Average Harry?

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 18887

Ebony:"Harry already has enough unique about him to qualify for a 
"intrinsically special" label without adding another special trait.  I 
talked about the Patronus and Imperius last night... and the flying... 
he's also a Parseltongue... and he thinks extremely well under 
pressure (which in and of itself is a talent)."

A good point. I don't see how we can argue if Harry's special or not, 
just how much. There's nothing average about him.

Are we getting too wrapped up in where "special" begins and "other 
than human" begins? What would people one or two hundred years ago 
think of one of our modern athletes? They'd probably think he was 
utterly inhuman, beyond their ken, something "other."

Magical people are already "other" to us in the Muggle world. What 
would you think of someone who could vanish in one place and reappear 
in another instantly? We've already crossed the line into the 
miraculous. The question is how far Harry's going.

I don't believe Harry has gone beyond what wizardry knows, so I would 
vote that he isn't other-worldly as far as the wizard world is 
concerned. IOW, he doesn't do things no other wizard can, he just does 
them better.  What he is clearly, it seems, is the most talented 
wizard of his age, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods rolled into one. I 
think in terms of extraordinary athletes because Harry is a man of 
action like they are; his intelligence is directed toward action, not 
intellectual process like Hermione or even Dumbledore. 'We honor the 
wise but elevate the brave.'