Gin and Tomic (HBP Chapter 13, 'The Secret Riddle')

MuggleCast: The Harry Potter Re-Read Podcast

mugglecast

News, Arts, Tv & Film, Entertainment News, Books

4.6 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, bring your finest gin (Andrew's is indigo!) to a party at the Muggle orphanage where Mrs. Cole is meets Dumbledore, as our Chapter-by-Chapter series continues discussing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Our Chapter 13 discussion of "The Secret Riddle" is thought-provoking and focused largely on Dumbledore's actions and his intentions, based on what he might have known about things way back in the early 1940's. News: We discuss two new castings for the recent Prisoner of Azkaban full cast audiobook release. Stay tuned for a review of these new audiobooks! Chapter-by-Chapter continues with Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 13: The Secret Riddle Is Harry treating Dumbledore differently at the start of the chapter than Young Tom Riddle treats him during the memory? What changes in Dumbledore's response to Harry if he already knows what Harry is saying about Draco is true? The Pensieve memory with Burke might seem different - but we've actually seen something like it before! A listener email asks, could Dumbledore have sent Mundungus to raid Grimmauld Place for Aberforth? How is what Dumbledore does to Mrs. Cole different than what Young Tom does to his fellow orphans? What made Merope still honor her father when naming Tom? We discuss Tom Riddle's mental state and one possibly identifiable diagnosis for his behavior. How come Harry didn't turn out like Tom Riddle given their similar trajectories? Was Dumbledore intentionally trying to impress Tom by making fire? Is he therefore playing with fire? Our MVP segment asks what the creepiest thing Young Tom Riddle does in this chapter? Our Lynx Line topic this week for Slug Club patrons: Which character would you most like to Confund and get to spill all the tea? Participate in our weekly trivia segment by answering this week’s Quizzitch question at MuggleCast.com/Quizzitch! Coming up in Bonus MuggleCast: it's another edition of Harry Potter Hot Takes, NSFW! Pledge to MuggleCast on Patreon to listen to this and all of our bonus episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, just leave on work now. Sorry, it's a bit loud. Um, basically, so I was thinking we could get Macies tonight. Had a big Mac on my mind all day and delivery fee on the app is now from 99P. So you win? Of course you are. Love you. Bye. Exclusively on the McDonald's app. 18 plus service fee and small order fee may apply. Participating restaurants. Serving times and teas and seas apply. Right, that's it. Come on. Lights out. You've got a test tomorrow. Just two minutes. I'm about to reach the next level. It's going off now. Yeah, whatever. Let's see. Where's the app? Oh, here it is. What? How? Oh, no. You're out. Better look next time. Mom! It's game over for late nights on school nights.
0:39.0	EE Wi-Fi controls help you get them off the Wi-Fi and into bed.
0:42.9	More parents are choosing EE broadband, the UK's fastest growing broadband provider.
0:47.9	To verify I see EE.com.com.
0:50.2	Because you bought your robot vacuum on your Berkeley card, you got 0% interest for up to 24 months, which makes watching it, hypnotically sweeping up your crumbs, even more satisfying.
1:01.6	Oh, Mr. Bit.
1:03.0	What you buy is your business.
1:04.9	Helping you pay less interest is ours.
1:07.4	Barclay Card, make money work for you.
1:09.8	Subject to financial status, new customers only.
1:12.6	Representative example, 24.9% APR representative variable, 24.9% purchase rate per annum based on
1:18.0	$1,200 credit limit tis andeses apply. Harry meets a younger version of Voldemort in both of these chapters.
1:24.2	There are Horcrucks present in both. Was there gin in this chapter of Chamber
1:28.9	Secrets? Oh, I didn't check. Yeah, let's go back and check that, please. Just in my hand while I was reading.
1:34.2	It's year two. Welcome to Mugglecast, your weekly ride into the world of Harry Potter. I'm Andrew.
1:39.8	I'm Eric. I'm Micah. And I'm Laura. And we are your four Harry Potter friends talking about the books
1:46.5	and the movies and the upcoming TV show. So make sure you follow us in your favorite podcast app
1:51.6	and you'll never miss an episode of the show. This week, pull up a seat and pour yourself a nice
1:56.7	glass of gin just like I have tonight because we're discussing chapter 13 of half-blood Prince,
2:03.3	the secret riddle. I'm not going to sip it until we get to the part where this plays a role.
2:09.5	So I'm completely sober for the next few minutes. So did you add ice, Andrew? So it's just going to
2:15.4	dilute between now and when the part of the chapter comes.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from mugglecast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of mugglecast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.