Pull up a stool at The Three Broomsticks and join Ev, Irvin, Sophia, and special guest Line Egelund as they continue their exploration of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with chapter six, “Draco’s Detour”!
This time, the hosts finally make it to the titular part of the chapter, before a short pit-stop at Weasley Whizard Wheezes. Grab yourself a beverage and tune in to discuss joke shop products and names, Ginny Weasley, and if Draco Malfoy should have been a werewolf.
In this episode:
- The most wholesome constipation story
- Fred and Hermione’s mutual appreciation society
- Ev is bereft without pygmy puffs
- Which Weasley Whizard Wheezes product do we want?
- The twins are fighting Voldemort with intellectual property law
- Why do the Weasley boys object to Ginny’s dating history?
- Draco has Schrodinger’s lycanthropy
- Borgin bows low to hide his expression
- What’s with all the hanging?
- Hermione wins the Razzie for Worst Actress
Resources:
- Borgin, Burke, and the Half-Blood Prince by Irvin
- Harry Potter and The Hanged Man: Part 3 Its Meaning in Rowling’s Written Work by John Granger
Pub’s Jukebox: Weasleys Wizard Wheezes by Riddle TM
Part of the reason Hermione is upset about the Prince’s book is not that she’s against new spells/recipes, but that she’d prefer to thoroughly research first to find out what the spells do/why the different instructions work better. As opposed to Harry’s “sure, why not” (typical Gryffindor…).
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There are apparently brief mentions of other clothing that comes with spells (self-ironing robes, or socks that scream when they need washing, for example). But for spells that have an effect on the wearer as well, perhaps brooms are a better comparison?
Say more about brooms having an effect on the wearer/rider! Are you saying the brooms are enchanted to make whoever sits on them fly? I always thought it was physics – the broom itself is enchanted to fly, and if you’re on it, then logically you are in the air as well.
I don’t think it’s specified, so it’s probably just my headcanon.
Newton had just published his Principia when the statute went into effect, so I doubt wizards are that informed on physics. (And magic scoffs at the laws of physics anyway.)
Given that whatever makes brooms fly is able to cope with two adult wizards (not to mention Sirius’ motorbike which can cope with Hagrid as well as Harry and all his luggage), it makes sense to me that there’s some amount of “lift” applied to the rider as well.
Similarly for braking charms – it’s not good if the broomstick stops dead and (owing to a well-polished handle) the hapless rider keeps going.
Magic carpets would be another example (making some assumptions since they don’t appear): physics would suggest a carpet would sag under the rider rather than remaining fairly flat.