Harry's skill level by book 7

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 42034

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Nguyen, Marc" <marc.nguyen at g...> wrote:
> 
> What does everyone think Harry's skill level will be at by book 7? I
> am hopeful it's like Luke Skywalker's Jedi powers in "Return of the
> Jedi". He's not "mastered" all the powers yet, but can still kick 
> serious butt! 
>
> I know it won't be comparable to Dumbledore's, but how about Lucious 
> Malfoy, or any DE? Can Harry go mono-a-mono with them and win? No 
> luck, no help, just plain old wizardary skills.
> 
> Marc

IMO, there are two viewpoints that lead to thinking that Harry will be 
at the top of his powers in book seven, which we could call the 
"relative" viewpoint and the "absolute" one. Both are based in a 
metathinking knowledge of books, especially of adventure/fantasy books.

According to the relative viewpoint, Harry will be at the *strongest* 
point of his powers of the series, which doesn't mean he won't be able 
to get even stronger, only that we won't see it, since the series will 
*end* in book seven, and thus if Harry gets stronger it won't be a part 
of the history.

OTOH, the absolute viewpoint mantains that Harry *has* to be at the top 
of his powers in book 7 because during that book he's going to face 
Voldemort and destroy him, and that's not something that a half-baked 
wizard could do. As far as we know, Voldemort and Dumbledore are evenly 
matched, so for Harry to destroy Voldemort, either he's going to be 
stronger that Dumbledore or have lots of help (and here's where the 
metathinking really digs in: I'd expect a final 1 vs. 1, Harry vs. 
Voldemort, Do or Die scene).

Anyway, the point is quite moot, since JKR has not established, so far, 
a sure way of measuring a wizard's power "level". We can divide them, 
roughly, into two groups, the ones that can cast AK and the ones that 
cannot, but apart from that, there is no way I can think of of 
measuring a wizard's power. Thus, Harry will have enough power to 
destroy Voldemort (with or without managing to kill himself in the 
process). Whether that will be the "highest point" of his powers, or 
just "in his way up", we won't know.

Finally, you sugest a way of measuring whose the most powerful wizard 
by it being the winner of a duel. This is a bad way of measuring it, 
since the most powerful wizard would always be the one that can say 
"Avada Kedavra" the fastest (and, still, you'd get quite a high number 
of draws).

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who's making up for his long absence by going on a posting 
spree.