Harry's skill and the finale ( Re:Grey Snape/Dumbledore/Harry Skill)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 143134

Jen previous:
> > Harry resorting to Unforgiveables is looking in the 'wrong place'
> > to solve his problem. Dumbledore told him several times where
> > his power is, within himself, and his power is much stronger
> > than Voldemort's type of magic. Harry just has to believe it, is
> > all. 

> bboyminn:  
> Let me propose a hypothetical showdown between Harry and Voldemort.
> Voldemort pulls his new wand and says 'Avada Kadavra' while
> simultaneously Harry pulls his wand and say 'I love you'. Who is
> likely to win? (Assuming we ignore the Brother Wand affect for the
> moment.) Love is great but it's doesn't always keep you from
> dying. 

Jen: Reading your response made me realize I wrote a flawed 
argument. Because love is what protects Harry, not what he will use 
to defeat Voldemort. Harry's power is the 'only protection that can 
possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort's' according 
to Dumbledore in the horcrux chapter. 

What will *defeat* Voldemort is this: "he not only handpicked the 
man most likely to finish him, he handed him uniquely deadly 
weapons...Voldemort himself singled out the person who sits here in 
front of me, and gave him the tools for the job!" (chap. 23, p. 477, 
Bloomsbury).

Steve/bboyminn:
> Yes indeed Love is powerful, but it's not much use if you are
> otherwise helpless. Really, I just don't see how the author can
> ignore this point any longer. If Harry doesn't start some serious
> Defense Against Dark Art learning in the next book, then I just
> don't see any realistic or practical direction the storyline can
> take.

Jen: Here's my opinion on where she's going, and I hope it won't 
make your blood boil again. :) I see it as a viable option, at least.

So Harry is uniquely deadly to Voldemort himself, but have those 
weapons Voldemort handed him always saved Harry in the past? No. 
What always saves Harry's skin is some combination of his own 
ability and the help of his allies. And while JKR was diverting our 
attention to all the people who hate Harry and wish him dead, he was 
slowly amassing a large group of allies from every corner of the WW. 
>From creatures like Firenze, Norbert, Dobby, Grawp, Ghosts to 
magical allies like the DA and Order, and even magical objects like 
the brother wand and Ford Anglia--Harry has an army primed to step 
in when needed.

HBP made clear Harry will have to go on alone and he does in the 
sense that he alone can defeat Voldemort. POA foreshadowed this when 
time-turned Harry was waiting by the lake for his father to save 
him, and he suddenly realized he would have to save himself. But 
unless JKR is going to suddenly drop her theme of unity, spelled out 
by Dumbledore and the sorting hat, then Harry will *always* have 
help when needed. By the lake, Harry saved himself but only because 
he 'found his father inside of himself' to draw on for support.

Even in the graveyard, seemingly alone and helpless, Harry is saved. 
The brother wand, Fawkes' song, the ghosts coming out of the wand--
all are there because along the way Harry has drawn people & 
creatures to him who truly believe in him, unlike Voldemort. Heck, 
he even attracts enemies who help him along the way, i.e. Crouch 
teaching him to resist the Imperius.

There is a problem with this scenario: If you look to closely at how 
it works, things start to fall apart a bit--'what if the brother 
wand hadn't chosen Harry, he'd be a goner, and how did that wand get 
there to begin with, was it made at the same time as Riddle's or was 
Dumbledore behind it or what?' But I think JKR is going for the 
overall effect rather than the details coming out exactly right. She 
did say: "One of the nicest things about writing for children is 
that you don't find them deconstructing novels. Either they like it 
or they don't like it." (Booklinks, 1999). 

Now having said all that, I'd still love to see Lupin return to 
teach Harry some things he needs to know about DADA and dark magic, 
and fill us in while he's at it.

Jen