Muggle Mail: Top 10 Things That Happened to Voldemort's Body

Andrew: [laughs] Okay, next e-mail:

"Andrew, I know you said you were joking, but I couldn't resist. It's a bit morbid but, come on, at least I didn't suggest sushi. Bad Micah! So, Top 10 Things That Happened to Voldemort's Body. Number 10: He was sent to the Love Room in the Department of Mysteries. We are told he combusted as soon as it was brought in - as he was brought in."

Ben: Why isn't this Ben Schoen's Top 10 List?

Andrew: Go ahead, you do it.

Ben: [laughs] I'm just kidding.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: No, I'll do it.

"Number 9: It was sent to Borgin and Burkes and sold as human snake." Oh...

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: "Number 8: He was stuffed and used as a target for Auror training." [laughs]

Andrew: Nice. I like that.

Ben: "Number 7: He was buried beside his father with a gravestone that simply said 'Tom.'"

Laura: Wow, that's kind of sad.

Elysa: Ouch.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Ben: Ouch is right.

"Number 6: He was handed over to centaurs. We're really not sure what happened after that."

Andrew: Hey now!

[Micah laughs]

Laura: Same thing that happened to Umbridge.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Ben: "Number 5: He was thrown to the Inferi in the cave." Ew.

Andrew: Mmm.

[Laura laughs]

Ben: Inferi. Are you scared of Inferi, Andrew? Is it In-fairy? In-feary? In-fery? In-fiery?

Andrew: A little bit...In-feary? In-fiery? I don't know. It depends on how you interpret it.

Laura: Inferi. [pronounces in-fear-y]

Ben: Okay.

"Number 4: He was reanimated to sing, 'Weasley is our King' while doing the Hippogriff."

[Everyone laughs]

Ben: Well, I don't want to see him doing the Hippogriff.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Micah: Well, he did, actually, down in Dallas, Texas at Portus 2008.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Laura: Oh, that's right! Yeah.

Andrew: Oh God.

Ben: Who - did you guys see a guy who looked like Voldemort?

Micah: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah. He...

Ben: The guy...

Andrew: He was at our house last night.

Ben: He was at our house last night!

[Everyone laughs]

Ben: Andrew, notice how I say "our house" like...

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: ...we live together now.

Andrew: You're my roommate.

Ben: I'm moving in. I'm moving in here.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: "Number 3: His reanimated corpse was placed in the Aurors' office to the constant amusement of Ron. Hermione wouldn't let him bring it home."

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Ben: "Number 2: They forgot about his body in the broom closet and a blind Filch found it 25 years later."

Andrew: Why is he blind?

Micah: [laughs] Yeah, I don't know.

Ben: Because he got old, dude.

Andrew: Yeah, but he just goes blind? Okay.

Ben: And the number one thing that might have happened to Voldemort's body is: "Filch mumbled about stupid students and hung Voldemort by his toes in the dungeons."

[Andrew laughs]

Laura: Ew.

Micah: That was from Myra.

Laura: Hope he didn't forget about him.

Micah: I don't think you ever said her name.

Muggle Mail: Studying Harry Potter in School

Andrew: All right, and the last e-mail of the day is actually pretty interesting. And, Laura, I almost sent this rebuttal in to us, but luckily somebody else did. It says:

"Hi, everybody. I know that this is completely unoriginal, but I love your show. Listening to MuggleCast is one of the highlights of my week. This week as I was listening to your podcast, Micah mentioned that Scholastic was coming out with a school edition of "Harry Potter." Somebody then proceeded to say that studying the books in school would make them get sick of them. Well, I'm here to tell you that studying HP in school does not make you get sick of the books. In fact, it makes you love them even more. The past spring, I was lucky enough to be a part of the senior elective class, AP Harry Potter. We read a book every week of the course and met for three hour time slots weekly to discuss the books. Every member of the class had to write a ten-page paper on the books and present to the class about their findings. My paper on the food in the series was the basis for a guest MuggleCast podcast this past spring when I recorded for you for your contest with my sister, Lindsay. After studying the books in depth for eight weeks, I can say I love them more than ever. There's so much that my class was able to discuss, and there are many details that I never picked up on or never thought about in a certain way that I can now consider in a different light. Kids who get to study these books in school are so lucky. I envy them for getting to read all the books for the first time. Your show rocks, and so do all of you."

So, Laura, you actually said this in the show, and I didn't realize it when were recording, but you had said that people would get bored of the books if they're read in school. Do you really think that, or were you joking, or...

Laura: I don't remember saying that. I think I'm going to - yeah, I don't recall.

Andrew: You did.

Laura: I'm going to pull a Ronald Reagan here. I don't recall what you're talking about.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Well, you did say that...

Laura: Oh, okay.

Andrew: ...and I was like, "What?" I don't know, maybe your were talking about something else.

Laura: Well, were we debating? Because like...

Andrew: No. No, we were talking about in the news...

Laura: You know...

Andrew: ...the school edition of Harry Potter and you were like, "Oh, kids are going to get bored of them if they're read in school anyway."

Laura: I don't know. I feel like you said it too, though.

Andrew: I said yeah, but I wasn't listening, I was just like, "Yeah..."

[Elysa and Laura laugh]

Laura: Oh, okay.

Micah: Wow, so you don't listen when Laura talks, is that what you're saying?

Andrew: No, no, no, no. I don't know what I'm trying to say.

Micah: I think what happened was, Laura was saying, wouldn't it be really weird, because our kids are going to read the Harry Potter series years from now, and...

Andrew: Maybe.

Laura: Yeah, I remember saying that.

Micah: ...it will almost be mandatory for them to do it in school. And I think that's why it came up, and she mentioned that they may not like the series because it's almost forced fed upon them as opposed to having the option to read it themselves.

Laura: Yeah, thank you, Micah. Thank you for remembering what I said, because I'm clearly clue-free.

Micah: But we're going to talk about that a little bit more later in the show.

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: Yes, we have a debate prepared.

Laura: And I'm going to further incriminate myself.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Okay, well, as I said at the beginning of the show, this is our Halloween episode. Did I say that e-mail was from Renee? I don't know if I did, but thank you for that.

Micah: You did not.

Main Discussion: Discussing Past Predictions

Andrew: Okay. So we're going to do some Halloween talk for our main discussion this week. Set the mood here first.

[Halloween music begins]

Andrew: Okay, that's better. So...

Laura: Oh my God.

Andrew: ...every episode we discuss - every Halloween episode, we do some Halloween talk, and Micah thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the things we predicted in Episode 61, which was, I guess, our second Halloween episode. We were making predictions about Book 7. So I have these clips prepared now, and we're going to listen to a few of them, and we also have a nice one from Laura at the end that we can dig into for a minute.

Why Ghosts Stay at Hogwarts

Andrew: Okay, so we'll go back in time here; we'll listen to this first clip. This was our prediction of why ghosts stay at Hogwarts:

Andrew: But even so, wanting to stay at Hogwarts, that has to be...

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: ...a decision that's up to the Headmaster. I mean, I would think you would really had to have been a great student...

Micah: Yeah.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: ...at the school, in order, you know, for Dumbledore or whoever to say, "You can stay in my school."

Laura: Is it up to Dumbledore, though? Do you really think he has that much control over...

Andrew: Well...

Laura: ...the school?

Andrew: ...the current - the current headmaster?

Laura: Peeves is in the school, and it doesn't seem like it's too easy to get rid of him.

Jamie: No, no.

Ben: Well, that's because Dumbledore wants him around.

Jamie: Exactly. There's a reason.

Laura: No, I think that...

Ben: No, no, no. Dumbledore won't oust him. They've said that before.

Jamie: Of course, that's true, yeah.

Laura: I know, but, I mean, I don't think that Dumbledore can say - tell a ghost to get out of his school.

Jamie: Of course he can! He's so powerful, it's ridiculous.

Andrew: [imitating Jamie] "He's so powerful, it's ridiculous."

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: But, okay.

Laura: God, way for everybody to rain all over my parade there. God.

[Andrew and Micah laugh]

Ben: Laura, you've come a long way since then. [laughs] I'm just kidding. I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

Laura: Thanks, I think.

Ben: ...I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

Andrew: So, I guess we didn't really learn more about that in Book 7, right?

Laura: Not really.

Micah: No.

Ben: No.

Laura: That was a lie.

Ben: Then why was that a prediction?

Laura: Because...

Andrew: Well, it was just a discussion.

Ben: Oh.

Laura: Well, no, but Jo was saying we were going to learn more about ghosts, and we never really did.

The Bloody Baron and Grey Lady

Andrew: Okay, well, how about this next question we answered, which was, what happened to the Bloody Baron?

Micah: The Bloody Baron. How do you guys think the Bloody Baron died?

Jamie: [laughs] He got hacked to pieces, considering all the blood on him.

Laura: Yeah. [laughs] That's what I was going to say.

Jamie: Or he slipped over a blood factory and banged his head on the ground and died, and then that's why all the...

[Everyone laughs]

Micah: Well, whose or what's blood do you guys think is on him? It's described as being silvery. Do you think it belongs to unicorns?

Jamie: Yeah, but he...unicorns...

Laura: I think it's silvery just because he's a ghost.

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: I mean, they're white and transparent. I think the blood's just silvery because of the composition of a ghost's body.

Micah: All right, Laura.

Andrew: [imitating Micah] "All right, Laura."

Laura: [laughs] Sorry!

Andrew: And the last one, should we do that? What - the impact of the Grey Lady?

Micah: Well, yeah, I mean, they kind of go in hand and hand together, so we can do that.

Andrew: Okay, so this is when we discuss the impact of the Grey Lady:

Micah: The final House ghost, the Grey Lady, from Ravenclaw. We really don't know a whole lot about her. We don't really see her that much in the books, but, Jamie, maybe you know something about this. There are various Grey Lady ghost stories that exist in London. Is that true?

Jamie: I have heard a few, yeah. Lady Jane Grey was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII and she reigned as Queen, but she was actually uncrowned and she only reigned for nine days, which is absolutely nothing. And then I think she was beheaded at the Tower of London. So yeah, that's why her ghost is reported to haunt it. But she is supposed to haunt other castles as well in different places - haunted places. So, I mean, is there anything there? Like, maybe the Grey Lady was only at Hogwarts for nine days and then she got killed?

Andrew: Yeah, I was going to say, maybe - yeah. [laughs]

Jamie: A bit unlikely...

Andrew: Maybe Dumbledore felt bad for her, so he was like, "Come be a House ghost."

Jamie: Yeah, yeah. "Well, don't worry, you can become a House ghost."

Ben: What about Professor Binns? How did he...

Andrew: Can we stay on top of Grey Lady for a second?

Jamie: Yeah, Ben. Yeah, Ben.

Andrew: Not literally. I mean...

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: We'd just fall through and hit the ground.

Micah: So it's possible that Jo took the name from there?

Jamie: Oh, I'm sure she did. Yeah.

Laura: Yeah, there's really no doubt behind that.

Andrew: That would probably the most reasonable explanation for...

Jamie: Yeah, but she's a very mysterious ghost. We - I think we hear once that she was floating by or something like that, but we didn't hear anything about her. Perhaps we'll find something new in Book 7?

Micah: I think she's in "Half-Blood Prince," if I remember. They said some ghost went by as Harry was talking to Hagrid about overhearing the conversation between Snape and Dumbledore.

Andrew: Oh.

Micah: She seems to be around at kind of interesting times, because they said in the movie for "Chamber of Secrets" - and I don't know if this was in the books too - it was a scene that was cut out where - it's the first time that Harry goes to open Tom Riddle's diary.

Andrew: Yeah?

Micah: And he tells the Grey Lady to get lost.

Jamie: No, he doesn't, does he? Really?

Andrew: It's a deleted scene.

Laura: Yeah.

Jamie: Oh, sorry. It's a deleted scene, I see. Sorry.

Micah: [laughs] But I don't know.

Andrew: Why would they cut that? I mean, what was...

Andrew: So that goes on and on.

Laura: Wow.

Micah: We were - we were pretty close there. I mean, Jamie in particular saying that we would learn something about her in Book 7.

Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

Micah: And we certainly did.

Place of the Final Battle

Andrew: Now there's one more thing we discussed about on this episode, and - I'll just play it - we're talking about where the final battle would be.

[Everyone laughs]

Laura: Oh God.

Elysa: Uh-oh.

Andrew: Here's Laura's thoughts.

Laura: Oh God.

Andrew: Where do you guys think the final battle will take place?

Ben: Hogwarts.

Laura: Not at Hogwarts.

[Laura laughs]

Ben: Hogwarts.

Laura: Not at Hogwarts! Not at Hogwarts. Oh my god.

Andrew: I think it should.

Laura: No!

Ben: Why not, Laura? Why not?

Laura: Every bad fan fiction I've ever read in my whole life, they have the final battle take place at Hogwarts, and then...

Micah: Oh, no no.

Laura: ...first years are out fighting Death Eaters. It's ridiculous. No.

Micah: I think it should be at Godric's Hollow.

Andrew: Yeah. Oh, that would be good. Yeah. You guys want a cool...

Andrew: So, Laura, do you regret...

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: ...your statement now or do you still stand by that?

Laura: No, no, I don't. I mean, she definitely made it fantastic. Like, I completely loved the way she did the final battle. I think the problem was...

Ben: Backtracking now.

[Andrew and Ben laugh]

Laura: Hey, hey, I admit, okay? I admit, I admit I was an ass, okay?

Elysa: No, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, it doesn't mean you were wrong, though. Because, I mean, I love the way she did it too and I thought it turned out wonderfully, but it doesn't mean you were wrong, because you were saying that every bad fan fiction is like that.

Laura: It was true.

Elysa: It's true.

Ben: She's not calling Book 7 a bad fan fiction. She's not doing that.

[Elysa laughs]

Laura: No! Not at all. No, seriously, these things would literally - they had the students uniting in this battle front on the front lawns of Hogwarts. Like, it was just so cheesy. Every single one of them was the same.

Elysa: Yeah.

Laura: So when I thought of the final battle being at Hogwarts, I just imagined these fan fictions and I was like, "Oh God, please don't do it." [laughs] Because I thought it was going to be awful. But no.

Ben: Wouldn't it be awesome if Jo wrote fan fiction?

Andrew: She may.

Elysa: Maybe she does.

Andrew: Maybe some rejected chapters from Harry Potter show up on MuggleNet Fan Fiction.

Laura: Wouldn't that be bad if she submitted something and it got rejected from someone's fan fiction site?

[Elysa and Laura laugh]

Elysa: Well, there was one story, actually, on MuggleNet Fan Fiction, and it pretty much got everything in Deathly Hallows down pat.

[Laura laughs]

Elysa: I mean, all the major plot points, and we rejected it! [laughs] Not because the plot was bad, obviously...

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Elysa: ...but just because it was poorly written. But still, afterwards, you're like, "Crap! I hope that wasn't Jo!"

Andrew: It was like when she went into the MuggleNet chat room and was giving theories, but nobody liked them. [laughs]

Laura: Yeah.

Andrew: That's awesome.

Laura: [laughs] Everyone was like, "No!"

Elysa: Yeah.

Laura: "You don't know what you're talking about."

[Elysa laughs]

Andrew: And everyone was like, "Give us the chat logs!"

Elysa: Fail.

Andrew: And we're like, "We don't have those." [laughs]

Ben: I wish we did.

Andrew: Yeah. Okay, so that's what happened with that. And, you know, in a way, it's almost like - Laura, the directors of the films sort of had the same feelings you did because they're not having a Battle of Hogwarts in Half-Blood Prince just because there's one in DH. I mean, is that sort of what you're saying, is that it would be repetitive, too? Is that one of your ideas?

Laura: Well, no, it wasn't - well, yeah, I was kind of talking about how every show down was sort of taking place at Hogwarts up until that point, so I was, at that point, hoping that we were going to see something different. I mean, and also you have to remember, I was a huge proponent of something big happening in the Department of Mysteries. So I was really set on the idea of something major happening there.

Andrew: Okay.

Laura: And the thought that it was going to be Hogwarts instead really upset me. But I'm over it now because I enjoyed it.

Andrew: Micah, do you want to take the discussion from here?

Hosts Choose Houses Based on Ghosts

Micah: Sure. Well, I guess we want to stay with the Halloween theme, and it's kind of different than we have in the past couple of years, because we don't really have much of the stories to go on in terms of predicting things and basing it off of past books. But this is more of a general discussion, I guess, so let's start with, if you had to decide which House you would be in based upon the House ghost, which House would you be in and why?

Laura: Hmm...

Andrew: I think I would be in Nearly-Headless Nick's, and I'm kind of just going to base this sort of just on the movie, but it just seems like he's the most - definitely one of the nicest ghosts to get along with, and he seems so helpful and pleasant.

Micah: Laura?

Ben: I'd have to agree.

Micah: Or Ben?

Ben: I'd have to agree. I think that - I don't think you really get to see the other - you don't really get to develop a relationship with the other ghosts like you do with Nick, you know.

Andrew: Yeah.

Micah: He's your boy.

Ben: Through Harry's interaction with him.

Laura: I mean, I guess also - I'm sure the other students developed relationships with their House ghosts. We just didn't see it, obviously, because the books are written from Harry's point of view.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: But I don't know. It's hard to choose based on a ghost.

Andrew: I wonder if the ghosts really care to develop relationships with the students, because...

Ben: They're dead.

Andrew: Well, they're dead, but they're going to pass through the school and then they'll never see them again once they graduate.

Laura: Yeah, that's true. I don't know. I don't know, I'd be all about stalking the Bloody Baron because he's cool, so...

Andrew: Mhm.

Laura: ...Slytherin it is.

Andrew: [laughs] Elysa?

Elysa: I don't know. I was going to go with Nearly-Headless Nick just because he's the most lively of the bunch. I just think he's the most fascinating, but now that feels like a really cliche answer. So I guess now I'll go with the Fat Friar...

Andrew: And Micah?

Elysa: ...because I think he's one of the few that would go with trying to form a relationship with the students so...

Micah: Well, I maybe...

Elysa: ...that'd be awesome.

Micah: ...would have to choose the Bloody Baron, but, I mean, nobody's gone for the Grey Lady at all. But I guess that's just because she's a little bit too far out there. But I'll go with the Bloody Baron. I like that choice.

The Halloween-type Characters Significance in the Series

Andrew: So do you guys think that there were enough of the traditional Halloween characters in the series, such as the ghosts, the ghouls, the goblins, the werewolves, and the vampires? Because it seems like some played a significant role while Jo just managed to fit them in. I mean, they didn't even really play that big of a role in the books. What do you guys think they added to the series?

Laura: I think they just sort of added - yeah.

Andrew: Right. Oh, I see what you're saying...

Laura: I don't know.

Andrew: Yeah, just add to it as a whole...

Laura: Well, Remus is a werewolf.

Andrew: ...where they're trying to sort of set a theme in the books?

Laura: I think they just set the atmosphere of the fantasy setting. Like, I don't really see much purpose beyond that. I don't - I mean, I don't know if that's what you're asking, but...

Andrew: Yeah, basically. No, that was it. Micah?

Micah: Yeah. I think what I was trying to get at, though, is it seems like we have Remus Lupin, who's a werewolf, but then you kind of just have these other ghosts and ghouls. Like the ghoul that lived up in the Weasley's attic and the goblins at Gringotts. And the vampires; they very rarely make an appearance in the series. I agree with Laura that it set the tone just kind of having them around. They didn't necessarily play a significant role, but it seemed like she took only a few of those and made them important, whereas the others were just kind of scenery. You know what I'm saying?

Laura: Mhm.

Micah: But why do that? I mean, you have seven books. Why not make them more important to the central plot?

Andrew: Well, because you know why. We've read them all now. It's like - maybe around Prisoner of Azkaban you could argue that, but they're not that important. They don't really need to be.

Laura: Yeah, and there's only like so many times that you can make the plot surround some magical creature. Like, it would - I don't know. I think it would be weird if you had, you know, the book with Remus and being a werewolf, and then in the next book you had someone being a vampire, and the book after that - you know. I think it would get old.

Micah: All right.

Andrew: Elysa.

Elysa: Yeah, I agree. I mean, if anyone could pull it off it would be Jo, but...

[Micah laughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

Elysa: But really, I think if there had been too much of that, it would have just turned into a freak circus. And it would detour from the writing and from the plot, anyway, if she had purposely went out of her way to incorporate that.

Andrew: Yeah. And the uniqueness that is Harry Potter. Because it would be very generic to have a story about vampires and stuff. And by keeping these people minor, it's not really a generic story of vampires or werewolves. I think she balanced it perfectly.

Snape Not a Vampire

Micah: Well, speaking of vampires, one of the main theories that was out there throughout the course of the entire series was that Snape was a vampire. And this theory was obviously absolutely crushed by J.K. Rowling, and I just want to know - I guess maybe just even from Elysa, having read a ton of fan fiction, what did you think... [laughs] ...when it was finally put to rest? Because I'm sure there were probably hundreds, if not thousands, of stories based solely on this.

Elysa: Yeah, no, there definitely were. Though to be completely honest, I was never quite sure where that came from, because a lot of the stories, anyway, the reasons that they used for - or the motive, rather, that they used for Snape being a vampire seemed a little arbitrary. I mean, they made for great stories, but I didn't find that much canon to support it. A lot of the times they would sort of use the whole Remus Lupin being a werewolf thing as a basis for the plot, and Snape being a vampire, him being a werewolf, and the whole vampire/werewolf feud, and so - like, that was usually from a fan fic perspective, what - you know, how it came about, but in terms of it being a legitimate theory of him being a vampire, I wasn't quite certain where that came from.

Micah: I mean, did any of it come from - there are a couple times in the series that she refers to him as being bat-like.

Andrew: Yeah.

Micah: Or having qualities like that.

Andrew: Well, let's not forget that in Sorcerer's Stone Anniversary Edition, she described him as somewhat looking like a vampire, but that is Snape. That's just his appearance.

The Veil

Micah: Okay. One of the other theories that was out there that I know we spent a lot of time talking about, and Laura in particular...

Laura: Uh-oh.

Micah: ...because of her love - [laughs] - because of your love of the Department of Mysteries. Halloween being the day where the Veil between the world of the living and the dead is at its thinnest, and its role in Deathly Hallows. We did spend a lot of time talking about this in past shows, and it was kind of disappointing, because it really ended up having - the Veil itself, actually, having very little impact on the final book.

Laura: Yeah, it like - next to nothing. I was so disappointed. [laughs] Anyway. Yeah, I remember discussing this. Didn't we do like a three part series?

Micah: [laughs] We probably did, yeah.

Andrew and Laura: On the Department of Mysteries? Yeah.

Laura: And I remember we spent a long time talking about that. And I remember it was because someone was theorizing that maybe Voldemort was going to fall on Halloween, that it would go down on the same day it all started.

Andrew: Yeah, because there was some...

Laura: And I forget whose idea that was.

Andrew: I don't know, but there were - I had brought up a theory saying there was something related to Halloween where some veil was always the thinnest.

Laura: Mhm.

Andrew: Do you guys remember when we were talking about that?

Laura: Well, yeah, that's always been sort of a theory, that, like, the bridge between the world of the living and the dead is at its shortest or at its thinnest on Halloween.

Andrew: So you could, theoretically, hear through it better, maybe? Or look...

Laura: Yeah. Or it would allow people to cross over, I guess. I think that was our - and at this point, did we have the title of the book?

Micah: We probably did...

Laura: Because I feel like that's where...

Micah: ...and there - there were so many different things related to Hallows at the time that we were analyzing, that probably did have something to do with it as well.

Laura: And I feel like we heard "hallows" and then we thought, "Oh, Halloween," you know?

Andrew: Right.

Micah: All Hallows Eve, yeah.

Laura: Yeah, yeah. I think that's where it was coming from.

Andrew: Yeah, that was it. That was exactly it. Yeah. So...

Micah: So, we...

Laura: Such a different - like, where does this crap come from? Like, where did we get this crap? [laughs]

[Andrew and Micah laughs]

Click here to go to page three