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

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182602

Gloria wrote: 
> Regarding Harry's grades in his OWL's,... I do believe he is more of
a practical-challenge-seeking person (in the essence of physical
activity) than a theoretical one. <snip> But all through the books,
the Harry we know is practical, he is an action person. He is not one
to analyze things first and act later.
> 
> So, in those subjects in which Harry had no chances of doing
something that required practical skills - such as History of Magic,
Potions and Herbology, he would definitely be an average student.
> Remember that the only reason why he is so good at Potions in HBP is
because he is following other wizard's instructions - Snape's.

Carol responds:
I agree that Harry is action-oriented, and I've already explained why
I think he could cast such a good Patronus at an early age (special
help from Lupin, a Boggart!Dementor that meant he could face a
realistic Dementor substitute which even caused him to feel fear under
safe conditions, and the incentive of dealing with the Dementors who
were causing him to lose at Quidditch). So Harry, as you imply, is
better with a wand than he is with a pen, which would make him better
at his practical courses than he is at his theoretical ones.

However, he's also better at DADA than he is at Charms and
Transfiguration, in both of which he got an E, not an O, not because
those classes don't also require wandwork but because, IMO, he has a
particular incentive for learning DADA (at least in PoA, where he's
facing Dementors; in GoF, where he's facing dragons, grindylows, and
monsters in a maze; and in OoP, where he's actually teaching other
students because the teacher is totally useless--not to mention that
he knows that voldemort is back. In HBP, he masters the Prince's
jinxes, hexes, and charms, even the <nvbl> ones, without effort, but
resists nonverbal DADA because Snape is teaching it! (irony) 

Also, I disagree that he didn't excel at Potions and Herbology because
they don't require practical skills. Both of them are essentially lab
courses, just as the wand-centered courses are, with a theoretical
component (which the wand-centered courses also have). Whether he's
teaching Potions or DADA, Snape requires his students to write essays.
So do McGonagall, Slughorn, Flitwick, and the Astronomy teacher,
Professor Sinistra (IIRC).

About the only class I can think of that doesn't have both a practical
and a theoretical component (other than Muggle Studies, which Harry
doesn't take) is History of Magic (which, aside from being all reading
and writing, is taught by the most boring teacher in the school).

I agree that Harry does well in Potions in HBP because he's following
the HBP!Snape's instructions (and Snape, unlike Harry, is a Potions
genius), but I'm not sure that Harry retains anything that he learns
in that class (other than the uses of Felix Felicis). He goes back to
his usual mediocre performance after he hides the book in the RoR. He
does, however, remember and use the HBP's spells.

His performance on the Potions OWL shows that he can manage an E when
he and Snape aren't distracting each other. The grade is no better and
no worse than his grade in Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology.
(DADA is the only O.)

What I don't understand is how either he or Ron got an E in anything
other than DADA. Their practical work (wandwork) seems to be about
average (look how much talking they do in Charms, for example), and as
for the theoretical component, I don't see how either of them learned
anything with Hermione writing so many of their essays for them, or at
least correcting what they've written. (Doesn't JKR know that copying
someone else's essay is plagiarism and can get you expelled?)

Anyway, I don't think we can tell much about Harry's abilities from
his OWL grades. Nor am I sure that he has a natural aptitude for DADA
(though like most of the students, at least the boys, he likes the
concept of it--duelling and defensive spells and being allowed to jinx
each other in class. Wow!) Too bad most of his DADA classes weren't
actually like that.

If Harry hadn't been dealing with the prospect of fighting Voldemort
and all the other things that distract him in the books, would he have
been a better student? I don't think so. His one indisputable natural
ability is flying/Quidditch (Parseltongue and the scar connection are
obviously not natural to him). He might have done better in the
practical classes without the distraction of Voldemort  and the
animosity between him and Snape, but he might also have spent a lot of
time time in detention, like his father, rather than studying. Good
grades and books and ideas don't matter to him. Friendship and
Quidditch and, eventually, girls, are more important. And Harry,
despite a tendency to procrastinate, puts time and effort into what he
thinks is important. We don't see him inventing anything, like Severus
Snape and the Marauders and the Weasley Twins. He likes action better
than thinking.

I'm not saying that he's stupid; he seems to have above-average
intelligence. But he's not a genius. In fact, I'll bet that the adult
Harry is a lot like Rufus Scrimgeour, a man of action who spends most
of his adult life fighting Dark Wizards and is not likely to
underestimate them.

Carol, who forgot to mention Harry's generally good instincts when
he's faced with danger, an asset more likely to help him outside
Hogwarts than inside