Care of Magical Shippers Episode 5 - Hey, Linny! You're so fine!

12:38AM Jul 1, 2021

Speakers:

Care of Magical Shippers Podcast

Nathan

Megs

Keywords:

ginny

luna

neville

harry

megs

laughter

book

laughs

ship

fic

agrees

people

nathan

hogwarts

episode

hermione

imagine

lives

weasley

character

So quick heads up. I had apparently some audio problems when we recorded this episode that we did not realize until just now getting around to editing this thing. So hopefully it doesn't bother you as much as it bothers me just because you know, I mean listening to your own voice and hearing what you hear and whatnot, but still an awesome episode, we obviously have hopefully fixed it for future episodes. And yeah, we'll get going.

The following podcast is rated R for really filthy. It includes adult themes and explicit content. So if you're an adult who happens to like themes directly targeting your sexy demographic, then get ready to join us as we ship it good. [whipcrack noise]

Due to the themes discussed on this podcast, it may contain potentially triggering content, please visit our episode description to review the warnings applicable to this episode.

I know that you love my voice. But there comes a point where you know when that voice runs out of useful things to say, just becomes like, I... do you just want me to sit here and read the phone book because I'll do it.

Yes, my shopping list. literally anything and...

the weather on Wednesday will be mostly sunny with chances of amnesia, and the inability to continue a human conversation.

[Opening Theme] You're on the canon ground, I'm up in crackship space, let's start a shipping war, don't care if I get hate. Don't like my pairings? Well, then you can hit the bricks. This is my OTP, I'll go down with this ship. (I don't care. I ship it. I don't care! I ship it!)

[in a singsong woice] Good, good. Good. Hello, listeners. Welcome back to Care of Magical Shippers. I don't know why I'm singing. [Megs laughs] Let's be real. I'm not singing.

Probably because last time you uh, you you sing two beautiful songs for Tomarry.

Yeah, I don't have ones for this week. And I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse. Oh, no. We we did do [to the tune of 'Mickey' by Toni Basil] "oh Linny you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind"

"Hey Linny, hey Linny" [laughter] Oh, yeah. And I'm Megs.

Oh, yeah. And in case you hadn't gathered by now, my name is Nathan, and I'm here to talk to you about this thing we call fanfiction. This week, we're discussing... well, you could call it Linny. You could call it Giluna.

Giluna. Yeah.

Just, just call it whatever you want. I mean, we've had a week. So we're we're just calling it whatever we like right now. And I am, I'm excited about this pairing. I do love this pairing because my main reason for it, and I think everyone's gonna have guessed this ahead of time, but it's because Harry and Ginny together is so boring.

[Laughter] Yes!

So dull! I'm sorry. Like, I'm sorry, if you ship Harry and Ginny, you have my unreserved apologies.

Yeah.

But! However, like they're not boring characters, but I think they're boring together. Because they, they work to sort of nullify each other's best qualities.

Oh! Interesting. And kind of like what you know, pulling off of when we had did the Haromione like Golden Trio thing we kind of we already went through that of how Harry and Ginny it's kind of like the safe end of the story, perfect ending sort of thing. But with Linny, of course, what we find, which I'm really excited about is it's... it's one of those ships that we expect or is like - so especially with like Drarry stories, it's always Drarry with Romione and Linny. And I love that, like it's it's just collectively accepted that when Ginny and Harry don't work out, it's because they both realize that they're gay and then go in their journeys, and separately, and so it's like, oh, yeah, Harry's s'posed to be with Draco. And then of course, Ginny supposed to be with Luna because why not? I mean, they've been through so much together. And it's just I think it's beautiful to see the two of them. And especially when it comes around to everything they had been through the end of the war. If we get into the end of book seven, and looking at after everything. Obviously Ginny in particular has a lot of [sigh] trauma to go through.

Sure.

I mean, losing losing Fred, just having been through a war period.

Yeah.

And seeing all the death and, and things like that. And Luna had been through that beforehand, we saw in the fifth book with Harry and Luna being the only ones able to see the festivals, she saw her mother die, which you have to imagine is one of the most traumatic things that you could experience. And she lived through that and learned how to process it, and she's obviously still a very, like positive and outgoing and just is willing to see the best and believe in literally anything that has any sort of positive effect on people. And that just makes her presence in any sort of for any character that's going through something traumatic like even... What was it? In the... I was just trying to remember in the in the seventh book, doesn't she say something to distract everyone so that Harry can like slip away?

Oh!

she's like "Oh, hey, what a Snorkack!" or something like that.

I should've remembered that!

And everyone...

Yes! Yes!

...everyone looks off. And then Harry's, like slips under his cloak or whatever, and is able to, like go off and either with Ron and Hermione, or I'm not sure. I'm sorry. I forgot I'm a terrible fan. But I'm pretty sure she's just someone that can be relied upon. And I see Ginny as this really strong character, that yeah, when it comes to Harry and Ginny, they're both so independently strong people that when they come together, it's not. It's not like they have the potential to really lift each other up. Whereas I see Ginny and Luna, being able to do that. There's two, there's qualities from each of them that can only benefit each other, which I really love.

Absolutely. I mean, I think you're right, Luna did learn how to process her mother's death, from a really young age, but she processed it in a way that with the best will in the world, Lunas reality isn't the same as everybody else's reality. She's sort of she's present but she's also slightly disassociated from the the world and that gives her a unique edge and a unique vision to things. But it also impacts on her ability to really be part of the world in the same way as a lot of other people might. And this I think is where Ginny can really like balance her out. Because Ginny is this especially like - I'm talking here about book Ginny because film Ginny really doesn't get enough

I know.

...enough to do. She just doesn't get enough to do. It's not even a slight on Bonnie Wright's acting.

Oh, for sure.

It's er, it's more of a comment on things that they just made her so one note. But in the book, you know, she's this incredible, dynamic, funny, witty, talented person who has What does she called her pygmy puff? Is it...

Arnold.

(Arnold!) ...with who has this little pygmy puff? I imagine that Arnold is like, for some reason, I imagine him with like a little, a little Mohawk. [Megs laughs] Like she. She she is she's full on you know, wearing the boots, she's got the dragonhide boots on, letting her her long hair flow. She's living her sort of punk rock like almost like Hagrid on a motorbike fantasy but not quite.

Well. I see potentially like her going sort of the Bill route. [Nathan agrees] I feel like when you're the youngest of what is it? How many how many brothers? We have Charlie, Bill, Percy, the twins and Ron.

So I think it's seven brothers. Is it seven brothers and then Ginny?

Six brothers. Yeah, we know canon. We know what we're talking about! [Laughter]

See, the problem is like I did used to be I used to be such a canon nerd.

I know! Same.

And then lately, I've read so much fanfiction that what starts to happen to your brain is the boundaries get blurred. And you're like, wait, did this happen in the books? Or did I read that? [Megs agrees] Was this someone else's genius idea that it's now headcanon? Like, it happens to everyone that gets invested in fanfic, I'm sure. But I'm sorry, guys. I just don't know anymore. I don't know.

We know nothing. We - podcast over! We know nothing. [Laughter]

We don't need to do this anymore. We're sorry. We're sorry. We wasted your time. Anyway... [Laughter]

Six, it's definitely six. Anyway,

Are you sure though? Are you absolutely sure?

Yes! I am.

Am I just making up a fake Weasley brother? I need to know.

[Laughter] What was it, Barney Weasley was who Harry was at the wedding.

[Laughter] Yeah! The cousin. I made up Barney!

Barney? Yep, he fits in there for sure.

Okay, yeah.

But having six older brothers just having gone through the teasing the pranks especially between the twins and Ron and her skin has to be so thick having grown up around that and one would it's obviously not guaranteed but one could think that that helped her grow and give her the strength that she does have; and when you mentioned like the punk rock vibe like I could see her admiring Bill so much and I think that that is kind of shown on her aversion so much to him marrying Fleur, because she probably idolizes him to some extent. And then to see him go with some froofy, frilly, full-of-herself person instead of Tonks, who she thinks Tonks is super cool.

Yeah.

She could change her hair and face and do all this stuff. And so yeah, I could totally see that. Not that she's necessarily tomboyish but just kind of just has like a harder edge to her. And then you have Luna who's just like floaty and and living life. Just, just so whimsical. [Nathan agrees] And I love that.

She has this ethereal, almost fey quality to her. That is that I can see. So one of the interactions I keep seeing of the pairing in my head is that like Ginny who has talked to Tonks about like magic to change her hair, even though she's not a metamorphmagus. She's obviously gone to the she's been like, how can I make my hair a bajillion colors? I have to know I need this magic. Like right now yesterday. And so Ginny is just there practicing this while Luna is busy picking wrackspurts out of her hair.

Yes, yes, exactly. Oh, absolutely. Oh, man. And now that I think it's funny you say that? I wonder if there's any. I don't know that it's relevant. But of course I think about it with her interest in changing appearance. I wonder if she has any aversion to her hair color?

Oh, yeah.

People like especially redheads or, you know, with the family of just like flaming red hair. Like if she

Sure.

I don't know, I don't know where it where it matters. But it just it was just something I was curious about. But oh, so the, the on Luna. It's funny, even though we talked about Fleur and I'm sure that there probably is fic like this, and now I need to look for it, but because of Luna's personality and how she's kind of described as like has the like light blonde hair and she's you know, pale skin. And I wonder what if she was part Veela?

Oh, wow, yeah. Oh, that could be really interesting as well. Or she could be what happens - maybe her mother was experimenting with like Veela hair with her magical experiments. And then one day, like in the catastrophe, like Luna gets caught up in it. And it just becomes like part of her DNA or something.

Oh my gosh, now we're getting into like sci fi like, oh, like DNA, whatever, like transformation. Oh, wow. Yeah.

I mean, I would buy that. I also think like, going back to what you said about like, does Jenny have a problem with their hair color? I mean, it sounds trivial. But I think we all can have that thing where if you've grown up with a stigma, any sort of stigma you can really feel like at times and the way that that can become like a millstone. And who better to free Ginny from the sort of the trappings of stigma than Luna, who is just so off in her own world that these things don't touch her. It's like water off a duck's back. She has, she's so she's so unfocused on on reality that she's in a way she's like, hyper focused on the world she wants to live in. And I think Ginny could look up to that in a way and and admire that about her. That's what I'd like to read anyway.

Well, because of what you say that and it's almost like she doesn't she doesn't let the negative affect anything. It's like it doesn't even resonate with her at all. She's just like, "Oh, yeah, my shoes went missing. Oh, yeah. They call me that it's whatever," like, it's not a big deal doesn't change who she is. But when it comes to positive things, she just, I feel like she thrives in it. I mean, you think about the portraits that she does in her room, like realistic portraits of all of her friends, and it's just friends, friends, friends, friends, for her to have something that she probably was without, for several years, up until fifth year, you would imagine that it's almost been four and a half some odd years of a lot of kind of loneliness. And then her her and her dad are close, but then obviously her dad is on his own.

Exactly, yeah.

So it's just the two of them. And the the DA makes a huge helps both of them grow actually. That's really when we see more of Ginny and her personality and that's how we get to know Luna and they have that shared experience together. So for them to move forward based off of canon makes so much sense because they had experienced from when we met her so many things together. I mean, they even went to the ministry to help Harry and Ron and of the few people, we have Ginny, Luna and Neville that hop on with them and want to be a part of it. And to come out of that. I mean, they were there, they saw Sirius die. They Ginny broke her ankle. I mean, Ron was attacked, I mean, imagine all that trauma they had been through. And that's just in one specific thing. And so that's already something that's kind of bonding all of them together. And when it comes to when the trio leave, then it's just, it's Neville. And Luna and Ginny are the ones that are kind of, quote, unquote, continuing the day's work and fighting against the new Hogwarts regime.

The regime. Yeah, absolutely.

Yes, yes. And I love that I just so that shows their closeness, you know, as friends for all three of them. But obviously, as that romantic journey moving forward of when you're when you're just the two slash three, you know, three of you, you build a deeper bond, then it's just "Oh, yeah, we're all friends. Like, we're all at the table, we all hang out." But I can imagine them having some real deep conversations together. And that is the potential to for them moving forward as a romantic unit. And then of course, after everything happens, 100% they can understand exactly what's going on and be together and have that

Yeah.

have that support from Luna. Definitely what I've seen in a lot of these fics is it's a very hurt-comfort is like probably the number one trope or focus for this because a lot of it is heavy on post war trauma for Ginny in particular, and how she learns how to feel, again, through Luna. So that is, I think, a really powerful thing.

But I also feel like Luna's character development isn't really talked about a lot. But if you think about it, the same book where she does the ministry battle, is the book that she's introduced in. [Megs agrees] She is such a huge characters to the franchise, and we don't even we're not even introduced to her until book five. So then she is she's introduced as this really sort of scatterbrained character that everybody makes fun of. But then by the end of book five, she's cemented as this stalwhart figure of the DA, who is in her own way, an absolute heroine. And you know, for someone who can have, like you say, have the big friend portraits in her room. I mean, we typically ascribe qualities like that to the hufflepuffs we'd say "Oh, yes. hufflepuffs it tends to be you know, the house of where friendship is first", you know, it's definitely,

Loyalty... Mmhmm.

yeah, it's the it's the house of the people you know,

The house of the people [Laughter]

it's the most utilitarian Hogwarts house, right?

Yes!

So but she's, but Luna herself has gone through this massive transformation, because she's grown up really lonely. She's only had her dad, she spent mostly four years we assume, being picked on at school. And then all of a sudden, she has this club, which is spearheaded by a guy she's really only heard stories about. And then at the end, she becomes part of the story. And it stops being something that is whispered about and gossiped about at the breakfast table at the Great Hall, and it starts becoming like a part of her life. So you're right when you say, you know, it's trauma at the ministry, but it's also she's growing into her own heroism and her own sense of self. And in a way that makes me also think she could grow towards Ginny because she's learning how to be more of a more of an approachable person as well.

Yeah, for sure. And I just love how even in this in the in the dungeon like when they go to Malfoy Manor obviously they have the Quibbler which makes sense the Quibbler is promoting all this anti-Harry material and that will they have to after they come to Xenophilius's house to stop him from saying positive things. They take Luna away and she's there. She's in this cell for we don't know how long. As far as we know she was taken off the train - it had been months. And she's there with Dean for who knows how long and then Ollivander and even when they show up and see her down there like she's not broken. She's not... She's just she's Luna. She's just like, yeah, I've just been in this dungeon for potentially months, like not knowing if and when I'll get out of here and just is all concerned about everyone else. Like she doesn't even think about her own well being at all.

Yeah, it's like she almost lives in a sort of perpetual state of Zen, Buddhist calm, where it's like, no matter what happens to the external world that I can't influence, I can always influence my own reaction to it. So I always feel like Luna, she's, like, we know she must be feeling terrible. She's she has this incredible strength to be so so present for Mr. Ollivander, who's there and being tortured for information. And she has the nous to, to, to comfort him. And I think, you know, it shows incredible strength of character. And again, Luna's, not one of the characters that we necessarily get a lot of words from, she doesn't get a lot of, I don't know what the sort of the novel equivalent of screen time is, but whatever that is, those words are escaping me, but whatever that is, she doesn't get a lot of book time. But comparatively, it's those moments when we do see her are so much more powerful, because it's not she isn't just there like Trelawney, I want to I want to contrast her to Trelawney here: where Trelawney, even though she makes a lot of correct predictions, she's this very, y'know larger than life, shawl swirling, sherry swilling...

Yeah [laughter]

you know, seer, who is who is like, always obsessed about that, you know, seeming misty and dramatic and prophesying every every five minutes. And Luna is, in a way she there's a sort of in the Venn diagram with Trelawney, there's some overlap, where they're both, they both have this spaced out quality to them, but Luna's not. Luna doesn't do it for attention. Luna inhabits that world, because that's who she's been forced to be. Because when you almost when you see trauma that young, I imagine the the mental reaction to that would be, "I need to find a way to cope". And she has learned to grow with herself. In this really, let's call it non-traditional way.

Well, how much did she have to carry her dad?

Yeah, oh yeah.

You know, how did he, I mean, that happens a lot. You know, I mean, I see in a lot of books, or movies or things like that, it's the parents obviously have lost their partner, not that have losing a parent isn't as powerful. But a lot of times you see the kids feeling like they have to be the strong one. So I feel like that really probably could have developed her character too. If her dad had problems with it. She had to be his rock to help him through it, too. So she probably grew up very quickly from a young age. So having things trivial things bother her is just it just is wouldn't be expected because she's seen the worst, I guess.

Yeah. And I think that's a really good point, like we're keyed in to the fact that Luna has a really different set of priorities. And they don't always make sense to us when you know, like when we're introduced to her, we're like, okay, so she just wears "Beerbutter" [sic] corks and she and Spectrespecs.

Turnip earrings.

Yeah.

Yes, exactly.

Did I say "Beerbutter"? Butterbeer corks. WHAT AM I SAYING?! What are words? [Laughter] Well, I did that. I am a Harry Potter fan, ladies and gentlemen. I have read these books. I swear.

There are seven Weasley brothers.

I made up a Weasley brother, I can't say butterbeer. What else am I gonna do? Tune in next time when I won't remember Harry's name [Megs laughs] or I'll call her Harmonownininie.

[Laughter] Harmioninny.

[in bad Viktor Krum accent] Hermioninny, let us go find a quiet place in the library. [Normally] I don't know why I'm Russian. Shut up, Nathan. [Both continue laughing]

Oh my God! [Laughter]

[in bad accent again] We will go find quiet place in library to eat Borscht. Tell me, Harmoninny, have you ever been to Siberia?

Oh God. Okay, I can't breathe.

Yeah, okay. I there was a -

That happened. Yeah. [Laughter continues]

Mmmhmm. Yeah. So anyway, so my point was I I think that even though she has a really differently structured series of priorities, that happens because she's faced trauma young. So because she's seen the worst, she almost like when when other things happen to other people that might be that might knock them off center or might devastate them, she's able to meet it with a sort of a calm, and a dignity that it would take other characters a while to grow into. And I feel that this is where Ginny comes into it. Because I feel like Ginny is such a funloving, warm person, that she could help Luna grow into that side of herself. Because I, I feel like there's an awful lot of Luna that we like a side to Luna that we don't see in the books, which I think Luna has a really like playful, mischievious side as well. I mean, she has to being so tuned into her own, like childlike spirit in a way. And I feel like Ginny can unlock that for her. And that's one of the things that I want to read in that area.

Well, I want to read about their 6th year at Hogwarts, [Nathan agrees] when they're not there, it's literally Ginny, Luna and Neville. And they're the ones causing mayhem. And how much of that is ri-, like ridiculous ideas of Luna's. Like who knows what random things she could come up with, that's that they just do. And collectively as a team, it just that takes so much strength in and of itself to stand up to essentially Death Eaters who are torturing students and all of this and they're still doing it anyway. I just I want to know how it's like for them, because I feel like they there's so much growth of theirs that continued that we don't see until like the final battle when we meet Neville again, and Neville's like, like, "hey, look at me, I'm a badass now". [She laughs] "I've been fighting this whole year, because I knew that you'd come back and want to take everything down. So we've been warming it up for you." But yeah, I just I would love that. And I think I had mentioned Okay, so I had mentioned to you before, and I need to talk about it again. So they use the coins, obviously [Nathan agrees] to try and get a hold of anyone who would still have the coins, which of course were Luna and Neville and Ginny.

Yeah.

So I'd imagine that they would still be using those coins...

Yes.

...in sixth year. And of course, they're not like the tru-. Who knows, I doubt anyone else would have even thought to keep them. I'm sure everyone else in the DA they're they're in some box somewhere a trunk or because they're not invested in because they're not invested in it. But the trio, obviously at least Hermione's they still have them but not necessarily on them. So they obviously have to be having some sort of communication through that because because Neville is in the boys dormitory, Ginny's in the girls Gryffindor dormitory and then Luna is in the Ravenclaw girls dormitory. [Nathan agrees] So there's some way that they have to scheme and plan things. And I would like to think that Ginny and Luna just like kind of pivot from planning their you know, disasters and fighting to just casual conversation and like playful flirting and falling asleep talking to one another just like you know, when you you're on the phone with your whatever tweenie significant other and you just like fall asleep on the phone together as like I did. Way back when when that was a thing using the landline. [They both laugh]

Twirling, twirling the cord in your finger, you know, [Megs agrees] wiling the time away? [Megs laughs] Well, I I love that idea so much. And I love the sort of the concept of maybe Neville being a third wheel to it, like constantly being caught in the middle. But I did think as well, that eventually, they might want to adapt the technique so that they could send longer messages because they imagine like after a while, you you wouldn't really be able to say much with the coin, and plus it it heats up as well. And or it did heat up when when a new message or a new time got added. So I imagine after a while or particularly if you're in class or whatever, it's gonna get uncomfortable. So I was thinking about this and I thought, what if they had what if they built on the sort of the idea that the two way mirrors have except in the books when Luna is supporting Harry in Quidditch, she wears this outlandish hat that has like a lion on it.

The lion? Yes.

And I imagine that she made another one for Ginny. [Megs laughs] And they talk to - and like when one person is wearing the hat that it like somehow anyway, they both figure out how to like they can use the coins to be like "put the hat on". And then when they're both wearing the hat, they can talk to each other.

Oh, my goodness, well, that is way more interesting than my guess, which would be Ginny being inspired by Tom Riddle's diary...

Oh wow.

...and how you can write in that and, and then it obviously wipes things away so that you no one else can read it. It's essentially, you're using it in the moment, and then however much time everything disappears.

Exactly. It's like wizard Snapchat.

Yes. Because I could see her one being smart enough to be able to develop magic like that. And obviously spending almost a year interacting with a magical object of that sort, I feel like she could come up with the concept. Also, the the, the twins are still actively working right? Like Weasley's Wizard Wheezes...

Yeah. In sixth year? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she could obviously be like, coordinating with the twins to help figure out some sort of alternative magic or tool because when they go to check out Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Initially, I mean, even Hermione is like "wow, this is amazing magic", like they just can come up with crazy things. I just think the potential there for her to have made even like duplicate kind of even like little folios, or something that they can just write into and then just completely disappears if someone wants to, like, take it or it just looks like a plain, I guess notebook or something like that.

Yeah, a bit like the Marauder's Map as well.

Yes, yes.

They're bound to have seen that. I mean, do they, they know that it exists because they use it to get to and from the Room of Requirement don't - No, they use it to see if anyone's coming towards the Room of Requirement when they're all leaving. And that's how they know to avoid like Filch. And so they know they know the map exists. Okay, so they know that that sort of magic is possible. See, this is possible in canon, we -

We're not just pulling this out of nowhere. [She laughs]. Oh, one thing I love that I've also read is of course, we ex-, we expect that Ginny goes on to be, you know, the Quidditch player, professional Quidditch player, and then Luna becomes a magizoologist. [Nathan agrees] So that she around to like search for creatures and and ultimately, either (a) trying to find things that don't exist, still believing that they exist. But what if she finally reaches a point where she realizes everything that she believed was not real? And how that could affect her? And having Ginny as someone to kind of support her through that situation could be really interesting. Like she'd need someone to help with that. Otherwise, she's just continues like, I don't know, maybe in this lifetime? If not, I know they're still out there.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't think that's entirely unrealistic. I mean, I think, all we've all had those moments where, you know, you have to come to terms with something in your life that you'd really rather not face. And I almost, I do want to read it. But I almost think it's cruel to do it to Luna, because she's so - she's just such a lovable character, [Megs agrees] that that you almost don't want to see her hurt again. But then again, if you offset that against Ginny, and the sort of the the, like, laughter that they could have out of that. Erm see, I'm glad you brought up this sort of post-Hogwarts scenario, because it brings me on to what I would love to read. And that is, you know, Ginny's going off and having her Quidditch career and Luna's you know, doing her magizoology thing or not, you know, maybe she's pursuing some form of journalism. Following in her dad's footsteps.

I could see her as an artist for sure.

Definitely. And maybe like, as an illustrator for children's books for like wizarding fairy tales? [Cute noises]

That would be so cute. And of course, it would be hilarious because she could use all these creatures that she thinks are real, but then I'm like, all these kids are like, oh yeah -

She could make the tales up! Oh, my God, she could be the new Beedle the Bard. That's who she is now in my head. She could, like you say, use her knowledge of all of these magical creatures that may or may not be imagined - we're not sure - and make all of these stories for the kids, which would be amazing. But the one central tenet that I think would keep them together is this thing where because in my head, they both have really independent lives from each other. They're not, they're not living in each other's pockets. You know, Ginny is probably a really famous international Quidditch star, you know, she's doing her own thing and Luna's doing her own thing. But then I imagine, they enter, they like pick a day, once a week where they will floo to each other and get together. And like, just talk about everything. Like I feel like that that they're the, they're the couple that reasons out the world by either bitching about people [Megs agrees] or like talking up other people, encouraging maybe encouraging other people to get together, maybe setting up Neville with somebody. They they have that quality, where it's like mischief meets good intentions meets mirth meets mayhem, I see it happening. And...

Yeah.

...that that is their get-togethers, their little, well it's not necessarily clandestine, because people will know they're together. [Megs agrees] But yeah, I imagine that they'd like they pick quiet secret places to meet, because it's cuter that way. That's how it works in my head.

Right? Or even like they're there. So if Luna is traveling, and then she's traveling for her Quidditch career, it's so nice that they could potentially floo or apperate to see each other once a week. I love that I mean, if that's the life that they're dealing with, but I could see obviously them coming together. They're like "missed you", have their, you know, sexy times. Yeah. And then pillow talk, because that could actually be very deep. Because you know, yeah, Luna is 100% open and truthful. And I feel like it would help Ginny open up and be able to just like spill out anything and everything that either is weighing on her or is excited about Luna with easily celebrate with her as far as her wins with Quidditch or if there's any drama with her teammates, because you know, when a bunch of girls are together, but there's got to be some drama that's going on. [Nathan agrees] And I could also see a fic where she's with Luna. And of course, there's probably some teammate who's super into Ginny and is trying to convince her how weird Luna is and how she deserves so much better. And Ginny's just like, "shut the fuck up. I have the best thing like you have no idea what you're talking about." And I just that's just - I want to see her continue standing up for her and just being like, "No, you cannot convince me otherwise you have no idea what she's done."

Exactly. And in terms of like Ginny growing into her best self with Luna, the way I see that working is what's great about Luna is she has no ulterior motive. She's always coming from a place of being Luna. So there's never any agenda. There's no like Ginny would never have to second guess herself if she's feeling down or whatever. She could just tell Luna off the bat. And there's no like, I find it hard to believe that if anyone is honest with Luna, that she would take that to heart badly, you know, she has such she's, she always sets up such good managed expectations of other people that but that I honestly think that Ginny could rant and rave and, like get everything out of her system that she needed to if and if and where applicable, and Luna would still love her for it. And she'd be like, [in an imitation of Evana Lynch's accent] "I'm glad you got all the nargles out of your brain".

[Laughter] 100% I just I just love, I just picture them together. And it's just just so beautiful to think about like them just like holding hands and spending time at the weasleys for family dinners. And with like spending time with whatever the other relationships are with Ron and Hermione and Neville with whoever he ends up with. And I mean, potentially if it was Neville and Harry and then Ron and Hermione and Luna and Ginny imagine that like friend dynamic where everyone finds them their partner within that small DA group [Nathan agrees] I guess you'd say that's kind of interesting to think about a Harry/Neville involved in this instead of the whole Harry/Draco thing.

Harry -, Harry like I don't want to go to off topic because...

No.

...I will go down a rabbit hole. But Harry/Neville is so wholesome that I will we will need to talk about this at some point in the far, far future because I know that we don't - I know that we don't have that scheduled yet. [Megs laughs] So I know if you're holding out for that day dear listener, just know you'll be holding out for a while; but I want to talk about it, so we will be coming back to it. Don't worry. [Megs' laughter continues] Yes, I do think it's I just I love the idea of I like really any pairing with Neville [Megs agrees] I think because Neville In the books comes across as someone who is constantly looked over in terms of...

Like Luna.

Yeah, yeah. For someone who has maybe better magical ability, and then it transpires that part of the reason why Neville has been so comparatively rubbish at magic is because he's been using his dad's wand. And so so he's been laboring under an inherited bias, which he could also have been if he'd been the chosen one. And that's why Harry/Neville works so well, because Harry is the chosen one. And that, you know, let's let's shift this discussion to it to that future episode we may or may not be talking about. I love it so much. I don't care that I'm going off on a tangent that I know I know our listeners will love it. I don't I... yeah.

Whatever. We don't care.

it's our podcast, we can say what we want.

[Laughter] Yes, I just see them like, at like whether Harry has, you know, has Grimmauld Place and spruces up and makes it nice and warm. And I could just see Ron and Hermione and lit- and Linny [both laugh], Luna and Ginny coming over and Neville and them just having their friend dinners together. And it just them moving forward. Obviously in their separate romantic lives, but still together. Like they're they have this lifelong bond that they can move forward with that you don't they don't lose each other, which I love that you think of after school, you have your friends, and people go off and find their own lives and go different ways, if all of them kind of were obviously finding themselves and doing their own thing, but still able to come together because we see that with the golden trio. But I think as far as the mini DA group, I think that's just as strong, which I think is great. [Nathan agrees] And Harry and Ginny realizing how much better they are as friends and being completely understanding and cool with not being together again. It's like "we tried it", you know, she had this romantic idea of being with this person, you know, person she idolized ever since she was really young. And they're just realizing they needed something completely different. And I just I just love how wholesome that is. It's just Ginny and Luna are meant to be together...

Yes

...post everything. I mean...

Yes, they are.

People will put Ginny with Dean just because we like we know, we know it was the thing we kind of expected and Dean's a good guy. I mean, he goes through everything too to have him come back in the picture. Makes sense. But I think it's just it's like a safe pivot. Like, oh, yeah, okay, if it's not going to work out with Harry, it's going to work out with Dean or something like with an old boyfriend or something like that. It's like no, Luna.

Yes. But as well as that didn't we find out in the books that like Dean was being really possessive of Ginny? And that's why they broke up was was it? Was he being possessive? Or was he was he jealous?

I think it was just yeah, he was starting to get jealous. And I think she was kind of falling out of it because she just kind of started getting annoyed with him, like snipping was helping her through the portrait hole. And she's like, "I can get through but on my own!" It's like, he was just trying to be nice, but I think she was ready to move on and just it wasn't because, you know, when you when you just you fall out, you know, with those feelings or somebody it's just, it's, it's just Linny just makes the most sense. It's, it's wholesome. It's beautiful. Its support, its growth. It's everything that both of them deserve. Like they deserve the future that builds with Linny for sure. [She laughs]

I feel like it works because they're not just attracted to each other for one reason. They work together. Emotionally, they fit together because they've been through the same traumas. It just works.

So I guess now the main question, do you go down with this ship? [Both laugh]

I think this is a ship that will really polarize people. I think you either love this ship or you hate it. There's no there's no standing at half mast.

Yes.

You're either you're either absolutely sky high with it or not. I am definitely sky high for them. I I feel like I mean, if you couldn't already guessed, [both laugh] but I feel like they they've both been through so much. And they're both such different people. But that is exactly why they work together. And what I want to see, like I could say this about most of you know everybody at Hogwarts that gets together but what I love to see is what happens afterwards, like Hogwarts was the sort of the furness, that galvanized everything, you know, in the war and everything, but I want to know how these, you know, young adults become ma- mature people and what that what those lives are like, because that excites me. And I can see that happening for Linny. So that's why I ship it. God, that was a really long answer. [Megs laughs] I was like -

Yes, I do; and here's all the reasons why we just talked about. [Laughter]

I'm just gonna I'm just gonna spend seven and a half minutes recapping something we've already done.

Yes, exactly.

Because I can.

Yes. Once again, our podcast, not your podcast. [Laughter]

Yeah. Kthanksbye.

Well, for me, I definitely, I wouldn't say like I ship it. Like, it's not one that I would go and be like, okay, like, I'd be excited to read Linny fic or be invested in the ship. But I see it as the ship that makes sense for them. Like as a side pairing. I love them in because I read a lot of just slash fic, Harry/Draco or whatever. And then, when Ginny and Luna are together, it's right. Like it feels right. I mean, you'll see Ginny with Neville too. Like, that's also something where when she splits off with Harry and gets with Neville, which I could, I could see definitely. But when it's Ginny and Luna, it's it's like it feels like that's how it's supposed to be it's just kind of normal. It's expected to me. So I mean, I ship it like that, obviously, but as far as being invested enough to be like super passionate about it or learn more about it. I it's just it's it's fine. [She laughs] Like it exists and I love that. [She laughs again]

Yeah, you are you aren't flying off into the stratosphere with it, but you're not seeking it either. Because there are some ships that we need to torpedo and we'll maybe not talk about those on the pod [Megs laughs] but like, some ships, you're just like, no, that will never, like timeless, the timeless unity of Hagrid and his umbrella. [Both laugh]

That's gonna be a thing, every episode, it's just gonna be a thing. So now that we're wrapping up Linny, I'm really excited to get into next time, one of Nathan's OTPs, we are doing Wolfstar.

Yes. We're finally doing it. I'm so excited!

We're doing Wolfstar.

OH YAY.

And this one is going to be great because we have two Wolfstar episodes for you. So the next four weeks are all going to be about Wolfstar. So definitely reach out to us. Give us more of your recommendations. Tell us why you love it. It's a big ship. So we know you have plenty to say about this. You know, we want all of it. So our first episode, actually, we were able to get a guest on we invited bigblackdog on to talk about her works. She has a beautiful collection of fic; lots of AU very interesting perspectives on Wolfstar. And it was such an amazing conversation we talked about so much. She's wonderful. We cannot wait to share that with you.

Yeah. Oh, it was such a wonderful experience. I'm so excited. I can't wait. like can we be four weeks ahead already so they can listen?

Right?!

I'm so excited.

It's gonna be so great.

I guess we're those people now that do interviews.

Yes!

Are we, are we professional now?

I know.

Is this what we, what we do? Erm -

Yes! [Giggles] Yeah.

I mean, that sounds fun.

Yeah, come and listen to that, [Megs giggles] because we had an absolute blast recording it. I mean, I say that about every week. But this was tremendous.

Yeah.

And you know, getting an author on and getting to feature someone who is so passionate about the ship themselves, getting to ask them questions about like, how they write that ship getting into the creative space for it. Oh, it was such a was such a privilege and a real pleasure. And I can't wait for you to hear it. So be sure to come listen to that very, very soon.

And we'll drop her profile link in the description. So definitely check out her work. It is fantastic. And yeah, so get ready and get hyped for Wolfstar and we cannot wait.

See you then. Byeee!

Bye!

[Outro theme] I ship it!

Hey, it's Megs again. I just wanted to let you know about another Harry Potter podcast called Snape Chat. So this podcast is all about as you would expect Severus Snape and dives into him as a character, the movies and representations unpacking him in all realms of the character meta. I actually got to guest host on the most recent episode about fanfiction so if you're interested about fanfiction in general I mean we obviously get into Snape too - head over to Snape chat and check out Episode Three. I'm also going to be recording an episode on Snarry with Snape centric and that is going to be so much fun. I'm so excited. So definitely keep your ears open for that one as well. So give it a looksee and listen and I can't wait for you to hear it.

While you're waiting for the next episode. All the shipping fun can continue online. You can head over to all of our social media platforms like magicalshippod on Twitter and Instagram and careofmagicalshippers on Tumblr. You can get in touch with us by email at careofmagicalshippers@gmail.com. Or you can leave us a voice message with all of your ship and fic thoughts and feels and have the chance to be featured on a future pod episode. We are also live on Patreon. Patrons have access to early episodes, bonus content, extended uncut episodes with all of our nonsense; ficlets written by me exclusive merch and a patron Discord. Another easy way to show your love for the pod is by leaving a review on Apple podcasts; and thank you so much for listening.