Transcripts

Transcript – Episode 159

[Show music begins]

Rosie Morris: This is Episode 159 of Alohomora! for October 10, 2015.

[Show music continues]

Rosie: Hello everyone, and welcome back to a brand new episode of Alohomora! I’m Rosie Morris.

Nicole Rivera: I’m Nicole Rivera.

Kat Miller: And I’m Kat Miller. And our special guest host today, fan host, all the way from India, is Archana. Hello! Thank you so much for joining us.

Archana Senthilkumar: Hi! I’m glad to be here.

Kat: Tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.

Archana: Well, my name is Archana and I live in Chennai, which is in the southern tip of India. And, well, my Harry Potter story is I got Chamber of Secrets for my seventh birthday and… yeah, I guess ever since it’s just… I mean, I didn’t realize there was a book before and a book after and it was just a book, but then…

[Kat laughs]

Archana: … I got around to read it at some point of time and it’s been an awesome 13 years in the fandom. So, yes.

Kat: Wow, that’s brilliant. Are there different covers for books in India? Are they the British covers? American covers? What do they look like?

Archana: Oh, no. We get the Bloomsbury covers from the UK versions.

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: Okay.

Rosie: Ours are the best.

[Archana and Rosie laugh]

Kat: Also, what house are you in?

Archana: Gryffindor.

Kat: Oh, lovely.

Archana: Actually, I wanted to be in either Ravenclaw or Slytherin because Gryffindor is too mainstream.

[Rosie laughs]

Arhcana: But, you know. [laughs] Really, I’m a Gryffindor.

Kat: Oh. Well, welcome. You’ve got two Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw to deal with today, so you’ll be good.

Archana: [laughs] Sounds awesome.

Rosie: As always, you guys, I just need to have a quick reminder for you all to read this week’s chapter, which is Deathly Hallows Chapter 9, “A Place To Hide.” So make sure you’ve got it before we get on with that section.

Kat: But, of course, again, as usual, before we get to this week’s chapter, we’re going to discuss some recap comments from last week, which was Chapter 8, “The Wedding.” Oh, I was sad that I missed that discussion because, I don’t know, a wizarding wedding is pretty cool. Just saying. Lots of really awesome comments this week, and our first one here comes from DoraNympha. This is part of a much longer comment, and the discussion was about the actual ceremony itself. So she says,

“‘Then I declare you bonded for life.’ Okay, but not like for real bonded for life, right? Like, not in a magical sort of way, just like in a usual marriage kind of way out of which you can totally get divorced, right? Or is it like an Unbreakable Vow type of thing, just less dark? Or even if it’s not supposed to be an actual magical contract, what if someone’s a jealous type and gets their fiancÈ(e) to step into a magical vow without their knowledge?”

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: So a lot of people brought up how just that wording, that, “I declare you bonded for life,” felt like the Unbreakable Vow. What do you guys think?

Nicole: I think it would have brought a whole new definition to, “till death do us part.” That’s for sure.

[Kat, Nicole, and Rosie laugh]

Nicole: Because if you broke that vow, that would be bad.

Kat: Yeah, that would be a little scary.

Nicole: Yeah.

Kat: I wonder what divorce rates are like in the wizarding world.

[Rosie laughs]

Nicole: Have we heard of any? I don’t think there’s any in the books.

Archana: No, of course not. [laughs]

Nicole: Other than…

Kat: I don’t think so.

Nicole: Were Tom Riddle and Merope married or…

Rosie: No, I don’t think so. They…

Kat: I don’t think so.

Rosie: … sort of eloped, but not really. And I think if they were married, it would’ve been a Muggle wedding rather than a wizarding one. I’ve always imagined wizarding weddings to be a bit like handfasting. Have you heard of handfasting?

Kat and Nicole: No.

Rosie: It’s a wedding ceremony. It’s more of a less religious, more… I think there’s Wiccan ceremonies and things that are very similar, but it’s where your hands literally get tied together and that’s representing the bond of the marriage. And there’s ribbon that represents your life together and all that kind of thing.

Kat: I feel like I’ve seen pictures of that.

Rosie: Yeah. I think it’s…

Kat: Now that you’re saying it, I know what you’re talking about.

Rosie: Yeah. It’s quite a common thing to be done within other religious ceremonies and things, as well. But yeah, I don’t think there would be any magical, “You must be together forever,” thing, because how would you be able to enforce that? You’d be married, but you can be married and be in different countries and all that kind of thing. So when does a wedding…

Kat: That’s true.

Rosie: … actually stop? When does a marriage actually stop? How would you break it? It’s confusing.

Kat: Apparently when somebody dies. Just kidding.

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: I tend to agree with you, Rosie, though. I think it’s just beautiful wording…

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: … that you hear at a wedding from this weird wizard priest guy. We don’t know who he is.

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: Our next comment here comes from LifeAndDragons, and this is something that the discussion did not touch on last week which he or she wanted to hear about. Says,

“I was really looking forward to talking about Luna this week. Like [h]ow did she know who Harry was? I don’t think she was given that information like some other members of the [O]rder. Did she simply overhear something? I like to think she just knew… She’s such an amazing character.”

So personally, I always thought that Luna is more of a personality reader than somebody who focuses on what people look like and I feel like she’d probably be that type of person – and I’m not saying this is bad, because I usually believe in this stuff – who reads auras and can be, “You’re yellow. You’re blue. You’re orange.” And I feel like that’s probably how she recognized Harry.

Rosie: Does she not say… in the chapter I seem to remember Harry asks her how she knew it was him and she says something about his expression. Even though it didn’t look like him, he had the same kind of expression on his face that he normally does when he’s deep in thought, or something like that.

Kat: Yes. She definitely says that.

Rosie: Yeah. I agree with the she recognizes personalities and she recognizes aspects of people, but I just like the fact that she… even though we’ve only known her for a couple of years, she knows Harry so well that she can recognize his expression, even on someone else’s face. That’s really cool.

Kat: Do the eyes change with Polyjuice? Probably, huh?

Rosie: I would think so.

Archana: Yeah, I think everything changes with Polyjuice. But yeah, I like the idea of Luna reading auras. That sounds very Luna.

[Archana and Kat laugh]

Kat: It does, doesn’t it?

Archana: Yeah. And thanks for reading my comment. [laughs]

Kat: Oh, that’s you?

Archana: Yeah. [laughs]

Kat: Oh, I had no idea. You’re welcome. [laughs] What a nice coincidence.

Archana: First time, so yay.

Kat: Oh, wow. All sorts of firsts for you today.

Archana: Yeah.

Kat: All right. Well, our last comment here for the recap comes from Hufflepuffskein, and it says,

“How did the infiltration of the Ministry lead to the [D]eath [E]aters finding out where Harry was (or did they know he was there or just want to get the Weasleys to torture his whereabouts out of them?”

So this was something they touched on briefly last week about what happened at the Ministry, but I’m not sure we ever find out exactly how they found out where Harry was, do we?

Nicole: Well, didn’t the Trace wash off of him while he was at the Weasleys, so wouldn’t they know he was… the last time the Trace was on him he was at the Weasleys? Could that have tipped them off?

Archana: But he wouldn’t have done magic before the Trace was…

Nicole: But the Weasleys were doing magic all around him, so…

Kat: Right, but even if he did do magic, they know, as the Trace has been described, they can’t tell who does the magic in a magical household, just that magic has been done.

Rosie: Yeah, so…

Kat: That’s why generally…

Rosie: … they wouldn’t know who it was, but they wouldn’t know it was him who cast it.

Kat: … wizard children…

Rosie: … so it doesn’t matter whether it’s him or not, but…

Kat: Right.

Rosie: … they know that he’s been in the vicinity of magic at this particular place.

Kat: Wait.

Archana: I always thought it was the other way around where they… I mean, when magic is performed, the only reason they knew that Dobby’s magic or the Patronus he did at the… in previous times was because there was no other wizard in that area. I think if there were wizards, then it doesn’t apply.

Kat: No, you’re exactly right. That’s how they knew Harry was doing or “knew” that Harry was doing the magic at Privet Drive because he’s the only wizard in the area. But at the Weasleys, it wouldn’t matter if he did magic because there’s a whole house full of wizards.

Rosie: But that would mean that the Trace is completely ridiculous.

Archana: Exactly, they…

Rosie: It would never work anywhere that anyone magical lives. What would be the point of the Ministry using the Trace if…

Kat: Yeah.

Nicole: I think that was the point then, it was just to keep all the Muggle-borns to not show off in front of their friends.

Kat: Yeah, I mean that’s true and valid, I think. It’s pretty important for them not to use magic in front of Muggles.

Rosie: But it’s also meant to be that the younger witches and wizards from wizarding families need protecting because they don’t know how to control their magic yet until they get to Hogwarts.

Kat: Right.

Rosie: Interesting.

Kat: But I mean, I suppose just like Muggle parents would teach their children to do certain things as they grow up, I would expect wizard parents to do the same even if it is magic. But still, that doesn’t help us figure out how the Death Eaters found out where Harry was.

Nicole: Did somebody say “Voldemort” at the wedding, if the taboo was in place by then?

Kat: Oh.

Rosie: I think they were…

Kat: Maybe.

Rosie: … specifically looking for information about Harry. I don’t think they necessarily knew he was there. I don’t know if it’s movie-ism or if it’s actually Remus who says it when they meet up in Grimmauld Place, but I think there’s some kind of discussion of them not knowing he was meant to be there… that they weren’t looking for someone who had drunk Polyjuice Potion. They weren’t looking for someone who was hidden. They were just asking for information.

Archana: Oh yeah, that’s what I… they just came to ruin the wedding.

Rosie: Yeah, the fact that it’s a Weasley wedding and Harry’s known to be friends with them. They were just kind of pushing their luck and seeing if he was actually there to celebrate the wedding with them probably.

Nicole: And Scrimgeour was there and saw him, so maybe they got…

Rosie: That’s true. Scrimgeour knew he was there.

Nicole: Maybe they knew, yeah.

Kat: Yeah, even if he wouldn’t give up the location, I guess they could’ve sucked it out of him or something, right?

Rosie: Found his memories.

Kat: Especially if Voldemort was there, which we don’t know if he was or not, but… Great. Well, really good comments again this week. There’s a lot more over on the main site which is, of course, at alohomora.mugglenet.com, so go ahead and join over there. Keep the conversation going because these conversations go on weeks after the episodes air, so head over there and join in.

Nicole: All right. So let’s jump into Podcast Question of the Week. Just a reminder, I’m going to reread the question:

“During Krum’s encounter with Harry, Krum idly mentions the Eastern European belief that Gregorovitch is a superior wand maker to Ollivander, if not one of the best wand makers in the world. On Pottermore, Ollivander provides a thorough catalogue of the wand woods and cores he is willing to use and even mentions a few that he thinks are too volatile (i.e., Thestral and Veela hairs) to use in wand making, which Gregorovitch is happy to use. What wand woods and cores do you think other wand makers, like Gregorovitch, use that Ollivander does not? What about these woods and cores might make them ideal, or even dangerous?”

So our first comment is from Bill White, and this is what he has to say:

“This is contingent upon how wandlore is canonized. If the lore is passed down Leader -> Apprentice, then it was word of mouth. If the lore is canonized (booked), [t]hen someone decided to write it down after trial and error, [and] it depends on how it was written down or if errors were just skipped. Also, what about the animals that don’t get selected, aka [o]gre nose hairs, [t]roll [n]ose or head hairs, etc. Another thing to consider is when and how do you get the wood for a wand, [m]eaning do we make ourselves one with nature, or do we cut off limbs [from] wand trees while they are still living, and the sap is the blood of the tree. Do you wait until nature cuts down the tree (lightning strike) so that you keep a balance with nature[?] Does it matter when you take the limb from [the] tree, like sapling or full[-]grown tree? Does that affect the “temperament” of the wand?”

Personally, I’m not sure if wizards care all that much about the environment, or, at least they don’t seem to care about the environment very much.

Kat: I would agree with that. And wow, Bill, you have gone into things with wands that I have never thought about, ever…

Nicole: I know.

Kat: … in all my years as a Harry Potter fan. When they cut the tree, if it was struck by lighting. That’s just… what? Props. Props to you.

Rosie: So when they cut the tree would go and fit with medieval Herbology and all that kind of lore that exists within more traditional, natural arts…

Kat: Educate us, Rosie. [laughs]

Rosie: [laughs] So just thinking back to Anglo-Saxon medical charms that I was looking into a while back, things like… mandrakes do exist and they were always picked in the morning because they were considered to be sleeping, so it was the safe time to go and get them. There are, I think, some varieties of berry that are only safe to eat in the morning because the poisons in them are activated by chemical reactions with sunlight, so there is kind of time-of-day things that could come into wand lore that would be quite interesting. I’m trying to remember what Jo wrote on Pottermore about wand woods, and whether there was anything specific about when trees were harvested and all that kind thing.

Rosie: I’m trying to remember what Jo wrote on Pottermore about wand woods, and whether there was anything specific about when trees were harvested, and all that kind of thing.

Kat: Not that I recall, because this all seemed like a very foreign concept to me, something I’d never thought about.

Rosie: Sure, okay. The language of trees would be an interesting thing to look at.

Archana: Did anyone see the Pottermore article this week about… there was this whole info graphic about wands, I think. Well, not about wand cores in particular, but there was a lot of stuff about wands which I thought was really cool, about who uses the different types of wands and what they use it for.

Rosie: How successful the spells were, and things like that. Yeah, I saw that info graphic too.

Archana: Yeah, yeah, that was so cool! That was pretty cool.

Kat: I like this idea that Bill talked about with the ogre nose hairs and the troll… I mean, that is gross. I wonder what kind of magical properties an ogre nose hair would bring to your wand. Although it would probably be great for Ginny and her Bat-Bogey hex, right?

[Rosie laughs]

Nicole: Oh yeah, there you go.

[Kat laughs]

Rosie: I guess that all depends on what consists… or what creates a magical creature, as well. Unicorn and dragon are fairly… you can imagine that their whole body is magical. Whereas ogres and things that are a bit more humanoid in form, would they count as much as a magical creature? Would their hair actually be worth anything? It is interesting to think about.

Kat: I would imagine not, I don’t think.

Archana: Who would want to carry around an ogre nose hair all the time?

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: No. And I suppose, if they can breed with humans, like Hagrid’s mother and father, they probably – you’re right – aren’t magical enough. Quote, “magical” enough.

Rosie: If anyone was going to try, it would be Hagrid. He would harvest these things and go to a wandmaker and see if he could make a new wand for him.

Kat: Don’t put any ideas into his head.

[Rosie laughs]

Archana: You don’t think they could make wands out of human hair?

Rosie: Out of wizard’s hair. Could you have a wand that has a core of Dumbledore’s beard hair?

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: Well, I mean, Fleur has…

Archana: They do make wands out of Veela hair, yeah, that is exactly what I was going to say.

Rosie: That is true.

Kat: Interesting thought. I don’t know. Good comment, Bill White.

Nicole: All right, that was an awesome comment by Bill White. The next comment comes from Hufflepuffskein. Hufflepuffskein says,

In my profession I’m also very interested in Mesoamerican cultures in tropical regions, particularly the Maya, and I got thinking about what Maya wizards could have used for wand wood. There is a wood called Chichem in modern parlance that is poisonous (literally the [‘]poison wood tree[‘]). Perhaps such woods would have been avoided or along the lines of possibly dangerous/volatile materials, perhaps it could have been used to make wands that would be suitable for those of great skill or resilience (to be able to overcome the effects of “poisons” encountered throughout life).

That certainly would have helped Ron, in Half-Blood Prince

Rosie: Definitely.

Kat: Yes, it would have.

Nicole: … at that point.

Rosie: I love the idea of ancient Mayan wizards and Incan wizards, and all of those. That would have been really cool.

Kat: Yeah, that is really cool.

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: Yeah, I’m really excited for just… I think Jo called them Native Americans in Fantastic Beasts? I’m super excited about that, so, yeah. To expand it back to, like you said, the Mayans? That is so cool!

Nicole: So maybe Fantastic Beasts will give us a whole new plethora of information on wand cores and woods and such. That would be awesome.

Rosie: I think, was it the elm tree that… is it Voldemort’s wand that is elm?

Kat: No, his is yew.

Rosie: Yew, yeah. Yew. So one of these – I think it is yew, it is either yew or elm, one of them – grows in graveyards in particular, and that is why it is given these…

Kat: Yew.

Rosie: … negative and death story wands. They’re meant to be powerful death omens. So it is interesting that, if there are poison wood trees that are avoided, why then would the yew tree still be being used? It must be considered powerful, even if it has got some detrimental qualities. So it would be interesting to know whether these other things were.

Archana: But is yew poisonous?

Kat: I don’t think so.

Rosie: I don’t think yew is poisonous, it grows quite commonly in graveyards. I don’t know why.

Archana: So it is just the omen, right, that is different than…

Rosie: Yeah, that is actually poisonous. Yeah.

Kat: I always had this little personal head canon, where… because there is a yew tree growing in Little Hangleton. When Voldemort goes there, and also I guess even before that, when his father Tom Riddle Sr. is there, they mention a yew tree. So I always just… I mean, this is my own little head canon, it obviously didn’t happen this way, but I always just had a little, probably not a daydream, a nightmare about Voldemort going and taking a branch, and being like, “Ollivander, make me a wand from this.”

Rosie: That is creepy.

Kat: That is my own little head canon. I mean, it is very not legit, but I imagined it happened.

Rosie: It is a good omen, though, foreshadowing from Jo. This character will die, there is a yew tree here.

Kat: Exactly.

Nicole: Okay. Our next comment comes from Griff. Griff says,

“I wonder if there are ‘vegan’ wand options[.] All cores we have heard of come from magical creatures, and knowing how offended a centaur would be to have his hair used in a wand… makes me wonder!”

Kat: I like this.

Nicole: So I’m assuming by “vegan” options, they mean non-living being products. Because you’re not going to kill a centaur to get its hair, or kill… I don’t know, a phoenix to get a feather.

Archana: You’re going to have an arrow in your heart before you get a centaur hair for a wand.

Kat: See, but the thing with vegan is that you don’t use anything produced by an animal, whether they are killed for it or not. So vegans don’t even eat honey, even though bees use it, or they don’t wear silk, because it is made by silkworms. So I thought this was really intriguing and I can’t think of anything that we’ve heard of that would be a vegan option. Because I mean, dragon heartstring? Definitely not vegan.

[Archana, Nicole, and Rosie laugh]

Rosie: I was trying to think of any magical plants that would be able to substitute, but then where do you draw the line with “Is It Alive?” with magic plants? It’s been a while since I said that one. Welcome back, “Is It Alive?”!

Kat: [laughs] Yeah, it is.

Rosie: So things like Devil’s Snare; it technically moves toward you and moves toward light and grabs you and grasps you and strangles you to death. Is that technically alive? Would a tendril of Devil’s Snare count as a creature at all?

Archana and Kat: Or Mandrakes.

Kat and Rosie: Yeah.

Rosie: Mandrakes, yeah. They scream. They have personalities. They have faces. Is that a plant, or is it alive? It’s really hard to work out with magical Herbology plant life all of that kind of thing, whether it counts as alive as we would think of as animals, or is it just sentient as a plant? Weird. [laughs]

Kat: Right. I feel like we need to tweet this at Evanna Lynch and see what she thinks because…

Rosie: Yes. [laughs] See what Evanna thinks.

Kat: Well, she’s a vegan, first off, and also, I think that this is a very Luna concept and I feel like she’ll have a really great answer.

[Nicole and Rosie laugh]

Rosie: Maybe we’ll do that when the episode ends.

Kat: Because I have no idea. I have no idea. So listeners, bombard her. No, I’m just kidding.

[Everyone laughs]

Nicole: That’s all the comments for the Podcast Question of the Week. If you would like to continue discussion, please go over to alohomora.mugglenet.com.

Rosie: But now it’s time for our chapter discussion.

[Deathly Hallows Chapter 9 intro begins]

[Sound of screaming]

Hermione: Chapter 9, “A Place To Hide.”

[Sound of traffic and footsteps]

[Deathly Hallows Chapter 9 intro ends]

Rosie: Okay, guys. So unfortunately, the fun has got to stop here; it is time for the action to start as our heroes scramble to escape the attack on the wedding, and they find themselves in the heart of Muggle London attempting to blend in and not doing it very well.

[Kat and Nicole laugh]

Rosie: They’re still in their wizarding robes, unfortunately, and Ron gets a few giggles as he always does. Hermione has proven that you don’t actually need to be a Girl Scout to be prepared, and she has got a bag full of magical goods, which also makes us wonder if Mary Poppins went to Hogwarts at all.

[Kat and Nicole laugh]

Rosie: The trio encounters some unexpected enemies before deciding finally to go to Grimmauld Place, where it actually might be the safest place to hide after all. So the best place to start off is right in the heart of the chaos. The wedding has been halted; this Patronus has come and told them exactly what’s going on, and the scene just erupts into noise and people running around screaming. Hermione manages to grab hold of Harry, and they both search for Ron before they Apparate out as soon as possible. And Hermione takes them to Tottenham Court Road, and none of them really knows why. Why do we think she took them to Tottenham Court Road of all places? Any ideas?

Kat: Well, I feel like this is where the movie canon, which… I hate comparing the two… where this informs the book because it’s unspoken. I think she says it later on, but I think it’s just because she’s been there with her parents.

Archana: Yeah. I don’t think there’s any particular reason. I mean, it’s just the first thing that pops into her head.

Kat: And it’s busy, as she says.

Archana: I wonder if she even thought that far.

Kat: Yeah, she might not have. It was probably just instinctual. Clearly her parents are on her mind; she’s wondering if she’ll ever see them again, if they’ll have a happy life, and… that’s what I think.

Archana: That’s so sad. Okay.

Kat: It is sad. It’s incredibly sad.

[Archana and Rosie laugh]

Rosie: Unfortunately for Hermione, the sadness doesn’t stop there, and I found it really interesting on re-reading this that I really picked up on the hecklers that jeer after her as she and Ron are walking down the street. Harry is hidden under his Invisibility Cloak. And Jo actually writes that Hermione is heckled by people, and they say, “Leave the ginger person alone; come and see us.” And it just really struck me that even in Harry Potter, even in these essentially children’s/teens’ books, this is being picked up on: The fact that this happens to girls all around the world.

Kat: Oh, but she’s walking down the street and wearing a dress, Rosie, so…

Rosie: Yes. True. Definitely…

Kat and Rosie: … asking for it.

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: Yeah.

Rosie: And it just really made me want to mention Emma’s HeForShe campaign and all of that kind of thing because this kind of thing shouldn’t happen to girls. And for it to happen to Hermione Granger of all people in this book… come on, world. Sort it out.

Kat: [laughs] Yeah, and I mean, I think that unfortunately… well, I think it’s really cute that Ron was about to defend her because that’s adorable.

Rosie: Yes.

Archana: Yeah. That’s genuine Ron.

Kat: Yes. I also like she just doesn’t acknowledge it…

Rosie: Mhm.

Kat: … because we have all dealt with that situation.

Archana and Rosie: Yup.

Kat: And it’s just frustrating. And kudos to Jo for including that in there, even just the small little bit.

Rosie: Yeah. Both genders read this book; it’s one of those ones that teaches lessons to everyone growing up. And if this is just a small lesson that you should learn, learn it. That’s not how you treat people, whoever they are.

Kat: I was thinking about this today: If they weren’t in this moment panicked, I wonder what Hermione would have done to them.

Rosie: Yeah. Ooh, some kind of curse.

Kat: If she would have yelled at them or let Ron yell at them.

Rosie: Yeah. [laughs]

Nicole: What would Ginny have done? [laughs]

Archana: Bat-Bogey Hex them.

[Nicole and Rosie laugh]

Rosie: I think Hermione would have said that they’re not worth it, but Ginny would have turned around and given them what for. [laughs]

Kat: Yeah. That’s true. Yeah, you’re right. That’s probably an appropriate reaction from Hermione. That’s true.

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: Never one to cause trouble.

Rosie: Exactly. But not wanting to cause trouble, they decide to take a moment, see where they are, [and] see what they can be doing, and they stop in a small cafe for coffee. They walk in and they have this discussion, and unfortunately, one of them – I think it might even be Hermione, not even Harry at this moment – says Voldemort.

Kat and Nicole: It’s Hermione.

Rosie: Yeah. It’s all Hermione’s fault.

[Archana, Kat, and Nicole laugh]

Rosie: And this is the first clue that we’ve got that the Taboo has been set up. Obviously, we’ll talk about this a lot more in later chapters when we actually get it explained by Ron, but it’s pretty instantaneous. Hermione says the name, I think she finishes her speech, there’s possibly one other little bit, and then the two burly workmen walk in the door and sit down. They don’t order coffee but they are sat there, waiting.

Kat: Yeah, it’s barely two sentences later that they show up.

Rosie: Yeah, it’s so soon, which proves that if this Taboo is someway similar to the Trace, it really must be like geolocating. You know exactly where this person is and you know exactly what they’ve done. I’ve always pictured the Taboo to be quite similar to the Trace.

Kat: Mhm.

Rosie: It’s just that with the Trace, all magic is taboo. Here, it’s just this particular name and it’s the only way that they would be able to find out exactly where these people were.

Kat: Now, do you think that the Taboo was something that could only have been achieved once the Ministry was taken over?

Rosie: Yes.

Kat: Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.

Archana: Yeah, the Ministry probably had something… the over-arching… what do you call it? Monitoring of all magic in the UK.

Kat: Mhm.

Rosie: Yeah.

Archana: So it probably [would have] been easier to use the same thing, whatever it was.

Kat: It was probably the first executive order.

[Archana laughs]

Kat: “Put a Taboo on the name.”

Rosie: Probably.

Nicole: Do you think the previous Ministries had Taboos on people who were against Fudge or Scrimgeour?

Kat: Ooh.

Rosie: I’m not sure. I don’t think Fudge would have been…

Kat: Fussed enough.

Rosie: Yeah. People talk about him all the time. It wouldn’t… the reason why it works for Voldemort is because of the fear of the name aspect. For everyone else, you’d just be constantly getting pings of people saying…

[Archana and Nicole laugh]

Rosie: Always being really annoying. [laughs] That’s just…

Kat: Oh, Fudge is on the Wizarding Wireless Network tonight.

Rosie: Yeah, exactly.

Kat and Nicole: Yeah.

Kat: That’s true.

Rosie: But with the idea of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and that whole concept of the Dark Lord [and] no one ever using his name even in the first war, do we think that there was a Taboo previously for that first war and that’s why he’s He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Because of this fear of this Taboo?

Kat: Huh. That’s a good thought but I feel like we would have heard about that.

Nicole: Or they wouldn’t have been so shocked about it, maybe.

Archana: Maybe it’s just never explicitly mentioned.

Rosie: But then again, these are kids. They didn’t experience the first time.

Nicole: Well, the first time, he didn’t control the government, did he?

Rosie: Not that we know of.

Kat: Right.

Rosie: But it was pretty bad.

Kat: Hard to say. I don’t think I’d put it past him but I’m not sure that he actually ever achieved it.

[Nicole laughs]

Kat: It was probably on his wish list and it was just the next thing down.

Rosie: Yeah. [laughs]

Kat: Number seven on the to-do list and he just… he was vanished at number six.

Archana: No, but that would totally explain how the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named concept came into existence because otherwise… I think everyone said… I mean, no matter how afraid you are of someone, there must have been some consequence of saying his name for people to be afraid of it so much.

Rosie: Yeah.

Nicole: But couldn’t they set up… what I was thinking when I think about the Taboo… I was thinking about how even in our “Muggle World,” the Internet is set up in our countries with taboos – especially in certain countries that have more restrictions – where if you type in a certain word, it goes to a system and they’re… like if you’re researching bombs, they’re going to know about it.

Rosie: I’ve had so many conversations with authors who are like, “If the government is watching my search history, they’re going to think I’m into some really weird things.”

[Everyone laughs]

Rosie: It’s a real problem for authors who are trying to do research. [laughs]

Nicole: Yes. That’s funny.

Rosie: So yeah, I guess that would be part of it.

Nicole: So Fudge or Scrimgeour was tabooing not maybe their names, but words associated with the Dark Arts to track those people down. Words that only Death Eaters would use and such.

Rosie: Maybe. I don’t think Fudge was that clever.

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: Probably not.

Rosie: But I guess if Voldemort had had it tabooed the first time, Dumbledore wouldn’t be encouraging his followers to use the name again. “Fear of the name only increases fear of the name itself,” would not be something you would say if you knew that there was an actual reason to be afraid of the name.

Nicole: Oh, good point.

Kat: That’s true.

Nicole: Well, if enough people said the name, would the Taboo even have worked? Like you said earlier, if everybody is saying “Fudge,” a Taboo is not going to work. If people weren’t afraid of Voldemort’s name, then the Taboo wouldn’t work in the first place because everybody would be saying it.

Rosie: There you go, Order of the Phoenix. That’s what you should have told people to do.

[Nicole and Rosie laugh]

Rosie: Printed it in The Quibbler: “Everyone just say Voldemort as many times as possible.”

[Nicole laughs]

Kat: Right, exactly. Desensitize yourself to it.

Kat and Rosie: Exactly.

Rosie: But still, we’ve got the Invisibility Cloak saving the day, as it has so many times before. Harry, not being visible to the outside world, manages to observe what’s going on around him and notices as the blond Death Eater Rowle reaches for his wand. He manages to get the first curse in and, ultimately, that is what knocks out one of their opposition and manages to get the three of them out safely.

Archana: It also gets the waitress. [laughs]

Rosie: Unfortunately.

Archana: Conveniently.

Rosie: Yes, it does also get the waitress. Muggle casualties [do] not seem to be very high on the Trio’s priorities at this moment.

Kat: Well, at least it was only Stupefy and not something worse.

Nicole: Oh, yeah.

Rosie: Yeah. She’s not dead, luckily. [laughs]

Kat: No, she’ll probably just wake up feeling like she had a lot to drink.

[Nicole laughs]

Rosie: Yeah. Or she might assume that they’ve been robbed at the cafe or something.

Kat: Right, exactly.

Nicole: Is she the only person in this cafe?

Archana: Yeah, it was empty.

Rosie: I think so.

Kat: That happens more often than you think.

Nicole: Really?

[Rosie laughs]

Nicole: I think I pictured a place that serves sandwiches and stuff, too.

Archana: You can consider the time, too.

Rosie: Yeah, it’s meant to be very late at night.

Kat: Mhm. Heck, there have been times… my mother worked at a bank years and years and years ago. There were times when she was there by herself. Do you know how scary that is, to be in a bank by yourself?

Archana: Yeah, wow.

Kat: No, thank you. Yeah, so I do like, though, that it says that, “Harry mirrored them without conscious thought.” The magic is finally so ingrained in him; he just reacted.

Archana: Instinctive.

Nicole: Yes.

Rosie: The first time he goes to magic first. It’s brilliant. [laughs]

Archana: Also, Ron is the one who saves Hermione.

Rosie: So much of Ron saving Hermione through this book.

Archana: Yes, yes, yes! That’s the one thing that makes my day. [laughs]

Rosie: And I think it really proves that he read that book, he actually cares, [and] he’s thinking about how he should be protecting her. It just proves that he’s in love with her by now. It’s really nice. [laughs]

Archana: Yeah, this is way beyond what could be in the book. This is Ron. This is true, genuine Ron.

Rosie: Yeah. His first instinct is to protect his family and now Hermione is included in that.

Archana: Yay.

Rosie: Anyway, [laughs] the problems happen at the end of this scene, where Hermione says that she hasn’t ever performed a Memory Charm before so she’s not sure if it will work, but unfortunately, Jo, you’ve told us that she already has. She performed a Memory Charm on her parents. We know that she modified their memories and convinced them to go off to Australia and protect themselves. So it depends, I guess, if she’s now saying that she’s trying to blank these people’s memories, rather than modify them. There may be some leeway there. But I think this is a bit of a plot hole and a little bit of a mistake. Oops!

[Archana laughs]

Nicole: Unless Hermione just doesn’t want the others to know… well, no. She already told them.

Archana and Rosie: She already told them.

Rosie: Yeah.

Nicole: Never mind. Yeah.

Archana: What if that one failed? Just like this one did?

Kat: Well, first, I don’t think it failed. I think Voldemort got it out of them because Hermione’s… comparing her and Voldemort[‘s] magic skill level… but this one is… she says “Obliviate,” right? Yes, okay. So I feel like wiping a memory is different than modifying.

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: And that’s the caveat that I’ve always thought as far as the Memory Charms go because she modified her parents’ memory and here she’s erasing it.

Rosie: So we’ll give Jo the benefit of the doubt here. [laughs]

Kat: Well, I feel like they’re two separate… they’re probably two very different things…

Archana: Yeah.

Kat: … because when you modify the memory you have to put the story in there, as opposed to Obliviate is just wiping it clean. Lockhart was really great at Obliviate-ing.

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: But then he also had to put… didn’t he say that he would Obliviate and then put the new story in? I forget exactly what it was with Lockhart, but I feel like they’re two very completely different things.

Rosie: Sure.

Nicole: Kind of like Inception. It’s a little harder.

Kat: In a way.

Rosie: Planting a new idea. I guess the only time we ever really see a modified memory is Slughorn’s, and he obviously hasn’t done it very well, but for him to attempt it…

Kat: Right.

Rosie: I guess it’s quite a different way than Lockhart’s, like you were saying. So yeah, it must be two different skills. Fair enough.

Kat: Yeah, that’s what I think. I mean, that’s what I’ve always thought anyway.

Rosie: So once these Death Eaters are incapacitated and they decide that even Muggle London isn’t very safe, they try and list all of the places they could go and ultimately the only place that seems safe enough is Grimmauld Place, despite the fact that Snape is able to go there now since Dumbledore’s death has made everyone who knew of the Order’s headquarters a Secret Keeper. On arrival there, they come across some very creepy protective charms. So they’ve got the voice saying, “Severus Snape?” and the Tongue-Tying Charm where they literally can’t move their tongues; it feels like they’re chocking on them almost. And then finally we’ve got this creepy body of Dumbledore rising from the ground and rushing toward them until someone screams and says, “It wasn’t me that killed you.” What do we think of these protective charms? They seem very creepy and they seem very haunted house-esque, but would they actually repel anyone? Would they make anyone turn around and leave? Everyone knows that Dumbledore is dead, so…

Nicole: I don’t think they would have repelled Snape, who was the one they were trying to keep out.

Rosie: Yeah.

Nicole: But they might have repelled somebody else because Snape knew he didn’t “murder” Dumbledore; Dumbledore asked him to do what he did. And obviously it didn’t stop Snape because he did go in there and rifle around Sirius’s bedroom and extract that picture and rip it. So it didn’t actually do what it was supposed to do.

Archana: Yeah, but do we know what the dusty Dumbledore was supposed to do? Because they say that word “kill” and it explodes and disappears, right? But what if it were supposed to do something else, in case somebody didn’t say that particular word?

Rosie: So what would happen if it reached you?

Archana: Yeah. [laughs]

Kat: I don’t know. That’s a good question.

Rosie: I don’t think it had any corporeal form. You’re not actually summoning Dumbledore. It’s not some kind of creature.

Kat: It’s not alive. [laughs]

Achana: It’s definitely not Dumbledore, but it could be something more ominous. It could be capable of something a little more than just trying to scare whoever it is that’s trying to get in because otherwise it seems a little less for the Order.

Kat: Yeah.

Rosie: This struck me as just a little odd. If you’re trying to create some kind of effect because of someone who is a murderer… if they’ve killed the guy, they’re not going to be afraid, or they’re not going to be repelled by that guy’s dead body. They created that dead body.

Kat: Well, wait, technically shouldn’t this magic not be any more since Mad-Eye is dead?

Rosie: That’s true as well, yeah.

Nicole: Exactly.

Rosie: Awkward. [laughs] I guess it’s just something that lingers after his death.

Kat: So what if this is just a fading spell?

Nicole: Yeah, it’s like…

Kat: And it used to be something much more, but because Mad-Eye is dead it is slowly disappearing because he hasn’t been dead that long; only a couple of days at this point.

Rosie: Yeah.

Archana: Yeah, I like this idea. Otherwise it just seems like not much. [laughs]

Kat: Yeah, I know Hermione is terrified of it, but like you said, it’s just a dusty Dumbledore.

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: It ties your tongue and that’s it.

Archana: It ties it and then it unties it rather quickly, too. So what’s the point?

Rosie: Yeah. [laughs] They’re all able to speak.

Kat: Yeah.

Rosie: I think the point of it is that they’re not able to say the words Grimmauld Place to people. It’s like the Secret Keeper thing again. It’s retying that aspect of the spell. The only problem with it being a fading spell is that when Lupin turns up, which is a couple of weeks or even months down the line, it still exists and it’s still the same. So if it were deteriorating it should be…

Archana: Oh, no! I think Lupin comes only a couple of days after. Lupin is not too far off.

Rosie: I guess it is a couple of days.

Archana: I was thinking more like one week.

Rosie: Also, when Kreacher manages to track down Mundungus there’s no spell then. You have to come through the front door.

Archana: Oh, no! Kreacher. Elf magic.

Kat: Yeah, “The Bribe” is only two chapters from now.

Rosie: Okay. Not too far then.

Archana: And Mundungus can come in because it’s Kreacher elf magic. I guess the Order is underestimating…

Rosie: Yeah.

Archana: … other types of magical creatures.

Rosie: It’s always underestimating those house-elves.

Kat: Yeah.

Rosie: So, along with these painful reminders of those that we’ve lost, both Mad-Eye and Dumbledore, Ron is currently worried about those that he might have lost and not known about. With the wedding so fresh in their mind and the battle probably still going on as they speak, Ron is just constantly worried about what is going on back home. And Harry’s scar has started to hurt, and the others are clearly aware of what’s going on. Harry is flinching, he’s unable to hide the pain anymore, and the first thing Ron does is ask about his family, ask what Harry has seen and whether he’s seen anything in particular to do with his family. Which leads us to think that the trio are convinced that Voldemort turned up at this wedding – it’s not just the Death Eaters – that Voldemort was there, and Harry will be able to see some kind of news because of Voldemort being there. What do we think of Ron’s insistence on finding out family information so soon after it happened?

Kat: Well, I don’t think that it’s an illogical thought to think that Voldemort would show up there knowing that… they don’t know that he doesn’t know Harry was there.

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: I think the only thing that really bothers me about this is that Ron doesn’t think about the fact that his family is basically Harry’s family. He says it later, he’s like, “Oh, I’m sorry,” and Harry’s like, “It’s fine.” But probably in that moment of stress, Ron wasn’t thinking about the fact that Harry is also concerned about them; he’s basically in love with his sister. So I think it’s a logical reaction on Ron’s part.

Rosie: I think that partly shows that Ron hasn’t quite accepted Harry and Ginny together yet as well. He’s tried to get between them during the week that they were together at The Burrow. He’s still not entirely happy about what happened last year, so he doesn’t consider Harry to be anything more than just his friend. He’s definitely no brother-in-law yet. [laughs]

Kat: Yeah, he’s being a protective big brother. He’s like, “You mess with her again and I’m going to kick your butt.”

Rosie: Yeah, so he doesn’t think of that as Harry’s family at all yet.

Nicole: You’d think he’d be a little bit more understanding about that. Harry is doing it to protect her, not because he doesn’t like her anymore.

Rosie: Yeah.

Nicole: It’s not like he just didn’t return… her owls.

[Kat and Rosie laugh]

Nicole: I was going to say phone calls, but obviously there are no phones.

Rosie: But Ron’s just not very wise about the emotional range of the teaspoon thing yet.

Nicole: That’s true.

Rosie: He’s got to a dessert spoon stage, but he’s not quite a full ladle.

[Nicole laughs]

Kat: Yes, he had to get a book to figure out how to talk to witches.

Nicole: That’s true.

Kat: And then those cheesy lines which are so funny.

Archana: No, not how to talk to witches, just a little confidence first.

[Kat, Nicole, and Rosie laugh]

Rosie: Speaking of Hermione, her Occlumency obsession is resurfacing. With Harry’s painful scar she is showing… the intellectual level is still kicking in. She’s still worried about what Voldemort will be able to see, and she’s still worried about what Voldemort will be able to do if he were able to convince Harry to go back and save the day again. It worked for Sirius. If Voldemort showed an image of [him] torturing Ginny, would Harry go back to the Burrow?

Kat: Oh God, yes.

Archana: We keep discussing every other chapter about whether Harry’s hero complex has left, has he grown from it? But he just hasn’t because… I think I forgot to mention it, I had this in mind, but even in the coffee shop after… when they’re talking like, “Oh, I think I might have the Trace on me,” and Harry’s like, “Okay, you guys should go ahead, leave, and I’ll go on my own,” it’s just the whole thing all over from the beginning.

Kat: Just thinking about it more, if Voldemort showed Harry an image of him hurting Ginny, I feel like Ginny is probably the one person that… not the one person, but somebody that he doesn’t have to worry about her taking care of herself. And I think that after Sirius he probably would have learned something.

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: And I would hope that he wouldn’t go.

Archana: He’d probably make more of an effort with the double-checking part of it, but I think he’d still want to…

Kat: Yeah.

Archana: He wouldn’t do anything else until he knew that she was perfectly safe.

Kat: Yes, he would definitely investigate it, but I’m not sure he would rush off to her rescue the same as he did before.

Rosie: And I think if he did go, he would do it in disguise; he would do it in a more thought-through way. He would’ve definitely learned from his earlier experience.

Kat: I hope so, I hope so. Yeah.

Archana: I still have my doubts, but…

[Archana and Rosie laugh]

Kat: Yeah, of course.

Nicole: I don’t know. I think if he knew for a fact that she was being tortured that he would go. I don’t think there was anything that would keep him at this point because he hasn’t learned like he learns at the end of the books. He hasn’t learned that waiting and not acting thing.

Archana: Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say. I just don’t think he’s gotten rid of the hero complex yet.

Kat: Yeah, I guess having confirmation of torture is different than a false trail.

Rosie: Yeah.

Nicole: Yeah.

Kat: I think just getting back to this moment where they’re talking about when Harry’s scar is burning, you notice that Hermione says “Voldemort” again.

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: And I looked and I looked and I looked, and Death Eaters do not show up until much later… when Lupin shows up. Because they’re talking about how Kreacher has been gone, and then they say, “Two Death Eaters showed up in the square.” So, something is protecting this. Is that the Fidelius Charm?

Rosie: I think the two Death Eaters showing up in the square is because of this.

Kat: But it’s so much later – it’s days later.

Rosie: They mention that they’ve been there. They mention that they’ve noticed them, so they don’t notice them straightaway. And they’re already there before Lupin arrives, so they must know something. They’ve got some kind of suspicion that there are people there. They’re not entirely sure where this house is and they’re not entirely sure where this location is, but they know that someone has upset Voldemort within that vicinity at some point within the last few days. Also… we’ll talk about it in a moment, but we know that Voldemort is upset about what happened because of the Taboo on this particular day. So maybe they’re a bit hesitant to go and trace it for a couple of days just in case the same thing happens. But we’ll get there in a second. [laughs].

Nicole: Can they just be standing outside of there because they’re now in charge of the government and they have the wills and they know the approximate location of the property Harry inherited?

Rosie: Oh, that’s true. Possibly.

Kat: Probably.

Rosie: But I guess again, that depends on how Fidelius Charms work. Like could you actually put the name of a place down in a will if that place were hidden with a Fidelius Charm? Or would you need to just say, “I leave to Harry the house of my ancestors,” and not give its specific location?

Nicole: Just give it a roundabout location?

Rosie: Yeah.

Nicole: In this district…

Rosie: This place that he knows about and I know about, but you guys can’t know.

[Nicole laughs]

Rosie: But he knows that this is his now, that kind of thing. [laughs]

Nicole: Yeah.

Kat: Mhm.

Rosie: At this moment though, Harry is just completely done with all of the worries. He’s just got a headache and would just like to know that it’s all over now. Luckily, the Patronus of Arthur Weasley turns up and says that his family is safe, but it is not safe for the trio to return. The Burrow is being watched and they will have to just go on their own from now on.

Nicole: They feel like they can’t get back in touch, but my whole… I’m reading Chamber of Secrets right now also, and Fred and George know how to pick a lock. How can these people know how to pick a lock but especially Hermione, who lives in the Muggle world in the summer, not have a cell phone?

[Rosie laughs]

Nicole: Because Voldemort clearly is not going to be tracing them, I don’t think, on a cell phone. They could talk back and forth easily because most, especially Death Eaters, are not going to think about using Muggle technology to interact with each other.

Rosie: They weren’t as common back then. I got my first mobile cell phone when I was… I guess I was thirteen, so…

Kat: I got mine when I graduated college in 2003.

Rosie: Yeah. So at this point, thinking canonically, they didn’t exist for these teenagers. So it’s… yeah.

Nicole: Really? I mean, what year is this in? Because I know I got mine in tenth grade, and that was like 2000…

Kat: Well, Voldemort is killed May 2, 1998…

Archana: This is 1997, so there it is.

Kat: This is 1997.

Nicole: Yeah, but they had pagers. They could beep each other and do the text codes.

[Kat and Nicole laugh]

Archana: Doesn’t Hermione say in Goblet of Fire that magic messes with electronics?

Rosie: Yeah, that too.

Kat: Yeah.

Nicole: But I thought it was just at Hogwarts.

Rosie: I think it’s just mainly Hogwarts…

Kat: Yeah, it is Hogwarts.

Rosie: … but I’m also guessing that places like Godric’s Hollow would be problematic as well. But if this is 1997, they definitely wouldn’t have been able to afford cell phones, and there wouldn’t have been much coverage in the country if they did have them. [laughs]

Kat: There’s not much coverage in the country now.

Rosie: Yeah, it’s still a problem.

[Kat and Rosie laugh]

Kat: In 2015. No, I’m just picturing Arthur Weasley with a beeper, now that you mention it.

[Kat and Rosie laugh]

Nicole: With the text codes… 143… whatever.

Rosie: Just Arthur with a calculator is enough.

[Nicole and Rosie laugh]

Kat: Yeah. It’s true, it’s true.

Nicole: So funny.

Kat: I do really like this moment though, the Patronus moment…

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: … and how Ron just collapses on himself. At least he… not only is his family safe, but that came from his father. And I feel like if I were Ron in that moment, that would be the ultimate comfort, hearing my father’s voice, knowing they’re alive…

Rosie: Yeah, he wouldn’t have cared if it were Kingsley or someone. It had to be from one of his family that would send the message.

Kat: Because yes, if it had come from somebody like Kingsley, and if even if he had said, “Family safe,” that doesn’t mean that they aren’t injured or hurt or incapacitated in some way. At least he knows that Arthur would tell them if something else were wrong, I think.

Rosie: And speaking of being incapacitated… thank you, Kat for the brilliant link. [laughs]

Kat: Mhm.

Rosie: We see Harry really trying to escape from the trio at this moment. His head is just doing him in, so he goes to the bathroom to give in to the need to let Voldemort’s rage take over. And as soon as he does that he goes into the moment of seeing Voldemort punishing the Snatchers. These Snatchers have managed to call for Dumbledore – Dumbledore? [laughs] No, for Voldemort – and they’ve pressed the Dark Marks if they’ve got them. I think Rowle is actually a Death Eater so he would have been the one to call, but Harry is nowhere to be seen. We’ll see this a couple of times throughout the book where people try and call for Voldemort to say that they’ve caught Harry and failed, and Voldemort is not a happy bunny.

[Nicole and Kat laugh]

Rosie: Unfortunately at this moment we also see that Draco is being forced to be the torturer. Voldemort is being very vindictive and really saying, “We haven’t got Harry but we’ve got his peer here,” so Draco can be the one who is torturer. He is the one who’s going to carry out Voldemort’s revenge on Rowle and the other Snatchers.

Kat: It’s pretty terrible. I’m just glad that we don’t actually see Draco doing this.

Rosie: Yeah. Do we think that he actually did?

Kat: And I think that’s important. I think that he was forced to and I think he had to. Why else would he help Harry later?

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: He really needed to grow to despise Voldemort.

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: And I think that all this forced torturing is what’s doing it. I don’t know, I think it’s important for Draco’s character in order for him to be redeemed later on, but I am just very glad that we don’t actually see it happen.

Rosie: Yeah.

Archana: Yeah.

Rosie And this is only a few weeks after Draco was present when the Muggle Studies teacher was killed in front of his eyes.

Kat: Mhm.

Rosie: He’s coming to grips with death and torture at a very, very fast pace. And I think if he doesn’t realize by now, he definitely realizes very soon that this is not all that it was cracked up to be. He no longer has this grand idea of being a Death Eater and what it would be, whatever he was trying to achieve last year, which we kind of knew halfway through that he wasn’t really into anymore. By now, he must be regretting it.

Kat: Yeah, I think that even before Dumbledore was killed…

Rosie: Yeah, definitely. By Christmas.

Kat: … I think that Draco had some some major regrets.

Rosie: Mhm.

Kat: Yeah. Major regrets.

Rosie: And speaking of regrets, Harry is back in the bathroom, he’s alone, and he’s completely sickened by what his old enemy is being forced to do. And is this the first time we really ever see him feel any sympathy for Draco? Even after watching the events of the tower and watching and knowing what Draco did to result in the death of Dumbledore, he’s really feeling bad for Draco. It just really brings home how bad that situation must be that even Harry can find it in his heart to feel bad for his greatest enemy other than Voldemort himself.

Kat: Well, doesn’t he say at the end of Half-Blood [Prince] that Draco wouldn’t have done it?

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: He saw him drop his wand. So I feel like yeah, this is probably the first firsthand account that Harry is getting of seeing what Draco’s being put through. But I definitely think he’s felt a little sad for Malfoy before now.

Rosie: Mhm. There’s a bit of an end of innocence for Malfoy and for Harry as well. Harry’s growing up finally.

Kat: Mhm. Yay!

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: Only took a lot of years.

Rosie: 59 chapters in, there we go.

Kat: I mean, he’s 17 now…

Rosie: Yeah.

Kat: … so he’s getting there. Slowly but surely.

Rosie: He’s become of age and he is coming of age.

Kat: Yep, exactly. What a coincidence.

[Archana and Kat laugh]

Rosie: That’s it for this chapter then, guys. As always, if you’ve got any comments, anything that you would like to add, if we’ve missed anything out in our discussion, sorry, we tried to include as much as possible, but obviously there’s so much detail in this chapter that some things get left behind. So if you’ve got anything you’d like to discuss, please do go to alohomora.mugglenet.com and add it into this week’s chapter discussion.

Kat: And this was a short one – an unusually short one for Deathly Hallows.

Rosie: It was. I think it’s so punchy and so reactive that it needs to be fast-paced, and therefore it’s quite short.

Kat: Yeah, this chapter is reduced to like four minutes in the movie.

Rosie: Right.

Kat: Pretty much. Maybe five, with the whole weird cappuccino scene…

Rosie: Oh, God.

Kat: … with the waitress.

[Archana, Nicole, and Rosie laugh]

Kat: But yeah, it’s a good one. I like this chapter. It sets up a lot for the rest of the book.

Rosie: Yeah. Adventure starts here.

Archana: Yeah.

Kat: It does. Their sad, long camping adventure…

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: But yes, it does. It is an adventure, I suppose.

Nicole: [laughs] All right. So for this week’s Podcast Question of the Week, Chapter 9 is titled, “A Place to Hide,” and the trio opt for 12 Grimmauld Place. What other hiding places might they have chosen that would’ve possibly better helped them on their quest to destroy Horcruxes, or at least have been a little more comfortable than a tent? You can go on and respond on alohomora.mugglenet.com. We look forward to hearing your responses.

Rosie: I just like titles with puns: “A Place to Hide,” 12 Grimmauld Place. It’s just fun.

Kat: It’s cute.

Rosie: It is.

Kat: Yeah, Jo, clever.

[Archana laughs]

Kat: She’s a clever one.

Rosie: So all that remains is for us to thank our wonderful guest, Archana. Hope you’ve had a good time on the show.

Archana: I had a lovely time, thank you.

Kat: Thank you so much for joining us.

Archana: Thank you guys so much. This is a lot of fun. I’ve always wanted to do this forever, so… [laughs]

Kat: Good. Well, if any of you listening want to be on the show, just like Archana, you can head over to the “Be on the Show” page at alohomora.mugglenet.com. If you have a set of headphones with a microphone built into them, you’re all set. No fancy equipment needed. And while you’re over there, go ahead and download one of our ringtones of our opening and closing music for free. You can jam out when you’re on the tube or on the bus…

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: … and have people look at you funny.

[Archana and Nicole laugh]

Rosie: It’s only happened a few times.

Kat: Only a few times.

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: We get tweets about it a lot. So thank you, everybody. [laughs]

Rosie: And of course if you want to contact us in any other way, we’ve got plenty of ways that you can do it. You can find us on Twitter at @AlohomoraMN; you can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/openthedumbledore; we’re on Tumblr (mnalohomorapodcast); Instagram (@alohomoramn); you can Skype us; give us a call at 206-GO-ALBUS – that’s 206-462-5287 – and finally, you can send us an audioBoom. You just need to go to alohomora.mugglenet.com; there’s a little button on the side. It’s completely free, but we do ask that you keep it under 60 seconds so that we can use it on the show.

Kat: And don’t forget about the Alohomora! store. We have lots of really awesome things like shirts and flip-flops for people that aren’t in northern elevations…

[Rosie laughs]

Kat: Things like Desk!Pig, Mandrake Liberation Front, Minerva Is My Homegirl, and a lot more. And we do have a new graphic artist on board, so we will have new designs coming out soon…

Rosie: Yay!

Kat: So let us know what you want to see. If you have any great ideas or inspirations for us, let us know and they might end up on a shirt. Yay!

Rosie: We also have our smartphone app. It’s available all around the world, prices do vary. There are transcripts, bloopers, alternate endings, host vlogs, much much more, so go and check it out for even more Alohomora!

[Show music begins]

Rosie: And that is the end of our show. So thank you, guys. I’m Rosie Morris.

Nicole: I’m Nicole Rivera.

Kat: And I’m Kat Miller. Thank you for listening to Episode 159 of Alohomora!

Rosie: Open the dusty Dumbledore.

[Show music continues]

Kat: Oh, how did I get the “Open the Dumbledore”?

[Nicole and Rosie laugh]

Kat: Usually it’s a different person. Nicole, do you want to do it?

Nicole: Do I just say “Open the Dumbledore”? [laughs]

Rosie: Normally it’s some kind of fun way if you want to.

Kat: Yeah.

Rosie: It’s up to you.

Kat: If you don’t want to, that’s fine.

Nicole: Yeah, could you do it? [laughs]

Kat: Yeah, what can I do?

Archana: Open the dusty Dumbledore.

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: That’s a cute one, actually.

Nicole: That’s funny.

Kat: Okay. Open the dusty Dumbledore. That was bad, huh? I should do it again. No, Rosie, you do it because your accent is better.

Rosie: The dusty? It’s not really an accent word.

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: You just sound better doing things in general.

[Rosie laughs]