Producing a Patronus: Was (Re: Harry the Auror)

[Doriane]

No: HPFGUIDX 89189

I wrote :

> And as far as the Patronuses (Patroni ?) go, I'd like to remind 
> that Harry didn't manage to produce a good real one until the Lake 
> Attack. 

Geoff corrected me by reminding me that Harry produced a real 
Patronus during the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor Quidditch match and added :

> We don't know for certain that it's a stag because Harry is 
> concentrating on other things but it's big and Lupin thinks its 
> quite something.

And Jen R added :

> We find out later in POA that Harry did produce a stag at the 
> Quidditch match, when Dumbledore tells him, "Last night Sirius told 
> me all about how they became Animagi....And then I remembered the 
> most unusual form your Patronus took, when it charged Mr. Malfoy 
> down at your Quidditch match against Ravenclaw."

And I answer :

Okay, guys, you got me :-).

However ;-), in the context of the original problem, which was 
whether or not the DA students would be as able as Harry to produce a 
Patronus in case they truly needed one, I'm afraid Harry's Patronus 
at the Quidditch match doesn't help us determine that. We've seen 
that Harry was able to produce his first Patronus when he was 
concentrating on something else entirely (getting the Snitch), and 
his second one when he was removed from the action and knew he would 
manage. In the meantime, he failed to produce one when confronted to 
a hundred Dementors. Of course we can quite safely assume that their 
sheer number overwhelmed him, which leaves us wondering whether he 
would have managed to produce a Patronus if there had been only a 
couple of Dementors, like he does a year later. So IMO there's no way 
to know if Harry is truly more talented than the other students just 
by looking at their ability to produce a Patronus when they don't 
need one. What do you think ?

Del