Re: Power in JKR’s magic

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 105582

> Neri:
> In JKR's "theory of magic", power seems to come not so much from 
> learning or skill, or even some arbitrary row potential, but more 
> from courage. Mainly the courage to make moral choices and be 
> loyal to a person or to a cause. 
<snip of canon quote>
>  
> The patronus is a typical example of this principal: you need a 
> powerful and happy memory to produce it. The more powerful the 
> memory, the more powerful the patronus. 

Jen: I got a fortune cookie recently that said, "Avoid scattering 
your energies." Oddly enough, I thought of Snape ;). This is the 
prinicple he was teaching Harry during Occlumency: Your power is 
proportional to how well you close off distractions and focus your 
mind. 

Dumbledore talks of the well-organized mind, and I imagine such a 
mind to be free from worry, doubts, what-if's, second guessing, 
etc., all the daily troubles that drag us away from being useful. No 
energy is wasted or lost in such a mind. 

The duel between Dumbledore and LV exemplifies a 'meeting of the 
minds.' They don't use words, but we still see the results. Both of 
these men have a laser-like ability to focus their intention until 
it becomes reality--all in a split second. That's powerful!.

If this idea is true, then being a gifted Occlumens might help a 
person become more magically powerful, in addition to blocking 
incursions into one's mind. Like in meditation, a person is focusing 
on emptying the mind, detaching from emotion. Dumbledore appears to 
be in this state while battling LV in the MOM. Learning Legilimency 
would also require a laser-like focus on another person's mind, 
without distraction.

And the Patronus, like Neri mentioned, is produced when one is able 
to focus intently on a very happy thought to the exclusion of all 
else. Banishing a Boggart is the same--focus intently on a humourous 
thought.

Neri: 
> I once tried to formulate this as an explicit theory based on the 
> power behind the locked door. This was probably overdoing it, but 
the 
> principle certainly holds in the metaphorical level of HP.  
> 
> There are only five people in HP that have the courage to 
pronounce 
> Voldemort's name regularly: DD, Harry, Lupin, Sirius, and (only 
> recently) Hermione. This is one reason I think Lupin is a powerful 
> wizard, and also why neither Lupin nor Sirius will turn out to be 
> ESE. 

Jen: I'm not sure about Sirius, but I'm convinced Lupin is skilled 
at Legilimency. We have at least two examples of him staring 
intently at someone while the person is speaking, once in the 
Shrieking Shack and once at Grimmauld Place. There may be other 
examples. So Lupin, Dumbledore and Snape would be especially skilled 
at gathering their mind-energy for battle, and not losing their 
focus along the way.

Jen Reese