What we're seeing is the origin of Harry's 'saving people thing’; this is what Voldemort did to him to change him from being a baby to somebody who is scarred for life. This tiny baby felt he had to help his mother. And yet, Harry having this flashback… it's also restoring some of his own story and his own mother to him -- which makes it so conflicted and so bittersweet.

For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com.

For Snape to walk in, look at this kid and Lupin, be wary, deposit this tricky potion and then back out… We're not imagining that the author wrote secrets into that scene -- secrets in history and suspicion, and everybody having agendas that nobody else knows about. Also, how very wrong every character is about something in the end, and they don't all learn that about each other, either.

For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com.

JC: If you think about Neville in this chapter… We get two lessons in a row on how to bully people. Snape has just given a masterclass on how to be cruel to a person who is powerless, and then Lupin gives a class on how to respond to that with more bullying. The kids are learning that here's how adults do it.

For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com.

"These divination methods are real subjects. There are things that you and I as Muggles know about, like scrying and tea reading and tarot cards. These are things with a human history and meaning, and even learning what they are and what they have meant to people over the ages, that is a thing that is worth studying; she can provide that even if she doesn't have the Sight most of the time."

For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com.

We know what it is, how draining it is because of dementors, to be reminded of the worst memories of your life, and that, I think, does give kid readers a boost in understanding what trauma flashbacks are: that the memory you relive during a flashback is experienced by your body and mind as happening again for real in real time.

full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com.

JC: "There's also an interesting moment when Harry comes back to the Leaky Cauldron after spending a day out in Diagon Alley where he can both hear people talking in Diagon Alley and hear the traffic on Charing Cross Road at the same time from his room."

For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com.

JC: "Even if he can't go back to Hogwarts, even if he can't really be part of the Wizarding world, he still has this magic and he knows how to use it and he can use it in his life. It makes me think about maybe queer folks, or people who've been rejected by their family for a variety of reasons. Your family can reject you, society can reject you, but they cannot take away who you are on the inside. This identity is yours, and you get to keep it."

For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com.

LK: “This may be the most intensely fatphobic chapter of the series. It's also full of scapegoating, corporal punishment, eugenics, dehumanization: themes that get darker in the series starting with Book Three.”

JC: “Wow, what does it take for me to feel sorry for Petunia? Yeah.”

For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com.