Ron actually has a fairly good track record as well.

 

I would hate to tag Seratin right now because he'd be real pissed that someone mentioned this but didn't write it... but a Harry/Parvati, Ron/Lavender story that came about because both girlz were super impressed with Harry & Ron's mad divination skills.

 

Another factor to consider when it comes to Harry's magical prowess, most of what we see with him is in the academic setting of Hogwarts. A rather important distinction to note when the books also make a big point of how Harry's better at going out and doing things than at schoolwork.

 

Actually, Harry/Parvati is a pretty good pairing in any case.

She's the popular girl in his year, at least in Gryffindor. Fitting that she'd get the Boy Who Lived.

 

In cannon harry was made out to be rather pathetic and was simply lucky.

 

*canon *Harry

Talk about pathetic.

 

I dunno, Harry probably would look pretty pathetic if you shot him out of a cannon.

 

No.

He neither has the natural grasp of magic or the work ethic.

 

+1 to this. Probably also worth thinking about the aspects in which you're trying to compare Harry with others. Like sure, he was certainly worse than Hermione academically, but he'd likely flatten her in a duel and is probably the most capable of carrying on when no hope is left (as much as you can measure that). To contrast, it's not really like either of them were brilliant enough to invent spells or make new magical discoveries though.

 

Pretty fuckin' rad I think you mean.

 

Severus is an example of an powerful wizard. Harry as Severus said is mediocre and nowhere near him. So no.

 

Harry killed Voldemort, Snape died like a little bitch being bitten by a snake, Harry ftw

P.S. Harry got bitten by a snake approximately a thousand times bigger, and still lived, double win

 

Snape got blasted twice by harry in book five and book six.

 

Damn you, vlad. I don't need you to give me ideas.

 

I went ahead and wrote it. Because I'm nice that way. Chapter 3 of What Would Broz Do.

 

There are many instances in the story showing that harry potter was an above average wizard .while he wouldn't come close to the level of dumbledore or voldemort .he was definitely at the same level or maybe even stronger than Hermione ,the difference between them being that harry was not booksmart and performed best under pressure ( eg learning expilliarmus after just seeing Snape perform it in a duel ,succeeding in casting impiruis curse on his very first try)also professor flitwick congratulates him on his use of accio in the first task and I do not think harry would have became the leader of the DA if he was just an average skilled student

 

I agree that he was gifted in some subjects like DA, however, in canon, I think he is just lucky. I don´t think he was a talented wizard, maybe good. I always perceived Harry like the lazy type that got lucky that everything turns right at the end.
However, I like that, I think you can relate more to him in that way, he is not extremely smart, or extremely talented, he is just a normal boy with and extraordinary adventure.

 

Part of the problem is, as mentioned before, that a lot of Harry's apparent weakness is due to plot purposes. The canon magic is so OP, that if Rowling gave the active actors (namely Harry) full use of it, the story would read something like MoR and the series would have been rejected by the publisher.

I'd divide the concept of "powerful and great wizard" into three different categories: raw power, knowledge/intelligence and creativity.

First, raw power. I know that many people here frown upon the idea that there's some kind of scale of magical power between wizards, and I'm not going to go into detail why I think it's heavily implied in canon. Anyway, this is the category where Harry shows most promise: the patronus in third year, overpowering Imperius in fourth, fighting Voldemort to a standstill in the graveyard, "wandless" casting in fifth year, resisting Voldemort's poseession, etc. Harry is definitely more than capable of doing impressive magic.

Next, knowledge/intelligence. We know that Harry is good enough in Defence to teach even older students. On the other hand, his grades are not much higher that Ron's, and definitely lower than many other peoples, including Barty Crouch and Percy Weasley, who I doubt many would categorize as "great wizards". Competent, sure, even brilliant with proper motivation, but nothing really impressive. So above average marks here.

It's the creativity part where I think Harry fails the most. Harry uses the same handful of spells in all combat situations (though Voldemort does too...), and he shows no interest in coming up and experimenting with new stuff the way Fred and George, the Marauders, Snape, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Hermione and even Luna do. His only real leap of intuition comes right at the end, and even then there's a lot of help from Ollivander and dead Dumbledore.

All in all I'd say Harry has the potential to be a great wizard even on the scale of Dumbledore, he just lacks the imagination to do so. As a result, canon Harry is undoubtedly a underwhelming wizard, even if he manages some level of greatness by being a brave and self-sacrificing human being.

 

He is a good wizard, with a practical grasp of magic (even more than the norm, because a Patronus at thirteen is pretty rad) and potential to grow leaps and bounds if he wanted to apply himself, but he could be way, way better than he was in the final battle. Harry simply wasn't so hot in learning more magic, broadening his horizons or growing magical power, he just reacted.

"Holy shit, Dementors? Let's learn the Patronus, Moony old boy!"
"Triwizard Cup? Oh my god, let's learn Stunning, Point-Me and shit, Hermione!"
"I need to kill Voldemort? Meh. Just let me practice Expelliarmus in peace, assholes."

He was good at duelling because he had to. He learnt the Patronus because he had to. Everything Harry learnt, everything that made him more than his peers, he did because he had to. He just wasn't interested enough in being a great Wizard, just wanted to survive and do his thing.

If he had the fascination about magic that Dumbledore or the drive of Voldemort, he could be much, much more than he ended being. It's a testament of how much potential Harry had that, just by reacting and doing his level best to survive, he was that much ahead of the other students.

So, yes, Harry is a good wizard. Not the best he could be, but more than the norm.

 

I think judging Harry's intelligence purely on the basis of what grades he gets in school is a highly flawed way of looking at things.