Harry and Voldermort's powers

[nirupama76]

No: HPFGUIDX 182528

Tandra wrote:
> it, but it came to me today as I was rereading the 6th book. What
> exactly makes Voldermort so powerful? His father was a Muggle and his
> mother we never see that she was overly powerful. So I don't see that
> it could have been in his genes.
> 
> The same with Harry really, though it seems we see his parents were
> talented in their own ways, nothing suggests the combo of their
> abilities would make a "great" wizard.

Niru writes:

I guess a wizard/witch's power is somewhat similar to looks, 
intelligence, or any of the myraid qualities in a person. For example, 
my parents are both pretty good-looking and quite intelligent. None of 
my grandparents could have been considered intelligent. Meaning that 
my grandparents had fairly average to somewhat below average IQ 
whereas my parents are both above average. Same with looks. I guess 
someone (or many someones) somewhere in their respective family trees 
had good looks that passed on to them. I really don't know what 
determines a person's IQ. Would a genius or a couple of geniuses 
automatically produce another genius? 

The same must be true for a wizard/witch's "raw" magical power. While 
Merope may not have been powerful, Voldemort did have powerful people 
in the family tree. Salazar Slytherin for example. 

As for Harry... James Potter was reputed to be one of the brightest 
students in the school in his day. And he managed the Animagus 
transformation at about age 15. Plus he helped write the Marauder's 
Map which is definitely quite an impressive bit of magic. Lily was 
reputed to be a very talented witch as well. So Harry has some more 
immediate good "pedigree" (for lack of a better word).

- Niru