Average Harry

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 18947

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., meboriqua at a... wrote:
> Hello!
> > 
> > I think there was something about infant Harry that was special.  I
> > think child/adolescent Harry remains special.  
> But, I do think Harry has stronger than average innate magical 
> abilities, and I don't have a problem imagining that he has a destiny.
> 
> I agree with you on that one, even if his specialness is due, in part, 
> to his inner strength and ability to handle himself so well in 
> difficult situations.  Harry already has abilities that are magical 
> that set him apart (his "seeing" in his dreams, for one and 
> Parseltongue, for another), and I get the feeling his parents were 
> both powerful and intelligent witches/wizards.  So why wouldn't that 
> be passed on to Harry?  His "stronger than usual innate magical 
> abilities" cannot be from nowhere.  
> 
> His abilities, I believe, were also "given" to him for a reason (I 
> kind of believe in that), because he can handle it.  Would Ron deal as 
> well with being a Parselmouth?  I doubt it.

New member here: I haven't read GOF yet, but isn't it the case, as Dumbledore tells Harry, that he acquired Parseltongue, and some other powers, from Voldemort, when Voldemort killed James and Lily Potter, trying to get at Harry?  That makes Harry pretty puissant, right off.  Was Voldemort captain of Quidditch for Slytherin, by any chance?

Life with the Dursleys probably should have turned him into a bully or a coward, but of course that isn't the story JKR wanted to write.  The old-style fairy-stories, where terrible revenge is wreaked on wicked stepmother, ugly sisters, etc., were satisfying in their way but have rather gone out of fashion - so Harry was probably protected by the magical effect of his mother's love from the Dursleys, somehow, as well as from Voldemort.

>From another point of view, perhaps Harry's position as the hero of these stories is due to what he's going to do that we don't know about yet - like the film _Young Winston_, if you follow.  But supposedly, everyone in Gryffindor House is heroic - even Neville Longbottom - at least according to the Sorting Hat.  I'd have put him in Hufflepuff, and Hermione in Ravenclaw.  Which is why they gave the job of Sorting to the Hat and not to me, I suppose.

Robert Carnegie
Glasgow, Scotland