Join hosts Ev, Irvin, and Sophia and guest Mayuri Patel (@patelmn) as they discuss Halloween in the Harry Potter books.
In this episode:
- Voldemort wants a very heavy Veil
- How do the Durlseys do Halloween?
- Snape’s giving out Acid Pops!
- Dead or Petrified, it’s still good decor
- Draco doesn’t have potential, he’s just like this
- Goblet of Fire is basically Harry Potter Clue
- Nagini has the best Halloween costume ever
- Sirius is out for Poetic Justice on Halloween
- We get in our feelings as everyone mourns the Potters
Resources – Missing Halloweens series by Irvin and Sophia:
- Part 1: A Pattern Established
- Part 2: Order of the Phoenix
- Part 3: Half-Blood Prince
- Part 4: Deathly Hallows
The Pub’s Jukebox:
Sophia’s jack-o-lantern:
wow, nice pumpkin, Sophia!! I had amazing intentions this year but my pumpkin rotted before I got to carve it…I did make some pumpkin pasties that were delicious though! (from a DIFFERENT non-rotten pumpkin).
Loved the Halloween episode. I wanted to share my pumpkins, since I have one Harry Potter and one Cormoran Strike. The Harry is one I painted for the Teal Pumpkin project, an effort to include children with allergies in the holiday by providing non candy treats as an option. The White Horse of Uffington I carved this year, after getting to visit the place in June and because Lethal White remains my favorite Strike book.
I love these so much! Especially as a fellow Lethal White admirer. 😀
I’m really looking forward to getting to Lethal White. Words like “horses” and “cosy mystery” you guys are throwing around make it sound like it’ll be right up my street 😁
Yes, hop aboard the LW bandwagon with me and Louise!
PS. Post Cursed Child, we have a much simpler explanation for Florean Fortescue’s kidnapping by the Deatth Eaters. Bellatrix was obviously craving pickles and ice cream.
First solid evidence for Bellatrix-was-pregnant that I’ve seen yet.
I suspect Fluffy would be even more upset if he did get to eat Snape – that much grease is bad for dogs. And he probably doesn’t taste very nice, either: bitter and salty, with a dash of umammy.
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We know luck-magic is a thing, so maybe at Halloween when the veil between the living and the spirit worlds is thinnest, Voldywraith’s constant muttering of “curse you, Potter!” actually has an impact, and Harry has terrible luck.
That would also explain why it stops happening after Voldy reimbodies.
Do you think whichever head of Fluffy’s ate Snape would have the other two so mad at it? “You idiot, you ate that clearly unappealing guy, and now our stomach feels awful! Why can’t you ever think before you bite?”
The type of medical treatment probably matters as well. I imagine potions interact with the patient’s magic, and are probably poisonous to non-magical individuals, whereas healing spells can still be cast on muggles or squibs as they use the caster’s magic.
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Some are born with friends, some achieve friendship, and some have friendship thrust upon them. Lupin seems very much the latter. Which is probably for the best, because “I knew you when you were a baby!” is not the greatest opening. How is one supposed to respond? “Well, I can walk and talk now.”?
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If I recall correctly, Ron spends a lot of time secretly practising before trying out as Keeper, so he’s not devoid of work-ethic.
And I think of GoF as Ron’s version of CAPSLOCK-Harry; he’s full of hormones and feels and is taking it out on his friends. If we can excuse the one, surely we should also excuse the other?
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I like the Nagini link from OotP to DH. Maybe DH originally had the fight with Nagini associated with them having to flee Grimmauld Place.
Agreed with you about the potions!
I’ve definitely had that, where old family friends are like, “I remember you when you were two!” And I’m like, “… okay.”
We excuse Harry because we was just severely traumatized by the whole graveyard thing. No such excuses for Ron. (I’m really implacable on this topic, lol.)
I feel like there’s also a bit of attribution error going on. We see Harry’s thoughts, so we can understand his feelings better, and recognise he’s being a jerk because he’s extremely traumatised.
We don’t get the same window into Ron’s thoughts, so tend to assume it’s due to something fundamental about his character. Even though Ron’s been through plenty of traumatic stuff, too (it’s not a most-messed-up-in-the-head competition!).
Doesn’t Madam Rosmerta serve as a red herring for the attack on Katie?
I’d thought Draco was fairly obviously behind things, and the mystery was more about howdunnit, whydunnit, and what-is-his-endgame.
It’s fair to say Ron isn’t a big fan of necklaces in Deathly Hallows, either.
I agree that the Hallows should have been introduced earlier. If nothing else, having it so late undermines Harry’s “hallows or horcruxes” decision. Regardless of what he decides, it’s too late; Voldemort is already at the tomb. Ironically, as I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, at this point (Shell Cottage) Harry is already master of the hallows (he physically has two, and the third considers him its owner).
Don’t they celebrate Voldemort’s defeat as part of Halloween? Or is that fanon? Either way, Harry would probably rather not think about it, which hampers him from putting 2 and 2 together.
I love the analysis of Harry and Lupin’s talk! Maybe Snape is also grumpy because his leg aches every Halloween.
I don’t think Madam Rosmerta serves as a red herring, because there’s no accusation or suspicion of her – it’s just “someone in her bathroom,” not necessarily her.
I think the HBP mystery is twofold – whodunnit as far as the attacks, and what/how/whydunnit for what Draco’s up to. The answer is, of course, one and the same, but on the initial read not a lot of people thought it would be that straightforward.
That is largely fanon. In SS Chapter 1, McGonagall talks about how the day will be celebrated in the future and all that, but we never hear any acknowledgement of celebrating Voldy’s defeat in any other chapters. There well may be celebrations in some corners, but I don’t think it’s a society-wide thing that factors into the Hogwarts Halloween celebrations.
I must be misremembering – don’t they find out that Rosmerta was also imperiused? Or does that happen later as part of the “oh, that’s how he did it” explanations?
That’s only revealed atop the Lightning Struck Tower, when Dumbledore is like, “But how did you – oh, Rosmerta. How long has she been Imperiused?”
This is purely a headcanon, but I suspect the prophecy was given on Halloween. It’s certainly possible given how vague the details are (a couple of comments by Trelawney and Dumbledore).
There’s also an old essay called “When the Prophecy Was Made” which notes that – assuming Harry was born on time – that he would have been conceived at Halloween.
The date does seem to have a lot of influence on that lad’s life!
Ah, you mean this essay? https://www.mugglenet.com/2005/02/when-the-prophecy-was-made/
I just reread it, and not very sound reasoning in my opinion. (In particular, the prophecy has to be in 1980 because otherwise Dumbledore would’ve said “16.5 years” is very flimsy – people aren’t that exact with dates.)
But I did like the link back to “Back to the Prophecy,” which I’m guessing may have inspired your essay on Draco being the Chosen One?
Harry being conceived on Halloween is certainly possible, but the essay is incorrect – pregnancy is not exactly 9 months, but more like 9 months and a week (or 40 weeks). Of course, Harry being early by a week is totally plausible, so I’m down with him being conceived on Halloween.
In fact, that would make me much more disposed towards thinking that the prophecy happened on Halloween. Sophia and I wrote some essays about prophecies a year ago where we pointed out that prophecies come along once events have lined up to make them reasonably likely to pass. ie. Trelawney’s Second Prophecy when Buckbeak lost the appeal.
We assumed that the event making the First Prophecy possible was the very fact of Snape listening to it. However, this presents another possibility – the prophecy was delivered once Harry was conceived, and there actually was the beginnings of “the one with the power…” rather than a theoretical possibility. If our theories are correct, then the prophecy should have been issued when Harry was conceived, regardless of the date… and that date is as likely as not to be Halloween, given its importance in the series!
(The only fly in this theory’s ointment is Dumbledore’s “prophecy made shortly before you were born” – but I can allow that for a supercentenarian, nine months is “shortly” before an event.)
Thanks for this comment, it’s really a big breakthrough for my thinking on the prophecy!
That’s the one! I agree, there’s some vagueitude in the reasoning, but I still appreciate the ideas.
Not inspired by, but I found those two essays while researching (read: googling to see if anyone else had thought of it yet).
I do very much like you and Sophia’s prophecy essays, which likewise have informed my thinking on the topic.