Looking for the title of a old sci-fi short story about two men on a Liberty ship (reporter & soldier) discussing how the soldier became immortal. He was wounded in the middle ages, near death, when a passing doctor poured his "digestive" on the soldier's exposed brain. He healed and became unkillable. Spent centuries trying to recreate the "digestive" which required four ingredients including oil of roses and honey. Reporter explains he can never recreate it because of the differences in every batch of honey, etc. Soldier runs off. The title may have been "Does Anyone Know the Whereabouts of Private Coo-coo?" Or similar. Or wildly different. Soldier cuts thumb mostly off in story to demonstrate his immortality. That was memorable at age nine.
In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
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