Was it just us, or was Draco’s finale just a bit disappointing?  By the end of Book 6, it looked like Draco was prime for some kind of glorious and game-changing redemption.  His failure to off Dumbledore left him in a bad place, but it was clear that there was still some good left in him.  Along with the hints that, in order to prevail, Hogwarts would have to unite against a common threat, we had all the signs that Draco was going to turn coats at a crucial moment, a la Darth Vader, and help Harry save the day.  But alas, all we get is a mopey blond kid, more scared than anything else.  What happened?  How did Draco lose his mojo?

For fun, take a look back at an old, old Draco prognostication, circa Goblet of Fire.

Make sure to tune in next week for what looks to be a really great show.  Travis Prinzi from Sword of Gryffindor will be our guest on the show.

In the news:

• JK Rowling is Entertainment Weekly’s Entertainer of The Year.
• Good Morning America previewed “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”.
• Harry Potter, the character, makes it onto Details Magazines “50 Most Influential Men Under 45″.
• JK Rowling received a 2007 Writers’ Guild Award.

You can listen to the podcast with the player below, or download an mp3 directly.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The more interviews J.K. Rowling gives, the more show topics we get. This time, J.K. Rowling spoke with the Dutch newspaper Volksrant (not to be confused with Volkswagon or Voltron) and discussed many topics. Amongst them were the issues of life after death in the Harry Potter books, as well as more details on Nazi parallels and her religious background. In this week’s episode, we explore and plumb the depths opened by these recent comments.

Happy Thanksgiving! Instead of going shopping with everyone else in the world, why not order yourself (or a loved one) a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on DVD? Or get them one of our original Harry Potter t-shirts?

In the news:

• Vote for JK Rowling to win Time’s Person of the year.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is up for a People’s Choice award.
• Casting complete for HBP. Lavender not being kept brown.
• JK Rowling has updated the Rubbish Bin on her website as well as offered more information on the Lexicon Lawsuit.
• WB giving fans the opportunity to win a trip to the HBP set.
• News on James Potter and the Elder’s Crossing.
• Spanish translations of DH coming out in February.
• JK Rowling is one rich lady.
• Beetle the Bard will be on display at Sotheby’s.

UPDATE: We appreciate everyone’s patience with this week’s podcast. Unfortunately the podcast hosting service we were using was a bit messed up so the podcast wasn’t working- but we think it is fixed now. Please let us know if you have any more difficulty with it!

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Due to some unforseen circumstances (the whole Lavender Brown casting has really thrown us for a loop!), episode 58 will not be out at its regular time this week.  Please stay tuned to hpprogs.com and we’ll let you know when we plan on releasing it.  We are hoping to get it up sometime early next week since Thanksgiving is on  Thursday. 

In the meantime, Enjoy this off the cuff Top 5 I have come up with and feel free to vote for your favorite!!

Top 5 awkward moments in the Harry Potter series:

5. When Neville loses the password to the Gryffindor common room.

4. After Harry uses Sectum Sempra- “err, sorry Malfoy?”

3. Dobby and the pudding.

2. Almost any time Luna speaks. 

1. Ron and Lavender’s Snogfest (Ewww!).

What is the most awkward moment in the Harry Potter series?

Survey by Quibblo

You can now Pre Order Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! Just in time for the holidays, and it goes great with an HPProgs original Always T-shirt!!)

Today, Microsoft released the new Zune 2.0 devices, along with a new Zune Marketplace (similar to iTunes). The new Zune Marketplace has a directory of podcasts, so of course it’s important for podcasters to know how to get their podcast listed. Here’s how:

1. Download the new Zune software. This requires a Windows Live login.
2. Install the new Zune software.
3. Go to marketplace, then podcasts and scroll down to where it says “suggest a podcast.”
4. Enter the URL of the feed for the podcast, and hit Submit.

It looks as if submissions are monitored, so it may take a while for your podcast to show up in the directory. The Zune Marketplace has many of the top podcasts already in the directory, so make sure to do a search before submitting your podcast to see if you’re already included.

A quick review of Zune’s podcast support: the auto-import feature worked well; all my podcast subscriptions from iTunes were carried over to Zune, without me having to mess with any import/export. Even episodes that I had downloaded via iTunes were available in Zune. Zune allows you to customize settings for how many episodes and how to sync at the podcast level. Album art takes a while to load, but works. I did get some duplicates, when I subscribed via the marketplace for a podcast that I’d already subscribed to via iTunes. It’s not clear to me how to tell when a podcast has new episodes that are ready for me to listen to. Overall, the software looks nice and is rather intuitive in how to use.

Last week we discussed love, and focused on the distinctly maternal focus taken by J.K. Rowling.  This week, we examine the father figures in Harry’s life.  From his actual, albeit ephermeral father James, to surrogates in Lupin, Sirius and even, to some extent Snape, we take a look at Harry’s bevy or male role models, how they shaped his character and how they contributed to his being what appears to be, for all that we can tell, a good father to his children as well.

Make sure to vote for HPProgs for Best Podcast in the 2007 Weblog Awards!  We’re hanging tough in 4th place!  Thanks to everyone who’s voted!

There’s news this week, but we’re on the road, so we can’t provide links.  Suffice it to say, Penny, at least, will be traveling to New York when Equus comes to town.

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Harry Potter Prognostications has been selected as a finalist for Best Podcast in the 2007 Weblog Awards!  If you have a moment, head on over and vote for your favorite podcast (hopefully, that’s us ).  You can vote once every 24 hours and voting ends next thursday.  Thanks, we really do appreciate it!

UPDATE (11/7): One of our competitors wrote this One of our competitors wrote this as a single blog post: “My goal is to beat the Harry Potter Podcast.”

He then wrote in another post, “This message has been brought to you by ‘the (name of his podcast) is Cooler than Harry Potter Brigade.’”

I’ll give you a hint, we are already ahead of this guy, but for the sake of all that is good about Harry Potter (love, tolerance, Aberforth’s goat obsession)- please vote for us.

Although in English we have one basic term for love, there’s really all different kinds of love: brotherly love, selfless love, erotic love, and all make some kind of appearance in the Harry Potter novels. In this week’s show, we take a look at love in Harry Potter and how the various relationships are expressed, and what the nature of those loves might be. Are all loves good? Can love in fact be bad?

Plus: the Top 5 tear-jerker moments from Deathly Hallows. Vote for yours below.

Also: HPProgs is a finalist in the category of Best Podcast in the 2007 Weblog Awards! Thanks for all your nomination votes! Voting for the final winner begins next week, you can vote once a day. We’ll post a link when the voting begins, we appreciate your help!

UPDATE: Voting is up, you can vote for us once a day!

In the news:

• JK Rowling clarified the timing of her announcement of Dumbledore’s sexuality and stated that she always knew that he was gay.
• David Thewlis thought HIS character was gay.
• Filming as started for HBP and pictures are online.Check out Michael Gambon’s beard sock.
• Rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold at Christie’s for £19,700.
• Guillermo Del Toro would be willing to direct HP and the Deathly Hallows: on his own terms.
• The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD has been released in some Latin American countries.
• JK Rowling on “Living Geniuses” list. If you look closely enough, you will see where Greg penciled his name on the list.
• The French and German versions of HP and the Deathly Hallows were released last week with record sales.
• JK Rowling has updated her website.
• JK Rowling and Warner Brothers are suing Stever Vander Ark over a Harry Potter companion book set to be released at the end of the month.

This week’s poll:

What is most tear-jerking moment in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.