I thin an interesting way to look at Harry is what if Neville had been TBWL. And Harry remained just a normal boy ...

I think that Harry would have remained fairly average by all accounts. He would not have Dementophobia thus no incentive to learn Patronus charm. Many other extraordinary feats would simply not come about. I think he might have been a good wizard, but not extraordinary in any way. He'd be like Ron I guess, loyal, friendly, cheery. Happy to play quidditch, hang around and chase girls ...

 

doesn't matter

Harry is definitely average. I believe that works though. A 17 year old can not realistically lead a country into war. While harry has admirable qualities and abilities, his academic knowledge of magic and the magical world is limited, and he simply does not have the experience of the other adult wizard and witches.

I think that may be the point though, Dumbledores magic, Hermione's intelligence, snape's cunning and skill, alone were not enough to take down voldemort. Harry compassion, loyalty and love for his friends, and willingness to sacrifice himself saved the day. Harry doesn't need to be extraordinary to over come evil, he just has to be good.

"Books! And cleverness! There are more important things -- friendship and bravery."

 

From Dumbledore: "Sometimes we see what we expect to see, Severus. Other teachers indicate the boy is modest, likeable and while no prodigy, possesses above-average gifts.Personally, I find him rather engaging."

Harry is definitely above-average, casting Patronus, resisting imperius curse and teaching defense.

 

Yeah, but by how much?

It is better for us to compare Harry against someone like Cedric Diggory. Someone who is actually considered an excellent wizard among his peer. That gives us a better gauge.

 

harry is powerful though, but he doesn't know that many spells.

 

Harry's magical power (or indeed, anyone's) is never outlined in the series (i.e. we're never given a scale). People such as Voldemort and Dumbledore are just referred to as 'great wizards'. However, this is only shown by their reputation and occasional flurry of spells (eg. Dumbledore escaping Minister, aurors, and Umbridge in his office). We're never given conclusive proof or evidence from JK about why these two wizards are a cut above the others. Does it depend on speed, willpower, magical power?

A decent scale to measure a wizard would be to just measure them on both their academic ability, and their dueling capacity. Dumbledore and Tom Riddle are clearly demonstrated as prodigies from an early age, whereas Harry has always been average. His OWL results are definitely above average (rather conflicting with the snapshots we're given of him during lesson time), and his capabilities in DADA would indicate he is powerful, and he likely is.

However, his spell repertoire is shown to be inferior to Hermione's (who has to cast the defensive wards during the Deathly Hallows - likely implies it's only her who can do them), and this would likely be concordant with his abilities in a duel. He rarely goes beyond the regular use expelliarmus or stupefy.

Convoluted this may be, what I'm trying to say here is that Harry is above-average (what seems to be the general consensus in this thread), but not so above that he's special.

 

Don't think he could have learned the Patronus when he did, become an Auror, survive his adventures etc if he was across the board average, but being above average in some fields doesn't necessitate your being good in all fields, I mean, Longbottom became a Proffessor

 

Harry seems to be very strong for his age. I can't think of a time in the later books where he loses a duel/fight with a student. And in ootp he and the others fight grown up death eaters in the ministry being outnumbered and none of them are horribly wounded. He seems more inclined to fight with spells rather than transfiguration, but I don't know if that has anything to do with strength

 

I feel compelled to tell you that transfiguration is a branch of magic which requires spells to be used.

Also, in the Department of Ministry, they are so clearly outmatched - in the book, many of them do end up being horrendously injured (Hermione's hit with an unknown curse which nearly kills her, Ron ends up being strangled by a brain, Ginny breaks her ankle, Neville gets hit by a Cruciatus, etc.). And even in the movie, they are visibly restrained with little fight, beyond the initial spat.