Harry's Characterization (was: Satisfaction of the story to date )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 163447

Mike wrote:
> In this paragraph you have stated the dichotomy of the boy Harry 
> Potter which JKR has writ large over the whole series. She writes a 
> character that seems to barely be succeeding in everyday life, but 
> suddenly draws from some inner power to succeed when the chips are 
> down. She never shows us from whence this ability springs, but we 
> have plenty of hints that it is there just below the surface,
waiting to be called upon.
<snip>
> In JKR's WW, a witch or wizard evidently can have some *je ne sais 
> quoi* which puts them in a magical class above the norm. Then there 
> are those which far exceed the norm, making them almost a seperate 
> species of wizard. Voldemort is there, Dumbledore was probably
there, and JKR has shown me enough hints to think that Harry is there.
Harry has "IT", whatever it is. <snip>
> 
> It matters not how young Harry is, once he reaches his 17th
birthday, the "IT" will become fully fledged. Harry *will* be able to
challenge Voldemort toe-to-toe because of his inate abilities. In
fact, he already did it in GoF, in the graveyard. Harry was able by
force of will to overpower Voldemort during the "Priori Incantatum"
wand connection. So we know Harry is more powerfully magical than 
> Voldemort. (Side question: I wonder if he would have been more 
> powerful than a *whole* Tom Riddle?) 
> 
> Does Harry realize this? It seems not. He had continually protested 
> to Dumbledore that he doesn't have the power that Voldemort has. He 
> hasn't internalized the lesson from the graveyard, probably due to 
> shock, grieving for Cedric, and a desire to stop the nightmares by 
> putting the whole episode out of his mind. But we know it. JKR made 
> sure we knew it. And *if* Harry has to harness the *power of love*, 
> he will be able to because of the inate magical abilities he 
> possesses which put him in a class by himself. I'm sure that Harry's 
> magical quality/life force will underlie whatever manipulation, 
> trickeration, or magic Harry will do to defeat Voldemort. <snip>
> 
> Dumbledore saw it, probably very early on. He tells him, "I never 
> dreamed that I would have such a person on my hands." (OotP p. 839, 
> US) In this passage Dumbledore isn't talking about Harry's *ability 
> to love* yet. He's seen Harry perform in other ways, magical ways, 
> that defy his stage in life. Dumbledore knew Harry was **powerfully 
> magical**, and suspected that Harry will become more powerfully 
magical than any living wizard. In typical Dumbledore understatement, 
> he tells Harry as much in the cave: "You are very kind, Harry... But 
> your blood is worth more than mine." (HBP p. 560, US)
> 
> So what happened to that boy in HBP? In every other book, Harry's 
> magical abilities are the lynchpin to the end results of the 
> penultimate or ultimate conflict of the book. He thwarts
Quirrellmort with his touch, kills the Basilisk with Gryffindor's
sword (yes, I think one needed magical ability to wield that sword),
produces the Patronus, outduels Voldemort in the battle of wills, and
throws off Voldemort's possession with his thoughts. 
> 
> What did he do in HBP? Well ... he apparated back to Hogsmeade. Wow, 
> what a show of magical ability. He couldn't even handle an 
> untransformed Greyback without help, much less land a single spell
on Snape. <snip> So where was that inate  magical ability when *Harry*
thought he needed to do something? It wasn't there, was it? What
happened? How come a year older Harry's 
> power has failed him? I hate to think it was all for the storyline, 
> but I hasve no other explanation. This is my grievance with HBP, the 
> book.
><snip>

Carol responds:
I can't tell whether I'm oversnipping or undersnipping this post! Let
me just say, though, that I understand and respect your feelings about
Harry's lack of preparation, and he certainly isn't prepared to fight
*Snape*, but that isn't what he's destined to do. (He has to *forgive*
Snape, IMO; certainly not defeat him in battle.) Fighting *Voldemort*
will be entirely different and will not depend on his mastery of DADA
skills. (I do hope that he recalls the DADA lessons Snape taught and
applies them to fighting DEs, but given his antipathy to Snape, I'm
not counting on it.)

But I disagree that Harry's magical power is innate. He was born, I'm
guessing, a rather talented Wizard, the child of a Quidditch
champ/Animagus and a gifted witch (supposedly good in Potions and
presumably good at Charms, based on her wand) but still no more
talented or powerful on his own than, say, Draco, who is good at both
Quidditch and Charms (see his magical badges) and better than Harry at
Potions. Harry's exceptional magical ability, setting aside the power
of love which comes from his mother's sacrifice, comes from the
rebounded AK at Godric's Hollow, which somehow caused Harry to acquire
some of *Voldemort's* powers in addition to the powers or talents that
he was born with. He has the scar connection (now muted by voldemort's
Occlumency), Parseltongue (which will surely come in handy when he
fights Nagini), and, I'm guessing, the power of possession, which he
doesn't yet realize he has. It's these powers, the Voldemort
connection (no, I don't think it's a soul bit!) that makes Harry
special. It's not his talents and powers. Otherwise, Dumbledore or
Snape could easily have dispatched Voldemort (having first destroyed
his Horcruxes) at some point. Harry has to do it because only Harry
has powers identical with Voldemort's, from Voldemort himself, in
addition to the power of love that protects him from being possessed,
and perhaps from being killed, by LV: ". . . And the Dark Lord will
mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not.
. . ." 

So it isn't a matter of skills that he can practice (though he'd be
well advised to practice nonverbal defensive spells to give him an
advantage over the Death Eaters). Harry and only Harry can defeat
Voldemort by *understanding* Voldemort and how he thinks. That, IMO,
is what Dumbledore understood and was trying to get Harry to understand.

As for the powerful Patronus, that may have been a fluke or part of
James's heritage or a sign of Harry's potential to defeat the Dark
Lord, but it certainly doesn't seem like typical Harry magic. He has
as much trouble as Ron with Potions (till he gets hold of the HBP's
book) and Charms and Transfiguration. He only masters the Summoning
Charm, Accio, at the last minute in GoF. He has some talent with DADA
spells, but no decent teacher until Snape, whom he hates and refuses
to learn from (though I'll bet that some of Snape's lessons sank in
against his will, just as they did in Potions, and I'll bet that
*Hermione* can do nonverbal defensive spells, thanks to Snape. 

(An aside before anyone jumps on me--yes, I know that Lupin taught
Harry to fight Boggarts and Dementors, not to mention Kelpies and
Kappas and Grindylows, but his spells won't help against DEs or Inferi
or Voldemort. Harry, like Draco, is rejecting what Snape is trying to
teach him just when all the students need his expertise most, not to
fight Voldemort, for which Harry is uniquely equipped, but to fight
DEs and Dark Magic in general. And I wonder if the Protego that
knocked Snape into the desk is really a sign of *Harry's* power--after
all, Protego merely deflects the opponent's spell back onto the
caster. The power we saw illustrated in that (verbal) Protego may have
been Snape's, just as the Protego Harry cast against Snape in
Occlumency lessons resulted in Snape's Legilimens spell being
deflected onto him rather than Harry. In both cases, Snape is trying
to get Harry to react, and in both cases, he accomplishes his
objective. But in the second case, he wanted the defensive spell to be
nonverbal, which it wasn't.)

To return to my main point--yes, Harry is a procrastinator. Yes, he's
learning only a few new spells, all of them courtesy of Teen!Snape, in
HBP. Yes, he's making new mistakes, this time taking credit for
potions improvements that aren't his and following Draco around rather
than focusing on Dumbledore's lessons. (If only he'd gotten Slughorn's
memory sooner and they'd been able to go to the cave before Draco
succeeded in fixing the Vanishing Cabinet! Snape could have saved
Dumbledore and shown Harry where his loyalties lie, and Harry would
have found out sooner that the Horcrux was a fake. And Draco would not
have been able to bring the DEs into Hogwarts because DD would not
have left the castle at an opportune time. If only!)

But Harry is learning the lessons that count. Except for Snape, onto
whom he projects all his anger and hatred, he's learning to control
his emotions (jealousy, attraction to Ginny, anger at anyone other
than Snape), and he's always been able to control his fear. Courage,
after all, is Harry's greatest innate virtue (certainly stronger than
his ability to love). And his tendency to act without thinking, while
it can be a handicap (think Snape's Pensieve memory and the MoM), is
an asset when it comes to fighting Voldemort. There, and in a few
other cases, for example, the TWT maze, his instincts guided him
correctly.

At any rate, the last stage of the journey--the quest to defeat
Voldemort *and* the journey toward adulthood (which, despite the WW's
laws, is not magically acquired on a person's seventeenth
birthday)--is reserved for the last book and will be the hardest.
Harry is not a Greek god or an ancient Greek hero or even a modern
Superhero. He's an Everyman (Everykid) figure, as symbolized by his
glasses, without which he's nearly as helpless as he is without his
wand. Yes, he is uniquely equipped to destroy Voldemort, in part by
his innate courage (which, nevertheless, was not enough for James), in
part by his mother's sacrifice, and in part by the specific powers he
acquired from Voldemort, which cannot be practiced in DADA or any
other class--but otherwise, he's David fighting Goliath, a kid
destined to bring down the greatest Dark Wizard in a century whose
powers and intellect far exceed his own. Luck, courage, knowledge he
does not yet realize he has, a unique connection to Voldemort and a
unique understanding of him--those are what will enable Harry to
destroy Voldemort, with the help of his friends and an ally he thinks
is his enemy.

Watching Harry grow up is like watching a son or grandson or nephew
grow up. You wish that they'd stay small and young and innocent, but
they can't. They have to grow up and face the challenges of adulthood,
and to do so they must first undergo the trials (Experience) of
adolescence--homework, mean teachers, hormones, jealousy, anger,
prejudice, illness, injury, death of beloved friends or relatives, and
all the rest. They have to learn that even the most trusted and
respected adults are imperfect, that all human beings make mistakes,
that some problems can't be solved and others they must solve for
themselves. In the WW, those lessons include facing dangers that are
not part of the RW. Everything Harry has learned about the WW, from
hippogriffs to house-elves, is a rite of passage, preparing him for
adulthood in a world very different from a middle-class Muggle
neighborhood in Surrey. But only knowledge of Voldemort and an
understanding of himself can prepare him for the ultimate challenge of
Book 7.

Carol, who firmly believes that Harry will survive the confrontation
with life, limbs, and innate magical powers intact, losing only the
powers he acquired from the by-then-dead Voldemort