The power of magic

[Tom Wall]

No: HPFGUIDX 55665

Mac wrote:
What, in Rowling's universe, qualifies a wizard to be
powerful?

In most fantasy novels, a wizard's power tends to be a
function of their ability to weild powerful spells. That is, the
more powerful the wizard, the higher the "calibre" of the the
ammunition s/he uses. Yet in Rowling's universe, the entire gammut of
spells seems to be available to anyone, its just a matter of saying
a couple of words. So if Dumbledore or Voldemort are the most
powerful wizards of their time, what makes them so - more than, say,
Hermione, with her focused intelligence and considerable drive?
END QUOTE.

I reply:
Welcome to the list, Mac!

I agree with Amy and Jenny here on the amount of concentration and 
practice required to successfully use magic in the WW. However, I'd 
like to add my own thoughts as well. ;-)

IMHO, in addition to practice, wizards do seem 
to be powerful/talented *in a certain subject,* 
and less talented in other subjects, just
the way I'd describe us muggles when it comes to our
own learning. So, basically I'd say that everyone has a
predisposition towards a certain kind of magic or magical 
training. Also IMHO, the wizards that are considered to be the
uber-powerful are the ones that appear to be the most
well-rounded of them all.

A few citations from canon that indicate this to me:

Lily Potter's wand, we are told by Ollivander, was 
well suited to Charms: "You have your mother's eyes. 
It seems only yesterday that she was in here herself, buying her
first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy,
made of willow. Nice wand for charm work." (PS/SS, US
paperback, Ch.5, 82)

James Potter had a wand that was suited to
Transfiguration: "Your father, on the other hand,
favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A
little more power and excellent for transfiguration."
(PS/SS, US paperback, Ch.5, 82)

Using both of these quotes is only helpful when Ollivander states, 
after talking about James' wand, that "Well, I say your father 
favored it – it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of 
course." (PS/SS, US paperback, Ch.5, 82) From this, I gather that if 
Lily's wand selected her, and James' selected him, then they were 
probably good at what their wands were useful for, i.e. James at 
Transfiguration, and Lily at Charms. Granted, this could be an 
erroneous assumption, but that's how I'm reasoning here, just so's ya 
know. ;-)

Neville, we know, is particularly good at Herbology. 
"Apparently, Professor Sprout told Professor Moody I'm really good at 
Herbology." (GoF, Ch.14, 220) And Neville provides wonderful contrast 
there, since he is so gawd-awful at Potions and mediocre at so many 
other subjects. ;-)

Even our favorite dunderhead Gilderoy Lockhart has demonstrated his 
own skill at Memory Charms: "If there's one thing I pride myself on, 
it's my Memory Charms." (CoS, Ch.16, 298) And we can assume that they 
work, since he admits to the theft of all of his adventures and 
achievements from others, and no one seems to have disputed his 
claims, at least not publicly.

Mulciber, one of the dead Death Eaters, was described by Karkaroff as 
being particularly good at the Imperius Curse in GoF, Ch.30, 590: "he 
specialized in the Imperius Curse, forced countless people to do 
horrific things!"

Hermione has shown herself to be astute at a broad
variety of spells and subjects, but I'm not sure that she's
exhibited one particular strength over another. Point
for discussion, I'd guess, especially considering the
other thread going on right now about "Hermione's Magical
Power." 

Oh, oh, wait, except this: Hermione does seem to have difficulty when 
it comes to subjects that require more than book smarts, such as 
Divination... but this is a common idea. So here we have the contrast 
that we have ala Neville... except Hermione is way better at way more 
stuff than Neville is.

As Finwitch pointed out in that other thread (Hermione's Magical 
Power): "Well - she's excellent at learning from books. If a spell - 
like riddiculus - requires something you just can't learn from books, 
she fails." That's an interesting point, that she isn't able to 
figure out in PoA, (again, US paperback,) Ch.16, 319, that 
the "McGonagall" she was facing (who told her she failed everything) 
was actually a boggart. Of course, Hermione sympathizers might want 
to give her the benefit of the doubt here, since she clearly 
overtaxed herself in the novel and did have more finals than the 
others. IMHO she deserves that benefit. ;-)

Harry, IMO, seems to have a very powerful unfocused, natural magic, 
which works best for him in times of great stress and emotion, such 
as in PoA, Ch.21, 411 when he summons his powerful Patronus. As 
Pipsqueak points out (way long ago in message #40044) he might in 
some cases even be better off without his wand. We see numerous 
examples of this, from the insistent growth of Harry's tousled hair 
(PS/SS, p21 & 24) to the release of the Boa in PS/SS, Ch.2, 28; to 
the inflation of Aunt Marge in PoA, Ch.2, 29; to (again, as Pip 
points out) Harry's uncanny ability to dodge spells. Not to say that 
with practice, Harry can't master any spell, but just to point out 
that great stress seems to bring out the best in him, IMHO. And I 
personally believe that Harry's skill at Quidditch is directly 
related to his magical abilities. This isn't canon yet, but I think 
it's not a coincidence that three of the four champions in the 
Triwizard Tournament were great Quidditch players (and maybe Fleur 
was too - but we aren't told.)

Now, Dumbledore and Voldemort strike me as the two most powerful 
wizards we see in the series, and that's backed up by more than the 
fact that both are the leaders of their separate factions. More 
importantly, it also appears to me that both are quite good at a 
large variety of spells, i.e. they may have specialties, but they're 
good at most stuff, and have powerful inherent magic that doesn't 
require spells, necessarily.

It also is interesting that we have sources *other* than the wizards 
themselves who cite their power. Dumbledore is cited repeatedly, by 
Hagrid, Harry, and many others. One example, from the Famous Witches 
and Wizards Trading Cards: "Considered by many the greatest wizard of 
modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the 
dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945..." (PS/SS, Ch.6, 103) Voldemort's 
citation comes, interestingly enough, from Dumbledore himself: "Of 
course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever 
seen." (CoS, US paperback, Ch.18, 329)

As far as Dumbledore's magic, we see him do a lot of things quite 
effortlessly, without even the aid of a wand or an incantation. We 
see him (I think) cast the Patronus Charm during PoA, Ch.9 when Harry 
falls during the Quidditch game. We see the effects of a powerful Age-
Line that Dumbledore has cast in GoF, Ch.16, 260, which isn't fooled 
even by Aging Potions. Without the help of incantations, we watched 
Dumbledore `draw up' a chair for Trelawney in PoA, Ch.11, 228; we've 
seen him change the decorations in the Great Hall with a clap of his 
hands in PS/SS Ch.17, 306; and we've seen him, with a "casual wave of 
his wand," first sweep all of the tables in the Great Hall to the 
sides of the room, and then summon enough sleeping bags for the whole 
student body in PoA, Ch.9, 163. Most interestingly, Harry notices 
twice in GoF that "a sense of power radiated from Dumbledore as 
though he were giving off burning heat." (GoF, US paperback, Ch.35, 
679, and later in Ch.36 "The Parting of the Ways." This suggests 
strong natural abilities to me, that perhaps no amount of study could 
manifest.

Voldemort's magic we see less of, and the fact that he uses the 
Unforgiveables so frequently is, I believe, misleading in reference 
to his overall power. He does seem to use the same spells over and 
over again, but Moody explains to us that these curses, and in 
particular Avada Kedavra, require "a powerful bit of magic behind it –
 you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say 
the words, and I doubt that I'd get so much as a nosebleed." (GoF, 
Ch.14, 217) We know that Voldemort can invent his own spells from 
GoF, Ch.33, 656 ("a spell or two of my own invention.") And we've 
seen him, like Dumbledore with the chair, `draw up' a functioning 
hand for Pettigrew out of thin air: 

"Voldemort raised his wand again and whirled it through the air. A 
streak of what looked like molten silver hung shining in the wand's 
wake. Momentarily shapeless, it writhed, and then formed itself into 
a gleaming replica of a human hand, bright as moonlight, which soared 
downward and fixed itself upon Pettigrew's bleeding wrist." (GoF, 
Ch.33, 649) 

The difference for me with this ability is that Voldemort's hand 
becomes a *functioning* hand, whereas the chair just sits there. Not 
to imply that Albus *couldn't* do it, just that we haven't seen him 
do it. ;-)

In other words, both of our leaders can use magic without wands and 
incantations, which, in my guess, has something to do with channeling 
magical energy, rather than simply casting a predetermined spell.

I'm requoting Mac here. He wrote:
"Yet in Rowling's universe, the entire gammut of spells seems to be 
available to anyone, its just a matter of saying a couple of words."

I reply:
I'll have to disagree with that, because we know of several types of 
magic that are not available to everyone, due to the complexity of 
the magic.

First, we have the spells that transform a wizard into an 
animagus: "Your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in 
the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation 
can go horribly wrong – one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch 
on those attempting to do it." (PoA, US paperback, Ch.18, 354)

And, we also have Apparation, which both requires a test and also is 
still something that many do not attempt because of its difficulty: 

"Why can't we Apparate too?"
"Because you're not of age and you haven't passed your test," snapped 
Mrs. Weasley. (GoF, US paperback, Ch.6, 66)

and:

"You don't mess around with Apparition. There are plenty of adult 
wizards who don't bother with it. Prefer brooms – slower, but safer."
(GoF, US paperback, Ch.6, 67) – Arthur Weasley

On Apparition, we even know that Charlie Weasley failed his test the 
first time that he took it. So we can conclude that it's not an easy 
test to pass for all wizards.

And then, we also have certain other spells that are difficult, such 
as the Patronus Charm, about which Professor Lupin says:

"But I must warn you, Harry, that the charm might be too advanced for 
you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it." (PoA, US 
paperback, Ch.12, 237)

So, what I see from all this is that whether or not a wizard has 
certain predispositions towards certain kinds of magic, there are 
still many spells that are too complicated for other wizards. In 
other words, specialties or not, some people just can't cut it with 
the more complex spells.

Anyways, just my two knuts. ;-)

-Tom