Harry's DADA skill was Re: Albus and Gellert/Voldemort's Power

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 182583

> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> As for Harry, despite a Pure-Blood father who was good at Quidditch
> (the sole talent that Harry seems to have inherited) and talented at
> Transfiguration (the Marauder's Map; becoming an illegal Animagus in
> his teens) and a mother who was gifted at Potions according to
> Slughorn (and perhaps at Charms, if her first wand is any indication),
> Harry is not a gifted student, and his skill at DADA is mostly a
> matter of necessity.

Pippin:
Harry was able to conjure a corporeal patronus at the age of thirteen
and repel the imperius curse a year later. That is unusual  per
canon. Surely it's more than  a case of being motivated (if that's what
you mean by a matter of necessity.) It isn't at all clear to me that
the average  student  could have learned to cast a patronus at that age,
and most wizards are powerless against Imperius. 

I think those two achievements, which AFAWK have nothing to do with the
soul-bit, are sufficient to elevate Harry above "just an ordinary wizard
kid who's good at flying." IMO,  classroom settings have never shown or
developed Harry's skills to their best advantage, which is why I perfectly
understand why Harry didn't return to Hogwarts  (according to
JKR's interviews.) 

In any case, he'd been on his own, living as an adult, for nearly a year 
-- I couldn't see him going back to a life of  Filch, house points, detentions, 
prefects, curfews and homework no matter how much he longed to sleep 
in Gryffindor Tower again.

Nor would that have hindered his future as an Auror.
I can't imagine anyone in the WW (aside from Draco Malfoy) who wouldn't 
jump at the chance to give Harry Potter private lessons in any subject 
he desired to learn. 


Pippin