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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 182707

Potioncat:
> Personally, I think Lupin went about it all wrong. But we don't know 
> how he learned or who taught him. <snip>
> Harry did a better job of teaching the spell. Lupin should have 
> taught him to cast the spell, to cast it well, then to face the 
> Boggart/Dementor.
> 

Pippin:
It's not often I feel called on to speak up in defense of Lupin!
But his goal was not to teach Harry to cast a corporeal patronus.
It was to help Harry  survive if the dementors  attacked
him again. It's an important distinction since even the incorporeal
patronus can hold a dementor off, although it can't drive one
away.

 Lupin might have taught Harry to cast a corporeal patronus, but it
wouldn't have done any good if it vanished as soon as the dementor
started to have an effect. Since a boggart dementor probably *would*
be driven off or change shape if attacked by a corporeal patronus,
Harry wouldn't have been able to practice holding out against the
draining effect, which is what he needed to do.

In further defense of Harry's "O" in DADA, though Lupin did coach
Harry until he could produce an incorporeal patronus, Harry managed
the corporeal patronus all on his own, unlike any of the other DA
members, including Hermione.

Hermione never shows Harry's  interest or self-direction in DADA. She
does not master an anti-boggart spell on her own,   and as Snape
observes, she can quote the DADA text but doesn't expand on it. In
fact Dumbledore relies on her tendency to go strictly by the book to
slow Harry down when he doesn't want Harry to learn about the Elder
Wand too quickly. Her grasp of DADA is a bit like Harry's grasp of
Potions in HBP --  as good as what's provided, but not better. 

Pippin
who thinks the "O" should also stand  for "originality".