Flitwick, Duelling Champ? WAS Re: ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164451

Carol earlier:
> > 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. 
> 
> zgirnius:
> I've always thought it was true. And very funny that it therefore 
> inspired Lockhart to enlist Snape, merely the Potions Master and 
> *snicker* an inexpert duellist, as his assistant instead. Flitwick 
> would have been very nice and friendly about the whole thing, I am 
> sure. Snape...well, we saw how he was. (Love that scene...)

Carol:
Yes, I love that scene, too. It's funny seeing Snape show up
Lockhart's incompetence in front of half the school. Snape is very
much in control (contrast Lockhart with his pixies) and stops all the
hexes and jinxes in the room with a single spell, not to mention that
he teaches the kids Expelliarmus, probably the most useful DADA spell
in the book. I don't know about anyone else, but I started wondering
whether Snape was something more than a Potions whiz at this point,
especially in light of his early remark about "silly wand waving." (He
does quite a bit of wand-waving himself, from cleaning up spills to
writing spells on the board, and this scene shows that he *can* wave a
wand in a way that's anything but silly. So what is that remark about?
Sour grapes for not being assigned the DADA class?)
> 
> Carol:
> > 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 
> 
> zgirnius:
> There's a simple solution here, which you seem to be overlooking. If 
> he was struck by a Stunning Spell from behind, from a person he 
> trusted, his reflexes and experience would be irrelevant. It would 
> also explain why the bruise is on his forehead - Snape's spell did 
> knock him back (away from Snape) so that he fell forwards.

Carol: I hadn't thought about that. But Snape would have had to attack
him with his back turned, and I think Flitwick would have said
something about that. He doesn't even mention being Stunned, does he?
I think it's only Hermione who comes up with that interpretation of
events. Still, a Stunning spell doesn't normally knock people out or
give them a bruise. As I said in the part you snipped, a simple
Ennervate wakes most wizards, and they're back on their feet. Flitwick
seems unusually fragile. And, of course, if he really *did* faint, he
doesn't exactly have nerves of steel.
> 
> Carol:
> >  McGonagall sends him as a messenger to Snape instead of using
those duelling skills against the DEs. 
> 
> zgirnius:
> Aha! ESE!Minerva strikes again, removin gthe most[otent weapon on
her side in a crisis!! (Just kidding. This is a good point. Unless she 
> thought Snape needed to know about the Death Eaters? Or, perhaps 
> Flitwick is getting on in years and she's worried about his health?)

Carol:
Thanks. But she's getting on in years, too. Why not go to Snape
herself, or said a healthy young messenger like Tonks who can get to
him quickly? I think she was using the weakest member of the team as
messenger. 

And if Flitwick was so good at duelling, why not hire *him* as DADA
teacher? True, there's a jinx on the job, but what could it do to him
except cause him to retire a bit early? Better Flitwick as DADA
teacher than Umbridge, who taught them nothing except obedience to the
Ministry's official line.
> 
> Carol:
> > 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).
> 
> zgirnius:
> I think Lockhart did not want a skilled partner. He knows he's a 
fake, and he wants to make himself look good. And while 'teeny' is 
not a word I picture Snape using, I could see him claiming to have a
'passing familiarity' with duelling, or some such, when asked, rather
than stating that he's very good. He's not been very open about his
(considerable) talents in several areas of magic. Lockhart, of course,
would probably imagine that such a statement by Snape is an
overestimate of his capabilities, because Lockhart himself is quite
boastful.
>
Carol:
With regard to Snape, I agree. Possibly Dumbledore suggested Snape and
Snape admitted (with a curl to his lip) to having some familiarity
with duelling. (No doubt he saw it as a chance to give the kids some
real DADA lessons.) But his reaction when Lockhart says that Snape
knows a "teeny bit" about duelling indicates to me that Lockhart is
doing some minimizing of his own, placing Snape in the role of
magician's assistant to a fraud. (No wonder he's so eager to show
Lockhart up!)

But to return to Flitwick, surely Lockhart would have heard the rumor
if it were actually circulating and asked him first? He'd think he'd
have no trouble against someone half his height, just as he thought
he'd have no trouble against Cornish pixies. The thing is, I don't
think Lockhart recognizes his own incompetence. He's so used to living
a lie that he believes his own stories about defeating Banshees and
Vampires, so of course in his own mind he'd have no trouble defeating
a former duelling champion. The better the opponent, the better he'll
look defeating them.

Also, you snipped my most important point. Flitwick is so light that a
simple Summoning or Banishing Charm sends him zooming over the
students' heads in his own classroom. Imagine that happening in a duel
or a battle with DEs--or what a stronger DADA spell like Expelliarmus
would do to him. Or how about four Stunners to the chest if just one
Stunner knock him out? I think both McGonnagall and Snape wanted him
safely out of the action.

So even if the rumor that Flitwick was a duelling champion in his
youth isn't just a joke circulated by kids who've sent him flying with
an Accio or knocked him off his stacks of books with a stray Banishing
charm, I don't think that duelling other students in his youth makes
him particular useful against ruthless opponents twice his height and
 two or three times his weight.

Carol, who has nothing whatever against tiny people and rather likes
Flitwick, but doesn't think his Charms expertise makes him a duelling
champion any more than McGonagall's knowledge of Transfiguration makes
her a DADA expert