PotterCast 105: Bridgewater Transcript

Part 1 (0:00 - 18:30)

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Melissa Anelli (MA): Oh, check it out, check it out. Look, look, look, look, look. There's a red one. There's Gryffindor. Wait, wait, wait, Sue, it's a Hufflepuff microphone!

Sue Upton (SU): Ooh! Yay!

MA: Check it out! You get to be Ravenclaw.

John Noe (JN): That's totally inappropriate.

MA: Well, we have other people who can- (JN: Ooh.) (SU: Wee!) thank you guys, thank you for that wonderful intro. Borders.

JN: Where's Fred's mic? (MA: What?) Where's Fred's mic?

MA: See, (Audience laughs) not only does John have Fred, which, this is Fred.

JN: Hello, everybody.

MA: Sue now has Bernie the Beaver.

SU: It's a badger! (Audience laughs)

MA: Badger!

JN: It's a beaver.

SU: Oh! (Audience applauds)

MA: Whatever it is!

JN: Oh, gosh.

SU: Go Hufflepuff! Yay!

MA: And I had a lion that somebody gave me but I think Fred ate it. (JN: It's Mufraka.) His name is Mufraka. (SU: Mufraka.) But, we'll find him for another show. (JN: Yes.) (SU: Yeah.) Anyway, we have a special surprise. We haven't announced this because we were so up in the air about it- Oh, wow. You look really like Luna. Sorry. Right? (JN: Aw.) She's got a wand behind her ear and everything. (SU: Awesome.) I don't know how many wizard rock fans we have here today. (Audience cheers) (JN: Woo, woo, woo, woo.) (SU: Woo.) Well, the piano is not for John's, you know, opening solo number.

JN: I could do some tunes if you guys want.

SU: That'd be rocking.

MA: I know you could, but the piano is for our friends The Moaning Myrtles, who are here. (Audience cheers) (SU: Yay! Woo hoo!) (JN: Woo, woo, woo, woo.) They'll be playing after- it's somewhere in the middle, we'll figure it out. Anyway, welcome to Bridgewater, where it's really hard to drive. (Audience laughs)

JN: Yeah, just a little bit. (MA: Just a little.) We get a little lost.

MA: We have a couple of stories, first of all John. (JN: Fred's story?) How about your tooth?

JN: We're not gonna talk about that!

MA: Well, we should explain it!

JN: No, I'm gonna hold my mic up here, actually.

SU: No!

MA: John chipped his tooth off! (JN: Yeah.) This morning. (JN: It's so cute.) The rest of it is in his suitcase, so if he looks a little- (laughs) (JN: Hm. I know, anybody got any glue?) I mean, no. We haven't had time to go to the store.

SU: No! No toxic things. No toxic things.

JN: Anybody got any glue?

SU: No. No.

MA: It's only because we haven't had time to go to the store that he hasn't have crazy glue.

Audience Member: Did you talk to Mama Noe?

MA: I didn't talk to Mama Noe. (SU: That's true!) This is Mama Anelli, by the way, this is my Mom.

JN: Hello!

SU: Yay! (Audience cheers)

MA: The disembodied phone voice from the first LeakyMug.

SU: We love her. We love her.

JN: Oh, yeah!

MA: Anyway, so that's story number one. Story number two! We just came from...

JN: Our favorite place in the world.

SU: Oh, I don't have my cup.

JN: That is your cup! (MA: Chipotle.) Is that your cup? Oh, this is mine. Mm.

MA: I don't know how I let him convince me to go every single time.

JN: Oh come on, you had a good salad! Didn't you?

MA: I've been yelling the whole day. "You want to go to Chipotle! I don't want to go to chipotle! You want to go to Chipotle!"

JN: We have these free Chipotle cards we have to use! From, who was it this time? The lovely Alison wasn't it, from Phoenix?

SU: Yes it was!

JN: Thank you very much, Alison from Phoenix!

MA: I've been carrying them in my bag the whole trip and John's been yelling that we have to go to Chipotle. (JN: I know! Come on. What the hell?) And, you know.

SU: We do. We did! We finally found one!

MA: We did. We finally did, but, you know, like five minutes before the show starts. (JN: No.) "Let's go to Chipotle!" I'm like (makes sputtering noises) (JN: Hm.) And he said, "Don't worry about it! Don't worry about it! We'll make it!" (SU: Barely!) Just barely. (SU: Yeah.) Anyway, (JN: Hm.) so John's been moaning the whole trip every time we want to get food that's like fresh or organic, and (SU: Oh yeah!) (SU laughs) you know, he's been moaning. "Wh-what?!"

JN: Has anybody played the Order of the Phoenix video game yet?

MA: What are you doing with changing the subject?

SU: No! Don't change the subject!

JN: No, no, no, no, no. The very, very, very, very beginning of the game when they're teaching, what's the deal with trying to keep Molly from moaning all the time? (SU: Oh, yeah!) Have you guys played that yet? That's all they talk about! And maybe the people at home who have played the game, because you know. What the hell? (SU: I do!) It's always Sirius is like, "We have to repair these dishes before Molly starts moaning again." (Audience laughs) It's like what...(laughs)

SU: It's not Moaning Molly, it's Moaning Myrtle!

JN: It's horrible!

MA: It's very, very strange. (JN: Yeah.) Anyway, What did that have to do...?

JN: Before I forgot I had to mention it. Before I forgot.

SU: No, he's trying to change the subject off of organic.

MA: He threw me off! No, oh, right! Okay. (SU: Organic.) Because he's been, every time we want something fresh. You know, he starts complaining, "If you had a chemical that would make your favorite food bigger and better, why, what's wrong with that?" (Audience laughs) We're like, (JN: Exactly!) (SU laughs) "Don't you get it?" So Chipotle, his like temple of, you know, everything. We walk in and there's like signs everywhere, "We raise our chicken and beef with vegetarian feed, and all organically!" On the back of the cup, every cup we get has an organic story. And I'm just like, "Nyah, nyah!" (Audience laughs) (SU: Yeah. It was awesome.) It made me very happy.

JN: Mm. I don't mind that stuff. I just mind when I go grocery shopping and I want to buy groceries, I have to buy groceries that are like half already done, because people at Trader Joe's apparently can't cut up their own vegetables, and can't...

MA: No, no, no, no. Don't tell the story wrong. We got a packet, we decided to cook in Los Angeles, and we got a packet of pre-cut vegetables, and you know what he says? "It's such a waste of time to pre-cut your vegetables." (Audience laughs)

SU: Isn't it, it's the other way around.

JN: It's a waste of the cutter's time!

MA: It's the- you- no.

JN: It's a waste of the guy cutting the vegetable's time.

MA: Yeah, I'm worried about him. (Audience laughs)

JN: Way to not care about anybody but Melissa, Melissa.

MA: When I'm buying my vegetables, I'm just worried about Melissa. Okay. (JN: I guess.) (SU laughs) So, so anyway. Hi! Welcome to Bridgewater! No, not- us welcome to Bridgewater.

JN: Welcome us to Bridgewater. Thank you very much.

MA: I keep doing that!

SU: Hello, Bridgewater! Squee! (MA: You probably live here.) Yay! Yay for Jersey! (Audience cheers)

JN: This is Fred's first trip to Bridgewater. (SU: Yeah.) But he's only a few weeks old, after all. (Audience laughs)

SU: But you know, Fred. Fred has been around, man!

JN: He's seen the world probably (SU: He has!) more than most people I know.

MA: I'm just amazed that we're collecting stuffed animals and figurines. It's going to look like, you know, dollhouse in our van before the...

JN: There's no more room in the van for anything.

MA: Yeah. Oh! We have, if you've been listening to our early shows, we finally found our white markers. (SU: Yes! Yay!) So you can draw on our windows after the show.

JN: Yeah!

SU: Woo hoo! See, we encourage graffiti! Isn't that great? I love it. (MA laughs) Rule-breaking! (MA: Okay!) Hermione would be happy.

MA: We have business to attend to, guys! Big show!

JN: Do we have a little Harry Potter today?

MA: We do have some Harry Potter! Who here has been listening to our tour shows so far? (Audience cheers) If so, you know that every city we've gone to we have tried to determine which city, come July 22, looks like the smartest Harry Potter city around. And a lot of you here were in New York last night, so I don't know. This is interesting. (SU: Uh-oh.) (JN: Mm-mm.) Will you scream louder?

SU: Are you going to sway the vote? I don't know! Those guys over there might do it! I don't know.

MA: Okay, we have five questions for you and after Book Seven comes out we'll find out which city was the best. And recently everybody's been answering the same way. So if everybody's right on the last batch of questions we're going to have a big tie. (JN: Sweet. Huge tie.) Well, what's our first question, guys?

JN: This first question is our last question which is all about...oh, why don't I ever remember?

SU: I don't ever remember.

JN: Is it the Horcruxes or the Hogwarts?

MA: How come I'm the only one who can remember this?

SU: No! (Audience member replies) The veil!

JN and MA: The veil!

MA: They all always remember. We (SU: None of us stands a...) never do. Okay. (SU laughs) (JN: Sad.) (SU: Sad.) The veil.

JN: The veil. Who's going behind the veil? Anybody? Harry? Is Harry going behind the veil? If you think Harry's going behind the veil, make your noise. (Audience cheers)

Audience Member: Yeah!

SU: Ooh. Last night was (JN: If you think Harry is not gonna...) a little different.

JN: Die and not gonna go behind the veil?

SU: Now wait, wait, wait, wait! (MA: Some people think that...) But, it's not part of that. Ne, ne, ne!

MA: Sort of. Who thinks- okay, go ahead. Do the other one.

JN: If you think Harry's not going to go behind the veil. (Audience applauds) Hm.

MA: Who thinks he might do it aided by the Draught of the Living Death? Somebody said this (SU: Ooh.) to me and it made a lot of sense, that he (SU: I think so.) took a draught- draft? What is it? (Audience shout out pronunciations) English people with their spellings. (SU: Draft, draft...) D-r-a-u-g-h-t. (SU: Draught.) Draught (JN: Sounds like giraffe.) of Living Death. Yes John, it sounds just like giraffe.

JN: They're going to take the magical giraffe through the veil. It's gonna hit its head.

MA: (SU laughs) Did you even (SU: Like the-) hear that? (SU: No.) A magical giraffe. (JN: Yeah.) (SU: Oh, I didn't.) A magical giraffe. Giraffe.

SU: A magical giraffe? (Audience laughs)

JN: Yes. A really tall animal.

SU: Is he gonna like fly. Fly with them on like (MA: The Giraffe of Living Death.) on the Thestrals?

MA: I mean- (JN: Yes.) seriously.

JN: It's black (SU: But it could be...) and really cool...

SU: What if he (JN: And cloudy eyed.) was black and yellow? He could be the Hufflepuff giraffe.

JN: Oh, nonsense.

MA: Yes! (MA and Audience laughs)

JN: Number four! (MA laughs)

SU: The number four is- (JN: Yeah.) oh, is it on me?

MA: I'm not telling you guys. You figure it out. (SU: Oh.) (JN: Um...) Don't tell them.

JN: (whispers) Kids go back to school

SU: Oh! Will Harry go back to Hogwarts at class? (JN: For class.) At class. Will- okay, if you think that Harry and his fellow students will attend classes at Hogwarts, make some noise.

MA: No, no, just Harry.

SU: Oh, just Harry? Oh, dude. (MA: It's all we've been asking.) Will Harry (JN laughs) just- Will Harry attend classes at Hogwarts? If you agree, make some noise. (one clap)

JN: No one agrees.

SU: Silence. Crickets. Cheep, cheep, cheep.

JN: I don't think they heard you, Sue.

MA: That was like the pity clap. (Audience laughs) Like you felt bad for the questions. You're like...

SU: Wow. Hm. If you think that there will not be classes at Hogwarts- (MA: Well, no.) Oh. If Harry will not attend classes (MA laughs) at Hogwarts and become a disgrace and drop out. No. (Audience cheers loudly)

JN: See, the only problem I have with this is (SU: See...no.) that where is he just gonna up and decide that he's not gonna come back without telling anybody? If he's not going to tell McGonagall about the Horcruxes because Dumbledore said not to tell anybody, how is going to just going to say, "You know what? Screw it. I'm not going back. (MA: Well but Harry...) Hermione and Ron you can hang out or go back."

MA: Well Harry feels like it doesn't matter anymore. He's like, well this is my life now and that's it.

SU: I- well, I think he's going to go though. I really do, because I think he needs to find something. Maybe.

MA: I mean...

JN: You might as well go for a little bit and then if it's not his thing, like the Weasleys, he can go and make some fireworks, and duck out of there, you know? (Audience laughs)

MA: No, I don't think he's going to go. (SU: Really?) For him to say that at the end of Six and then go to school it's just sort of like...

SU: I don't want him to be not- What's he gonna get? Like a degree then magically? Like an honorary degree at the end?

MA: No, it just doesn't matter. (JN: Yeah.) You know? He...

SU: No, he's going to graduate from Hogwarts.

JN: I think anybody (MA: If he...) would hire him.

MA: Seriously. If he's gonna go and defeat Voldemort I think they're going to waive the whole GED of Hogwarts.

SU: Really?

JN: He'll get an honorary degree. (SU laughs)

MA: I mean, you know? I don't think that anyone's going to like go like, "Oh, well, I'd love to hire you but, by the way."

SU: But see, once (JN: Yeah, nice resume here.) Voldemort is toast, he can go back and graduate. I think that'll be a nice little part of the epilogue. You know, with him and his wife Ginny.

MA: I hope that once he saves the wizarding world, (SU: They'll get back together.) they'll give him an honorary diploma and just say, 'Here yo. Here you've earned it.'

JN: Pretty much.

SU: Well, okay. Mm. (Audience laughs)

MA: Okay, number three. Do I get to do number three?

SU: Yes!

JN: If you want.

MA: Gee, I wonder which one? Okay, I know.

SU: (laughs) She does, we don't.

MA: Is Harry a Horcrux? If you don't think Harry...wait, if you do think Harry is a Horcrux make noise now. (Some Audience cheers) If you don't think Harry is a Horcrux. (Audience cheers loudly)

JN: LOL.

SU: LOL. (laughs)

MA: That scream gets stronger in every city.

JN: It does.

SU: It does. In every city. Phew.

JN: Maybe they saw your blog this morning.

MA: Did you see the blog this morning? (SU: On Pottercast.com.) Yes? Yes? I had a thought and I don't know if it's going to hold up, but here's the thought about Harry totally not ever being a Horcrux. And I know you think he is. (JN: He is only a Horcrux on Tuesdays.) She's staring at me like, "Oh yeah?" (SU and Audience laugh) Okay, so. (SU: On Tuesdays.) (JN: Yes.) (laughs) God, what was it? Right! Okay. The main whole proponent of the Harry is a Horcrux theory is that this is what- this is why they have the mind connection, right? Harry is aware (JN: So when do they have the mind connection?) of Voldemort. Voldemort is aware of Harry because of this...they're both Horcruxes so they can feel each other, right? Well a Horcrux of Voldemort's was pretty active during- for a whole year. And Chamber of Secrets time in a conscience living person in the same way that Harry was. If not, Ginny, then just the diary itself being the Horcrux, being a living thinking thing. Voldemort wasn't aware of it, he had no idea that that Horcrux existed much less was destroyed. How could he have not had conscience awareness of that and yet have the connection between him and Harry be a main proponent. (JN: Hm.)Like, proof! How could it be proof if it didn't work for the other one? She's shaking her head at me. (Audience laughs) (laughs) But, but, but, I still believe it, so there! (laughs) (JN: Hurray!) Okay, number two.

JN: Number two! (laughs) Grubbly-Plank, live or die? (Audience laughs)

SU: Grubbly-Plank? No. You mean Harry.

JN: Oh.

MA: Grubbly-Plank for the win.

JN: Grubbly-Plank, okay. Number two. Mister Severus Snape, is he a very, very bad man?

SU: (as Bernard) He's a very bad man. I'm sorry. (Audience laughs)

JN: If you agreed with Bernard the Beaver make your noise here.

SU: It's a badger! (MA: Badger.) Badger, badger, badger. (Audience laughs)

JN: If you think Bernard is right, (SU: Snape is a very bad man.) and you think Snape is a very bad man, make your noise here. (Audience cheers) (SU: Oh, no.) If you agree with Fred and think that he is a trustable guy, and he's a friend of Harry's, and he's going to fight with the Order with everybody else, for the win, make your noise here. (Audience cheers louder)

SU: Watch out.

MA: Very similar these questions. (SU: I think so. We'll see.) We're going to have a twelve-city tie at the end. (JN: Yes.) We'll have to present Harry Potter keys to every city, sort of. Keys to the city, but that didn't work. Okay, so. (Audience laughs)

SU: Big roll, this is the number one. (Makes drumming noise)

MA: Number one, go for it.

JN: Number one, number five.

SU: Will Harry live or die? If you think Harry will live, make some noise! (Audience cheers) And now for the ultimate and sad panda question, if you think that Harry will die, (MA: Please. No.) make some noise please. (Audience cheers)

MA: Aw, look at you, this one over here. (SU: Aw, see?) Horcrux girl. (laughs)

SU: I just don't see how people could cheer for death. I just...I still don't get that.

MA: Well, when you- because when you think Harry is a Horcrux, you have to also think he's going to die.

SU: It just seems so...

JN: What if there were some creatures that were capable of sucking souls out of people and other things.

SU: Oh, what could those creatures be?

MA: They're called Dementors!

JN: Ooh! Dementors!

MA: However, they already had a big fat purpose.

JN: Well, no (MA: You know, purpose?) it's not like we heard about them doing anything out of the ordinary in the beginning of Half-Blood Prince. (SU: No.) Like breed unexpectedly.

SU: (laughs) Look at our blank faces!

MA: What does that have to do with anything?

JN: Well, say that we're done with dementors, they kind of come up out of nowhere in The Other Minister chapter, in Half-Blood Prince.

MA: We're not done with them, but I think they've had a big fat purpose and we're not going to be like (JN: So why bring them back up?) "Oh, by they way, they're also useful for sucking out souls out of Horcruxes".

JN: Well, maybe they take part-time gigs. Horcrux helpers.

MA: We'll see.

SU: Horcrux helpers, I like that.

MA: Okay, we have for you guys a Canon Conundrum today, (JN: We do?) and we're hoping someone can help us get to the bottom of this one, it's a big one and it's Sue's...

JN: Arabella Figg. (SU and MA: No.) No?

MA: She's not a conundrum, she's just a squib.

SU: No, it's mister, it's the brother- the mysterious brother of my favorite character Sirius Black, the mysterious R.A.B.

MA, JN and SU: Ooh!

SU: What was he doing in that cave? What did he do with that locket? Who told him about that locket?

JN: How long ago did he do this?

SU: How long ago did he do it?

JN: How much was Voldemort aware of what he was doing?

SU: Right. And did- (MA: Did Voldemort he kill him.) actually kill him. It was unknown to Sirius, why?

JN: What was his favorite food? (SU: Pizza.) That one's solved.

MA: Sure, okay. conundrum solved. No he didn't like- okay. Not that we can really discuss. I don't know, we sort of going to toss this one out there because it's huge- it's basically just asking his whole back story.

SU: So okay, say he figured out this whole thing out of- Bellatrix, none of those guys could figure out the whole thing about the Horcrux, how did R.A.B. supposedly just a sixteen year old kid, right? (MA: Was he sixteen?) Was he? (JN: What?) I don't know- young kid...

MA: Run of the mill Death Eater...

JN: Really?

SU: Right.

MA: Who apparently, according to Jo, was sort of like Draco (SU: Right.) and then he got in a little too deep, (SU: Right.) was attracted to the allure- ha ha! He was attracted to the allure- he was attracted to the whole idea of being a Death Eater and having all that power, but then once he realized it meant actually killing people and doing what Death Eaters do, he chickened out.

SU: Yes, but how did he end up with part of Voldemort's soul? Out of anybody that figures it out, gets that locket, how did he figure that out? That's what I don't get. How did he beat...

JN: Do you think he's even working alone, do you think he is the lone dissenting Death Eater or could he be working with a few others who are like minded?

MA: You know, I was just going to- you took it right out of my mouth- she said he found out from Bellatrix. Bellatrix, if you remember, in the first- in the second chapter- Book Two, Spinner's End chapter. (SU: Right, right.) She says something like "In the past, the Dark Lord as entrusted me with his most precious" and then there's those tell tell dashes that happened every time J.K. Rowling is trying to hide something. (SU: Yeah.) She gets cut off. And I think that she knew about the Horcruxes and somehow R.A.B. got it from her.

SU: Well, or could- would have Kreacher told her? Because would Kreacher go back and forth at that point to like Bellatrix's house?

MA: Oh! Remember, remember when in the beginning of Book Six- I just had a thought, I'm sorry- remember when in the beginning of Book Six, Voldemort's apparently annoyed at Bellatrix? Angered and they're not close anymore, whatever? (SU: Yeah.) What if Voldemort found out about the fake Horcrux and, (SU: That's why...) in the end of Book Six, realized that it must have been Bellatrix who let the secret go to R.A.B. (SU: Oh, that'd be cool.) That's why he's mad at her.

JN: Wait, when was he mad at her?

MA and SU: In the beginning of Book Six.

MA: They're talking about it. In Spinner's End.

JN: I thought you said...

MA: So in the beginning of Book Six...

JN: When would he have found it out about having a fake Horcrux?

MA: Between books Five and Six.

Audience Member: But no one knew that. (inaudible)

JN: Yeah.

MA: Yeah, but that doesn't mean that Voldemort didn't know that that was a fake locket in there. (Audience Member: inaudible) (JN: Yeah.) There's that too. I don't know.