4.9: The Dark Mark
"This is the first time we have genuinely seen the intense fear that Voldemort stirs up in the adults who lived in that era. We've seen people shuddering when they say the name, but it almost becomes ...
15 Jan 20251h 22min
4.8: The Quidditch World Cup
I love Viktor Krum. I love how he is graceful in some contexts and inept in others, and as we will see later in this volume, I love understanding him in context as an athlete who is from a minority, a...
8 Jan 202551min
4.7: Bagman and Crouch
JC: How does Harry know what a slide rule is? But also, how would you even use a slide rule to trim a mustache? It makes no sense. Lorrie: But it does call up a certain kind of old-fashioned fussiness...
1 Jan 202535min
4.6: The Portkey
I don't think, pre-2016, I would've thought about it so much: how much the wizarding world is a metaphor for any group of people that has to live outside of the power structure or parallel to it, or w...
25 Dec 202443min
4.5: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes
I don't think, pre-2016, I would've thought about it so much: how much the wizarding world is a metaphor for any group of people that has to live outside of the power structure or parallel to it, or w...
18 Dec 202433min
4.4: Back to the Burrow
The awful thing that happens to Dudley, this body-horror thing of his tongue turning into something terrifying: that's the first announcement of one of the major themes in this volume that puberty is ...
11 Dec 202435min
4.3: The Invitation
When he first gets the letter, Harry knows that it's the Weasleys asking permission, so at the very beginning of that scene he is not going to say or do anything to upset Uncle Vernon. And by the end ...
4 Dec 202421min
4.2: The Scar
How is anyone ever going to know how Tom Riddle, the child, feels? Well, if he can brand his followers with a Dark Mark, then there will always be people who know how he feels. It's the closest thing ...
27 Nov 202444min
