When you're a child, you want somebody to have wanted you and to love you even if there's absolutely no evidence that this will ever happen for you. The need doesn't go away, and you may hate yourself for it. You may try, like Voldemort, to split your soul and deny that need and put it away from yourself so you never feel it again, but it doesn't go away, and this is the bond that Voldemort and Barty Crouch Jr. found in each other.

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

He's just rebuilt his entire body with Harry's blood that has protective love in it. That is what it takes to feel human connection and empathy and grief and remorse; those are the qualities in a person that help you heal. All of the effort that Voldemort has always put into compartmentalizing his soul -- walling off his feelings -- now, those efforts are being countered and undermined by the love in his blood that's a solvent.

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

I imagine that this entire series is being imagined by Tom Riddle, an orphan in an orphanage who is a brilliant and violent and lonely child, and that he's fantasizing that somewhere in the world there is a little kid like himself who has spent the exact same time suffering and can understand him, and if he finds this kid, this kid can give him some answers, put some limits on his pain, maybe help him heal.

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

No matter how potent Voldemort is, he can't make himself grow. That is magic he doesn't have and that is what he needs Harry for, because what makes you grow? Does brilliance make you grow? Does being magically powerful make you grow? No. The most completely dirty, mundane, commonplace caregiver affection is what makes babies grow.

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

JC: When I think Voldemort, sexual magnetism is not the word that comes to mind.

Lorrie: I think his focus is on how he feels against people who have intact families; he is breaking apart those bonds to create people who feel more like how he does so that he's not quite so alone -- so he doesn't have to be torn apart by this death-like jealousy.

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

By the end of this chapter, Harry sees how old Dumbledore is for the first time. Dumbledore ages in this chapter. He sees Dumbledore at first as the great wizard that Harry's always believed he is, and at the end of the chapter, he's looking at Dumbledore and realizing he's an old man and he looks exhausted. Maturing, looking at the adults in your life and realizing they're mortal.

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

He is riding on the back of the eagle owl that he has seen earlier. Apparently the eagle owl is going to Riddle Manor and then Harry's perspective leaves the owl's back. He can see the owl, too, as well as the back of the chair with that thing in it, that thing that Harry has never seen head on: that small, baby-shaped, scary thing. So yeah, he's having a vision.

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

Maybe, if we show how upset we are, she'll understand how angry and desperate she's made people. The thing is, that doesn't work because strangely, recipients of hate mail don't take that lesson away from it. When your defenses and alarm shoot way up because somebody is threatening you and sending hatred your way, your first response is not sympathy for the person who's threatening you.

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