Powerful Harry

[Diana]

nicholas at a... wrote:
<snip> 
> I don't think this is so. Harry *is* an extremely powerful wizard; 
by the
> age of fifteen, he has seen off Voldemort on several occasions and 
is
> teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts to his fellow-students. 
That's not
> normal for a wizard-in-training..
> 
> Harry is unusual, because his most effective magic is instinctive. 
In
> lessons at Hogwarts, he does okay, but not spectacularly; but when 
he needs
> to do a certain thing and is able to draw upon his own emotional 
strengths
> to perform the required magic, he is very powerful indeed.

<much snipage>
 
> The challenge for Harry is not so much to learn how to do magic, 
but how to
> control the potential for magic that he has within him, and to 
channel his
> emotions to make the magic more effective. Magic takes effort; you 
have to
> have the desire to achieve what you are setting out to do.
> 
> So Harry's Patronus is all his own, springing from his own 
strength and his
> own emotions. James was only there in a genetic sense.

Diana L. responds:

Excellent post!  I couldn't have put it better myself.  I see the 
potential for Harry to surpass Dumbledore as a powerful wizard.  The 
reason I suspect Harry will end up more powerful than Dumbledore is 
how often the books have mentioned, by Dumbledore himself in fact, 
that Voldemort has more 'powers' than Dumbledore has.  A few of the 
other characters say Dumbledore is just "too noble" to use those 
those types of powers, but I'm not sure that is necessarily true.  
Voldemort showed a great deal of power (if not superior intellect) 
when duelling with Dumbledore at the MoM at the end of OotP.    
 So, if Harry not only has inherited a great deal of power from both 
parents (who were regarded as extraordinary wizards), but has also 
gained some power from Voldemort himself when Voldemort gave him his 
scar, then Harry most likely will be more powerful than Dumbledore 
by time he has matured into an adult.   

Diana L.