Harry's Swimming Skills?

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184138

Geoff wrote:
> 
> >Now, the scene in HBP is about two years later so it is quite 
>possible that Harry might have improved his swimming. In the HBP
example, he has to swim a short distance in the sea and the main
problems are his waterlogged clothes and the coldness of the water.
> 
> Joey:
> 
> The distance is short, yes, but when it comes to depth, swimming in
the *sea* would have been a challenge still, I suppose. As his
swimming skills were discussed in particular in GoF 2nd task (so much
so that he even sprouted gills using something called, IIRC,
gillyweed), I was wondering about it when I read this scenes in HBP. 
> 
> As you have said, we might have to go beyond the canon evidence and
 assume that he might have improved his swimming in 2 years. I also
had a feeling that swimming with DD might have made a difference to
him (despite the fact that DD had already begun to swim with his wand
held between his teeth by the time Harry joined). <snip>

Carol responds:

Unlike Dumbledore, who has a perfect breaststroke despite his injured
arm, Harry apparently needs only sufficient swimming skills to get
across the cold water in his water-logged clothes. It's more a matter
of determination than ability. The same is true of the nearly frozen
pool in DH. If he'd remembered to take off the Horcrux, he would
probably have retrieved the sword. (Heck, even I can retrieve a
quarter off the bottom of a swimming pool, and I was never a good
swimmer. I wouldn't try swimming in those conditions or lifting
something heavy, but I'm not a seventeen-year-old boy.) Ron, who may
never have had swimming lessons in his life, succeeds in retrieving
the sword *and* rescuing Harry. There's a lot to be said for
adrenaline, not to mention whatever accidental magic (or help from the
sword?) may have been involved.

And while Harry had the advantage of gills and webbed hands and feet
in GoF, he did still have to actually swim underwater to get to the
(supposed) hostages and get himself and two unconscious people to the
surface. That in itself required some swimming ability, possibly
mostly instinctive (like his ability to fly without a single lesson).
The gillyweed didn't enable him to swim (though the webbed feet and
hands gave him an added advantage he wouldn't have had otherwise); it
enabled him to survive (breathe) underwater for an hour through gills
in his neck. That he had some ability to swim both above- and
underwater already is indicated by the few lengths of the pool/tub,
and he could also stay underwater long enough to hear the Merpeople's
song, a matter not only of holding his breath but not returning to the
surface prematurely. I doubt, however, that he'd win a race against a
Muggle swimming champion without the gillyweed (which would only help
him underwater, in any case). Again, I think that instinct and
determination, in addition to the gillyweed that made survival
possible, enabled him to swim underwater without having been taught
how to do it as a professional or amateur athlete would.

One more thing that no one seems to have thought of. Both Harry and
Ron, one as Quidditch captain and the other as a Prefect, had access
to the Prefect's bathroom, with its swimming-pool-style bathtub, to
practice swimming both above and underwater during their off-page
leisure moments in their fifth and sixth years. that's very different
from actually mastering the breaststroke or butterfly or Australian crawl.

Carol, now wondering whether Dumbledore learned the breaststroke from
reading British Muggle sports magazines