[HPforGrownups] Re: Is (was) Harry a squib? (or born a not-so-great wizard?)

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 108259


Snow wrote (previous):
>> This idea that Voldemort had given any and all of Harry's magical
capabilities to him has been and still is controversial. I see too
much referencing to Harry's magical capabilities belonging to or
inherited by James for this to be true. Sirius saying, you fly as
well as your father and you truly are your father's son. Harry is the
youngest quiddich player in a century. <<

HunterGreen:
That could just an *ability* rather than a specific magical ability.
It most likely requires magical blood to be able to fly a broom, but
being able to be a great seeker requires good reflexes, good
instincts, good aiming ability and good vision (not as in eyesight,
but as in an aptitude for focusing your eyes on something small and
far away -- concentration, I suppose). Those aren't *specific* to
being magical. Squib!Harry could have inhereted all of these traits
from James, and then the ability to fly a broom came from Voldemort.

Sherry now

I think that JKR tells us very early in the saga, that Harry had magical
powers before the attack of Voldemort.  Hagrid says, in the hut on the rock,
that Harry's name was written down from the time he was born, for Hogwarts
attendance.  I take this to mean, that there is some way of detecting
magical abilities, and that whatever magic chooses students for Hogwarts
knew Harry would have the magical ability and his name was written down.  It
does not say that his name was written down after the attack, when he was
about 15 months old.  This is in the first book, I think the chapter is
called the Keeper of the keys.  So, I think this tells us that not all
Harry's powers came from Voldemort.  His parents were apparently powerful
wizards, and he must have inherited some of his power from them.

Sherry G