So, is Harry a great wizard or not?

[Ashley]

If you haven't gotten the idea by now that this list is discussing the last book then no 
amount of spoiler space is going to help you.

One of the many things that Rowling has frustrated me with, has been what I consider to 
be her own ambivalence with whether or not she wished to portray Harry as a wizard of 
great (or at least potentially great) magical power as well as a wizard who was  to act out 
(badly or not) a great role bestowed on him.   [Take Neville, for example, who never shows 
any exceptional magical power, but comes to embrace the roles provided him with great 
courage and commitment}

It seems that much of the first two books, and moments in the next two {such as his abilty 
to form a Patronus}, sought to convey that HP had great magical power, that in retrospect, 
can be seen as existing independent from his Voldy component. To make it abundantly 
explicit, JKR has Hermione state in PS that HP is a "great wizard."

But in the later books, most expecially in HBP, we are given more to believe that nothing is 
all that special about Harry's magical powers, at least nothing that didn't derive from his 
Voldy component. We have JKR make the pronouncement, this time through Snape, about 
just how "mediocre" Harry is as a wizard.

There is much that could flesh this all out, but I'm sure most readers of this list can do 
that more efficiently in their minds than I can in print.

Yet at the end of DH we have two events, sans the Voldy component, which lead one in the 
direction of exceptional wizarding powers. The first is obvious in that Harry manages to 
block and even redirect Voldy's AK. I just don't think this can be all explained away by the 
wands in use. The second, for me is more telling. This is Harry repairing his Holly wand. 
Hermione had failed, Ollivander said it couldn't be done, Harry hadn't tried previously, but 
using the Elder Wand (which is noted for its abilities for dueling, but nothing else), he 
immediately is successful.  

Of course the disapointment for me is that I have no confidence remaining that canon is 
sufficiently consistent at any level to derive a "truth" about the HP wizarding world, or any 
of her characters. Alas, that awareness has built over the last three books, with DH driving 
a stake through any lingering belief I may have nurtured. Which is why I have had so little 
to say this last year.

Lyn

(using my wife's Yahoo acount, which is why it comes up as Ashley)