Harry's innate abilities

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 45050

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., GulPlum <hpfgu at p...> wrote:
> Grey Wolf summarised Harry's thus:
> >In fact, Harry represents the sort of hero that many of us would, 
at one 
> >point or another, want to be (at least I, being quite Hermione-
like, would 
> >like to be): the sort of hero that doesn't *have* to work hard to 
get his 
> >powers. <snip>
> 
> I disagree most fundamentally with that assessment. On all levels. 
Harry 
> has to work *very* hard to perfect his powers. I also think that 
the moral 
> of the tale is that all of us could be the kind of hero Harry is, 
if only 
> we applied ourselves and had sufficient belief that we can be a 
force for 
> good.
> 

Gotta agree with that.  Except for the first flying lesson in PS/SS, 
we never see Harry just coast through on his innate abilities.  He's 
an incredibly talented flyer, but he still has to bust his ass 
training with the team.  I'm willing to bet that if Harry had sat 
back and said, "you guys go ahead, I'm too talented to nee 
practice," that the results of the Gryffindor Quidditch matches 
would be quite different.

To produce a Patronus, he has to go through debilitating practice 
session with the boggart, sessions that bring him great emotional 
pain and actually cause him to lose consciousness at one point.  He 
grits his teeth and carries on, even when Lupin is concerned enough 
to suggest they should stop.  He spends loads of time with Hermione 
practicing Accio for the First Task, and then spends even more time 
learning the various useful charms for the Third task.  The one time 
he slacks off, during preparations for the second task, no innate 
talent comes to his rescue -- he comes dangerously close to failing, 
and Crouch Jr. has to scramble to make sure he gets the gillyweed 
information in time.

Harry is a lot of things, but a hero who doesn't have to work hard 
isn't one of them.  That's actually what makes him so appealing, I 
think.  It's hard to work up sympathy for a protagonist who gets all 
his triumphs just handed to him on a platter.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com