Join hosts Aureo, Sam, and Sierra and guest Christian as they discuss the titular chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where Harry turns into a mad scientist and debates between Hallows and Horcruxes.
In this episode:
- The lying and conniving Hermione Granger
- Does Ron know where Australia is?
- Hermione really is ridiculously close-minded
- Harry goes full-blown mad scientist
- Look at my invisible cloak
- Is Harry being obsessed with seeing dead people?
- Harry and Dumbledore together are the masters of death
- Why can no one multitask?
- Weasleys are always there to lighten the mood
- Using the Taboo to hunt Snatchers
“Maybe Irvin has the answer…”
Yes I do! Glad you asked, Sam.
Re: why Dumbledore couldn’t better communicate what was going on to Hermione… I address this very thing in my Dumbledore book (p. 146-147). The entire point of the Hallows thing was, in addition to making Harry Master of Death, to slow the Trio down. Dumbledore says as much, “I counted on Ms. Granger to slow you up.” (DH720) It’s not that it has to be a quest or any such nonsense, it’s the fact that Dumbledore was trying to procrastinate.
Dumbledore is explicit about it, but I’m not sure I understand why he wanted to slow the trio down. Was it to make sure Harry prioritised Horcruxes over Hallows?
He’d grown to care about Harry too much, and in a repeat of his mistake in OotP, was procrastinating the moment of pain (ie. the self-sacrifice) for Harry.
That tracks.
It occurred to me that – rather than displaying a riddle – it would have been helpful if the snitch just opened when Harry first touched it to his mouth.
Granted, he’d still need to know what the stone really was, but wouldn’t it have helped the trio in their quest to be able to call up clever dead people like … oh, I don’t know … APWB Dumbledore?
Re: Hermione’s skepticism re: the Hallows. I get that it’s frustrating, but I actually identify with this a lot. The reason I have very little patience for various conspiracy theories is my faith that if it were so, it would be known. If the Moon landing was faked? Aside from how much fun “Fly Me to the Moon” was, I can’t believe that no one involved would’ve leaked it.
So I totally get Hermione’s perspective on this. Especially because she was thrust into this world at eleven, with only books as her guide. “Everything you thought was fake is real… Except for stuff like fairies and mind-reading, those are obviously ridiculous.” She has the intellectual curiosity to try figuring out her world, yet no one to answer her questions. So books it is! If it’s in a book, she’ll trust it; otherwise she won’t. As she becomes a more discerning reader, she learns to consider sources, and extends her faith to human sources like Dumbledore and McGonagall – but the fact is, she still has the instinct to disbelieve until shown otherwise.
The examples you all brought up are instances where Hermione had direct evidence of something. The Sorcerer’s Stone is real because it’s well-established to exist and has been written about in books – not impossible. The Chamber of Secrets is (A) staring her in the face from a bloody wall (B) written about in Hogwarts, A History. Time travel comes from McGonagall and the Ministry. Resurrecting a body is never implied to be impossible, you just can’t bring people back to life – and Hermione has plenty of evidence that Voldy wasn’t dead. The prophecies thing, she’s looking at sources, and she trusts McGonagall much more than Trelawney… but completely changes her tune when presented with evidence to the contrary in the DoM.
I think if presented with evidence of the Hallows, Hermione would not dismiss them outright. But all she knows is that something is up with a symbol and a fairytale in Dumbledore’s book, and the only mention of Hallows is a crackpot like Xeno. I don’t blame her for dismissing whatever Xeno said, and being skeptical that a fairytale is turning out to be real life… tbh, I might’ve reacted the same.
I just wanna piggyback on the seven Horcrux locations… I think they’re even more spot-on than y’all gave them credit for.
Two of the locations are indeed where they find horcruxes
Diagon Alley – the Cup in Gringotts
Hogwarts – the Diadem in the RoR
Three others are the locations where Voldemort procured the items and made the Horcruxes
The Riddle House – Nagini
Borgin and Burkes – procured Locket and Cup, made Locketcrux
Albania – Diadem
The orphanage, while not actually the location of a Horcrux, did serve as the inspiration for a Horcrux hiding spot – the Cave is, as was said on the pod, a location tied to Voldemort’s Orphanage Era.
That leaves Upper Flagley. While it’s never explicitly mentioned as such, Upper Flagley appears to be very close to the Riddle House and Little/Great Hangleton. (At least according to the Lexicon, which says the Hangletons are likely in Yorkshire along with Upper Flagley. https://www.hp-lexicon.org/place/great-britain-united-kingdom/england/yorkshire/little-hangleton/) That puts it in the vicinity of the Gaunt shack, where a horcrux was both procured and hidden (the Ring).
So their instincts were terrific for this, even if not all the locations bore fruit.