Aberforth

Andrew: Okay, let's move on to a little Aberforth discussion now. We wanted to talk about what role he's going to play in the books because Jo said that there's one Order of the Phoenix character that we have met briefly, but learn a whole lot more about in Book 7. Is it him, Micah?

Micah: That's a great question.

Ben: Is Aberforth a member? Does it say that in the book?

Andrew: Yeah, he is.

Ben: Okay, duh. But, I don't know. I think he's too busy off [beep] goats to save the world.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: We're definitely keeping that in, just bleeping it out.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: It was only mentioned once and then the Hog's Head is kind of a reference to the goat, but anyway - or the pig or animal or farm animals in general.

Ben: Do you guys feel that - I don't know if it will play that great a role, but it may be him that we learn a lot more about, but just because we learn a lot more about them doesn't necessarily mean that they play a major role. I think what we should do is go back to Order of the Phoenix and look through all of the people Harry sees in the picture, or actually examine who he's met that's a member of the Order.

Andrew: Aberforth seems like someone who would approach Harry now that his death - or Dumbledore's death has occurred. Aberforth would approach Harry, being Dumbledore's brother and talk to him maybe a little bit about Dumbledore and then open up a bit about himself. Would anyone agree?

Ben: Right. But was, but was, but was Aberforth let in on Dumbledore's plan?

Andrew: Well, it - regardless. I don't think it matters either way.

Eric: Probably not, but...

Ben: Well, he may have known his brother, but unless...

Eric: Well yeah, but...

Ben: ...unless he's actually known what's going on...

Eric: ...how...

Ben: ...and the things he's experienced, then it's sort of irrelevant.

Eric: Well, actually, I'm pretty sure Dumbledore got him out of trouble with the goat, and if he didn't get him out of trouble with the goat - well, put it this way: Aberforth lives in Hogsmeade, right next to Hogwarts and I think it would be very unlikely for Dumbledore not to keep contact with his brother. And even if he didn't, as Andrew said - regardless whether or not Aberforth knows of any plans or not, he's still his brother. He still grew up with him a little bit, and so there's all this potential where JKR didn't mention it in the books, but she said so on her site. We know that that was him and all sorts of stuff, that it's just like he's waiting to come out.

Micah: Well, Dumbledore and Harry - don't they return from the cave right in front of the Hog's Head?

Eric: They do too. Yeah.

Micah: Be interesting to see all the stuff that happens.

Andrew: [laughs] Good observation, Micah. I agree.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Anyone else agree?

Eric: It'll be interesting...

Micah: Well... [laughs]

Eric: It'll be interesting to read this book.

Andrew: Eric, I'm sure you disagree.

Ben: Yeah. [laughs]

Eric: I agree. Book 7 will be interesting.

Laura: I definitely agree.

Micah: No, to go back and see what happens.

Andrew: Oh go - oh, go back?

Micah: See all the events that took place. See if it's - if there's any connections there.

Andrew: Yeah.

Horcrux Hunt

Ben: The final thing - the final part of our segment here: Who is the best resource for Harry to go to when beginning to search for horcruxes? Moody? Lupin? Slughorn? But Dumbledore only told him to confide in Hermione and Ron. Oh, by the way, JK Rowling confirmed today that it is indeed Horcruxes - not Horcri. Sorry, John.

Andrew: Thank god. [laughs]

[Laura laughs]

Ben: Get him off his high horse.

Andrew: So, Dumbledore told him to only confide in Hermione and Ron. Of course Harry's not going to listen.

Eric: No. He did, though.

Laura: It wouldn't be any fun if he did.

Eric: He did listen, though. And that's what I want to say is because he listened more than he should have. Okay, I think Harry listened more than he should have to Dumbledore because out of nowhere - I was under the impression when I was reading Book 6, that he was going to tell McGonagall. And I - I was just seeing this story unfold in my head where he was going to tell McGonagall and she was going to get some of her old friends to help them out, and all sorts of stuff. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he says, "Oh I can't tell you because Dumbledore didn't want me to tell you that" or "I'm just not going to tell you about Horcruxes at all. Or what happened. I'm not going to tell you... Out of nowhere!

Ben: That was probably a wise decision, though.

Laura: Yeah. I agree.

Eric: Well, yeah. It might have been - but it was more wise than Harry was. It was like, almost super-wise. Like, all of a sudden it hit him that he wasn't supposed to be trusting anybody and so he told McGonagall nothing. It just seemed like...

Ben: Pull your head out, dude. Look at just what happened. Look at what just happened to him.

Eric: It seemed really out of place, though - that all of a sudden, he was like, "No, I'm not going to tell you."

Ben: Death Eaters infiltrating Hogwarts? Who'd actually think that would ever happen? And then when Dumbledore tells him something, he's learned to trust him and so he's not going to go blabbing around because he doesn't know who's on his side anymore because they just got betrayed by Snape, so how is he supposed to know who to trust?

Eric: And you think that he's going to break Dumbledore's promise and go tell Moody now? And go tell Remus? When he wouldn't tell McGonagall?

Ben: I doubt it. I think that he's going to confide in Ron and Hermione like Dumbledore told him to and that's - that...

Andrew: You really think so?

Ben: ...that's all he's going to need.

Andrew: No way.

Ben: I mean - well, in terms of the Horcruxes. He's not - he's not going to tell Moody or Lupin about them. Slughorn would be okay, because Slughorn already knows about them. But...

Andrew: Well, let's take Ron out of the picture. How much is Ron going to be able to add? Hermione can do some hardcore research that could offer some clues, but I don't know about Ron. [laughs]

Laura: I don't know. I think Ron gets underestimated a lot.

Andrew: Yeah, but whenever - when has he ever proven himself?

Laura: Maybe this will be the book where he does.

Andrew: I guess.

Ben: I hope so.

Andrew: That does wrap up our Book 7 discussion for this week. That actually went pretty well.

Ben: I enjoyed it.

Laura: Mhm.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Fun stuff.

Ben: Send in your Book 7 things that you want to know or need to know, to mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com - things for us to discuss that you think will be interesting.

Andrew: Right.

Spy On Spartz

Andrew: So, this week we are going to do something we haven't done in a while - Spy on Spartz. We're going to give Spartzy-boy a little ringy-ding-ding. See what's going on.

[Emerson's voicemail picks up]

Andrew: Oh. [laughs] Failure!

Laura: Darn.

[Emerson's voicemail keeps playing]

Andrew: All right, Ben. We get it. Now leave a message.

[Ben hangs up on Emerson's voicemail]

Ben: That's too bad.

Andrew: Well, you should've left a message. All right, well, that's a shame.

Ben: Here we go. Here - for every week that Emerson doesn't answer his phone, we're going to reveal a digit of his cell phone number.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: I love that.

[Micah laughs]

Ben: Okay, this week we'll start off with 2. The starting number is 2. Okay?

Andrew: Oooh. Uh oh.

Ben: So Emerson, you'd better answer your phone, or you're in trouble.

[Andrew and Laura laugh]

Andrew: Next week - the second digit. [laughs]

[Micah laughs]

Chapter-by-Chapter: Chapter 13, Sorcerer's Stone

Andrew: All right. So, moving on now to Chapter-by-Chapter. Chapter 13 of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone titled "Mirror of Erised." [laughs] No, sorry. I edited MuggleCast for too long last week. [laughs] Titled - actually, we're going for a "Nicholas Flamel" this week. There must be a misprint in my book or something.

Chapter 13 - Nicholas Flamel

Eric: The chapter opens up and it mentions that ever since - Harry isn't quite able to get over his whole experience in the previous chapter with the Mirror of Erised. In fact, something very, very distinguishably upsetting is accredited to his experience with the mirror. He now has dreams, nightmares of high, cackling laughter and green light and - so basically, ever since he saw the mirror, he's having these nightmares of his parents' death, the night of his parents' death. And it's heavily implied that they were triggered by his experience with the mirror.

Micah: The one thing that strikes me as odd here is - is Voldemort doesn't seem like the type of guy, to me, that would be cackling.

Ben: Oh, he does to me.

Andrew: Why not? Yeah.

Micah: Yeah? I don't know, I thought of witches as cackling.

Ben: Because he has the high-pitched laughter that probably can be described as a cackle.

Andrew: And Peeves cackles. Last time I checked, he's a dude.

Ben: Yeah.

[Eric and Laura laugh]

The Dream

Ben: Yeah, oh and another thing is, I think the reason that the Mirror of Erised triggered Harry's - the nightmares that he's beginning to have is because when it's a really emotional experience like he had when he saw his family again or whatever, it could probably psychologically trigger those things in his mind and cause him to have those nightmares. I mean, I'm no psychologist or anything, but that's just my take on that.

Eric: Yeah. It makes logical sense, too - that that was the last time he saw his parents. That was the night that he no longer had a family.

Andrew: So, it's interesting that the mirror triggered those memories. So, basically this starts off a long-running series of dreams.

Laura: So, do you guys think that...

Andrew: And painful - pains in his scar. Although that doesn't relate. Sorry.

Laura: Do you guys think that going to Godric's Hollow would have the same effect on Harry?

Andrew: Oooh.

Ben: Probably - that's an interesting tie back to an earlier question, but yeah.

Andrew: Could it - if he saw his parents, could it bring back new memories?

Laura: Maybe.

Andrew: Hmmm.

Ben: Well, if he remembers, perhaps, his house...

Andrew: Right.

Ben: If his house is even standing. I guess they said it was destroyed. So, I don't know.

Andrew: Even then, it could be something as simple as a tree that, for some reason could have stuck in his brain.

Ben: It could re-trigger those things.

Eric: He could remember picnicking.

Andrew: Because a flash of lightning hit it.

[Laura laughs]

Eric: He could remember picnicking in his little bonnet and Lily and James on a blanket. I actually want him to remember things like that. I think new memories are important. I think that might be one of the more reasonable ways in which he learns more about himself and his past, is if he remembers all these things from when he was not even a year old - things start coming back to him. We've seen the same - pretty much the same nightmare: green light and high laughter in almost every subsequent book since the first one. I mean, the Dementors bring it back in three and he is always seeming to be talking about it, so it would make, it would be a little - I guess it would be good if he got some new memories to think about.

Andrew: What else is interesting here is that these dreams start to disappear and Harry says that this is caused by being tired after Quidditch practices. Is it really the Quidditch practices and being tired that causes these dream to not occur?

Eric: I thought it would be the opposite.

Ben: I think so because if you have a deeper sleep...

Eric: Then you're more prone to dreams.

Ben: ...then you probably won't - no, I don't think you're more prone. I think if you're really tired where it's not really that you -when it comes to the point where you unintentionally fall asleep, then I don't really dream much.

Eric: Oh okay.

Andrew: Or do you not just remember? Do you dream every night?

Laura: You do. You always do.

Ben: You always do. Yeah, you always have a dream every night, but you just don't remember it.

Andrew: I dream about you at night, Ben.

Ben: Oh, I know dude. I dream about you "U2" - U2 and you.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: [singing] Together, we're together. Is it destiny?

[Ben hums City of Blinding Lights]

Laura: Yeah.

Eric: Oh my god.

Andrew: So...

Laura: Those are some dreams that I just don't want to know about.

[Micah laughs]

Eric: Yeah, those are my nightmares.

Andrew: So... Oh, I do.

[Everyone laughs]

Quidditch Practice - The Solution To Nightmares?

Andrew: So, I'm thinking - maybe is it that Harry, he has his mind off of it? It's not so much that he's tired, he's just thinking about other things.

Micah: Yeah, exactly. He's thinking about Snape.

[Laura laughs]

Andrew: No, no. [laughs]

Micah: His mind...

Andrew: What?

Micah: Well, not like that. Come on.

Andrew: No, no, I don't - no, not Snape. I'm talking about Quidditch practice, wouldn't he be thinking about that?

Micah: Well, yeah. Snape refereeing the match. All that kind of thing.

Eric: Okay.

Andrew: Oh.

Micah: He's not as focused on the Mirror as he was before.

Andrew: Mhm. Yeah.

Micah: So, as the chapter goes along...

Ben: I'm fairly certain that nightmares are probably triggered by stress.

Laura: Mhm.

Ben: And so, when he's put into a stressful situation or like I said, a strong sense of emotion over something.

Winning The House Cup

Andrew: So, let's move along, Eric.

Eric: Page 216, they are talking about Slytherin and how it would be nice to win this Quidditch match against Hufflepuff because then they could overtake Slytherin for the House Cup. Now, as Ben brilliantly pointed out, out of the blue, it didn't seem to me that the House Cup was even mentioned later on in the books. What it says is, Slytherin would be defeated for the House Cup for the first time in seven years. And we know, at the end of Book 1, they were. But, it seemed to me that - it made sense in my own little mind, while reading Harry Potter, we'd be reading years at Hogwarts where Gryffindor prevailed. And that every year Harry would bring about some sort of victory that would allow Gryffindor to win the House Cup for seven years. But, instead of getting this reassured, whole, "Oh, Harry's going to change the world type thing," I think the House Cup just stop being mentioned or the Quidditch Cup in some of the books. I mean the Quidditch - I mean we didn't even have Quidditch in Book 4 and I guess some parts of Book 5, and Harry wasn't even on it. So, the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup have kind of become really unimportant - like what House wins at the end of the year to me. I seemed to me we'd be seeing, since Jo mentioned that Slytherin had been winning for seven years straight, it seemed only appropriate she'd make an equally big deal about something else.

Andrew: I think that's based off of two things: 1) that the story - Jo is putting more focus onto the darker side of things and there's not as much fluff that was needed back in Sorcerer's Stone. But at the same time I'm sure the students might not see it as - well, they might. Hmmm. I think they would see it because just like any teenagers - all teenagers are into sports.

Laura: Ummm.

Andrew: Well, then again, maybe wizards aren't. [laughs]

Laura: No. [laughs]

Eric: Well, no.

Andrew: Well...

Eric: But I think enough are so that it comes over academics.

Andrew: Yeah, there would still be the same amount of hype every year. Maybe not all teenagers, but the same amount of hype that was in Book 1 would Book 6 because the same - there's always a large amount of kids in it or into it.

Eric: Points still matter. It's still a fun game and you don't even need to play anything to be on this game, you just need to be a decent student, and occasionally succeed in front of a teacher that gives you points. I don't necessarily recall, you know, Gryffindor not winning the House Cup, but I don't remember it being mentioned besides Book 5, I think they won it. Laura, did they? Did you remember that?

Laura: I know they won the Quidditch Cup in Book 5, but I'm not necessarily sure about the House Cup. I think...

Micah: That's interesting.

Laura: I think Eric, like what you said at the beginning, that we see these books through Harry's eyes - I think that's very important to remember because in this case Harry has more important things to be focusing on then the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup. So, for all we know it does have the same amount of hype and the other students do care just as much, but Harry is more focused on finding the Horcruxes.

Eric: Which makes perfect sense, but I don't know. He didn't have Horcruxes to deal with in any other book besides Book 6, in the same way other than Book 2.

Laura: Yeah, but he had Dementors and werewolf teachers.

Eric: Well usually, but usually at the end with the - Movie, sorry Book 5 was the first different book in the way that the ending wasn't happy. Well, Book 4 wasn't entirely either, but at the end of every book it seemed like they had this whole expository paragraph where JKR wrote things slowed down, they did well on their exams, and by the way Gryffindor won the House Cup. And by the way this happened and that sort of thing. Another year at the Dursley’s. And going to give Dudley a second... All this other stuff. It's like this calm, peaceful thing at the end of each book, where she kind of sums up the last days of school and that kind of thing that happens. And that just stopped and it was kind of like the ending of Book 5. I don't know how that happened, but it's this whole destiny thing. And you're right Laura, he's more occupied with destiny and things, but there was always that kind of exposition at the end, where we knew where some things were stated about what happened at then end of the year, and during the banquet, and stuff, and during - to characters.

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