Snape and Harry again.

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 114307

I (Carol) wrote: 
> > Anyway, my point is that Harry's experience (and Dumbledore's and>
even Snape's training) is helping to make him ready to face Voldemort.
Even Crouch!Moody, who meant to deliver him up to his "master," helped
to prepare him. and we haven't yet seen all the powers that were given
to him when the Avada Kedavra backfired and somehow, Protegolike,
spilled those powers into Harry.
<snip quote>
> > 
> > So, if Dumbledore is right, Harry wasn't born with the power to
defeat Voldemort. Voldemort, ironically, gave him that power himself.
>  
> 
> SSSusan responded:
> Yes, DD & Snape & Lupin, et al., are training Harry up, but why does 
> that have to mean that he doesn't have special power?  HAVING the 
> power doesn't mean an automatic understanding of how to use it.

Carol again:
Exactly. That's the point I was making. I never said that Harry wasn't
"special," only that I don't think he was *born* special and that he
has to *learn* to use those special powers, whatever they are and
however he acquired them. Harry needs his Hogwarts education
(especially Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, and DADA)--and all that
extra practice he's acquired through everything from the confrontation
with Quirrelmort to the Tri-Wizard Tournament, to enable him to fight
Voldemort on anything like equal terms in Book 7. Note that he's
always had help of some sort, whether it's the Sword of Gryffindor in
SS/PS or the Phoenix song created when the brother wands tried to
fight each other in GoF. And he had extra help learning how to cast a
Patronus--along with the extra advantage of having a Dementor boggart.
Yes, it's a great feat to be able to cast a corporeal Patronus in the
face of a real Dementor at age fifteen, but he was no more able than
Hermione to save himself and Sirius from the Dementors in PoA. It was
only when he was a safe distance away, at Hagrid's hut, having already
seen his future self cast the Patronus, that he knew he could do it.
As for casting a Patronus when there's no real danger, anyone in the
DA could do it. Harry has had help that no one else has, and not just
in casting a Patronus. The Tri-Wizard Tournament, thanks to loyal DE
Barty Jr., was an excellent training ground. (More irony to match the
irony of Voldemort's creating his own nemesis.)

That's not to say that Harry doesn't need or deserve the help he
receives (even help that's given with sinister intentions). I have no
doubt that Harry and not Neville is "the One" destined to fight
Voldemort. I'm only saying that no matter how special Harry is, he
wasn't born with the power to fight Voldemort--only the potential, and
maybe not that, since it's quite probable that Voldemort's failed AK,
rather than Harry's genetic inheritance, made Harry "special." Either
way, the potential has to be *developed*--nature (what Harry *is*,
whether or not he was born that way) combined with nurture (what Harry
*learns* through education and experience, trial and error).
 
Siriusly Snapey Susan wrote: 
> To me this indicates there is, indeed, Something About Harry.  
> Training is helping, too, but DD is seeing things in Harry he's 
> never seen in others.  And all while "struggling under more burdens 
> than any student who has ever passed through this school" [839].  
> Nope, I still interpret this as DD's believing Harry is truly 
> different from other wizards, truly gifted in some extraordinary way.

Carol again:
I don't disagree with you. I just say that there's no definitive
evidence that Harry was *born with* those special powers (other than
his skill at Quidditch/flying, which I do think he inherited from
James). They could be the result of the encounter with Voldemort,
which "marked" him as Voldemort's (future) equal. And regardless of
whether they're inherited or acquired or both, they have to be
developed through training and practice, a point you've already conceded. 

Here's the point I haven't made yet, the reason this is so important
to me. I don't want the future of the WW to be already mapped out,
with Harry and Voldemort and the rest as puppets playing preassigned
roles. I like JKR's emphasis on choice, which means that Harry's
decisions, even at Hogwarts, matter--and so do his mistakes. I also
like the fact that others help or hinder him along the way--it isn't
all Harry doing what he has to do and knowing how to do it from the
first. Luck and friends and enemies and choices and errors all play a
part. The Prophecy, ambiguous like all prophecies, will be fulfilled
*somehow*, but how and when will be determined by the past and the
present working together to shape the future, not by predetermined
events and actions and circumstances. Or so I hope.

If Harry is *predestined* to defeat Voldemort because he was *born* to
do it and that victory will happen whether he studies or not,
practices or not, chooses to confront Voldemort or not, why should we
read the books? And why should Harry do anything at all (other than
eat and sleep and remain alive) if his role and his fate are
predetermined because he was born "special"? (That, as I see it, is
exactly the view of himself and his future that Snape is trying to
prevent. He doesn't want Harry to complacently view himself as
"special"--destined to defeat Voldemort simply because he's The Boy
Who Lived. If he does see himself that way, both he and the WW are
headed for destruction.)

I don't deny that Harry is "exceptional." I certainly don't think that
some other wizard child could take his place as Voldemort's (future)
nemesis. I'm just saying that fate is complex and involves a lot more
than Harry being born--or being (ironically) designated by Voldemort--
"the one with the power." And part of Harry's *unpredetermined* fate
is *learning* to *become* "the one," willingly or unwillingly
preparing for his role, whether it's facing a dragon or choosing not
to kill Wormtail or casting a failed Crucio and understanding why it
failed. He has to use what he's learned and use it wisely or the WW is
doomed.

I don't for a moment think that Harry will fail to destroy Voldemort
but I'm certain that it will be through some means that he has not yet
learned--not an Unforgiveable Curse but something that is, indeed,
"special" to Harry. Sacrificial Love, if you like. I care not.

Carol, deliberately echoing Boromir, whose words just popped into her mind