it for the Fantastic Beasts series, yeah.
Micah: What is going to be his interpretation, though, of “Hedwig’s Theme”?
Andrew: [sings an intense version of “Hedwig’s Theme”] I don’t know. Drums, right, Eric?
Eric: Hang on, let me figure this out. Okay.
Andrew: Actually, it’s our theme song.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Okay, so… [sings a percussion-heavy, intense version of “Hedwig’s Theme”] That’s going to be it.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Bang, clang, clang, bang…
Eric: Bang, clang, clanging, banging…
Laura: There we go.
Andrew: Wow.
Laura: That was beautiful.
Eric: You guys get what I’m saying, though, right? Because he can do a lot of very big action-y…
Andrew: Yeah, but the role of the composer is to create scores that reflect the story, so I don’t think… music has percussion and it has rhythm, it has beats, so I’m not worried about drums.
Laura: I’m pretty optimistic. I mean, we have to remember, he has a pretty varied catalogue of films that he has composed for, which includes The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, The Lion King… going all the way back to 1994. We have the Dune movies as well. So he has, I think, pretty far-reaching range. I think that he’ll be able to knock Harry Potter out of the park.
Andrew: Well, listeners, we’re developing some Harry Potter TV show-specific episodes of this podcast, and we’re going to be releasing them on a recurring basis as we approach the expected launch of the TV show next year, so stay tuned for those Harry Potter TV show-specific episodes of MuggleCast. Again, follow us in your favorite podcast app and you’ll never miss one of those episodes. And if you love MuggleCast and want it to live as long as Dumbledore did, we invite you to become a member of our community at Patreon.com/MuggleCast, just like Channell and those listening live tonight. We have exciting plans for the show this year, like I said, so we could really use your support to help make those a reality. By pledging, you’ll instantly receive two bonus episodes every month, plus ad-free episodes, access to our livestreams, and much more. This week on bonus MuggleCast, we’re going to dive deeper into what goes into inventing spells in the wizarding world. It is a subject that’s never formally addressed in the series, so I have some questions to ask the panel regarding inventing spells – my mind was racing as I was reading this chapter, wondering about this – so we’ll discuss today and declare a bunch of canon. I also have created a few spells, and the panel will have to guess what they do. And brace for sound effects, y’all. I brought some lightning.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Get ready for some banging and clanging in bonus MuggleCast. [laughs] And if you’re looking for other ways to support us, you can leave us a review in your favorite podcast app, or you can tell a fellow Muggle about our show, and you can visit MuggleCastMerch.com to buy official show gear.
Chapter by Chapter: Pensieve
Andrew: Now let’s get to Chapter by Chapter. Half-Blood Prince Chapter 12, “Silver and Opals.”
Eric: This is a chapter that we last discussed way back on MuggleCast number 392, which was called “#ProtectTheSecrets,” for November 15 of 2018. Here’s a clip from that episode.
Dumbledore: What you are looking at are memories. This is the most important memory I’ve collected. It is from MuggleCast Episode 392.
[Sound of memory uncorking]
[Sound of plunging into Pensieve]
Andrew: Did Voldemort know that Dumbledore was gay? Did he think Dumbledore was going to want to put on this necklace?
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Laura: I’m sorry, do gay men have a penchant for wearing opal necklaces?
Andrew: Well, that’s what I’m asking here. Maybe Voldemort knows something that we don’t about what Dumbledore likes to do. Look, just a theory! I’m trying to examine all angles here, okay?
[Laura laughs]
Micah: He should have clearly sent him a pair of socks.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: That kill.
[Sound of exiting Pensieve]
Dumbledore: This memory is everything.
Andrew: Laura, this was a big episode for you. This was your big return.
Laura: Was it?
Andrew: You hadn’t been on in five years.
Eric: Well, it was the last guest-starring role before her return on Episode 400.
Laura: Oh, dang.
Andrew: Yeah, but prior to this episode I just played a clip from, you hadn’t been on in five years. So I wonder if I made that dumb joke on the show and you were like, “I’m second guessing coming back to the podcast.” [laughs]
Laura: No, I don’t think so. I don’t remember that.
Andrew: Okay.
Laura: But I was second guessing coming back to the podcast when I was apparently locked out of the studio tonight before the recording.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I was like, “This is going to be weird, because I think I’m leading the discussion today.”
Andrew: I walked right into that one.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Andrew knew that you were going to challenge him on the opal necklace, and he was like, “Nope, not again.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: You know what? I’ll challenge myself on that. Opals are very lovely, and in retrospect, why wouldn’t a gay man want to wear an opal necklace?
Andrew: Exactly.
Laura: Why wouldn’t anyone want to wear an opal necklace? They’re beautiful.
Eric: That’s right.
Andrew: Amen.
Eric: But I’m with you there, Andrew, on killer socks. That would have gotten straight to Dumbledore.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: I said that.
Eric: Yeah. Nice job, Micah.
Micah: Thank you.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Laura: Well, we had an interesting call-out at the beginning of the chapter from Harry that I think is also echoed by certain members of this panel, right?
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, I opened this book to read this chapter, and the opening line is, “Where was Dumbledore, and what was he doing?” I thought Micah wrote this opening line of this chapter.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: I feel like Micah says this every day on the podcast.
Micah: Great minds, we think alike.
Eric: I feel like it’s just possible that Dumbledore might not actually be that good of a headmaster at Hogwarts? Because what all of these absences say to me is he doesn’t have a real job to do at Hogwarts. It’s nothing he can’t delegate. It must be great to be the headmaster, but besides sassing the Minister for Magic and hiding things from Harry, what’s he do from day to day? He should be checking in with everyone in the school, and at least his staff, more regularly than he is. And what is he really even turning up with all of this travel? Eventually he finds the cave, but everything else that he’s doing remains hidden to us for all time.
Laura: Yeah, I think Dumbledore has been pretty clear about implying that being the headmaster of Hogwarts is not only better for him, because he’s someone who shouldn’t have the kind of power to be sitting in the Minister’s chair, but at the same time, sitting in that seat still does give him a good amount of power, and he’s kind of allowed to operate via a lot of unofficial means that would probably not be as available to him if he were working at the Ministry. So yeah, I agree with you. I don’t know that his top priority is being headmaster.
Micah: To the point that’s being raised in the Discord by TheOtherMinister, “He is a real administrator.”
Andrew: Yes.
Laura: Well, what do you think this means for Harry, Channell?
Channell: That he keeps disappearing? Harry is an orphan, so he’s kind of attached to Dumbledore for whatever reason, but he kind of has some separation anxiety here, and so he’s really looking for Dumbledore to give him some attention and make him feel like the “Chosen One” and safe. Otherwise, Daddy’s not home, I guess.
Andrew: [laughs] Daddy.
Eric: Oh, it’s DumbleDaddy.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: It’s important that you point that out, Channell, because I think Harry is a little preoccupied with Dumbledore’s absence, certainly after last year when Dumbledore was actively avoiding him. This year now, they do three meals a day in the Great Hall, and Dumbledore is just not around. I mean, Harry is told why; Dumbledore is looking up more memories and stuff, but everything that we’ve seen, unless I’m very much mistaken, all of the memories that we get shown throughout the rest of this year, Dumbledore has had for years. Dumbledore had the Bob Ogden one ages ago. He had the Hepzibah Smith and Hokey one ages ago. What is he actually getting that’s new? He had the interview with Mrs. Cole 50 years ago that talked about the cave, which he eventually finds this year; that’s one thing he finds this year, but he could have found that 25 years ago. Why does he need to be so absent this year, when Harry is looking for that mentor relationship?
Andrew: I think it is a great point that Harry is going through separation anxiety. Dumbledore got him very excited about working with him, having these private meetings, history lessons, whatever you want to call them, and then Dumbledore just disappears. Harry thought that Dumbledore and him had forged a new alliance and they were going to take care of business together, and now Harry is basically being left in the dark. It would have been different if Dumbledore said, “Hey, I’m going to be gone for five days or whatever, and here’s why,” or at least even tell him he’s going to be absent for X number of days. But Harry is really being shut out again, so I can see why this is bothering Harry so much.
Eric: Yeah, and Harry comes back, and I think one of the first things he does when Dumbledore returns is tell him about Draco, and that goes absolutely nowhere next chapter. Dumbledore doesn’t care. And it just furthers this divide of… or, well, Dumbledore cares; he seems not to care, and he tells Harry to forget about it. So it’s like the relationship between them is fractured again. But something that I just thought about here is that because Dumbledore is coming back – we find out in this chapter that Dumbledore is coming back Monday for Harry’s next lesson – it suggests that the only reason Dumbledore is coming back to the castle is to do his class with Harry, that otherwise he would just keep being off and gone.
Laura: Yeah, that’s actually a really great observation. And kind of getting into the meat of the chapter, I think another way in which Dumbledore’s absence affects Harry, whether consciously or unconsciously, is that I think it’s part of what drives Harry further into seeing the Prince as a mentor…
Eric: Oooh.
Laura: … because he is continuing to take his cues from the Prince to the extent that he’s reading the textbook during his free time, even when he’s laying in bed. The chapter starts out with Harry having woken up early, and instead of going back to sleep or deciding “I’m just going to get up and get started with my day,” he’s laying there reading a textbook, and this Hermione-ish habit annoys both of his best friends for different reasons. Eric, what do you think?
Eric: Do you guys remember what it’s like to wake up early just to read a book? I mean, not a textbook, I hope. I hope none of us has been…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Probably just the seven Harry Potter books.
Eric: Right?
Andrew: Other than that, I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten up early… the Prince is the DumbleDaddy that Dumbledore is not being for Harry.
Eric: [laughs] But what a great connection there.
Micah: Step-Daddy Snape.
Eric: Yeah, I… [laughs]
Micah: Step-Daddy.
Eric: I love that connection between Harry looking for a mentor and finding it in the Prince.
Micah: Yeah, it’s a silent companion of sorts, almost a friend, and this friend is giving Harry a pretty big advantage throughout the school year. And I also think the Prince comes across as a bit of a rule-breaker, and Harry is a bit of a rule-breaker himself, so these two get along pretty well with each other.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I was going to ask… I think also just it’s clear that the Prince is a whiz, and not just a wizard, but really good at Potions to the level that every time Harry gets complimented, that feeds back into Harry’s appreciation for how intelligent the Prince is. And Harry is not doing the due diligence of being, I think, adequately suspicious of the Prince – that will eventually come later – but to your point, Laura, he’s annoying his friends with this. And I think it’s just that… if we go back to comparing it to Dumbledore, Harry was expecting… one of the theories was that Dumbledore would be teaching him advanced magic, and that’s not strictly what Dumbledore is doing this year, but instead, Harry is getting all of this tutelage, these spells that he’s never heard of before, and he’s getting that from the Prince.
Channell: I feel like this would be a glimpse into all of the fanart that’s out there of if Snape had raised Harry.
Andrew: There’s fanart of that? Huh.
Eric: Aw. “Who’s a good little A-plus Potions master?”
Andrew: It’s the dad he doesn’t have! I was joking about DumbleDaddy earlier, based on what Eric said, but yeah, I mean, he is kind of a father here, actually, Snape is.
Laura: Yeah. Well, and he’s teaching him throughout the book, even though most of the time, Harry is not aware of who it is who’s teaching him. But speaking of teaching, for the first time we get to see Harry use one of Snape’s personal spell inventions? Question mark? There might be some debate over whether “invention” is the right word there, but Harry accidentally hits Ron with a Levicorpus, and it immediately wakes up the entire dorm room, Ron is suspended in the air by his ankles, and Harry has to quickly scramble to get Ron down.
Andrew: Yeah. So in terms of creating spells – we’re going to be discussing this more in bonus this week, but we’re going to do a little more in the main show – this isn’t addressed in the books ever, and nor was it ever addressed by the author, so there’s a lot of room for interpretation here. Harry does say twice… he, in the narrator voice, uses the word “invent” in terms of these spells, so I’m inclined to just say they’re spells that were invented by Snape himself. But how do you all think that spells are invented? And Laura, didn’t you put together a discussion on metaphysics in the wizarding world or something like that? This kind of harkens back to that discussion that we had a while ago.
Laura: Yeah, a number of years ago. Yeah, no, I mean, it’s a lot of… it was basically a discussion of like, “How does magic work?” And how do we explain things like… what was it, Gamp’s Laws of Transfiguration, and how are we getting things from nowhere, and where does the poop go when you Evanesco it…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: The most important questions.
Laura: All of these types of questions were what we were covering in that episode. It’s a good one. You should check it out.
Eric: It was Episode 576. It’s available on our Wall of Fame page, and there’s a transcript for it.
Andrew: Eric, what do you think?
Eric: Yeah, I tend to lean towards… so “invented” is not wrong; obviously, it’s what the book uses. But I’ve always thought of it as being more of a collaboration, where you have to figure out… the way that it’s described in this chapter, there’s all these words crossed out, like Snape is trying to create a spell. He’s creating it that does something, but what it does is based on the wording that he uses. Now, the only reason… or the way that that works is there has to be a right answer or an invocation, or the right incantation – the right Latin word, basically – that ultimately will achieve the desired effect, and all these words that Snape is trying are crossed out. So it is like bargaining with the universe to kind of give you what you want. You’re responsible for creating, or maybe popularizing… somebody at one point tells Harry that spells come and go in popularity.
Micah: Lupin.
Eric: But it must be crazy to be the first person that you know that stumbled upon a spell that does something really unique. Being grabbed by your ankle is really a unique thing to see.
Micah: Well, I think the reference to spells coming and going is more so just in terms of popularity, not that the spell actually will just fade into nonexistence. But the quote that came to mind to me when you asked this question, Andrew, is actually from Dumbledore, when he says, “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic,” and so going off of what you were saying, Eric, there’s got to be a source code somewhere, right? There has to be almost this bank that we’re drawing from to create these spells.
Laura: There’s a spell database.
Andrew and Micah: Yeah.
Laura: You’ve just got to write the right SQL query and you’ll be able to pull ’em all down.
Andrew: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of just maybe a Potions class or a science class. You’ve just got to get all the ingredients just right for the magic to happen. It’s kind of what I guess, Eric, you’re describing; you need to find all the right parts of the word, the way to say the spell, all that, and you get everything right, and that’s where the magic happens.
Eric: The fact that Levicorpus is nonverbal. Why? We don’t know. But presuming if you say it out loud, it doesn’t work.
Micah: You can use it in Hogwarts Legacy, can’t you?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: Maybe.
Micah: And that was well before Snape’s time.
Andrew: What do you think, Channell? Where do you fall on this?
Channell: So when I was reading this, it made me think of when I’m writing or trying to figure out a recipe.
Eric: Oooh.
Channell: So I have been trying for years to make the perfect butterbeer ice cream, so it’s a lot of crossing out, and then you have to take all of these different ingredients and put them together, and you know certain things work well. So he’s taking words and intonation, and how does that work, and then making it nonverbal, which I would think he would have to engineer; it’s like, “How does this work if I’m not saying it?” So he’s so brilliant that he can engineer his own nonverbal spells. And it was just really interesting to think about he’s just scratching it off, and I’m looking at my mini versions of ice cream, and I’m like, “It’s the same thing.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: By the way, where are you at on that? And is it ready to ship yet? Because we have a P.O. box, and…
Andrew: Or what’s your address? We’ll come to you and taste test for you.
[Channell and Eric laugh]
Channell: Ice cream party at my house.
Andrew: Woohoo!
Channell: I have a new round that I have to do…
Andrew: Oh.
Channell: … and hopefully, hopefully, this is the one. But I say that every time. [laughs]
Andrew: Well, now we and the listeners are invested, so please send us an update when you have one. When you’ve figured it out.
Channell: Yes.
Eric: So I love the comparison to recipes. I think that makes a lot of sense. And I think that… there was a person who presumably first invented the cheeseburger, but everybody has the ingredients of cheese… that pre-existed, but the exact combination… or you have instances throughout history of a dish being invented around the same time from different parts of the world or whatever that weren’t talking to one another. So there is a source code, but what Snape is doing, or that the Prince is doing, is using the narrow margins of Advanced Potion-Making to basically concoct a recipe to do something. It also strikes me, given the age at which this was Snape’s own Potions book – presuming that Advanced Potion-Making, the book, is a sixth year course – that these spells were possibly developed by Snape with the express purpose of using on James Potter and Sirius Black, because that necessity breeds invention. And keeping in mind what other spells are in here “for enemies,” I get the sense that this was something that Snape was actively involved in doing, and we know why.
Channell: Thus the nonverbal.
Eric: Don’t give your enemy the keys to the cool spell.
Laura: Right. So all of this, particularly Ron not suffering any ill effects from using Levicorpus on him… and Harry also uses another of Snape’s discovered spells on fellow students to stop them from eavesdropping on what he’s talking about. Nothing bad happens, so this increases Harry’s confidence in using the Prince’s work. Unfortunately, that ends up not always being a great thing; see Sectumsempra coming a little bit later. But Micah, this is a pretty reckless move, right?
Micah: Yeah, bad Harry. Bad, bad Harry.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: I don’t know what he’s thinking here in this moment. Maybe he’s not, and that’s part of the problem, but just… well, I will say I’m impressed that he’s able to cast this spell with almost no problem whatsoever. I don’t know that we even think about that part of it. It just works.
Andrew: Well, and maybe that’s one reason why he did what he did. He was like, “Well, I’m going to try it; I know it’s not going to work anyway,” and then he’s like, “Oh!”
Micah: But it’s so dangerous, though.
Andrew: I know.
Micah: If you think about it, you have no idea what the spell is going to do. And it’s really the same thing with Sectumsempra, right? He knows that it’s for enemies, but he doesn’t know what the impact or the outcome is going to be, and so that’s just a really reckless, dangerous move on his part. He could have seriously injured Ron.
Andrew: Maybe part of it is this book has been going so well for him, the Advanced Potion-Making book, that what could go wrong? He’s just gotten a little high on it, and it’s like, “Well, I’ll try everything. Sure, why not? No issue.”
Laura: He thought he could trust Tom Riddle’s diary at first, too, and we see how that went.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Yeah, Harry should have a little bit more self-awareness. It’s easy to throw rocks at him from here, but still. I think Ginny has already said her piece about it. Ron and Hermione… I will say, I’m not going to blame anybody other than Harry for this, but Ron’s ease of acceptance, the way in which he all of a sudden… he was obviously very cross and hurt in the moment when he was lifted by his ankle and woken up that way, but then by lunch is laughing at it, and is like, “Ah, it was innocent. Ah, Hermione, don’t be such a stick in the mud.” But if it were me, I wouldn’t be so quick to shake it off, honestly. Because Harry is reading from a book. Don’t do that around people. What the heck, Harry?
Andrew: Justin, who’s listening live, is also blaming Snape, which, yeah, I mean, he discovered the spell and then wrote it down and then left this book in a public classroom for some reason, so that’s his fault too.
Laura: It feels very un-Snape-like to have just left something like this laying around.
Eric: This, the Sword of Gryffindor… man, that guy is leaving stuff all the time.
Micah: Laura, you brought up earlier, though, these other spells that Harry is casting, and it’s also called out that he uses some sort of spell on Crabbe which makes his toenails grow, and Crabbe is in Snape’s House. I’m starting to wonder how Snape is not picking up on some of this, too. And I know he’s very distracted; he’s got a lot going on this year as well, but he’s somebody who seems very attuned to especially Harry in particular.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: It just surprises me that this is not picked up on sooner.
Eric: Well, again, I’m sure the very first day of Hogwarts, Slughorn went into the staff room raving about how good Harry was at Potions, and Snape should have shown up in the middle of the night in Harry’s dorm and been like, “Give me the book. Just give me the book.” That’s how quickly Snape would have solved it if he had half a mind. But the question becomes, is Snape willingly aiding Harry? Is it just something out of the scope of something that he would care about? Or is he bound by the Unbreakable Vow, really, so much that he doesn’t want to interfere at all with anything involving Harry Potter, because there’s a chance he could prevent Draco from completing his mission by interfering with Harry in any way?
Andrew: I want to also turn this around and ask, should Harry have used this area of the book as a big hint as to actually whose book this actually is? Because Harry recalls that this Levicorpus was the same spell that his dad used that he had seen happen in Snape’s worst memory. I feel like this should have helped Harry narrow the list down, because if he saw his dad use the spell, it’s kind of crazy he wouldn’t ask himself if it was a half-blood Marauder, like Lupin, who actually was writing down all these spells. Or started putting the pieces together about Snape! He’s close. He’s very close.
Eric: It is a mark at how daddy-deprived Harry is that he’s like, “Could the Prince be my dad? Wait, no, my dad was pure-blood.” But he’s hopeful. He’s hoping this.
Andrew and Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: So who else was in that scene?
Laura: Right, exactly. And it does raise the question of, if Snape discovered this, why was James the one using it? Or did he maybe write it down and learn to use it nonverbally after what happened to him so that he could try and tag James back?
Andrew: That’s what I’m thinking. I think that’s exactly… yeah.
Laura: But I want to ask a question in our continued debate about whether or not it’s right for Harry to be using this textbook to benefit academically in Potions class, because he’s continuing to do so, Slughorn is continuing to boast about Harry’s Potions prowess, and it’s pissing Hermione off, understandably so.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Good.
Laura: So I’m posing this statement – and I’m not saying that I agree with it – but Harry should use the Prince’s work to help curry Slughorn’s favor, since that’s what Dumbledore wants him to do anyway. Harry is just increasing the likelihood of Slughorn giving him the real memory. Discuss.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Harry don’t even know about that yet!
[Laura laughs]
Eric: You can’t retroactively justify this cheating. Blatant cheating.
Micah: No. I love this rationale. He can just go up to Hermione and say, “Hermione, stop. Dumbledore told me to get close to Slughorn; this is such a good way for me to do it. I am acing Potions. He loves me. He’s trying to court me in Hogsmeade later on in this chapter.”
Andrew: Yes.
Micah: Use it to your advantage, Harry, and Hermione, just shut up already. You’re so jealous.
Andrew: [laughs] Slughorn likes talent, and I think he would love having exclusive access to these spells. I do just wonder, though, if Slughorn would tell Snape about Harry’s “work.” And also, what would Slughorn think of Harry admitting to relying on someone else’s notes for his class? That’s the part that really seems like a reason not to bring it up.
Eric: What’s interesting is I don’t think it would hurt Slughorn… it would hurt Harry’s credibility a little bit, but not really with Slughorn, because Slughorn likes him for being famous Harry Potter that stopped the Dark Lord. You know what I’m saying? Harry being revealed as having used this textbook for these potions recipes wouldn’t be a dealbreaker in terms of Slughorn still trying to socialize with him or invite him to Slug Club dinners.
Andrew: Channell, I saw you shaking your head.
Channell: [laughs] I think that Slughorn is a Slytherin for a reason. Using somebody else’s notes to get ahead is no different from what he does by collecting people and using his connections…
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Oooh.
Channell: … so as long as it gets the job done… I see why Hermione is mad, because if you ask Harry to recreate that potion without the book, he has learned nothing. He can’t do it. He doesn’t understand why you should squeeze or smash one of the ingredients to get more juice; he doesn’t understand any of that. So I think that all he’s doing is getting the attention, and he’s enjoying that. But I kind of agree with Hermione that he should stop, since the only thing he’s learning are the spells, so it’s kind of like learning a foreign language and only learning the bad words first.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: Oh, great comparison. I love that. And Hermione voices… to your point, Channell, she voices not only is this cheating, but she’s starting to question the Prince’s motives, which I thought was really interesting because Hermione is normally the one who defends Snape when Harry wants to go to him as suspect number one anytime something shady is going on. She doesn’t know she’s talking about Snape in this moment, but I thought it was a nice little twist from what we normally see from her.
Channell: For Snape, it’s so interesting to think about him as the person behind all of the writing. And I keep trying to think, why hasn’t Slughorn noticed? Why isn’t he…? I mean, it was such a long time ago, but there has to be a reason why Slughorn doesn’t really remember Snape that well. He never tried to collect him. So my thoughts were just Snape in school probably didn’t like Slughorn very much, so that’s why his notes are all in his book. It was like he took a look at this textbook and he just kind of wrote Slughorn off and then showed him up in the book, but never actually showed Slughorn that he could do better. So it’s just you see Harry doing all of these great things with the potions, and it’s not clicking to Slughorn, probably because Snape never showed him.
Eric: That’s interesting.
Micah: That is interesting, because Slughorn would have presumably been the Head of Snape’s House as well, so perhaps there’s more there than we realize. But I think that Slughorn is willing to look past the Snape angle of all this because he’s probably attributing Harry’s prowess at Potions to Lily more so than Snape.
Andrew: Ahh.
Micah: We know she was really good at Potions as well.
Channell: I wonder why.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Laura: Right, that’s always the question.
Micah: Well, who benefitted from who here, is the question.
Eric: She probably had a book too.
Andrew: The Half-Blood Princess.
Laura: Right? Well, and how many of Snape’s discoveries that we see in the textbook were things that he found on his own, versus things – and it’s not saying that he was cheating – but things that he found together with Lily, because they were both gifted at this subject?
Micah: Yeah. In terms of Hermione, though, I still think there’s a bit of jealousy on her part as it relates to the Half-Blood Prince, because for the entirety of their time at Hogwarts, Hermione has been the source of academic assistance for both Ron and for Harry, and now, at least for Potions’ sake, the Prince is helping out Harry as much as he could possibly want and then some. So while I think it’s right for her to be cautious, of course, there is a little bit of jealousy there too.
Laura: I agree.
Eric: I don’t think it… and I disagree with Ron saying, “Oh, you’re just mad that Harry is getting a better score than you,” as a way to… as if that actually in any way discredits what she’s saying, which it really doesn’t, right? It’s still bad for him to do this.
Micah: No, she’s right to do it. Past is precedent, right? Look at Chamber of Secrets; there’s a whole backstory here that can be drawn upon about taking advice from books written by people that you don’t know.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: This is a good reason not to read any of my college textbooks.
Micah: It’s almost like the plot was copied.
[Andrew laughs]
Channell: I think Snape would have been a really great teacher if he actually wanted to be there, because of the way he got his job, it wasn’t really… it wasn’t him interviewing for a job as a professor at Hogwarts. He’s basically made a deal with Dumbledore, and it’s kind of like serving a lifetime prison sentence for him.
Eric: Oh, wow.
Channell: So you have this “I’m forced to be here” kind of mentality, but if he had taught students with the same enthusiasm that he has for his notes, then he would have been a phenomenal teacher, I think.
Andrew: There’s a line in this chapter from Harry. Harry thinks to himself, “The Prince had been a much more effective teacher than Snape.” That says it all.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: And I think we’ve discussed this on the show before. Snape is just not meant to be a teacher. Brilliant guy, can’t teach students.
Eric: Well, I love, too, that Channell, you just mentioned the interview process, because again, it’s not as if Snape ever had to brew a potion to pass the test and become a professor. I think it’s actually just happenstance that the Potions Master of Hogwarts for all of Harry’s years there is the best person at brewing potions that we will probably ever hear about or read about or meet. It’s funny that he’s so skilled and good at Potions, because he doesn’t have to be to be at Hogwarts. Look at Trelawney.
Laura: Right.
Channell: [laughs] He doesn’t have to be a really good teacher to be there, and that’s one of the other things that I was thinking about, is why didn’t Harry recognize Snape’s writing? Because you see him earlier in the chapter where… or is it later in the chapter where he recognizes Dumbledore’s handwriting?
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Channell: He gets a note from Dumbledore. But then also, you see that Snape sends messages to Harry vocally. He doesn’t write it down and hand it to a student; he just says, “Tell Harry this message.” So I’m wondering, does he just not write feedback on these essays? So he had the students turn to page 394 and write about werewolves, but he never wrote feedback like, “You’re wrong”?
Laura: Yeah. He definitely writes on the chalkboard, so you would think that… I mean, after five years of Harry taking classes with Snape, you would think he’d make the connection.
Andrew: Harry paying attention in Snape’s class? Mmm…
Laura: Yeah, probably not.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: But I think it also goes to show that Harry is not observant. There are so many times throughout the series where the answer is right in front of him and he just doesn’t put two and two together. Some of that’s age, and then some of it’s just he couldn’t have predicted it anyway. But I do think this is a case of Harry not paying attention to what’s going on around him, and only paying attention to the handwriting of the people that he likes, right? So he’s able to recognize Dumbledore’s handwriting, but he’s not thinking that much about Snape.
Eric and Micah: Yeah.
Channell: I would think Snape’s would sear into his brain, like you’d have a trauma response to seeing Snape’s handwriting. [laughs]
Laura: You would think. You would think. Well, we’re going to take one more quick break here, and then we’ll be right back for the rest of the discussion.
[Ad break]
Laura: So after Harry’s somewhat tense breakfast conversation with Ron and Hermione about continuing to use the Prince’s textbook, the trio do head to Hogsmeade for what turns out to be a really short visit. I had forgotten before I started reading this chapter how this visit to Hogsmeade is pretty much a nothingburger, and they only do it to set up the plot point that comes at the end of the chapter with the necklace cursing Katie. But I will say, while they are in Hogsmeade, Tonks does stop Harry from assaulting Mundungus Fletcher, who they catch selling heirlooms from Grimmauld Place, which means he’s selling Harry’s stuff.
Andrew: Awful.
Eric: Yeah, probably a locket too.
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Micah: Probably.
Andrew: Harry should have been madder in this scene. He’s very frustrated, but I wish I saw more from him. And Mundungus does disappear, and Tonk says, “He’s halfway across the country by now; don’t waste your time.” But still, this is incredibly frustrating! This is his late uncle’s home we’re talking about that Dung is stealing from.
Eric: Yeah, it’s totally… it doesn’t matter that Harry has no interest in this stuff; I think even Harry says that in the book. He recognizes it as being from Sirius’s place. What makes him mad is the violation that Dung is doing. But something that I thought was surprising is that Tonks, who is supposed to be just totally miserable right now, and grieving over Sirius’s death, has no real reaction when Harry says Dung is taking all Sirius’s stuff. If anything, I know she came here to deescalate, but if Tonks were really feeling the way about her that people have suggested that she feels, she’d be the one pinning Dung to the wall and attacking him further! But she’s just like, “Yeah, Harry, you’ve got to let it go sometimes. What are you going to do?” It’s like, oh. This shows that there’s more Tonks than has been previously suspected.
Laura: Right.
Micah: Well, somebody who is doing their job – a Dumbledore who’s actually present – is Aberforth.
Eric: Oh.
Micah: And I’m curious at this point in the story, why would Aberforth be confronting Mundungus? And I’m presuming it’s for the same reason that Harry ultimately gets into this altercation with him about. We know Mundungus is not welcome inside the Hog’s Head; he’s earned himself a lifetime ban from the bar. So I’m wondering, maybe Mundungus tried to sell some things inside the Hog’s Head and got caught and…? I don’t know.
Andrew: I could see that.
Eric: Maybe he made a pass at the goat?
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Maybe.
Eric: Wasn’t well-received?
Andrew: “Don’t you dare steal my goat.”
Micah: He was looking for some different kind of wares.
Eric: So I was thinking…
Laura: Well, and we also know that Mundungus has a history of at least once wearing a disguise to get into the Hog’s Head, so who knows what he’s done since then?
Eric: Right. Yeah, they have long history. They just have… I think that’s all it is, is they just… who knows what? Maybe it was not paying the bar tab; maybe it was something more nefarious. Because I think, doesn’t the Hog’s Head also pride itself on having an unsavory sort? Being a refuge for the unsavory sort? So the idea that Aberforth is cross with Mundungus and would boot him out, or tell him, “You can’t shop here, you can’t drink here,” does hint that there’s something big in their past. But I see a scene like this, and I’m just like, man, I had high hopes for Dung to literally just once choose redemption, and he never does. He’s just Dung.
Laura: Yeah. Well, the trio also briefly run into Slughorn at Honeydukes, who once again reminds them that he’s trying to collect Harry. Apparently, Harry has been getting physical invites via these purple envelopes for weeks to go to these Slug Club dinners that he’s not been to. Hermione indicates that she has. Do we think that Slughorn is even more interested in Harry since it’s been so hard to get him to come to these dinners? What do you think, Channell?
Channell: I think it’s quite the draw for him, because Harry is that crown jewel. He’s the crown jewel of the century, really, because he is the Boy Who Lived, but he’s also playing hard to get, so he’s kind of a tease there. Dumbledore sat him in front of Slughorn, and was like, “Come to Hogwarts; we have your next jewel here…”
Andrew: He’s not getting it.
Channell: And Harry is not doing it. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. What’s the saying? You always want what you can’t have. This is driving Slughorn crazy. His new trophy is out of reach, no matter how hard he tries.
Eric: What I love about this is Slughorn even proposes on the spot, hoping to catch Harry off guard, “Hey, what about Monday?” And Harry is like, “Oh, actually, it doesn’t work. I’m so sorry.” [laughs]
Andrew: “Ooh, can’t make that day either. I’ll call you.”
Laura: Right. It’s kind of like Harry is repeatedly declining… very politely declining repeat asks to go on a date with somebody a little bit. It’s like, “Ooh, no, I’m busy that night.” “What night? We didn’t even talk about what night.” “Oh, no, I just know I’m going to be busy.”
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Laura: Well, after this, the trio do have a quick drink at the Three Broomsticks before they decide to head back to Hogwarts before the weather gets worse. Didn’t mention that in this discussion, but the weather is horrible, which I think makes the ensuing scene that we’re about to talk about even harsher. So in route back to the castle, the trio is walking behind Katie Bell and her friend Leanne. The girls begin arguing over a package that Katie is carrying, which turns out to be the cursed necklace that is the namesake for this chapter. We’re later going to learn that this was intended for Dumbledore. And the package tears when the girls are tugging back and forth on it, causing Katie to come in direct contact with the cursed jewelry, and the results are terrifying. Katie is screaming and suspended in mid air; she’s soon pulled to the ground, where she continues screaming and shaking. And Leanne does detail the sequence of events as best she can: Katie came back from the bathroom with a package that she needed to take up to the castle, but she wasn’t able to answer any questions about who was sending that and why it was being sent up to the castle. So it’s pretty clear that Katie has been Imperiused here; Leanne comes to that unsettling realization when she’s recounting the series of events, and realizes that Katie was not acting like herself, and that’s probably what happened here.
Micah: More problems in bathrooms, just like in Chamber of Secrets.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: Students being attacked by things in bathrooms, just like in Chamber of Secrets. It’s almost like they’re the same plot. The other thing I just wanted to draw attention to: There’s these subtle references to Ron looking over at Madam Rosmerta, and we’ll learn a little bit later on in the book that she was, in fact, Imperiused first, and she then Imperiused Katie. So it’s little breadcrumbs that are being dropped there. And I know, Andrew, you had something else that you caught on here as well.
Andrew: Yeah. A, kind of scary that you can Imperius someone to Imperius someone. That’s a dangerous domino effect.
Eric: Yeah, because where does it stop?
Andrew: Yeah. And then B, it is noted that Madam Rosmerta is not in view of Ron, which sets up what we do learn later about how she was involved with the necklace. But I feel like that’s a big clue for readers that something is amiss. Ron is looking for her, but she’s not there. Why?
Laura: Right. Yeah, because they assume she’s just behind the counter getting drinks or something. It seems completely innocuous.
Andrew: I think it’s even said she’s in the back room, which… she’s totally out of where she normally would be, I guess.
Laura: Right. Well, Harry, of course, recognizes the necklace as the one he saw at Borgin and Burkes when he was spying on Draco over the summer in Knockturn Alley, and he later accuses Draco of being the culprit when the trio and Leanne see Professor McGonagall, but McGonagall says, “It couldn’t have been Draco; he was serving detention with me when this happened.” Insert eye emoji here. We’ll come back to that later.
Andrew: [laughs] Shifty eyes.
Eric: I will say, for everything Harry is trying to do and say, the one person giving an alibi that he was not counting on is his own Head of House.
Laura: Yep, exactly.
Eric: Kind of a gut punch.
Laura: And the thing is, once again, Harry is a lot closer than he realizes here, because he thinks that this necklace is what Borgin was offering to sell Malfoy last summer when Harry was spying in Knockturn Alley. He specifically calls out Malfoy saying, “How would I look walking down the street with that?”
Eric: He’d look fabulous!
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Eric: More people should wear opal necklaces.
Micah: Well, he would be flying down the street, right? Because it would pick him up into the air.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Laura: Right.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I don’t know how much control he’d have.
Micah: Yeah. I just have so much frustration here with Harry not being believed, because in reading the book, the evidence is just overwhelming that Draco is up to something. Something; I’m not saying that he’s responsible for all these things that are happening, but it’s just like nobody’s listening to Harry, and especially Ron and Hermione, and that annoys me.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Especially – and we were talking about this a few months ago – people should be more willing to believe Harry over the course… due to the events of the last couple of years in this series. For him to be not believed again, especially from his trusted friends, is very frustrating to see. McGonagall… I can understand her practicing some restraint. She’s an adult; she’s a teacher. She had Draco with her earlier. But everybody else should be a little more receptive, I think, to Harry’s theory.
Eric: I agree with that, and I think that it’s just hard because, again, Harry takes it to Dumbledore and it goes nowhere, and it’s because it can’t go anywhere. Dumbledore knows. Dumbledore absolutely believes Harry. He absolutely, 100% has no problem with anything Harry is saying, unlike everybody else, but he doesn’t indicate anything is going on because it would ruin everything if Harry were allowed to know that Dumbledore knows that Draco Malfoy is up to something, and so Dumbledore has to play it too cool and basically be like, “Thanks for telling me. Okay.” As if it’s unimportant, which only causes Harry to spiral and spin out more and worse. So it’s one of those things, and I’m sure we’ll talk about this next week, but I think that the way that Hermione is treating Harry in front of McGonagall, and the way that Ron is just kind of looking at his feet, looking away like “This is embarrassing; I don’t want to be here,” is a shame. But Harry is not going to be allowed to have that payoff for reasons having nothing to do with his delivery here. Yeah, he seems kind of like a crazy person. We know he’s 100% right, but nobody is allowed to believe Harry right now because of the greater plot implications. Also, Andrew, I’m just noticing your half-moon glasses.
Andrew: Oh, I’m getting ready for a Dumbledore segment later in today’s episode.
Laura: Ahh.
Micah: The challenge for Harry is that he has the evidence, but he doesn’t have the evidence at the same time. And so as much as he would like to prove that it is Draco, he can’t, because there’s no tangible evidence at this time that would implicate Draco. And I did just want to call out… I thought it was important to note how McGonagall handles this situation with a Slytherin student like Draco, versus how Snape handles situations with Harry. So if we’re to juxtapose them a little bit – Head of Gryffindor House with Draco, Head of Slytherin House with Harry – they’re two very different styles, and usually totally unfair in Harry’s situation.
Laura: Yeah. But Channell, I think you actually have a good point here where you take a little bit of issue with McGonagall’s approach, right?
Channell: Yeah. I work with a lot of instructors, so I immediately flagged the way McGonagall handled this as providing too much information about Draco to the point where she violates student privacy. So for me, there’s no reason for the trio to even know why Draco was with her. She’s the Head of their House; she’s the Deputy Headmistress. She says, “Draco was with me, so he wasn’t there.” That should be the end of it. It’s a little embarrassing for a student to have that… like, “Oh, he was in detention.” Strike number one with the student privacy. And “for failing to turn in his homework twice.” That’s even further into the “Let’s embarrass Draco for no reason.”
Eric: I love this point. I’m trying to think, wasn’t it also…? Was it one of Snape’s verbal communications to Harry that he told another student about Harry redoing his detention or something where he’s like, “Oh, you’re going to do it next Saturday instead”? Somebody else relays that to Harry. It might have been Dumbledore.
Micah: It was Demelza Robins.
Eric: Demelza Robins! So there’s another example of a teacher telling a student about their detention through another student, or telling a student through… you know what I’m saying? It’s exactly what Channell is saying. And I think as far as the not turning in homework twice thing, that’s obviously meant to be a clue for the reader that Draco is distracted. This is supposed to be confirmation that Draco, even more so, is absolutely up to something, so much so that a normally decent student, we’ve been led to believe, is actually just straight up not doing his homework. So it’s weird because we’re having our cake and eating it; this is a further clue to kind of point us in the direction of “Draco is up to something.” But you’re right, it violates something for McGonagall to be that forthcoming with them.
Channell: We hold McGonagall to a higher standard than Snape. Snape’s whole purpose is to embarrass and belittle Harry…
Eric: Intimidate, yeah.
Channell: … but McGonagall is very much a standup type of professor. And it also… Draco not turning in his homework, yeah, it’s a clue for what happens later, but it kind of aligns with his statement on the train, where he’s like, “I don’t even know if I’m going to be here next year,” so it could kind of get hidden under, “I don’t care about school. I’m just here.”
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Micah: Well, you are, Draco. And you’re going to hug Voldemort.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Max that.
Eric: Well, Voldemort is going to hug you. I don’t know… it’s not reciprocal.
Micah: But Channell, I really like that point, though, because it makes me rethink everything that I just said about McGonagall, because she does kind of needle Draco in an underhanded way. It’s not like Snape, who’s very outspoken against Harry, so it is like she is sticking it to him a little bit by giving away all that information to the trio.
Channell: Behind his back, too.
Eric: Well, it’s possible that they had Transfiguration with the Slytherins, and maybe in front of the whole class it was like, “Okay, who did the assignment? Draco, you didn’t? That’s detention for you.” Maybe she said that in front of the class, and it’s a situation where it’s not meant to belittle him, but the whole class understands that that’s the penalty for not doing homework, and then here she’s just reminding them that that’s where Draco was. Could have been a thing.
Channell: But he seems so clueless about it.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I think there’s something to be said for McGonagall hitting back a little bit on the basis of the fact that she knows what Snape does and how he’ll put Harry and other students on blast repeatedly in front of other students, and this feels like maybe a bit of a subtle moment for her to get back. But that’s our chapter.
Odds & Ends
Laura: We are going to talk about one odd and end: Just noticed that Harry is starting to get a little jelly when he thinks about Ginny with Dean.
Andrew: Aww.
Laura: He notes that he doesn’t see her at the Three Broomsticks, and she and Dean are probably cuddled up somewhere, and he feels a little irritated in that moment.
Andrew: She got invited to Hogsmeade too, right? And she’s like, “I’m going to be there with Dean. Maybe I’ll see you there.” That sucks.
Eric: And Harry has a thought where he’s like, [grumpily] “They’re probably at the tea shop.”
Andrew: “Snogging.”
Laura: He hasn’t had any good memories there.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Superlative of the Week
Laura: But now we’re going to get into our MVP of the Week. So this week’s question is: What do we think would have happened if Dumbledore had received the cursed necklace? With the caveat that I’m looking for wrong answers only.
[MVP of the Week music plays]
Andrew: I think he would have started making those weird noises that Voldemort makes in the eighth Harry Potter movie.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Andrew: “Nyeh! Ough! Wahh! Gahh!”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Oh my God. What’s with all this jewelry Dumbledore comes into? First the ring, then the necklace. I think he would break the curse upon it, then he’d go to dinner in those items and a cocktail dress, looking fabulous.
Micah: Return to sender; it wasn’t his color.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Oh, dang. Similarly, I said he would forward it to Mundungus, thinking, “You know, I’ll just do him a little favor and give him something that he can pawn off, make a little money.”
Channell: I think that he would give it to Aberforth in true sibling fashion for a laugh.
[Andrew laughs]
Channell: If I ever were able to do that to my brother…
Andrew: Yeah. Wait, you would do that to your brother?
Channell: I mean, Madam Pomfrey is like, right there.
Andrew: Oh, that’s true. He’ll live.
Laura: I really love that call-out. It’s like, “It’s not that serious. Healthcare is right there. Come on.”
Andrew: [laughs] Channell, don’t let your brother listen to this episode.
[Laura laughs]
Channell: I don’t think it would surprise him very much.
[Everyone laughs]
Lynx Line
Laura: Well, now we’re going to move on to our Lynx Line. Patrons who are members of our Slug Club over at Patreon.com/MuggleCast answered this week’s question, which was: Given the example we get this chapter of Katie being Imperiused, how could Hogsmeade do a better job of protecting visitors and residents from security nightmares right now?
Andrew: Rachel said,
“Something akin to security cameras in and around buildings in Hogsmeade could be very helpful. Items to detect Dark objects and enchantments, like the Thief’s Downfall in Gringotts, would also be a good preventative measure.”
Eric: Carly says,
“I’ve never understood why the Caterwauling Charm wasn’t used more often in Hogsmeade. The Death Eaters used it to great success (unbeknownst to them) in Deathly Hallows, so why was it never used for catching Death Eaters, Sirius, or other wizards that were ‘at large’? Side note: Could that charm also be used to detect Dark objects as well as certain individuals? Like it goes off if a cursed object enters a certain radius of the town.”
Could do anything!
Micah: Zachary says,
“A shield or ward bubble around the whole village like what they did to protect the castle. It can be keyed to only let in those with pure and honest intentions and no hint of malice. As like the castle has, anyone who has malicious intentions and tries to enter will suddenly forget why they’re there, thus giving them a clear mind which would either allow them to enter or turn back.”
Laura: That’s a good one. Sara says,
“I feel like even just having some teachers or other trusted adults around would help. Like, the kids are all just there unsupervised in a village? Not saying they need to be shepherded around, but some teachers just being around for support or emergencies would be smart.”
Eric: It reminds us… yeah, we see Flitwick and McGonagall and the Minister for Magic there from time to time, but there’s nobody stationed there.
Laura: Right.
Channell: Matthew says,
“From what I’ve seen, with teenagers breaking into every single secure location in the wizarding world, it simply isn’t possible to secure anything.”
[Eric laughs]
[“It’s starting to sound like a security nightmare!” sound effect plays with sirens]
Eric: Why try?
Andrew: Forty says, “Open a dispensary to chill everyone out a bit.”
Laura: Listen, that’s a Hogsmeade I want to go to.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: We can add it for Hogwarts Legacy 2.
Laura: Oh, man.
Micah: Dobby’s Dispensary.
Eric: That’s a big update.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Dobby is free indeed.
Eric: Everyone is stoned now, yes.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Have you seen the videos of Dobby online? I mean, they are amazing.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yes, I have, because you’ve sent me them, Micah. Thank you for continuing to send me them.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: They’re so good. Anyway, we’ll share them in the Discord.
Eric: Augh, okay. Yeah. So Ben says,
“I believe we saw the Thief’s Downfall at Gringotts break an Imperius Curse in Deathly Hallows. They should just put a Thief’s Downfall at the entrance and exit of every establishment in Hogsmeade. Everyone would be wet, but safe! Or, is it possible to make a Thief’s Downfall out of snow instead of a waterfall?”
Micah: Good question. And finally, Broc says,
“Given the unfortunate history Hogsmeade has of not knowing who is in the village and being unable to stop violent criminals and some of the wizarding world’s most dangerous convicts from entering (from Sirius in Book 4, Draco trafficking Dark magical objects in 6, the golden trio Apparating in at the end of 7, and the multiple secret passageways from Hogwarts), I fear there’s only one solution: They have to build a wall and bring in ICE.”
Andrew: [laughs] Okay, so I didn’t read that one before pasting it in.
Micah: Hold on. “Just kidding, we’ve all seen how well that works.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I was going to say, I hope it’s not literally too icy in Hogsmeade, because we’ve seen how ICE does when there’s ice.
[Andrew sings a comical, slapstick tune]
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Well, listeners, if you have any feedback about today’s discussion, you can contact us by emailing or sending a voice memo that you record on your phone to MuggleCast@gmail.com. You can also DM us on social, you can reply in the Spotify or YouTube comments… whatever is convenient for you; we keep an eye on all of it. And next week, we’ll continue our Half-Blood Prince discussion with Chapter 13, “The Secret Riddle.” Don’t forget to visit MuggleCast.com for links to our social media, our Patreon… we’re going to have a new bonus MuggleCast talking more about creating spells, like do people discover these spells? Do they get compensated? Do these spells get added to some sort of database? All kinds of great questions I can’t wait to discuss with the panel today. So you’ll find a link to our Patreon on MuggleCast.com. You’ll also find there our transcripts, our favorite episodes, and lots 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: And now it’s time for Quizzitch.
[Quizzitch music plays]
Eric: This week’s question: In Chapter 11 of Book 6, Ron asked Hagrid what his barrel full of grubs will grow into, and Hagrid doesn’t say. In real life, grubs are the larval stage of what insect? The correct answer is beetles! 47% of people with the correct answer say they did not look that up. This week, winners with the correct answer gave the following names: 67-kid; A Healthy Breeze; Andrew’s Pizza; Beatles the band; Beetle the Bard; Cheeseshark; Does this mean Rita Skeeter was a grub before adulthood?
[Laura laughs]
Eric: I love that.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: GrubblyWeaselPot; Slytherin Squib; Teacher of Muggles; The Grublet of Fire… [laughs] getting a lot of mileage out of this. The Nurse that Assigned Dudley His Diet; Therian Ravenclaw Slytherin Fox; and Turtle! And here is next week’s Quizzitch question: In Chapter 12 of Book 6, the password to the Gryffindor common room is “Dilligrout.” In real life, is Dilligrout A) a bird, B) a stew, C) a medicinal herb, or D) a cave fungus? What is Dilligrout? It’s multiple choice. Visit the Quizzitch form located on the MuggleCast website; go to MuggleCast.com/Quizzitch to submit your answer to us.
Andrew: Channell, thanks so much for joining us today!
Channell: Thank you!
Andrew: It was a pleasure to have you on, and thanks for all your wonderful wisdom. And you win best dressed cohost ever, I think.
Channell: Thank you.
Andrew: And thanks for your support on Patreon.
Channell: Thank you so much.
Andrew: Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Laura: I’m Laura.
Channell: And I’m Channell.
Andrew: Bye, everyone!
Micah: Bye.
Laura: See you next time.