Will Harry *beat* Voldemort? (long)

[greg_a126]

No: HPFGUIDX 148127

So in the HBP, Dumbledore tells Harry that even after destroying all 
of Voldemort's Horcruxes Harry will still have to deal with 
Voldemort's magical skill and knowledge.  This brings up the obvious 
question of how is Harry actually going to be able to do that.  I 
think I've come up with three options.

Option 1: Super! Harry

This is an option I've chosen to name after all of the Super! Harry 
pieces of fan fiction out there.  Inside this option, I'm including 
any sort of through no real effort of his own, Harry suddenly becomes 
much more powerful/intelligent/magical.  Now, while Super! Harry fics 
are pretty well derided across the whole of the internet, I don't 
think that this option can be completely discarded.  Based on the 
fact that Dumbledore said that the reason that Harry could go with 
him on the boat across the lake was because he was not yet 17.  This 
seems to, IMHO, imply that something doese happen on the night of 
your 17th birthday, other than just becoming a day older.  

Option 2: Harry actually earns it

This is the option where Harry spends all summer with Alastor Moody, 
Kingsley Shaklebolt, Tonks, Remus or a combination of the three and 
actually becomes good enough in magic and magical duelling to stand 
toe to toe with Voldemort and win.  This is the option I'm rooting 
for, but also the one I consider to be the least likely.  I just find 
it hard to believe that in addition to all the other stuff JKR has to 
fit into the book, there's going to be time for this.  

Also, while Harry has from time to time shown the ability to do some 
extraordinary things (beating Voldemort in a battle of wills at the 
graveyard, Patronus at 13, etc.) the fact that Snape so roundly 
trounced him in their impromptu duel at the end of HBP really seems 
to rule this option out.  I mean, the absolutely only reason that 
Snape didn't kill Harry was just because he didn't seem to want to. 
Regardless of your opinion (Good Snape vs. Bad Snape), anyone who 
reads that chapter can come to the obvious conclusion that the only 
thing that kept Harry alive was Snape's good will.  Considering how 
far he has to go, and the fact that he only has 1 year to get there, 
really seems to rule out this option.

Option 3: Harry gets lucky

I've saved this option for last, because it's the option that I 
personally like the least, but also think is the most likely.  

First, the above 3 options don't really seem to fit JKR's style.  
Some radical increase of Harry's abilities would seem to imply that 
you can't get by on what you have today, you need to wait until the 
power comes to you, which definately isn't one of her themes 
throughout these books.  And, as previously mentioned, there just 
doesn't seem to be enough time for option 2.

Second, parallels to other epics.  Luke didn't beat the Emporer, he 
was just their when his dad threw him overboard.  The good guys 
didn't 'win' in the Lord of the Rings so much as they distracted the 
bad guys and threw the ring away when they weren't paying 
attention.   

Third, how did Lily/Harry beat Voldemort the first time?  Not by 
standing up to him, but by kind of 'cheating'.  I don't mean to take 
away anything from Lily's sacrifice, but to the best of our knowledge 
we don't even know if she did it on purpose.  This seems to me to be 
the way that Harry's going to win.  Either he's going to dive in 
front of Ginny and then when Voldemort tries to kill her he's going 
to get the curse rebouneded, but w/o his Horcruxes not going to 
survive, or something along those lines.

So, opinions?

grega126