Pull up a stool at The Three Broomsticks and join Ev, Irvin, Sophia, and special guest Line Egelund as they delve into the intriguing opening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with chapter six, “Draco’s Detour”!
True to form, our hosts found themselves thoroughly sidetracked by everything from Ollivander’s elusive marketing strategy and the burning question of what citation style Hogwarts students are forced to use, before they even got to pondering the security measurements employed by the Ministry and Gringotts. Consequently, despite Sophia’s valiant efforts to keep them on track, they only just managed to make it to Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions!
Due to their delightful tangents, this chapter had to be split into two parts – so stay tuned for the continuation next time! Grab your butterbeer and get ready for some Half-Blood Prince analysis!
In this episode:
- The question of Ginny’s Quidditch prowess
- Karkaroff is really dumb
- How do you cite magical sources?
- Ollivander: Good, Bad, or Indifferent? A perfect example of Ravenclaw amorality
- Ollivander’s foolproof marketing strategy
- If cats can get gold from Gringotts, surely cursebreakers are fine
- W.W.D.D. – What Would Dumbledore Do
- The Ministry drivers are undercover spies
- Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Bellatrix are all trying to be taller
- Is Narcissa shockingly terrible or predictably terrible?
- Stripping down to your underwear to diffuse a situation
Resources:
- Borgin, Burke, and the Half-Blood Prince by Irvin
- Florean Fortescue by J.K. Rowling
Pub’s Jukebox: Mother, Stop Being Ridiculous by Draco and the Malfoys
Taken a while to listen to this one. Been in a funk after the recent Lucius-Malfoy-esque smugness.
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Even Hermione is bad at citing sources, given that she gets called out for quoting too much from textbooks.
The other students are just looking things up on witchipedia.
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I think my initial assumption was that Ollivander had taken an abrupt vacation to South America, and that Fortesque had dared to give Voldemort raspberry when he specifically requested strawberry.
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Like the idea of the drivers secretly being security (especially because it could make HBP a stealth prequel to “The Transporter”).
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The discussion of wands and lesser wandmakers makes me wonder if buying from Ollivander’s is a bit like getting a bespoke suit. You know you’re getting something that will fit superbly (you just don’t get to choose the colour). Buying from someone else, you may get lucky, but most likely it’ll just fit “okay”.
You could think of wand “compatibility” and “allegiance” as two separate axis. Hermione’s wand is more compatible with Harry, Draco’s wand is more loyal to him, so overall they seem about as good as each other. It’s also why he prefers to go back to his own wand: it’s more compatible than the Elder Wand.
Ollivander almost certainly remembers Luna’s first wand (now there’s a fun fanfic idea!), and having spent roughly three months talking to her will have a very clear idea of what sort of wand would be compatible with her.
I really like your ideas about compatibility vs allegiance, that makes a lot of sense to me!
If that’s true, then Florean had it coming!
“There’s only one man who’d dare give me the raspberry…”