Felix Felicis and criminal hippogriffs

[deborahhbbrd]

No: HPFGUIDX 128999

I just can't see JKR, or anyone with any knowledge of Latin, naming a
character Felix Felicis. Not even if he (or she) is the new DADA
teacher, the new MfM or Harry's new love.

Yes, I know that our author has played games before - but flying in
the face of Latin grammar? Gad, Madam, this is excessive! (As for what
she is actually up to ... sorry, no idea! But it does have a
historical ring, and might well refer to something in the past
somehow, to when Hogwarts was newly founded and Latin was the language
of education.)

Funnily enough, I find some support for my position in Buckbeak's
trial. In many respects the WW resembles the Middle Ages, and a lot of
things that we take as figurative or cute, our medieval ancestors took
to be literal truth. My memory's not at its all-time sharpest, but
there was a king of France I think who heard that some dogs had
attacked a lion (where could they have found one, I wonder?) and tried
them for high treason because the lion was the king of beasts and the
dogs were therefore his rebellious subjects. This was a real trial
with a judge. Not that different from the Buckbeak hearing ... and
they were found guilty and hanged. If there is a connection with the
WW and the medieval criminal justice system, why not with the WW and a
learned language?

Deborah, something of an intellectual snob this morning