Harry's brand of magic

[nicholas dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 146498

  "Harry Flashman" said:-

>>>JKR is really stretching the bounds of credulity by making Harry
appear to be a very ordinary wizard (even incapable of doing
non-verbal spells, and useless at occlumency and leglimency), yet one
who is supposed to have been marked as an equal by Voldemort. It does
not add up, at the very least Harry should have some extra-ordinary
skills that would make him stand out when compared to his peers. Yes
ability to talk to snakes is in him, but he has no special skills when
it comes to combating dark magic or even for that matter successfully
overcoming the defenses of other dark wizards, so how is he supposed
to fight the most powerful dark wizard of all? <<<

One of my other lists posed this question just after HBP was 
released, and this was my response:-

Have to disagree here. Harry will never be more than just okay as far 
as his formal studies are concerned; but he is a highly talented 
wizard in other respects. His magic is instinctive rather than 
formulaic (which is how Hermione works), hence his ability to conjure 
a corporeal Patronus, which even the OWL examiners thought was 
exceptional. He is able to resist the fake Moody's Imperius curse. He 
performs wandless magic when he and Dudley are threatened by 
Dementors. He teaches DADA to wizards older than himself. And, an 
excellent example from HBP, he even beats Snape to the draw in the 
DADA class. Snape turns his wand on Harry to demonstrate non-verbal 
spells, and Harry reacts with a *verbal* response that is not only 
faster than Snape's unvoiced spell, but is so strong that it knocks 
Snape over.

The challenge for Harry is not to learn more magic, but to conquer 
his emotions and to channel the instinctive powers that he possesses. 
In the confrontation with Snape at the end of HBP, Harry's magic was 
useless, because he was so overcome with emotion at what had happened 
to Dumbledore. His efforts were slow and predictable, and Snape 
easily defended himself (whilst at the same time, and very 
interestingly, telling Harry exactly where he was going wrong and why 
the spells he was casting were ineffective!)

Harry's magic is in some respects like Snape's approach to 
potion-making. Snape is like a talented chef who adds an apparently 
bizarre ingredient to a recipe, lifting it from bog-standard dish to 
gourmet experience. In that respect, Snape and Harry have the same 
touch of genius; despite their different fortes, each finds an 
unconventional twist to increase exponentially the power of his magic.

Cheers,
Nicholas