PotterCast #108: St. Louis Transcript

Part 1 (0:00 - 18:10)

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Melissa Anelli (MA): Oh, my.

John Noe (JN): Hello!

MA: Wow! St. Louis! St. Peters! St. Louis, St. Peters! We just learned how to say Louisville and then we had to leave. (Audience laughs)

JN: Whoa! That was amazing! (Audience laughs)

MA: Oh, my goodness. (Audience laughs) Lovin’ that the camera crew got that. Anybody got a towel?

JN: How did you do that? (MA: I don't know!) (Audience laughs) I wish I would've done that. That would have been hilarious. (Audience laughs)

MA: Well, I'm so glad I could entertain you.

JN: Now everybody just feels bad. Aw.

MA: It's really all over me. Does anybody have a towel? A napkin, a towel or something? Aw, you're so nice! (JN: Hey, perfect.) Thank you. (JN: Okay, well. We are...) Well, that was the first part of the show. (Audience laughs)

JN: Yes, and this is PotterCast. (Audience cheers) Live! I don't suppose there's a chance any of you have been to one of these before, have you? Probably not. (MA: Probably not.) We do most of these pre-recorded. But, this is our first live mall show, I guess. (MA: Yeah.) With Borders. (MA: Let's go to the mall.) Which is awesome. We have a great setup here behind us. Fawkes was talking to me earlier. I think he's a little shy now. (Audience laughs)

MA: John and I had a fight over who- I thought actually it was going to be a fight over where we got to sit but John wanted Fawkes. (JN: Oh, of course.) So, I think this is pretty cool, myself. It's pretty cool. It's the most elaborate setup we've ever had for a podcast. (JN: Yeah.) I'm feeling a little intimidated. (Audience cheers) (JN: It's pretty cool!) It's pretty great.

JN: Can everybody hear us okay? (MA: No, just testing.) It's a little hot here.

MA: Running a little- good? (JN: Hello? Okay.) He's trying. Thank you. (JN: Thank you.) Thank you to Borders for all the help! (JN: Awesome.) Oh, my goodness! Okay, so welcome. I heard you guys say it Sent Louis? Is that right? Sent? (JN: Saint, just like you think.) Just Saint. Just Saint. Just Saint. (JN: I don't know who you've been talking to.) Well, at least you guys are like- it's better than others. Okay. (laughs)

JN: You got to have a hot dog in your mouth to say Lou-vull. (MA: Lou, Lou.) I don't know how that works. (MA: Okay.) But, anyway.

MA: It is three days and like four hours from Deathly Hallows. (Audience cheers) And, if anybody comes up and says, "I read on the internet that la, la, la," you're getting this. (JN: Yes.) I'm telling you. (Audience laughs) I'm ready. Now that was just a test just to see. (Audience laughs) Be careful guys, seriously. You go on the net- don't go if you don't want to know.

JN: It's awful on the net. It's awful.

MA: Awful. It's gotten really bad. The spoilers for this book.

JN: The spoilers are awful.

MA: People are just- somebody tried to actually hack into one of the sites to post it as a news post (JN: It happened all ready. Didn't it?) earlier today. It happened on HPANA. Yeah. (JN: HPANA, yeah.) Watch out, guys. MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, LiveJournal, Bebo, whatever. (JN: YouTube.) Be careful. Be careful. (JN: All that stuff.) At every one of our live shows so far, and this is our eighteenth city on this tour. (JN: Is it really?) (Audience cheers) We have been trying to find out which city knows their Harry Potter the best. (JN: Yes.) Meaning on July 22 when we go over the audio who will have known the most. We have a five-question prediction quiz for you. And, since in the past couple of shows we've been getting similar answers, when it comes down to a tie breaker we're going to go as to which city is the loudest. (Audience cheers) So, (JN: Yes.) I thought it was going to be New York but then Columbus blew it out of the water. So, who thinks it's going to be St. Louis? (Audience cheers)

JN: Wow. (Audience continues to cheer loudly) All right, all right, all right, all right. Very good job. (MA: So, no one. Okay.) Very good. We haven't even asked any questions yet.

MA: Okay, let's do it. First question.

JN: Okay, first question that we asked is about the veil that we found in The Order of the Phoenix Department of Mysteries. If any of you guys think- (MA: Yes, it is. Sorry. Okay.) I'm going to have to speak over the reggae, I guess. (Audience laughs) If any of you guys think that Harry will be going behind the veil at some point in time in Deathly Hallows make some noise here. (Audience cheers) Okay, and if you guys do not think we will see Harry going behind the veil; you can make some noise here. (Audience cheers)

JN: That's going to be very tough to figure that one out.

MA: Here's a question: at what point do we stop asking these questions since there's spoilers out there?

JN: It's true. It's not like anybody here has read the spoilers.

MA: It's not like all of you. Okay, okay. Number two. Will Harry be attending classes at his seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? If you think he will be attending classes in this book, make your noise now. (Audience members cheer)

MA: If you think Harry is done with his formal education, make noise now. (Audience cheers)

JN: Totally. Everybody loves that one. (Audience laughs)

MA: Yeah, seriously. They get so into it.

JN: Everybody's got that one all figured out. Well, this one might be a little more tricky. The question of whether or not Harry himself or his little scar up there is a Horcrux. If you think that Harry is not a Horcrux, make your noise here. (Audience cheers)

JN: All right, all right.

MA: Very good, very good.

JN: Do we think that Harry or his scar is a Horcrux? Make some noise here. (Audience members cheer) (MA makes buzzer noise) (JN and Audience laughs)

MA: Okay. Our number two question aided by, hold on a second.

JN: We have a little friend over here to help us. We have Petrificus Tim. Oh, yeah. I need Fred, don't I? We have- (MA: Where is Fred?) Fred's over there. Snappa? Our friend Snappa over here.

MA: This is Bre, everybody.

JN: Say "hi" to Bre. She's bringing over Fred.

MA: She's like Vanna White of PotterCast. Thank you very much, Vanna.

JN: We have Fred and Snape. (MA: Okay.) But the question is not about Fred, though. It's about Snape.

MA: This question is about our friend here who as you can see on one side he's evil and on one side, he's good.

JN: I don't know if they can see, but those are buttons that say good or evil.

MA: Those are buttons. Okay, so, if you think Snape is a very evil man. (Audience cheers) You think Snape is still working for the Order and Harry. (Audience cheers)

JN: Pretty good.

MA: Oh, we have whoops going on. That's new.

JN: Pretty darn good. And you guys are in luck because as this is our second to last show before our big release show. Our topics today will be about Snape, not about some other nonsense about treacle tart or whatever. (Audience laughs)

MA: We'll get to the treacle tarts.

JN: We'll get to the treacle tart, probably. (MA: Yeah.) No, okay. And our final question. (MA: The big one.) The biggest question: will Harry live or will he die in this book? (Audience laughs) Speaking over the now louder music. (Audience laughs) If you think that Harry will die in the course of this book, make your noise here. (Audience members cheers)

JN: I think I know what's going to happen here. If you think that Harry will live in the course of this book, make your noise here. (Audience cheers) Wow!

MA: Wow! That was so loud that it felt like the Goblet of Fire was rumbling, it was very exciting. (JN: Yes.) I thought it was going to throw John's name out there any second. (JN laughs) Wow, what do you think, louder than Columbus? Columbus is hard to beat.

JN: I think. It's hard to tell, we have better sound in here, (Audience laughs) but...

MA: A lot more echoes on this tile. Very nice tiles.

JN: I think everybody across the mall can hear us.

MA: Well, to go back to our second question, our conundrum for the day- who know's what a Canon Conundrum is? (Audience cheers) Our Canon Conundrum is whether Mr. Sev- no no no, I'm sorry, since we have today and tomorrow are our last shows before Friday, which, as we know, is the day, ever, today we will be discussing why Severus Snape is good. Tomorrow we'll be discussing why Severus Snape is evil. So we're gonna talk about some arguments, some theories, we want your theories-

JN: Today's good-day?

MA: I thought today was good day.

JN: I may have been reading evil.

MA: You were reading evil? (JN: I'm in trouble.) We'll switch.

JN: Well I got my little cheat sheet here, it's The Great Snape Debate, they sell these in Borders. I think Borders wrote this, actually.

MA: Borders itself did not write the book.

JN: Yes, the building picked up a pen.

MA: Borders published it. (JN: Yes. Anyway.) You've been reading the evil side?

JN: I've been reading the evil side.

MA: Then maybe we'll do- today will be evil day. (JN: Aw.) (Audience boos) Can you save your new knowledge for tomorrow?

JN: I guess I could. Okay, fine, we'll talk about good-Snape here.

MA: Okay. (Audience cheers) This crowd is too big and too happy to have them talk about why Snape is evil, (JN: Yes.) man, come on. All right. Snape good, arguments for Snape being good? He killed Dumbledore.

JN: There are quite a few of them. (Audience member replies) (MA: Well...) Well, let's go way back when we first meet Mr. Snape. He's this creepy looking guy, slimy hair. Everything we've heard of him his is just bad, bad, negative. We thought he was the dude who was doing all the trouble in Sorcerer's Stone, (MA: Yeah.) we thought he was the bad guy for awhile. And everybody thought (inaudible) after Hermione was like, "Well maybe not, maybe he's all right." And Hagrid says that he's all right, he's okay. But from the very get go we're really uneasy about this guy, and throughout the rest of the books we start to get even more confused.

MA: Well, I mean, it's the one character that she has flipped back and forth more times than any character, maybe in any set of books, ever. In every book we're wondering, "Is he good, is he bad? Is he good, is he bad?" One character thinks he's good, on character thinks he's bad. Hermione has always maintained that he's good, he's good, he's good -he's a Hogwarts teacher, (JN: Yup) a Hogwart's teacher wouldn't do anything bad. But as we get closer and cloesr to Number Six here, he starts getting a little darker, we find out that he was a Death Eater. But still we're holding out hope. Finally, Dumbledore says, "I trust Severus Snape." I mean, is there any other argument than that? "I trust Severus Snape." (Audience cheers)

JN: That's pretty good. It's just, Dumbledore's word is a tricky thing to go by, because this is also the Dumbledore that thought Mad-Eye was who he said he was in Goblet of Fire.

MA: Yes. Well, Ignorant doesn't mean wrong, ignorant just means ignorant.

JN: True. But ignorance is a pretty big thing to happen with Snape. To be ignorant of whether or not- you know.

MA: We've talked this to death on PotterCast. I'm really sort of more interested in why you think- if you start to say that he's bad, no cookies for you. (Audience laughs)

JN: Yes.

Sarah: Okay, hi, I'm Sarah from Chesterfield- (MA: Stand up.) okay. Well, one reason is when they go to the Astronomy Tower and Severus Snape comes and Dumbledore is extremely weak, and he's ready to kill him, Dumbledore says "Severus. Please," and I just think that's really out of character for him to beg for his life. He would say something like, "Do as you must."

MA: Right. Does Dumbledore ever beg, must less for his life? (JN: Yeah.) Or is he begging Severus to do as they agreed to do.

Sarah: Yup.

JN: I don't supposed there isn't anybody here who hasn't read the ending of Half-Blood Prince, is there? 'Cause that would be really bad. (Audience laughs) We don't want to ruin anything.

MA: Yeah. You're at the wrong show, if so. (Audience laughs) (JN: Yeah.) You haven't read the ending? Oh, you have! Okay, whew!

JN: Okay. 'Cause if you haven't read the ending, you're best to go get a pretzel or something for a while, 'cause we're going to be talking about this.

MA: Okay, where's the mic going next? We're going to be all share-like, Hufflepuff-like in the audience. We're sorry, by the way, that Sue couldn't come, she had to go home. But she'll be back, after this show, obviously. (Audience laughs) No, Sue's going to Apparate in. What's your name?

Ariana: Ariana. I'm from Oklahoma City.

MA: Don't be shy.

Ariana: I think that Dumbledore and Snape did the Unbreakable Vow (MA: Ooh.) that Snape would kill Dumbledore, so they could protect Draco from Voldemort.

JN: That's pretty good, the Unbreakable Vow theory. (Audience applauds)

MA: Thank you. That's a good theory! Unbreakable Vow.

JN: I always like that theory, because, well, for no other reason, that when- how many Unbreakable Vows are we aware of right now? Just (MA: Just one.) the one. So how often does Jo introduce something so big as something like an Unbreakable Vow and only use it once? I think there's another Unbreakable Vow out there somewhere, and who better to have it than Snape and Dumbledore? Especially when Dumbledore is so cagey all the time about why he trusts Snape. Maybe he wouldn't want to admit the fact that (MA: Boo.) he had him do the Vow, because he thought that people would think poorly upon him, like Melissa here would probably think poorly upon him, (MA: Boo.) for doing the Vow. (Audience laughs)

MA: Boo. I don't like- no offense at all, it's not my cup of tea, the theory. I'm probably wrong, they probably did it, but I just feel like Dumbledore doesn't base his trust on magic. I think he's looking to somebody's character and if he says, "I trust Severus Snape," it's not because he made an Unbreakable Vow. You have to trust somebody for more than that for which you made the Unbreakable Vow. You have to trust them- like, say their Unbreakable Vow was for, "I will kill you if you ask me to." What a great Unbreakable Vow. (JN: True.) (Audience laughs) But, if you trust a person, if you actually wholly trust a person, it's not just for that thing. (JN: No.) So if you had to bind them to it with magic, how much do you trust them? And even then you could only trust them for that specific thing. (JN: Yeah.) The rest of it...

JN: I would think that the Vow was more of an insurance policy, (Audience laughs) and that he did trust him, and he trusted his story, but, I mean, you're going to put just the guys word on saying that, "I'm not a Death Eater anymore, I'm really a good guy," and give him a job with a school full of children, and that choice to bring him into that school is accepting the responsibility for anything that that man will do there. So I don't think Dumbledore, in all of his admitting that he is fallible, to just say that the Death Eater is telling the truth now, and not put any kind of insurance behind it, is a little foolhardy.

MA: In all fairness, though, with that logic, there are other teachers who have done a lot worse to Harry who Dumbledore let into the school. So if the logic is that he accepts the responsibility...

JN: But who did he let into the school knowingly that was worse than Snape? (MA: Umbridge.) (Audience laughs) Well, no, what did she- was she a Death Eater?

MA: Umbridge, right?

Audience Member: Yeah.

JN: She's a Ministry official. She was forced upon him.

MA: I get it, but he still let her into the school. So why not say, "Sure, I'll let her into the school. She has to make an Unbreakable Vow not to hurt my students."

JN: But she wasn't a Death Eater, or anything. She had no previous history of hurting or killing people.

MA: Her previous history of vicious actions towards half-breeds, of everything else that she's- I mean, she's not- she didn't come out of nowhere, we know her history. (JN: Mm.) I'm just saying that it's not- I just feel it's not Dumbledore to do- let's move on.