Join hosts Aureo, Irvin, Sophia, and guest Matthew as they discuss the third chapter in the second Harry Potter book: The Burrow, Chamber of Secrets, chapter 3
In this episode:
- We have ALL the wizarding world improvement ideas
- Ford Anglia love (from almost everyone)
- I can show you the Wizarding World… shining, shimmering, splendid…
- Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!
- The sweetest hood ornament of all time
- Aureo being very cynical
- The chickens are terrified
- Is Molly the queen of foreshadowing?
- Preserving the sanctity of dinner parties
- We want Wizard Comic Con
Resources:
- Stitch Kitchen – Elephant pattern by Matthew
The Pub’s Jukebox:
I’ll continue to state that this was a lot of fun. And if you ever want to have me back, I promise I’ll do something about my squeeky chair (sorry Patrick!). Could always claim it’s an homage to the farting couch from the last episode…
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One thought that didn’t come up in our discussion: how intelligent are gnomes? They appear to be able to communicate in human language (“Gerroff me!”), but do they understand it, or are they just repeating it, pokemon-like?
We had such a blast recording with you and I can guarantee we’ll have you back in the future!
That’s an excellent point, I always thought Fred’s comment regarding that they like it at the burrow because Arthur is too soft with them, hinted that the gnomes may understand more than it could seem at first sight. The counterpoint to their behaviour here could also be that they similarly to cats, cannot relate “punishments” to their actions. Cats don’t understand negative reinforcements, which is why they don’t work and all you’re going to achieve is that they start to fear you or that item you’re using to punish them. So maybe the gnomes don’t understand that tossing them is the message to get lost, but it’s just become part of their day-to-day life or for some potentially even something they have started to enjoy.
Regarding the speech, I think it’s implied that they picked it up from the Weasleys. Ron tells Xenophilius Lovegood that their gnomes know “a lot of excellent swear words” probably taught them by Fred and George (DH8).
Now that I am thinking about it, who de-gnomes the garden once all the children are at school or moved out? I struggle picturing Molly tossing gnomes, so is it actually less of an actual chore but a punishment for her children?
Aw, now I’m sad about an empty-nesting Molly looking at the gnomes running around the garden with no one to tell to get rid of them. But I bet the Weasley boys all want to de-gnome the garden together at big family dinners, as a nostalgic bonding thing while all the wives and kids look on with bemusement.
Thank you for the reassurance – the wizarding world is so iffy with regards to non-human rights that I was worried. And I can definitely imagine the gnomes starting to see de-gnoming as a game (Who gets thrown the farthest? Who ends up the dizziest? How many Weasleys did you manage to bite?).
It was so much fun! I’d say we can make farting couches a 3B motif, but Patrick would kill us all 😉
I think there’s several fantastic beasts that learn a bit of language without having true intelligence – like jarveys, or even trolls who’ve been taught some words by malicious goblins. I think gnomes are in that same category. Reinforced by Aureo’s good quote below about them picking up swear words from the twins – I think they’re mostly parroting the Weasleys. With six boisterous siblings (plus Percy), I absolutely believe that the gnomes heard the phrase “Geroff me!” often over the preceding twenty years.
Loved listening to your thoughts!! It’s nice to put a real voice to the brilliant words you consistently share. Trying my best to comment more regularly 🙂
During the episode, it is mentioned that Mundungus tries to hex Arthur when his back was turned. It made me wonder, is this the tight spot that Dumbledore got him out of that made Dung loyal to Dumbledore. I quickly realized Dung was part of the OoTP in the first war, so this was unlikely, but it made me think more of Dumbledore and how he is able to find a use for everyone, regardless of their background or abilities. To me, this is one of his greatest attributes. Just to name a few:
To be honest, I can’t think of single person that Dumbledore interacts with that he doesn’t find a use for. At least not those who are willing to work with Dumbledore. Just an interesting tangent my mind went down while listening to this great episode.
Also, I can confirm I listened to end of the episode 😉
Thank you!! I am vindicated!
I do agree with you – charitably, Dumbledore does not discount anyone for their oddities or shortcomings. Less charitably, he does indeed find a use for everyone. His chief concern in picking people to work with is loyalty – though he engenders it rather differently than Voldemort, by appealing to the outcasts in society who are unused to and not expecting kindness and generosity. I think it’s a fairly positive attribute on the whole, since it does result in him being a champion of the downtrodden… but his motives are not 100% altruistic. (Maybe 90%. I believe in him!)
Regarding the point about muggle borns not being able to be taught from home/choose whether they go to normal school or not. I don’t think they should be allowed too, they would endanger everyone around them if they can’t control it, look at Arianna Dumbledore. It doesn’t matter what the parents want, the kids need to be trained, at least enough for them to not harm people around them.
That’s a good point. I dunno that obscurials are the danger here, because those form when kids are aware of magic and actively trying to repress it. Muggleborns would just forever be performing unpredictable bits of magic with zero control – which is safer for the muggleborn, but maybe not for the folks around them!
The question of parental rights when it comes to their kids’ wellbeing is a touchy enough one in the muggle world, that I think even here there is no easy solution that quite makes everyone happy! But I would err on the same side as you, where parents’ concerns are outweighed by the societal danger of uneducated and untrained wizards.
I liked the little nod to how the author name drops future characters because I always enjoy dwelling on the writing process. You guys mention that in this chapter we get Lucius Malfoy’s and Lockhart’s first mentions in advance, both of whom we are about to meet in the flesh in Diagon Alley. But we also get the Mundungus name drop (is this his first ever series mention?) who won’t greatly influence the plot for another several books. Also in this chapter- we get Errol’s name dropped and in the same bit, we learn about Hermes too. If we count first mentions that coincide with Harry meeting the character in the flesh, we can throw in the Ford Anglia 😉 That’s a whole lot of new names in one chapter! Did I miss any?
-Lucius
-Lockhart
-Dung
-Errol
-Hermes
-Ford Anglia
Somehow, it doesn’t feel overwhelming. How on earth did she manage to make this load of info dumping so easily digestible? The chapter’s tone is completely uncompromised – it still feels truly fun and lighthearted to read. Now I feel the compulsive need to find and analyze whichever chapter in the series has the most character introductions!!
That would be a fascinating (and time-consuming) analysis!
I feel like the train ride in Philosopher’s Stone (chapter 6) would have to be right up there: in a quick skim I noticed almost all the Weasleys, Hermione, Neville and his Grandmother (and Trevor), Lee Jordan, Crabbe and Goyle, Grindelwald, and Nicolas Flamel. Lucius is mentioned, but not named, and Draco and Hedwig are first named (though they appear earlier).
That’s a lot of intros!!! I would be surprised if the chapter we’re looking for isn’t in SS/PS. Props for finding/thinking of this chapter so quickly. In the CoS chapter list above, I’m pursuing the nuance of character name drops as opposed to in-person intros. The initial point Irvin started making was about how some characters are casually name-dropped and called upon later (or not), so it’s devolved into two questions: which chapter had the most new characters period and which had the most new characters name-dropped before being introduced in-person. Turns out I did miss one of the name-drops from CoS chapter3 – someone called “Mortlake” … who Mr. Weasley mentions was taken away for questioning about ferrets. But this Mortlake character is an instance of a name-drop that never crops up again in canon.
Oooh, the epic quest for the Ultimate Chapter of Foreshadowing!
Yes! What a glorious quest it would be!
I think SS6 is good candidate – we hear about Ron’s brothers, Dumbledore and Grindelwald, lots of parents, and so on.
I think early GoF might also have some candidates, I seem to recall casual mentions of Moody, Bagman, Crouch, Maxime, the Lovegoods, and many more – it’s just a question of hwo spread out they are among the chapters.
One more namedrop for you – Perkins! We do meet him very briefly in Book 5.
And Celestina is namedropped for the first time here – while we don’t meet her in person in the book, she’s such a presence in apocrypha and the theme parks, I say she counts for half.
Full disclosure, I checked the Lexicon for this – they have a chapter-by-chapter Reader’s Guide with a list of characters introduced in each chapter. (Not quite the same question we’re asking, but very helpful!)
And I agree, the seamless way Jo can introduce characters and magic is REALLY impressive! The more I try writing myself, the more wowed I am by her deft touch.
Good thinking. Although if Celestina only counts for half, Perkins might be in a similar boat. True, we meet him, but does he really affect the plot much? There’s Marge, too, that I feel falls in a similar boat. I started looking for all the characters that are foreshadowed into the story, because going chapter-by-chapter felt cumbersome. There are a fair bit so far, but I’m definitely not done:
Sirius Black
Lucius Malfoy
Mundungus Fletcher
Gilderoy Lockhart
Errol
Hermes
Pettigrew
Albus Dumbledore
Dedalus Diggle
Bones family
Lovegood family
Rita Skeeter
Madame Maxime
Viktor Krum
Mad-eye Moody
Mr Crouch
Ludo Bagman (I hope they actually cast his character in the new tv series)
You-know-who
Criteria being the reader (not Harry) first meets them through a coversation, not in person. If we used the Harry meeting criteria, then we’d have to include characters like Hagrid and Vernon from chapter 1 book 1, and that just wasn’t the point I think we were getting at. How frequently does the author choose to ease us in or foreshadow a new character with a name drop as opposed to an on-screen character intro
Excellent work! Potential additions…
Narcissa (not by name, but we hear a lot about Draco’s mother before meeting her)
Andromeda and Ted Tonks
Auntie Muriel
Rufus Scrimgeour (mentioned once in OP – I knew I’d seen that name when first reading HBP, but couldn’t remember where for the life of me)
Many of the Death Eaters – Sirius mentions (in “Padfoot Returns”) the Lestranges and Avery. In “The Pensieve” we hear about Rookwood, Dolohov, Travers, and Mulciber.
Irvin, I also seem to remember plenty of indignant hoots from Hedwig and also thought that it would’ve been the adjective used here, but it’s not until GoF that we get the description, “Hedwig landed on the back of Ron’s chair, hooting indignantly.” The only other quote I found was from OoTP when Dobby returns her to Harry in the wee hours of the morning in the Gryffindor common room, bowing deeply, “…and Hedwig gave an indignant hoot…” Finally, in the epilogue, there’s mention of how owls “hooted indignantly” while being pushed through the station by Harry & co.
It does feel very in-character for Hedwig to be indignant. Especially whenever Pigwidgeon is involved.
Indeed. She’s written with a certain no-nonsense-yet-somehow-still-likeable. McGonagall-esque energy about her. I wonder if Pig would’ve been pecked or worse by a less patient owl
If it wasn’t for the fact that we already know McGonagall animagus form is a cat, I’d start speculating whether Hedwig and McGonagall ever appear in the same room…
To answer your question – in the staffroom with Grubbly-Plank when Hedwig is injured in OotP! But yes, they have very similar energy, and I love them both for it.
It’s funny how we’ve come to associate Hedwig with indignant hoots despite very few actual quotes – kinda like Draco’s “my father!” I think it just sticks in the mind because it’s such an excellent adjective, it perfectly conveys both Hedwig’s annoyance and her dignity, rather than her just being mad/angry/etc.
Would it be alright if I put a Harry Potter theory here that I’ve been wanting to get out for years even if it has nothing to do with this episode?
I mean I think you’ve gotta do it now that you’ve teased it ;P
Sure, we’d love to hear it!