Live and Let Duel

[Oswald Beamish]

28th January, 2015

Tying not to openly chortle at the article in the Prophet in which Mr Skeeter was receiving quite the dressing down, Oswald glanced around the pub in the hope that there was somebody he could share the amusing news with. Personally he thought the whole thing was absolute rot - women had just as much right to participate in duels as they did and frankly he was amazed no enterprising young woman had sought to level the playing field and duel competitively!

"If it weren't for his missing leg you'd think Skeeter hadn't been there that day of the troll attacks, wouldn't you? He said conversationally to his nearest neighbour. "I certainly remember seeing more than one woman getting stuck into fending them off so I don't see why they shouldn't be trusted to duel."

  

[Ben Berenson]

Ben ate at the Three Broomsticks whenever he began to feel a bit stir crazy at home. That was probably the trouble of working from his own home office. He liked his solitude, but not nearly as much as his habits would suggest.

He'd read the paper that morning, of course, as he did every morning, so he was well-versed on Mr. Skeeter's ideas. "I'm sure many could," Ben allowed. "Though I'm not sure I'd personally enjoy dueling a woman properly." It would have been a bit much for the pride, he thought.

  

[Oswald Beamish]

Duelling women had never filled Oz with fear. He had met with women in the duelling tournaments and lost to them and not felt any the lesser for it, and though he understood why others did he couldn’t help but think they were lesser themselves for that.

“I don’t know,” he said with deliberate amiability. “Woman make for excellent opponents and they seldom hold a grudge if beaten in my experience. And they make far nicer visions of victory than a Ministry man!”

  

[Ben Berenson]

"I suppose," Ben allowed. In truth, his opinions weren't terribly strong on the matter. He expected he wouldn't argue one way or the other no matter what was decided ultimately. Still, though. "I think I'd feel worse if a lady was injured than a man, however." Though maybe not so much if she injured him in return.

  

[Oswald Beamish]

“I doubt any of the women of my acquaintance would thank you for your concern over the delicate constitutions,” he said with a chortle. He did agree with the man, in theory at least because truly the thought of a woman being injured and it having being his fault was appalling, but… well, it wasn’t as though they were in more danger than any of the men!

“I doubt the Ministry will ever allow them to duel like we do though, even if Mr Skeeter is soundly ignored.”

  

[Ben Berenson]

"I wouldn't dream of it," Ben said, chuckling. "I have a sister," he added, as if this should explain everything. Anna might be blind but she had a freakishly good sense of where he was standing when she wanted to make her displeasure with something he'd said known.

"Probably not," he agreed. "I imagine too many people would be up in arms about it."

  

[Oswald Beamish]

Being in possession of a sister of his own, and not one he would ever wish to cross wands with, Oz fully understood the condition. Selena was generally good natured but she had her moments and he knew for a fact that she was heavily against the bill to ban women.

“I know my sister would love it. She’s always refused to take part in the ornamental magic out of principle.”

  

[Ben Berenson]

"Those are rather silly," Ben agreed. There at least he was in full agreement. "They require an entirely different skillset. I never understand how the two can be judged against each other."

  

[Oswald Beamish]

“I rarely understand how they Ministry judge anything these days,” Oz quipped taking a sip of his drink.

“In Egypt they all judge each other on skill rather than brute force and it makes for much more civilised competition in my opinion. Perhaps we should begin to take our cues from the rest of the world?”

  

[Ben Berenson]

"Perhaps," Ben said with a shrug. "No one would argue against less violence overall, surely."Not that he thought duels as they existed now were particularly violent. Most people had sense, after all. Or enough sense not to behave exceptionally badly when dueling tournaments tended to attract quite a lot of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, anyway. "Combative spells are more useful, but it's not really a competition of usefulness, is it?"

  

[Oswald Beamish]

“Not when so many winners win on a technicality,” at least from what he had seen. How on earth the Minister’s green assistant had won against men infinitely older and more skilled than he was Oz would never know!

“I suppose it’s reassuring in its way to see that the hit wizards and aurors have a suitable array of combative magic at their disposal. Though I’m not sure how much use I find from such spells on a day to day basis. Then again, I suppose practical spells are far less impressive to a crowd.”

  

[Ben Berenson]

"True. Though they do let quite literally anyone sign up for tournaments," Ben pointed out. "I'm not advocating we start requiring character witnesses or something for people who want to compete, mind you--" he snorted at the absurdity of this--"but for all anyone knows, a man competing in a tournament could as easily be a criminal as he could be honest." He shrugged. "Frankly, it just all seems to me like if you really put your mind to it, you could find anything to worry about, really."

  

[Oswald Beamish]

Oz nodded sagely at the wisdom. He enjoyed the tournament enormously in general – both as a competitor and as a spectator – but it was, increasingly, an unexclusive affair and he knew all too well how easily people managed to find fault with the smallest thing, and the inclusion of women as equal combatants was far from a small thing. But still, great leaps had to come about eventually and the world should be prepared for that!

“Personally I’d be more concerned about the potential criminals than I would the women and no one has ever suggested we should stop the men just on the off-chance. That might mean the Ministry has to look to their own after all!”

  

[Ben Berenson]

"Perish the thought," Ben said, shaking his head. "I suppose we'll have to see how far Skeeter's madness stretches." Though he doubted it would affect him personally very much, which was honestly Ben's main concern most of the time, whether he said so or not.

"I think I'd better get back to my work," he said, starting to rise from his seat. He was still in the annoying beginning stages of a new project, probably best not to stay away too long. "It was very pleasant chatting with you."