Is Harry More Powerful Without a Wand? (WAS: Duel Harry)

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 43001

Grey Wolf wrote:

>Voldemort gives a wand to Harry because Harry's more powerful 
*without* a wand.

and Melody responded:

>No, he gave Harry his wand because that is what you do in a duel.

Now me:

I'm of the opinion that this scene is just what JKR tells us it is:  
Voldemort gives Harry his wand back "so there can be no doubt as to 
which of us is the stronger".  I don't see a need to read anything 
more into this other than what I think is the obvious, which is that 
Voldemort is an ego-maniac who needs to show his Death Eaters 
that "the skinny little boy with no extraordinary magical talent" 
will not be able to defeat the "greatest sorceror of all time" on a 
level playing field.  If Voldemort throws an AK at Harry while he is 
still tied up and wandless, there would be lingering doubts among his 
followers as to whether he could have killed Harry off if Harry had 
not been at such an unfair advantage.

Grey Wolf also wrote:

>The graveyard duel was carefully planned by Voldemort to reduce the 
>danger to himself and maximize Harry's chances of dying.  <snip> He 
>does not hit Harry with an AK as soon as Harry arrives:  if it 
>rebounds and hits him or Peter, he's in trouble.

Me again:

The incantation Pettigrew uses when he takes Harry's blood is "Blood 
of the foe, *forcibly* taken."  I think the reason Harry isn't 
immediately AK'd is that if he were dead, taking his blood wouldn't 
be by *force* and Voldemort's recorporation potion wouldn't have 
worked.

Grey Wolf again:

>He [Voldemort] doesn't even hit him with an AK as soon as he 
>recorporates, but waits until he has made sure he can touch him, and 
>yet still waits until he has debilitated Harry with Crucios for his 
>body and Imperius for his mind.  Notice that when Harry survives all 
>this, Voldemort shows no surprise: he had already planned this.

Me again:

I think, given Voldemort's past experience with his AK rebounding off 
Harry, Voldemort had to be *absolutely* sure that he had broken the 
protection Lily left in Harry via the "old magic" before he would 
risk touching him.

On the Imperius - I don't think Voldemort would have tried the 
Imperius Curse if he knew in advance that Harry could resist it.  
Back to my <Voldemort as ego-maniac> premise, I think Voldemort was 
doing as much as possible to make Harry look like a fool and himself 
as all-powerful (which is why he threw the Crucios and the Imperius 
curses and made Harry's spine bend so he would bow - as I recall, the 
Death Eaters laugh at this point).  So I think Voldemort is actually 
embarrassed when Harry resists the Imperius, but covers it up well so 
that he doesn't admit his humiliation in front of his followers. 

Which leads me to an interesting side-question, which is why 
Voldemort doesn't know that Harry can resist the Imperius while Fake!
Moody does know this?  The only way I can rationalize this is if Fake!
Moody and Voldemort limited their communication while Fake!Moody was 
at Hogwarts in case their owls were intercepted, which would have 
blown Fake!Moody's cover.  I also wonder why Fake!Moody worked with 
Harry to help him resist the Imperius in the first place?  This I 
rationalize by thinking that it would have blown Fake!Moody's cover 
if Dumbledore heard that Harry had shown promise in Imperius-
resistance and Fake!Moody hadn't done anything to help him hone this 
ability.

In a previous post, I said:

>JKR said that you can do unfocused magic without a wand, but to do 
>focused magic you need a wand.  I just can't see how *unfocused* 
>magic can be more powerful than *focused* magic.

To which several listies responded by pointing out excellent examples 
in the text of focused magic performed without wands.  And I then 
remembered yet another interview where JKR said that we might be 
seeing something in future books about a character being able to do 
magic with his/her eyes.  So, how to make JKR's statements coincide 
with the text?

Perhaps it has to do with the inner power of the witch or wizard 
her/himself.  Perhaps JKR was just making a generalization about the 
wizarding population when she said that focused magic needs a wand. 
Since we see glimpses of Harry's tremendous inner power (he can 
conjure a Patronus at a young age, he can resist the Imperius Curse 
on the first try - heck, even Barty Crouches Sr. and Jr. and Real!
Moody couldn't do that!), perhaps the extraordinary wizard like 
Dumbledore or Harry can do focused magic without a wand.  

This concurs with yet another interview in which JKR said that 
Harry "*without anyone really noticing it* is becoming exceptionally 
good at Defense Against the Dark Arts.  So that's the one area in 
which, almost instinctively, he is particularly talented.  Apart from 
Quidditch."

Which leads me to ask:  How would Voldemort *know* that Harry would 
be more powerful without a wand?

~Phyllis