Hermione's Magical Power (Was: Re: Lily & Petunia Evans (& Who's more magical?))

[mysmacek]

No: HPFGUIDX 55598

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "herm - own - ninny"
<ratchick22 at h...> wrote:
> Laura wrote:
> >There are a lot of references in canon to her [Hermione's] study
>habits, 
> >her intelligence, and so on...but as far as I can tell >there's not
much 
> > >to support her being an incredibly powerful witch.  >Not to say
that 
> > >she's a bad witch, but intelligence does not equal power.
> 
> So which is it? Does wizard power come from knowledge and practice,
or are 
> they simply born with a certain level of power and that's that? I've
always 
> seen it as a bit of both. It's like, oh I don't know, running. (Bad 


Hi all,
I have thought about this for some time and my idea is rather similar:

[warning - these are mostly my feelings from reading the books]

There are two sources of what we call wizard's "greatness" - raw power
and skill.

Harry has probably above-average raw power, as demonstrated by his
powerful patronus, maybe his child uncontrolled spells etc. The raw
power limits the maximum possible effect of the spell. But this raw
power itself does not grant anything - Harry is not really willing or
able to learn, so he can't effectively use the power he has. His power
manifest usually when he is in rage or subconsciously or when he took
lots of pain to memorize the spell.

Hermione, on the other hand, has a great talent for learning, applying
and inventing spells. She can use the power she has very effectively
(modulo her age and education so far). She can use the spells much
better than Harry, because, in the first place, she usually knows
which spell to use. Her strength is not a raw power, but knowledge and
skill. Like in your running example above, she is probably capable of
excelling in anything requiring ability to learn and self-discipline.

We do not know whether Hermione is the most talented young witch
currently in Hogwarts, just like we do not know whether Harry is. But
my estimate is that both are either there, or very, very close. Just
each has a talent in different area :)

I really like Hermione :-)


Mysmacek