Transcript – Episode 47

[Show music begins]

Caleb Graves: This is Episode 47 of Alohomora! for September 7, 2013.

[Show music continues]

Caleb: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Alohomora! I’m Caleb Graves.

Kat Miller: I’m Kat Miller.

Laura Reilly: I’m Laura Reilly. And here today we have a special guest and her name is Rachel.

Rachel: Hi! I’m glad to be here.

Laura: Would you like to tell everyone a little bit about yourself, where you’re from, your house, anything you’d like to say?

Rachel: Sure. I’m from the Washington DC area, I’m a Hufflepuff, and my wand is cypress and unicorn hair.

Caleb: I just spent the past two years living in DC. I don’t live there anymore, but I really love it. Did you grow up there?

Rachel: Yeah. I’ve lived here since I was about six years old. I’ve loved it here.

Caleb: Okay. Yeah, it’s a great city.

Rachel: Oh, I love it so much. I go there whenever I can.

Laura: Just a reminder before we get into things. In order to fully enjoy this episode to its highest degree, just a reminder to read Chapter 9 of Goblet of Fire, which is “The Dark Mark” ahead of time.

Caleb: We would like to take a quick moment to thank our sponsers Audible. Exclusively for fans of Alohomora!, they are offering a free audio download. They have over 150,000 titles to choose from, so head over to audiblepodcast.com/open to get yours now.

Kat: And as usual, we’re going to start this episode off with some recap from last week, which was on Chapter 8 of Goblet of Fire. Our first comment here comes from LilyRose on the forums and it’s about house-elves. She says,

“The main difficulty I have with house-elves in this series is that, contrary to the issue of slavery in our world, they are not human. I think that, in the magical world, the existence of ‘creatures of near human intelligence,’ to quote Dolores Umbridge, complicates matters! That is why although Ron is quite close-minded and sometimes bigoted, you can understand his difficulty in understanding Hermione’s point: She’s been raised to see everything that has intelligence and speech as ‘human,’ whereas he has a different classification system. And as we have seen, they seem to want to be servants, unlike goblins and centaurs who have always been independent. So approaching this issue with a Muggle set of classifications and ideas is not necessarily adapted – I mean, we don’t mind using animals to help with our work (i.e., horses in farms).”

Laura: The last point is pretty good. I didn’t actually think of it… obviously, I guess I would be in the Muggle viewpoint like how Hermione is, but I never thought of that last point about animals.

Caleb: Yeah. I don’t know, I feel that’s kind of a stretch. I feel those are like apples and oranges, because here we have creatures in the wizarding world who are able to communicate. They have a life; it’s not just like an animal that doesn’t have any personality…

Laura: Right.

Caleb: … or any interactions with humans. I think… I can see where this comment is going, but I’m still not letting Ron off the hook.

Kat: I’m not either, but I guess I never really thought of it this way. The way that they’re viewed really depends on how the person growing up views them – which is weird because that’s true of most things. You’re a product of your environment.

Caleb: Yeah. Definitely.

Laura: But there’s always room for independent choice and independent analysis of the situation.

Kat: Right. And I did just want to comment – I got a lot of emails and a lot of comments from everybody about last week when I was comparing the house-elves to slavery and talking about their speech. I just wanted to make it clear, definitely not racist comments I said – didn’t mean them the way that they came out. I apologize if I offended anybody out there. Just wanted to put that out there.

Caleb: We took a small vote and decided that Kat’s still allowed to be on the show.

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: Whew! Thanks.

Laura: You are not voted of the island.

Kat: Thanks, man.

Laura: You are still in the running to become America’s Next Top Model.

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: Lovely. And with that, we’re going to read our next comment, which comes from suprememugwump on the forum, and it’s regarding Winky, our favorite house-elf – well, second favorite, third favorite? Regardless, okay.

Caleb: Eh.

Kat: It says,

“It just occurred to me that Winky serves a function other than her role in the whole Barty Crouch Jr. subplot. Even before we learn anything about Barty Crouch Jr, Winky serves to show us exactly how rebellious Dobby is. He’s the only house-elf we’ve ever met before, and while everyone keeps saying he’s rebellious and different, I always think that showing is better than telling. In this little conversation, Winky shows us what a ‘typical’ house-elf is, and we really begin to understand that Dobby is one elf in a thousand.”

Caleb: Very, very good point.

Laura: Agreed.

Kat: He’s a special little house-elf.

Rachel: [laughs] Absolutely.

Caleb: And he knows it.

Kat: He does.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Kat: And our last recap comment for this week comes again from our forums from BroadwayKat. Not me, just putting that out there.

[Everyone laughs]

Caleb: I feel like that’s come up before.

Kat: Yeah, I think it has too. I’m assuming it’s a she, says,

“Their effects…”

Kat: So this about Veelas and their powers.

Caleb: Now you’re going to get emails about [as silly].

[Everyone laughs]

Kat: Oh, so much hate mail.

[Caleb and Laura laugh]

Kat: Sorry, everybody! As long as BroadwayKat doesn’t hate me, it’s okay. You don’t hate me, right? [pauses] Okay, I didn’t think so.

[Laura laughs]

Kat: All right, so this comment is on Veela powers. It says,

“Their effects seemed to be weakened on the known married men in the audience. For example, we have Mr. Weasley. He does react, but his reaction is more tamed. It’s more like, ‘Ooh, Veela,’ and not ‘I’m going to immediately jump off the seats to impress them.’ He is the one that later suggests the boys protect themselves by putting their hands over their ears. Later on, when we see the Veelas in the woods in the next chapter, they are surrounded by men – but specifically, YOUNG men. I think the Veela’s strongest effect are on those who are not married. Or not already in love. Mr. Weasley is quite obviously in love with Molly – so he can admire the beauty of the Veela, but they’re not going to make him go crazy. Harry and Ron on the other hand, are also teenage boys, discovering that wonderful thing called hormones.”

[Laura laughs]

Caleb: I would agree to this point, except for the fact that in this chapter, which is in the chapter notes, Harry and Ron react differently to the Veela that they run into in the woods.

Kat: Well…

Rachel: That’s true.

Laura: I kind of have to agree more with the tail end of the comment. I think it has more to do with their age than… I guess being married comes along with getting older, so it is which one’s which. But I think she’s trying to make it like teenage boys’ hormones and everything, and I think that they have a greater effect on them because largely due to their age.

Rachel: I agree. You mostly see younger guys in the series acting like goofballs whenever they’re around the Veelas, so I definitely think it has to do with age.

Laura: Yeah.

Caleb: Ron is older than Harry, though.

Laura: Well… [laughs]

Rachel: By like a month or two, I think, right?

Caleb: Yeah, but… well, we’ll get to it later.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Laura: Okay. Well, speaking of Veela, this Question of the Week – last week’s Question of the Week, I mean – I believe came from Caleb, yeah?

Caleb: Yup.

Laura: And it says, “In this chapter, we see the Leprechauns and Veela face off several times, even coming very close to a fight. Let’s say the two parties decided to settle things off the pitch after the match. Who would win in a fight?” I love this.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Laura: “We want to see some mythological and lore-based evidence here. Make it EPIC!” [laughs] So this first comment comes from Dobbythefreeelf and it says,

“I think the Veela might win because they are far more vicious while the leprachauns are quite small and not that fiery. But it is said that ‘even one of their hairs is plucked, the Veela will die or be forced to change back to her true shape. A human may gain the control of a vila by stealing a piece of the Veela’s skin. Once burned though, she will disappear.'”

Caleb: Jesus.

Laura: [laughs] Yeah.

“So I can totally see leprachauns plucking their hairs. I think this theory is true though because Fleur says that her wand has her grandmother’s hair, which is Veela, and I think before she died she gave her hair to Fleur. But the leprechauns are still quite violent (the leprechaun is the son of an ‘evil spirit’ and a degenerate fairy’ and is ‘not wholly good nor wholly evil’). But I still think the Veela may win because they can just fly above the goblins and throw fire at them like they did when Ireland scored.”

So a lot of definite according-to folklore like you asked for – definitions drawing upon outside text.

Kat: Huh. I’m just reading this again: even if one of the hairs is plucked, the Veela will die or be forced to change back to their true shape?

Laura: The true shape thing, I never…

Kat: What?!

Laura: … understood what that meant, but I did know the hair plucked hair thing. I know people were always saying when Fleur says that her wand is made of the hair, did she like kill her grandmother?

Kat: Really? How did I never hear that?

Laura: Who’s the Ravenclaw now?

Kat: Oh, yeah. [laughs]

Laura: Huh. So I didn’t even really know that leprechauns were considered the son of an evil spirit – always seen them as jolly – but I guess they’re more mischievous. But I think I have to agree that it’s pretty safe to say that Veelas are more violent, but the leprechauns – they have a stronger Achilles heel, I guess I would say.

Kat: The Veela?

Laura: Yeah.

Kat: Yeah, I could see that.

Laura: So this next comment comes from Pidwidgeon and this is part of their whole response. They agreed on a lot of the points that Dobbythefreeelf made, but this is a different point that was brought up. It says,

“This doesn’t help my case at all but I thought this was interesting: According to the book ‘A History of Irish Faeries’, there are no female leprechauns! So with that in mind, it’s a pretty neat idea thinking this is a battle of sexes. All leprechauns are male and all Veela are female (according to Slavic legend), so if you wanna get way out there you could see this as a fight between the masculine identity and the feminine identity but I won’t get into that.”

But we will!

Kat: Veela for the win!

Caleb: Ugh! Come on, there’s got to have been some people who responded saying that leprechauns would win surely. Because both of these people seem… well, did you say that Pidwidgeon agreed that the Veela would win in their larger comment?

Laura: Yeah, I think they were saying [that] they were more violent, more warrior-based, while the leprechauns were more mischievous. It was a fairly long comment, so I just… [laughs]

Caleb: Did anybody say that my leprechauns would win?

Kat: I don’t think so. [laughs]

Caleb: What?

Laura: Sorry, bro. [laughs]

Caleb: I doubt that… there are some… we’ve got some Irish…

Laura: You can read them because there are three of them!

Caleb: Oh, come on. I need my Irish people to come out more on this. Guys, come on! You’re letting me down.

Laura: Sorry.

Caleb: This is heritage at stake.

[Kat, Laura, and Rachel laugh]

Kat: They clearly don’t feel as strongly about it as you do.

Laura: I think – if it helps – that the leprechauns could win just because all it takes is to pluck the hair apparently. So if they can get in there…

Kat: Yeah, but that doesn’t necessarily kill them.

Laura: Yeah, it does! It says they will immediately wither and die or something.

Kat: No, that’s if you pull the skin.

Laura: No, it says, “Even if one of the hairs is plucked, the Veela will die.”

Kat: Or be forced to change back to their true shape.

Laura: Well, what is their true shape?

Kat: I don’t know.

Laura: The harpy thing?

Kat: Maybe.

[Caleb shrieks like a harpy; Kat and Laura laugh]

Kat: I don’t know.

Laura: Well… sorry, Caleb. Ireland was not repping here.

Caleb: Doesn’t matter, Ireland won the World Cup.

Laura: They did.

Kat: That’s incredibly true.

[Caleb laughs]

Kat: They did.

Caleb: Not that I’m keeping…

Laura: Only in fiction. [laughs]

Kat: Did you see any leprechauns when you were in Ireland?

Caleb: I did not. I looked really hard when I was off in the countryside, but I did not see any.

Rachel: What did you read on the plane, Caleb?

Caleb: It was a really long plane ride – way too long – but it was worth it in the end. I spent most of the time reading the second Game of Thrones book because I had just finished – right before – The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith, a.k.a. Joanne Rowling.

Kat: Speaking of Cuckoo’s Calling, you remember last month when we were at LeakyCon we talked to a bunch of the Potter alums about the book. Have you read it yet?

Laura: Yeah. I finished it pretty fast as soon as it came out. It was right in the middle of summer before I was going on vacation, so I made sure that I listened to it right away.

Caleb: I really loved it because also, in true Rowling fashion, this book is a great one to listen to over and over again with the audiobook, which is something I still do with the Potter books. And one great place where you can get this audiobook is at Audible, because after all, Audible is the best place for all your audio downloading needs. And right now Audible has a really great special offer for our US and Canadian listeners. They can visit our unique link created specifically for them and get a free audio download today. They just have to go to audiblepodcast.com/open.

Kat: And they could also, too, download it using Audible’s listener program. So basically you purchase book credit at a super low monthly rate, and you can use it any time for any product that Audible offers.

Caleb: And mentioning all the products they have, they have over 150,000 titles, so you definitely have a lot of options. If you just head over to audiblepodcast.com/open, you can start downloading directly to your computer for easy listening on burnt CDs, MP3 players, and even your iPad, iPhone, or Androids. Again, the website made just for you is audiblepodcast.com/open. So visit audiblepodcast.com/open for your free download today.

And so, we’re going to jump right into our chapter discussion for this week.

[Goblet of Fire Chapter 9 intro begins]

Barty Crouch Jr.: Chapter 9. Morsmordre!

[Sounds of a spell being cast and screams of a panicked crowd]

Barty: “The Dark Mark.”

[Goblet of Fire Chapter 9 intro ends]

Caleb: Okay, so we’ve just come off of the Quidditch World Cup ending, and as we know, Ireland reigns victorious. And the chapter starts off mentioning that Fred and George Weasley, of course we know, have just won a huge bet because they went on a pretty crazy bet with Ludo Bagman. And they make note that they have big plans for their gambling winnings. We don’t really know what that is going to be yet, but we’ll have to just wait and see. And I also thought it was funny that Mr. Weasley… he mentions that they should make sure that they don’t let their mom know. And he sort of just looks the other way because he’d just rather not know what’s going on.

Kat: Yeah, I love Arthur for these moments. Just like that. So awesome.

Caleb: He lets them do their mischief. I think he knows that, while they create a lot of problems…

Kat: They’re good kids overall.

Caleb: … they’re pretty bright kids.

Caleb and Kat: Yeah.

Kat: And I just wanted to give a shout out to everybody [who] corrected us on the bookie stuff. You know how we mentioned last week, “If they had lost, they would owe Ludo all this money”? Well, apparently that’s not true. But seeing as I’ve never actually bet on something like this before, I didn’t know that.

Caleb: Oh, yeah.

Laura: Oh. I still don’t know. I don’t get…

Caleb: Me neither.

Kat: Yeah, apparently…

Laura: I’ll take you’re word for it, listeners.

Caleb: The point is [that] they won a lot of money.

Kat: Yeah, they take a fee out of it or whatever, so if you lose, they just keep the money. You don’t get anything back. I don’t know. We were wrong is the point.

Caleb: The point is, though, they won a lot of money still.

Kat: Yeah, exactly.

Caleb: So following that, as the night is starting to wind down, Harry is thinking back to the match, and he’s thinking mostly about Viktor Krum’s amazing moves. And he mentions that he can’t wait to get on his own Firebolt. And he starts to consider what life would be like as a famous Quidditch player. And it’s almost the path not taken for Harry. Because imagine if maybe Voldemort’s whole deal would have been taken care of more easily, and Harry would have finished school normally. He may have ended up being a famous Quidditch player.

Kat: Yeah, I think that definitely if he hadn’t been thrust into fame as a child, if his parents had never died, and [if] he didn’t have that aversion to being known, this [would] definitely [be] a possible career choice for him.

Laura: I think it’s also probably something he’s… we don’t see him decide about being an Auror for a bit longer, so I think it’s something probably right now that he really is considering. Just for lack of anything else he can think of.

Kat: Yeah, and the only reason he wants to become an Auror is because of Voldemort anyway, so…

Caleb: So Harry finally winds down and goes to sleep, but then he’s suddenly woken up by Mr. Weasley, and it mentions that Harry pretty quickly knows that something’s going on. There'[re] loud noises, a lot of green light, and before long, the Death Eaters arrive, which I forgot until I got to this chapter that this is actually the first time we see Death Eaters in action. Later in the chapter they figure out who Death Eaters actuallly are. And we see these masked people controlling the family of four. What’s the guy’s name? Mr. R…

Kat: Roberts.

Caleb: Roberts, yeah. His wife and his kids. So obviously we know that it’s the Death Eaters doing it, but this is why we brought up a couple of episodes ago, “Why would they do this?” And then put it in a place where there are Muggles directly involved. Because even if there weren’t Death Eaters there, there’s always those people [who] have too much to drink, try to do stupid stuff. This would have been a risk without Death Eaters. Just one more proof that the Ministry is really dumb for doing it this way.

Kat: Yeah, I mean, they just don’t care. I think somebody… this is funny: In the comments – when I was reading through for the last episode – someone commented that we tend to comment a lot on the fact that wizards treat themselves differently. They treat others differently than Muggles do, and it’s just really a lot about how they were raised and how they grew up. And again, it’s these cultural differences. And it’s not that they don’t care. It’s just that they never thought about it that way. So I think this is another instance of us being more sensitive, I would say, than wizards.

Rachel: I would agree. It seems like even in past books a lot of wizards – no matter where they come from, even if it’s from a Weasley type of family [that]’s very kind and generous… they tend to look down a little bit on Muggles even. Just like, “Oh, they can’t even Summon something? Oh, that’s strange.” You know what I mean? It seems just like no matter what, they seem to look down on Muggles just a tiny bit.

Kat: Yeah.

Caleb: Yeah, and also something that really jumped out at me in this scene is it mentions how Mr. Roberts’s wife… she gets flipped upside down, and her underclothes show, and it made me realize this is a really dark and troublesome tone. Well, not troublesome in a bad way for Jo to do this but just the tone of the novel for this point in the series. A women being… I mean, this is a violation of a woman. This is pretty terrible what they’re doing.

Kat: Yeah.

Laura: Mhm.

Kat: This book has definitely always been for me the turning point. I know for a lot of people it’s Prisoner, but I feel like the evil is more real in this book. It’s more…

Caleb: Yeah.

Rachel: I agree.

Kat: It’s more what we are used to seeing. It’s not so magical. That’s not magical hate. That’s…

Laura: Right.

Kat: … hate.

Laura: I think that’s a pretty good distinction that you’re making there because I know we’ve talked about this a ton, but that’s what makes it worse and more of a turning point for me is the fact that it’s more straight up, more familiar evil than just total magical words, the Basilisk, and everything like that, so…

Kat: Right. It’s hard for us to relate that kind of evil. We know that it’s evil and that it’s awful and it’s bad but this is something that…

Laura: But it’s still fantasy, whereas this is… something I remember reading… well, I can’t really remember when I read this the first time, but even just rereading it now for the eighth time, it’s still something that strikes me as being uncomfortable. Especially when Malfoy makes that comment, which we’ll get to.

Caleb, Kat, and Rachel: Yeah.

Caleb: Shortly after they catch sight of this, Arthur tells all the kids except I think… was it Bill, Percy, and… why am I forgetting one of the kids? [laughs]

Kat: Charlie?

[Kat, Laura, and Rachel laugh]

Caleb: Charlie, yeah.

Caleb: I don’t know why I just drew a blank. … to stay with him and take care of it. Which I wish we could have seen that scene. But anyway, he tells all the kids to run off into the woods.

[Laura laughs]

Caleb: That is not a safe… I mean, I get the bad guy or whatever is in the open clearing, but “go to the woods”? Come on, fam. That’s typical horror movie stuff.

Rachel: [laughs] Yeah. Right.

Laura: See that dark corner over there where no one can hear your screams? Just go right there.

Kat: Right. [laughs]

Rachel: I see why he did it – just so that everyone is away from the Death Eaters – but I think it’s funny that he doesn’t take the younger kids with him. He takes the older ones. He just sends the younger ones into the woods.

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: This is him putting trust in Fred and George, which I think is nice because they don’t get trusted all that often.

Caleb: Except they don’t do a good job. They get split up.

Kat: Well, I mean, of course.

[Rachel laughs]

Laura: Well, they’re taking care of their little sister. That was their main job.

Kat: That’s true.

Caleb: All right. But as they take off into the oh-so-safe woods…

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: … they come across Mr. Draco Malfoy. And they start talking about what’s going on over there, and there is the suspension that… I can’t remember which of the trio says something. It’s probably Ron that says that Malfoy’s whole family is over there under the hoods. Malfoy comes back, warning of danger to Hermione, and this is again – I didn’t even remember Draco saying this line – coming back with this violation of women going on. The quote is, “Do you want to be showing off your knickers in mid-air? Because if you do, hang around. They’re moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh.” That’s just such a vile remark, especially considering how young Draco is at this point.

Laura: Yeah, I think that’s what really made me feel really uncomfortable, and even now – like I said, a million times after reading this – it still makes me uncomfortable because of how young they are. It’s very, very uncomfortable in a vile way, like you said.

Kat: Yeah, and I mean, I’ve defended Draco before. I don’t think that he’s a truly awful person, but…

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: … I do think at this point he’s super prideful about the fact that he knows his father is under one of those hoods, and he’s excited, and he is happy. And…

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: … this is my low point for Draco. This is… I think the lowest, worst part of his character is in this book, so…

Caleb: Mhm. I would agree.

Rachel: Yeah, I think this moment is interesting because it does show the shift in his character, especially in later books, and especially in Deathly Hallows, how he’s much more frightened of the Death Eater culture, and it really shows his cowardice coming through at the end. So it definitely is a moment that shows the broader scope of his personality.

Kat: Yeah, at this point it’s all about power.

Rachel: Mhm.

Kat: Because he’s power hungry. He is a Slytherin, and Slytherins tend to be power hungry. And he hasn’t seen the dark, scary side of the Death Eaters, yet, so this is exciting for him.

Caleb and Laura: Yeah.

Caleb: Also interesting is here again we see a scene where Draco is saying some pretty bad things to Hermione, and Ron and – to some degree – Harry, are trying to go back at him. But it’s actually Hermione who’s sort of letting it roll off, ignoring it, trying to get everyone away from the thing. So it shows that she really does have – it has to affect her – pretty thick skin because she is the one trying to get everyone away even though the taunts are coming at her.

Kat: She’s just the mother bear, keeping everybody safe. I’m the same way. I was picked on a lot in school, but I just let it roll off me, and I realized that there were things that mattered more than caring about what other people thought of me, so true Ravenclaw.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Kat: And still to this day, I don’t care.

Caleb: That’s good.

Kat: Yeah.

Rachel: Mhm.

Caleb: There’s also a pretty funny moment where they run into a girl from Beauxbatons. And also in this scene we get our first mentioning of Madame Maxine, who[m] we’ll see later in this book. But I felt it was really funny because there’s a clear dislike on the part of Hermione on the Beauxbatons girl. It’s very subtle language. I’ll have to find it. Did you guys pick up on that?

Kat: Yeah, I have it here if you want me to read it.

Caleb: Oh, yeah. Go for it.

Kat: So the girl walks up, and I do not speak French, so I’m not going to go for that, and Ron is like, “Uh… what?” And she goes, “Oh, ‘ogwarts.” That’s my best French accent.

[Kat and Rachel laugh]

Laura: That was solid.

Kat: And then Hermione mutters “Beauxbatons.” And Harry is like, “What? Sorry?” And Hermione is like, “They must go to Beauxbatons. You know Beauxbatons Academy of Magic.” And so…

Caleb: Yeah, It’s the muttering that…

Kat: … it’s the muttering.

Laura: Well, and then there’s equal disdain on the… I can’t say “Beauxbatons.” I’ve been pronouncing it “BO-batt-uhns” since this book came out, so…

Kat: Yeah.

Caleb: Yeah, she’s like, “Ugh, Hogwarts. Ick.”

Kat: Yeah, “She turns her back to them,” it says.

[Rachel laughs]

Kat: Yeah. No, it’s just… and this is not a dig on French people because…

Laura: Here we go.

Kat: … one person [whom] I love more than anything is French, but I think that that’s just the air that they give off – not French people, the Beauxbatons girls when they get to the school.

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: I definitely think that they have an air of… I don’t want to say “hierarchy” but better, holier-than-thou in a way.

Laura: Yeah, I see more upper class, and I get the same way from Durmstrang, where they’re almost… they’ve got a fancier lifestyle going on.

Kat: Yeah.

Laura: I think it has more to do with that than their culture of being French or whatever. I think it’s because they way Fleur describes stuff in the future it’s very like, “Oh, we have all this fancy stuff and people [who] sing for us” or whatever.

Kat: Right, they eat bouillabaisse for dinner. Yeah.

Caleb: Right.

Laura: Yeah.

Caleb: I also realized after they pass the Beauxbatons girl they run into someone else. I’m realizing they run into a lot of people in this forest. It’s a journey of many faces.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Caleb: But they next run into Winky, who… the important thing about Winky here is that she’s moving in an odd way. And the quote from the book is, “She was moving in a most pecu… ” I always have trouble saying this out loud when I’m…

Rachel: Peculiar.

Caleb: I don’t know why.

Kat: I can’t say it either.

[Rachel laughs]

Laura and Rachel: Peculiar.

Caleb: “She was moving in a most peculiar fashion… ”

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: “… apparently with great difficulty. It was as though someone invisible were trying to hold her back.” The trio assumes it’s because she’s going against the wishes of Crouch, and Harry recalls that Dobby always had issues going against the Malfoys’ wishes. And this is where Hermione starts to equate – “more and more,” I should say – the house-elves’ lifestyle with slavery. And we can see the birth of her…

Kat: Spew?

Caleb: Yeah, the birth of SPEW.

[Kat and Rachel laugh]

Kat: Yeah, this is the genius moment for the chapter – the obligatory genius moment – because this is the second clue in two chapters that somebody invisible is around Winky.

Caleb: Wonder who it could be.

Kat: I wonder who it could be.

Rachel: Hmm. [laughs]

Caleb: So Winky gets out of the way, and we continue our journey of meeting people because we come across three Veela, who… there'[re] a couple of guys trying to impress them, including… Stan Shunpike is there, right?

Kat: [laughs] Yeah, he is.

Rachel: Oh, yeah! [laughs]

Laura: Good old Stan.

Caleb: He’s, of course, always in these random moments throughout the series. I think it’s a really good job by Rowling.

Laura: [unintelligible] He’s like, “Hey guys, forgot about me?” [laughs]

Kat: Right.

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: Still here, still roving.

Caleb: And this is what I was mentioning earlier. Harry notices the Veela and he recognizes Stan and then, before he knows it, Ron is going over trying… I think Ron says something like he’s invented a broom that can get to Jupiter or something.

Kat: [laughs] Yeah, that’s it.

Rachel: [laughs] Yeah.

Caleb: Which, that would be pretty awesome, but Ron goes after the Veela, but Harry does not. Harry just is like, “Mmm.” He chuckles at Ron. He doesn’t try to do the same.

Kat: I think it’s because Harry is distracted at the moment…

Caleb: Hmm.

Kat: … is what I’m thinking. You know Ron is not necessarily… he’s not… okay, I don’t want to say he’s not fearful, but he’s not one to…

Caleb: He has focus issues.

Kat: Yes! He’s not one to buy into the moment, so to say.

Rachel: Yeah.

Laura: Whereas, Harry has a lot of familiarity with super dangerous situations, he’s probably on high alert thinking okay, what evil thing is happening now, where Ron is just… it’s not like he’s not aware of what’s happening, but he’s more likely to be distracted by a hot girl…

Kat: Yeah, precisely.

Laura: … than Harry.

Kat: Right.

Rachel: Yeah, Harry is much more focused in this moment. You can completely see it that he has tunnel vision on just getting everybody safely out there because I guess he’s just drawing on those experiences he had in the first three books.

Kat: Yeah. He does laugh at Stan, though, which I enjoy.

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: Yeah.

Rachel: That’s pretty great.

Kat: Snorts with laughter, I can picture it. I can hear it in my head.

Caleb: So, after they get away from the Veela, all of a sudden, Ludo Bagman pops up and mentions that he’s looking white and strained. So he’s clearly been through something, but it… we find out that he supposedly didn’t know about the attack on the Roberts family. So, I mean, what’s going on with Bagman? What has he been up to that he looks so white and strained?

Kat: Do we ever find that out, is what I was thinking?

Caleb: I don’t think so. That’s what I was trying to think of earlier.

Kat: It’s been a long time since I’ve read this book.

Laura: I believe it is…

Caleb: I have a theory, but…

Laura: I don’t think it’s something very… I can’t think of what I was going to say. I don’t think it’s very deep. I think he’s just literally strained in the moment because he’s in charge of this event and has been very lax about the whole thing, whereas other people have been very strict with security and he’s almost just seeing, I think, all this unravel and happen and it ultimately falls on him.

Kat: Yeah, but he doesn’t know what’s going on.

Caleb: Yeah.

Rachel: It sounds almost as if he was woken up very abruptly. I guess he had been sleeping and then some sort of big explosion might have gone off by his tent or some lots of yelling and screaming. So maybe that’s why he’s looking strained.

Kat: But we never… I mean, we… I’m correct in saying that we never really find out what’s going on with Ludo in this moment, right?

Caleb: Right.

Laura: Yeah, I just finished Goblet, so… [laughs]

Caleb: I also thought about, depending on how much he’s actually seen or maybe heard by word of mouth, if maybe he found out the Death Eaters were there because Bagman’s history, there’s some suspicion that he was in the Death Eater circle, but never really got confirmed as a Death Eater, that he may think stuff’s going on and he may get caught up with something or they may come after him, something like that.

Laura: And can I ask, are you guys… I can’t… I don’t have it in front of me – when you’re saying he didn’t know about the attack, is that Harry’s inference? Is he inferring that? Or is that said? Because Harry is not a reliable narrator.

Caleb: It’s not said explicitly, but from Bagman’s dialogue, I think it’s – if I recall – pretty clear. I’ll have to look.

Kat: Yeah, because…

Rachel: Yeah.

Kat: He’s like, “What are you all doing here alone?” And Ron says, “Well, there’s a riot going on,” and Ludo stares at him and goes, “What?” And then Ron tells him what’s going on, he swears, and then Disapparates.

Caleb: Yeah.

Rachel: Well, he… it’s interesting. He just goes, “Damn them!” And then he disappears, which…

Caleb: Yeah, which… I think that’s what makes me think he thinks it’s something with the Death Eaters.

Rachel: Mhm.

Kat: Okay, so, Ludo Bagman’s character then, is very interesting in this moment.

Caleb: Definitely.

Rachel: Yeah.

Kat: Do… I wonder how deep he is. I wonder how much Jo knows about him, if he has a backstory that we might possibly learn. I’m intrigued now.

Rachel: Me too.

Laura: I don’t know. Bagman always just stroked me as an undeveloped character as far… I always had a problem with him in the sense that other people have so much more to them, that Bagman came out of nowhere and then never came back again. And just… I still think he’s a compelling character, but at the – comparing to other things, I think he’s one of the more underdeveloped ones.

Caleb: So… well, no, there’s definitely… I was trying to remember the details and I was looking up his history. So, from the Harry Potter Wiki, it says,

“After Voldemort’s fall from power, Ludo was put on trial before the Council of Magical Law for giving information about the Ministry to the Death Eater Augustus Rookwood. According to Ludo, he did not know that Rookwood was a Death Eater. Rookwood has been a friend of Ludo’s father and had persuaded Ludo into giving him the information by talking about getting Ludo a job at the Ministry. Barty Crouch attempted to place Bagman in Azkaban for this exchange of information for a certain amount of time, but much to Crouch’s annoyance, Ludo was cleared of all charges, partly due to being a popular Quidditch player. One witch, within the jury in fact, stood up and congratulated Bagman for his impressive play in the previous Quidditch match, with the others cheering him. Ludo was never accused of allegiance with Death Eaters again.”

Kat: Okay, I remember all that now that you’re reading it.

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: Yup.

Rachel: Yeah, me too. Where is that… is that ever mentioned in the books? I can’t remember.

Caleb: I feel like it’s not. I feel like it comes out of an interview or something.

Rachel: Mhm.

Kat: Yeah, or Jo’s website maybe.

Caleb: Yeah.

Rachel: Right.

Kat: Huh.

Laura: I don’t… I can’t say that with 100% confidence just because I read through Goblet recently, because I just got engrossed in it again – [laughs]

Kat: Well, it’s your favorite book, isn’t it?

Laura: Yeah. Well, Deathly Hallows… I straddle this and Deathly Hallows. But anyway, I feel like it sounds familiar, but I can’t remember if it’s because I just read it, or if because I’ve just known that before…

Kat: Right.

Laura: … from interview canon.

Kat: Hmm, okay.

Laura: Regardless, it doesn’t really matter.

Kat: It’s very interesting, regardless. I don’t think he was ever a Death Eater. I think that…

Laura: Oh, no. I don’t think so either.

Caleb: No, no. I think he was just one of those people that tried to – I mean, I think that description’s pretty clear. He passed on information. He may have suspected Rookwood was in the Death Eater circle, but thought he could get away with it, and he was getting a good job out of it, so…

Kat: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Caleb: Yeah. Shortly after that, we… they hear a voice, a strange voice that they have not heard before – which is really important that that description comes – and then we see for the first time the Dark Mark in the sky, Morsmorde. And this is… I mean, despite how obviously the history of this spell is – it’s terrible – this is… it’s one of my favorite spells in the entire series because it’s just such an extra… I don’t want to say extravagant. It’s such a… just a detailed, awesome in an objective way, spell to throw up in the sky.

Kat: Yeah.

Laura: I know what you mean, in the sense that it doesn’t actually do anything, it’s just purely symbolic.

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: It doesn’t actually cause real harm. It’s just there to inspire fear.

Kat: And I just want to say that I can’t read this spell and not picture David Tennant’s face. [laughs]

Laura: David Tennant! [laughs]

Rachel: So true! [laughs]

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: Same.

Caleb: Even though…

Kat: Which is not a bad thing. Just saying.

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: Yeah, but he… I mean, I like David Tennant as an actor, but he… that scene did not capture what I wanted from the book.

Kat: No, because it’s so different from the book.

Rachel: True.

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: It’s also just a bit overdone…

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: … in that it’s these burnt-down, post-apocalyptic ruins, and only Harry is there…

Kat: Yeah, and he’s trying to scare Harry. Yeah, it’s stupid, but that’s a whole other show.

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: Yeah. So, shortly after that, the Ministry shows up circling Harry, Ron, and Hermione and they have a policy of shoot first, ask questions second because if it wasn’t for the fact that how conveniently they all duck in a matter of seconds…

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: … they would be blasted with stunning spells.

Kat: And…

Laura: What does multiple stunning spells all fired at once, does that just extra stun you? Or…

Caleb: Well, that happens to my homegirl, McGonagall, later on in the series and she has to be taken to St. Mungos. So…

Kat: Right.

Laura: True.

Kat: And I was thinking, do they just hit each other and die, the spells? Because if they’re throwing them at each other…

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: … and they’re not hitting anybody, they’re hitting the people on the other side of the circle.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Caleb: Well, I think some of them do clash and explode, but we know at least one, obviously, hits Winky. So…

Kat: No, that’s… no. She doesn’t…

Laura: He’s right.

Kat: No, I think she gets stunned by Crouch Jr, doesn’t she?

Laura: No, I don’t think so.

Caleb: But Amos says that one of the spells would’ve hit whoever was over there when Harry says that they hear someone.

Kat: I mean, that’s true, I suppose.

Rachel: Maybe it hit Barty Crouch Jr. because they mention that they only see Winky and he was under the invisibility cloak. So, maybe it hit him and knocked him out.

Kat: No, it definitely hits him. I think it’s said that it hits him.

Rachel: Oh, okay.

Caleb: Hmm.

Kat: But yeah. I thought… and I was wondering too, how does Harry of all people not know what the Dark Mark is?

[Rachel laughs]

Kat: Look into your own past, kid.

Caleb: I mean, that’s a really hard past to look in to though.

Rachel: That’s true.

Kat: But…

Laura: It’s not just… he can’t just look at it like history. It’s his parents getting killed.

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: I can’t put myself in those shoes.

Kat: Yeah, but Harry is a smart kid and he should know what he’s up against.

Caleb It’s not like it’s talked about really though, is the thing.

Kat: No, I mean, that’s true.

Laura: It also… like how I said… it doesn’t actually cause harm. It’s just symbolic. So it’s not like he’s… people are talking about its danger or anything. It only was around during crisis time.

Caleb: Yeah, it’s definitely not talked about a lot or else Ron would know.

Rachel: Yeah, I think it’s really interesting that Ron doesn’t even know what the Dark Mark is.

Kat: Hmm.

Rachel: It seems like the older generation were so affected by the Dark Mark that they just didn’t talk about it. They just hid it away.

Caleb: Mhm.

Laura: Yeah. I think… is it Arthur that describes…

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: … the feeling of hypothetically coming home and seeing the Dark Mark over…

Kat: Hmm.

Laura: Is that in this chapter? I can’t remember.

Kat: Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah, that’s a very hard hitting description of something, because it’s something I can’t really imagine.

Kat: Mhm. Yeah.

Caleb: Right.

Rachel: It definitely expresses the mood of the first war, very clearly, by Arthur’s description of just how painful that would be to see the Dark Mark above your house, and then knowing what’s going to be inside when you get there.

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: Right.

Caleb: It’s very chilling because it’s easy to… as Arthur… even though it’s a very short description, you can easily situate yourself in that place and think about what it would be like.

Kat: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah, it really does define that first war of being a lot about helplessness and just fear and the Death Eaters operated, I think, a lot more overtly than they did in the second war, sort of.

Kat: Well, they didn’t have any real opposition the first time around.

Caleb and Laura: Right.

Kat: So…

Laura: So, yeah.

Caleb: Well, in this scene where they’re trying to find the suspect, we see Crouch go a little crazy-eye, thinking that the kids have shot the Dark Mark. He loses all sense of logic in his hope to just find a suspect because he’s really eager to find someone. But then – sucks for him – it gets flipped on him when they find Winky stunned not too far away, and they pull Winky out as what seems like could be the only suspect left. It’s just another slap in the face for Barty Crouch because here he is on the scene trying to figure out who did it and someone else linked to his family gets implicated in this Dark Mark shooting off, and we see this as he goes back and forth with, I guess it’s Amos Diggory, right?

Kat: Yup. Mhm.

Caleb: Where he’s arguing about… he’s trying to defend his own state and we see pieces of his history showing up in that argument.

Kat: It’s very transparent once you’ve read the book…

Caleb Yeah.

Kat: … exactly how terrified he is that they found Winky. You don’t think about it the first time, but after…

Caleb: Yeah, you… I guess that’s true. You don’t really know that much. So the fact that he’s going off the wall in such a defensive way that an initial reader is like, “What’s going on?”

Kat: Yeah.

Laura: Yup.

Kat: It’s very telling.

Caleb: Right. And then things just snowball because as they… after they bring back Winky from being stunned, Harry catches sight of his lost wand with Winky, he claims the wand, then Amos turns on Harry, but everything is obviously okay because Arthur defends him as, “Come on. He’s Harry Potter.”

Kat: Right.

[Everyone laughs]

Caleb: It’s such a StarKid moment. He’s Harry Freakin’ Potter. I’m just like, “Agreed.”

[Rachel laughs]

Kat: Did you just quote StarKid?

Caleb: I did.

Rachel: I love it.

Kat: Caleb!

Caleb: I mean, that’s about all I know, so…

[Caleb and Rachel laugh]

Rachel: Well, it’s like even in A Very Potter Sequel when Harry is trying to get down to Hogsmeade and Umbridge asks for his permission slip and he goes, “I’m Harry Potter,” and he just tries to walk by. [laughs]

Kat: Right.

Laura: Yeah. It just seems so glaringly how much this… I’ve said this a million times before, how frustrated I get with him that in this short time period he managed to lose his wand and his Invisibility Cloak…

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: He’s so careless.

Laura: I’m sure the Marauder’s Map doesn’t have tabs on where that is.

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: Can’t keep his glass from getting broken.

Laura: He is so irresponsible with these prized possessions.

Kat: Whoa, his Invisibility Cloak?

Rachel: I thought Barty Crouch Jr. had his own.

Kat: He does. He’s not using Harry’s.

Laura: Oh. Oh, that’s where you confused me. Nevermind.

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: Yeah.

Laura: Still, let’s just talk about the million other times he lost the Invisibility Cloak or just left it somewhere.

Caleb: Yeah.

[Rachel laughs]

Kat: Well, he doesn’t know it’s a Deathly Hallow, so he’s careless with that thing.

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: Still… [laughs]

Kat: Yeah, I know.

Caleb: And the bombastic accusation rant of Amos Diggory continues. This guy is after someone.

[Kat laughs]

Caleb: He just isn’t sure who [unintelligible] but he continues to accuse Winky and Crouch goes boom and that’s kind of what we were talking about a second ago. He starts arguing and trying to defend his family, and then they pretty much come to an agreement that even though it seems pretty clear… it seems likely that Winky did it because of the wand, the location, it’s probably not likely because a house-elf would not be sending up the Dark Mark in the sky. She does not have that capability. But Crouch is faced with really… I’m sure it’s a terrible decision for him but he releases Winky and Winky is going nuts because she does not want to be released and Hermione is devastated at Winky’s treatment. It’s very… Jo makes it very clear that Hermione is definitely affected by this.

Kat: Yeah, I like that she comes right to Winky’s defense and like, “It wasn’t her, it wasn’t her little voice. I’m sorry but…”

Caleb: Mhm.

Kat: “… it wasn’t her.” And Harry and Ron both back her up, yet poor Winky.

Caleb: Right.

Laura: Mhm.

Rachel: Poor Winky.

Laura: It’s also… I’m not sure if you mentioned this – it’s an interesting foreshadowing. I believe Crouch said something along the lines of, “Me, of all people, my tolerance for the Dark Arts and stuff like that.” I’m totally butchering it, I don’t remember what was actually said but we find out later obviously how he commits his own son to Azkaban and all that. So I think it’s an interesting thing, reading back.

Kat: Yeah.

Caleb: Mhm.

Rachel: Yeah, there’s a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter.

Caleb: Definitely.

Kat: Yeah, it’s definitely one of these chapters that means nothing the first time you read it. I mean, it means something, but…

Caleb: But there’s so much hidden underneath.

Kat: It means 10% of what it means by the end of the book.

Laura: And even like Beauxbatons and Madame Maxime and everything.

Caleb: Yeah. So with this sort of resolved, I guess, they all head back to the tent and they have to… Arthur has to catch up his other kids on what just happened because of course they weren’t there, and we get this scene where Percy as usual is a complete ass. My least favorite character.

[Kat laughs]

Laura: Wait, how do you feel about Percy, Caleb? [laughs]

[Caleb and Rachel laugh]

Caleb: Strongly, that’s how I feel. And he’s defending Crouch’s treatment of Winky, and Hermione goes ham on Percy. She does not give a crap who it is she has to argue with to defend the house-elves’ rights; she is ready to step up right then. And that’s… I love her so much for that because it mentions that they all… that Hermione and Percy always got along really well. She got along with him better than anyone, but she is willing to go to bat no matter that.

Kat: Yeah, and that’s… I’m a lot like that. [laughs] Not to say that I’m like Hermione really at all, but I’m definitely not afraid to stand up for what I believe in, and I admire that in her character, that she’s not going to back down or let peer pressure change her mind.

Laura: I always like, throughout the series, watching Hermione interact with the other Weasleys besides Ron because she just has an interesting relationship with everyone that’s distant, where they’re all friends with her but not really. So I think it’s interesting when she’s speaking directly to Percy. I know even she gets into a confrontation later – not confrontation, really – with the twins based on all the stuff with the house-elves again. I’ve always enjoyed those scenes where Hermione is talking… interacting with the other Weasleys.

Kat: I like the line when they’re all walking out of the woods and Arthur gets stampeded, I suppose, by a bunch of onlookers and they’re like, “What’s going on? Who conjured it?”

Caleb: Oh, yeah.

Kat: “It’s not Him?” And a capital H. “Him,” like… it just… again…

Caleb: Like a god of some sort.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Kat: Yeah! It just… it helps you grasp…

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: … the scariness, the epicness of this moment. I’m not quite sure of the word I’m looking for, but it’s just another emphasis on terrifying, I suppose.

Laura: Mhm.

Caleb: Yeah.

Rachel: Absolutely.

Caleb: Arthur also takes the time to talk to them more because they’re asking him all these questions about the Death Eaters that were out there, and this is when he first actually mentions… he gives the term “Death Eaters” and they ask, “What is that?” And we get this discussion of the layering of the Death Eaters, how those that are probably most loyal to Voldemort are the ones locked up in Azkaban, and these guys out here, they’re the one who were really worried about their public face, found a way to reintegrate themselves safely into society, but are still using every chance right now to sort of act out. I think it’s really interesting she brings that layering out so early when we’re just learning who these Death Eaters actually are.

Laura: I think it’s… I always forget – I guess because I’m so familiar with these ideas, Death Eaters – that it took so long to introduce the concept of it.

Caleb: Mhm.

Laura: It almost takes me back when I’m like, “Oh my God, wait! Harry doesn’t know what a Death Eater is. We’re on Book 4.” That’s so weird to me. But it’s interesting, this whole discussion of who they are, who the true ones are.

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: Especially when Ron chimes in and he’s like, “Dad, we met Draco in the woods, and I bet you anything his father was under one of those masks or whatever.” And it’s just the prejudice and all that is already there, and it’s just crazy because Death Eaters are such a huge part of the series you forget, like you were saying, that we don’t meet them until halfway through.

Caleb: Right.

Laura: Right.

Laura: And the same… I’ve had the reaction a few times actually rereading Goblet, even on small things like Apparating, where I’m like, “Wow, we haven’t touched upon that yet.” That’s such a big part of when I talk about… think about Harry Potter that I forget it takes so long for these things to be introduced.

Caleb: Which is… taking a step away from the story, that is just such a testament of how amazing Jo was with this story. Because anyone who writes – I’m trying to write a series now – to have that sort of pre-planning through seven books, that… to know this is exactly where the Death Eaters that are such an integral part of the story are going to come in is just mind-blowing. It’s so incredible.

Laura: Yeah.

Caleb: It’s so incredible.

Laura: And there are so many times she does that. I mean, I think we talked potentially at our live show at Leaky about even the fact that Luna isn’t introduced until five books in and she’s such a fan favorite and such a huge character, and she wasn’t in the books for five books…

Caleb: Yeah.

Laura: … that’s a very large percentage.

Kat: Well, four, really.

Rachel: I love that she’s still mentioned in Goblet of Fire though. I remember that hit me a lot more when I was rereading it recently that I didn’t realize the Lovegood family was mentioned…

Caleb: Yeah.

Rachel: … until the last time I reread the books, so I think that’s just amazing how she sets all that up.

Caleb: Right.

Kat: I think that – I was just thinking about this when you mentioned Luna – the characters that tend to have the most impact on Harry’s future life – and not necessarily just the good ones but the bad ones, too – are the ones that we meet in this book and the ones that come in the later books.

Caleb: I think it’s this and Order. I think there are a slew of characters he does not meet until Order that are some of the most important…

Kat: No, I meant this book and later.

Caleb: Oh, okay.

Kat: Can you think of anybody besides Sirius and Lupin – who were obviously main characters in the last book – that have anything to do with his life?

Laura: Well, like…

Caleb: Other than the characters he meets at the very beginning?

Kat: Yes.

Caleb: Yeah, no. I mean, I think that’s fair.

Kat: Yeah.

Caleb: That’s why I think that this is such a turning point.

Rachel: Yeah.

Kat: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah… for that matter, this is… Voldemort is truly… this is the first time we really see him, is in this book, which I always forget that Ralph Fiennes was only introduced in Goblet of Fire. That’s weird.

Caleb: Which is also really interesting that that is the case with this book considering it’s such an atypical year at Hogwarts. We’re getting these international schools coming in, where it doesn’t really focus on these problems that are going on in Britain with Voldemort rising up, but that is the book that it comes to its head on at the very end obviously with the Portkey.

Kat: Right. It’s all about the circle theory. Because this is the middle book, the villain has to come back.

Laura: It’s very almost not expected because it’s just not necessarily in the forefront of your mind, especially coming off of Prisoner, where he was barely a plot.

Caleb: Yeah.

Kat: Right.

Caleb: So as the chapter ends, Harry is finally trying to get some sleep after everything that’s happening, and it also… this is… we get to realize – and it sort of makes the reader realize – it has only been three days since Harry had the dream from the Riddle House. That’s a really intense three-day stand.

Laura: Oh, yeah.

Rachel: Absolutely. [laughs]

Caleb: Because it mentions he connects that, happening three days ago, the scar pain from the Riddle House dream, to now, the Dark Mark showing up at the Quidditch World Cup.

Kat: Yeah, it’s another one of those things you don’t think about because she time-jumps so much…

Caleb: Mhm.

Kat: … in her books that you just don’t think about the timeframe.

Laura: You almost assume she time-jumped when in fact it’s been in real time.

Caleb: Yeah. And that’s where we finish up the chapter.

Laura: So this week’s Podcast Question of the Week, we talked a lot about Draco and how his comment that he makes towards Hermione about the Muggle woman in the sky is particularly vile and it’s even something that’s uncharacteristic for him because it’s something that’s directed towards females and not just Muggleborns or whatever. So why do you think Draco is behaving in such a… even an uncharacteristic way for him, and do you consider this one of the lower points in his character roller coaster, as Kat would say? Or is there a moment in the future that you think trumps this? So yeah, let us know what you think about that. Send in all your Draco thoughts you’ve been holding in.

Kat: [laughs] I’m sure there’s lots of people out there that have lots of Draco thoughts.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Laura: Now we’re going to a place.

[Kat laughs]

Caleb: Oh, I don’t want to see any flash fiction coming our way.

Kat: Yeah. Only the clean ones, kids. Only the clean ones.

[Rachel laughs]

Caleb: We do want to make sure to thank Rachel for joining us today. I hope you had fun. It was really great to hear some of your thoughts on the stuff.

Rachel: Yeah, I had a lot of fun. Thank you for having me.

Caleb: Totally.

Laura: Thank you.

Kat: And if any of you out there listening want to be a fan guest just like Rachel, you know how to do it. Oh wait, you don’t? Oh, well let me tell you.

[Caleb and Laura laugh]

Kat: So you can go over to alohomora.mugglenet.com, and we have a new page called “Be on the Show” and it tells you how to submit an audition. So course you do have to have a good recording equipment so that we can hear what you’re saying, but send that addition… edition… audition is what I’m trying to say to alohomorapodcast at gmail dot com, and while you’re waiting to hear back, subscribe to us on iTunes and leave a review because we love reading those and we really appreciate them.

Caleb: Sometimes Kat reads them better than others.

[Caleb and Laura laugh]

Kat: I mean, that’s true.

[Caleb and Laura laugh]

Laura: Other things we love reading from you guys: all the messages and thoughts you guys send us on other ways of contacting us, which are Twitter at @AlohomoraMN, facebook.com/openthedumbledore, and you can always leave us a voicemail at 206-GO-ALBUS or 206-462-5287.

Caleb: Also, store.

[Everyone laughs]

Laura: Just “store”?

[Everyone laughs]

Caleb: Anyway, we have a really great store where we have things like shirts and tote bags and sweater that have our host slogans, and…

Laura: I’m getting one!

Caleb: … Team Gambon and Team…

Kat: Harris?

Caleb: Harris, yes. Yeah, I’m forgetting names today. I don’t know why.

Kat: I wish we had Weasley jumpers.

Caleb: Weasley jumpers, that would be pretty cool.

Laura: That would be…

Kat: [in a British accent] Pardon me, have you seen my jumper?

Caleb: Okay.

Laura: Well.

Caleb: Just like that.

Laura: My shirt is in the works right now.

Kat: It is. A lot, a lot of new stuff is coming and changing over the next couple of weeks, so I know we keep promising that, but this time it’s like legitimate, so…

Caleb: It’ll be worth it.

Laura: For reals, we pinky promise.

Kat: Yes. Ooh, pinky promise? See, she pulled out the big guns.

[Laura laughs]

Kat: And of course, while you’re over at the store – this isn’t in the store, this on your phone – it’s our app. It’s available in the US and the UK. In the US, it is for iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, and the Windows 8. In the UK, all of those except Windows 8 unfortunately. Soon, I hope, but it’s $1.99 in the US, £1.29 in the UK. And as you know, it has transcripts, bloopers, alternate endings, host vlogs, and so, so much more.

[Show music begins]

Caleb: All right. Well, I think that’s it for this week’s episode. I’m Caleb Graves.

Laura: I’m Laura Reilly.

Kat: And I’m Kat Miller. Thank you for listening to Episode 47 of Alohomora!

Caleb: [whispers] Open the Dumbledore!

[Show music continues]

Kat: “… contrary to the issue of slavery…” I totally butchered that. Okay. I’m going to start that over. Hold on, I need a drink.

[Laura laughs]

Kat: “… contrary to the issue of slavery in our world, they are not human. I think that, in the magical world, the existence of ‘creatures of near human intelligent… intelligence,’ to…” oh my God!

[Kat and Rachel laugh]

Kat: I can’t read today! Hold on.

Laura: Third time’s a charm!

[Rachel laughs]

Kat: “… contrary to the issue of slavery in our world, they are not human. I think that, in the magical world, the existence of ‘creatures of near human intelligence,’ to quote Dolumbus…” [laughs] Dolumbus.

[Laura and Rachel laugh]

Kat: I can’t speak.

Caleb: [laughs] Anyway…

Kat: Thank you listening… oh my God.

Laura: [laughs] We can get through this!

Caleb: Lolz.

Kat: I’m having an awful time today.

Caleb: We speake the English language!

[Everyone laughs]