I’m not sure if this is the place for it, but I haven’t found somewhere better and I don’t see how it could be plot-critical. Nevertheless, warning for very minor spoilers about chapter 86.
I gave my mother a description of the vrooping device, and she had no idea. I said that it was one of a collection of odd devices with bizarre uses, and the conversation progressed as follows:
“Well in that case, it was an egg coddler.”
“An egg coddler?”
“Coddling is like poaching but slower and gentler.”
“What about the pulsing light and the vrooping?”
“The vrooping is to put you in mind of a hen and the light is for enterainment while you wait.”
“I’ll suggest it.”
“Good egg!”
Given that we are meant to be able to recognise the vrooper, that it matches no known magical device and that Heads of Hogwarts tend to create strange devices to mystify their successors, it seems reasonable to me to presume that the vrooper is a really weird form of a muggle device. I further suggest that it’s use is for cooking something or for keeping it warm (it might, for example, be a phoenix-egg incubator, given that Fawkes doesn’t seem to build nests).
I’m not sure what kind of stance we need to take with regards to the characteristics of the device—if all of its properties are meaningful, then we should have identified it by now, and, moreover, we have no reason to believe that the designer would want all its properties to make sense. On the other hand, its real designer is EY, who expressed surprise that we haven’t guessed by the time his last progress update came out.
I’m not sure if this is the place for it, but I haven’t found somewhere better and I don’t see how it could be plot-critical. Nevertheless, warning for very minor spoilers about chapter 86.
I gave my mother a description of the vrooping device, and she had no idea. I said that it was one of a collection of odd devices with bizarre uses, and the conversation progressed as follows:
“Well in that case, it was an egg coddler.” “An egg coddler?” “Coddling is like poaching but slower and gentler.” “What about the pulsing light and the vrooping?” “The vrooping is to put you in mind of a hen and the light is for enterainment while you wait.” “I’ll suggest it.” “Good egg!”
Given that we are meant to be able to recognise the vrooper, that it matches no known magical device and that Heads of Hogwarts tend to create strange devices to mystify their successors, it seems reasonable to me to presume that the vrooper is a really weird form of a muggle device. I further suggest that it’s use is for cooking something or for keeping it warm (it might, for example, be a phoenix-egg incubator, given that Fawkes doesn’t seem to build nests).
I’m not sure what kind of stance we need to take with regards to the characteristics of the device—if all of its properties are meaningful, then we should have identified it by now, and, moreover, we have no reason to believe that the designer would want all its properties to make sense. On the other hand, its real designer is EY, who expressed surprise that we haven’t guessed by the time his last progress update came out.