[HPforGrownups] Dueling Club (Was: New(?) observations.....)

[rayheuer3 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 57685

 KLMF at aol.com writes:

> Second,a contradiction----in CoS we see the start of a "dueling club", yet 
> in 
> GoF,  Percy is quoted (American version, pg. 425)"...And then we've been 
> trying to persuade the Transylvanians to sign the International Ban on 
> Dueling.  I've got a meeting with their Head of Magical Cooperation in the 
> new year--".  Now, there's dueling and there's Dueling. I assume that there 
> 
> is a difference between sport dueling (Like muggle fencing) and dueling to 
> do 
> harm or to kill?  Nothing is clarified in the canon.

     I suspect you have put your finger on the major distinction.  The 
dueling club that Lockhart tried to form would be a sport along the lines of 
the Muggle sport of fencing.  The dueling that the International Ban deals 
with are probably to-the-death things that leave blast marks in the grass and 
otherwise attract the attention of Muggle authorities.
     There is also mention of Lockhart "starting" the dueling club, not 
"reestablishing" or "reforming" it.  This tends to indicate that even sport 
dueling has been out of fashion at Hogwarts, for some time (both Flitwick and 
Snape have dueling experience, so it must have been popular in the past).
     The part that gets me is that, once the Dueling Club has served it's 
seriocomic purpose, it is never mentioned again.  Just what do the students 
who aren't on the Quidditch team DO when they're not in class or studying?

  --  Ray


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