Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J. K. Rowling – Episode 108
The Buddies plunged into the fifth installment of their magical marathon with “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by J.K. Rowling. The Buddies discussed many important topics including: becoming radicalized over owl injuries, the Weasley twins’ mastery of guerrilla marketing, and whether Dumbledore’s penchant for secrecy deserves a Howler. The Buddies also pondered life’s important questions, like whether listening to audiobooks is an acceptable alternative to watching your child being born (spoiler: it’s not). So your practice your “hem-hems”, tell no lies, and join us for this week’s episode.
Intro (0:00-1:30)
Stock Up/Down (1:31-28:32)
Favorite Scene/Character/Magical Elements (28:33-48:54)
Love/Hate (48:55-1:02:04)
Listener Email/Lingering Questions (1:02:05-1:05:19)
Conclusion (1:05:20-1:07:37)
NEXT Episode: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – MOVIE
NEXT BOOK: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂
Alright. Welcome to book club. I’m Dylan here with the man who tells no lies and has the scars to prove it. Keith, what’s up, buddy? I’m joined here by d man, the new dad to a witch, or can I say that?
I feel like that’s weird. Wizard, witch, in the family. Congrats. We took a little bit of hiatus. Well deserved.
Paternity leave from the pod. Unfortunately, I’m not getting any checks for that. But yeah. So I’ll be, a bit bleary eyed. And, yeah, I apologize for the hiatus, but, you know, having a kid kinda throws you through a loop.
I tried to, like, listen to the book, but as the wife’s pushing out a baby, you’re really not supposed to be listening to a book containing notes on the side. So I said I should probably really bear down and and focus on on this event. I didn’t want it to, I feel like that could have some long term lasting effects. But, here at the Buddy Book Club, we’re breaking down some bestsellers. And this week, we’re going to be talking about Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix by JK Rowling, the 5th installment in the Harry Potter series.
If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to any past episodes, you can visit our website, buddybookclub.com, or sign to our DMs on Twitter or Instagram, buddybookclubpodcast. You listen to us, iTunes, Spotify, review podcast. Please download. Give us a 5 star review. Even if you hate it, why not?
You know, congratulate me on being a father. Just just do that. That’s a comment, and I think it fits that, like, 3 word algorithm that that you need. If nothing else, give us a follow on social channels, please, and thank you. Keith, let’s jump into it with our standard process, stock up, stock down.
I think I know how to do this. Keith, stock up. What do you got? Yeah. Let’s start off light.
Just get back in the swing of things. Stock up becoming a radicalized terrorist? Listen, demon, I’m I’m pretty I’m a pretty rational person, I like to think, you know. I feel like I’m pretty normal. Mhmm.
However, let me just tell you right now, if someone fucked with my owl, I go full insane. Yeah. I go legitimately insane. I’m talking Mel Gibson in The Patriot when he, like, flips the switch, William Wallace, basically, if anything Mel Gibson is in when he flips the switch, that’s what I’m doing. I’m starting a full government rebellion.
I am I’m killing Filch just out of principle to start. Yeah. Ava Kadabah’s coming out. He’s dead. Oh, thank you.
That’s how we start. He’s done. Umbridge is next. We’re starting the whole war. When you you mess with Hedwig, you mess with my owl, that doesn’t stop there.
We’re not like, oh, that sucks. I’ll bring it to, like, the medical office. No, no, no, no. War. That’s it.
So the fact that Harry kinda calmly was, like, oh, this this is too bad. She’s hurt. I’ll just bring her to the wing. I’m, like, no. No.
No. No. It’s over. The way we starting a war now. Like, that’s that’s facts.
Right? Yeah. My my first stop is in Grubbly Plank who, I quite like Grubbly Plank, by the way. But my first stop is not her. My my first stop is to the, like, wizard machine gun arsenal.
And, Right. And I’m I’m just going postal on, on Gatling gun of wands where they just rotate and shooting spells. That’s a good idea, actually. We might get into some of that later because I have I have some questions about wand weapons. But, it’s a funny human trait thing that and I think we all have it, but when we see animals, specifically animals that we humanize, like pets, which includes owls in the Harry Potter universe, get hurt by someone, it just sends people into an absolute rage.
It’s so funny about that. And even when I was listening to this part, that’s really like I hated Umbridge before this. You know, all that bullshit. I couldn’t stand it. But you knew she was behind the owl situation, the Hedwig situation, and my loathing for her multiplied.
I actually think I was listening to this prior to actually having this kid. We were going to the hospital a bunch, so we would listen to the audiobook on the way to and fro. And I think we were listening to it in the car when this happened, and Caroline, like, audibly was like, I fucking hate Umbridge. And I was like, I I respect that because, yes, like, no one hurts someone’s pet. So, yeah, I’m I’m with you.
That’s a good way to radicalize. My first stock up, a good smear campaign stock up. The ministry and The Daily Prophet go hard in the paint against Harry in this book, and it’s pretty amazing to me that even though the ministry is an incredibly incompetent organization, they’re able to execute such a successful smear campaign against Harry’s character. And I think maybe that’s how some, like, a government organization or just like the government in general, can maintain its standing but be so terrible as they have to have a really good propaganda arm. I just think it’s so funny that even Seamus, who knows Harry, sleeps in the same room as Harry a 180 nights a year, is able to be turned by a couple of things said in the newspaper from some people that have never even met Harry.
Wouldn’t he naturally think what’s Harry’s motivation here? Does he just decide that Harry’s all of a sudden this arrogant, glory seeking, vain guy that the daily prophet in the ministry is playing him to be? Because he would presumably know better. I am having trouble connecting what happened in the 4th book at the end with how this works because Harry came back with the Triwizard Cup. Cedric’s dead, and they’re like, oh, it was Mad Eye Moody even though he wasn’t there, and there weren’t other people in the room when Mad Eye confessed, or was it just Harry that was in the room?
McGonagall, Snape, and Dumbledore. Right? Yeah. So and isn’t Dumbledore trusted? It’s just so crazy that the ministry is able to turn everyone against Dumbledore.
I really think the house points is really what it comes down to, like, 3 years in a row, him being, like, and a 100 points to Harry for house points. And they’re, like, goddamn it. Like, this guy, enough with this. You can’t really do that 3 years in a row without ruffling some feathers. But I do agree.
I think this book move over 1984. I think this book is, like, the best usage of showing how a dictatorship comes to power and, like, how you can turn people against each other and create this distrust and just create this narrative that is false. Everyone knows it’s false, but, eventually, you just start to believe it. So I think it’s a really good job. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I I agree. I thought, in general, it was it was frustrating because we’re, you know, we’re all Harry fans here. Yeah. But we that not everyone’s there with us in books 1, 2, 3, and 4 where they’re he’s fighting Voldemort.
So, like, you don’t you’re just, like, kind of hearing from afar, like, oh, and Dumbledore’s favorite gets another 100 points. You know? Like, you don’t really know the context, I I feel like. Yeah. And I wonder how much they do know about what Harry was doing in those situations because it’s like, oh, Harry saves the school again.
It’s like, come on. This kid can’t come to school every year and save it. You know? So I kind of agree with that. And even if they were saying it was a Voldemort thing, it’s like, okay.
So we’ve never seen Voldemort, but Harry’s seen him and defeated him three times. Like, I don’t know about that. What else do you have for stock up? Stock up hating house house. Oh, okay.
So you’re you’re anti Espu. Yeah. The crowd that I think was kinda hates house elves or just at least disrespects them. I’m kinda on their side. Kreacher kinda just sucks, He he’s the worst.
Like, he’s just Kinda love him. A shitty, shitty person. But it’s quite the the spin zone for Dumbledore to be, like, at the end, he’s, like, well, Kreacher wasn’t treated well. So, like, that’s why we deserve for him to kill Sirius. You know what I mean?
Like, it was just, like, Like, that’s that’s your spin zone? Like Yeah. It wasn’t Kreacher’s fault. Listen, Hermione and Dumbledore, if you want house elves to be to be treated like humans and be treated equally, then you need to treat them like human. You can’t just wear kids gloves around them all the time.
Like, oh, well, they’re like, they have to be treated differently and they have to be this. If they’re being a complete dickhead, you can say this person is being a complete dickhead. Otherwise, you’re just treating them like a different thing. Same thing with Hermione. She’s leaving all these, like, hats around for them to click.
She’s like, well, I’m smarter than you and I know better than you. So therefore, I’m gonna tell you what you need. Yeah. So how is that making them more human? You’re literally being like, I’m I know it’s better for you.
You’re treating them inferior, if anything. You’re doing worse than what other other people are doing. Any of their actions, you’re just washing away with, like, well, that’s okay. They did that. It’s like, this is the exact opposite of equality.
Yeah. I think Hermione is the classic case of wanting to do good coming from a a good place, but just missing the mark completely with her approach. So she’s somewhat forgivable, although I do agree. When Dobby comes in and says, they don’t wanna be free. They wouldn’t even know what to do, and she’s forcing this freedom upon them.
There’s a different way about that, and Hermione’s gonna grow and learn. I mean, we we know what she eventually becomes, and I’m sure she takes a different approach to that kinda situation when she gets there. But I I couldn’t agree with you more on the on the creature front, especially because, yes, Sirius was a dick to creature. No question about it. But think about how the, probably, the average house elf is treated in a, like, big, old wizarding household.
They’re, like, beaten, like, actually beaten and totally physically mistreated as opposed to just being yelled at and neglected. Like, Sirius doesn’t even ask him to do anything or he’s like, he should be cleaning up the house, but he obviously doesn’t. So, creatures just chilling. I agree with you for sure there and the fact that he’s like, oh, Kreacher wasn’t treated well. It’s like, what?
And and, obviously, Kreacher likes Bellatrix because she’s like a big dark arts person, but I don’t think Bellatrix or any death eater is treating house elves very well. But maybe they think they deserve it or something, some sort of, like, masochism or something. I don’t know. My next stock up and my last actually is, Guerrilla Marketing. You know, you and I are both in the marketing space and, have been.
We don’t know what we’re talking about. We, we’ve we’ve been there for a long time. The Weasley brothers, on the other hand, the twins, Fred and George, they’re at wizarding school. We’ve talked about this before about how at the school, they’re not really teaching people to be entrepreneurs, but Fred and George just have it in them. They are future billion galuniers, galuniers, or whatever the case is, because not only do they successfully use the students as guinea pigs, which I feel like has 2 approaches.
1 is the fact that they can objective a is they can trial and error the things they’re trying to create for their joke shop and fine tune them so that they can eventually sell them. But also, it’s gotta be creating this little communication, this, like, storyline between the students as to, like, oh, I did this and, you know, I was puking up blood for 24 hours until I figured out this other. It’s like, woah. What? You can do that?
You know, all these these crazy stories that are happening. Then, like, their grand finale before they actually leave school, their grand finale against Umbridge, it was absolutely perfect. It’s it’s the equivalent of, like, a a wizarding viral moment. No one leaves. No one just, like, leaves Hogwarts, or I assume if people do, it’s not in some sort of crazy cool fashion.
These guys go out using their new fireworks that they’ve created, blowing them up all around the school, this stuff that turns things into swamps. This amazing moment that the entire school’s there, not only does it work obviously against Umbridge, but as they’re leaving, they’re like, come check out Weasleys Wizarding Weasels on Diagon Alley, and the entire school is now guaranteed to go. And year after year, this story will be told about the Weasley twins going off against this terrible headmistress they had, and they’re gonna be like, yeah. Those are the guys that own the joke shop. People are like, I haven’t been there.
So it it was just a genius marketing campaign. And I don’t even know if they meant it for that, but I do know they meant it for that because they are this next level business geniuses. I like them keeping the little, thing of water in the hallway as an homage to them too. I appreciate that. Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly. Another thing. It’ll always be there. People who did that.
Oh, these guys didn’t know this joke shop. You gotta go check it out. They got awesome stuff. So I hope Dumbledore gave him a a graduate degree after Honorary degree? Yeah.
Exactly. They went to Hogwarts. Graduated, topped the class. They’re great. We produced that.
You know? You wanna take credit for that. Yeah. I would almost guarantee that one of them did not get that. Did not get what?
One of them probably didn’t. Oh, okay. Oh, Jesus. Postmortem or post what’s it called? Post podoptist?
Post post. Post, that was actually just in my head. Post. It’s an h word. Oh, god.
I wish it was smart. Yeah. Post humorous? It’s humorous. It’s posthumorous.
I’ll figure I’ll figure it out. It’s ridiculous, actually. Posthumous? Posthumous. There you go.
I know there’s an h in there somewhere. Maybe there isn’t. I don’t know. Hip hop. Hip hop.
They’re like After they did this, the their little act and flew out of there, I don’t know what it was about that moment, but I actually got kind of emotional reading it. Obviously, we love we love Fred and George here, but it was just kind of this fact that I think I got emotional because it’s like this journey is starting to come to an end to some degree. I know we have a couple books left, but I think it was like, wow. Like, Fred and George, they’ve been a staple of the Hogwarts experience for Harry and us listening, like, or reading it along with him, and now they’re not gonna be there anymore. And and they wouldn’t have been there anyways because it’s their 7th year, but, still, it just it felt kinda crazy.
Like, even, when you’re in college or something like that, you got friends that are a couple years older, and you have these awesome couple years, and then all of a sudden, they’re gone. And it’s just, like, everything’s different, and you realize, like, wow, I only got a couple years left too, and then I’m gonna have to join the real world. Yeah. I don’t know why, but it kind of it it hit me in a different way. Yeah.
No. I I gotcha. I gotcha. Now now we’re in that real world. What do you have for sucked out?
It’s hard to tell them doing chores. I mean, I never like chores. I still avoid them as an adult. I’m not an adult really. Chores make me cry like miss Weasley with, facing a boggart.
Yeah. I’m just not a fan. But let me tell you this, dude, man. If I show up to the Order of Phoenix and they’re like, yeah, so this is a club that you’re not allowed in even though you’re the only person that’s actually faced Voldemort and Yeah. Actually fought him three times and you’re the most skilled person, you actually have any context of how he came back and you have basically all the data that we need and all the information.
But you can’t be in, even though you should be in because you’re not old enough. I’d be pissed. It it basically be like LeBron coming out of high school. It’s like first 2 or 3 years he dominated. And then being like, well, actually the all star team only allows people that are 21 years or older.
Even though you’re the best in the league already. It’s like, what? It doesn’t it doesn’t make any sense. But to add intel to injury is, like, they get to the place and they’re like, alright. So I guess you can’t be in this club that we have that’s really important.
This club. Why don’t you start doing chores? Why don’t you start, cleaning everything up? It’s, like, I’m not a house elf. Mhmm.
I’m not doing this bullshit. Like, I’d be out of there. I’m I’d be so pissed. I’m, like, either let me in their club or I’m going somewhere else, or I’ll say, here. I’m not doing your work for you.
Like, you do that. You know what I mean? Like, I’ll do chores if I’m in the club, but don’t don’t make me do that. Didn’t care for it. Speaking about chores, it sounds like your significant other might also have this issue.
I saw that Instagram post of hers. Her car tire that she didn’t get changed or whatever, that tire was the baldest tire I have ever seen in my whole life. Like, if you Google imaged bald car tire Yeah. You would not find it on the top of the top of the top of the top of the top of the top. I was trying to say fast on the road.
It’s what’s the issue. The, like, fabric that’s so deep in the treads was showing through. Wild. It’s wild to me. Like, you just she never looked at it.
Yeah. To be fair, like, I don’t know any of the adult stuff either, so I wouldn’t even have noticed. I’ve been like, that looks good to me. That looks fine to me, but it’s the issue. Yeah.
It it reminds me when I was in college, and and I’m an idiot too. Like, you know, I’m not I’m not I’m not picking on her in any way. She’s a wonderful woman. But I was in college, and my dad got in my car, and he was like, what what’s that ticking sound? And I was like, I have no idea.
He goes, I think that’s your engine. I was like, oh, alright. He goes, when’s the last time you get your oil changed? I was like, what is oil change? That’s the one thing I do know.
That’s the I remember just hearing, like, just try to change your oil and then your car will run forever. And I I never check-in there other than that. So And Jimmy was like, what I was like, what is oil change? He’s like, I cannot believe I raised you. Like, this is terrible.
How are you this dumb? Whatever. My first talk down is secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets hurt someone. Dumbledore admits to Harry after the whole ordeal at the ministry that he’s been keeping information from him, and it’s pretty important information, honestly.
How do you feel about Dumbledore withholding all of this prophecy stuff from Harry until, not it was too late, but until a bunch of damage had been done. I didn’t care for it because especially since it seems like Dumbledore is like, I’m not the type of person to to hold your hand and show you how to do everything. I’m the kind of person that’s like I believe in other people so I’m going to equip them or let them do what they can do. Mhmm. So the fact that he was like I’m just not gonna tell you anything like against it seems like what Dumbledore’s character would be.
So yeah, I didn’t I didn’t care for it. We respect Dumbledore here, of course. But at the same time, you know, he goes through the reasons why he wouldn’t do it. And, basically, it’s almost like one of those episodes of a TV show where they just, like, flashback about previous episodes. There was a Seinfeld episode like this that was honestly terrible.
They’re just, like, talk about things that happened in previous episodes. Must be I skipped that episode. I’ve never seen it. It must be, like, a writer’s strike or something like that. Episode a 100.
So there’s, like, that’s sort of Let’s let’s mail it in for this one. So Dumbledore goes through all of Harry’s exploits in the 1st 3 years, but it seems like once the the 1st year when he has Quirrell, that whole thing, it’s almost better when someone has just experienced that trauma to just pile on some more trauma because it’s not gonna get worse really, so you might as well just let him know there that, like, hey, also, by the way, either you or or Voldemort is gonna kill the other one. That’s the situation. Or, potentially Dursleys and it’s like, oh, this is potentially dangerous because that’s the place he’s safe due to this super secret charm Dumbledore put on him. It’s like, hey, Harry.
I know you’d want to leave the Dursleys and they’re terrible people, but I have to tell you this prophecy thing because it’s kind of a big deal. Time is against you in these situations, especially once Voldemort gets back, it’s like, oh, now this could happen any time. You know, this showdown could happen at any moment. So it feels like when you do have time on your side, which is early on, you should really get on it and talk to Harry about it so that he can physically and mentally prepare for whatever is gonna come ahead. Yeah.
Probably not Dumbledore’s best. I think he is someone that wouldn’t convey information unless he’s certain. I’m not going to tell someone until I believe it. So I think that’s some of the delay too. I don’t think.
Well, it wasn’t a hypothesis. The prophecy was a prophecy. Like Oh, I guess the prophecy. Yeah. I guess that’s true.
And it came to him, so he knew. But was this conversation between Harry and Dumbledore, out of all the Harry Dumbledore conversations we’ve had in the past books, was this the best one? Maybe. I don’t know. What’d you think?
I think it was. I think it was like pretty handedly just because we get so much exposition on what happened. You know, we get so much lore of what happened between Voldemort and Harry and why Voldemort actually went to the Potters and attached to the Potters. And this wrinkle with Neville is really interesting to me if you to dissect and the fact that he picked Harry because Harry’s half Muggle and other but otherwise, like, just by Voldemort marking him, like, there’s a parallel universe where he did this to Neville, and who knows what what the story would be. You know?
It’d be Right. Neville Longbottom and the Order of Phoenix. It just doesn’t sound that good. You know? Yeah.
And I think on top of that, the payoff because of the lack of attention Dumbledore had been paying to Harry Potter and thus paying to us throughout this whole book was because it was so frustrating throughout the whole book. I need more Dumbledore. Where is Dumbledore? We normally get a couple bits of Dumbledore, like good bits throughout and then one payoff usually at the end, sometimes in the middle, but usually the end. And this time around, it’s like, wait.
What the heck? Like, we got 0 Dumbledore. He’s showing up places and then leaving immediately. So I think it was almost like that build up to that to that scene was awesome as well. Well.
But for me, mostly, I love all the, like, lore stuff. It was I know it now, so it’s hard to remember my initial feelings when I first read this book, but I’m pretty sure it was, like, pretty jaw dropping in, like, holy smokes. Like, this is why Voldemort went to Godric’s Hollow and and took out the Potters and and couldn’t take out Harry. Yeah. I mean, this is definitely Dumbledore’s best book.
All the scenes with him in it, like, actually fighting, actually, the Dumbledore army scene was awesome. Yeah. There’s a lot of lot of good stuff. But it was funny that, like, they’re, like, so this 15 year old boy just, one of his classmates get murdered right from his eyes. What we should do is just keep him isolated for the next month and a half, have no one talk to him, don’t give any information, keep him just separate from everyone.
That’ll that’ll be the best way to handle things. It seems like that’s when Dumbledore should’ve showed up and been, like, hey, Harry. Just so you know, there’s a lot more going on here that we can’t talk about because of x, y, and z. Do you have any other stock downs? Yeah.
Last one, the Weasley women’s stock down. Woah. T, man, as a reminder, who did Ginny go to the Yule Ball with the last book? Neville. And where did Ginny meet her now boyfriend, Michael Corner?
In the DA? No. Yeah. But where did he she meet him? Hogshead.
I don’t know. At the Yule Ball. She met him at the Yule Ball. Yeah. Went on a date with Neville to the Yule Ball, and then you’re meeting up with another dude there?
They went as friends. I don’t care. You at least don’t tell people that you that’s where you met. This is this is disrespectful of Neville who’s been disrespected upon disrespected upon disrespect upon. So I I didn’t care for it one bit.
Didn’t like it one bit. Well, in the in the words of Ginny Weasley and doctor evil, throw me a freaking bone here. She she was being nice and went to the Yule Ball with Neville. If she then found someone she wanted to snog with, then good for her. She didn’t disrespect Neville and, like, leave Neville at the Yule ball.
It was after dance with the one that brought you. Have you never heard that term? I thought it was you danced with the. Oh, yeah. Exactly.
Yeah. Okay. What other Weasley people you have to shut up? But yeah. That’s fine.
If you’re gonna do that, just don’t say you met him there. Just say I met him after class or whatever. I don’t at least it’s disrespectful to Neville. Come on. I’m trying to trying to help my boy out, Neville, out here.
Well, it’s kinda it’s kinda funny you say that because a lot of times people will be like, oh, like, how did you and Caroline? How did you guys meet? And I was like, oh, she used to be married to one of my best friends. Cut it. Cut that.
So, yeah, if, you know, if I’m with I’m with Ginny. I’m done with Ginny. Oh, I got it. I got it sometimes. Here we go.
I didn’t think about that. What was I gonna say? Oh, missus Weasley. I just didn’t like her vibe, this whole book. I mean, the last book she’s coming off, she’s, like, reading the Daily Prophet and believing it and being, like, oh, like, her mind is the worst.
Alright. Like, I was already kinda strike 1. Missus Weasley’s been, like, a mom figure. Like, I’ve always kinda given her the benefit of doubt. But this book, she’s doing, like, the same stuff, whereas, like, she’s I don’t know.
I just didn’t like her vibe, this whole book. And then Ron is is joins the secret defense club, you know, the Dumbledore’s army. Mhmm. And this is, like, the ironic part is that missus Weasley reaches out to him, not via mail, not via owl. She, like, gets a message to him being, like, you shouldn’t be in that club because you’re gonna get kicked out of school and that’s more important than anything.
It’s, like, you realize you’re messaging him not via owl because you’re worried about messaging him not via OWL because you’re worried about your government is messing things up. You literally can’t message someone because it’s because your own government, you don’t trust. Yes. This should be the priority. You should be defending yourself.
You’d be learning these things because, otherwise, this corrupt government’s gonna overthrow things and fuck you up. Right? So I I just didn’t like it. Didn’t make any sense to me. Yeah.
No. I I think the counterpoint and her real issue wasn’t the fact that he was gonna miss school or the government situation. It’s the fact that she’s a mom. She’s got Ginny who’s already been possessed by Voldemort. Her husband’s been attacked by Nagini and almost died.
She’s got 2 other sons that are in the order. She’s got Fred and George who are kind of loose cannons and you don’t know what they’re gonna do. So she’s worried sick all the time, understandably, which we know from when she saw the boggart and her worst fear is all for family dying. So it was it was really just to protect Ron so that he wouldn’t even get caught up in all of this stuff. I’m sure she wasn’t happy that Ginny was in it either.
It’s the fact that now her 2 youngest kids are preparing themselves to fight Death Eaters. Unfortunately, the, like, catch 22 of that is if they don’t join, then they don’t get those skills. And, unfortunately, the world is changing in that Voldemort’s back, so everyone’s gonna be at risk and you want people to be the most prepared, but I feel like you just wanna make sure your kids are safe. And I think for her, the whole thing was just about fear. Yeah.
Okay. No. That’s a good point. I’ll I’ll give you that. I got a couple more quick stock downs.
The wizarding judicial system stock down. I mean, I feel like it’s been a theme lately. We’ve talked about it in a couple of books. Early on the book, Harry goes on trial for his life, and it’s like a kangaroo court out there. You know, the times are changing.
The locations are changing. No one’s paying attention to the evidence. It just seemed like a terrible judicial system that people are giving you evidence, and they’re like, no. It didn’t happen. And people seem to be siding with the people that are saying, no.
It didn’t happen. What? You know? Yeah. I mean, become a radicalized terror.
Like I said, this is not the the owl thing is the last straw is my whole point. It’s like this is this is building up. Once you do that one last straw that makes you snap, you gotta go full. I’m almost decided it didn’t turn into Rambo. That’s where we get our introduction to Umbridge.
She starts off with her hem to hems. It’s like, oh my god. And they were you know, say she’s like a toad like woman, which is hilarious. And my other stock down is Hogwarts Accolades. I’m just not sure about them anymore.
You know, Ron’s a prefect. Why? Why is Ron a prefect? He’s a terrible student or presumably not a very good student. He copies everyone’s homework, and he’s not he just doesn’t seem to have any of the qualities of a prefect besides, like, the courageous things he does to help the school.
Yeah. I also thought it was funny that Dumbledore was, like, by the way, I didn’t I’m sorry I didn’t make you prefect because I didn’t wanna put more stress in your play. Then he started crying for that. I was, like, That’s a weird part to cry about. All the other things, like, it’s like there’s so many things that you could, like, get emotional about, and then that he was like, and I didn’t make you a prefect.
Did he start crying? And then on top of that, you get you get the house cup, which is the house cup actually a reflection of which house performed the best throughout the year? And I know this year. I realize that this year is totally fucked with Umbridge giving the inquisitorial squad the ability to give and take points, but it’s deeper than that. At the end, when Gryffindor has 0 points left, McGonagall wants to award the D.
A. Folks who fought Voldemort for battling Death Eaters not dying and exposing Voldemort, so she gives them 50 points each. You know, that’s, like, 5 Hermione answers in class. Yeah. It just it just doesn’t seem equitable to me.
So They’re street bucks. That that’s what they are. Do you have a favorite chapter in this one? The fight scene with Dumbledore and Voldemort was the first time seeing them 2 square off and first time seeing Dumbledore fight. And the first time really seeing an actual duel or, like, magic being used in a just, like, made up on the spot.
You know, they’re just, like, going for stuff that’s there. It’s almost like a video game or something. Yeah. No. I I love that.
It reminded me of, when we saw Yoda fight for the first time. I don’t know if you were in theaters for that where everyone just started clapping. I sure was. I started clapping. I was, like, let’s go.
So I’m not. It’s by myself. Yeah. And it was it was the same kind of, like, spontaneity where he’s, like, grabbing stuff from, like, pieces from the ceiling, like, throwing it at him and stuff. It’s awesome.
Yeah. He’s doing all the flips and stuff. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
The flips are so cool. The theater the theater used to be awesome for stuff like that. That movie sucked. But yeah. But yeah.
So I agree with you. That fight was pretty cool. Just seeing the spontaneity of a duel that can happen, you know, grabbing the the statues and stuff like that. Super cool. So that was your favorite part.
Yeah. What about you? It was probably not chapter 26, which is seen and unforeseen. And the reason why is because we start I started listening to that chapter, like, I was talking about when I was in the hospital when when my daughter was born, and we were there for 2 days or whatever, a day and a half. I would, like, try to listen to it, but as I was trying to fall asleep, but there’s all of a sudden a baby crying next to you that you’re just, like, totally not used to, obviously, and people coming in all the time.
So I’d be, like, kind of in and out of sleep. I probably started that chapter over 10 different times and never heard a minute of it. So I have no idea what happened in that chapter even though I’ve listened to it Yeah. Like, 10 times. So, yeah, I would say probably, I’m gonna count it once again, like, the Beatles medley.
Like, the whole department of mysteries fight situation at the end, I thought was fun. You see all this cool, random wizard stuff that they have in the department of mysteries. It felt like we’re deep, deep, deep into the wizarding world right now. You know, not only was the actual, like, hall of prophecies, like, super cool to to think about, just like that that thing exists and there are these people that, you know, put out these prophecies and they’re here. But then, from the brains to the veil, like, everything was super cool, and that was just, like, the background to this fight that was happening between a bunch of teenagers and some hardcore death eaters that was going on in the foreground.
Just love that in general. And, if it’s not that, then it’s just the chat with Harry and Dumbledore because, like I said, I love lore, and so that lost prophecy stuff was was super cool. Because I I did feel originally reading the book, I remember feeling like, oh, I can’t believe that prophecy got destroyed. Like, we’re never gonna know. And then when Dumbledore was like, oh, I was there, it was like, yes.
Tell me more. Tell me more. Right. Right. So I love love that stuff.
What about, favorite character? We had a few I’m I’m only gonna talk about the big new characters. I’m not gonna go through the list because at this point of the book, when it comes to, like, magical elements and spells and characters, there’s just, like, so many that happen in these books. But the big characters we have is, obviously, Umbridge, new character, Luna Lovegood, Gorp, I guess, Hagrid’s giant brother, Bellatrix Lestrange. I feel like she’s been referenced, but this is the first time we meet her.
And I added Cho here because although Cho is not a new character, we do spend a good amount of the first, like, 2 thirds of this book with her either present or discussions going around on about this, you know, because these kids are now 15 and those hormones are firing and, love is in the air. So so she she takes up a good amount. It was Luna Lovegood for me, clearly. Honestly, I just I just liked her. I like her a lot.
She’s a good hang, I think. Yeah. She’s just like kinda has that a positive vibe about her. People make fun of her all the time, like, right to her face and she’s like, yeah, not a big deal. It’s what it’s whatever.
Like, a lot of the these characters can learn a lot from Luna. 100%. She kind of lets things roll off her back. I did write in the book at one point like, you know, they need a good vibes person right now because everyone is bringing this like moodiness to the book And obviously, I understand because, like A lot of angst, teen angst going on. Yeah.
So just a lot of going on, so I get it. But you need something that’s a little more even keel. It’s just a good vibe that’s gonna bring the the attitude or, you know, bring some positivity. Yeah. That’s where she was.
And she’s, like, she’s good for a joke. She’s good for some some good conspiracies. I liked it. I like her a lot. She’s good for consoling too.
Like, there’s really nothing that Luna can’t do well, and she reads the room really well. She, like, reads other people even though she still definitely goes to the beat of her own drum. There’s no question. Yeah, which I like her. Yeah, of course.
She’s unique. I think the level of internal self confidence and not in like an arrogant way, just in like, I like myself, and I’m okay if other people don’t. Yeah. Or, like, I’m just gonna be me because I like the person I am. It’s awesome.
Luna’s just a great a great character, and the only problem was I had to listen to the wife talk my head off about how she should be in Hufflepuff and not Ravenclaw for, like, you know, why isn’t she in Hufflepuff? We’re, like, on a walk. She’s like, why isn’t she in Hufflepuff? Why isn’t she in Ravenclaw? And I think it is a good point because I think she does have those qualities.
But, you know, she probably put the sorting hat on, and, and the sorting hat gave her gave her the choices. She’s a free thinker. I think that’s why. Yeah. She’s a free thinker.
Those are free thinkers. For me. And I always describe her as being dreamy which is kinda weird to me because I always think, when I think of like dreamy, I’m thinking of like, you know, McDreamy. Yeah. You know?
Like, oh, I see. Yeah. So every time they’re like and she came with a dreamy look, it’s like, oh, damn. So she’s she’s got that game too. And they’re like Yeah.
Meaning she’s, like, out to lunch. And I was like, oh, alright. Yeah. But I that the whole hoverboard thing, I didn’t really think about before, but I was like, yeah. Actually, they make a lot of sense.
I don’t like labeling people. I think they should be in the warehouse they want. You know? That’s what I’m about. I mean, after the Sorting Hat song at the beginning, the only house I would wanna be in is Hufflepuff.
It’s all about xenophobic these how xenophobic these founders were. I had a I had a phone to pick about the the Sorting Hat. Okay. You can pick it now? I mean, the whole thing was it’s, like, hey, like, we can’t be separating each other into groups.
We gotta all come together. It’s, like, that’s what your only job is. That’s literally the only thing you do is separate people into groups. So when you you’re the person that’s doing this. Yeah.
It doesn’t make any sense. He has the whole speech. Then afterwards, he’s like, alright. Ravey talk. Yeah.
So we’re gonna now we’re gonna separate people in groups, and you’re all different for these different reasons now. And you shouldn’t get along. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s an interesting point.
That’s a actually, a really interesting point. Goddamn. We need to join together. Alright. I’m gonna support you.
Yeah. Now we’re gonna divide you all of you, and you’re all special for only for certain reasons. This is the only way we’re gonna identify you moving forward. The story is pretty fascinating, just the idea that oh, he’s like, oh, okay. So the founders came in.
You know? Gryffindor wanted some brave ones, so he only picked brave people. Slytherin wanted some cunning people, so he only picked the cunning. Ravenclaw wanted smart people and Shiloh, and then Hufflepuff took the rest. It’s like, oh, so Hufflepuff’s the only good one in this?
Like Yeah. The rest of you are just losers? No. It’s the other way around. All Hufflepuff’s the losers.
It’s like the people that couldn’t fit in to the other side. I know. But I just meant from, like you know, you’re starting a school, and that’s kind of one of the arguments with all college institutions and stuff now. Like, don’t you want a diverse population of people that come from different obviously, if you’re, like, you want people that are interested in going to school and and learning and people that are you know, have intelligence. I understand that that’s part of school.
But at the same time, it’s like, shouldn’t you want diverse backgrounds and diverse thinkers? And, you know, that’s what makes a campus interesting and those conversations interesting. At least, that’s the theory. My my college experience was more drinking and drugs, but, you know, that’s what it is. Pick your magical element.
I’m obviously not gonna go through all the magical elements because there’s so many here. Did you did you have one? Yeah. Mine was the the contract. Oh.
The the Dumbledore’s army contract. Yeah. That one Hermione did. Big fan. But how about Cho defending her friend after getting them was almost all expelled?
Zero sense. She just made a simple mistake. It’s, like, you mean she tried to get, like, 15 peep or no. It was, like, 25 people expelled? Yeah.
And you’re, like, that’s a silly mistake. You, Cho? Yeah. Like, what are you talking about? She’s like, yeah.
That was a really mean thing Hermione did. It’s like, shut the fuck. Like, you gotta I’m glad he broke up with the show after that. I forgot Cho said that. So she’s, yeah, she’s off the list too.
He’s like, that was so mean of what Hermione did to that. It’s like, you signed a contract. What what do you mean? Like, just don’t sign the contract than if you didn’t want to abide by the contract. And also, it wasn’t like they were they weren’t doing anything bad either.
So, like, the turns that went in to get them kicked out, it’s it’s not, like, for the good of the people. It’s malicious. It’s literally, like, the worst thing you could do, and you’re part of the club. It’s it’s malicious, and it’s turn Cody. Yeah.
Benedict Arnold. Yeah. Yeah. Choice should’ve just go and got in there and be, like, my bad. Yeah.
That’s a a big hand. My Hand. Her arm should break from saying hand up so quickly, Alaire. It it didn’t make any sense. I agree with you.
A 100%. I think I have to pick the rumor requirements talking about the DA. The rumor requirements in general, it just seems like the most cool aspect of the wizarding world that we’ve ever seen or ever will see. Like, Harry was so amazed by the mirror of Irrisad, and I understand why. Obviously, his parents passed away, But Dumbledore’s saying, no.
You gotta be careful. You know, people stare into this mirror forever. If I had a room of requirements, I would never leave the room of requirements. There’s no reason to. You’re there.
It’s like, oh, it’s a football Sunday. It’s like, okay. Cool. All of a sudden, there’s 16 TVs up there, all the chicken wings you want, like, endless, you know, a fountain of Miller light just pouring out, and all of the the bookies are just sitting there waiting for you to take all your bets. Seat.
Perfect. I love it. I mean, that’s my requirement now. If when I was 13, it was you know, there’d be plaster coating the walls. It it’s it’s a Jesus Christ.
You know, it’d be it’s a totally different Right. Right. You could do anything in there. That’s the point is it could be all of the cool things you wanna do. I wanna go bowling.
It’s, like, okay. Go to the room of requirements and just be, like, I wanna go bowling, and there’s gonna be the coolest bowling alley in the world there. I had actually had a as one of my hates, one of the things, because I mixed I mixed it up with the Mirror of Erised. I didn’t realize that people could just get in to it and expose all your secrets. Like, I I thought it was like the Mirror of Erised.
Like, you only can get into the room if you need the room. Right? Like, you can only get the The Philosopher’s Stone? Yeah. So, like, the fact that, like, they could just go in there and narc everyone out, it’s like, that defeats the whole purpose of the room.
The whole purpose was for you to keep this a secret, and the room didn’t do that. So I was kind of upset with the room, honestly. Well, I don’t know. The room wasn’t there to to keep a secret. The room was to provide them a place to practice, you know, defensive go in and like, how does a person think that?
I wanna go find Harry Potter. That’s what I’m required. You know, that’s the requirement I have. And then they just go where they are. Yeah.
You know? So there’s, like, go to a room that has all of his deep, dark secrets in it? Like, I don’t when does that work? Yeah. There’s a I’m sure someone on, like, Reddit or something has broke down.
Yeah. Has broke down all the the points of the remote requirement. But, yeah, overall, it just seems like a super cool it just it could be anything. Right? Like, it’s just, like, one of those, like, technology AI rooms or something that they that, like, Meta wants to be except it’s real.
You know, you just go in there and be, like, I want a hot tub. It’s, like, hot tub. Boom. Yeah. No.
I mean, it’s great. It is great. My runner-up was was the veil itself in the, at the end where Sirius falls through. Okay. I I need to ask you about that because I I that was one of my hits also.
I don’t know what a veil is. What is a veil? The thing they put over your head in a wedding? Like, that thing? Yeah.
Like, wait. What the hell is that? City of color in Colorado that’s just in this room? The the city city? Stand.
I had no idea what’s going on when they were like, they’re like, they opened up the veil, and I was like Yeah. I think that’s what you’re saying. Like, the thing that goes in front of your face at a wedding or whatever, but, like, a curtain almost. It’s just like a a doorway or, like, an archway that has a flowy curtain type thing through it, and they can hear voices on on the other side. But what is interesting is Dumbledore referred that to Fudge.
He was like, oh, there’s a bunch of Death Eaters in the death chamber, I think is what he called it. So is the Veil, like, the place where they murder people? Like, why is it there? What? Because he called it, like, the death room or, like, the death chamber.
So is that where they, like, murder prisoners? Yeah. That’s a good point. Yeah. I don’t know.
And and then I think in general, though, I also, in this book and this is probably one of my loves, but, I’ll just burn it here. But the way that JK approached Harry’s attempt to deal with Sirius’ death, I thought was really good. And for someone that’s probably, like, new to the I mean, that’s someone that’s definitely new to the wizarding world relatively so, and having someone close to them die. Oh, he’s, like, running to Nearly Headless Nick, seeing if he can become a ghost. He’s, like, confused and thinking he’s gonna come back from the Vale.
You know, he’s trying to talk into the mirror that he gave him gave him, thinking it’s the mirror of Irr said. Harry knows in the back of his head that none of this stuff is true, but you just he doesn’t wanna he doesn’t wanna believe it. Like, he knows that Sirius isn’t coming back, but he doesn’t wanna believe it. And I thought that, like, the anguish that he has without it being, like, so overt, and it it just, like, him bawling his eyes out all the time was really hard to swallow. It was real.
You know? Like, that that anguish that is him trying to figure that out and how he’s gonna deal with that was was really I thought that JK did a really good job with that. And once again, Luna comes in with just awesome stuff as always. You know? She’s definitely the person you want by your side when when things like that happen.
So overall, I liked it. Did you have a spell? A a spell from this one that that tickled you? The magical ears or extendable ears. Oh, extendable ears.
Yeah. I really kinda wanted more info on that. Are they are it would be interesting to me if it was like go go gadget expendable ears and they’re their own ears. Is that what it was? Or was it like just microphones?
Because like except like I think it was like extendable ears aren’t as cool if they’re just like, alright, I’m gonna put a microphone down here and like listen to the conversation. But if it’s their own ears and they’re like snaking them down, now I’m interested. No. I think it was more like the cup and wire situation. Yeah.
I didn’t care for it, though. I’m out on them. Never mind. Give me the long give me extendable ears. Like, go go gadget here.
And then they, like, throw it over, like, a balcony or something and hear up there. All of a sudden, a dog walks by and, like, grabs your ear and is yanking on it down the street? Sounds terrible. I know there’s a lot cooler things you could’ve done of the you know, with your ear rather than being, like, I’m just putting a microphone here. How do you feel about occlumency and the geniments the occlumency stuff that was going on?
Was that for you? Was that interesting to you? Or was that not interesting? It seemed kinda arbitrary of how it worked or how you block it or what the point of it was. And then ultimately he didn’t need to use it.
Right? He didn’t use it at all. Yeah. They’re like you gotta train you gotta train on it. You gotta train on it.
And you see you obviously knew something bad was gonna happen and then like after that they’re like and we’re done using it now. It’s like, alright, I guess that’s that. Yeah. I was I was kinda with you. I think that it obviously, it brings Snape into this in a in a new way because of this, you know, we get more background on Snape.
And I think it makes you realize, oh, if Snape, like, especially later on when they’re saying, you know, Snape’s undercover and stuff like that, or they were kinda saying that before, but, like, earlier in this book. But you wonder, like, how can he do that? But it’s like, oh, if he’s, you know, really good occulments, then he’s able to, like, kind of darker, like, you know, make it so the dark lord can’t see his his thoughts. So, like, that it becomes makes a little more sense for that story. But Yeah.
I think just in general, it was like, alright. Whatever. But it also seems like a pretty interesting piece of magic that probably, like, should be taught to most people. Yeah. It should be taught in, like, dark arts, obviously.
Yeah. Or or defense against the dark arts. That’s what arts. Yeah. Yeah.
You’re right. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like if people can go into your head and, like, steal your thoughts. It seems like, like, this is just like a credit card scheme, like a credit card Yeah.
Or a personal identification, whatever the thing is, all that fraud. That’s like what a really good wizard criminal would do. Right? Just use to be like, hey. What’s your passcode?
And then people are like, what do you mean? And they think about it, and you’d be like, oh, never mind. Yeah. It seems like that’s something that that, like, people should be teaching if that’s a branch of dark magic or just kinda any magic that that could occur. But, yeah, I wasn’t I was neither here nor there on it.
I’m gonna pick a non spell, which is the fact that it should be Avada Kedavra. Like, the the spell should be Avada Kedavra because it should be like, oh, Avada Kedavra has to be the best spell because you could just, like, immediately kill anyone and it’s all over. But the death eaters, for some reason, in the ministry of magic just, like, don’t use it. They they keep hitting the kids with, like, leg binding curses and curses that make them giggle and and stuff like this, but it’s, like, just kill them. What are we doing here?
Harry tries one of the unbelievable curses which is kind of just brushed under the rug. Yeah. He tries Cursea on Bellatrix. And it sounds like you really you need to pull it from, like, deep within your soul to use that spell. So my guess is it’s kind of like a video game where, like, you gotta charge it up.
You can’t just be using you can’t just be on davra cadavering left and right. You gotta you gotta build up that stanima and get that hate in in there and then be able to send it out. Oh. That’s what I that way I thought it was. Interesting.
So you’re thinking, like, even as a bad guy or whatnot, you can’t just, like, be thrown a lot of cadavers out there left to right. So I think you also have to have, like, extreme concentration. And, like, certain spells, it’s like Lumos is, like, yeah, whatever. I like the way you said that, like, a video game situation where it, like, charges up over time or whatever, where you can use, like, the little curses. It makes me think of how a wizarding battle would go, talking And so the strategy of the wiki.
Technology. Yeah. So if if there’s, like if you can’t Avada Kedavra people, you need that Gatling gun with all the wands in it or something like that. But I wonder how wizards fight battles because, obviously, there has to have been fights in the wizarding world. Do you know?
So I I wonder how they would do that if you can’t just, like, go around, you know, a vodacadabra, vodacadabra. Alright. What about magical creatures? In this one, we had probably thestrals and and giants are probably the big 2. Maybe, like, centaurs.
Centaurs came in more, but I guess I like the giants. Obviously, I thought that was kind of an interesting side story. So dude like that, Hagrid was like, you know, you’re not old enough to be in the order of Phoenix, but can you take this giant carry this giant in the woods for me? Like, not a big deal. Right?
Like, yeah. Alright. Yeah. We’re when Caroline and I were on that walk today, I was like, yeah, what do you like about, you know, Harry Potter in the order of Phoenix? And she was like, I thought the Hagrid was, like, you know, really out of bounds here asking the kids to, you know, do all this stuff that’s really dangerous, and they they shouldn’t be doing it.
Like, what? Like, she’s like, Hagrid took a turn. You know? He’s like, they’re He’s in every book. Yeah.
He’s I feel like this was like a next level, though. It’s like, you know, they could get expelled. Like, he’s getting he says to leave the school because he’s getting fired, but he’s like, yeah, break curfew, go into the woods in a forbidden forest, which you’re not even supposed to be in anymore because the centaurs Mhmm. Have kicked everyone out and find my half brother giant and read him a story? Like, what?
Alright. Let’s get into some love hates. What did you, love about Harry Potter and the other face? Every McGonagall umbrage interaction Oh. Just eject that right into my veins.
I I loved it. Just just great. McGonagall does not fuck around with anyone, does not take that shit from anyone. And the ultimate grudge holding is, like, now I’m gonna even make Harry even more of a or because he said he couldn’t be one. That’s the person I want on my side for this.
That’s pretty pretty nice. But then she didn’t do anything. I was like, you know, set up a plan now. What are you gonna how are you gonna help how are you gonna help Harry out? You know?
Yeah. Good point. Help him for his CV. Yeah. That’s a good one.
That’s a really good one. I didn’t even think about that because I all those interactions, you’re like, oh, you know McGonigal’s gonna come out on top and you just she just does not give a shit about, like, about Umbridge. But she does just enough where it’s like she because you know she can’t go anywhere. Dumbledore’s probably told her, like, hey, Minerva, like, you gotta at least stay chill because I’m out. You know?
So you gotta do something to make sure you can’t get out of here because we’re losing allies real quick. Yeah. I liked all the stuff that the professors did to subvert or whatever umbrage with, you know, all the stuff that the Weasleys did and them not doing anything about it, them kinda helping Peeves out to, like, screw Umbridge. They just they know the castle is not going anywhere, so it’s like, hey. Let’s make her life terrible as a headmistress and, you know, we’ll just live on with our lives.
I’m gonna say getting some of Snape’s memories. I loved that stuff because it’s not, like, lore necessarily, but you do get a lot of history of why Snape is the way he is, why he treats Harry the way he treats Harry. And it seems like it was just because James Potter was an arrogant, bullying tote rag. Those are Lily’s words, not mine. But I know there was, like, a kind of a part there was, like, a, you know, couple chapters in there where Harry was like, wow.
So my dad was just an asshole. And Sirius and Lupin were like, no. You know? Him and Snape just, like, had it out for each other, like, since the jump. But his dad even says and this is what Harry says.
He’s like, he said he just wanted to bother him because he’s alive, like, he’s breathing. It’s like because he exists is what he said. Like, I just because he exists, we shouldn’t bother him. It’s like, oh, his dad really is just a bully. Right?
Yeah. I I like that they made it so he had his parents as his, like, perfect images in his mind. It’s almost good. It’s like everyone’s human. He wasn’t that great in school but then he grew out of that.
Like he made he made mistakes. He learned from it type thing. Where Snape hasn’t. Snape still is a fucking piece of shit. So less less so much on Snape.
Yeah. Interesting. That’s probably accurate and fair because if you just took something that I, you know, that I had done in the past that I’m not proud of, that I’d done when I was in middle school or high school or something like that and showed me it or showed some of my family, they’re like, wow. Dylan’s just like, next generation. At worst.
Yeah. Wow. He’s a terrible person. But, you know, that doesn’t make up who you are, and you you can you can grow out of that. We’re all human.
Everyone makes mistakes. Yeah. It’s good. Yeah. It’s good that, as long as you can grow from it.
You know? I did like out here. They were like, Harry, he was, like, 15. And Harry was like, I’m 15, and I’m not a dick. Yes.
I was like, yeah. That’s a good point. That’s a good point. What else do you love? I just head down, hey, Zacharias Smith, get fucked, but, I don’t know.
I don’t remember what the note was, but I didn’t like that. Hiccups now. Damn it. You gave me the hiccups. Zacharias Smith was the one that was talking shit to Harry the whole time at the DA and be like, oh, we’re not gonna fuck, bud.
Either way. I think for this story, you know, the whole time at the beginning, we’re seeing Harry being, like, easily annoyed at people and just having a a really short temper and this darkness about him that we hadn’t seen before. And it was kinda here and there and definitely wasn’t explained, and you just thought, like, oh, you know, Harry’s a teenager. You know? Like, that’s that’s kinda gonna happen.
But then at the end, when it’s like, oh, this is just a little bit of Voldemort coming out in him. Now you realize, holy smokes. Like, this is this connection is more than just their phoenix core wands. Like, when Voldemort cursed him, that he left a piece of him inside Harry, and it just, like, creates so much more interesting stuff down the line. And then it also explains some of these moments when he had these, like, bouts of jealousy and all these things that are that are natural for us so that we’re like, oh, okay.
But it just seemed a little off for Harry to go that far, and now we kinda know why. At least that’s how I read it. Maybe it was just Harry, you know. I thought it was him just not being able to process grief and he was just like and no one’s helping him with it. So he just kinda was having these outbursts because of because of that.
He was, like, super upset with Hermione and Ron when they were, like, not getting that information. I was pissed too. I was, like, reading that being, like, I just saw someone die. What’s going on here? What about hate?
Does no one care what people are chanting at the stadium or have, like Yeah. Not do they not have ears at the stadium or do they not are they do they not have eyes? Like, it seems like things will happen to the stadium. Everyone’s aware of it and then, like, a fight will break out and they’re, like, how did this happen? It’d be, like, start turning on the Pistons fight where they go, like, go in the stands Yeah.
And start fighting them, but just being, like, starting it with them fighting in the stands. It’s like, you didn’t see any of the lead up in any of the stuff that happened before that or any of those things? Yeah. No? So, I feel like it’s just kinda a little disingenuous, especially from the teacher’s standpoint.
Yeah. It seems kind of interesting that I assume that JK took this from the, like, real big soccer chants and soccer rallies that that occur in, you know, in Europe. But it feels like at a school, there should be some sort of limits to what you can do. But at the same time, you know, the Triwizard Tournament, they had they ran out, you know, pins going around saying potter sucks. The whole, Weasley situation, it just it seems like that that’s really bad sportsmanship and potentially could make someone go crazy if you’re just doing that to a student over and over and over again.
I also have a quick bone to pick with that because Malfoy, the first match, when they do the whole Weezly thing, but then Harry catches the snitch, Malfoy’s, like, gloating about or talking shit to Ron. It’s like, Malfoy, you just lost. Like, no one just says to him, like, buddy, you just lost. Like, Harry just turned around and beat you to the snitch. It doesn’t matter.
I can let in 14 goals to to and we can score none, but it’s all gonna depend on you. And once again, you blew it. Yeah. You choked. You’re terrible.
Yeah. Especially after you win, would anything bug you? I would, like, not be offended. I’d be, like, bro, you’re you’re so bad at this sport. Like, you know, like, there’s nothing that would really get under my skin after I I beat them.
Yeah. If I had a really bad game, it would definitely bother me. But at the same time, we still won. So Right. I’m gonna I’m gonna laugh in his face and say, yeah.
Sorry. You know, you suck. But Yeah. And I know Madam Hooch was there, and I know the whole thing was once again like an umbrage ordeal, but the stuff that they were saying, none of the other professors, like, come and and stand up for Harry and the Weezes, and the stuff they were saying, they’re talking about Harry’s dead parents. And, yeah, I know physical violence isn’t the answer, but, oh my god.
You just you can’t say those things. My first hate is it has to be Umbridge. I mean, Umbridge has to be the number one hate for sure. And it’s a different kind of hate than normally because I don’t hate this book because of Umbridge, but I kind of do. It’s like a weird relationship that we have.
I just think that she might be the most despicable and hateable villain that has ever existed. I also think her her punishment wasn’t enough. I kinda wanted the Game of Thrones, like, the shame woman in, like, the little thing the torture chamber and leave her there for, like, for years years. That’s what she kinda deserved. Yeah.
So I needed a little bit more. That would have been more satisfying where you, like, just get her running away. I’m, like, that’s it? Yeah. Like, she should be brought up on charges of child abuse.
Yeah. You know, like, at the end of the day, at least. Attempted murder, she sent to Dementors at Harry. Oh, yeah. She admitted to sending the Dementors at Harry.
She used an unforgivable curse on him. Like, what’s the punishment for using an unforgivable curse? Well, did she use it, or did she she say she’s about to use it? I don’t remember. Either way, she’s just so despicable.
Every time she does her ahem, ahem, and, like, her her, like, I know best, She’s just such a unique and hateable villain that it was so good. Like, I I love that JK was able to create this character. It made this book sometimes worse because she’s in so much of it. In every scene, I’m just angry at Umbridge that people can’t just do anything about it and she’s this dictator at Hogwarts all of a sudden because she has, you know, the minister’s blessing, which also makes no sense. So, yeah, it’s it’s an interesting hate.
Definitely one of the top villains in my mind in anything I’ve ever read. Yeah. Well, the only person that’s more more of a villain than her is obviously Percy. But, yeah, other than that, you know? Yeah.
I mean well, yeah. I don’t even wanna talk about Percy. He’s he he he’s just he shouldn’t even be discussed. Yeah. I apologize.
Yeah. Not gonna bring his name up. The p word. Yeah. Yeah.
The worst. What else do you hate? Would wouldn’t you be pissed if you’re, like, the Weasleys? Mhmm. Wouldn’t you be pissed at Harry and like or all the other people’s kids parents for bringing them to the, Ministry of Magic?
Get lured there and then for no reason? There was like no reason for them to them to be there. Right? Would you be, like, why’d you bring all all our kids to this place to get attacked by Death Eaters? Yeah.
Seems like there’s no pushback there. I’d be, like, you’re not hanging out with them anymore. Like, this dude’s a fucking bad dude. Yeah. Xenophilius, whatever, Lovegood would probably not care so much because he’d be like, that was a cool experience.
Yeah. It’s like, yeah. Obviously, you had to check out what’s going on. Yeah. Makes sense.
I think it was a dream. Of course. That’s a good point. I mean, Hermione was the only one that was talking any sense there, and it seemed like everything was moving way too fast, and it was out of Hermione’s control to to do anything. Granted, you know, once Kreacher says that, like, Sirius isn’t there, it’s like, oh, shit.
But then, I don’t know. Seems like they should have been able to do something, but they couldn’t. They couldn’t contact anyone from the order, so I get it. And if he had already seen Ron’s dad get killed by a snake and then all of a sudden he’s seeing Sirius about to be killed by Voldemort, then, you know, I feel like he had to he they they had to do something. So good on those kids for going.
I would have been like, yeah. Actually, you know what? I can’t make it right now. I’ve had the runs, like, nonstop, and I feel like I can’t I can’t do that. So, I’m gonna have to sit this one out.
I already talked about, Dumbledore not being a character, really, but then it kind of all makes sense at the end, so it’s not really hate. But the only other thing I really hated was was Jim Dale’s Bellatrix Lestrange or Lestrange accent. He’s like she goes super French with it, and I understand her name is Lestrange or Lestrange, whatever the case is. So, yeah, it’s it’s a French name, but that doesn’t mean you have to she’s all of a sudden from Beauxbaton. It’s like she has this super, super French accent, and it kinda takes away from her, like, sinisterness.
I didn’t hate it. I mean, it didn’t it didn’t really stick out to me. He has so many voices he could do. So Yeah. You throw in a French accent, it makes it so it’s like, oh, that’s the French person.
Up? Yeah. I’m fine with it. I I didn’t have an issue with it personally. But Yeah.
Maybe maybe it’s me because I’ve seen the movies and I know that it’s like Helen Carter who who does the who’s like the actress for her and she’s so good, which we’ll talk about in the in the next one. That to me, that’s what Bellatrix sounds like. Isn’t she just playing I’ve only seen pictures of it because I haven’t seen the movie, but isn’t she just playing the same character that she plays in Fight Club? Tonight, just I mean, that’s what the the makeup she has all looks like, but maybe I’ll be back. But but crazier somehow.
Okay. You know? Like, even more deranged. Yeah. Alright.
Yeah. Mhmm. Do you have any other 8s? My last one, and this is probably gonna come up too in our conclusion, but this actually end up being number 5 from my books. Really?
The reason that it’s good is because it’s so long and we get so much backstory. The final fight scene was a little convoluted to me. I didn’t really know what’s going on. Yeah. It was a long time.
But the biggest thing to me is that we’ve talked about this with our books. I hate when the mystery is the lack of communication. Like, the only re the drama is caused by people just not telling you what’s going on. So that’s the drama instead of it being like a mystery, like what is going on? No one knows.
So we have to figure this out. There isn’t like this like putting the pieces together. It’s just like this is what’s happening. This is what’s happening over here but we’re not telling you over here. That’s the drama.
I see what you’re saying. Which just, you know, just annoys me kind of because it’s like this seems like this could be simply easily solved. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it also seems like they know from Harry’s dreams that he’s in the Department of Mysteries.
Right. And they could just very easily be like, that’s when Dumbledore should just tell him. Definitely don’t go any don’t go any further here. Let me just tell you what’s up as opposed to being this roundabout, like, take occlumency with Snape, and then do this and do that. And then, obviously, you mentioned Umbridge.
It’s just, like, when I’m angry at reading the book 80% of the time, and I’m, like, and then you, like, attack an owl, it’s upsetting me. What about some lingering questions? Do you have any lingering questions on this one? We’re getting a little long, but I have a reader email. You’ve got mail.
Grady from West Virginia. In the book, they talk about how there are very few pureblood wizardry lines left, and everyone knows them. Most of them are dark haired, but is there some Game of Thrones going on here? Because, blonde hair and red hair are recessive genes. Mhmm.
So the question is, are the Malfoy’s and Weasleys just inbred? Absolutely. Because they’re both pure blood families. Right? Yeah.
Has to be. Are there other pure blood redheads and blondes? Yeah. And if there are, then those are the only options for the Weasleys. Because they were showing, like, the family tree.
Yeah. And everyone’s interrelated. It’s like, oh, we’re really And they’re all dark haired, and they’re all, like it’s, like, oh, yeah. This is all part of this one family tree. It’s also, like, I wonder if there even are, like, they might just say they’re pure blood.
But, you know, if you go back down the line, it’s probably, like, hard to actually Yeah. Yeah. Although, just the spoilers for the next book, we definitely need some inbreds in that next book. So Oh, yeah. So, like, I I don’t know.
I I think there’s something to it. I think, Grady’s got a good point here. Yeah. That actually very interesting. I I feel like the Malfoy’s definitely a bread, just that they have to be.
But the Weasleys feels like even red hair is even more recessive gene. So, yeah, I don’t know. It’s a it’s a really good point. It’s a really good point. Okay.
What about other good questions? Did you have any? I didn’t have any. Okay. I got a couple.
There’s an Easter break. They talk about Easter break. Why? Why is there an Easter break? Are wizards Christian?
Jesus risen from the dead. They have Christmas break. I mean, you didn’t realize that part. Yeah. But, you know, lots of people celebrate Christmas just because it’s, like, you know, for the for the presents, you know, but now there’s Easter.
I don’t know. Is Matt Eye really that good of an aura? I mean, we already know that he got put in a put in a box literally Yeah. By another person, and, you know, that was at his house. And then this time around, they go to the, you know, the Department of Mysteries, and Mad Eye’s immediately down.
It’s like, oh, Mad Eye’s down. It’s like, what? He’s supposed to be the best of all the ores. Like, shouldn’t he be doing some crazy stuff here, like throw out some hand grenades or something like that? He should be like Arnold Schwarzenegger in commando.
I think they’re confusing best and grittiest and toughest. He’s like Ronnie Lott, but he’s like 70 at this point. Right? So he’s like the guy that will like, he they’re flying back, and he’s in the cold. And he’s, like, I’m not giving out.
I don’t care it’s cold. You know? And the other one’s freezing. Like Yeah. So he’s tough, but he’s not actually that good, I don’t think.
That’s why I think they’re confusing those 2. You see what I’m saying? Yeah. Past his prime, but he’s still, like, the old grizzled vet. Yeah.
He he can handle, like, pain, but he’s just not really He’s not quick on the draw. Yeah. He’s not quick on the draw anymore. Got it. Why did Sirius not give Harry this two way mirror, like, 2 books ago?
At the end, it’s like, you got this note from Sirius that’s like, here’s this mirror. You can contact me whenever you want. We can talk through it. It’s like, You’ve been coming to me through fires and these roundabout ways? Think that it was because it was in his house.
Okay. But even then, when when he got to the house over the summer, it’s like, hey. We might need to chat this year. There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on. Voldemort’s back.
Take this mirror. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That’s a good point. Yeah.
I didn’t really I didn’t really understand that. Who gets awarded the House Cup for you? You already spoiled it. I gave the House Cup to the government. Oh.
We talked about the government being just incompetent, not very good at what they do, really not smart, not well run machine. But they they can run a goddamn smear campaign, like you said. Yeah. I mean, they’re great at building that distrust. Just a great overall job, you know.
It’s good to see an organization that isn’t very well run, you know, be proficient and be good at something and organize well. That’s kind of government I want. So, hats off to the government on on this one. Yeah. I’m gonna give it to the Weasley Twins.
I already went went over the reasons why. I just thought they really took this book for me. They they they’re what made this book Mhmm. Good for me. So so I’m gonna I’m gonna have to give it to the Weasley twins.
And then, your order. So is your order 43125. What about you? I got 43152. Okay.
So 2 still lasts. Yeah. I think 2, if you just double the size of 2, then 2 is a way better book to me. Yeah. I think so too.
If you had a lot more stuff, it would but the only problem is then you have to, like, fill that stuff. So, like, what is that stuff? You know, but we’ll never know. Yeah. But this book was half fulfilling.
It was, like, him and Umbridge and him and relationship with Cho and stuff like that. So I I think that would be cheating. I have no issue for, like, it’s just, like, there’s a book 2 of a series you can’t come out with a 600 page book all of a sudden. Yeah. We get no Quidditch in this.
You know, there’s not a ton of, like, school stuff going on with, like, classes and stuff really. It’s more of, like, talking about OWLs and, you know, then, like, them just saying the whole time they have so much homework, so much homework, so much homework. So I agree with you after rereading it. And granted, I spent a lot of time changing diapers with the baby screaming as I’m listening to this. So, like, that kinda takes away from it as well.
But I I I agree. It’s it’s it’s not the best. Alright. Where are we going next? We got the movie coming up next, and then, obviously, we’re on to book 6, The Half Blooded Prince.
So we’ll get keep the train rolling. Yeah. This is Harry Potter and and the Order of Phoenix, and we’ll catch you for the movie. I’m excited for you to watch this movie because I and this is one that I haven’t seen in a really long time either. So Okay.
I’m I’m excited to watch it too because I honestly don’t even remember what happens. I mean, I know what happens, but you know what I’m saying. Alright. Cool. I’ll catch you for that one.
Alright. Alright. Bye now. Bye now.
