The Afterlife and The Fall and the Flight

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Disappearances of Draco Malfoy. A Pensieve read through the podcast where we explore a story that could have been in the Harry Potter universe. I'm Amy and I'll be your host and your resident fan fiction. Enthusiastic? I've been reading Harry Potter fanfiction for years now, and I'm so excited to finally share one of my absolute favorites with someone very special. My sister, Holly. Now, Holly is a huge Potterhead. We both grew up with the books. We each reread them once every few years, but unlike me, she has never read a single piece of fanfiction. Not one. So each episode we're going to be reading and discussing the Disappearances of Draco Malfoy by Speechwriter, a beloved Deathly Hallows rewrite that asks one simple but powerful what if Draco Malfoy made a different choice atop the Astronomy Tower? We'll be going through the story two chapters at a time, breaking down the plot, talking about characters, choices, and of course, reacting in real time as Holly experiences HP fanfiction. And I cannot stress this enough, she is going in completely blind. No spoilers, no expectations, just vibes, confusion, and probably a lot of feelings about Draco and Hermione. So. So whether you've read this fic before, you're a long time fanfiction reader like me, or you're totally new like Holly, you're in the right place. So grab a butterbeer, get cozy, and let's dive in. Welcome to the show, everyone. I'm Amy. [00:01:46] Speaker B: And I'm Holly. [00:01:47] Speaker A: And after 18 months of being away from podcasting, I have returned more glorious than ever from the canon Harry Potter series to now doing a literary podcast entirely devoted to a Harry Potter fanfiction. We are not the first ones to have thought of this. The idea of, you know, going chapter by chapter for fan fictions. I know that Amanda and Kevin at the Fox and the Foxhound, they are doing a very popular fan fiction called all the Young Dudes. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah, but first, you know, Holly, you know you were a guest speaker on the Rambling Raven Pups, probably about like once per season. So you visited us once per book. I think with the exception of maybe skipping one book, I can't quite remember. [00:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't remember. I thought I missed two books. Actually, it's been a while now, so I can't remember. I know I wanted to do one for every book, but I think I missed. I. I think I missed at least one, maybe two. [00:03:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Again, it's been a while. It's been a good 18 months. You know, looking at my notes. In fact, I actually, for this podcast, I pulled out the same journal that you got me. That was my podcasting journal for other shows. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Oh, nice. [00:03:18] Speaker A: I've started using it again for this show. And the last entry of that was June 26, 2023, for one of the last chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. [00:03:30] Speaker B: Nice. Yeah, I'm trying to remember what chapter I did. I think I did Shell Cottage and the one where they talked to Grip Hook. [00:03:41] Speaker A: Well, that is Shell Cottage, so I think it was that. And then also the second chapter right after that is the Green Gods heist. [00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:03:49] Speaker A: I. [00:03:49] Speaker B: Those are the two I did. [00:03:52] Speaker A: So. So is there. Just let us know, Holly, if there's any updates you want to give. I have many updates, but do you have any updates you want to share with our listeners? [00:04:04] Speaker B: Nothing specific to the world of literature, but yeah, just in general. I had a baby since then, so we're obviously very busy, like busier now. I'm starting to question what was I doing with my free time before, because, you know, it's kind of made me try to focus on instead of scrolling or doing like mindless, mindless things. Like, I really have to be careful with my time, so things like reading more books, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, you know, I just don't have time to waste if I actually want to do those things. So I have to kind of make a more concerted and focused effort to work on some of the hobbies and like, do some of the things I actually want to be doing instead of getting distracted and doing something mindless. So, yeah, I'm. I'm glad to be podcasting again because it kind of also gives me some structure in making sure I do this. This fun thing that I want to do, but you know that I make time for it, so. Yay. [00:05:12] Speaker A: So many things have happened in my life. In fact, a good many facets of my life have changed on this 18 month hiatus. [00:05:22] Speaker B: Basically my marriage just a little bit. [00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah, my marriage imploded and I have gotten divorced. [00:05:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:32] Speaker A: Yep. So that was. [00:05:34] Speaker B: I. I'm both sorry, but, but like also relieved for you also. [00:05:38] Speaker A: So, yeah, that was a shitstorm and I was not anticipating. I guess I was naive in thinking the process would be a little smoother. Not that, you know, there are plenty, but worse, a criminal divorces. But yeah, that. That was just a drag. But then in addition to that, the more, you know, the More happy development. Not that again. The relief of being free is. That's also very uplifting. But I have since gotten out of a soulless job that I hate and have since started a PhD program. So I've started a PhD in an entirely different field where I get to. To, you know, look at old books from the 1500s for. For my studies. And, yeah, it's just. I'm a ra. I'm in a department where people are sane. [00:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that's helpful. It's always good to be around co workers who are, you know, kind of your. Your people. So you've found your people. Yes, more or less. [00:06:45] Speaker A: I found my nerdy types who appreciate my love of Harry Potter and other things, because certainly my PhD program, you know, I. You know, it does intersect with fan studies, and I even went to a fan studies conference, a virtual one, not too long ago, and. Cupcake, what are you doing? Cupcake? And so, yeah, those are the big things that have been going on in my life. And so I've had this idea of wanting to do a fanfiction literary podcast for a while now, and only now have things finally settled down in my chaotic life and all these transitions for us, for me to brainstorm and actually create a game plan. [00:07:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And I am new to the fanfiction world. I don't read fan fiction ever. I don't seek it out. So this is not just my first time reading this, but I think probably my first time reading any fan fiction, really. Of any kind. [00:07:52] Speaker A: Yes, Holly. Holly does adore Harry Potter. You know, she rereads it. You know, I do once a year. Once a year, or, you know, with some regularity. But, yeah, she just absolutely has no knowledge of the world of fan fiction. Whereas me, on the other hand, I am an avid consumer of fanfiction. I have written fanfiction in the past. I'm familiar with a good chunk of fan fiction classics. So that'll be an interesting dynamic of spoiled and unspoiled, not just for this specific fanfiction, but for the general fanfiction culture at large. [00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah, and I will say that. I mean, I'm probably not like the ultimate Harry Potter fan. I'm sure there's some trivia I don't know, but I. I know Harry Potter the whole story pretty well inside and out. So I also have, you know, I'm coming into this with some opinions about how certain characters would behave and things like that, or things at least that I'm familiar with in terms of the characters that. That we know about. And actually it's funny. I mean, this is kind of a tangent, but like a few days ago I was talking about how, oh, I'm doing this podcast, you know, with my sister, you know, up and coming, and my father in law was commenting like, oh, I, I couldn't read Harry Potter. I had to stop reading it, like with my daughter because they started drinking blood and doing all this satanic stuff. And I was like, which, which part are you talking about now? Like, are, are you talking about the part where the like the bad guy like resurrects himself, you know, like with, with the blood and the bone and of the father and all that? Like, is that the one part you're talking about? And he was like, I don't know, it was just, it was too much witchcraft. And it's like, okay, did you even read the books? But yeah, yeah, because he, he didn't [00:09:55] Speaker A: even drink the potion. It was just putting all the stuff in the potion and Voldemort taking a little bath. Yeah, take taking a little bath. Yeah. [00:10:04] Speaker B: So creepy baby bath. [00:10:07] Speaker A: Yes. Okay, so. So the fan fiction I have chosen for us to read and discuss is a very popular fanfiction called the Disappearances of Draco Malfoy by a fan whose username is known as Speech Writer. [00:10:31] Speaker B: Nice. [00:10:32] Speaker A: So this fan fiction, like, first of all, why did I pick it? I picked it primarily, you know, in choosing a fan fiction for this podcast, obviously I did want it to have some degree of, you know, popularity so that I knew there would be a fan base and an interest in people obviously listening what we have to say about it. But I also picked it because I felt like it was a fan fiction that for Holly, having. No. Her natural inclination is not towards fan fiction, that it would be a good starter into the world of fan fiction. It's not too out there. And specifically this fan fic writer's style, they make a concentrated effort to imitate the writing style of the original books, which other fan fictions, even though they're written wonderfully, you know, don't necessarily do that. So I thought that was a good starting point for, for Holly. And to give a little bit of context for Holly, I actually wrote some stats down. So I think you're aware, Holly, I think I told you this is what is called a Dramione fan fiction. [00:11:54] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:11:57] Speaker A: So the end couple is, you know, don't. Drake. Yes. Well, this is a given. It's in the tags. [00:12:06] Speaker B: I will say, just from what I read, even if you hadn't told Me that I could kind of even see that that is where this was going just from the first two chapters, which even though those two characters don't even interact, there's some comments I have about. Yeah, we'll get into it later. But I could have almost guessed that maybe that's where this is gonna go. [00:12:28] Speaker A: Yes. Which to give some context, you know, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, these. That is a very popular non canon ship. [00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I know that in the [00:12:40] Speaker A: Harry Potter fandom, it is the number third mo. The third most popular Harry Potter ship in the fandom. [00:12:51] Speaker B: Only after. [00:12:53] Speaker A: After Remus and Sirius. [00:12:56] Speaker B: Oh, okay, nice. [00:12:58] Speaker A: And Draco and Harry. [00:13:01] Speaker B: Oh, no, I. I actually would have thought this was the top one, to be honest. [00:13:06] Speaker A: The top heterosexual one. [00:13:09] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, yeah. [00:13:10] Speaker A: Okay, well, yeah, so that, so that is, you know, the popularity. And to give some context for how popular this fan fiction is, it has on archive of our own, which this is published on. You know, it doesn't have likes, Holly. It has what they call kudos. [00:13:32] Speaker B: Okay. [00:13:33] Speaker A: You know that phrase, kudos to you? [00:13:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:13:36] Speaker A: So they have kudos and those are likes. And so the number of kudos this FIC has is 18,718 as of this recording. [00:13:46] Speaker B: Okay. I have no reference for fan fiction. So is that it sounds like you're saying that is a lot. [00:13:53] Speaker A: To put it into perspective, a good indicator that, that it. That a fan fiction is of an extremely high quality and is very popular is usually even just a thousand. [00:14:07] Speaker B: Okay, okay, so we're. [00:14:09] Speaker A: We're 18 times that. [00:14:11] Speaker B: Okay, so for like in YouTube conversion terms, this is like over a billion views. [00:14:17] Speaker A: Well, actually maybe there is. There is. You know, it has 4610 comments as of this recording. So. Yeah, that's a lot bookmarks in terms of people like marking this as their favorite. It has 9,040. And in terms of hits, it has over 1.2 million. [00:14:41] Speaker B: Wow. Well, I didn't know any of that. I mean, you did tell me it was a popular one. But I can certainly share my reasons for why I was convinced that I would. Why I was interested in doing this. Do you want me to. Yeah, share that. So I think what kind of captured my attention when you were describing it to me is not just that it was popular, but that, you know, it rewrites the last book in a sense. And I think kind of what you were saying about, you know, not being too out there in terms of fan fiction, I think just in general, it's really like intriguing to kind of figure out, like, oh, what if the story at the end had gone like a different way? You know, that's kind of a. A thing that I think is a popular thing to imagine, you know, not for. For different fandoms. Right. So. So it's like, you know, what if. What if, like, towards the end, like, assuming the rest of the story was. Was the same, you know, how did it deviate? And you know, and again, with book seven kind of being them wandering around kind of lost in the woods for a good chunk of time and that sort of thing, you know, and with sort of the hints in the. In book six that Draco was kind of, you know, not handling being a Death Eater very well, just from the various things dropped here and there that it was stressful and he was struggling with, you know, doing what he had to do or accomplishing it. So it was like, okay, like I can kind of see, like, what if Draco has a change of heart and things go a completely different way? Like, I. The premise was interesting and the direction the story could go was like, okay, I'd be interested in reading that and seeing what. What might happen. So. [00:16:37] Speaker A: Yeah, because it. Yeah. And again, a big reason why I chose it because this is a very. A very reasonable and plausible difference in. In canon divergence. Because as you said, Draco was not super gung ho about being dragged into being a Death Eater. So much so that I think there was a point where there was a fan theory that how they describe Draco in the Half Blood Prince as just looking very sickly, looking very pale. Some people were even theorizing that he had already been punished in a way and had been bitten by Fenrir Greybag and that his. All this stuff that is, we now know, is just attributed to stress. There were some people even theorizing that he was dealing with lycanthropy. [00:17:23] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. Huh. Interesting. [00:17:25] Speaker A: Before, you know, before the seventh book, you know, came out. But yeah. In terms of you mentioning. Yeah. That this is basically a book seven, like, rewrite me being in the Harry Potter fanfiction world for a while, like, there is a not small group of fans who take issue with, you know, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And I, I am a part of that group in the. In the sense that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is my least favorite book. [00:18:00] Speaker B: Okay. [00:18:01] Speaker A: And it's not even. It's not even a question of it being dark. I just feel like there were a lot of things like all the wand Lore stuff was shoved on us at the last minute, and I'm like, this should have been much more built up and a few more Easter eggs put in. And I just have. I just have so many things because. And not. And this isn't even, like, coming into it, rereading as an adult. Even the very first time I read it as a teenager, you know, I [00:18:28] Speaker B: was like, what is this interesting? Yeah, I mean, I see what you mean about building up some of the lore earlier would have been nice because, like, for example, book six draws a lot of things from the second book, which I think the history of that is. A lot of things that went into book six was. Were. Because, you know, the author just couldn't fit everything into book two. So there were a lot of kind of connections there. But yeah, a lot of the, like, the deathly howls and all that stuff would have been nice to have introduced that much earlier because then it kind of would have had a more cohesive thread throughout. Throughout the series. But I. I honestly didn't mind it as much. I kind of liked. Honestly, if I had to pick a least favorite book myself, I don't really have one I really dislike or anything like that, but probably book two. Not because I didn't like book two. It's just I feel like all the books are a little bit different in their own way. Like, have a little bit of a personality, if that makes sense. Like, the first book is the first Harry Potter book. You know, book three is very different. I feel like there's not even an encounter with, you know, he who Must Not Be Named Old Voldy. Old Moldy Voldy is, you know, they. They don't even encounter him in that book. Right. And then, like, book four, again, is radically different. And then five is doing his whole. So like. And then, like, seven is obviously very different because they're not even at school. So it just felt like book two is the most formulaic in terms of following kind of what they did in book one. So if I had to pick a least favorite, it's. It's that one. But again, I really don't have. I really don't have a least favorite because I like all of them. [00:20:14] Speaker A: Yeah, and you are pretty average in terms of. For a lot of people, their least favorite is Chamber of Secrets, not because it's especially bad, but the others have a very distinct identity in a lot of people's opinions. Yeah, I don't. You know, I disagree in the sense that I, you know, I actually like Chamber of Secrets better than Philosopher's Stone. Because I think it gives a really, it's not as exciting, but it gives a really important foundation for the prejudices that this entire book is based off of, you know, which we didn't get in the Philosopher's Stone. But anyway, you know, we're digressing. [00:20:52] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:20:54] Speaker A: Going into, you know, again, your mention of this is basically a, A Book seven rewrite. You know, in Archive of Our Own, you know, people label their fan fictions with certain tags, like in terms of relationship, you know, what relationship will it have? Like in various other elements of plot. And so there's an entire tag that's called, that's been used, that's called not canon compliant. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is basically, you know, basically a Book seven rewrite. And so that tag, you know, if you were to purely search that tag on Archive of Our own, it has 10, 29 entries. Do you know where this fic ranks in terms of those? In terms of number one. Two. [00:21:44] Speaker B: Number two, okay. [00:21:46] Speaker A: Yes, it's number two. In terms of book seven rewrites and going back to Germany, it ranks number 14 of 31, 550 for, for Germany. Yes. [00:22:00] Speaker B: Hermione. Okay, well, I'll keep that in mind. I, by the way, for shorthand, I'm calling this the Dis of Draco. [00:22:08] Speaker A: The Dis of Draco, yes. [00:22:11] Speaker B: Because I started to kind of feel like that's what I was doing the beginning of the chapter. So, yeah, we, we could talk about when I get into it, but I started out being very, very confused because I thought this was going to be from Harry's point of view. I didn't realize it was going to be from Draco's point of view. And so that just was very jarring. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Yeah, because I, because, yeah, I think I thought I told you, like, again, it's going to be a Germany. You know, I guess I was just assuming by the fact that Draco Malfoy was in the title that that was inferred. But I never spelled it out for you, so I was like, oh, that threw you off guard. [00:22:48] Speaker B: Well, because it could be Harry Potter at the Disappearance of Draco Malfoy, you know, like all the other titles, you know, it's the subtitle. Plus, you know, again, maybe this is just my mind. Maybe you said it, but my mind just went to, you know, we focus on Harry for every book, so why would this book be any different even if it was rewriting the story, you know? Yep. [00:23:12] Speaker A: And so again, the Go Just to get. Paint a bigger picture of this book, this fan fiction's popularity, it. Someone has created an entire audiobook of this fan fiction, you know. [00:23:26] Speaker B: Okay, okay. [00:23:27] Speaker A: Of sort of Podfig. And I actually listened to the second chapter via the audiobook. [00:23:32] Speaker B: Okay, okay, cool. [00:23:34] Speaker A: And I don't know if you know this, Holly, but there is also a sort of translation culture with fan fiction where if a fan fiction gets a lot of, you know, traction, you know, other fans around the world will take the time to translate them into other languages. [00:23:54] Speaker B: Sure, sure. [00:23:56] Speaker A: So this. So this fan fiction has translations in Portuguese, Indonesian, Italian, Chinese, French, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. [00:24:09] Speaker B: Nice. Wow. [00:24:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Alrighty then. So are there any other thoughts you want to bring forth before we dive into the chapters? [00:24:20] Speaker B: Not really. I mean, most of my thoughts are, you know, about the chapters themselves. So. [00:24:27] Speaker A: Okay. [00:24:28] Speaker B: Which I told you, I. I started reading and then I kind of stopped and decided to go back and reread just to. Yeah, Yep. [00:24:37] Speaker A: Alrighty then. Then let us. So, yeah, so in these chapters we have chapter one, the Afterlife, and chapter two, the Fall and the Flight, which in these chapters, obviously the huge premise, Draco chooses to accept the help of Alba Dumbledore. And we have the Battle of the Seven Potters. So let's get into it. So we begin the fic, where, I'm scrolling down on it, an archive of our own, where we have, in italics, basically, what I'm assuming is the actual text from Half Blood Prince. I can help you, Draco. And no, Draco, said Dumbledore quietly. It is my mercy and not yours that matters now. And then we get into the fic. So, Holly, [00:25:30] Speaker B: I have many thoughts. [00:25:32] Speaker A: There are many thoughts. Do tell us. [00:25:35] Speaker B: All right, so again, as I mentioned, I was expecting this to be from Harry's point of view. And, you know, and maybe throughout the book it was going to be Harry just having to deal with now Draco in this, like, nebulous position of. Of, you know, accepting this protection or whatever. So I was, I was very, like, shocked at first that it was from Draco's point of view because I was like, oh my gosh, like, that's so strange. But, you know, I. I kept reading. So, like, that aside, that kind of shook me at the beginning. So, yeah, it. I don't know where to start because my notes are kind of jumbled. What I will say is, as I was kind of reflecting on, like, this whole idea of doing things from Draco's perspective, it's a little hard, actually, I think, to start at this Moment like with him changing his, I mean, not really changing allegiance because he's not done that exactly. But with him accepting this help, you know, all the reasoning that goes through his head is like, oh, like, you know, I could, you know, end up killed or my family could end up killed, you know, because I've thrown in, you know, I've thrown myself in with like all these Death Eaters and everything they're up to. But it obviously it's not really even about thinking that. It's not like he has any conviction that that's a terribly wrong side to be on. It's more just about himself and protecting his family and being more concerned about that than like, I don't know, the fact that they're all that he's on a side of like terror and destruction. So one thing I'll say is it maybe would have been helpful to understand earlier what Draco had gone through all year, you know, because here it just is just like very sudden. And now Draco's taking this deal for protection and there's lots of, I mean, I don't know, it's very self interested reasons for why he's, you know, taking this offer from Dumbledore. And I just think it would have had some weight to it if we'd maybe been with Draco a little bit longer before this moment happened. Does that make sense? Is what I'm saying. Makes it sense. [00:28:01] Speaker A: No, it, no it does, it does make sense to me because yeah, no, it is a lot to be dropped in at this particular moment, I will say in terms of, in thinking and trying to brainstorm about, you know, what sort of literary activities we would do for this podcast. One thing I thought of like, would it be worthwhile to maybe like read us read and talk about some of the comments that are put at the end of each chapter. And I decided to do away with that plan. But when I was reading these comments, I think what you're going, what you're talking about is in fact some people like the fact that Draco is so self interested because, you know, some people say in a lot of, you know, Harry Potter fan fictions that some writers don't put in the work to give a full redemptive arc where basically they stop start Draco off as being a little too nice, whereas this one is going hardcore and being like, yes, he's starting completely absolutely self interested. [00:29:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I will say, I think in terms of the writing, I think he's written well. Like, I think like the types of thoughts he has in Fact, I have more comments about this, like when we get to the part where he's in Hagrid's hut, but I guess, you know, we're not quite there yet. But like, yeah, I think, I think how Draco is written and the kind of thoughts he has and then just the things he's saying and how he reacts to, you know, the characters, I think that is all on brand, on track. I think that makes complete sense. But yeah, I. It's not just that. Yeah, I don't know, it's just something about it was hard for me to wrap around in terms of him accepting this deal at this moment when he was so close to completing the thing that he had been so stressed about achieving all year. And obviously the idea is there's some kernel of goodness in him that he can't kill. So, you know, I think that's the idea that, you know, we're holding on to. At the same time, he still expresses like his disdain for some of the other characters, which again, is. Which is consistent with his personality. So, yeah, yeah, I, I think here's. Here's what I say. I was looking for a particular note. So I, as I started reading this again and I was still so kind of shocked that we were getting this from Draco's perspective that I was reading very critically. Kind like kind of harsh to start off. But here's a note I wrote for myself upon rereading. There is a bit of description of how he knows this is a punishment for his family, you know, that he's been given this task, but if he succeeds, he will ensure his family's status forever. So like, as he was reflecting on those things, you know, I was like, just caring about your family is still kind of self interested. You know, caring about your family, not others, is still self interested. But I did sympathize a bit more the second time I read through it, you know, because this is all kind of like facing this decision of. Of I guess killing someone is kind of making him like, question. He's not even really questioning, but it's like the beginnings of, of something. Right? [00:31:28] Speaker A: So one thing that I made note of is, you know, in terms of Draco rationalizing his decision to take the deal and it's him realizing, you know, because again, the idea is that even if on some level he knows, you know, that he was given this task as a punishment for his father, he's been taking the approach all year of like, oh, but I'll prove to the Dark lord that I can do it. At all, secure my family's position. But then he realizes, no, this isn't the finish line. This is just the starting gate. There is nothing he could ever do. He's realizing in terms of just working for Voldemort that there's nothing you can do that will ever satisfy this megalomaniac. And that is on. That's in accordance with. I have mentioned when we were on man, rambling Raven preps in some, you know, in a variety of capacities. When I was talking with Jess is that Voldemort is a super shitty boss. He's not. He does not have good incentive. And you know, I would wander aloud with Jess on, you know, rambling Raven presence. Like, how did this, how does this guy have any followers? He's such a crappy boss. There is no positive reinforcement. So just to hear that, you know, echoed in terms of Draco, you know, realizing this and be like, okay, yeah, it makes sense to take. Even if you're purely self interested, it makes sense to take this deal because Voldemort is cray cray. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean, Voldemort. Voldemort rules through fear. So the idea is people are too afraid to abandon his, his mission. Right. For fear of punishment or punishment of the people you do care about around you. Even if that's not, you know, you should care about like the general, like people in general. But like, even if you only care about your immediate, you know, family, the, like, the threat of that is what keeps people in line, I think. And you know, I mean, and then, and there's a lot of ideology and you know, the Muggle hating and, and all that, that people kind of get indoctrinated into. And people with very sort of weak and not able to think on their own types of personalities just like gravitate towards power. It's like, hey, like I'm gonna throw in. And I have these same prejudices, so it's easy for me to just join this, this, you know, movement. So, yeah. [00:34:00] Speaker A: So ultimately Draco is. Lowers his wand and Dumbledore's just like, you know, we must move at once. Time is very short. He asked Draco for his wand. Dumbledore uses his wand to summon, you know, to retrieve his own wand. And so he tells Draco, you know, take this broom and go hide out in Hagrid's house and I'll. And I'll come get you later. And he, and he uses the other broom to basically. I forgot this happened. To basically create transfigure a corpse of Draco Yeah. [00:34:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So I guess this. This kind of makes sense, like, in the moment. But, yeah, the idea is they're gonna fake Draco's death. [00:34:44] Speaker A: They're gonna fake Draco's death and, you know, they're faking. They're gonna go get his mom and also fake her death. Whereas. And as Lucius. Lucius is in Azkaban right now so he is not under immediate threat. [00:34:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know if faking a body is something that is easy to do. Obviously, Dumbledore is very skilled so maybe he can do it, like, really, really well. But I would almost think that maybe doing nothing, like, having no body might have been the better route to go. But, I mean, I. I mean, I. Narratively, I'm fine with it. You know, it. It makes sense. Yeah. [00:35:27] Speaker A: So he goes to Hagrid's cabin and he's just sitting there quietly because obviously, you know, he and Hagrid aren't exactly buddies. [00:35:39] Speaker B: Yeah. He's kind of sitting there, like, thinking how absurd it is for someone, like, to live in a place like. Someone as big as Hagrid to live in a place like that. You know, like his small hut. This the stream of consciousness about, you know, how all of his plans had gone awry. You know, he's not sitting there thinking, oh, what terrible things I've done. He's sitting there thinking, oh, like, you know, Fenrir was not supposed to be involved. Like, he messed up the whole plan. Plan. Like, he's even still thinking about how the plan could have been more successful or, you know, it's not like he's done a complete 180 or anything. So I, again think it's well written in terms of what he might have been thinking about. His disdain for Hagrid and McGonagall is maintained. You know, it struck me more the second time I read it that he's eager for Death Eaters to be killed off so that they aren't out there as a threat. There's a line somewhere where he's, like, asking McGonagall, did you kill the other Death Eaters? Sorry, I have to get some water. So, you know, he's not exactly. He's in a desperate position. You know, he's not really caring about the people he just, like, defected from. He's not really caring about the people who are offering protection. He just wants to get himself and hopefully his parents out of all of this. Yep. So. [00:37:14] Speaker A: So, yeah. So Minerva McGonagall is sent to collect him yeah, no need, Professor Dumbledore returned to the castle in time to turn the tide. Everyone's all right. We have all of our limbs, Hagrid, you know, and so. And let's see. None of your classmates were injured by the Death Eaters. As for the vanishing cabinet it has been dismantled and the passage between them closed. If McGonagall was waiting for him to weep with joy for the Death Eater's failure and repent upon his knees she would be waiting a long time. [00:37:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And there's also a few lines in here again with kind of, you know, the stream of consciousness, like, oh, he should have killed the old man. Yes. He saw that now, should have killed him and found some way to fake his own death to make his own escape. You know, he's kind of backtracking, like, oh, this is how I should have done it. I should have just killed him and then. And then escaped. You know what I mean? So, yeah, it is interesting and I think it is well written for someone who is in this situation and is, you know, is the personality that he has. [00:38:20] Speaker A: Yep. [00:38:21] Speaker B: So. [00:38:21] Speaker A: And McGonagall's telling him Remus, Lupin and Nymphadora Tox have been sent to retrieve know his mother. [00:38:29] Speaker B: Yes. So I. So the next part I have, I take issue with, actually. [00:38:36] Speaker A: And which part is this? [00:38:38] Speaker B: So when Dumbledore joins them. Right. [00:38:42] Speaker A: So, yeah, so McGonagall escorts Draco up to the castle under an invisibility cloak to the infirmary and we are rejoining. We are reunited with Dumbledore. [00:38:54] Speaker B: Yeah. So a couple things I started. See, this is how it was going while I was reading. It'd be a section where I was like, okay, yeah, this is really good. And then it'd be something like, the Conagle takes out an invisibility cloak. And then I. I was just like, what? It. Is that Harry's cloak? There. There's no way. [00:39:13] Speaker A: No, that's probably Mad Eye's cloak. Okay, maybe Mad Eye has an invisibility cloak. [00:39:19] Speaker B: That's true. Okay. Okay, fine. [00:39:23] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:39:24] Speaker B: See, I told you I'm not the top Harry Potter fan. I know some things inside and out, but I don't remember everything. [00:39:32] Speaker A: So there'll be things suggesting that. [00:39:34] Speaker B: I was like, there is no way. They're, like, using Harry's cloak to, like, cover Draco to bring him back to the castle. I was like, no way. And then when we get to Dumbledore and he's explaining sometime in the coming weeks members of the Order will visit Lucius and ask band under the guise of informing him of your death. They will, of course, tell him the truth instead, etc. Etc. This seems like an extremely odd and risky plan. Why would the Order do this? [00:40:08] Speaker A: Smuggle Lucius out? [00:40:10] Speaker B: Yes. Why on earth. Earth would they do this? I take issue with this whole thread. I think it's fine. So I think it's fine that they're interested in protecting Draco's mother and getting her away because that's kind of what he promised. In fact, I think the original promise Dumbledore said is we can, like, protect your mother and when the time comes, we can protect Lucius as well. I did not take that to mean what he's describing now, which is we're going to risk time and effort from our Order members to break out an extremely poignant and prominent Death Eater. Historically, while, you know, the Death Eaters are still at large, this seems like an incredibly dangerous plan. It does not make sense to me. It would make more sense for them to be like, you know, your father's an Azkaban because of the crimes he did. We can protect him to the best of our ability, but, you know, we're not. We're not breaking him out of. Out of prison. You know, [00:41:26] Speaker A: Interesting take. I guess the only thing I could say because again, I read this and I wasn't too bothered by it the way you are. I guess it's more the sense of, like, you know, as we know in the canon, you know, Azkaban, you know, is broken into. And I guess they're just trying to be preemptive rather than wait for that sort of situation to get Lucius out first. [00:41:48] Speaker B: But. [00:41:49] Speaker A: No, I, you know, I, I see your point. Because. [00:41:52] Speaker B: Because they have no. They have no idea how compliant Lucius is going to be with this arrangement. Again, this kind of harkens back to if maybe we'd have some more perspective from Draco leading up to this then maybe we would know a little bit about Lucius's situation. In fact, I forget exactly how. How much on good terms versus bad terms he is with Voldemort at this particular moment while being in prison. Because if he's on Voldemort's, like, shitless, then, yeah, like, maybe it makes sense to break Lucius out and he'll be incredibly receptive to going into hiding and doing these things, but maybe not. [00:42:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I sort of interpret it is that we know that Dumbledore knows that Lucius is in a very bad situation and is not and is on Voldemort shit list right now, and he Says that to Harry, who when. During the, during the, like, you know, pensive Voldemort memory lessons at Half Blood Prince. And there's literally a point where Dumbledore says to Harry, ah, poor Lucius. Given how he mishandled the diary and the fiasco at the Ministry, I would not be surprised if Lucius is not secretly happy to be in Safe in Azkaban at the moment. And so I think what would have helped maybe is because I'm such a Harry Potter and I can remember this almost verbatim. So I think what's missing is Dumbledore is more in a line of that maybe Lucius hides it more. But I think Dumbledore is relying on the fact that basically Lucius right now is an adult version of Draco and probably knows Lucius better. And be like, Lucius only cares about his family. And so if we have both his wife and son, he will be, he will cut, he will, you know, get in line. [00:43:53] Speaker B: Okay, maybe I still think this is a very risky thing so we can talk about it in the next chapter because again, there wasn't a lot of description about how stealing away Narcissa worked out, you know, in terms I'm sure that was a surprise for her. But okay, I, I can kind of see more how maybe Lucius is in a state to be more receptive because again, we're going off of Dumbledore's assessment, as you said, but Dumbledore is usually right, so, so yeah, maybe Lucius would be more amenable to this. But I still think doing like in the coming weeks, like, I don't know, I, I, in that case, I agree with the plan, but I don't see the urgency. [00:44:47] Speaker A: Okay, so one thing that before we get into this conversation with Dumbledore is, you know, again, Draco, again written very well and being so self interested, but he has this very visceral reaction to seeing how Bill Weasley has been mauled by Fenrir Greyback. What were your thoughts on that? [00:45:09] Speaker B: I wasn't sure, to be honest, because again, maybe I'm revealing how much I have forgotten about Harry Potter. It's been a while since I've read it. I mean, we did, we did the rereads, but I only like read the chapters that we did. I'm trying to recall if he's ever flinched or been wary of like other, other times where people have gotten hurt. Like, I know, like, I know, for example, we were talking about book two earlier. Like I know in book two when all the attacks were happening, right. He was almost very like Kind of gleeful about it, like, like oh you're, you're next, you know, or whatever. But he was much younger then, you know, so you know, not that Bill Weasley is among, but you know, he hates the Weasleys. But yeah, obviously this effect, this seems to affect him quite a bit. I again he kind of was musing over the fact that Fenrir was not supposed to be a part of the plan. And I think so it's, it's like seeing what can happen when a plan goes sideways, goes wrong. [00:46:18] Speaker A: And you know, I think this, this ties into you know, the prejudice that are against werewolves. And you know, of course, you know, Draco believes in all this like blood status and blood hierarchy. So when it comes to werewolves, werewolves are not even seen as people, they're seen as monsters. And so I think, you know, I think on some level it's like, you know, Death Eaters are okay even though they're terrible, horrible people. But the idea of unleashing a werewolf, you know, into a school of wizards, I think on Draco's mind, you know, like werewolves are not wizards. Like not people like to him, like even though he has all this like blood style stuff to him, releasing a werewolf onto the world is just completely barbaric and inhumane. [00:47:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And again, you know, with not having more info on, on or just more, more, more lead up to the, to all this, to all this happening, you know, we don't really know how Draco feels about his own friends. You know, we kind of, we kind of assume that he's just kind of using them, you know, like Crab and Goyle and like he's not really friends with them. He just kind of, you know, likes the admiration and he uses them as like his personal bodyguards kind of. [00:47:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:37] Speaker B: But then like there's the other Slytherins so we don't really know how much he actually cares about his quote unquote friends. [00:47:47] Speaker A: Yep. [00:47:47] Speaker B: And like not wanting to them to be hurt and such. I mean here, here it's stated like he doesn't want his friends to be hurt. But I mean, yeah, it's, it's just a little unclear like his exact stance on, on everything. Yep. [00:48:03] Speaker A: And so, and then one thing I, I guess I sort of, you know, pointed out to me is you know, Professor Snape has been instructed to, to not to reveal your survival too. And, and Draco is just completely freaking out because it's like if Snape, because he's under the impression that Snape is absolutely on Voldemort's side and does he thinks this is such a, you know, risk to his and his family's safety because he treats Snape completely as being Voldemort's, you know, loyal solely to Voldemort. So how did you feel think about this? [00:48:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I didn't think anything of it just yet. In this chapter I have more notes, I think, for chapter two mainly, which are has he and Snape had a conversation yet? And then of course that conversation does happen a bit later. But yeah, here with everything happening so quickly, like obviously he's freaked out because Snape, as far as he knows, is a loyal Death Eater. Also, he knows about the vow. Right. So that's kind of revealed in this chapter is he knows about the vow that Snape made with his mother to like protect him and complete the mission if he does not complete the mission. So there's like some thoughts here, like, well, I just have to get Dumbledore's help. You know, we just have to get hidden before Snape kills him. Before Snape steps in and steps in and does it. [00:49:39] Speaker A: Yeah, because, because, yeah, because Snape did reveal to Draco in Half Blood Prince, like I promised your mother, I made the Unbreakable Vow, Draco. [00:49:47] Speaker B: Oh, that's right, he did. Harry overheard that. I forgot. [00:49:51] Speaker A: Yeah. At the Chris Slughorn's Christmas party. [00:49:55] Speaker B: Right. So Drago knows about the vow and knows that Snape basically has to kill Dumbledore. Well, I guess it doesn't have to, but I mean he, yeah, made the Unbreakable Vow. Right. So, so yeah, I mean, I, in this moment, I didn't really have any further thoughts than that other than again, Draco's only thinking of himself kind of in this moment. [00:50:19] Speaker A: Yep. And so, yeah, and so the end of the end of the chapter is, you know, Dumbledore explaining, like, I'll announce to the school that you, you had been sworn in Lord Voldemort's service in order to kill me, blah, blah, blah. And Draco's like, so you're going to use me as a warning, are you? Draco couldn't quite keep the sneer out of his voice. Dumbledore did not reply for a moment. Yes. Dumbledore said quietly. For those like you, Draco, who come of age in times like these, I'm afraid that is the only choice left to make. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Yeah, what I'm hoping for is that this is going to be a bit of a Zuko esque redemption arc where, you know, the first time. So, you know, from Avatar the last airbender. Right. So, like, the first time we see Zuko, he's a complete jerk and he's clearly the bad guy. And there's no, like, he's rude to his uncle, he's rude to the crew. He's trying to track down the Avatar purely to regain his status as crown prince. So, like, we all hate Zuko at the beginning. And then, like, over the. You know, over time, it's like, oh, he. He is kind to his uncle. He can even be kind to the crew. He can even, like, agree to leave a town in peace if. If, you know, he can sort of continue on his mission. You know, like, you kind of get these steps towards reasonableness, and maybe there's a little bit of, you know, goodness there. And then, of course, over time, he kind of grows and grows and actually learns about how kind of the whole. The whole dogma that the Fire Nation has is just completely wrong. So. So, yeah, I'm hoping that that's what we're getting here. It's just being in his head makes it difficult to sympathize, at least at this point, right? Mm. That's what makes it kind of challenging, because you want to be able to sympathize with your main character to some degree, because otherwise, if your character is. No redeeming qualities, then your character is not really that interesting. So that's what's making it a little. A little bit difficult. I see, like, where it could go. But again, starting at this point, it just makes it a little. A little hard. [00:52:44] Speaker A: Alrighty. And then we end this chapter with Draco being given the location of the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, and he steps in to the fireplace with the floo powder, and off he goes. [00:53:04] Speaker B: Yep. [00:53:04] Speaker A: And that is the end of chapter two. Or I mean, chapter one. And then we get on to chapter two, which is the fall and the flight. So, again, thoughts? [00:53:17] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, there's a lot going on in this chapter. So, yeah, for Draco, the realest and most interesting part of this chapter for me was the snark directed at Ron Weasley and seemed very on brand. And then the conversation with Snape was interesting. And to be honest, the point at which I stopped reading because I felt like I was being too harsh was like, right before the conversation with Snape happened, I had been wondering the whole time, has he clearly not talked to Snape up until this point? That's ridiculous. Like they have some kind of relationship. Clearly they would have had some. Some kind of contact in these. What like, two weeks since he had gone into hiding or accepted the help of the Order to go into hiding. And so I. I was just getting very, like, frustrated about the. Like, does this whole situation even make sense? But. But yeah. So the conversation with Snape was good. And then other parts of it seemed off. I don't know whether the conversations with his mother make sense, because we don't know a lot about Narcissa, and there wasn't really a lot of, like I said, reflection on how she kind of took all of this. This new situation she's in. Yeah. And then. And then when we switched to Hermione's point of view, I had to, again, I had. I had already been rereading it. I was like, okay, I'm getting into it. And then we switched to Hermione's point of. And I was like, I can't. I can't. It's. It's too much to process emotionally. I just. I can't. I'll just say up front, I did not like the Hermione perspective at all. I was very upset by it. [00:55:23] Speaker A: Okay, well, let's start with, you know, start with again. It's been two weeks. Draco and his mother are, you know, sitting together at Grimald Place. You know, it's the same. It's the same day that the Order is putting in motion the plan to get to smuggle Lucius out of Azkaban, which, again, you made your. [00:55:55] Speaker B: Yeah, again. And I take issue with why this plan is so imminent and needing to happen at all. [00:56:04] Speaker A: Yep. And, you know, they're reading the Daily Prophet and just talk, talking. And so we get a little bit of an interaction between Draco and Creature. [00:56:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I do want to say briefly, just in terms of Narcissa, you know, what we know about her other than, like, her desperation to protect Jericho, I guess, with the whole Unbreakable Vow situation. Other than that, she's always been really high and mighty and disdainful. You know, it's. We don't really know much about her other than, like, she cares about her standing within her family, I think. So it's unclear how she reacted initially to this whole rear arrangement. You know, she seems, at this point, she seems very accepting of it, which I actually find find odd. You know, her smiling when Draco reads her his obituary seems odd. Like, I think she'd be incredibly despondent, you know, about this complete change in her circumstances. Like, even if she accepts the Order's help, she's been brought low compared to where she's was before, you know, like, her family's been brought low. So in, like, everyone's standing. So I. Yeah, I'm. I don't know enough about Narcissa to really have a grasp of whether this makes. I mean, the interactions between Draco and his mother seem realistic and kind of informative of their relationship. But, yeah, I don't. I don't know. I don't know what to think. [00:57:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I don't know if my. If my perception has been clouded because, yeah, nars. That's the one thing about fan fiction, because when we're not given as much in a canon work, that leaves more room for interpretation and people can go in different directions. I've always. Again, I've viewed the Malfoys and how a lot of people write. Write them in. Again, they really, you know, build on the fact that I think Narcissa. I think Narcissa isn't as despondent because, again, the Malfoys were in disgrace. And maybe if. Maybe both Lucius and Narcissa, if they were at the height of their influence and whatever and Draco had done this and they got stuck in this situation, that they'd be really super pissed, or in Narcissa's case, despondent. But I think, again, she had to, you know, Lucius and ask Fan. You know, she had to live. And, you know, Draco is somewhat safe, quote unquote, at school, but Narcissa is the one who had to deal with the fact that the Malfoys were in disgrace and dealing with the Death Eaters and dealing with Voldemort. So I think for their position of being in a really bad spot, I think that's why she's not as, you know. You know, she's like, okay, this is as good as it gets for the moment. [00:59:12] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think also it might be the writing itself that's a bit confusing. Again, the. The writing is good. It's just, you know, I realized as I was doing, like, a reread of this section, I could actually read it and kind of imagine the things they were saying in slightly different tones or with slightly different intonations. You know what I mean? Whereas, like, in a regular Harry Potter book, when I read a conversation, I can tell exactly, like, who's being snarky, who's being dismissive, who's being like. I can just tell, like, the way the characters are speaking, if that makes sense. And something about the way it was written, it wasn't clear to me exactly how. How they were, like, the tone and the way they were speaking, if that makes sense. So that. I think that's what also made it confusing in understanding where she stands is. It wasn't very descriptive, like how she was talking, I guess. [01:00:18] Speaker A: Right. So, yeah, there's a small interaction between Draco and Creature where Draco finds out that Creature was ordered by Harry to spy on him. [01:00:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought. I thought this was fine. You know, he. Maybe I was surprised he wasn't a little more bossy, you know, with Preacher, like. But I think mostly, like you said, he was kind of surprised to learn, like, what you. You were following me around. But it kind of feels like he was a little more conversational with. With a house elf than I would have expected him to be considering, you know, his supposed. You know, again, I use the word disdain a lot. But, you know, his thinking that they're kind of beneath wizards and people. Like, I was surprised he even kind of talked as much as he did with Creature. But. But, I mean, it. It was. It. It still made sense. [01:01:16] Speaker A: Yep. And their conversation is cut short because the Weasleys come in. [01:01:21] Speaker B: Yes. Well, first it's Hermione and Ron, I think. [01:01:24] Speaker A: Yeah, first. First it's Hermione and Ron. [01:01:29] Speaker B: I think this makes perfect sense. This was written perfectly. And I think that makes sense because we have a lot of material to draw on in terms of how these people would interact. [01:01:43] Speaker A: Yeah. You know. [01:01:44] Speaker B: You know, he. He insults Ron's family, which is per the norm. [01:01:52] Speaker A: Yep. And it's like, you know, you've got some nerve. Enjoying holiday, your holiday, are you? I've had better. Doubt you have, though, Weasley. [01:02:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Like this. This all tracks. It makes perfect sense. I like that. There's some other things going on in his head, like, wow, he's throwing these insults at them. You know, just a couple other things. Like something I just wanted to point out about Hermione is, you know, he calls her a Mudblood and all these things. But my understanding from the canon is that Draco would probably be the star pupil of the year if not for Hermione. Right. Like, isn't he a top student? [01:02:36] Speaker A: Yeah, he is a top student. Yeah. So I think there is this sense of, like, the only person smarter than Draco academically wise is Hermione. [01:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So not just that she has a Muggle born. Often one ups him in class but specifically she displaces him as potentially the highest student in their year. So that's just a separate thing I recall. But there's a. There's one very interesting line Here it's really quick. I had to reread it. You know, he insults, let's see, he insults Ron's family and blah, blah, blah. There's a moment here where he thinks, he imagines spilling the boiling liquid over his fingers. Imagine skin, scalded red, injured skin. That is interesting because that's like a passing self harm thought. And that's something, you know, we don't, you know, obviously we don't know Draco. So that was very quick. But it was like. Well, what was that about? Like that was, that was odd but also intriguing. Like he had. He has some kind of self harm streak potentially. [01:03:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And, and yeah, self harm streak. And I think because again, he, he has clearly some sort of reaction of like, obviously he's his typical snarky self when it's just one, one on one or at least with Ron and Hermione. But then all the Weasleys come, or at least you know, Molly with a good chunk of the other Weasleys and, and his thoughts go to Bill. [01:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:21] Speaker A: And he doesn't really know what to, what to say. And then he gets, he gets flagged down by Remus specifically. [01:04:31] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a couple of really brief encounters here with some order members. I thought they all like made sense. So there's like a brief encounter with Remus and you know, he doesn't like being, you know, treated like, like, oh yeah, why are you like babying me? Or something along those lines. [01:04:51] Speaker A: Yep. [01:04:51] Speaker B: A brief, very brief interaction with Tonks. Tonks is like, like Tonks mentions here that Narcissa was rude when bringing her here. But again, it's very quick. We don't really get more about, about that, like how all of that went down. [01:05:10] Speaker A: No, we don't. And Drago notices that this is the first time again, you know, people been going in and out these last two weeks. But yeah, this is the first time that as you know, Tongs is Draco's first cousin. [01:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, he doesn't really know her. Nope. So there's a brief, brief like reflection on how. Yeah. And isn't it odd that like both their mothers probably visited this house together, you know, grim old place when they were younger. But I mean, he doesn't really spend too much time thinking about it. He just kind of is on his way. What really bothered me here again is when Snape and Dumbledore arrive and they just kind of walk by him. Like not even a curt greeting from Snape. That, that, that's where I sort of lost it. And I was like, what is happening? I have to stop. I have to stop because I felt like I was being too critical and. Yeah, Yep. [01:06:11] Speaker A: So it hit me. [01:06:12] Speaker B: It hit me as very out of place that neither of them. Neither of them, Snape and Dumbledore seem to acknowledge his presence. Like just in the hallway. [01:06:25] Speaker A: Yep. So Draco stakes out with a book as they go in to have an order meeting and Draco is able to ask for Snape, you know, when the meeting ends. [01:06:39] Speaker B: Yes. So there is a conversation here in which I was like, thank goodness, because it has to happen. [01:06:47] Speaker A: Yes. So, yeah, so Double Door nods and Snape goes to talk to Draco. So, yeah, so you said you had thoughts about their conversation, I thought. [01:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah, sorry. I'm just checking my notes here because I had some notes that I then retracted. Okay, so he talks to Snape after the meeting. Yes. So I really liked this interaction between him and Snape because again, with all the notes I'd written before, I feel like this addresses one, the fact that they do have some kind of relationship, which I think would be. Is intriguing to delve into. Cause we don't really know. Like, we know the few things Harry's spied on, but we don't really know what Snape and Draco's exact relationship is. Right. So what I liked here is that Snape is still his superior and is very cagey with Draco. Right. He doesn't really reveal much. He kind of criticizes Draco for not accepting his help earlier. You know, so it's kind of clear from the interaction that even though Snape is head of Slytherin and all those things, they're not pals. I mean, they're not pals. Snape may not even be much of a mentor to Draco, which is what I was potentially envisioning. I think Draco admires him as head of Slytherin, but. But yeah, Snape is clearly the superior and. And not doesn't really reveal much. So he just. It's just. It's just Draco assuming, you know, hey, I'm not going to tell anyone that you're planning to kill Dumbledore. And Snape is just like, well, okay then, like, that's it. That's it. I mean, obviously there's more to it than that, but I really liked seeing the interaction between them, you know. [01:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, again, maybe I'm clouded by other people's interpretations via other fan fictions because people go in different directions and there are a lot of people like it's happened in more than a handful of fanfics where they've made it where I don't even know if this is technically canon or not, that Snape is Drake, like, that Draco is Snape's godson. Because it's kind of, kind of implied even, even in some of the memories from Half Blood Prince, that kind of Lucius and that Lucius kind of took Snape under his wing and that he felt sorry for him as a Half Blood and did what he could to like, introduce him to like, you know, the slithering crowd and blah, blah, blah. [01:09:29] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, it also seems like from the books, again, we're getting things from Harry's point of view that Snape would even maybe know that Draco was like, bullshitting or like had just done something. But like, I think almost as a slight at Harry would kind of let Draco get away with things. I'm. I'm having trouble remembering a specific instance. But, you know, it kind of feels like you think that Snape is a little more close with Draco because of these moments that Harry sees. [01:10:08] Speaker A: And I. And I think that's probably true, but I think in this, it's not as [01:10:14] Speaker B: true as we would think. Yeah. [01:10:16] Speaker A: Or I, I sort of interpret it as it was true, but because of this very big thing happening of Draco accepting Dumbledore's help, that Snape is not being his maybe usual self, that he's, you know, because he's not sure where again, Draco making such a shift that. That Snape has immediately gone back into sort of like, you know, spy mode and is being very guarded because this is such a, you know, this isn't like being at school anymore. The stakes are very high. [01:10:47] Speaker B: That's true too. Like, it might be that normally their interaction's a bit different, but it can't be now in this situation. Yeah. [01:10:57] Speaker A: Yep. And so Snape departs and then we get another interaction with like, Ron and Hermione. [01:11:06] Speaker B: Oh, by the way, I just want to mention here everyone's kind of. There's some order meeting happening, you know, throughout all of this. And you know, Molly Weasley is like muttering, walking by like, oh, just children. Like she's upset about something. It like I was trying to figure out what. What is going on here. I finally realized this is the Polyjuice escape plan that they are discussing. Right? [01:11:32] Speaker A: Yes. [01:11:33] Speaker B: So it's like, oh, this is what they're. This is what this meeting was probably about. It was about, you know, all the, like, you know, George and Fred And Hermione and Ron and like all of them like being the decoy Harry's and like to fly him out of Privet drive, like that's what's going on here. And I took you a moment. Well it, I actually started to get excited like is Draco gonna be one of the Polyjuice Harry's? Like I was kind of like, oh, that would be interesting to see. Like me. But I mean, you know we see that, that's, that doesn't happen. But I was like, oh that, that'd be kind of neat. [01:12:14] Speaker A: Yep. [01:12:15] Speaker B: How would that go? Yeah, so he also has, he has like a dissociation moment too. Like this is another weird mental thing. So there was a self harm thing earlier and then. Yeah, I guess there's another interaction with Ron and Hermione and he kind of dissociates at one point. [01:12:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Because basically Ron is calling Draco out accurately. It's like you don't give a damn. All you think about is your, yourself. You don't, you know, you don't give a shit about my, you know, my, my brother. The second you're out of gen danger, everything's back to the normal. Well, it didn't go away for me and my family and Draco just looked at him. The accusation did not hurt him. Actually hearing the words, all of the heat in, in Draco's body had seemed to drain and now he felt as if he were standing several paces away from himself. [01:13:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And he kind of has like a stream of various remembrances, you know, memories. So yeah, he has like this dissociative moment and one of the, and I was trying to remember. He specifically recalls this horrible thing with a Muggle man who gets tortured by Voldemort and all the Death Eaters are laughing. Do we know who that is? I couldn't recall who that was supposed to be if we knew. [01:13:38] Speaker A: No, I don't, I don't think it's supposed to be. Certainly not Frank Bryce because. And then the, the, the person who isn't tortured like Canon in the beginning of Deadly Hallows is like a woman. [01:13:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:50] Speaker A: So this is something totally, you know, new like not, not being referred to from Canon. [01:13:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, just checking. Yeah, yeah. So that was, that was interesting. He's definitely got some, some, you know, some issues. Yeah, I mean, I would think so. Yep. Yeah. [01:14:12] Speaker A: Yep. And then he's like, you know, and then he just leaves his teacup and he just goes out of the kitchen and then we switch to Hermione's POV oh, my gosh. [01:14:24] Speaker B: I don't. I don't know how to. I. I will say that we probably need to wrap up by six and I don't know if that's gonna be possible. No, I'm just kidding. Here. Here's what I'll say. Like I said, when we switched to Hermione's point of view, it was too much emotionally. I was like, I'm still processing that. We're getting things through Draco's point of view. Like, what is happening here? But then, you know, I, When I finished the chapter, I was so disappointed in this, to be honest. [01:14:56] Speaker A: Why? [01:14:57] Speaker B: Her. Her chapter is entirely about her being a ball of confusion over whether she likes Ron or Harry. Like, that's it. That's her chapter. It reduced her character to an absurd level. I'm very upset about it. [01:15:19] Speaker A: I see. [01:15:19] Speaker B: Because I love Hermione as a character. Some of the. I did not like the hoping. Hoping for a passionate declaration for Ron. Like something in here was like she felt the tension in the air between them and in her own body, pleasurably tense, like a string about to be played. Oh, my God, what are they doing to Hermione? What? What? No, I feel like this is a guy maybe thinking, is this. Was this written by a guy or a girl? I guess it doesn't matter. The person isn't writing female very well. That's my opinion. Isn't writing CIS female very well. [01:16:07] Speaker A: Interesting. So, yeah, I can't confirm or deny whether. Whether the writer is male or female. [01:16:14] Speaker B: I was not happy with this. So in this, you know, in the same breadth, almost of like, wondering if Ron likes her back, also introducing the idea that she is confused between Ron and Harry. I'm not a big fan of this because, one, I mean, objectively, we know that Ron has a lot of maturity issues that just make the whole thing between her and him in the main canon already kind of unlikely, in my opinion. Yeah, but, but you know, you like who you like, right? So, like, it's kind of now making that a little bit weird because, you know, when you compare them, it's like. But then, isn't Harry like a more obvious choice? But like, two, the fact that she feels guilt, like there's so much in here about her feeling guilty about hurting either of the two's feelings. I mean, it's just like the word feelings is used many times in this chapter. It's just some like 1990s, early 2000s, poorly written female character nonsense. I, I did not. I did not like that this was based. Like, it's okay to maybe have some. Like maybe some of this topic, if you really want to go there. But it was all about this. Yeah. Which I take. Which I think is. I think is just terrible. Okay. [01:17:48] Speaker A: Okay. But it wasn't actually all of that because basically then we skip to the Battle of the Seven Potters. And so, you know, so we have, obviously, big change from canon where obviously Hermione is serving as one of the Seven Potters. But in the canon, she is placed on a Thestral with Kingsley's shackle boat. But because Dumbledore is still alive, she is placed with Dumbledore on the thestral. [01:18:16] Speaker B: Yeah. The fact that Dumbledore is here during this, you know, that. That is. I was kind of excited, you know. Oh, Dumbledore's here, like, because he was an extremely powerful wizard. Right. Like, this is gonna change how all of this plays out, right? [01:18:38] Speaker A: No, not really. And I think in some of the writing and talking about how weak Dumbledore is, I think the author was really trying to play into the fact that again, we knew that Dumbledore was getting to the end of, you know, Snape's estimation of you have a year to live. And so I think they were trying to play into. Dumbledore literally is on his last leg like this. His farce of. His farce of, you know, not being about to die is passing. You know, it's becoming more and more difficult to sell that with each passing day. [01:19:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I'm just reading my notes. The author kind of glosses over the whole explaining of the plan. I mean, I get why, because we technically already read it, but, like, narratively it was a bit weird because it's. It was very brief, like, oh, like mad. I explained the plan and then we were all Harry's. But that's fine. Yeah. The actual fight, you know, when she's noticing in the fight, like, how frail his hand seems. And then like the dead hand obviously is. Yeah, he is not well. [01:19:56] Speaker A: He is not well. And again, you know, all the Death Eaters come and as predicted, you know, a good chunk of them are coming towards Dumbledore. You know, he's still putting up a good fight, doing a lot of super powerful spells and Hermione's feeling kind of okay. And then Stape comes around. [01:20:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So I actually, the flight scene, it was a little confusing from Hermione's perspective. I'm so. I liked the brief description of Dumbledore, like casting all these kind of cool spells that we don't really know exactly what they are. You know, like I said, I was getting excited because I thought, oh, here we go. Like things are going to be so, so different, you know, because there's like a purple lightning one that makes like a cage around somebody. You know, like there's all these spells going off. But then, yeah, Snape appears and I guess it was weird how she described it. It's like she knew it was about to happen but then it was like happening. But narratively it was like she knew this was gonna happen and knew this was gonna happen. But then like it was just a little weird how it was described. [01:21:11] Speaker A: Yep. And so we keep it in canon that Snape kills Dumbledore. [01:21:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I was like, oh really? Like that's a bit of a cop out. I mean it's, it's fine, it's fine. But I was like, it's kind of like the whole idea that fate is inevitable. Like, you know, I know they had an arrangement between them to make sure that, that Snape went ahead and did kill him. Right. Like they were in agreement. Right. But, but still I was like, so soon? Come on. [01:21:45] Speaker A: I, I, I honestly I was surprised. I thought Dumbledore made it to. I knew, I knew the battle of the seven Potters is when Dumbledore goes in this fig. I just thought that maybe there were like like chapters four. I, I didn't think this came until like chapter four or five. I didn't realize that Dumbledore is killed off by, by chapter two. And I was like, oh, okay, this happened a lot, a lot faster than I remember. [01:22:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So I was like, oh, that's it. Dumb, old, old Dumbledore's gone already. [01:22:19] Speaker A: Yep, he's gone already. He's plummeting to the ground. The thestral is also hit. So then Hermione is pump fall into the ground. [01:22:29] Speaker B: Yeah, this is a bit weird because like what we know and again, I guess it didn't happen at this point but what we know from the original canon is that Snape purposefully like attacks during this battle but like misses on purpose. Like he takes George's ear off when like he could have done something much worse. Right. Like Snape just lets Hermione fall, it seems. I mean, I guess he can't. I mean she's disguised as Harry so like he would have the pretense to like go after her. I, the fact that she's falling and Snape kind of does nothing I actually thought was a little weird from, you know, if Snape is really but, you know, I. Yeah, I don't know. [01:23:20] Speaker A: I don't know. I guess I kind of interpret it as him. Him thinking of all the people who can, like, quickly get themselves out of, like, you know, who can, like, save themselves. It's gonna be this one compared to some of the other stupid kids. [01:23:34] Speaker B: But does he know it's Hermione? Because she's disguised, right? Like, how would he know? [01:23:41] Speaker A: The only thing I could think of is if Dumbledore felt it pertinent to be like, I'm gonna be with Hermione, you know, when you kill me. Be mindful of that. [01:23:49] Speaker B: Maybe. I don't know. It's. Now it seems like we're making a lot of assumptions, Conjectures. Yeah. [01:23:56] Speaker A: So basically. So Hermione is falling. She grabs a hold of Dumbledore's body but she also cannot shake off Dollahov. [01:24:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, right. There's something I. Else, I. Something else I wanted to say here. Like, while this was all happening, I think even right before Dumbledore was even hit. I forget. But there's like a moment when she yells, like, protegeo. Protago. Protegeau. However you say it. The protection spell. Protego. And you know, they'd been. She like, thinks to herself, they've been practicing, you know, doing spells silently. And like, she, like, forgot about it instantly. And, you know, I was like, is that in character? You know. And to be fair, I do feel like sometimes when there's a lot of panic and chaos. Hermione. Hermione does seem to be a little less, like, on the ball. Like, usually she's really perfect at, like, her spell casting. Right. And she knows spells inside and out. Right. But I. I will say I think it is on brand for her. Like, when there's a moment of panic for. For her to, like, not be perfect, if that makes sense. [01:25:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:25:13] Speaker B: In terms of. [01:25:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I think she puts so much effort in being prepared and preparing for every possible scenario so that when disaster does strike, she knows she can immediately categorically go to, this is the scenario. This is what we're gonna do. But then when the times when she hasn't prepared, it's like, oh, crap. [01:25:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, this is actually something that makes Harry stand out. In particular. He's actually very good at just reacting quickly, like, just under duress. Probably like more than the others. That's like kind of his thing a little bit. But yeah, Harmony is usually like perfect at everything. Right. Spell casting wise. But this, this makes sense to me. And like, while falling, she does kind of think of something she can do. Right. Like you said, Dolhav is like, right on top of them. [01:26:08] Speaker A: Yep. So she, yeah, so she gets. So she disapparates and immediately goes to Grimmald Place, right in front of the Malfoys. [01:26:20] Speaker B: They're like, all having tea. And then, like, again, Lucius is here. I've already talked about how I kind of. I'm confused about all. All of that, but I guess he's here now, so there's no point in, like, belaboring. Why. Why was this a priority for the order to, you know, like, is it isn't getting Harry home? Like, is it that the priority right now? Like, why is Lucius here? But that's okay. But, yeah, they all appear in Grim Old Place, like, just interrupting the Malfoys lovely tea time. [01:26:59] Speaker A: Yes. And so who is that? So Draco originally stupefies dolahov, but before $hov was knocked unconscious, he. He used his Darth Mark to summon others. So this is, this does parallel, you know, again when Hermione, you know, when they're fleeing the Ministry, she can't shake off. Who is it? Yaxley. And so, and so when they go to Grimoire Place, they end up leaving because they realize, oh, crap, Grimald Place has been compromised now because I. Because I couldn't get rid of Yaxley. So that's why they ended up camping, you know. [01:27:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, actually, I did. I did think of that. I thought of how. Yeah, it's kind of a similar situation to that. [01:27:45] Speaker A: Yeah, so it happens earlier, but this is a similar situation where she couldn't shake off $hov. $hov, you know, summoned others. Like, Grim Old Place has been compromised now, and so they're fleeing Grim Old Place via the Floo powder. And, you know, they're trying to get out of there, and then $hov, like, starts to regain consciousness and then Lucius just immediately kills him. [01:28:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought that was kind of like. Like, I know I'm annoyed about Lucius being here, but I'm like, oh, at least they've got his decisiveness. Decisiveness down. Like, my God, he just, like, kills the guy. [01:28:23] Speaker A: Yep. [01:28:24] Speaker B: Good grief. [01:28:25] Speaker A: And so. So they don't. They don't go to the. [01:28:30] Speaker B: They can't go to the Burrow. So, yeah, I really liked this. This sort of reveal at the end where they are. [01:28:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's like, yeah, they're in this nice fancy house on top of a Persian rug, and they're like, where. What is this place? And it's like, it's my house. [01:28:48] Speaker B: Yeah, so this I actually had a bit of a beef with. Not that like as a fan, I'm very curious to finally be getting some more of Hermione, Hermione's life because we don't really spend a lot of time with like we don't know anything about her house, you know, like we're always know. [01:29:11] Speaker A: All we know that is that her parents are dentists. [01:29:14] Speaker B: Yeah, her parents are dentists. There's a couple things though, I will say one is kind of similar to when they were escaping the Death Eaters, you know, in the original canon or like when she was fleeing with Ron and Harry. There's other places she, they like go before. Like she doesn't think to go to her house in those situations and she was with companions that she trusted a lot more. But again, I guess we're saying that really didn't even happen at this, you know, anymore in this timeline. So we can't really compare it I guess. But I think it's odd that like some of the other places she like thought of like in a panic, like I think it was Tottenham Court Road is where they disapparated to first and then like after Grimald place it was like, you know, like right the middle of the woods or something. Is it like near where the Quidditch happened? I don't remember something like that. I think it's odd. I think it's odd that with Draco and his parents that what would pop in her head is to go to her house. I like that, I'm a fan of it. But I think it maybe is a little strange that this is where she took them. But again when you're panicking you think of whatever. And this is just what she thought of, I guess. [01:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah, well again and the fact, and we were already talking about she doesn't really necessarily think the best under pressure but the only thing we could maybe think of is her thinking that where is the last place that they would look for a bunch of pure blooded Malfoys, I guess. [01:30:50] Speaker B: And again like Hermione's such a wonderful character. Didn't she have to like wasn't there a description of she modified her parents memories and sent them to Australia or some things to protect them. And so the assumption I'm having here is they're not at the house but kind of going back to the earlier stuff from her point of view there was no reflection about like what she had to do to her parents. Like any, like, any of that it was just oh, Ron or Harry, you know I was like, oh my God, she's such a wonderful character. What is going on here? That's just me complaining more about what, what has happened to her stream of consciousness. I was not happy about it. [01:31:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So. And thus ends chapter two with whisking away the Malfoys to her house. [01:31:46] Speaker B: So I'm, I, it left it on a, on a. I think the way the chapter ends is very Harry Potter esque. So, yeah, like, I'm, I'm into it kind of as a story, but then I keep getting distracted by like, things like, does that, does that make sense? So it's a little hard to kind of read it just straight through, like enjoyably, if that makes sense. But, but I am, I am into it. [01:32:13] Speaker A: Okay. All right. And hopefully you'll get more range with Hermione. [01:32:20] Speaker B: I mean, I hope so. [01:32:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Alrighty then. So let us see. Have our little exercises, which. One of the exercises we decided we wanted to do was actually what you had coined the Draco Redemption Tracker, which you kind of described as tracking whether Draco has any redeeming qualities to make us care enough about him as a character. And you may, you were brainstorming maybe some kind of point system, like 1 to 10 intent, or could be humorous, like redeeming qualities. So, yeah, so we, we can certainly change it up or it can, you know, it can be a work in progress. But I did give Draco a score for his, for between one to ten. I gave him a three. [01:33:11] Speaker B: A three. Okay. Yeah. [01:33:15] Speaker A: The only reason I did not give him a lower than that is his tiny bit of like, again, visceral reaction to Bill Weasley's mauling. But that was the only reason why. [01:33:29] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah, I, I, I hadn't gotten a chance really, to think on what scale, like what I would consider the different points along the scale. I mean, I guess like one or zero would be kind of like actively hurting others, which I guess he didn't do. I mean, he did start the whole kind of debacle Kerfuffle at Hogwarts is kind of his fault. Right. But he, he didn't kill Dumbledore. He, like you said, had a bit of a visceral reaction to like, how big of a, like big of a hole he's like, gotten himself into. You know, he didn't, yeah, he didn't actively hurt anyone. He can't, he cares about his parents, which, like, okay, like, you know, but it's kind of more like. Yeah, I mean, he cares mainly about himself, I think. So. Yeah. Two or three probably sounds about right. [01:34:36] Speaker A: Yay. Alrighty then. And then another exercise you had brought forth was vocab vigilance. Commentary on the writing itself or something stands out as odd. Clearly not the typical style of the books. You know, you have mentioned that a little bit through just the general going through scene by scene. Is there anything more you wanted to add? [01:35:01] Speaker B: Not really. I thought dialogue wise, it was very consistent with the books. I did notice that whenever there were like ambiance or like environment descriptors, they seemed a little like different than the style I would have expected. Like some of the descriptions of light or feeling or just things that are happening around, like. Yeah, just like some of the descriptions of the environment I thought were a little. A little different. And then of course, yeah, I mean, I don't know if this fault goes under the same category as just BO Cab vigilance, but just like even the fact that it wasn't like Hermione flopped down with a book and Jenny started like pestering her about. About things and then maybe we got a little bit of, you know, do I care about Ron o'? Hare? It just something that would have been more in line with her character. I don't know. Just [01:36:03] Speaker A: the only thing I'll make a note of is I feel like, you know, when it came to the original books and again from Harry's perspective, I feel like the level of introspection and sort of like monologuing and all, you know, thinking of this sort of streamline of consciousness, I feel like most of the time it's broken apart because Harry is either dealing with, you know, processing an environment or is in the middle of dialogue with people. I feel like this level of super long introspection is not something we see as. As much, at least in the series as a whole. I'm sure there are certain pockets. But to start out so heavily in terms of introspection, I feel like that is a departure from the canon books. [01:36:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess. I mean, I actually thought for Draco there was a nice balance of him like with the dialogue versus what he was thinking to himself. I actually thought it was okay. [01:36:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't even say that as a bad. As a bad thing or that it wasn't balanced. I'm just saying as a departure from the Chemical works. Not that it doesn't work, not that it's not good, but just something that's different. But yeah, but that's all I had to say. And then. [01:37:14] Speaker B: Yeah, and I guess. And again, going back to Hermione, like Draco we don't know a lot about. So even the things that are like, is that on brand? You know, we don't know as much about Draco, so we can like make allowances for things that maybe aren't quite what we expected about him, like the dissociation moments and things like that. But Hermione is a character. We know a lot about her personality and I just felt like she was not captured at all. Yeah. [01:37:50] Speaker A: Alrighty. And let us wrap up the evening with a exercise. I don't know if we'll continue it or not, but carrying over from the rambling Raven Puffs tarot of the day. [01:38:03] Speaker B: Yay. [01:38:04] Speaker A: Yay. So the card I chose at random was the four of wands. [01:38:10] Speaker B: Oh, not the lightning struck tower? [01:38:14] Speaker A: Nope, [01:38:16] Speaker B: no. [01:38:16] Speaker A: Sadly no. Like I think that was. [01:38:19] Speaker B: That's pretty good though. [01:38:21] Speaker A: So that, yeah, just interesting because honestly, I can't even remember just with thinking about wands in terms of the fact that, you know, Dumbledore. Well, I guess, you know, Draco still conquered Dumbledore by, you know, by disarming him, if you will. But I'm not sure exactly how much the same or, or divergent the wandlore Elder Wand crap will be. I legitimately forgot in this story. [01:38:49] Speaker B: Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. Because Drake, that still makes Draco the [01:38:55] Speaker A: quote unquote master of the Elder. [01:38:56] Speaker B: The master of the Elder Wand, which Dumbledore still has. Maybe that's why he died in the fight, because he couldn't use his wand to the same proficiency as usual because he had been beaten or something. You know, who knows? [01:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Again, I legitimately forget how much we stay the same or, you know, deviate. But we'll have to all. I will be. We will be reminded, or at least I will be. So I'm pulling out my little reference book for four of wands. Let's see. So extremely positive card. Four of wands signifies happiness, success, comfort and security. You've used your energy and talents wisely and worked hard. Now you're reaping the rewards due to you. Everything is working out well. When this card comes up in the reading and indicates pleasure and prosperity, financial stability and a happy home life. I call this the Comfort card. You've shown the world who you are and what you can achieve and you gain the recognition and reward you deserve. [01:39:58] Speaker B: Interesting. That is the complete opposite of everything we just read. There is no comfort or security or being true to yourself. Yeah, maybe you drew it upside down and you didn't realize. [01:40:14] Speaker A: Okay, so what does the reverse mean, even when the four of wands is. Is reversed, it's still a positive card. You may celebrate your good fortune with less fanfare or your success, maybe more modest. And if the card were upright, still you're content with what you've accomplished and feel good about yourself. No, that's the first time I've ever where a reverse meeting was so muted. [01:40:38] Speaker B: Well, maybe it's for us. Like, we're having a good time going through this new podcast adventure. [01:40:47] Speaker A: Yes, that's that. Yes. Pleasure and prosper, prosperity and a happy home life. Yes, I do have a happy home life because no one is giving me anymore. [01:40:58] Speaker B: That's good. [01:41:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm just trying to think. Not even in terms of, you know, Draco. I'm just trying to think in reference to other characters. Like, no, everything is up in the air. [01:41:12] Speaker B: No, I was just trying to think. Did we. Did we see four wands in the chapters? Dumbledore's one, Malfoy's one. Yeah, Hermione's wand was mentioned during the fight. Who else was the wand referred to specifically? I don't know. [01:41:28] Speaker A: Lucius Killing Dollahov. [01:41:30] Speaker B: Yes. There you go. We saw four wands. [01:41:34] Speaker A: Yay. The four ones. [01:41:36] Speaker B: Okay, it's not any deeper than that. Four of wands. [01:41:40] Speaker A: Yep. That's all we can do. Alrighty, then. And thus concludes the first ever podcast for the disappearances of Draco Malfoy. Or as Holly likes to refer to it, the Dis of Draco Malfoy. [01:41:55] Speaker B: The Dis of Draco. Yes. [01:41:58] Speaker A: The Dis of Draco. Tune in next time and we will go over chapters three and four, which is the Midnight Vigil and Breakthrough at the Burrow. Yeah. All righty. Catch you guys later. Bye. [01:42:14] Speaker B: Bye. Bye. Sam. Sa. Sam. Sa. Sam.