the Kwikspell brochure

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

No: HPFGUIDX 189000

Alla discussed CoS Chapter 8 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188957>:

<< 2. What was your first thought when you realized that Filch was taking
Kwikspell course? >>

Pippin replied in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188988>:

<< I thought it was a funny parody of those ads in the back of magazines (Learn the piano instantly!) -- it didn't occur to me that Filch was magically impaired. >>

This is a forbidden "Me, too" post. Of course, the Kwikspell ad was not aimed at Squibs; it was aimed at people who had some magic ability, but either it was weak or they had goofed off too much in school to learn how to use it. The alleged people quoted said: "my potions were a family joke" and "My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms", not "I was never able to do any magic".

That whole bit of "Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says: "My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak! Thank you, Kwikspell!" could be the subject of an academic paper. 

We first encounter the sexual innuendo of "feeble charms", reminding us that the old age about the 97 pound weakling ended with him getting the girl, and reminding us of ads for courses on "How to Pick Up Girls" (and, nowdays, for "herbal Viagra"). 

Then we have the husband turning his wife into a yak -- that suggests that the exam question on visiting the newlyweds only to find that the witch wife had already turned her Muggle husband into an end table was not particularly shocking to the wizarding folk. To me, it seems a wiser bit of spousal abuse. The end table is less likely than the yak to gore the abuser with its horns or trample the abuser underfoot. But it doesn't seem like it would be great for his sex life.

Then finally we have that controversial word "warlock".