Chapter #4 Inconceivable!

Part II: Potter's Past

As the stalker – a redhead dressed all in bright orange except for his black boots, mask and gloves – flew overhead, Potter raised his sword and slit an incision into the bottom of his flying bath-mat – er, that is, flying carpet. The man in orange tumbled to the ground.

"Merry Christmas to you, too," the man in orange said irritably, standing up with a groan. "I think I sprained my gluteus maximus."

"I think you mean, 'Happy Halloween,'" Potter pointed out, indicating the stranger's odd attire. "Why do you wear a mask?"

"Oh, they're terribly comfortable," the man in orange replied enigmatically. "I think everyone will be wearing them in the future. Why did you slit my carpet?"

"To distract you," Potter explained. "My master doesn't want to follow him, so, you see, I have to kill you."

"Oh," said the man in orange expressively. "Well, that does put a damper on our relationship."

"Before we duel," Potter said suddenly, "do you have a tattoo of a skull with a snake for a tongue on your left forearm?"

The man in orange pulled up his left sleeve to reveal … a lot of freckles and some scars that looked like rope burns, but no tattoo – not even of a Pygmy Puff. "Do you always ask strangers that question?"

"My parents were killed by a man who had that tattoo on his left arm," Potter explained. "He would have killed me, too, but I jumped out of the way so he missed my heart and gave me this scar instead." Potter pushed back his messy fringe to show his lightning-bolt scar more clearly. "Then we both fled. I spent then ext twenty years learning to duel. When I meet that tattooed man, I will go to him and say, 'Hello. My name is Harry Potter. You killed my parents. Prepare to die."

The man in orange said quietly, "A touching story."

"Are you sufficiently recovered for us to duel?" Potter asked briskly. The man in orange nodded. They unsheathed their swords, saluted and fell into en garde. "You seem a decent enough fellow," Potter said sadly. "I hate to kill you."

"You seem a decent enough fellow," the man in orange replied. "I hate to die."

While I myself am a fencer, I'm not much good at describing bouts. The ones I watch are for competition, not to kill – and movies do duels no justice at all. Suffice it to say that the man in orange, who was fencing left-handed, took a while but eventually, after many clang!s, gained the upper hand over Potter, who was also left-handed.

It looked grim for Potter. However, Potter chuckled.

"What's so funny?" the main in orange asked warily.

"I know something you don't know," Potter replied as he parried a particularly vicious attack. He switched his sword to his right hand. "I am not left-handed."

There is debate in fencing circles as to the degree of difficulty in fencing a left-hander, right-handedly. Most assume that it is easy. Those who have fenced left-handers say otherwise. Unless they are absolute masters and know how to defeat those pesky left-handers. (I'm not and I don't. It's quite frustrating, really, because my competition is filled with lefties.) However, if twenty years of intensive training don't make one a master, nothing will. Potter easily gained the upper hand.

"Truly, you are a master," the man in orange said, with all due awe."

"I ought to be, after twenty years," Potter replied. "Why are you laughing?"

"I know something you don't know," the man in orange replied. "I'm not left-handed either." He switched his weapon to his other hand and quickly gained the upper hand himself, successfully relieving Potter of his sword.

"I'd sooner destroy a stained glass window than a master such as yourself," the man in orange told Potter frankly, "but as I can't have you following me, either –" he continued apologetically, and his Potter over the head with the handle of his sword, issuing a dull thud. Potter crumpled to the ground and the man in orange took off up the mountain-side, following Hagrid's deep footprints.

A.N: Just to clear a few things up, I am drawing inspiration from both the book and the movie versions of Princess Bride. I am also not prejudiced against left-handed people; it's just that they are really hard to fence when you're right-handed like myself, and I'm not that good anyway. Reviews are always appreciated.