ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164429

Debbie wrote:
> who really wants to know why Flitwick isn't in the Order, since he's
a duelling champion and all that, and ready to whip up a suitable
backstory involving irrational wizarding fears of part-goblin rebellions

Carol responds:
First, my apologies for snipping everything but your sig line (it
happens to me all the time :-P!).

I know I'm going to be jumped on for this, but I still think that the
rumor about Flitwick being a duelling champion was a joke circulated
by the students. We don't hear any more about it; he either faints at
the prospect of a real battle or is knocked out and sent to the
hospital wing (with a bruise on his forehead from a spell that knock
you backwards?) from a Stunning spell and remains there for the whole
battle instead of returning after a simple Ennervate from Madam
Pomfrey. He's sent zooming across a classroom by his students'
summoning and Banishing Charms; McGonagall sends him as a messenger to
Snape instead of using those duelling skills against the DEs. Even
Lockhart, who needs a duelling partner, chooses Snape (whose claim to
know "a teeny bit" about duelling is probably deliberate minimizing on
Lockhart's part. I can't imagine Snape using that phrase, especially
with regard to his considerable skills in that area).

As for Flitwick not being a member of the Order, maybe he wasn't a
member of the original Order, but neither was McGonagall (unless one
of them took the photograph). But I think he was with McGonagall,
Tonks, Lupin et al. on the night the DEs invaded Hogwarts precisely
because he *is* an Order member. (Snape, also an Order member, wasn't
there because DD didn't want him to be. I'm quite sure that he didn't
want Snape fighting for the Order because he'd blow his cover.) But
Flitwick was them, and not, I think, because he was a teacher. We
don't see Professor Sprout, the other HoH there, and surely she would
be if it were the teachers, not the Order members, who are guarding
Hogwarts while Dumbledore is away.

Carol, who thought it was Dedalus Diggle, not Flitwick as suggested in
another recent post, who bumped into Vernon Dursley on the day after GH