A "Duh!" moment -- Rita Skeeter

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25545

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., scaryfairymary at h... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., John Walton <john at w...> wrote:
> > 
> > And then it hit me. "Skeeter" is an American slang abbreviation of
> > "MoSQUIto". And Rita Skeeter is a bug animagus. I can't believe I 
> didn't notice that before! A "DUH!" moment indeed.
> > 
> > Just thought I'd share :D
 
> Wow cool!! I would have never noticed that (I didnt even know of 
that slang word, I'm not American) Thanks for pointing that out :P

Actually, I noticed that the first time she was introduced, and then 
when things started popping up in the news that shouldn't be, and 
Malfoy was obviously talking to something in his hand, I thought it 
had to be Rita Skeeter in Animagus form.  BUT--I expected her to then 
be a mosquito, not a beetle!  (I based this on what JKR did with 
Lupin's name and Sirius' name).  Since JKR isn't American, either, 
perhaps she thought this was a generic American slang term 
for "bug."  So I still didn't take notice of the beetle on the statue 
when Ron and Harry overhead Hagrid talking to Madam Maxim, nor the 
beetle Hermione said Viktor removed from her hair, because the name 
led me to believe she should be a "skeeter!"

--Barb