The average is certainly pitiful, so being above average doesn't really mean much. Of course, Dumbledore and Voldemort's level is unreachable for him; I don't know how you think he can even come close.

 

Only a stupid person would compare anyone to Dumbledore and Voldemort. Even Snape didn't last a single second against Voldemort.

The Harry Potter series is not a typical fantasy series where teenagers outdo adults, Dumbledore and Voldemort being the exception. Even Hermione "I'm a special snowflake" Granger couldn't budge Bellatrix even a little bit, despite having Luna and Ginny and Harry's sacrifice helping her. Yet Molly was able to accomplish much more.

Does that mean that, at the Battle of Hogwarts, Molly was a superior witch to Hermione? Yes. Does that mean Hermione will never surpass Molly? No, she will, of course, far exceed her once older and experienced.

Harry is not an average Wizard. An average Wizard would be the dozens of Death Eaters that Harry demolished during the Battle of the Seven Potters, despite being in a disadvantageous situation.

Harry is the only character in the entire series, aside from Dumbledore, with the capacity to even react to Voldemort's spellcasting.

 

Is that because of Harry's skill or 'the power of love' crap?

 

He has consistently been able to react to Voldenort's spellcasting, ever since they first duelled. He is the only character, aside from Dumbledore, to do that.

Will Harry ever equal Voldemort or Dumbledore? No, but they stand many leagues ahead of anyone else.

Harry will, most likely, become a Wizard of the same caliber as Minerva, Flitwick, Slughorn - Perhaps even Snape, as a duelist, perhaps.

 

Unless you count Cursed Child as canon, in which case, he gets destroyed by a 17 yo girl with blue hair even after having nearly two decades experience in law enforcement.

 

Cursed Child is a play/comedy. It may or may not be cannon, but it is not a reflection of the characters.

After all, Hermione is black in CC. Ronald, who was an Auror for 5 years, cannot even hold his wand straight, Rose is a Super Mary Sue who is perfect at every single thing, Theodore creates Time Turners he never uses, Cedric becomes a Death Eater and- well damn, the list goes on and on.

Cursed Child is complete trash.

 

Also. This I suspect might anger some people here. But if you think about it, in some ways Harry already IS better than voldemort in the books.

I mean if you look at the record of their confrontations they are all essentially either a draw or a harry win. Hell Harry killed him twice.

I know some will say "but it was luck and convoluted circumstances." But results are results. Maybe harry's magic ability is crazy luck or weird circumstances that favour him. Maybe theres some subtle magic that just arranges things so he somehow wins?

But ironically if you look at the track record in cannon Harry actually wins multiple confrontations with volide. He essentially kills him *twice*. And in the non lethal ones, each time voldie tries to kill him it ends in whats essentially a draw (neither one permanently hurt).

Again its weird cause it doesnt appear Harry actually comes out on top of any of those due to *skill*. But still...

 

He definitely had the power. He drove off a hundred demetors with a single patronus.

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I think he had the potential to reach Voldemort and dumbledore's level.

 

Why does being able to drive off all those dementors mean he has "power?" What are you defining as power, here?

 

Magical power. Almost nobody apart from a select few powerful individuals can do that with a single patronus.

 

How anyone could read the Harry Potter series and come out with the notion that he is average, is beyond me.

It's like professional sports. No one expected Kobe Bryant, at the mere age of 17, to play like a Superstar, not until he was older and more experienced; but the potential was there, he showed flashes of it. However, it wasn't until his body and mind matured, and he gained experience, that he was able to play like a Superstar.

Harry Potter was like Kobe Bryant. He showed flashes of potential and brilliance, but he did not possess the training or physical and mental maturity to perform at his full potential.

He should, however, later in life, though, be far more competent; and the fact that he became the youngest Head Auror in history, and also the Head of the DMLE, proves that he eventually matured into an intelligent, politically minded professional, capable of administration, educated in law, and phenomenal leadership.

 

Where in canon does it measure how much Magical Power someone has.

Is Harry at 12 MP and Dumbledore is 35 MP?

 

Exactly this. One of the most commonly cited arguments for Harry being an underperformer is that he doesn't like doing homework. I have to wonder if the people saying that have forgotten what the sort of homework 14 year-olds do is actually like. It's less "Provide brilliant new insights backed up by original research" and more "Read this chapter in your book, then regurgitate the information." Even NEWT-level potions class seems to largely consist of reading and following instructions.

I'd would concede that canon seems to show that Harry is far better at thinking on his feet and applying his knowledge in a practical way than he is at purely theoretical stuff. He might not be great at crunching numbers to come up with a new spell formula, but he's a lot better at finding a way to use it.

 

Harry Potter is also an athletic prodigy - at the age of 12, he could wield a sword, run faster than a basilisk, and swing the sword of Gryffindor with enough force to pierce through the Basilisk.

At the age of 14, he was able to outswim older, taller, and genetically enhanced opposition.

And Harry Potter also consistently shows an intuitive grasp on the deeper aspects of Magic than any other character in the series, even Dumbledore and Voldemort, by a very wide margin, in fact.

Harry is not average, he may not be Dumbledore or Voldemort, but he is a far better leader than either of them, with a much more intimate relationship to Magic than they could ever dream of possessing.

 

Unless you count My Immortal as canon, there's really no reason to factor Cursed Author Fan Fiction Child Cursed Child in your estimation of Harry, either.

It's a rolling dumpster fire, and if JKR ever stops drinking her own Kool-Aid long enough to get the fuck off of Twitter, she'll admit it.

Stan Bush, bitch.

 

He certainly showed a lot of potential in the seven books, and if you don’t count Cursed Child as canon, he achieved a lot before he was 30. So yeah, he’d become great. Perhaps not in the same league as Lord Voldemort and Dumbledore, but better than Snape I think, or perhaps equal.

All comes to what kind of wizard is Harry, he obviously didn’t master all magical subjects like Voldemort did, but he’s built as a fighter. In fact, he has skill in Charms, Transfiguration, DADA and Potions, he has very fast reflexes (in par with Lord Voldemort), he can grasp practical concepts quickly and master them with certain degree to succeed (apparition), he knows Occlumency and has enough mental skill to learn Legilimency, he’s a resilient character, he doesn’t give up easily, he has charisma and was proved in positions of leadership and combat since he was a teen. He’s a though motherfucker. He went toe to toe with some really nasty peaces of work and came on top (Bellatrix, Dolohov, Rodolphus and Rabastan, the Carrows). I don’t know you, but I’d love to have that kind of fighter in my team.

Over the years I’ve come to realize that Harry is not the problem, it’s JKR. She didn’t do a good job whit his character since PoA was published. What she showed of him in the rest of the books wasn’t good enough and she sacrificed his development for plot sakes or other characters. So, what we’re showed, as a three dimensional character, is incomplete. That’s why a lot of people can’t stand what he became from GoF on. We’re told by JKR that Harry does a lot of study in the background, he masters spells that are taught in NEWT years when he’s 13/14 but can’t master non verbal casting? That’s not the character’s fault, it’s bad writing.

So I don’t have a problem picturing him being great, again not in Dumbledore’s league, but better than 99% of the Wizarding World.

 

When it all comes down to it, if Harry Potter were to reincarnate into the Medieval Times, with all of his skills being translated to such a context, his talents would be thus:

Knighthood - The quickest, most agile fighter on the world, with an intuitive understanding of his enemies' weaknesses.

Archery - He would be one of the greatest archers in the world, with a keen eye that could hundreds of yards out.

Horse riding - The most natural rider on the world.

And he would also be the greatest general in history, and the greatest leader to ever live.

 

When it all comes down to it, if AmerigoCorleone were to reincarnate into the Medieval Times, with all of his skills being translated to such a context, his talents would be thus:

Mediocre writing - The blandest, most cliche planning in the world, with an intuitive understanding of what DLP may have enjoyed in 2006.

Vacuous posting - He would be one of the most headscratch worthy posters on the forums, with a keen ability to confuse everyone as to how anything said was relevant.

Cringe factor - The most effortless cringe inducing posts I've seen in years.

And I'd put him on my ignore if I didn't want to see the reaction post.

 

This post doesn't make sense since everything I stated in the prior posts were picked from the book, I did not actually write the Harry Potter books.

The point of translating Harry's skill to a real world context is to show how someone of his talent and skill (Athletic Prodigy, Natural Leadership, Etc) would look like in the our world