Levels of Wizardry and Snape's style

[jlnbtr]

No: HPFGUIDX 175612

Bart:

> What I see is that, in the WW, on levels above those like Hermoine, 
or the Weasley twins, or Mad-Eye Moody, there is a gap. You have 
super-wizards, and you have excellent wizards, and not much in 
between. 

Juli: I wouldn't consider Hermione an excellent witch, a good one, 
yes, but not excellent. Before you take aim for my head let me 
explain. Hermione is a book lover (remember what amorentia smells 
like to her?...), library rats (no offense) often don't have above 
average intelligence, they just like to study, and when you study, 
you get good grades. We have never seen Hermione invent anything on 
her own, or use any spell that she hadn't learned in a book. I 
remember her first flying lesson, she was scared to death because for 
once there was something she couldn't learn in books. I consider her 
very smart, but she's book-smart. She just studies (a lot) and gets 
good results.

Now the Twins, I think they truly are well above average, they take a 
basic knowledge and apply it to the practice in ways never thought 
before. Take for instance the invisibility hats, Hermione does 
mention that she doesn't know how they did it, if she doesn't know, 
there isn't a spell in books on how to do it.

Mad-Eye: we don't have any canon of whether he went beyond ordinary 
magic, but I'm sure he did. Otherwise how could he have filled half 
the cells in Azkaban?


> Professor Snape, although he often goes overboard, has a style 
where he expects all the students to be as good as he is. 

I've never even considered that, but I believe you're right. He 
*thinks* everyone to be as smart as him, therefore, he pushes them 
(in a good way) further than any other teacher.

> The best of the ordinary wizards, working in concert, can't even 
touch DD, Morty, or Grindy (Snape was smart enough not to make 
himself a target). 

I agree, Harry only defeated Voldemort because of the attenuating 
circumstances. He had the Brother Wands, then he *has* 
 
> Even among the OOP, the only reason why Snape seems to be accepted 
at all is because he's DD's best friend. 

Dumbledore's best friend? I think you've gone a bit too far. They 
were good friends, and very close, but I don't think Dumbledore ever 
had a best friend. He had too much knowledge and power to become one 
of us, to have an ordinary life with a best friend and a girlfriend. 
I don't think he ever truly confied in anyone in a way we usually do 
with our BFs, he confided different things in different people, but 
*work* stuff, never his personal life. Even Elphias Dodge, his best 
friend from Hogwarts didn't know even the tip of the iceberg that is 
Dumbledore. I think Harry came close in the end.

Juli - Glad to see a *nicer* tone on the list