Join hosts Sam and Sierra and guests Matthew and Michael as they discuss chapter 17 in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: A Sluggish Memory
In this episode:
- Who is the real GOAT?
- How do you drink painted wine?
- Ginny is the third Weasley Twin
- Home is where the people are
- Lavender is peak cringe, and we understand
- Everyone has a love language
- Dumbledore with the sick burns
- Harry’s lack of faith is disturbing
- Magic vs Non-magical means
- Dumbledore understands Parseltongue? Therefore, he is Voldemort’s long-lost brother.
- Harry can do it better than Dumbledore
- Anything Dumbledore can do, Phineas can make a snide remark about
On the topic of Sierra talking about how Harry himself is surprised that he kisses Ginny, because he wasn’t quite sure he liked her himself… I think that tracks with a fantastic essay I came across called “Romance in Potter Is a Mystery” – https://lokifan.livejournal.com/368514.html
The gist is that HP is written as such a not-romance, that even the romances are mysteries, where you’re trying to figure out who’s a good match for you rather than “omg my heart and loins say you are The One!” Harry and Ginny definitely track with this.
I really really loved the discussion about why Dumbledore insists on Harry using “Professor Snape.” I come down on the side of “he’s trying to establish at least a lack of open hostility” between the two (rather as he demanded of Sirius and Snape at the end of GoF), but it was fascinating to consider all the different possible motivations!
I realised later, one of the reasons it rankles so much is that we don’t see corresponding moments of Dumbledore berating Snape for his (far more blatant!) lack of respect for Harry.
Such a moment might have been useful in The Prince’s Tale, but the included moments of Snape ranting about Harry have Dumbledore largely ignoring it.
I want to push back against the assumption that Morfin died only recently. That’s not at all how I read it, and I think the likelihood of him surviving 50 years in Azkaban fairly slim – it would have made him almost 100 years old, which even allowing for wizard lifespans, seems a stretch considering the inbreeding, dementors, and likely poor attention to health.
Dumbledore says he got the memory “by which time I was attempting to discover as much as I could about Voldemort’s past.” (HBP367-8) While I agree that Dumbledore’s horcrux hunt would not have started until after the diarycrux was revealed – and spend a lot of time on that in Dumbledore: The Life and Lies – I don’t think that applies here. Dumbledore would have every motivation to discover more about Voldemort’s past even before horcruxes – as as ascendant Dark Lord draped in mystery, why wouldn’t you try to get to know him better, looking for weaknesses or connections? If Dumbledore didn’t start researching Voldy’s background until Voldy was in his 70s, half the witnesses would be dead!
So as cool as it is to think about Morfin being incarcerated with Death Eaters, I believe he was long dead by the time Bellatrix and co ended up in Azkaban.
I was thinking about this a lot after we recorded, and I’m sure your right Irvin. Dumbly is def looking for info as Tom rises to power, and becomes fearsome. He’s not waiting around.
But I think we can all agree Dumbledore strangled Morfin himself.
No arguments. Gonna be a whole chapter in Dumbledore: The Life and Lies 69th Edition.