GOF, 24 Revisit: Dim-Witted Goat Charmer

On Episode 456 we discuss...

→ Aberforth's Goat Connection and Family Dynamics
→ Hagrid's Self-Loathing and Avoidance
→ Love Knows no Species
→ Lions Don’t Have Babies with Humans
→ Contrasts in Themes: Purity vs. Scandal
→ Draco is a grade-A git
→ Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Character Development


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/alohomora-the-original-harry-potter-book-club--5016402/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
This is episode four hundred and fifty six of Alo
Mora for June fourteenth, two thousand and twenty five. Welcome

(00:39):
everyone to another episode of Alohimorra, the fandom's original Harry
Potter book Club.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm Alison Siggard, I'm Shamni Willis, and I'm Tracy Dunstan
and I'm excited to introduce our guest, Ashley Brownwell, who
is also one of my favorite people on the planet.
My cousin. Hi.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Helloy, we would say that I know we need to
get that in bo oh man.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
That's introduction.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you for having Yeah, tell us your house here.
If you know your wand and all that, I'll let job.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, so I don't remember wand I'm so sorry since
I looked back. And I am definitely a griffindor sometimes
I like to call myself a gros claw.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Wo.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yeah. So I'm just excited to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Happy he you, thanks for being on here. Yeah, and
today we're going to talk about Goblet of Fire Chapter
twenty four, Rita Skeeter's scoop. The last time we talked
about this was all the way back in episode sixty
two called cosmic playback from December twenty second, twenty thirteen,
with host kat Eric Michael and guest Jenna Marie from

(01:42):
Hogwarts Radio.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Oh, it was almost four hundred episodes ago.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Four hundred wow, so crazy when you say it like that,
like wow, yeah. But one of the reasons we've been
able to stick around so long is because of our
wonderful patroons. And we could not be here without the
sponsorship today of mister David but on Patreon, So thank
you so much, Thanks David. Our Patreon offers a lot

(02:11):
of great works, including ad free episodes, monthly meetups with hosts,
and so much more. And our bork started just three
dollars a month, and you can head over to patreon
dot com satchelohelmor to become a sponsor. If you're looking
for a non monetary way to support the show, you
can subscribe, save and share this episode or the entire
show with all of your friends and your favorite Harry
Potter communities. We always appreciate the support of every single

(02:32):
one of our listeners, however you're able to do so,
and thank you again, Thank you David, Thank you everyone.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
Who should do it.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Chapter revisit.

Speaker 5 (02:49):
Gott Fuhgrid.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Chapter twenty four. Hagrid, that's enough, Ridoskeeter scoop out here.
You'll just be oh, hello, master, all right, are you
ready to do this?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
You're ready?

Speaker 4 (03:11):
So this chapter. Now that the fun and teenage drama
of Christmas and the Yule Ball is over, the winter
settles in. Everyone meanwhile is hiding secrets or generally being horrible.
An inflammatory article about Haggard's background comes out, causing Haggard
to retreat from everyone. Bagman is being shady with some
goblins and encouraging Harry to cheat. Victor Crumb is diving

(03:34):
into the frozen lake, and Cedric is telling Harry to
take a bath with the egg, but Harry's pride is
keeping him from taking any help. Draco Malfoy is going
about crowing about his own bullying, while Rita Skeeter is
going around trying to ruin as many lives as possible. However,
Dumbledore is here to remind Hagrid and everyone that bigotry
does no good, and carrying on despite what others think

(03:57):
is the best way to go.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
It's like you're a writer or something that was really good.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
A little.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Reason was hard for me. I was writing it, and
I was like, I don't know what's happening, right.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
That's kind of an odd chapter. It's it's not really
like action backs, so there's not really a lot of
action words you can use here.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah, it really mostly is just kind of tying some
threads together and setting up some future things and kind
of establishing a few character moments. And it's kind of
like it's one of those like piecemeal chapters that's really
just like stitching certain things together, which is interesting. I
do have to give a shout out to Hermione and

(04:39):
her use of Sleekysy hair potion, which listen, what curly
girls we've been wanting since two thousand, give it to me.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Why this came out?

Speaker 6 (04:53):
Okay, that's when we found out about it, and we
were all like, please sign me up, especially back in
the twenty and twenty tens, when like.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
Straight hair was the thing.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Straight.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
You've never tried to straighten curly naturally curly hair, my friends.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Bone straight with no build in it whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Oh my gosh, like getting a pearl curl, but that's it, yep.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
And you always had like one side that there was
always going to be a bump, and you were like
going over it with that straightener like seven hundred times,
and it never came out the second any kind of
moisture came in contact. It was just frizz city. Oh
it was bad, bad bad times.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Flash back way speaking a bad times.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Speaking of bad times. Yeah, Hermione and Ron have had
a row that they were ignoring, which I just laughed
because I was like, look at you kids, you're so
in love, you're so in denial. Because they've argued about
Hermione going to the ball crumb. It just makes me
laugh every time.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
So and we actually we just watched the movie and
every time the Yule ball scene comes up where Hermione's
like storming out the end of the ball, She's yelling
at everybody, and then there's that one random girl in
the steps crying, and I always think, I wonder what
happened to her.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
The drama, it truly is though. It's like eggs, just
so much teenage eggs, young.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Love, a teen sting of young love.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
But I love that in particular is like they're they're
acting very polite towards each other. I'm just like, you're
so in denial, you're in love.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
They're already like it's like a married couple already exactly.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
But Harry has something more important to talk about, and
that is this news they've learned about Hagrid, which, as
I was reading through it is very interesting. Obviously we
learned actually that Hagrid is half giant. In the chapter
before Hermione directly right away calls out, Oh, it's just bigotry, right,
anybody who has something against it is just bigotry. But

(07:18):
Ron seems kind of unconvinced, and I was thinking about it,
and I was like, in some ways though, they are
both right. I mean, we see in Order of the
Phoenix that giants can be incredibly destructive and dangerous, but
we've also seen things where like if you kind of
leave them alone, they're fine, right, So there's a lot
of nuance. And so I'm wondering, do we think the

(07:41):
reaction people give to this is it really just purely bigotry?

Speaker 2 (07:45):
I think so, because like Voldemort's evil, he does bad things,
but humans do bad things, wizards do bad things. So
it's like it seems silly to me to be like, well,
they're all bad.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
It's very much so propaganda. Okay, yeah, but does it
matter that they're like a different species of some sort
that seems to be by nature more for like lack
of a better word, like threatening to humans. Like I
don't know, like it like it feels to me like,
you know, like people are naturally afraid of like lions,

(08:15):
because that's like.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
You know, but lions don't have babies with humans, you
know what I mean. So it's like it they''s true, okay,
enough to have a kid with them, and it's.

Speaker 4 (08:24):
Like, okay, okay, yeah, that's a good point. Though I
have many lions don't have babies.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
I'm trying to get past that, Like I'm trying to
process that one, like hmm, okay.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
We'll get there.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, we'll get there.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
I think that well. I think their size makes it
bagage difference, because I think the bagotry comes from people
just assuming that they're like these terrible beings because they're
so big, and like you just said, for one of
them to essentially mate with human, then that can't be
necessarily true for all of them them. That's true unless

(09:01):
it was some kind of a weird like hostage situation
where like oh's mom like snatches dad or something. I mean,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Oh, I'm sorry, Shamany has this like fancic in her head.
I just feel it that that's like disturbing.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Now I don't even want to write that that's disturbing,
like the whole thing just now.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
So anyway, well, what's interesting that we know, I mean,
at this point, we note that the numbers of giants
are dwindling too, right, yeah, and the numbers are willing
because it's at the hands of wizards and windsard community,
which I find interesting, is it?

Speaker 4 (09:42):
I thought, I guess there's some of that. I thought
there too. They've also well I think there's that, and
I think it also says like, well, I mean it
goes back to it, right because they talk about how
they started warring among themselves because their territories were being smaller. Okay,
you're right, Okay, yeah, it goes back to that. Sorry, no, no, no,
it's just that's my point.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
It's just it's interesting that we kind of get to
this point hright now, and where it's just like it's
turning back on the Hagrid and it's just.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
Like yeah, yeah, But of course Harry has other worries,
including this egg clue that he has to solve, and
I just I laughed a little bit at this one
because it is one of those moments that is just
so perfectly teenage brain, right, because Harry's like, well, Cedric

(10:31):
did this and he said this, but I'm not gonna
listen to Cedric because Cedric's walking around holding hands on
the show and like, oh why would I listen to him?
And it's just so fourteen.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
So ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
I love it. I love it, right, so.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Ridiculous, like, sir, you can die. Take that.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
Come on, this is right like peak teenage eggs. And
I feel like that I just kind of grabs us
into the you know, our main characters are fourteen fifteen
at this point.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
It's sad.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
It's incredible, it really is, and I think it's one
of those things that I mean, as a teenager, to
some degree, you also recognize that this is stupid, but
you're also like, yeah, he's right now. And then you're
becoming an adult and you're like, oh my gosh, do.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
You think that like the older kids would do the
same thing like Cedric and floor.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, because your brain isn't fully developed
until you're like twenty five. Okay, she's got a point.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Even when Harry came to give Cedric the help, he
was kind of hesitant too, except so and he wasn't
even like dating anybody that Cedric like as far as
we know. So maybe it's just like the teenage Maybe
it's a teenage guy thing too, like the guy the
male tyre.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
For sure.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
Absolutely, yeah, I mean we see older kids do this
all the time, right, Like as much as I love him,
my heart and soul, Oliver would kind of does this
all the time, right where he's like, you beat me
by one thing in quidditch, I'm gonna never speak to
anyone related to you again over So it definitely it's
definitely just one of those things I think of like

(12:13):
just natural kind of teenage competition and trying to figure
things out. And it's so funny.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
To me stubbornness because that was just so much stubbornness.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Thinking that this could be one of the reasons why
they don't let younger kids do the try with a tournament.
But maybe not.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
I mean, there's probably there's definitely something to that too
as well, right, Like I think when you're a little
bit older, maybe you start to see it a little
bit more and you're like, Okay, maybe that is stupid,
but they're all kids. This whole tournament. We've said this
so many times, this whole tournament is so messed up
children doing. I don't care if you're seventeen, you're still

(12:50):
a child.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
Can you like put yourself in their place when you
were seventeen. Imagine having to go out when by a
dragon or swim in a lake with all of these
creatures and go through this, mate, that's terrifying. There's no way.
There's no way.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
I think I would have gotten to the dragons, and
I would have just been like, I give up, especially
if I had no warning. I'd be like, yeah, no,
you got to come back to a teenage judgment. That's true.
That's yeah, because I can't walk away. And also the embarrassment,

(13:27):
like if you backed out, you'd never live that down.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Wait, all three of you are Gryffindor's right.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
I'm like, I'm a Gryffindor, but I'm not that kind
of gryffin door abolutely.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
I'm not gonna lie. I probably would have been interested
back in the day.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
I mean yeah, well, back in the day, I probably
would have been It would have been more the embarrassment
more than anything.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
For me.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I think you would have had to go through with
it just because.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Yeah, like I would have been scared to pieces, especially
if I didn't have any warning. I would have just
been like, oh heck no. But then I would have
been like, I will never lift this down, like I'm
gonna die either way. Here, so I cry, looking somewhat
heroic and looking like then looking like a coward. Okay,
here we go.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
This is the way, Like I feel like a maze.
The maze is okay, Like I could maybe handle the maze.
It's like it's the whole fire breathing and possible of
being burnt to a crisp kind of thing that, yeah,
I'm not interested in that.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
Swimming into the lake gives me a little bit of
pause too.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Actually I can't swim, so.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
I mean I love swimming, but maybe just me personally too,
because I wear contacts that like don't get the water
near my.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Like you, but what if you what if you get
picked and you're like me and you can't swim? What
do you do? Like you just tell them mom, hey
I can't swim. I can't do this one, Like, are
you just disqualified or like, what happens?

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Same problem? I'd I mean, she's gonna die, that's fine,
that's cool.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
Let me up there. I was gonna say, could you
like use your wand to propel yourself? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (15:11):
I interesting the fatwork. I'm just not doing this contest.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Tracy's like I'm a ravenclaw out. She's overgot about this.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
No, she's giving us all the reasons why we shouldn't
do it, and all the prob the probable outcomes for
what will happen if we go and do this.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
And meanwhile the rest of us are like, sure, sounds fun.
I don't know, this sounds kind of dodgy. I can't
be embarrassed, that's it.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
That's what it would come down to, you terrified, But
that pride would be like, you know what, yes, right
or die? Dangerous situations a care of magical creatures class.
We're usually chaos and zeus, but today it's not so bad.

(16:04):
And this is actually where we get the rita article
from Draco, which was really kind of surprising to me
that Hermione had not actually already seen this article because
she subscribes to the prophet correct and she gets it
every day. Yes, so it seems kind of odd to
me that she hadn't already seen it.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
Does she get it every day at this point? Does
that happen later?

Speaker 3 (16:26):
That's what I was trying to remember. Oh maybe later.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
I think it's an order because they have that conversation
and Harry's like, why do you still get that rag
and she's like, it's best to know what the enemy's saying, right,
I think it's in order.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
I don't think she's getting it ready sense keeping tabs
on it after the.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
Bad Yeah, and so far Rita hasn't. I mean, Rita's
just released the one terrible article, not multiple and so
maybe she was like it was a one off. She
hasn't quite gotten to that point yet.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, maybe that's it.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
But st Yes and Care of Magical Creatures today is
being taken by one professor grubbly Plank, who honestly, I
got to give it up for her. Okay, in several ways.
A the way she kind of smacks Harry down when
Harry's like, we're taggard and she's like, that's none of
your business, and he's like it is my business and
she's like, no, it's not. Because honestly, Harry does get

(17:27):
special treatment from just about everyone right, and she very
much treats him just like, no, you are a child,
you do not need to be an adult business right now,
which is real. And it's also interesting because as I
was thinking that, I was like, I don't think Grubley
Plank ever actually like acknowledges who Harry is at any point.

(17:49):
She just kind of like takes it in her stride
and treats him like a normal kid, which is fascinating
to me. I'm good for him, yeah, no, it's good
for him and also good for her, like be humbled
a little bit. Yeah yeah, But I just I just
found that fascinating because I feel like, I mean, everyone
right has some sort of reaction, but I don't think
she ever does. I think she's just like Potter, sit

(18:13):
down and shut up.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
She's like, I'm here to do a job. We're going
to teach this class. Let's go. I don't care who
you are. Just speak quiet.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Yeah. I do love you.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
I love your point where you're like, do you just
you know who Harry is? It's like, do you know
who I am?

Speaker 4 (18:28):
You know who I am? Do you know who my
father is?

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Oh my gosh, that would be Draco.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
I was gonna say, that's what she says to Draco
and she's like, no, I don't. She's like, no, I don't.
I really don't care. She does, though, teach a fantastic
lesson about unicorns. I did though. When I was looking
through this through kind of a teacher perspective, I was like, wait,

(18:55):
how effective is this lesson though? Because the boys have
to stay back the whole time, Like, how much can
they really learn it? There's almost this sense of inequity
in this lesson in that the girls get to go
up and actually like touch and be close to the unicorn,
and the boys like can't even get any close, which

(19:16):
is which is just interesting to me.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
I was a little off putting to me too. It's
kind of like, oh, well, what are they like, what
are they supposed to do? Can they even because at
one point she asked them if they're paying attention? But yeah,
I mean, what can they really be paying aging to you?
I imagine she's talking and giving some information about the unicorns,
but it's more of a hands on learning situation, which

(19:40):
they don't really get.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
So yeah, what makes it, I mean, what makes it
a great lesson? Out of curiosity.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
I think just because it is such a fascinating creature, right,
it is a fascinating creature. She does seem to have
a lot of knowledge about it. I mean even Hermione
says at the end, she's like, I never knew, and
then Harry cuts her off, right, so she does. She
does kind of go into really the details. It seems
that she is knowledgeable in how to treat these creatures, right,

(20:07):
how to capture a unicorn in an in an ethical way,
and kind of like do this. So I think I
think it is. And also like when you think of
magical creatures, a unicorn is going to be a big one, right.
It's literally the national animal of Scotland.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
So was it really?

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
I did not know that.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yep, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
My next question is like why do you know that?
But that's.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
Maybe you already do that, Tracy.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
I did because it was on the signs, like it said,
like they have like the little.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
Oh you're right, huh yeah, just another so it's just
the same. It's a really always Oh gosh, I haven't
been to Scotland and way too long. Now you got
me one to go to Scotland.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
All right, let's go pack it up shows over.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Our podcast trip Sture be in Scotland next year.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yes, there we go.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
We're actually going to Hogwarts back to Unicorns. Yeah, so
it is a really good lesson, you know, like it's
a really kind of clear, not easy to follow necessarily,
but like foundational lesson.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
It's informative and not chaotic. Nobody is risking getting set
on fire or eaten or but it's.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
Also freaking cool because it's a freaking unicorn. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Do you feel like though it's kind of a way
to laying the girls. I feel like in the other
classes usually the boys get all the attention, so maybe
it's her way of, like, yes, letting because Bravadi and
Lavender are kind of seen as silly, so I feel
like they don't really get it well the diminution kind of,
but overall it's mostly focused on the Draco and Harry
and all that.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
I mean there very much is that bias in education, Well,
it's kind of shifting. For a long time, there was
very much a bias of like in certain subjects, especially
like stem subjects. It's like girls can't can't do this?
Those were major air quotes. If you can't see the video,
and so it almost is kind of the flip of that.

(22:11):
Though there was also then the the you know there
used to be like oh, girls take home mech and
boys take like auto shop and stuff, you know, and
you can't really cross. Yeah. Yeah, it's a little weird.
I think it would have been more helpful maybe if
the boys weren't so far back. But I think part
of the reason they're so far back is because they're

(22:31):
having this conversation and they're not paying attention, because I
think if they were, they were closer, they probably would
have gotten a little bit more out of it. I
don't know, I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
There's been a lot of like thematic contrasts too, like
up to this point. I mean, like you know, you
have like truth versus since sensationalism, you have like, yeah,
the unicorn iver says purity and grace all that, and
then boom, like this scandal of Hagrid.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
It's just it's interesting. Oh, you're right, it really is,
because we do have well and it's also kind of
interesting if you think about like unicorns prefer females, right
that it is, though, who wrote this terrible article that's
that's thrown all this into chaos. It was Rita, right,

(23:17):
who's really kind of done the opposite of that. So
that is a very interesting contrast there to be looking at.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
But of course burther down into self work versus that's
true all that.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
So yeah, yeah, so the article. But let's talk about
this article because here it comes.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Oh, the article disgustingly biased, this gross, for lack of
a better term, art, like I can't even he Obviously
Rita has no kind of fact check or no kind
of editing staff or anything. It's just her and it's
so unfair that she's able to just go out publish

(23:56):
whatever she wants. There's no sources, there's no there's no nothing.
And when I was reading it this time, it made
me think about, do you just remember the National Acchoir. Yeah,
that's what this reminds me of. It's like Rita is
the Wizarding World version of the National Acchoir, putting out
these sensational stories, getting everybody in an uproar, and knowing

(24:18):
people are going to read it because the headline is
just so inflammatory and just or shame.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
That's something that's so interesting to me about the Daily
Prophet is that at different times we see it as
both like a reputable news source but also not right,
it's like a combination of reputable news source and like tabloid,
which I wonder sometimes I'm like, is it because it's

(24:47):
it's in some ways it's kind of like the state
sponsored media of the Wizarding World, right, and there are
in Britain. I mean, it's it's come out in the
past few years that like the royal family sometimes make
certain deals with publishers and with publications to bury one story,
but then kind of throw somebody else under the bus

(25:09):
to bury a certain story, you know, And so I'm
wondering if things like that are happening in the daily profit, right,
Like is that also going on? Because we do though
also see the very important like actual journalism that happens
with them, and so it's it's a very weird thing
like where this actually is supposed to fall?

Speaker 2 (25:29):
That's what I like?

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Is this from department to department? How what is the
publication process? Does she have to submit her article to
anyone or does she just go straight from she writes
the article and publishes. Is there anyone else who sees
this before it's put in the profit?

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Okay? Such power?

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, right, No, Yeah, it seems like certain people and
the wisdom worldly were writers Like if they're like get
to a level, it's like they can just do whatever
they want published, which is seems weird. But does England
have you know, how we have the New York Times
or I guess the wall sheet journal ends like the
higher standard of like newspapers. Did they have that or
is it always just like tabloid mixed with.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
I mean, you've got you've got the BBC, you've got
the Guardian, you've got the Times of London. Right, You've
got different ones as well, but even those sometimes will
put out a story that's a little like questionable. You know.
I wonder if it's a difference between like like facts
and like news reporting versus like editorials, Like do you

(26:32):
think Rita kind of falls more on the editorial side.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
It seems like it because there are no facts here.
This is all strictly speculation.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
You maybe she's more of an opinion like that column
as opposed to the actual journalism.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
But like people take her stuff as like gospel, right,
I mean, and she writes these books like profiling people,
so it I don't know, it's so weird.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
Well, there's a comment that she makes with in the article,
stating that I can't remember the exact line now, but
it's along the lines of Hackrid being a giant though
claiming to be a pure blood. And I'm thinking to myself,
have we ever seen Hackrid claim to be a pure blood?

(27:20):
Luthis never said anything about his lineage or anything, but
I can recall I think, so, where's she getting that from? Again?
More just random language thrown out there.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Plus it's weird, like who goes around saying, Hi, I'm Tracy,
I'm a pure blood?

Speaker 4 (27:39):
Like why would it come up? Yeah? I mean, I
don't think he did. It doesn't seem like him at all.
I bet that was something that would just cause even
more scandal for certain of Rita's readers, right of, like,
how dare he you know Lucy's Malfoy, Right, I don't

(28:02):
think he did.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
I don't think that doesn't seem like Hagrid style to me, Like,
I don't And anyone who was reading this who knows
Hagrid would know that you would never say that.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
But yeah, do we want to talk about the parentage
now or later?

Speaker 4 (28:18):
When? Yeah, I think we've got you. I mean, I
gotta say, we got to say question. Yeah, it's the
like it's the like perennial question of.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
How, how and why?

Speaker 2 (28:44):
What? Oh?

Speaker 4 (28:48):
The question? Yeah, I mean, on on the on the
on the simplest level here, the thing that I'm always like,
what is how did reader reader, how did Reta either
come up with or find the name of Hagrid's mother?

(29:09):
Because he doesn't say it that we know of, right,
I mean, so like, where the heck is this coming from?

Speaker 2 (29:15):
And that's a bertificate somewhere know much about his dad
at this point, right than he Yeah?

Speaker 4 (29:23):
We yeah, So I'm I just I'm like, did she
make that up? Did she?

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Huh?

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Well? I imagine like probably when you got a expelled
that was a big deal, so they probably wrote something
about it then. And then maybe his dad had to
register him somewhere, like took him from his what whatever
happened that made him be born. That's a good point.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
Yeah, no, I mean, but it also sounds like, Okay,
this is the other kind of weird thing. It also
sounds like his father had like no shame or reservations
about how this.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Went down, right, Like I have so many questions, Like I.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
Like to point it out. Wasn't his dad to described
as like being short as well?

Speaker 5 (30:16):
So like, yes, they talked about when they look at
the picture of him, Yeah, when when they when they
look at the picture of him, Hagrid, he says, is
probably about seven or eight feet.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
And his dad is sitting on his shoulder.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
A tiny little man. He's described as.

Speaker 4 (30:33):
Well, Yeah, and maybe that's just in comparison.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Comparison, but if Hagard is seven.

Speaker 7 (30:38):
Or eight feet and he can sit on his shoulder
and his mom, let's just say that, it really doesn't.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
But I mean, wow, okay, because I'm just thinking, like
she's a full like a full grown guy giantess? Is that?
Is it?

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Giant?

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Giant?

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Like what?

Speaker 3 (31:06):
And what we know of Gropp he's not very verbal,
I guess we'll say so, No, why did they communicate?

Speaker 4 (31:21):
And I honestly think the only way this happened is
somehow Hagrid's dad worked with giants somehow and that's how
he got to this place. But yeah, was it like
an experiment? Were they actually in love?

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Oh my gosh, it like a mistake? Does magic involved
in some way?

Speaker 4 (31:49):
There's something more sinister going.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
On here, Like oh what if like maybe he made
himself with magic, like maybe he grew himself to her
size or shrinker to his size.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Temporary alfon's face.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
I'm trying that's the way the way I almost said,
that's what she says, like three times.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
You could go.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
I was trying to go in the direction of his
whole self.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
So I mean that's a good point though, that's that's
a good reason. And I could see that happening if
you can do that.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
Yeah, because I think the average giant I think they
say somewhere is like twenty feet tall, right, so that's
literally like four times his size.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Yeah, there had to be some magic involved. There had
to be, Like.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
But why because magic?

Speaker 4 (32:51):
Also like did it take nine months? Didn't take longer?
Like what's happening?

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Like ooh, interesting question.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
And Haggard says his mom like disappears pretty early in
his life, right, that she's not really maternal, So like
was that just something his dad said? Like did that
really happen? Was his mom ever really there?

Speaker 3 (33:17):
Huh?

Speaker 4 (33:18):
What went dad? Did she know she was pregnant? That's
another question.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Yeah, Like suddenly there's this this many giant and then
she's just like okay, that's great and then leaves. Is
that what happened?

Speaker 4 (33:35):
Was it more like an IVF situation?

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Like whoa what if? What if? Okay, so what if?
Like he was some kind of scientist, like a wizard
scientist or whatever, and it is an experiment. So he
takes like her giant eggs and goes and grows them
in a laboratory.

Speaker 4 (33:55):
But like that's almost just as bad.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
It is bad. That would explain why she's not around.
But why But again there's the why. But maybe he
was doing like a I don't know, maybe he wanted
to see what would happen when you cross breed humans
and giants. I don't know why anybody would need to
know this, But was was.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
He trying to like, oh, maybe we can have peace
between the two if we like can have a child
that's of both. Like it's like a medieval European marriage
kind of thing where it's like now we're in a
now we're in an alliance because we're all related. I

(34:38):
didn't work.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
I just because we have grop it is truly, she's
eternal enough with that sort of but not I don't
know why I mean.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
But but it sounds like like that's not really the
way giants go in the first place anyway, right, Like,
it sounds like giants aren't particularly affectionate, just like as
a species from what we know about them, right, I
feel like as a view or two or like, because
we're seeing this from in respect them or the Wizard
of the World. I'm just saying, you know what, I've

(35:18):
never looked up before. I've never looked up if this
is you know, this is a thing in mythology.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
Giant in humans and giants and humans.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
Yeah. Yeah, And Taeus of Greek mythology is the son
of Poseidon and Gaya. But that's a titan and a god.
I don't know if that's cyclops. I should have looked
this up. I should have looked this up sooner. I mean,
I think you get some of that Norse mythology as well. Yeah,
I should have looked this up sooner. Oh yeah, because

(35:50):
in some tellings Loki is half giant. Yeah, so I
guess there is like mythological standing for that.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
They explain why, and have they ever.

Speaker 4 (36:01):
Really say how? I would have to do more research
on that one. Or Richard is a book talk.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Leave our listeners to do our book talk.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Yeah, listeners, you you tell us what's going down here,
because otherwise it's gonna keep me up at night.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Oh, so many.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
Propaganda speaking of giants.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Yeah, and the hate inciting sensationalism in this article where
she goes and talks about the previous actions of the giants,
what they did back then, and how they were so
violent and just unnecessary, completely unnecessary.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Yeah, it is, and it is so obviously propaganda, but
it's also very good propaganda because obviously bits of it
are based in truth. Right. I'm sure there have been
issue with wizards and giants before, you know, and so
playing on those fears builds really good propaganda, right. It's

(37:08):
just yeah, no again, literacy is a real skill people.
It needs to be developed, and that's really what this
is talking about here. Stop having your AI read everything
for you, because guess what, it can't determine what's propaganda.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
It's not like people are using that.

Speaker 4 (37:24):
For the day. Also, yes, learn media literacy, learn how
to spot propaganda. Yeah, it's yeah, it's real bad.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
It's just it's the whole thing. And Draco, it just
it makes my head hurt the way the fact he's
so insufferable and he's like he's honestly that snot nosed
kid that you just want to snatch up. And yeah,
the comment where he says the parents will be worried,

(38:02):
but Haggard is eating their kids like that was completely
uncalled for. Obviously, if Haggard hasn't eaten kids by now,
he's not. He's not into that. He's not into eating kids.
But oh why why Draco.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
Because he's a great a get by why and he's
prick and he sucks, and so everybody who's in love
with him, like, get yourselves together, grow up. We love
Tom Felton, we don't love.

Speaker 8 (38:30):
Draco the actor of the character, yes, like he's he's
horrible and he hates Hagrid because Haggard doesn't take Malfoy's
bs and he calls him out on it.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
Right.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
There was also the Buckbeak incident, which was entirely right.
There was the fact that Lucy has tried to get
rid of Haggard in Chamber of Secrets and failed. Okay, Plus,
Haggard is super loyal to Dumbledore and to Harry, and
so of course our Strico does everything to try and
hurt Harry at any possible turn because he's a grade
A get Okay, and like, yeah, no, he's Oh.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
My gosh, I mean when you revisit this as an
adult though, because like, yes, I still think he's a drink.
But like going back and like kind of like reviewing
this from an adult perspective, I'm like, this poor kid,
he never had like a proper adult figure that I
really cared or like you know, yeah, and I feel

(39:33):
like he would take that any opportunity to take that
out on someone like Hagrid, because like, I mean, he
doesn't have that accepting the presence in his life from
an adult.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
So wow, that's so fair, that's so nice. You gave
him his benefit of the doubt.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
I mean, I still think he's a jerk. Still, he's
a jerk. No, but but I mean it doesn't excuse
him being a jerk. But it doesn't. Yeah, right, it's
I mean his I mean, we all know Draco's upbringing
is terrible, right like this, it's a real bad cycle there,

(40:11):
which explains it. Understand you're like a yeah, but it
doesn't excuse him. Like listen, listen, considering how good Draco's
kid turns out, Like yeah, Rago, you can you can
knock it down. Because Scorpius is a full on cinnamon.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Roll and do better.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Draco, do better?

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Right, yeah, because like it's a doult just like the
whole time, I was just like, why do you care
so much? Like, dude, it's a teacher who's gonna get sacked, Like,
just go about your day. Like his life just seems
very like did you have any fun besides like obsessing
about Harry.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
It just it's like.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
He's miniature Lucius, Like, yeah, Lucius likes to sweep in
and being everybody's business and he's trained Draco, Well, Draco
here now everybody's business.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
Draco is really immature at this point, right. I think
we forget sometimes because Harry is quite mature, right, and
we see everything through his eyes just because he's gone
through so much in his life so far. But Draco
really hasn't. Right, He's been in a lot of privilege
and not really until Half Blood does he really have
to come to terms with who he is, what he's become,
and what he wants to be. Right. He still doesn't

(41:31):
do great at that, but you know, at this point
he is, He's very immature, and that's probably why he
keeps harping on it.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
That's the only thing he has.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Which is sad get something.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
It's sad.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Get some friends that aren't apparently like don't speak and
just stand there, like get something to do. Torture Harry, right, and.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
I guess he doesn't have quidditch this year because the
quidditch tournaments got called off. But like, get another hobby.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
Drake out, you'll read a book, do something productive with yourself,
right right.

Speaker 4 (42:13):
I don't know, Go learn how to knit.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
I don't know, Draco knitting something, knitting club, the slip
there and knitting club.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
Maybe that's why they're also mad because they don't have
a hobby.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Probably something.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
Grease your hair again or something.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
I mean, I do have to say that overall, the
lesson that they got was it was a refreshing lesson.
You know, like I said before, there was nothing tried
to eat them, nothing tried to attack them. They weren't
in danger of getting set on fire. So it was
a pretty good lessons. But that's not to say that
Haggard's lessons are not valuable in their own way. While
they can be dangerous and somewhat questionable, they do get

(42:59):
to see creatures that they probably wouldn't otherwise encounter. Unless
you're like Newt's commander and you're out exploring the world,
A lot of these creatures you're probably not gonna see,
so that's kind of cool too. But it was nice
for them to have a proper lesson.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
I mean, the ideal would be a mix of the two,
right where you have maybe you start with some of
the nicer ones as you're like building up to it,
and you get to the more dangerous ones. You know,
you kind of get a nice variety. But yeah, it is,
it is. I'm sure it is nice, right. Even Hermione
is like, I mean, I miss Hagrid, but.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Like that was good.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
It's nice.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
Is like shut out from it, and she's like.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Se nice to not be fighting for your life in
class every day, Like.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Though, I feel like I agree, but like yeah, like
I just feel like beasts have merits too, and I
get like why Haggard tends to focus on that, because
it's like I could feel like anyone could learn about
like the unicorns, but like they're not gonna teach you
about like really boring well, the blast eating screwts or
whatever they were stuff like that. Yes, But speaking of Pravati,

(44:11):
there was a quote from the last highest episode was
discussed from the head Girl, and she said, we discussed
this a couple of times, but I thought it was
an interesting point. She said that, or they said that.
I take issue with the idea that Privadi and Lavender
are weak characters because they like gurly stuff. In terms
of actual character development, they may not be fleshed out
as the Trio or the Weasley family, for instance, but
they still have distinct personalities and clear likes and dislikes

(44:33):
as for lacking courage or strength just because they're concerned
with boys and clothes. Remember, the Sorting Hat did play
some gryffind Or for a reason, and not just because
their nails would look totally fetched painted in red and gold,
which they probably do. The Hat saw the potential for
them to be brave and daring just as much as
Harmioni or Jinny, and the Hat's predictions do pan out
in the Battle of Hogwarts. Though we don't know how
Lavendar ended up being attacked by Gray Back, we do

(44:55):
know that Dollahue attempted to retaliate and Pravadi shot him
with a bind body curse. She's also face to face
with Death Eaters Travers in the page before that, fighting
like and being super fierce while she does.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
Yes, Yes, this is a thing that I actually have
been looking at lately. There's a book that I just
requested from the library and it just came so I
have to go get it. But I'm very fascinating reading
it because I've been reading some I've been reading some
reviews of it and stuff, and some interviews with the

(45:28):
with the with the author, Tracy. I don't know if
you've heard of this one, but it just came out.
It's by Sophie Gilbert. It's called Girl on Girl How
pop Culture turned a generation of women against themselves.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
That book.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
Oh yeah, I read it yet, Okay, Okay, I'm very
excited because basically it's talking about specifically in like the
nineties and the two thousands, how we were like feminism
was gaining more steam in a new era, right, but
it was very much more like girl boss feminism in
a way, right, and like that was the only way.

Speaker 9 (46:01):
Which honestly is kind of exactly the opposite of what
feminism is supposed to be, which is that everybody can
have a choice, right, and you can be whatever thing.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
But I think for a long time feminism looked down
on more traditionally feminine women or feminine things. Right, there
was a that was a huge, huge issue. Now we've
almost swung the other way, and we might be kind
of penduluming back a little bit anyway, But it's true,

(46:31):
they're not. They're not weak just because they like, we're
traditionally like girly things, right, And honestly, both of them
are very brave and daring in that they always speak
their minds, you know they I mean, even right here,
where is it pervody or lavender? One of them is like, yeah,
well it's nice to not try and get eaten, right,

(46:54):
you know it is per body because she's not a
hairy right. So yeah, yeah, no, absolutely they're not. They're
not weak because of that, And I think that misconception
was so prevalent. We're all probably about the same ish age,
right around the same generation, so you know, especially for
like millennials, that was a big deal, right of For

(47:16):
so long it was like, you're only a strong female
character if you're basically masculine traits and a female body.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Yeah, well, like, for example, I don't know how you
guys feel about the end of Hunger Games, but everyone
was mad because she ended up having kids. Yeah, and
I'm like, no, it's proof that society's good enough that
she feels brave enough to have children, and it's okay
for her to be tough and bad as catiness, but
also she can be soft cat Like, why is it
that you have to be like one of the other?

Speaker 4 (47:44):
Yeah, no, absolu freakingly alert.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I mean, nothing happens at the end. I'm sorry, No,
I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
Have you not read those I have not.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
I tried, I tried watching like the first movie, so
I've watched I've not read the books but.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
Read them first.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Yeah, like everything, like everything.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
The movies aren't. The movies aren't bad, but they're also
like gray watered down.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
The books are like with anything that is a book
movie adaptation.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But you also get that
in kind of like the next generation after this right
where you get like you get Annabeth Chase and Percy
Jackson right where, I mean the first time Percy sees her,
he's like, she looks like a princess and then she
like smacks him up at the like you very much
get those kinds of things, and you get that even

(48:39):
more in Heroes of Olympus where you get Piper who's
literally like daughter of Aphrodite and is going to kick
some serious butt all the time. So yeah, I mean
we started kind of shifting again. But that was such
a prevalent thing of showing that kind of vulnerability was
just not acceptable. Almost to be considered.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Not like other girls was like the thing.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
Yes, I'll admit it definitely fell into that trap. I
think we all kind of said probably at some some sometime.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
Or another on the other side of that, when it
makes me think about when when guys say I'm not
like other guys, and you're like, if you have to
say that, then youse are are probably the leader of
other guys.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
Like truly, in the words of Disney's Hades, he's a but.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
No, I feel like Lavender and Provarti. They are a
nice contrast to what we see with Jenny and Hermione,
because I mean, they're not super girly girls. Like we
see Hermione get dressed up for the ball and that's
pretty much about it, and for the wedding, but that's
pretty much the extent of Jenny and Hermione dressing up
and doing the girly thing. But Provarti and Lavender kind

(49:59):
of lived that life, and it's a nice contrast to
see not all grip indoor girls are just these hards
that can I say that, Yeah, I don't know if
I can say that, but don't want to leap it out.
I can't.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
I mean we kind of get that with Molly in
a bit too, right, like where Mollie is very much
the like typical housewife, right, the stereotypical housewife, and yet
we know she is like one of the strongest characters
out there, right, and we see those same values in
that same strength reflected in her children, specifically in Ron right.

(50:33):
And that is a really interesting thing that I think
there are hints of it in these books, but it
hadn't quite made its way fully there. I mean, if
you think about, like if we go back to Hunger
Games again, right, it really is kind of revolutionary that
Peta is the baker, the more home based one, the

(50:54):
more like domestic one in so many ways because when
the books came out, yes, that's Gale, who's very much
not and that it's the fact that that Cantan chooses Peter, right,
because I mean, even though that's definitely like not even
the point. But that's another story. But it is kind

(51:16):
of revolutionary. It was at that time to have that
be your kind of leading male character is the more soft,
domestic one who also let's let's throw it down. Petal
lives for the drama drop in bombshells in Live.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
He knows what he's doing, right, I feel like I
need to run on and get the boats, like right now, yes, yes,
I'll report back.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
Anyway. I forgot where we were going with that.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
Ah oh, Haggard. Haggard isn't hiding, yes, so yes, I
guess I'm kind of wondering. I know the hackerd he's
probably embarrassed or whatever. But why do you think he's
avoiding the trio? They go to his house, they try
to get him to come out, He doesn't answer the door.
I mean, they've been through everything together so far, these

(52:15):
last however many years. Like, why would he think that
they were going to judge him? You would think that
of anybody other than Dumbledore. They're the ones that he
would open his door to.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
I think he's just he knows deep down they're not
going to judge him. But I think he's afraid of
they might or like I know, when I'm embarrassed, I
just kind of like disengaged and don't want talk to anybody.
So I can kind of see why he's just like
I don't even want to face the truth at all
or any what anyone's going to say, or maybe he
just feels so bad about himself he doesn't even want
to have people make him feel better.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
Yeah, I definitely think it all comes down really to
his self loathing and his kind of shame, which he
doesn't really need to have. If anybody has shame, I
probably should be dead. But like Hagrid, I think has
a lot of self loathing that we don't see very

(53:06):
openly all the time, and this has just kind of
brought it all to the top.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
I mean, Shane was definitely part of it, and it's
it's kind of sad to see because like obviously he
believes that the giant part of himself. Maybe he believes
that to be true, but I mean my take on
it was also he's just sparing the trio of like
further kind of like torment, you know, like being associated you.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Know, oh wow, Well because he did. I mean, Madam
Maxine reacted so badly and like didn't want to be
around him, right, which maybe the part of it too, right,
Like he thought he had finally found like a kindred spirit,
somebody he never thought he'd find, and she totally rejected him,

(53:52):
and then this crazy inflammatory thing comes out that just
piles on top of that, and that's.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
You think, maybe he just wanted to wallow.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah, I think it for a while.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Oh that makes me sad for him.

Speaker 4 (54:06):
I will say, though, this is kind of a side note,
but Harry is a very successful procrastinator and I feel
that in my soul same same because that was my
entire high school and college experience.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Again another grounding and reality that these are teenagers and
just providing my own procrastination superpower in high school.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Yep, yep.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
I mean to be honest, that is still my life. Yeah,
but I've.

Speaker 4 (54:41):
Got I guess because I've had to train myself, but
I have not, so it's still my natural tendency.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
Like and the downfall is that it works. It works
every time, right, Yes, Why am I going to change
it now?

Speaker 4 (55:00):
I mean there is something to be said. I think
sometimes in like there are certain things where I think
my brain works where it needs that kind of pressure
to operate in certain ways and to like do certain things.
But man, there were some close calls.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
Like that's exactly it. Like I'm talking up until one
am writing like a two thousand word five sources needed
research paper. Do you in like two hours? Like's the
adrenaline that gets you going, And maybe that's what Harry
was working with, the adrenaline.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
I handed in my things if I wait till the
like the night, like the last possible second hand it in.
It's like, you know, fifty pages, you know, I'll write
in two days.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
Sure, that makes sense, see big, big like English papapers.
I didn't do that much on because I was more
intimidated by that like in college, but for other classes,
I was like, yeah, I'll write this in half an hour.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Yeah, it'll be fine. I see wow quickie f it
wow yeah, oh wow, that's another level.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
I wouldn't. Wouldn't. I don't say my house was never cleaner.
My real meals are prepped and plam for. Right before
I had to do that.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
I was just I was just talking to a friend
of mine from my MFA who we're talking about like
the packets we would turn in every month or whatever,
and she was like, you know, it's always a good time.
When the night before packets do you're writing seventeen midnight
because you gotta get it new.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
Everything's fine, it's fine, it's fine. So maybe that's why
Harry was thinking here. Maybe he was thinking, if I
wait until the last possible second, I'm going to get
some kind of inspiration. So it's going to be fine.
I'm not even worried.

Speaker 4 (56:55):
Panic helps me. Panic helps my decision making.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
It's totally fine me. While we've got victure crime out
here doing the original ice bath challenge, jumping into the lake,
and I'm just like my guy, like, are you a
different breathe Like, what's what's going on?

Speaker 4 (57:13):
He's from He's he's actually takes polar bear plunges, which
is crazy.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
No, thank you.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
Do you think there are like not baths on the
dorm string ship? Is that like what they're doing. They're
like there's water right there, you can go wash yourself
out in the ocean out. We don't have room from
bathrooms somewhere.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
There are like five kids there. That's a movie. Is
I'm sorry, sure, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (57:42):
That's no, there's there is. There's only like a dozen
from each of the other schools or something. I think
I do have to say that Ron's comment about the
giant squid cracks me up every time. Or he's like,
maybe the giants quiddle get h Ron, You're just in
love with her, just accept it. Everyone everyone but him

(58:02):
and her blessom.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
They get there. It takes them a while, but yeah, man.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
Speaking of things that are chilly, though, Let's go hogs
Mead Oo, hogs Mead, hogs weekend.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
So I'm wondering. They go into Wow, what is it called? Yes,
the three rooms Wow? That Wow, the place, the pub place,
the place with it's up, Yeah, the three room six.
So they run into Bagman in there and they think
it's unusual, but he's there on a weekend. But then

(58:40):
I'm thinking, is that really so unusual? Do people not
leave London on the weekends and come down and hang
out and hogs meat? Is that not like a day
trip for shopping or something? Is that? Why is that weird?

Speaker 4 (58:52):
I mean, hogs meets up in Scotland, right, which is
quite a ways away, especially by British perspective from London.
I mean, I suppose apperation could make that easier, but
it would seem I think a little weird to go
to be to go to Hogsmead instead of maybe like
diagon Alley or something if you needed wizarding things like,

(59:14):
they're definitely closer places. Yeah, it is a little weird
for him to be there.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
Okay, I'm by that.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Shamny's convinced.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
I mean, like I said, operation makes things easier. It's
not like you have to factor in travel time necessarily.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
But it's still not a hot skip and a job.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
It's so weird. Yeah, it's so weird for him to
be there, I think.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Well, also he has like an employee missing.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's that. That does make it a little
more weird.

Speaker 4 (59:46):
Really be taking weekend trips.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Maybe he was looking for her in hogs Meats. I
know that's what he's going to tell them. Maybe this
is the situation of procrastination. He's avoiding the situation by
going to hogs Meat and having a good time.

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
He's got avoid intendenc.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
He'll worry about Bertha later. Yeah. But speaking of Bertha,
so this is where we find out that Bertha is
actually still missing, and that Crouch has now disappeared as well,
and he's sending in all of his instructions to Percy
by Owl, and then he's seen talking to some goblins
and you know, whatever is going on with that? And

(01:00:27):
do we ever get confirmation as to why he was
talking to the goblins. I mean, I'm assuming he probably
owed them money, but he says that they were looking
for Crouch. So was he lying?

Speaker 4 (01:00:38):
I think that's a lie. Yeah, I think that's a
total lie. He's trying to just cover up, you know,
his his debts and his gambling. Right, I'm pretty sure
it is about money, and I'm pretty sure that's confirmed.

Speaker 3 (01:00:51):
That would be my guest to especially because of how
skidish he gets when Fred and George approach him too.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
Absolutely, Like the thing about Crouch is literally just the
first thing, and it probably just came up with like
one of the last times he saw Harry and Ron
Hermione Crouch was there too, and so and you know,
and Ron is Percy's brother, and so there's probably that
like mental connection, and so.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
So we think at the goblins weren't actually looking for Crouch.
That was his cover story, got it, That makes sense.
So now Bagman here is offering help to Harry, and
we've seen, you know, throughout this book there. He seems
very interested in Harry. Is that just because of who
Harry is? Because Harry is Harry Potter? Like, what is

(01:01:38):
it about him that Bagman has taken such a liking
to you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
He's got money on him, Absolutely, he's got money on him,
and he's trying to rig that bet. I think I'm
like ninety eight percent sure that they say Bagman disappears
because he owes I'm gonna look for this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Because he owes money because of the Try Wizard tournament
to pay.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
I get it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
Yeah, hold on, carry on, I'm trying. I'm finding the
quote because this is what I do.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Pull out the books. I do not have the book handy,
so I don't either.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
I got it. I got it, I got it. I
just have to fund spot.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
In the meantime, Rita is terrible.

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
Yeah, she's straight up side.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
Like the fact that she even had the audacity to
walk up like to even mention an interview about Hagrid
with his flip side what he knows about Hagrid? Like
it really come one after what you just wrote about
Mary's friend. Do you think that he's going to do

(01:02:50):
an interview and trust that that's going to be an
honest piece, Like, come on, Rita, what did you think
was going to happen?

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
She's just starting her dominant as it is quite I
mean like she's that's what she thinks, you know, it's
just powerfulay mm hmmm mm hmmm. She is the worst.
This is like, obviously she did take the quotes and
make it into something that's not what he's saying at all,
and just make it worse. It's like, come on, bless

(01:03:16):
her her.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
And then the fact that when Hermione tries to jump in,
she tells her to sit down, you silly little girl,
and it got me thinking, we have seen this before.
And we actually see the term silly girl a couple
of times throughout the series, and it's towards the females
who are anything but silly. We see Boldie say this

(01:03:41):
to Lily when he's trying to get to Harry, you know,
step aside the silly girl, and then we see Rita
saying this to Hermione. But actually the joke's on Rita
because Hermione is about to make her look silly right
the end of this book.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
So side note, I found the quote.

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
The quotes here.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
You're ready, So it's at the end when they're talking
to Fred and George, because remember they think they were
like they're blackmailing someone, and they were trying to figure
that out, and so they tell them. Fred and George
tell the trio what happened at the Quidditch World Cup
with their bet, and then George says, of course we
found out what was going on. In the end, Lee

(01:04:21):
Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money
off bagmen as well. Turns out he's in big trouble
with the Goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A
gang of them cornered him in the woods after the
World Cup and took all the gold he had, and
it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They
followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an
eye on him. He's lost everything gambling, hasn't got two
gallons to rub together. And you know how that idiot

(01:04:41):
tried to pay the goblins back? How, said Harry. He
put a bet on you, mate, said Fred, put a
big bet on you to win the tournament, bet against
the goblins. And Harry's like, so that's why he kept
trying to help me win. Well, I did win to guy,
so we can pay you back, and George says, nope,
the goblins play as dirty as him. They say, you
drew with Digree and Bagman was betting you'd win outright,
so Bagman had to run for He made a run
for it right after the third task.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Oh wow. See that's the problem again with reading this
out of order.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
I know, I know, right. Anyway, going back to uh,
the silly girl comments, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
For clearing that up, Allison, that was very helpful. But yeah,
I just I find it funny that Rida's out here
calling Hermione silly when Hermione is about a show her
a thing or two.

Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
I mean, it's an inredibly condescending phrase, right, Silly is
usually a term applied to children. It's kind of designating
a type of hysteria or inability to think right. And
then girl, you know, is also infantilizing. And I mean
it's it's just it's so misogynistic. It's really going into

(01:05:46):
those stereotypes that like women are clueless and historical right
blow blooh. And it is like it's a nasty thing
for her to be saying, especially to.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
A fourteen, like like, where is the women's in power
har Rita, Like, come on.

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
Oh, you think Rita Skeeter would be a girl's girl
like the police all the way. Yep, absolutely, But I
do find it fascinating though, that Hermione's response to that
is she's just like, well, my parents don't read the prophet.
And I was like, but girl, you know who does
read the prophet? Your classmates, your friends, your future employers,

(01:06:26):
your teachers, like other people do read the prophet. Not
that she's doing a bad thing, but it just seems
odd for me that that's her only, like she has
no concerns. Just because of that, I.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Think Hermione, after like the teasing she gets in the
first book, I feel like she's not as concerned with
other people think as much, especially as much as Harry
and Ron. Especially Ron. She's like my parents, the people
I care about, and my friend's lot with you know
that it's all crap.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
So mm hm ohach I mean I kind of I
kind of like that about her, Like Hermione has no
to give. She's like, you know what, whatever, let her
say what she wants.

Speaker 4 (01:07:04):
That's true. She's an icon she rely is so they
so Hermione, of course, being iconic, runs up to haggard store.
They literally run by the way they like run through
hogsmen and through the ground like full on sprint, which
I think is funny. And Hermione starts banging on Haggard's door.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
She is going, but.

Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
I love when it's Dumbledore that opens it and she's like, oh,
Also such a contrast to her being like, I don't
care what anyone thinks.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
I'm gonna never mind.

Speaker 4 (01:07:52):
I have one worry, but looks you there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
Literally one of my favorite lines in the whole series
when Demblore says to Haggard about like Hagrid's all in
his feelings, and he's like, really, Hagrid, if you're holding
out for universal popularity, I'm afraid he'll be in this
cabin for a very long time. Just something I've preached
to myself. Yeah, more times than I would like to admit,
because it's like, you want people to like, right, but
it's like it's never gonna happen. No one, everyone's not
gonna like you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
Yeah, you can't please everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
Wouldn't be nice if you could.

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
I do have to say, though i'd forgotten this bit.
It's very sweet that Dumbledore talks about letters that people
have written to tell Dumbledore like, if you sack Hagrid,
we're going to be extremely upset at you. Right, like
people came to Haggard's defense who aren't like the trio,
right that. There are other people, There are parents, and

(01:08:41):
there are former students who heard this, saw this and
immediately wrote to Dumbledore and they were like, Nope, don't
do it. Don't do it. You better not do it,
you know, which is nice. Also laughing when Harry calls
Rita a cow and then he's like, sorry, professor, and
Dumbledore is like, I have gone temporarily dead.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
I have no idea what.

Speaker 4 (01:09:05):
I know that there are times you have to do that.
As a teacher, I have gone.

Speaker 3 (01:09:11):
Temporarily Yes, I find myself doing that. As a parent.
I'm like I see something or hear something happen and
I'm like, do I want to address it? Or does
act like that didn't happen so we're just going to
ignore it or anyway.

Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
I did not hear you asking if the senior prank
should involve fire. I did not hear you asking. Oh
that one I did step in.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Fire. Let me stop you, right, There no so many
questions on that one.

Speaker 4 (01:09:43):
Yeah, but there have been times.

Speaker 3 (01:09:47):
It's easier to just turn a blind eye and carry on.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
Speaking of fire and weirdness, do you think Abir does
weird things with fire and goats because that comment about
before not be able to eat and then his goat fetish. Why, Look, I.

Speaker 4 (01:10:06):
Believe that Aberforth has done some funky charm stuff with goats.
I don't know if it's quite that scandalous, you know,
I'm sure it was just like, is there a way
to make them give more milk or something?

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
Oh, I think it was scandalous. I'm scandalous.

Speaker 4 (01:10:21):
It's really funny in a weird way. But I saw
you mentioned this, and my thought was, why does doubt
Dumbledore do this? And I think it might be he's
trying to protect his brother, right, He's always kind of
trying to make him out seem dim witted, and I
think he's trying to therefore maybe come up with a

(01:10:42):
way to cover why they're estranged, right because we learned
that there are strange because of Ariana. He's trying to
cover that up, right, And he's also trying to protect
him by trying to get feelers out there that like, oh,
it's useless to go after Aberforth because he's not going
to know anything about Albus and his plans, right, because
he's this dim wooded goat charmer, right, And so I

(01:11:05):
was like, is that why he always talks about him
this way? Is that why he always puts that perception forth?
Because we know that Dumbledore goes to the hog Sead sometimes, right,
So I wonder if it really is a way of
him trying to protect his brother, if you ask me, yeah,

(01:11:27):
it's pretty smart. It's a puppet master, but it's also
probably I mean in a way, right, the reason everything
happened with Ariana is because Grinda Wald kind of went
for aver fourth, right, So in order to keep that
from happening again, Albus is gonna set up as many walls,

(01:11:48):
as many layers as he can to keep anyone from
even thinking about going after his brother. But maybe the
goat thing's real too, And that's.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
I mean, I've always been more curious about the goats,
like what exactly what's going on here?

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:12:05):
My goats?

Speaker 4 (01:12:09):
Well, because his favorite story when he was little was
Grubby the Grumbly Goat.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
A magical okay.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
Goat oats. Okay, goats do feature in a strange amount
of like folklore though that's true, lots of stories about goats.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
Why so many questions.

Speaker 4 (01:12:28):
Probably because they're they're just so like, I mean, they're
they're useful animals on a farm, right, and they give milk.
They eat to keep the grass.

Speaker 3 (01:12:37):
Yeah yeah, yeah, like that's my primary reason keeper running goats.
I'm like, so I don't have to cut the grass,
put the mouth there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:12:45):
They're cute. On the top of that, supposedly they're like, yeah,
they're yeah, they're cute. They're pretty cheap to keep.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
Apparently you can put pajamas on them. You know, it's fine.

Speaker 4 (01:12:56):
They got a little horn, they got a little little little.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Teeth something bad though that they got didn't get arrested.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
Is that what he said? Yeah? I mean so like
some experimental dram r Like again, he could have just
been like, how can I make this goat give more?

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
I don't think that's why he really gotten Come on.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
No, no, I think this was like a like a
Haggard's parents situation.

Speaker 4 (01:13:29):
So it's definitely of those things.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
I feel like when I've read this, initially my head
ye like interesting, Like wait a minute, I have questions,
so many questions in this chapter.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
Oh poor Alison. I'm sorry, Allison. I didn't mean to.

Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
I was gonna come up. It's just like.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
I mean, we're asking the important questions.

Speaker 2 (01:14:03):
Dave Love has no.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
Again, no whys of them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
Where the biggest here, Clara.

Speaker 4 (01:14:15):
That we do not that we do not encourage beastiality
on this podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:14:21):
You're not advocating. We are just wondering.

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
I put that out there for the record.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
We are just wondering what happened, That's all question. We
just wanted to know what happened.

Speaker 4 (01:14:30):
Living on talking about what happened. Reading the end of
this chapter, you know, Haggard talks about how Dumbledore is
so great because he trusts people. He believes in second chances,
he believes in judging people by their talent, not just
their background. And little sad Me was like, oh, so
many things that the author herself has forgotten right here
in this little sentence, you know, you don't have to

(01:14:53):
be ashamed of who you are. That still rings true.
And Harry also has a little moment of a whoopsies
where he says he tells Hagrid right, He's figured out
the clue, and then he's like lying to Hagrid wasn't
quite like lying to anyone else, which I think is sweet.
You know, like he has lied to Ron and Hermione
and everybody else in his life, but he's like, I

(01:15:15):
can't lie to Hagrid, right, And that lie has really
been something that's kind of drifted through this whole chapter,
but it's right here where he's like, dang it, gotta
put aside the pride, and so I don't hurt Hagrid.
I guess I gotta get over myself and go figure
this thing out so I don't die. Because Choe went

(01:15:39):
to the ule Ball was said.

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
Well, what do you think it is about Hagrid that
makes a difference?

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (01:15:46):
Because to Harry, Haggrid's so innocent and like, what's the word? Yeah,
I guess innocent would be the word.

Speaker 4 (01:15:56):
I think it's that, And I think it's that how
believed in Harry when Harry couldn't even believe in himself. Right,
Haggard came to get him from the Dursleys when Harry
was like, I'm nothing, I'm no one, and Haggard came
to him and said no, like, you're a wizard, Harry, Right,
You're a wizard. Harry, you have this great background. I
knew your parents. They were wonderful people. You're going to

(01:16:19):
be a wonderful person too. And he he was really
the first person to pick Harry up like that. And
I think he and Harry just have that relationship of
they will never be anything less than perfectly honest with
each other. Haggard has never been anything really less than
perfectly honest with Harry, and so Harry can't Harry can't.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
Do it to him, and I think he's, Yeah, he's
the only person who really loves Harry unconditionally. He's like
that maternal like as you was saying, maternal character who's like,
no matter what I do, Haggard's always gonna have my back.
I'm like, even Dumbledore has like material motives. His friends
have their own thing going on, like even what's his face?
Everybody hates serious, like you know, everyone has their own

(01:17:03):
and then everybody hates serious.

Speaker 4 (01:17:06):
Past.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
I mean, some people dislike and some people like.

Speaker 4 (01:17:13):
No, I meant forgetting serious, and he forgot something earlier.

Speaker 3 (01:17:20):
It was something. Oh my gosh, the shame, the shame.

Speaker 4 (01:17:25):
We're gonna blame it on. We're recording on a slightly
different day in time.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
There we go, that's a holiday weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:17:30):
We're at a whack on that note. Yeah, so Harry
gets over himself and we move along in the action
and see, I know it really is like not much
super happens in this chapter, but we just get like

(01:17:52):
these little connecting threads to a lot of different things.

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
Things that are helpful for later. It's like the the
making House Clubhouse clues, and these are special clues that
will need it later.

Speaker 4 (01:18:06):
It's like that escape room.

Speaker 3 (01:18:08):
Oh my god, I don't even want to talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (01:18:13):
Yeah, we failed miserably.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
It was kind of even more sad than I didn't go.
I love escape room.

Speaker 4 (01:18:19):
That room it was it was so okay, this is
side note. This escape room, though, was so convoluent.

Speaker 3 (01:18:27):
It was hard.

Speaker 4 (01:18:29):
We were like the heck, Like when the guy explained
to us, like how like how to solve the end,
we were like.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
You would think if I've ever thought of that, you're
not telling me anything that makes me less want to
do this. This is all right? It was.

Speaker 4 (01:18:45):
It was fun, but it was just it.

Speaker 3 (01:18:46):
Was very It was fun. I just I was feeling.

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
We're kind of mad about it, am I.

Speaker 3 (01:18:55):
Yes, that's what we need because we had what we made,
Like we only had one raven claw and like that
was all we had to work with.

Speaker 4 (01:19:03):
And yeah we did because.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
We had that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:07):
But yeah, everybody else is Gryffindor and Health of buff So.

Speaker 4 (01:19:13):
It's gonna say there's me and Josh running around just
being like on the side.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
Note, most of the podcasts met up last weekend, that's
what they're talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:19:25):
And we missed Trazy terribly.

Speaker 4 (01:19:27):
I know, I'm still mad. That's such a stupid situation.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
I'm also still mad. But what I'm not mad about
it's actually being on the on the podcast. You were amazing.
Thanks for being here, appreciate it is your first we said,
your first podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:19:47):
Okay, what Wow, you're so relaxed and such a natural
like well you said.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
I but like my first Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19:59):
That's so cool.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
Is there anywhere you want listeners to find you online
or anything you want to plug? Well? LinkedIn?

Speaker 4 (01:20:08):
Sadly, I am not that active on social media. LinkedIn.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
This is how you know. I just like, I guess.

Speaker 4 (01:20:17):
More of us should probably.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
Yeah, that's that's such a good thing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
The truth our next episode. Well, thank you again Ashley
for being here. And our next episode is going to
be one of one of my favorite chapters, Chapter Order
of the Phoenix, Chapter nine, the Woes of Missus Weasley,
which is gonna be a good one.

Speaker 4 (01:20:34):
Oh, that's a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
If you don't know by now, you can follow us
on pretty much any social media outlet at aloham more
Emmon or on Facebook. I Open the Dumbledore and of
course rememberie, subscribe, save and share this episode or the
entire show with all of your friends and that This
has been episode fifty six of the final one hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
I'm Shamani, I'm Tracy.

Speaker 4 (01:20:58):
And I'm Alison. Thank you for listening to episode four
hundred and fifty six of a Loocoma Habrid Hagrid opened up.
We know you're in there. Open the Double Door.

Speaker 10 (01:21:22):
Aloka Mora is produced by Tracy Dunstan. This episode was
edited by Katherine Lewis. Alo Mora was co created by
Noah Freed and Kat Miller and is brought to you
by ap W B d LLC.

Speaker 4 (01:21:46):
Oh my gosh, wouldn't that be amazing? Somebody cut this out?
But wouldn't that be amazing? If next year we all
just want to God be aw fun. We like went
on a trip and we were like, actually, we're going
to find hot anyway, putting that in the back pocket.

Speaker 2 (01:21:59):
A back to the unicorns, back to unicorns,