'Clue to his vulnerability' / Harry's powers

[nkafkafi]

> Judy wrote:
> Dumbledore does spend a lot of time during this conversation saying 
> that Harry is Voldemort's equal.  Still, it's not clear to me that 
> Dumbledore is talking about magical powers.  Consider this exchange:
> 
>      "So, when the porphecy says that I'll have 'power the 
>       Dark Lord know not', it just means --- love?" asked Harry, 
>       feeling a little let down. 
> 
>       "Yes -- just love," said Dumbledore.
>

Neri:
The words of the prophecy are: "and the Dark Lord will mark him as 
his equal, but he will have a power the Dark Lord knows not". 
This "but" doesn't sound to me as if the power-the-Dark-Lord-knows-
not is what makes Harry equal to Voldy. The *mark* is what makes them 
equal, and the PTDLNN sounds like an extra, something that makes them 
*different*. And this is basically what Dumbledore says too. When he 
talks about what makes Harry equal he refers to Harry's link with 
Voldy and to the Parseltongue, which is a demonstration of the not-so-
innocent powers Harry inherited with his mark. The love, OTOH, is 
against the "lure", the "temptation" and being "seduced".  

JKR said herself (as if this wasn't obvious enough) that the scar is 
on Harry's forehead in order to show that he is "a marked man". 
Marked like Cain, perhaps? "Sin is crouching at the door; its desire 
is for you, but you must master it". 


> Judy wrote:
> And later, as Neri quoted, Dumbledore says:
>      "By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out 
>       the remarkable person who sits here in front of me, and gave 
>       him the tools for the job! It is Voldemort's fault 
>       that you were able to see into his thoughts, his 
>       ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike
>       language in which he gives orders."
> 
> Dumbledore goes on to say that any Death Eater would kill to have 
> Harry's privileged insight into Voldemort's world.
> 
> It seems to me that Dumbledore is saying Harry is uniquely equipped 
> with the *psychological* tools -- not necessarily the magical 
tools --
> to defeat Voldemort. <snip>

Neri:
All this is true, yet psychological tools don't extend very well to 
cover "uniquely deadly weapons", and having insight into someone's 
mind isn't usually described as being his "equal".

 
> 
> Neri said:
> > Voldy's power can only be a "lure" if it's power that Harry
> > already possesses, or will possess if he's ever 
> > "seduced by the Dark Arts"

> Judy wrote:
> This doesn't necessarily mean Harry is as powerful as Voldemort. 
> Dumbledore could be referring to the temptation to share in  
> Voldemort's power. (After all, this seems to appeal to many of the 
> Death Eaters.) Voldemort did, in fact, try to recruit Harry in Book 
> 1. But Harry wasn't interested, even if death seemed the only 
> alternative. 
> 

Neri:
As you say, the last time Voldy tried to recruit Harry was in Book 1, 
and it doesn't seem probable that he'll try this one again, or if he 
will, that Harry is in any danger of being tempted by it. So why is 
Love so crucial now? From what temptations must it guard Harry in 
Book 7?   

> Judy wrote:
> So far, we really haven't seen much evidence of Harry as 
> uber-wizard.  

Neri:
But of course we haven't. That would indeed make Harry a very boring 
character, the predictable Superman/Spiderman type, and we would all 
know what to expect from the final battle. No, these powers must 
remain shrouded in mystery, like Snape's motivations, always hinted 
at but never explicitly described until the climax. We do know, 
however, that Harry has a mind connection with an uber-wizard, and he 
has already demonstrated the ability to use a power of this wizard, 
and Dumbledore explains in his last talk that this very ability is 
what makes Harry so dangerous to Voldy, and all this potential must 
somehow prove itself in the climax of Book 7 or I understand nothing 
about tension building.

> Judy wrote:
> He really didn't do well in the fight with Snape 
> at the end of Book 6. Even before that, Snape described Harry (with 
> some exaggeration, no doubt) as "mediocre to the last degree." "He 
> had no extraordinary talent at all.  He has fought his way out of a 
> number of tight corners by a simple combination of luck and more 
> talented friends."
> 
> I fully expect that, in Book 7, Snape will prove to be one of 
> those "talented friends" who help Harry out of tight corners.  
<snip>
> 

Neri:
Thus proving Snape's claim that Harry is mediocre to the last degree? 
I doubt it. Snape was the one who scorned Harry for being unable to 
use the Unforgivables, while Dumbledore told him that his greatest 
power comes from never being seduced by the Dark Arts. My bet is on 
Dumbledore to prove correct in this specific dispute. 

Neri