CHPDISC: HBP14, Felix Felicis

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 151881

> Potioncat:
> Well, perhaps I was up too late when I wrote this one. But here's 
my 
> thouhts.
> 
> Urquhart is the first name of the Wizard who invented the Entrail 
> Expelling Curse. To harp on someone is to nag or to complain, to 
> bother. Although that would fit better for a beater, I think. 
Vaisey 
> looks French like Malfoy or Lestrange. I thought perhaps the names 
of 
> the Slytherin team were supposed to sound intimidating. (By JKR, 
not by 
> the character who put the team together.)
> 
> To be honest, it seems we get Peakes and Coote mentioned together 
and 
> it just sort of had a ring to it...I think it's like "mind your 
P's and 
> Q's..."
> 
> However, coote is slang for a "simpleton" and Harper is rumored to 
be 
> an idiot. It sort of matches.
>
a_svirn:
Harper makes me think of Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird), 
Urquhart and VaiZey with *z* can be found in The Peerage, but they 
don't seem to be particularly distinguished. The Cootes are also in 
the Peerage and they are rather grand by comparison – the whole host 
of barons, baronets and even a few earls (of Mountrath and of 
Bellomont). 

I couldn't find `idiot' meaning for harper. I did find "app. error 
for *harpy*" with quotations from Marlowe and Shakespeare.