Why Does Dumbledore Have a Password?

Kevin: Yeah, but that also - I guess it also warrants the question, why would you put a password on your door?

Andrew: Yeah.

Kevin: You know, like...

Eric: Yeah.

Laura: I don't know. If I were a headmaster of a school, I'd probably want a password on my door too. [laughs] I mean, you get a group of students mad at you, what are they going to do? I don't - I wouldn't want them...

Eric: Oh come on. If you're Dumbledore, you don't need to be worried...

Andrew: Well...

Eric: ...about what students are going to do. I mean, they were nearly...

Laura: I know, but I just think that it's - I mean, the headmaster's office has always been there, and I always assumed that that was just part of it - that there's a password on the headmaster's office. Because there were probably Headmasters before Dumbledore that weren't greatly liked.

Kevin: Yeah. Either that...

Andrew: Yeah.

Kevin: ...and also, if it is his room, if it's his bedroom, you - you know...

Andrew: I think it's there to sort of signify how important the room is. You can't just, like, stroll in and be like, "Hey! Dumbly!"

Laura: "What's up?" [laughs]

Andrew: "Dumbly! Dumbly-dor!" [laughs] Yeah.

Eric: Nobody would, though.

Andrew: Well...

Kevin: But it - that's a point. If you - if you actually emphasize the importance of actually approaching Dumbledore, I'm sure most of the kids will...

Eric: Will not do it! And...

Kevin: ...heed that warning. Exactly, yeah.

Eric: And if they do, he's going to do something about it, like punish you. I mean if you just go in there for no reason, he's going to scold - you know, say it politely the first time. But the point is, also, every time in the future when Harry does have to see Dumbledore's office, most of the time - with the exception of I think one time in Chamber of Secrets when he has to guess the password and it's like 'lemon drop' or something, and he gets it - most of the time, he's accompanied by McGonagall or another teacher who has the password. So, like, all the teachers are kind of guarding the keys to Dumbledore, so it's kind of in the mind of the teachers if what the kid wants to say is important enough. And that kind of prevents - I mean, my next point is very important, because what...

Andrew: Yeah, let's move on.

Eric: Yeah, okay. So what - when McGonagall asks what they want to see Dumbledore for, he says, "It's a secret," instinctually. Now remember in Book 6, Dumbledore tells Harry not to trust anybody but Hermione and Ron, and he doesn't tell McGonagall then about the Horcruxes. Well, just similarly, he instinctually, without any forewarning from Dumbledore who to tell or not to tell, he tells McGonagall right away, "It's a secret."

Ben: [whispers in an imitation of Harry] "Snape is trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone!"

Eric: No! He tells her it's a secret, and why would he do that? She's the head of his house. Why can't he trust her? But instinctually, he just says, "Oh, it's a secret. We really need to go straight to Dumbledore about this, and we can't tell you." And she gets offended by that, just like she does in Book 6. Like, isn't that cool?

Laura: Well, yeah. It's a big parallel.

Eric: But that goes with what we're saying. The teachers hold all the keys to Dumbledore's office.

Kevin: True.

Eric: [laughs] You know? And that's kind of not right.

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]

Hermione's Personality

Eric: Continuing on with the stuff we actually have to discuss. They get past Fluffy, which is kind of skipping ahead but that's okay. It's a little different in the movie, but either way, they play music and he falls straight asleep. Now they fall into the Devil's Snare - which, again, it's a little different in the movie: they have to either not struggle or they have to show the sunlight or whatever. And there's this brilliant moment which I think we all remember when they're all struggling and Hermione's all like, "Oh! This is Devil's Snare! I wish I knew how to defeat it!" and all that stuff. And then she says, "Oh yeah! Fire!" And so Ron's like, "Good! Use fire!" And she's like, "But there's no wood!"

Laura: Mhm. [laughs]

Eric: And he's like, "Are you crazy? Are you a witch or not?" I thought that was one of the best lines. It's always funny, it's always fun to read. But it's very realistic, I think, to Hermione's persona, her personality, this whole realist thing, because she is a Muggle-born at heart. And in times of crisis, you're obviously not really thinking. And even though she's been at school for a year, the general impression of how to make fire is still in her mind, and she just blurts out, "There's no wood!" and it makes this funny. But I think it's a really realistic thing. It's like one of those clever, clever funny moments...

Laura: Mhm.

The Tasks

Eric: ...that Jo put into the series. So [sighs] they go on, and they get past the whole Devil's Snare, and then they're in this room of keys - flying keys. They think they're birds at first, they see keys. So they look around, and they're thinking, 'Okay. So we need something - we need a key that's rusty and old as this door that's in front of us that's locked.' And they look around and they see one with a broken wing, and they realize, 'Well, that's probably been used before, so that must be the one,' and Harry gets on his broom. Now the thing you've got to realize, and the thing - and it's true with all of the rest of the following, upcoming tasks, is that Voldy-Quirrell had to get past all of that stuff.

[Kevin laughs]

Ben: [laughs] Voldy-Quirrell.

Eric: And - that's what Galadriel Waters calls him. But anyway, so this whole Voldy-Quirrell thing had to get past the keys, and the chess, and the troll - and moving ahead, the logic problem and all of that stuff - once. So assuming that the right key is the only key with the broken wing - I mean, it seems that that's the only one that was tried, and it was the right one. I hesitate to think that either Voldemort or Quirrell made a good Seeker or would be good on a broomstick like Harry is.

Kevin: Yeah, but you also have to remember that Quirrell is a professor, and being a professor, he's given - he has the opportunity to overhear certain things about these protections that gives him an advantage over everyone else. So it's possible he...

Eric: So you're saying he might have...

Kevin: ...knew exactly what key it was using some method, and all he had to do was summon it.

Eric: Okay.

Laura: Mhm.

Eric: I suppose that makes - yeah.

Kevin: I mean, that's a possibility. I'm not sure if it's the case, but...

Eric: But yeah, you're saying basically, he might not have needed to get on the broom and find the exact one as he might have had.

Kevin: That, or what about the fact that maybe they made the wing broken to begin with? Because they have to distinguish it themselves as well.

Eric: But why would they do that? That would be... huh. But there might be other ways to distinguish it.

Ben: Well yeah, but whoever set up that part of the task would - I mean that little part of the maze, or puzzle, or whatever you want to call it - whoever set up that particular part would have to already know which key it was. So they wouldn't have to set it apart themselves, because isn't it the old, rusty one?

Eric: Well, I'm sure there's probably semi-rusty ones. I mean...

Kevin: Yeah, I see...

Eric: If it were the only rusty one, it would be a little too easy. I mean...

Kevin: Either way, there has to be a way for the people who protected the stone to distinguish a key from the others. Whether or not it was the broken wing to begin with or otherwise, I'm sure that Quirrell had that knowledge and was able to...

Andrew: Well, it could have been a completely different key. It still would have been hard to notice in the whole mix of them all.

Eric: Yeah, even if you have the right - I mean, that's why I think maybe - like, if he wasn't good on a broom, if he couldn't figure it out on the spot and follow the rusty key that fit or matched the Victorian setting or whatever it was. It's kind of like the question you have to ask - if a first year could really get past all of these defenses and stuff? And you have to take a look at all the things that aided them on their way and through all the stuff. And I guess it's - it seems reasonable to me that Quirrell had another way of distinguishing, because thinking about it second-wise, I don't think it's likely that they would have broken the wing of the key.

Three Broomsticks

Laura: Speaking of - speaking of aid, didn't you guys find it a bit interesting that there were conveniently three broomsticks in that room?

Ben: Yeah, that's...

Andrew: Oh, was there?

Eric: No, I think that's...

Laura: Yeah.

Eric: I think that's one of the cases where, like the chess, which is coming up, I think the room resets itself to what you need. Kind of like the Room of Requirement. But I think if it sensed the three people coming...

Laura: Oh, yeah.

Andrew: Really?

Eric: ...I think that three brooms would appear. Like, do you think...

Laura: That's possible. I just sort of thought that maybe if Dumbledore wanted Harry to face Voldemort, he would assume that Ron and Hermione would come with him too. It would, I guess, support the theory that Dumbledore wanted to give Harry the chance.

Eric: But that's also what I wanted to talk about. You've got to understand. First of all, if there were three brooms in the room, that would be kind of like all the other teachers who saw the three brooms will be like, "Okay, what the heck are you doing?" And second of all, it would kind of add to the mystery of the thing if Quirrell walked in there alone and saw three brooms. But tertiary, which is - I got a thousand emails when I first started saying that.

Kevin: Yeah, no kidding.

Ben: Three after the second episode.

[Laura laughs]

Eric: Tertiarily, if that's...

Andrew: Thanks to everyone.

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Eric: Thanks to everyone from like forty episodes ago.

Andrew: Literally.

Eric: Okay.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: The fact is, Dumbledore - remember this - Dumbledore was actually apparently genuinely confused and misguided by the letter from the Ministry. Like, I don't - I don't think it's likely that he put the three brooms in the chamber because that would mean he knew Harry was going to go through the trapdoor and all the stuff. And maybe he did, but at the same time, you've got to understand that Dumbledore actually was apparently mistaken about the - and fooled by the the letter from the Ministry. And immediately after he'd left, yeah, he did know he'd done something wrong, but he did leave Hogwarts, and he was thrown off guard. So...

Kevin: Yeah, but that - I think she put that in just for - to show that Dumbledore isn't invincible. He...

Eric: Invincible, right. But it's one thing to be confused and one thing to leave Hogwarts and actually let things happen. I don't think he was like, "Okay, I'm going to put these three broomsticks in here for" - [laughs] - "The Three Broomsticks."

Laura: Well, no, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is he could've put those broomsticks in there ages ago. He could've put them in there when he moved the Mirror of Erised down there.

Eric: Well right, but again...

Laura: It doesn't mean that he knew that day the trio were going to go down to the chamber and stuff.

Kevin: And remember we're under the - we really don't know enough about the rooms to actually make...

Eric: Any kind of...

Kevin: ...any kind of - because for all we know, that room was enchanted so that brooms appeared based on the number of people in the room.

Eric: Well that's how I think it would go...

Andrew: That's what Eric just said...

Laura: It's possible.

Eric: And that's how I think it will go, because otherwise I think if everybody - if all the teachers who put enchantments on each of those rooms just happened to cross through the room and saw three broomsticks there, they're like, "Okay, what's going on? Not even one person should be able to come and get the Stone." That's how well protected they are.

Andrew: Yeah.

Kevin: Yeah.

Eric: So, you know...

Andrew: That's a good point.

Laura: That makes sense.

Ron's Strategy Skills

Eric: Chess. Chess, chess, chess, chess...it's wizard's chess. So anyway...

Kevin: I liked this the best. This was my favorite...

Eric: Yeah, this is genuinely awesome. It was just - it was cool. So, Ron obviously takes the lead in this chess game because he says, "No offense, but you guys kind of suck at chess." [laughs] And they're like, "We're not offended." So anyway, [laughs] Ron has this gift for strategy, but that's what I want to question here, because he's really good in this match and it turns out really well and we all know that. But where does Ron use this gift for strategy later in the books? Do you guys - because he's too busy, I think, getting really offended and really worked up about a lot of stuff in the future. Does he ever really use this strategy side of him in later books? Or was it...

Kevin: I've always had the that feeling that we'll see it, yeah.

Ben: I think Book 7 is going to - yeah...

Laura: Mhm.

Ben: ...Book 7 is going to set that up.

Kevin: I think that the reason we haven't seen it to this day is the reason you presented, which is that he was too caught on himself and things going on in the teenager schooling thing to actually use some of his skills.

Eric: I think that makes sense.

Andrew: I think this is good too because it led a lot of people to believe - I was too young to probably think about this - but it probably led a lot of people to believe that Ron was going to be like Harry's right-hand man with all this lifesaving and everything...

Eric: You know, that makes sense.

Andrew: ...possibly, in future books. And then, it didn't really happen.

Eric: Because - yeah, you're right. Because this whole thing where Ron takes charge of Harry in the chess thing and then Hermione takes charge of things in the next room, I think that's kind of cool and it shows, yeah, that they will be together as a trio.

The Logic Puzzle

Andrew: Yeah. So then, they move along to this logic puzzle.

Eric: [laughs] This logic puzzle is really awesome. It's cool that it kind of has two possible things, but at the same time, Hermione figures it out in no time, which is really awesome because she's all logical and stuff. And [sighs] it's - there's this heartwarming moment where Hermione says, "Oh, you're better than me. You're a better wizard than I am a witch."

Ben: Who's better than me?

Eric: And stuff. So she takes the potion to go back and he takes the potion to go forward and that is the end of the chapter when he realizes that the person in front of them is not Snape or Voldemort.

Andrew: What? It's not?

Laura: Who will it be? Find out next time.

Eric: [laughs] Tune in next week!

Kevin: Yeah. [laughs]

Eric: Or just like, flip the page and read the first three words.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: "It was 'beep.'"

[Laura laughs]

Editorial Discussion - Robbie Fischer

Andrew: Well, well, well - this week for you we have another editorial discussion. I believe this is our third one?

Laura: Third one, yep.

Andrew: Laura?

Laura: And welcome back to the editorial segment of MuggleCast, everyone. This is the part of the show where Micah and I sit down and have a little chat with some one MuggleNet's top staff from our "World Famous Editorials" section. First off, we'd like to apologize for the infrequency of this segment. Unfortunately, the lovely people who work with our editorials have lives, unlike us. But, it's always a pleasure when we can schedule someone to give us a few minutes of their time. And this week we're joined by Robbie Fisher. So, Robbie, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do around the site, and just some general background info.

Robbie: Hi. I don't actually do very much in the backstage part of the site. I, more or less, just write e-mails and send them to my editor - my lovely editor, Sara. And there were a couple of editors before her who eventually lost their patience with me. I think one of them may have jumped off a bridge or something. She just disappeared.

Laura: Oh no! [laughs]

Robbie: But, with infinite patience, they get e-mails from me with my editorials and columns and then they do all the work of making them pretty for MuggleNet so you can actually read what I wrote.

Laura: So, you run "The Book Trolley" and "The Magic Quill," correct?

Robbie: Yes.

Laura: So, why don't you tell us a little bit about those?

Robbie: Well, I believe I started "The Book Trolley" first and it actually kind of dates back to before I even discovered Harry Potter. I have a dear friend named Heather who is a teacher in Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle. She spends nine months of the year in the frozen tundra where she can't get out to watch movies and all she has to read are what's in the school library at the school she teaches at. So, I had been sending her movie reviews and book reviews for several years. And then, I got interested in Harry Potter and I was surfing around the Internet and I found MuggleNet, and I really respected what Emerson and the crew were doing and I wanted to contribute. So, I started writing editorials. I'm very proud of "The Book Trolley."

Laura: I was curious about how much time, would you say, you put into "The Magic Quill" and "The Book Trolley"? How much time does it take to write an editorial or a book review? How much time weekly? Monthly?

Robbie: That's a good question. I think "The Magic Quill" doesn't take quite as long. I try to write one every weekend and I think if I just set aside a couple three hours on a Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon, I can easily do a "Magic Quill," especially if I'm inspired by a really neat concept.

Nowadays, instead of asking for 150 word idea, we're kind of experimenting with this "Double Challenge" thing where people can respond to a specific question, like, "Give me a spell" or "Give me a magical creature." And that's - I think that's really sort of revitalized "The Magic Quill." It was kind of dying for a while and I think it's kind of come back to life, because having a more specific goal to go for inspires people to think of something really imaginative and really cool and it feeds off, kind of, not just my own creativity, but the creative input of so many different people; that energy just keeps it going.

As for "The Book Trolley" I think I spend probably most of my MuggleNet-related time reading books. And it's something I would have done with or without "The Book Trolley," with or without MuggleNet. But it kind of makes me feel - I guess you could feel guilty about spending a lot of time reading because it's time you're just kind of spending on yourself, and reading isn't a real collaborative thing. It's not a group activity, really. You can't - unless you belong to a book club and you get together and talk about the same book. I think a lot of people sit at home and watch TV together because it's something you really can do together, more so than reading. But, being able to take the book that I'm reading and review it and share it with other people kind of takes an edge off the guilt. I can say this wasn't just for my own pleasure, but I'm sharing it with someone else and it's helping someone else find the next thing to read after Harry Potter.

Micah: I guess, sort of turning away from "The Book Trolley" and "The Magic Quill," what other editorials do you find most interesting? Is there a section on MuggleNet that you enjoy?

Robbie: Oh, yes. My favorite column on MuggleNet - and you can quote me on this - is "The U-Bend."

Laura: I love that one, too!

Robbie: I love "The U-Bend." I'm just sorry that they don't publish a new chapter more often because it just cracks me up. Those guys have a great sense of humor and I feel a kinship with them. I think you can sense that from the fact they let me write a couple of their columns for them. [laughs] In one case, they asked me to do it and the other case I just sent it to them and said, "Use this sometime when you run out of ideas." But, I'm really thrilled to have them on there, too, sharing the spirit of fun.

It's like, when I was a teenager, I was kind of in to Star Trek and it was something I didn't like to admit too often because a lot of Star Trek fans took it so seriously, it was embarrassing. And it was painful too because you could see the seriousness with which they took the show, kind of taking the fun out of it for them.

I think I'll keep enjoying Harry Potter and MuggleNet as long as they continue to be fun - and that's one of the things "The U-Bend" contributes. I don't want anyone to say that "The U-Bend" is bad or a bad influence or that it's making fun of things that people should take seriously, because humor and fun should be a major part of the reason people share Harry Potter.

Laura: Mhm. I'd like to agree with that. And, do you have any last things you want to say? Any special theories you might have? Any shout-outs to anyone?

Robbie: Oh, no. You see I've tried the - every time a new book has been coming out, I've submitted a column about what I think is going to happen, and I've been wrong every single time.

[Laura and Micah laugh]

Robbie: And you know, they're not my best columns, either. I think most have them haven't even been printed because they were - they really didn't stand out from what anyone else was doing. There are so many smarter people with better ideas, and who have paid more attention to the details than I have. If I - I think the one time that I had a theory that I thought was pretty cool, it was one of the - I think it was part of The Burrow, where the topic was, why didn't Voldemort die when he tried to kill Harry? And I wrote this column called, "I know I know," which was a quote from Harry himself in the fifth book where I had this far out ridiculous theory that - this was before Book 6 came out - that the reason Voldemort lived was that he had somehow transformed his heart into some inanimate object like a bed post or a Fabergé egg or something, and as long as that object remained intact, you could do anything to Voldemort and he wouldn't die.

Laura: Ah, that's interesting.

Micah: You weren't too far off.

Robbie: I wasn't too far off when...

[Laura laughs]

Robbie: ...When Book 6 came out, I felt uncomfortably close to the truth then, but it wasn't exactly - It wasn't the truth maybe that, what do you call it, the changeling hypothesis, might have been closer than that. I try to stay away from serious theories about what's going to happen, because I'd rather find out the way the rest of the world finds out: Wait until the next book comes out and see what wonderful surprise JK Rowling gives to us.

Micah: Okay.

Laura: All right.

Micah: We did this with Sara and Katie last time?

Robbie: Mhm.

Micah: This lightning round. Laura, do you want to start it off?

Laura: Sure, all right.

Micah: Cue the music.

[Laura and Micah laugh]

Laura: Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun! Alright, Robbie. Dumbledore: Dead or alive?

Robbie: Dead.

Laura: Yes!

Micah: Snape: Good or evil?

Robbie: Evil.

Laura: Favorite Harry Potter book?

Robbie: Oh, I think it would have to be Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Micah: Favorite Harry Potter movie?

Robbie: Harry Potter and - now that's a tough one. I think it might be Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Laura: And what's your favorite Harry Potter character?

Robbie: Hagrid. Definitely Hagrid.

[Laura laughs]

Robbie: I see him in the mirror every morning.

[Micah laughs]

Laura: Oh really?

Robbie: I look like Hagrid.

Laura: Oh, that's awesome. That's so cool! [laughs] Sadly, that's all we have time for this week. Robbie, thanks for joining us. It was great having you on.

Robbie: Thank you.

Laura: And again, Robbie runs "The Book Trolley" and "The Magic Quill," so be sure to check those out, and as we've stated before, we're having a hard time getting people who have time to make it onto the segment, so if you have a favorite editorial on MuggleNet, or even if you've written one on MuggleNet, write to us. Laura at staff dot MuggleNet dot com, or Micah at staff dot MuggleNet dot com, and let us know and we'll be happy to get in touch with you. And...

Micah: And one more thing.

Laura: Hmm?

Micah: If you want to make a submission for "The Magic Quill," they can get in touch with you through the feedback form, right?

Robbie: Or they can go to the Chamber of Secrets forum on the latest "Magic Quill" chapter, which, either way works.

Micah: Okay.

Laura: Awesome. Well, until next time. Bye, everyone.

Robbie: Bye bye!

Micah: Bye.

Give Me a Butterbeer

Andrew: Okay, well we have a great Give me a Butterbeer segment for you this week. Benjamin Schoen, take it away.

Ben: Of course.

Andrew: Yeeah.

Ben: Gimme a Butterbeer is back again this week, folks. Thanks for the feedback on last week's segment. Due to its sheer popularity, Harry Potter has taken a lot of flack for things it couldn't possibly have caused. Which leads us to this week's segment.

Blame it all on Harry.

I hope you heard our discussion on Christianity and Harry Potter. Beyond religious objections, Harry has been blamed for everything from headaches and depression to back problems from lugging around large copies of Order of the Phoenix. This past week we saw the HP books get the blame for something completely absurd: Promotion of violence. A prominent US psychologist says popular fictional characters such as Hermione Granger could be contributing to an increase in violence among girls. As the series progresses, Hermione has begun to develop more and more courage to stand up for herself. Finally, she gets fed up with the pompous Draco Malfoy and with the appropriately named, "slap heard round the world," sends a message to Draco that she isn't going to put up with his harassment any longer. Three years worth of hatred and emotions led to her exploding and slapping Draco in that one instant. If the situation WERE real life it could be perfectly understood, if not condoned.

But, oh yeah, guys, let's not forget that Harry Potter is a FICTIONAL series. Especially for those of you who are listening to the show, that can be easily overlooked. We spend week after week talking about this stuff like it's actually happening somewhere in the world. Newsflash for all the Harry-haters out there: It's not. The expert who has accused Hermione's character of promoting violence said, "It used to be very rare to find women to participate in armed robbery. It used to be very rare to see female gang members behaving in a violent way and that is more common now." I know that fictional stories may have an impact on people, but making the connection between females reading Harry Potter and armed robbery seems just a little bit out there.

Once again, the underlying moral and POSITIVE lessons of Harry Potter go completely ignored. Forget friendship, love and caring - let's focus on trying to make illogical connections between Harry Potter and violence, depression, and discrimination: Ironically, many of the messages that Jo is attempting to condemn.

I'm Ben Schoen and I say, give me a Butterbeer!

[Laura laughs]

Eric: This is crap. Not the Give me a Butterbeer, this article.

Laura: [laughs] It is.

Eric: This article [laughs]. No, Ben, you did a fantastic job but I think Hermione was the worst person to blame or use as an example for promoting senseless violence, considering Ben said himself it took three years to get this kind of a reaction out of her. To me, Hermione has always been the more logical, more caring, more fair person of the trio. She's the one who holds Harry and Ron back from beating up Draco - as many times as they want to. Even in Book 2, I use this as the example even in book 2, when he calls her a Mudblood, when Malfoy is going around calling her Mudblood and all this other stuff and insulting her very being and existence, she's the one who suggests that he's not actually the heir of Slytherin. She gives him all the credit, and more than he deserves, and when she does finally hit him, it's like the culmination of huge events, and it's not like this senseless violence thing that means girls everywhere are going to learn that it's okay to hit boys no matter what. You know what I'm saying?

Laura: No, Eric. I don't know what you're saying, because I know that Hermione made me violent. I'm so mean to you guys every week. No - [laughs]

Eric: Just because...

[Ben and Eric laugh]

Eric: Just because you have a tattoo of Hermione and you wear this shirt that shows it every time you beat kids up...

Laura: That's right, Eric. No - In all honesty I...

Eric: You were beating on Mark Evans again, weren't you? Weren't you beating Mark Evans again? Out by the...

Laura: Sure, sure. Sure, I was.

Andrew: Mark Evans? MARK EVANS?

[Eric and Laura laugh]

Andrew: WHO? WHO?

Laura: Whenever I read this article, I just couldn't help but feel like, "What a load of crap!" It was just - Yes, women's roles have progressed in society, and it's not due to literature or TV or video games, it's due to the fact that women have taken on a more equal role within society. So, yes, you are going to have more crimes committed by women. Last time I checked, a children's fictional novel does not promote for - what did they say in the article? Teenage girls to go out and kill taxi drivers?

Eric: Yeah! There's these two fourteen-year-olds that killed taxi drivers.

Laura: That is so ridiculous!

Andrew: I mean, not only that, Laura, but it could also be attributed to the family that you grow up in, and bullying...

Laura: Yeah, exactly!

Andrew: ...and yeah! All of that. There's so many different factors, but blaming it on one thing, such as Harry Potter. You know, this guy could have been more professional and said the girls must have had a bad family...

Eric: Yeah!

Andrew: ...and they lived out on the streets or something. Yeah, okay it could be attributed to that. Who knows if these two girls even saw the Harry Potter movie? I mean, they probably did [laughs] but, you know.

Ben: Right. [laughs]

Eric: He's just saying, you know, that - I mean the article says that girls have [says mockingly] traditionally learned to suppress violent tendencies. That means they've been oppressed!

Laura: Right.

Eric: Forever!

Laura: Right, right. Okay. [laughs]

Eric: They've been oppressed and it's like this whole thing about equality and...

Ben: Well, what's absurd is - Okay, for example, remember when the Columbine shootings happened? The thing that people automatically looked towards was not the fact that these were two kids that were picked on incessantly while they were in school, but it was the fact that they played the videogame Doom.

Eric: Oh, come on.

Laura: I play Doom!

Eric: [sings] Doo doo doo doo doo...

Ben: They played Doom, so they must have went and shot up the entire school. That's not how that works, and we all know that's not how it works. People try to place the blame on something instead of looking to the actual reason that people have for their actions. It's not because they listen to heavy metal music, and it's not because they [laughs] read Harry Potter, it's because their environment that they grow up in, and that's the thing that should be first and foremost considered beyond what books they read.

Eric: It's true!

Laura: Well, people just have such a hard time accepting the fact that maybe a parent did something wrong. Maybe their kid did something wrong. No one wants to admit that, "My kid might have bullied someone to the point where they were just insane!" They want to say, "Oh, well, they sat there and they played Doom or they listened to rock music, and that made them violent." And it's just not true.

Andrew: Not just that. Doom's a good example, but what makes a lot of news stories these days is Grand Theft Auto, because you're killing cops, and you're hijacking cars, and hookers... I don't think this even needs to be - yeah! It's just - I mean I can see where they are coming from because Grand Theft Auto is very realistic. It's people, it's a city. As graphics and video game systems become more improved - But that's just not an excuse.

Eric: I think it alleviates any need to - I think it's a lot easier. It's one thing to push the circle button and blow somebody's head off and actually do it in real life, and I think it's a gross underestimation to think that the same things could be possible, and people could just go out - But I agree, maybe video games have some effect, but I agree with what Laura was saying, which is that it's a lot - I mean, family issues, as Ben said, should be first and foremost called into action, but again as Laura said, usually they're the first things to be disregarded. Nobody wants to say, "Maybe I'm a bad parent." Nobody does! Because that is like saying that it is contradicting everything that you believe, and it's admitting a flaw in yourself, and that's the one thing people just can't do. I mean, look at your parents. They have flaws, but you wonder if your parents grew up fearing for their lives in bomb shelters when the Vietnam and the Cold War went on. You know, they had these air raids sirens, and testing grounds, and you know your parents grew up fearing several years throughout their lives. And I know they crumbled up in corners, but as a society the American people - all these things affected our parents, and our parents' parents weren't that great people, either, and nobody is perfect. So this whole chain of events that comes down, and nobody's parents are perfect! So there's all these different abuses and all these different problems that we face, and nobody looks at that. Nobody looks at it at all. Do you think JKR will mention this violence things? Because she has this whole recoil...

Laura: Yes.

Eric: ...thing from about the fat article, but do you really think she would go at it and actually - would she dismiss this kind of an article?

Ben: Actually, she's going to mention me.

Andrew: Yeah [laughs].

Ben: "Ben from MuggleCast already handled this story."

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: She would choose it to be like, "By the way I've already listened to MuggleCast AND Ben was like the coolest thing ever, k-thx-bye."

Andrew: [laughs] He helped me write a whole other chapter of the book.

Ben: Yeah [laughs]

Andrew: Why don't we brag about that more on MuggleNet? Seriously. We're like - We like saved Book 7.

Eric: Yeah, we saved Book 7. Andy did.

Laura: We should add that to the little slogans...

Andrew: [laughs] We saved Book 7!

Laura: ...that change at the top of the screen.

Andrew: We saved Book 7.

Laura: We saved Book 7.

[Everyone laughs]

Eric: We saved Book ... [laughs]

Andrew: HP 7 is coming out a week earlier because of us. You can thank us with donations.

[Laughing]

Andrew: Is Jo serious, though? Or is that just sort of like...

Laura: I think she was kidding.

Ben: That's not serious.

Andrew: Well, I'm sure if Andy happened to run into her, I'm sure she would spend a moment talking to him about the article and all that.

Laura: Sign a book.

Andrew: It's not like Andy is granted three wishes. [laughs]

Ben: Yeah, from Jo.

[Everyone laughing]

Ben: Three wishes from Jo.

Kevin: Yeah.

Eric: But within a reason I think if he were to somehow - we don't know if he's contacted her. We don't know if she's contacted him. They might have exchanged [indecipherable] and addresses.

Andrew: I doubt it.

Eric: You doubt it. You doubt it.

Kevin: I highly doubt that one, though.

Eric: Okay, okay.

Laura: This is how well we know what our staff does. We have no clue what Andy has done. [laughs]

Andrew: I think I'm going to have to break Damon's e-mail policy again.

[Everyone laughs]

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