Dueling vs. Fighting

[Bruce Alan Wilson]

No: HPFGUIDX 164615

There were some comments on how Prof. Flitwick was overcome so easily when
supposedly he was a dueling champion.  Leaving aside the question of was he
really or not (it is not presented in canon as a fact, but as a rumor among the
students; I'm sure that I am not the only person who remembers some colorful
rumors about our teachers' pasts), dueling is not the same thing as fighting.

In school I was a wrestler; I once placed fifth in my state.  In college I
fenced; I wasn't all that good, but I held my own.  As an adult, I studied Kempo
and advanced to the rank of Brown Belt.  I have known people in all three
disciplines who were hell-on-wheels in the controlled, ritualized circumstances
of competition, but who couldn't fight themselves out of a paper bag in a
real-world situation.  There is not reason to think that the same distinction
might not hold in magical combat.

Bruce Alan Wilson

"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.  Other forms of
transport grow daily more nightmarish.  Only the bicycle remains pure in
heart."--Iris Murdoch



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