Hey brother!

As y'all may be aware, Jay and I have a new podcast where we're reading through each chapter of the Harry Potter Saga one by one and carefully dissecting nearly every sentence of the story.

And one thing that has started to blow my mind when you look at this story on such a granular level

is how much planning went into constructing the end game so early on.

For example, in Chamber of Secrets, it may seem convenient that Harry just won't throw

Tom Riddle's diary away.

After all, it's just some random empty book he found waterlogged in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

But then you get this paragraph.

Harry couldn't explain even to himself why he didn't just throw Riddle's diary away.

The fact was that even though he knew the diary was blank, he kept absent mindily picking it up and turning the pages as though it were a story he

wanted to finish.

And while Harry was sure he'd never heard the name, T.M. Riddle before, it still seemed

to mean something to him, almost as though Riddle was a friend he'd had when he was very small and had half forgotten.

But this was absurd. He'd never had friends before Hogwarts.

Dudley had made sure of that.

Love a little slight at Dudley there at the end.

But it's clearly the piece of Voldemort soul

living inside of Harry that's causing him to feel this pull

towards yet another piece.

But for quite some time now we here at

SCB have struggled with one detail in particular that seems wildly out of place.

It doesn't seem to fit once you learn more about the bigger picture.

...