The final consensus of canon was, IIRC, and I believe JKR commented on it as well, that the power of Lily's love and sacrifice, which resulted in the magical protection Harry received, was the result of an utterly unique situation in which she chose to die for Harry, made a deliberate, well-considered decision, as opposed to James, who, according to her, had less of a choice, or none at all, though his was noble as well. Lily's was special because she had a chance to escape with her life. In my headcanon, this was Voldemort doing his best to heed Snape's wishes.

Either just before or just after his own sacrifice, he came to understand that he and his friends, and those defending Hogwarts, were, or would be, able to break Voldemort's spells with increasing ease. Harry realizes and understands that this is because he has granted them, with his sacrifice, the same protection his mother had granted him. Harry takes the time to explain this, and give Voldemort the chance to go home. He also so deeply understood the nature and lore of the Elder Wand that he was willing to bet his life on it. He was able to come back to life because of the fact that Voldemort had taken his blood.

 

Well yes, that is the entire meaning of the series. Didn't even JK state this outright one or two times? That the point was to show that love is more powerful than any other magic.

EDIT: fucking ninjas

 

Edit: Deleted reply that was only relevant a couple pages back.

I think Harry was heroic, but he was shoe-horned into the role of the martyr.

When I first read it, it felt forced. It was clear that JKR was trying to making Harry into this sort of willing Messiah character, but I think it was resignation to the doom of the prophesy all along that made me think he was just getting things over rather than taking the bullet for everyone else. Not exactly like that, but it wasn't as pure of a sacrifice as, say, Harold Crick from Stranger than Fiction since Harold had a way out and knew it but chose not to take it.

Harry didn't see any other choice that wasn't too horrible to live with.

I think if he had been set up to love life and have a way out that didn't include him dying and still chose to go ahead with the sacrifice, off the rails of Dumbledore's plan, it would have been more heroic.

 

The interview:

 

Oh, extra-canon interviews. I guess I can't pick and choose between them, so that's that. At least for Harry's mother.

But Harry knew that they were making a final stand at Hogwarts. Voldemort came there to kill him, not spare him and kill his friends. I don't remember Voldemort ever giving him the option to flee and don't have access to the text to verify this.

If he wasn't ever given the choice "in that particular way", then I don't know how he could invoke any love-based magic to defend those around him.

 

IIRC, Voldermort told those in the school that if they gave Harry up, then he wouldn't burst in and simply kill them all, and that Harry would be the only one to die. Harry, hearing that, chose to give himself up to prevent the slaughter - and it was this sacrifice that offered them all protection.

Though, my recollection of DH is shaky at best, so I may be entirely wrong.

 

IIRC, Voldemort gave Harry an ultimatum at the end of the first battle; either he dies or everyone in the castle dies. Harry's decision to go to the forest and sacrifice himself, without fighting back, was what protected his friends (and stopped him from dying with the Horcrux?).

Edit: Ninja'd -_-

 

While that may be how it happened, it doesn't fit with his mother's act. She was given the option of standing aside and letting Harry die, stayed in front of him and died, and this afforded Harry his protection.

Harry was given the option of either giving himself up for his friends or dying alongside them. He was never given the option of survival. This is clearly different than the 'that particular way' that JKR discusses in that interview.

Though I could obviously be mistaken, given my lack of knowledge about DH.

 

Harry still had the option to try and flee at that point, or otherwise attempt to choose life by taking his chances when the Death Eaters attacked.

Going out to face Voldemort and his death was a conscious choice to die for the others, just as Lily's death had been a desperate attempt to save Harry.

 

James had the same options, and Rowling said that his situation, while brave, wasn't enough.

 

It takes one kind of bravery to sacrifice yourself in the heat of the moment when confronted with a threat and another to do so when openly offered a chance to live. Lily and Harry had time to make their choice. James' choice was an instinctual one (like a reflex) whilst theirs was a conscious one. That's the difference.

 

Which exactly confirms what we're all saying: that Harry is average. It's unreasonable to expect an average person to study (I hate the word "train" with regards to magic) while everything in their life is stressful and going to shit.

It's only the extraordinary individuals who are able to go through hell and thrive.

 

Which is why it's so frustrating from Ootp onward how average Harry ends up being. In the first 4 books, even if it was with a lot of hand holding, Harry accomplished extraordinary things. It was a real let down to watch Harry's character become an angsty sacrificial lamb when the groundwork was there for him to be a BAMF

 

Canon-wise, the reason Harry didn't train in Duelling or 'Battle Arts' or any other incredible magic is for the simple fact that it isn't relevant to the plot. JKR created a world, not as many of us picture it in fanon, where the elite few (Dumbledore, Harry, Voldemort) perform incredible feats with swirling auras and invisible breezes swirling around them; but a world where magic is as mundane as electricity is to us.

JKR's world didn't need an intensive training program for Harry. Harry is a wizard - no ifs ands or buts about it.

Occlumency lessons were shown as a medium to create true hatred or rivalry between Harry and Snape, a character based idea, not one to illustrate an ancient art to the reader.

Magic is not important in JKR's world, its merely a part of everyday life, Harry didn't need lessons to become an all powerful Magus in order to defeat Voldemort. He had a vital human element which Voldemort lacked, Love. Compassion, Guilt, Sadness, Grief - all of this probably sounds like complete Disney crap, but in the world JKR has created it's true.

And reading Harry training himself would have bored the fuck out of me. If you like that there are numerous Indy Harry fics where he trains himself for you to enjoy.

 

You're having problems keeping consistent. In that post you both claim that Harry is and isn't able to perform incredible feats "with swirling auras and invisible breezes" (hey, more fanon stuff, and by the by, can you show me a visible breeze?).

Canonically, the reason why Harry didn't learn powerful magic is that he struggled to learn the basics. There's no point trying to teach someone who can't count how to solve equations; there would have been no point in Dumbledore trying to teach Harry advanced magic while he was struggling to understand the material in his NEWTs.

 

Harry being generally average in canon was a new development, something that didn't happen 'till 5th and 6th year.

Basically, Harry was a powerful kid in books 1-4 where it counts. And in books 5, 6 and 7 he was completely average.

How exactly was he struggling to understand the material in his NEWT?

 

Isn't failure to perform the 'augamenti' charm and the struggling to master non-verbal casting an inability? Do enlighten me.

 

First of all, Harry does do non-verbal magic in both his duel with Malfoy and when he's following Snape. Snape blocks it before he finishes casting, but against Malfoy it just missed, I believe. And Harry used Levicorpus many times on Ron in the book. He used the Augamenti charm on Hagrid's hut perfectly to douse the flames.

 

Well, I dunno, perhaps it's the part of the narration which say explicitly that this is the case. Kinda fed up of all this fanon bullshit from you: have some quotes.

(Note that this passage nicely shows the difference between someone like Hermione, who is merely very intelligent, and people like Dumbledore, who would have breezed through NEWTs.)

Okay, so now you admit he was average?

Progress!

I'm not sure how you are able to discard the later books so easily as not relevant: as the more recent volumes, they speak much more to Harry's character as an adult than what he was up to at 11. I suspect your ease in discarding them is based around the fact that they don't support your position.

Anyway, even if you look at the earlier books most of Harry's achievements are bravery-related. The only impressive magic he ever did was the Patronus charm (one of the reasons PoA was the best book, as it looked like it was setting Harry up as something special). But it becomes clear as the books progress that the Patronus isn't really like other magic: it's emotion based, not really connected to the more intellectual stuff like the vast majority of what's studied at Hogwarts. His success with the Patronus isn't indicative of magical ability in general; rather it highlights what you already mentioned: that Harry's strength is in his ability to love, which appears to be what he powers his Patronus with (he stops using happy memories and starts using feelings of love around GoF).


Edit:

As noted above, Levicorpus is a spell specifically meant to be non-verbal. It's not indicative of general non-verbal skill. Thus the fact that he still struggles with general non-verbal magic even as he continues to use Levicorpus.

He does indeed - after spending an entire year learning a single charm.

He tries to use non-verbal magic against Snape. We have no way of knowing if it would work, as it was blocked, like you said.

As for the duel with Malfoy, the only non-verbal magic he cast during that duel was the aforementioned Levicorpus.

 

Harry is JKR's creation. He was powerful or weak as that lady chooses to make him. Her writing abilities with respect to Harry had severly deteriorated after book 4, it was really bad 5 ,pathetic in 6, useless in 7. I distinctly recall reading her (in)famous interview that appeared shortly after HBP was released. In her answer to a question about Harry facing a tall order in the future, she replied "He's amassed more magical knowledge than he himself knows", in other words "I am not giving him any damn abilities in the next book, there's always love". I agree with the points raised about Harry's inabilities and the only person I blame for that is that damn JKR.