Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #741, Party in the Portraits (Half-Blood Prince Chapter 17, ‘A Sluggish Memory’)
Cold Open
Andrew: But I just want to also add that when stuff like this happens in media – a movie, a TV show, or book – these tender moments between two characters, one of them is going to die.
Laura: Yep.
Andrew: They’re working in the last moments of love before one of them dies.
Eric: [laughs] Oh no!
Andrew: This always happens in storytelling.
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: 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 press that follow button in your podcast app and you’ll never miss an episode. And this week, get ready for the H-word to finally be mentioned, because we’re discussing Chapter 17 of Half-Blood Prince, “A Sluggish Memory.”
Eric: Haberdashery? Honky-tonk? Hippopotamus? Horticulture? What’s the H-word? I’m dying to know.
Andrew: Hor-something or other. We’ll have to…
Micah: Horace.
Andrew: Horace Slughorn.
Eric: That word starts with a W, Andrew.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: No, no, no. Horace.
Eric: Horace!
Andrew: Oh, Eric. Well, listeners, if you love MuggleCast as much as Dumbledore loves telling Harry to put things out of his mind…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: … we invite you to support us at Patreon.com/MuggleCast. We’ll hook you up with bonus episodes of the show, ad-free episodes, livestreams, a monthly Zoom hangout – we did one of those earlier this week – and lots more. We can’t do this without you, so thank you so much in advance. You get livestream access, like I said. Carlee has the H-word; it’s Hufflepuff. Eric, you should’ve known that, as a Hufflepuff.
Eric: Oh.
Laura: Duh. Why didn’t any of us think of that?
Eric: Darn, okay. Wow.
Andrew: And there are other great ways to support us, to help us run this independent podcast. You can leave us a review in your favorite podcast app. You can tell a fellow Muggle about our show. You can visit MuggleCastMerch.com to buy shirts, hats, glassware, and more.
Eric: Please do.
Andrew: At the MuggleCast merch shop, you can buy some of our old patron gifts, like the MuggleCast 15th anniversary T-shirt that I’m wearing tonight. Lots of options for you, lots of ways to support us. Also, when you are a patron, you get to watch the livestream, and for the third time in the last ten minutes, I’m going to comment on Micah’s new glasses. You get to check out Micah’s new glasses on the livestream.
Eric: Yes, people on the Discord, please weigh in. Yes, I’m going to start a poll. People who think they are awesome, people who think they’re awesome and sexy, or people who think they’re just sexy.
Micah: You’re going to make it really hard for them.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Eric: Yes, they’re very difficult, challenging polls.
Andrew: I’m the last one standing in the glasses department in terms of not wearing glasses. I wonder how many more years of MuggleCast until…
Micah: Oh, but you might a little bit later on in this episode.
Andrew: Ooh.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Micah: We might need your dulcet tones.
Andrew: Oh, the Dumbledore glasses. Yes, I do have props.
Chapter by Chapter: Pensieve
Andrew: All right, well, without further ado, let’s get into Chapter by Chapter. We’re discussing Chapter 17 of Half-Blood Prince, “A Sluggish Memory.”
Eric: Which was last discussed on Episode 405 of MuggleCast. That episode was titled “Through and Through,” and it debuted on February 11 of 2019.
Dumbledore: What you are looking at are memories. This is the most important memory I’ve collected. It is from MuggleCast Episode 405.
[Sound of memory uncorking]
[Sound of plunging into Pensieve]
Micah: Slughorn holds the truth to what Voldemort is up to, and I’m surprised that he’s not more highly sought after by Voldemort. It seems like he would be more of a target to me.
Andrew: I was going to say maybe Tom Riddle just forgot, but he couldn’t possibly forget who told him about the Horcrux magic.
Eric: Yeah, you never forget your first.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: Wow.
[Sound of exiting Pensieve]
Dumbledore: Confused? I’d be surprised if you weren’t.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: Never forget your first Horcrux.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Micah: Now that was Michael Gambon, correct?
Eric: That was at the end, yes. We changed it up a little bit at the end there, because also this is the chapter, you guys, where Dumbledore says the line, that “This is the most important memory of all time that I’ve collected.”
Micah: And we’re going to discuss that to see, is it really the most important?
Eric: Oooh.
Chapter by Chapter: Main Discussion
Micah: But before we dive into the memory bank, we need to talk about abstinence, because…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: What?
Eric: It’s a little late for that.
Andrew: It’s very important.
Micah: Things are clearly, clearly getting a little bit out of control at Hogwarts, so much so that the Gryffindor tower password has been renamed to “Abstinence.” And I want to ask, what do we all make of this? We can talk about what the Fat Lady was up to during the Christmas holiday. We can also just talk about how things are this year at Hogwarts in Harry’s sixth year. There’s a lot of hooking up going on.
Eric: Lot of hormones. Lot of raging hormones.
Andrew: There’s another H-word.
Micah: And I think there’s also a follow-up question as to why Ron, at least, as a prefect, doesn’t know the password to get into Gryffindor tower?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Oh my God, don’t even get me started.
Micah: But let’s start with the abstinence.
Eric: Okay, the abstinence. Do you think the Fat Lady is the kind of person who manifests in order to really control herself, and not go on these benders over the holiday break, she wakes up and just mutters to herself a single word every day, “Abstinence, abstinence,” and to remind herself further, she makes all the students say it to her multiple times a day, and thus controls her urge to not be abstinent from that 500-year-old wine in the picture of the monks downstairs?
Andrew: You wouldn’t have guessed that the people in the portraits are having fun in this way over the holidays. That could be a whole other episode of the show, that these people…
Eric: Or that they can drink! That works?
Andrew: That too! Yeah.
Eric: The wine is made of paint! The people are made of paint!
Andrew: I think she’s manifesting better behavior for herself. This isn’t a lesson for the students, though there is, of course – like you said, Micah – that theme in this book of romance. But I think she is second guessing her behavior over the holidays. I do also find it interesting that “abstinence” and the word “slut” come up in the same children’s series chapter. I don’t think that’s a coincidence either.
Micah: And let’s not forget, Ron was about to refer to Ginny that way and gets cut off. So there’s some more mature words that are floating their way into the Harry Potter series in Half-Blood Prince.
Eric: Well, that’s it too. I mean, I think it ultimately works on many levels. This is the book with the raging hormones, and so it’s kind of funny that the students have to say “abstinence” to get into your House dorm, or else what? They sleep outside in the hall? [laughs] It’s kind of cruel, and at the same time, funny.
Laura: Yeah, it is kind of clever, and it makes me honestly want to go back and do an analysis of every password the Fat Lady has set for Gryffindor tower over the years, because I want to see if the passwords are actually connected to other story arcs.
Andrew: Ohh.
Eric: Yeah, what does “Wattlebird” mean for the Fat Lady?
Micah: I’m glad you brought that up, though, Laura, because in looking at them, I did do a quick check when planning the discussion, and this really feels like the first one that isn’t in that magical world.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: It doesn’t have a tie back, necessarily, and it’s just kind of in your face. It’s just a normal word.
Eric: It’s sort of PSA, right? It’s sort of like, “Remember, kids, don’t do drugs” kind of thing.
Micah: Also, how much stuff has she seen as the protector of Gryffindor tower? Especially this year with all we hear about with Ron and Lavender, and maybe she’s just tired of it all.
Andrew: Well, and you have to think previous sixth and seventh years who have gone through that door in the middle of the night. She’s seen some…
Micah: She’s seen it all.
Andrew: … entertaining behavior, yeah. In terms of Ron not knowing the password, I’m chalking this up to he just forgot or missed it. He was notified, all students are notified, but it would be very typical of a teenager to have missed or have forgotten that a password has changed. I read these kind of moments as they’re being irresponsible kids and just missing it.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Eric: I mean, the prefect should have had a five-minute sort of huddle, I think, with the Heads of House at the beginning of the year. No matter where you were, McGonagall would come find you, Ron. There’s ultimately no excuse for a prefect not to know it, especially because prefects are looked up to to disseminate the password.
Laura: Yeah. It does make me wonder how they’re informed, though, especially if the password is changing during the winter holidays. They would presumably have to write it down and send it to them, and that’s a security risk, right? If passwords…
Eric: They put it on an owl and the owl got lost.
Laura: Right.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Or it was in the common room before they left for the holidays, and again, they just missed it. I don’t know. I do have to think there is some efficient system in place, but like any kid, they just missed the update.
Micah: Well, somebody who does know the password is Hermione.
Laura: Of course.
Micah: Perhaps she did not pass along the information to fellow prefect Ron, because she full-blown cold shoulders him when they arrive back at Hogwarts…
Eric: Good for her.
Micah: … but it does give Hermione the opportunity to catch up with Harry, and really the big piece of information that Harry wants to share with Hermione is what happened with Draco and Snape before they left for the holidays, and much like Mr. Weasley and Lupin in the previous chapter, Hermione is very much convinced that Snape is likely pretending to offer to help Draco so he can trick him into providing information. And I don’t think any of us are really surprised here that despite Harry’s best efforts and continuing piling of evidence, nobody is believing what he has to say.
Eric: That’s a shame.
Micah: So the other thing I just wanted to bring up before we start talking about the memories from this chapter is it is time to learn to Apparate. So we see a note up on the message boards in the Gryffindor common room that Apparition lessons are going to be available to students, and I thought we could spend a little bit of time – and we probably have talked about this a bit on other episodes – what kind of real world comparisons could we make to learning to Apparate? I think getting your learner’s permit for driving, at least here in the US, is probably the most applicable.
Eric: Definitely.
Micah: There’s an excitement that builds towards getting into a car for the first time, getting behind the wheel, learning how to drive, and these are both means of transportation in very different ways. So curious to get your thoughts on that.
Andrew: I think these are both tied to the feeling of freedom. When you’re able to drive yourself, get your first car, you feel free. I remember being allowed to drive to high school every morning; that was a huge deal. I wasn’t stuck on the bus. I could stop at McDonald’s on the way there or back if I wanted to.
Eric: Oh my God, that was luxury.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. So I think it’s the freedom that comes with both of these that’s very exciting.
Eric: And I think the sort of formal process really denotes the danger that is involved. When you get behind the wheel of a two-ton automobile, that is really dangerous, and so in order to respect it, you’ve got to go through actually learning how to do it. And similarly with Apparition, it’s very dangerous, very difficult to do. Not everyone will ever be able to do it, which is also true with driving, to some extent. But also, you need to be taught and instructed, and I go back to the driver’s ed instructor at my school in high school. Not all high schools provide those lessons; sometimes you have to go to a driving school that’s a whole separate building run by separate people or the DMV or the state. But yeah, my guy was one of the most memorable teachers we ever had, and some of those things, like how to change a tire, that were added on to the driver’s ed curriculum, are lifelong lessons that were really, really important. And it reminds me a lot of these Apparition lessons with them having to really, really practice until they’re good at it, until they’re let loose into the world.
Micah: Yeah, that’s actually a really great way of describing it. The one thing that rubbed me a little bit the wrong way, though, was that it costs 12 Galleons…
Eric: Eugh.
Micah: … which is just about 75 US dollars, for these lessons. And I was wondering, shouldn’t they be free? I guess driving lessons aren’t free either, but…
Andrew: You’re thinking because they’re at Hogwarts and intuition is free. I’m feeling… so it’s noted that members of the Ministry teach these lessons. If this were Hogwarts faculty teaching this, then I could see your point. But I guess the thinking here is that the teaching is sort of being outsourced, and this is optional. You don’t need to learn to Apparate. Like Eric said, some people can’t even do it, so this is kind of like a luxury upgrade or purchase at Hogwarts.
Laura: Yeah. I mean, I had to… my parents had to pay for my driving lessons.
Micah: Same.
Andrew: Mine must’ve too.
Laura: I think it just depends.
Andrew: And maybe they cost money in the UK, too, so maybe that’s what the author was trying to go for, like, “Oh, just like…” Because I mean, how else do they get around? Not with a car. By train, I guess?
Eric: Well, broomsticks cost lots and lots and lots more Galleons. Floo Powder is probably pretty cheap. It’s like taking the bus, maybe. Although there’s also the bus, which is a pretty simple…
Micah: Public transportation.
Eric: Yeah. But Becky in the Discord is pointing out something that reminds me… she says, “It’s interesting that the lessons are more expensive than a seven Galleon wand.” And here’s where the currency system of the wizarding world completely falls apart: When you start to compare the cost of one thing to the cost of literally anything else, it does not add up. Seven Galleons for a wand that’s going to last you your entire lifetime, and 75 Galleons for six weeks of lessons. What are you going to do?
Laura: Well, 12 Galleons.
Eric: Oh, 12, yeah.
Laura: But you know what? I actually think we could read into this as like a commentary on government corruption and bureaucratic bloat.
Eric: Sure.
Laura: Like, yeah, of course the Ministry is going to try and make as much money as they can. Who among us hasn’t at some point, when we had to either get a document or go through some kind of process where we were getting some kind of certification from the government…
Eric: Ohhh my God.
Laura: … and thought, “I really have to pay this much for this piece of paper?” Or something.
Eric: Yeah, the administrative fee, the tax, the fee fee… yeah, it’s insane.
Micah: Might as well start early. That’s the message.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: You’ll be doing this for the rest of your life.
Micah: Andrew, though, I did want to call out, though, when you said “driving lessons” earlier, it made me think of the movie with Rupert Grint and Julie Walters.
Laura: Yeah!
Andrew: [laughs] I haven’t seen that yet. Maybe I’ll have to.
Eric: It’s good! Yeah, Julie Walters plays his mom. It’s great.
Micah: Watch it after Survivor.
Andrew: Okay, sure.
Micah: [laughs] I’m planning your weekend for you.
Eric: My final thought on the cost of Apparition lessons is that maybe it directly finances the happy crew over at the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. So the people who actually pick up your Splinched parts when you get it wrong are working a lot of overtime for the kids, so that’s why it costs so much money.
Micah: Yeah, and much like many other situations, Harry is a bit of a star here, too, because he has already Apparated.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: And this is spreading like wildfire; he’s getting a lot of kudos from his fellow classmates. But Hermione has a message for Harry from Dumbledore, and Harry is going to continue his lessons, and we’re off to Dumbledore’s office. And Dumbledore is very dismissive to Harry in most of this chapter.
Eric: Augh.
Micah: And they start off on a good note when they’re talking about the Minister’s visit at the Burrow. Harry is Dumbledore’s man through and through. Dumbledore tears up a little bit; Fawkes tears up a little bit.
Andrew: It was so sweet.
Micah: But when it gets to the topic of Professor Snape and Draco, it’s just not good for Harry, and I feel for him in this situation. And I put a few of Dumbledore’s quotes in here, and Andrew, I’m wondering if you’ll do me the honor of reading some of the things that…
Andrew: Oh-whoaaa!
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Was that Trelawney or Dumbledore?
Andrew: The Dumbledore is waking up. [imitating Dumbledore] “Thank you for telling me this, Harry, but I suggest that you put it out of your mind. I do not think that it is of great importance.” Another line from Dumbledore: [imitating Dumbledore] “… blessed as I am with extraordinary brainpower, I understand everything you told me. I think you might even consider the possibility that I understood more than you did. Idiot.” Oh no, he didn’t say that part.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Andrew: “Again, I am glad that you have confided in me, but let me reassure you that you have not told me anything that causes me disquiet.” Were you going to say something, Eric?
Eric: The thing about this is it’s completely absurd to hear this. Harry, for the stuff he’s caught Malfoy in the act of… this is like if there were a high school sophomore that you overheard or suspected was going to try and blow up the school, and then after suspecting this for months, you then find him chatting with a teacher about the plan to blow up the school. By the way, this is what happens, because when the Death Eaters come at Hogwarts at the end of the year, it’s like Battle of Hogwarts lite. Classrooms are destroyed, hallways are a mess, the school’s on fire. So you hear this, that this sophomore in your high school wants to blow up the school and is plotting with a teacher. You go and tell the principal, and the principal says, “Blessed as I am with superior brainpower, trust that I have understood more than what you did about what you’re seeing, and it doesn’t cause me a lick of worry.”
Andrew: [laughs] So the ego is a choice by Dumbledore here…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: … but Harry and Dumbledore are close, so this isn’t just like any student and principal situation. They have a… [sighs] I know maybe you’ll disagree with this, because Dumbledore is not…
Eric: That’s why he should take him more seriously!
Andrew: Yeah, I guess. But Harry does have enough on his plate, and Dumbledore is giving him these extra classes while he’s in a full-time regular student job, if you will. So I don’t know if he really needs to have this very critical bit of information right now. Harry is going to totally lose focus if Dumbledore is like, “Yeah, I’m going to die before long, and Draco needs to kill me.”
Laura: Well, yeah, him dying and Draco killing him is the plan, and he knows Harry, and if Harry were to realize that this was a plan, Harry would try to stop it, and Dumbledore doesn’t want him to because he’s going to die anyway.
Andrew: Yeah, Harry would be like, “Let’s kill Draco,” or “Let’s get Draco out of the school,” or “Let’s kill Snape AND Draco.”
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Harry would go postal.
Laura: I don’t think Harry would want to kill them, but…
Andrew: Okay.
Eric: The thing is… well, Dumbledore can handle Harry; the question is, why the secrecy? It’s not actually necessary. You could actually have a lot more productive conversations, and even get into what Horcruxes are and how to destroy them, if Dumbledore would just be honest about this shit instead of playing these little games about, “Ooh, why don’t you go talk to the professor? See if he can give you the unredacted memory. Haha, hoo-hoo, chip-chip.” It’s like, “Really, dude?”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: It’s all a chess game.
Andrew: Yeah, I think Harry would totally lose focus if he knew the actual plan. Draco needing to kill Dumbledore; that just… Harry just lost Sirius and Cedric, and now he’s about to lose Dumbledore. He doesn’t know it yet; that would totally throw him off. So I could see why Dumbledore is withholding that information. It sucks, but I think of the two choices, this is the best one, to keep him in the dark.
Micah: It’s just unfortunate, though, that this is the way that he chooses to respond to Harry, where we haven’t necessarily seen this level of sternness from him all that much in the past. But it’s also the fact that Dumbledore is looking to get stuff done, and he’s got priorities, and the priority here is not to spend a lot of time talking about Draco and Snape; it’s to show Harry these memories and get him onto Slughorn’s tail to try and extract this memory. So he ends up reinforcing, Dumbledore does, his loyalty to Snape, and I did want to get you, Andrew, just to read one more quote, because this quote actually bothers me more than all the others do, because of the way that he delivers it to Harry and the way he plays it off. And it’s almost like you can sense a little bit of that Dumbledore from the days of old. This is the Dumbledore I would have expected to be cavorting with Grindelwald.
Andrew: This second quote? “Ah, Harry”?
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: [imitating Dumbledore] “Ah, Harry, how often this happens, even between the best of friends! Each of us believes that what he has to say is much more important than anything the other might have to contribute!”
Laura: What I love here is what Dumbledore doesn’t say, which is “And what I have to contribute is way more important than what you have to contribute, so shut up.”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Yeah, “Pipe down there.”
Andrew: But at least he called them best friends.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Eric: I feel like this is a trap, though. I’m not harping on Dumbledore, but it is kind of a trap, because when Harry rushes to then say, “Oh, I don’t think that what you have is unimportant,” Albus goes, “Too right! Now here we are. Let’s go on. Thank you, la-la.”
[Laura laughs]
Micah: All right, well, we are actually going to go on and look at two brand new memories that we haven’t seen before, but we need to take a quick break, and we’ll be right back.
[Ad break]
Micah: All right, so two memories – sort of – for the price of one. And the first one has to do with… I guess first off I wanted to talk a little bit about Dumbledore reflecting on Tom Riddle’s time at Hogwarts. He says that Voldemort “was very guarded with me; he felt, I am sure, that in the thrill of discovering his true identity he had told me a little too much. […] he had the sense never to try and charm me as he charmed so many of my colleagues.”
Andrew: Yeah, Dumbledore is the only one at the school who has seen the real Tom Riddle. He was a witness to Tom’s thievery when he went to the orphanage, and he heard firsthand there at the orphanage that he was a troublemaker. So you can see why Dumbledore would never truly trust him like other professors ended up doing at Hogwarts. I think that’s why Tom didn’t bother with him, right? With trying to win over Dumbledore.
Laura: I do want to give a shout-out, though, to Thadwell in our Discord, who’s saying, “I think this is great insight into why he always feared Dumbledore… he’s been scared of him since he was a kid.”
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: “The only one he ever feared.” [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, setting that wardrobe on fire is pretty friggin’ terrifying, Dumbledore! Check your evil.
Andrew: And that’s your first introduction to magic? Yeah, I mean, you have to… this is the guy who brought you to Hogwarts. He kind of saved you and brought you into the world that you were supposed to be in all along, so you have to see why Tom would want to respect him and not be kicked out of Hogwarts by causing trouble in front of him.
Eric: Yeah, he owes Dumbledore one, almost.
Andrew: Yeah, kind of.
Micah: One other thing that Dumbledore also mentions to Harry is about Tom Riddle’s crew, the precursor to the Death Eaters. He says that “They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty.” And Dumbledore talks about how they were able to get away with so much during their time at Hogwarts – even the Chamber of Secrets gets a reference – but it’s like they can never fully blame Voldemort or his friends for any of it. And so I’m wondering, why couldn’t Dumbledore do more in the moment? Is this a hindsight is 20/20 situation, and looking back on it now with all the facts, it’s just easier to be like, “Yeah, I should have, but I didn’t”?
Laura: I think it is easier to connect the dots in retrospect. I think that’s always the case. I’m trying to think of real world examples, but just going kind of generally, I think especially in today’s day and age, when you look at people who are in positions of power because of the prevalence of social media and having an Internet presence that really kicked off starting with our age group, there are cases where people who hold certain positions of power maybe said or did things that were recorded, whether it was on their social media or on video or whatever, that is openly available for anyone to go and see today. And I mean, I’ve definitely seen commentary of a particular person like this who serves in the US government, who people look at those videos and those photos and things that he shared and posted on his own social media back in the day, and they’re like, “How did nobody see where this was going?” Again, I think it’s always a lot easier… yeah, hindsight is 20/20. I think it’s always easier to look back and say, “I should have done something different.”
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, who could have predicted he would have turned into this? But also, Dumbledore does say that he didn’t have much concrete evidence about what him and his friends were getting up to at Hogwarts.
Eric: Well, another sort of interesting angle I was thinking about when you were talking there, Laura, too, is that a lot of these qualities are actually valued, right? So in our society, we tend to value people like Tom Riddle, who are ambitious, may even put themselves above others, may even have little followers who gravitate toward them because they’re directionless or aimless and need that stronger character to centralize them, but the idea that they would just be the next Fortune 500 CEOs or private equity heads or tech bros, instead of the Death Eaters that they all became, is kind of how we groom them. It’s why Slughorn is Head of Slytherin House, is there’s this angle of… there is a legitimate networking thing that we have in our society, where tutelage and shacking up with people that are very much of one mind and ambitious turns into profit for those said people. And so to some extent, Dumbledore not only couldn’t have done more than what he did, but was simply allowing to continue on the typical social climbing of the students at Hogwarts.
Laura: Yeah. No, I think it’s such a great point to bring up that although it was insidious and evil, there was also nothing all that unusual going on, because it’s not like it would have been the first time in Hogwarts history for something like that to happen. I presume in every social setting you get some of this; you get people who manage to technically color inside the lines all the time, so you can’t really say anything or reprimand them for anything, but maybe the way that they’re coloring inside the lines is not ethical. Happens all the time.
Eric: All red crayons.
Laura: Yep. [laughs]
Micah: And I think it’s safe to assume that somebody like Tom Riddle wouldn’t have been overly sloppy in what he was doing…
Andrew: No.
Laura: Right.
Micah: … so the ability to tie him or his group of friends to any one incident was probably somewhat limited.
Andrew: That was probably part of the thrill for him, getting away with it successfully.
Micah: For sure.
Eric: Yeah, knowing that there were what Dumbledore characterizes those years as being, marked with a series of particularly nasty but unsolved instances… we know what Moaning Myrtle’s… what happened to Myrtle Warren. But I really wonder who the other victims were, what else happened that certainly is not on the same level as a murder, but which nonetheless people are talking about, but nobody who knows anything about it is talking.
Micah: We do start to get a sense for how Tom operated back in those days, and the first memory that we are taken into is back at the Gaunt home, and it’s of Tom Riddle approaching Morfin Gaunt. And one of the quotes that I pulled out that I thought was interesting is that “Harry could not help but feel a resentful admiration of Voldemort’s complete lack of fear.” So this is when he is approaching Morfin. And we all know Morfin is crazy, from the Bob Ogden memory, but Tom seems to have a very steady hand, very steady mind here, and I wanted to ask, do we think this admiration is Harry or Horcrux?
Andrew: I want to say not Horcrux, because I think if it were the case, we would see more times where Harry is admiring something that Voldemort has done, [laughs] and there’s been few times where that’s happened. I think Harry is just impressed by Tom Riddle being a man on a mission who… Micah, you just said Morfin is nuts, and he’s not intimidated by that.
Eric: Well, I mean, I too am impressed with Voldemort in this scene, because if you think about what we now know that he was doing there… I mean, within the confines of this chapter, he goes off, kills his dad and his dad’s parents both, in a mysterious way that’s the entire opening of Book 4, right, which we’ve already read – nobody knows how they did it – comes back, frames Morfin for that murder. He also, outside of the confines of this chapter, has made that murder that he just committed of his father the next Horcrux, his second ever Horcrux. So the Voldemort we’re seeing in this chapter is a Horcrux-making machine. He’s already done it; he’s going to do it again right now. Furthermore, this is the location where said Horcrux, the little ring, actually resides. He gets the trophy that he’s going to use in the same chapter that he imbues it with the magic, and we know the ring is also a Hallow? This is nuts! This is insane magic that we’re just finding out about, but Riddle already pretty darn well knows and is excellent at wielding.
Micah: Yeah, I think there’s no question that it’s impressive. It’s scary, for sure, that somebody so young is capable of doing all these things, but clearly it shows a level of understanding of magic that most his age would not have. I mean, as you said, Eric, the fact that he is able to put his uncle in such a state that he confesses himself to the crime – spends his remaining days in Azkaban as a result of that – goes and murders his remaining family… he doesn’t want any trace of his lineage; I think that’s also very clear.
Andrew: Oh, yeah.
Micah: He’s looking to wipe out the Muggle side of his family, and I guess you could say his family altogether, right? Because of what he does to Morfin. He’s not being selective in any way.
Laura: Yeah. No, he definitely thinks he’s better than all of these people, even though he’s a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin courtesy of his mother.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Laura: So it’s just interesting. But yeah, I don’t know. Maybe there’s some resentment there for the fact that he’s found out that his father is a Muggle, and so he thinks the whole lot of his remaining family needs to be wiped out for letting that happen. I don’t know.
Eric: His anti-Muggle prejudice surely would have reached an apex by now, and appears well formed. Yeah, can you guys imagine being related to someone famous, but it’s through your mom? Ew, gross!
Laura: [laughs] Yeah, especially when she went and did something like die. How dare she do something so weak and pathetic?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: “And had me. How dare she?” Well, the thing I love from Dumbledore in this chapter is him talking about the reconstructed steps of young Tom Riddle poring over the shields in the trophy room and old dusty books of wizarding lineage. It was a rude awakening for Tom to find that his mother was the connection to the magical world, and it’s that connection that even brings him here and gives him sort of his entire destiny, is his collection, but he’s perfectly willing to be very proud of his relation to his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, but not anyone since. It’s like, “I see myself as Salazar Slytherin’s kid, basically. Everyone in between is just filler.”
Micah: Well, he’s the guy.
Eric: He’s the guy!
Micah: If you’re going to attach yourself to somebody, it might as well be the Head of Slytherin House, right? But the other thing that I thought was kind of interesting to draw a parallel to is when Morfin first sees him, he calls out the fact that he looks so much like Tom Riddle, Sr.
Eric: Except his eyes. He has his mother’s eyes.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Well, that’s where I was going, is that Harry always is told how much he looks like James.
Eric: It’s wild.
Andrew: Yeah, interesting parallel.
Eric: And on the Harry front… I mean, Harry has been in this position where he’s faced Voldemort. And Morfin we understand to be the more powerful wizard here, just because Tom is still only 16, despite what we said about how far he’s traveled. So the fact that Tom is fearless… Harry just remembers standing across the graveyard from real Voldemort, or standing across the Mirror of Erised from real Voldemort, and being actually terrified, actually scared, and the fact that Riddle is not scared at all when confronting this superior – on paper – wizard is why Harry admires him.
Andrew: I also want to give some accolades to Dumbledore, because he tries to clear Morfin’s name before he dies.
Eric and Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Seriously, I think that’s admirable. He didn’t have to do that. He was trying to get him out of Azkaban, but no, it was too late.
Laura: It’s justice.
Eric: Maybe he promises to clear his name in exchange for the memory.
Micah: That’s what I was going to say; he had to get something out of it.
Eric: I don’t know.
Andrew: Well, did he know he had a memory to be extracted from his brain? Morfin?
Micah: That’s what’s so interesting about this, is that the truth of what happened was buried so deep within Morfin’s mind, how Dumbledore even found out about this in the first place is the real question.
Eric: Well, it’s that extraordinary brainpower that he’s blessed with, you see.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Only someone with extraordinary brainpower could extract it. Well, here’s the thing, too: Yeah, I think it is admirable, though, that Dumbledore would have tried. We like to believe he would have done the same for Sirius if Lupin had ever confided in him the truth about Sirius Black’s arrest. But yeah, ultimately, how Dumbledore knew to look here, or how he achieved it… I misspoke last week; I thought it was Imperius. It’s not. It’s a false memory being planted. So already at age 16, Tom Riddle is doing more with memory more successfully than Slughorn, than adult Slughorn, is doing in this same chapter, with trying to manipulate a little bit of his own memory. Riddle planted a memory so convincing that Morfin thought he had done… remembered doing the murders. It’s insane.
Andrew: Yep.
Micah: Part of me thinks, though, that Morfin would be okay with taking the rap for this too.
Laura: He was.
Micah: Let’s not forget. Even though the memory is implanted within him.
Laura: He’s very… he brags about it. He’s happy, it seems, to serve a sentence for allegedly having done this.
Andrew: Was that maybe part of Tom Riddle’s plan too? He knew Morfin would be into this? It’s in his character?
Eric: Yeah, maybe. If he knew enough about him, I think, too… yeah, I think the memory has a better chance of taking if it aligns with who the person is, right? So Morfin…
Micah: I think he learned all he needed to in that five minutes of conversation about Morfin just by the way Morfin talked about the Riddle family. He’s like, “Yeah, this is my guy.” [laughs]
Eric: And yet there’s a sadness, or there’s a sort of sympathy I feel for Morfin when thinking about how… he was still prejudiced against the Muggles, and he hated Tom Riddle, Sr. maybe even in a way that defends or makes Merope look good, but didn’t act on it, didn’t do anything, and he was just sitting there wasting away just like Marvolo did in that shack before Voldemort showed up. What would the end of his life have looked like?
Micah: He probably would have wasted away, but he wasted away in Azkaban instead.
Andrew: Which is worse? I don’t know.
Eric: Margaritaville.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Eric: Wasting away in Margaritaville. Also, remember, kids: abstinence.
Micah: All right, so let’s talk about the second memory that Harry and Dumbledore jump into. It’s very brief by compar… actually, both of them are pretty short, but this one is probably… it’s the most important, apparently…
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Micah: … but it’s also the briefest. And this was alluded to earlier, but we actually see Tom Riddle with the ring in this memory, so he’s already been busy making Horcruxes before he even asks Slughorn about them. And I think one of the biggest takeaways from this memory is we learn the real reason why Dumbledore has asked Slughorn to come back to Hogwarts this year, and in terms of trying to retrieve the actual memory – because this memory is clearly manipulated; it’s damaged – Harry poses to Dumbledore, “Well, what about Legilimency? What about Veritaserum?” But Dumbledore has actually already considered both of these options, and he’s thought better of it. He’d rather have Harry do the hard work.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Well, it’s like, “I’m going to give you the most important memory of all time. Actually, it’s kind of a stub, like a ticket stub of a memory, and you have to do the hard work. You have to go… here, Harry, let’s go see a big, big blockbuster movie. Wait, no, you have to go out and film it.” Like, come on.
Andrew: But I think Dumbledore says that Slughorn will be expecting them, and I think that absolutely makes sense. And Slughorn can be a stubborn person; we saw this at the beginning of the book when he wasn’t so sure about going back to Hogwarts.
Eric: But look at what Dumbledore just did to Morfin.
Andrew: Slughorn is deeply embarrassed by the information, and ashamed by the information that he gave Tom Riddle back in the day, so he’s not going to let this information come out easily. I mean, he modified his memory to make sure that Dumbledore doesn’t see the truth. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah, but he did a crappy job. To me, that’s the sticking point, is Slughorn is a very accomplished wizard. I mean, Dumbledore literally, in this same conversation, is talking about how Slughorn is so good that he would see any attempts that Dumbledore had to manipulate this answer out of him coming. But he wasn’t good enough to do a half-decent job on modifying his memory? It just feels really hasty, I guess.
Andrew and Eric: Yeah.
Laura: I will say, I think there probably is an argument to be made for that still fitting within Slughorn’s character, because we do see how he gets when he’s flustered, right?
Micah: Or drunk.
Laura: So maybe he did this in a moment of urgency where he was really nervous, or…
Micah: That’s the question, though, is when? When was this memory extracted?
Laura: When did it happen, yeah.
Andrew: And also, did he think Dumbledore would not pry any further if he noticed that the memory was modified? Did he think Dumbledore was not going to notice? [laughs] That part’s silly too. But I do really love this plot line. I love that Slughorn messed with this memory because he’s too ashamed that he gave Tom Riddle this critical information. I love this stuff in the movie too.
Micah: I think the movie – speaking of the movie – did a much better job of this particular scene, because just the way that… to me, there was more lead-up to it. There was more conversation happening than what we get in this particular moment in the books. And we don’t hear the word “Horcruxes” in the movie; it’s muted.
Eric: Right, which explains or solves for the fact that Harry asks 0.00 followup questions in this chapter. The movie cleverly omits it.
Micah: Well, yeah, and I think it’s good that they did that, but we as readers have now been given this term that we’ve never heard before. Hermione has never heard it before.
Eric: I was going to say, Hermione will know! Let’s just ask her!
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Harry, of course, asks her afterwards. But to me, I think it was clear back in Chamber of Secrets that Dumbledore knew it was Horcruxes. I think the reason why he wants this memory so badly is because he needs to know the number.
Andrew: Yes, that’s vital! You can see why Dumbledore calls this “The most important memory that I’ve collected.” You can’t win against Voldemort if you don’t know how many Horcruxes there are.
Eric: Yeah, because if there’s even one…
Micah: To Eric’s point, though… well, and I think… because why would you go after the ring if you didn’t suspect Horcruxes?
Laura: Exactly.
Micah: Right? And he’s already destroyed the ring.
Eric: So he knows what it was.
Micah: He knows, and he’s known… he may have had inkling back in Chamber of Secrets, but then I think he’s really started to put everything together.
Laura: I feel like we either get this… I think we get this a little later, but I think when Dumbledore starts to think it’s Horcruxes is after the climax of Chamber of Secrets when Harry explains the diary situation, and young Tom Riddle coming out of that. I think that’s when the wheels start turning.
Eric: Yeah, he tells Harry this, I think, at the end of the… yeah.
Micah: But I feel like even as far back as Sorcerer’s Stone that he said that there are ways that Voldemort could return, right? So it’s unclear.
Eric: I like this, and based on what the author has said since – I was looking this up a little bit too – but she referred to Quirrell and other creatures that have shared Voldemort, or a body for Voldemort, as like temporary Horcruxes. And then there’s whatever Harry is, how some of Voldemort brushed off and… it’s a big mess. It’s a big, big mess. But I do agree with Andrew that the number is important, and the number is the crucial bit of this memory. But I think we’re fooled as readers, or as Harry, into thinking that they’re important for another reason. I think if you left Dumbledore’s office when he says to, and didn’t ask any follow-up questions, you would assume Dumbledore doesn’t know what Horcruxes are. And even if Dumbledore doesn’t suspect Voldemort made any Horcruxes, he sure as shit knows what they are. He’s Dumbledore. And so the idea that you’re left thinking that Dumbledore doesn’t even know what the word means, and that’s why you’re going off to seek it from Slughorn, is a clever misdirection on Dumbledore’s part, I think, to, again, hide what he knows.
Micah: He should have asked. What prevented him from asking in that moment?
Eric: Yeah, it’s a good question.
Micah: Especially if he’s being tasked with going to extract this memory from Slughorn. He should know what it is.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean, maybe he’s a little shaken up by how quick the memory was and doesn’t know what to make of it just yet.
Micah: Well, maybe everything we talked about at the front part of the conversation has kind of put him on guard a little bit. Dumbledore is testy.
Eric: That’s it, yeah. Every time he’s asked him a little thing, such as, “Sir, what happened to your hand?”, he’s been blown off! So something as simple as “What are Horcruxes?” seems so easy to say, but when you spend all year ignoring the child’s questions, Harry doesn’t have any hope he’s going to get the question answered. He just does what he’s told. He’s Dumbledore’s little puppet through and through.
Micah: All right, well, that wraps up our discussion of this chapter.
Odds & Ends
Micah: A couple of odds and ends that I wanted to call out, first being that Lestrange and Avery get name dropped during the Slug Club memory. So presumably it wasn’t just Tom Riddle who were members of the Slug Club back in the day; there were other to-be Death Eaters that were a part of that circle.
Eric: Couple of fellow silver foxes.
Andrew: I also mentioned this earlier, but I want to circle back to it real quick. So Fawkes was crying happy tears when Dumbledore is overwhelmed with pride in Harry.
Eric: Aw.
Andrew: There’s two moments in the chapter; they’re both really sweet. But I just want to also add that when stuff like this happens in media – a movie, a TV show, or book – these tender moments between two characters, one of them is going to die.
Laura: Yep.
Andrew: They’re working in the last moments of love before one of them dies.
Eric: [laughs] Oh no!
Andrew: This always happens in storytelling.
Eric: I’m going to write the first story that doesn’t have that trope in it. You watch.
Andrew: Hmm, okay.
Eric: People are just going to talk about how much they love each other, and then they’re just going to live happy, full lives and love each other!
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Nobody’s going to die!
Laura: Until they die, but yeah.
Eric: Until they die holding hands in love with each other, yes.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: We also learned about Fenrir Greyback in the previous chapter from Lupin, but Hermione ends up connecting the dots to him being the individual that Draco had threatened Burke with earlier on in Half-Blood Prince. Just another reason why Draco is up to no good, but no one believes Harry, or Harry is told to put it out of his mind. Everything’s under control. And then I did want to connect some threads. I borrowed this from Episode 405, but these are just too good not to repeat. So Chapter 17 of Chamber of Secrets is titled “The Heir of Slytherin,” and Chapter 17 of Half-Blood Prince is all about Tom Riddle.
Eric: Hey-o.
Micah: Harry confronts a younger version of Tom Riddle in both the chapters. Harry unknowingly destroys the first of Voldemort’s Horcruxes in Chapter 17 of Chamber of Secrets, and learns the word “Horcrux” in Chapter 17 of Half-Blood Prince. Chapter 17 of Half-Blood Prince begins with, and Chapter 17 of Chamber of Secrets concludes in, McGonagall’s office. And we were just talking about this: Fawkes makes an appearance in both chapters. You could argue Harry’s loyalty to Dumbledore causes a reaction from the phoenix in both chapters.
Andrew: Ooh, I love it.
Eric: I love that so much.
Andrew: I’d say well done, Micah, but you just copy and pasted it from another doc. But maybe Micah in the past did this too, so good job.
Micah: I think I actually planned that episode too, so…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Okay. Wow, that’s another thread.
Laura: Thanks, past Micah.
Micah: I’m plagiarizing myself. [laughs]
Andrew: But that’s another thread; you planned both of these episodes about this chapter. That’s amazing.
Eric: Oh! Amazing.
Micah: There we go.
Superlative of the Week
Micah: All right, it’s time now for our MVP. So Dumbledore claims that the sluggish memory is the most important he has collected. Which memory do we feel is the most valuable he’s collected to date?
[MVP of the Week music plays]
Andrew: Like I said earlier, there’s no hunt for Horcruxes without knowing how many he has to seek out. So Dumbledore’s man through and through, Andrew will agree with Dumbledore that this is the most important.
Eric: The one about the Gaunts and the Gaunt shack, Bob Ogden’s memory, is not just a personal favorite, but that means that it’s the superior one for me. You just get your whole cast of characters, you learn their deal and what they’re about, and so I think that one is the most important.
Micah: I’m going to agree with Eric.
Andrew and Laura: Okay.
Laura: So I do agree with Andrew; I’ve got to agree with Albus here that this is the most important. But if I had to pick a runner-up, it would definitely be Tom Riddle’s origin story in the orphanage.
Eric: Oooh.
Micah: I think we still have at least one more to go, right? With Hepzibah Smith?
Eric: Yeah, and… yeah, at least one.
Lynx Line
Micah: All right, time now for our Lynx Line question of the week. So we asked our Slug Club members over on Patreon – appropriate for this chapter – you just learned to Apparate; where’s the first place you’re going and why?
Andrew: We got some really wholesome answers this time. Not much funny business happening. I thought it was very sweet.
Micah: Aww. I should have said wrong answers only.
Eric: Funkytown.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Marta said,
“This is easy! I live in New Zealand, which is almost exactly on the opposite side of the globe from my home country, Poland. I would Apparate back and forth to see my family and old friends. I’d also take my kids and Muggle partner for a side-along Apparition. Yes, I’ve been with a non-Harry Potter fan for years!”
Eric: Oh my goodness.
Andrew: I like that you call them a Muggle.
Eric: [laughs] Julie Ann says, “Thailand. I want to go so badly (but furchild needs to come with side-along Apparition as we’re inseparable).” Aw, taking your pet to Thailand. I love it.
Micah: Glo said, “I live out in the country, so I would Apparate to the ‘big’ city nearby to enjoy the nightlife!”
Laura: Betty says, “The grand Cayman Islands, every single time. Because it’s so beautiful and relaxing and there is nowhere I’d rather be than Seven Mile Beach!”
Andrew: Mariah said, “New Zealand to see the Southern Lights (like Northern Lights but in the Southern hemisphere).”
Eric: Zachary says, “I’m taking my wife by way of side-along Apparition to Puerto Rico to visit her grandfather and family, and of course the fiestas patronales.”
Micah: Shannon said,
“I’m Apparating to work and back home at the end of the day. I know that sounds boring, but it would save me an hour and a half + in commute times daily, which I could use to spend time with my family, play outside with my kid before it gets dark, and maybe even sleep in a little in the mornings.”
Eric: Ohh.
Micah: I like that, actually. I’m with Shannon.
Eric: Yeah, that’s great. Very practical.
Laura: And Carly rounds this out by saying, “I’d Apparate to visit my favorite person, my grandpa, as often as possible. I’m lucky to still have him but can’t travel to see him as often as I want to because he’s several hours away.” That’s so sweet.
Andrew: That’s very thoughtful. Well, thanks to everybody who contributed to the Lynx Line question this week. Slug Club level supporters can answer the question every week at Patreon.com/MuggleCast. If you have any feedback about today’s episode, you can send an email or send a voice memo that you record on your phone to MuggleCast@gmail.com. You can also reach out via the Spotify comments, or the YouTube comments, or slide into our DMS on social media. And next week, we’ll discuss Chapter 18 of Half-Blood Prince, “Birthday Surprises.” Don’t forget to visit MuggleCast.com for links to our social media, our Patreon, our transcripts, our favorite episodes, episode analysis – we’ve started writing think pieces recently – and lots more.
Quizzitch
Andrew: And now it’s time for Quizzitch.
[Quizzitch music plays]
Eric: This week’s question: In Chapter 16 of Book 6, Molly Weasley jams to a Christmas-themed music special on the radio. In what year did the Muggle equivalent of Celestina Warbeck’s Christmas hits, i.e. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” debut? It was 1994. And as a bonus, we asked people what year of Harry’s was that at Hogwarts, and the correct answer was 4. Everybody who guessed the correct answer did know that, and 62% of people overall with the correct answer said they didn’t look it up, so they know their Mariah Carey. And this week’s winners I have a PSA for later, but here they are: Cynessa Callback Ping; Eden Elmendorf; Emerald Fox; Fiery Girl; Hi Tofu Tom; I Miss You, Count Ravioli; I’ll Be Micah’s Fantasy…
Laura: Oooh.
Eric: [laughs] … It was a fairy; Jace PJ; Phineas Nigellus Black; 90s Kids Rise Up; Finty; Patronus Seeker; QuidWitch; and Vincent Lee. Here’s the PSA: Quizzitch answers and names are not personal ads, everyone.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Save your “Micah’s Fantasy” entries for… just slide into his DMs! He’s on every social platform. And “I Miss You, Count Ravioli”? We all do. We don’t know where Count Ravioli is.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: I’ve been saying this forever, that these names have gotten totally out of control, and we’ve got to rein it in.
Eric: I know. We secretly love it.
Laura: Yeah, why are you trying to ruin people’s fun?
Eric: I’m not; I’m trying to get people to react to this thought that I’m trying to ruin people’s fun. It’s rage bait.
Laura: I see. No, I was more referring to Andrew.
Andrew: Oh. Because I’m a grump. I don’t know.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: “Who’s got time for this? It’s the end of the episode. Let’s wrap her up.”
Andrew: Right, that’s what I’m thinking. [laughs]
Eric: No, seriously. Here’s next week’s Quizzitch question: While in this chapter, Lord Voldemort commits patricide by killing Tom Riddle, Sr. What is the broader term used when someone kills a near relative of theirs, such as a grandparent?
Micah: Unplugging?
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: How unpleasant. “Unplugging.”
Eric: Wow. That’s not it, but that made me chuckle inside. Submit your answer to us on the Quizzitch form located on the MuggleCast website. [laughs] “Unplugging,” oh my God. MuggleCast.com/Quizzitch, and if you’re on the website, maybe checking out transcripts, the must listens page, or our new episode summaries and thought pieces, click on “Quizzitch” from the main nav.
Andrew: Well, it’s time to unplug this episode. Thanks, everybody, for listening. I’m Andrew.
Eric: [laughs] Euthanize it! I’m Eric.
Micah: I’m Micah.
Laura: And I’m Laura.
Andrew: Bye, everyone!
Laura and Micah: Bye.