Harry is not anywhere near the level of Dumbledore and Voldemort. He is not even as good as Bellatrix, Snape. Even Hermione is more knowledgeable than him which makes Harry a very average wizard imo.

 

I would say Hermione knew more about magical theory and minutia, but when it came to "Old Magic," Harry was pretty much Albus Jr.

As for the rest, well, HP magic is pretty academic. And I don't care how smart you are at 17 - you could be a genius - you still aren't going to be a whole lot smarter than a 40-year-old genius. It just wouldn't make that much sense.

Harry beating Snape or Tom or Albus through pure skill would have been cool for, like, a second, before you started to wonder why a world-renowned magical prodigy with 150 years to practice his craft would ever lose to someone who in relative terms is an infant. Same applies whether said prodigy is 150, 70 (Voldemort), or 40 (Snape).

 

It depends on what you're judging. Academically as a wizard, Harry seemingly falls solidly middle-of-the-pack. Defensively/In combat, it's been noted that Harry is above average. Its all relative. However it doesn't seem fair to be comparing Bellatrix's violate and unhinged nature to poor sane Harry.


I think the question you're really asking is if Harry is a magical prodigy as Dumbledor and Voldemort are, or as Hermione is intelligent.

 

Let's remember: Hermione got an Exceeds Excellent in DADA. Harry got an O. He's been throwing out corporeal patronuses like a boss since he was thirteen. In some areas, Harry is a stellar wizard and not merely average.

 

Harry also lacks the drive that Voldemort or Dumbledore had. If he had applied himself more, he would be above average I think.

Also, it seems that Harry is more powerful when it is important for him to be, take the patronuses or broom summoning for example.

 

Harry is a normal wizard thrust into weird life threatening situations. He is quite is the average wizard with balls of steel and the guts to take on odds heavily stacked against him.

 

Not at all. He is pretty clever (his grades might not be as good as Hermione but schoolwork is hardly the best way to evaluate someone's intelligence), in the books he showed intuitive thinking and leaps of logic that will certainly help him with his chosen career.

During OotP, Hermione had expected him to become Prefect instead of Ron, which means that amongst the Gryffindor males Harry probably had the best grades. The books constantly commented on his leadership abilities (Dumbledore says that Harry would be a better leader than him) and people praised his teaching skills.

He was the indisputable best in DADA in his year, his Patronus was remarked to be very powerful by Snape himself and in HBP his shield charm knocked Snape back. He also held his own against several opponents that were more experienced than him and sometimes even came on top, and I don't even need to mention his broom skills.

During his school years he lacked the intelectual curiosity that pushed Hermione forward but I think chasing Dark Wizards constantly as an Auror in later years would change that, and of course, in Epilogue Harry becomes Head Auror, hardly a position for a weakling or a pencil-pusher.

Edit: There is his resistance to Imperius to consider as well. He resisted one of those cast by Voldemort himself at fourteen, doesn't sound very average to me.

 

I feel like this thread's been done before ...

 

I'd personally argue that Harry goes well beyond average in many ways, just not ways that the sort of personality that many folk on DLP see as important. The majority of folk in this community would be some less rulebound variant of Hermione if we went to Hogwarts, we'd be fascinated by magic itself and focus on learning all of it that we could.

Harry doesn't do that, but he has remarkable leadership skills, and his combat instincts are phenomenal. Despite having no training, he doesn't freeze when thrust into danger, but reacts in ways that allow him to survive.

Whenever he's given sufficient impetus he excels at learning new magic. Whether its the patronus in 3rd year, the summoning charm in 4th year, or generally DADA which he's consistently better at than anyone else his age.

He might not be academic in his approach, but he's well beyond average in all the ways that matter to his life.

I think I'm paraphrasing a fic that I can't remember the name of, but it doesn't matter if you know a hundred different spells, if when the time comes to use the spell you can't decide between them. Harry doesn't know a wide variety of spells, but he doesn't hesitate to use what he does know, and he manages to do so very effectively against opponents much more experienced than he is.

 

There isn't much that I can add following what's already been said, but I'll refer to the Shield Charm as a testament to Harry's proficiency as a wizard.

We're told point blank that most wizards can't cast one in the first place. We've also witnessed Harry using it to solve a variety of problems: thwarting a Legilimens, deflecting curses from Death Eaters, putting Snape on his arse during a DADA lesson, occasionally preparing the campsite's protective enchantments during the Horcrux hunt, and let's not forget the Shield he put up at the end of the Battle of Hogwarts.

His O.W.L scores (and Ron's by proxy) aren't average by any stretch of the imagination, nor is his position as Head Auror post-Hogwarts, or even the fact that he goes back to teach part-time (which, as afrojack rightfully opined, should have been his day job). People really are quick to underestimate Harry.

 

You just quoted two incredible geniuses and two skilled and formidable individuals (and Hermione). Yes, Harry isn't a world-shaking genius. He's still a pretty good wizard, though.

In DADA, he's shown to be excellent. For the rest, it's more average - moderate strengths and weaknesses. But his strengths are the practical subjects, and he always did better on the practical than theory parts.

If someone quickly asks "who's the strongest wizard in Harry's year?", you'd probably quickly answer Harry. He's not amazing, but he is above average, especially when it comes to defence and combat. Patronus, Shield, teaching the DA should attest to that.

Hermione is certainly more intelligent, and much more studious and therefore knowledgeable, but when it comes to a practical application of magic when it matters, as well as magic beyond 'read schoolbook, cast standard spell', he's beyond Hermione.

 

I think, like Clerith said, Hermione is incredibly academic. She succeeds in the classroom environment of "learn this, pass test" but also has a thirst for knowledge and enjoys it in the same vein I would imagine Dumbledore enjoying learning for learning's sake.

Harry is a good student but doesn't enjoy learning as a whole. But if you give him a field (hello Auror training) where he actively wants to learn about something then he suddenly develops quickly.

TLDR; Harry is intelligent and has skills that lend themselves to being an Auror, Hermione is more intelligent and has skills that lend themselves to an academic position.

 

I think the most important reason why people assume Harry is average is absence of any kind of drive. The passiveness in him. The way he doesn't react to anything that happens to him until it reaches certain threshold, when the instincts, luck and plot armour kick in.

I think that's the biggest reason anyone pro-active in his live with any kind of drive will think of Harry as average person, not his "skills".

 

See, I don't really get why people think this. Harry is plenty driven, just not towards academia. First book he spends most of his time figuring out the mystery of Flamel and the philosophers stone. Second the chamber of secrets and so on throughout the books.

The seventh book wasn't Harry Potter and the nastily exhausting wizarding tests, it was the deathly hallows. In a way he's more proactive for not just studying from books and actually actively going out to fight Voldemort. He's constantly told that he doesn't need to, but he's driven enough to go out and try to make a difference.

 

In terms of ability, Harry should be be fairly average in all subjects studied at Hogwarts other than DADA. With DADA, it's obvious from the Prisoner of Azkaban thy the master of the Patronus was an extremely difficult thing do. Obviously we can't disregard the fact that the oldest we see a full character if Harry in cannon is at 18, without much experience in the wizarding world.

However, just in terms of being a wizard, or just a person as a whole, Harry seems to me to be much more than average. Qualities such has bravery and loyalty haven't failed to show themselves and in the end a wizards character should really be the most important thing. So I suppose, no, to me Harry is more than simply average.

 

Well… self-driven then? driven to improve himself? Whatever way you say it, there is many skills he could have pick up if he wanted.

 

Above average, he got multiplue E's on his OWLs. Don't compare him to the likes of Hermoine when it comes to academic, the average of the world consists of Parvatis and Lavenders.

 

He does improve himself, in the ways that matter to him. We have no evidence of hundreds of obscure useful magical skills that would be useful to learn. We know of about two, animagus transformation and occlumency; one of which he knows by the end of the series and the other isn't really as useful as fanfiction seems to portray. You turn into an animal, it's more of a parlour trick than an actual useful skill.

He trains at Quidditch constantly throughout the books, presumably to improve himself at Quidditch. And look at his grades,

Harry's grades were:
Astronomy: A*
Care of Magical Creatures: E
Charms: E
Defense Against the Dark Arts: O
Divination: P**
Herbology: E
History of Magic: D***
Potions: E
Transfiguration: E

He did pretty well across the board, (all the acceptable and lower grades had extenuating circumstances)

 

And this is why I prefer fanfiction to canon in this instance.

 

Hermione, while not as smart as Snape who created no-nonsense spells like Sectumsempra in his fifth year, was very smart. Post-DH, she would have turned into a very powerful witch.

And Harry got too 'magical' for her after learning the Patronus in his third year, remember?

So Harry was more powerful than Hermione (who probably turned into a powerful witch after her seventh year at Hogwarts).

IMO, a grown up Harry would be on the same level as Bellatrix Lestrange and Snape, better than all the very talented witches and wizards like Hermione and Cedric Diggory and the Prewett brothers, but less powerful than Grindelwald, Voldemort, and Dumbledore.