Harry's Swimming Skills?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 184140

---  "happyjoeysmiley" <happyjoeysmiley at ...> wrote:
>
> In GoF, we are told that Harry does not know to swim. (Or 
> were we told that he cannot stay *under* water for long?)
> 
> Yet in HBP when he goes along with DD to get the locket 
> Horcrux and in DH when he tries to get the Sword of 
> Gryffindor, he does swim and gets under water.
> 
> Just curious if this was a miss by JKR or something which I 
> missed to gather while reading all those books. Has this has
> been discussed earlier in this forum / answered already by 
> JKR? Any pointers?
> 
> ~Joey
>

bboyminn:

Well, you've started with at false assumption, and that has
colored everything.

>From GOF - Prefects Bathroom scene-
"It was so deep that his feet barely touched the bottom, and 
he actually did a couple of lengths before swimming back to
the side and treading water, staring at the egg."

Keep in mind this is a somewhat large pool; it has it's own
diving board. Certaily not a huge Olympic pool, but still good
sized.

So, Harry can swim a couple of laps and he can tread water.
Seems like a perfectly ordinary swimmer to me. 

No, he, not having has swim lessons, is not a technically
proficient swimmer, but very few people, lessons or no lessons,
are. 

When he swims with Dumbledore, despite the cold and wind, likely
it is in a somewhat protected cove, so no huge waves crashing 
down. Any reasonable swimmer should be able to traverse a short
distance in the ocean in calm conditions.

As others have pointed out the pool containing the sword was
cold, but not deep, at least not over Harry's head. At first,
he is just walking around in the pond feeling around with his
feet for the sword, then when ready to retrieve it, he dives
down after it. I suspect the water was roughly chest to 
shoulder high. 

So, my interpretation is that Harry is a fair swimmer like
most people, just not technically proficient, like most people.

Plus consider that two years have gone by, two years when most
boy grow into young men. At age 13, Harry was probably not
very big or well developed, though Hogwarts certainly provides
plenty of exercise walking up and down all those stairs. So,
later in the scene with Dumbledore, and with the sword in the
pond, and with jumping off the dragon into a lake, Harry is 
likely stronger, more developed, and more confident, all of 
which would improve his swimming even without practice.

Just a thought.

Steve/bluewizard