I have always been very intrigued by the fact that Harry seems to have received some of Voldemort's powers

Chapter 18 CoS

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'You can speak Parseltongue Harry', said Dumbledore calmly, 'because Lord Voldemort - who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin - can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar.

The only power mentioned so far is Harry’s ability to speak Parseltongue.

I have searched for other powers which Voldemort could have transferred to Harry but I haven’t found many clues:
Voldemort’s last remaining power when his body was killed was his ability to possess people. Harry never possessed anybody.
Tom Riddle could move objects with his will at the age of eleven. Harry could not do this at the age of 16 when he was paralysed under the Invisibility Cloak in the Hogwarts Express
Voldemort is a very accomplished Occlumens and Legilimens. Harry is not good at Occlumency and he is not a Legilimens. Or is he? His understanding of the ministry’s motivation stikes me as very accurate. Was he able to read Scrimgeour’s thoughts?

Will Harry discover some new powers in book 7 or will Parseltongue be the all decisive power which marks Harry as Voldemort’s equal?.

Is this the power that enables Harry to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes?
Will this power enable Harry to fight Voldemort as an equal?
What other talents has Voldemort and what is Harry’s equivalent?

HumorousBlack, I sincerely hope you have Mod approval, if not, beware of their wrath!



That being said, I can't think of Harry having any other powers from Voldemort. Especially not the power-hungry attitude, pardon the pun, that Voldemort has.
As for Harry possibly having used Legilimency on Scrimgeour, I don't think he did, he's just gotten used to the Ministry wanting to be seen in the best possible light and manipulating whoever they can to do so. If it had been legilimency there'd have been clue to it, a slyly placed word or two. I may have read HBP only twice now, but I can't remember such a clue. Tell me if I'm wrong, with a quote of course!

I don't think it necessarily has to be MAGICAL powers that were transferred. Harry was in Voldemort's mind, and while he wasn't possessing anybody, he certainly was along for the ride. Voldemort hadn't counted on that, but when he did figure it out, he used it against Harry.

There is also the likeness in their wands. What are the odds, that of all people, Voldemort's worst enemy would get the brother wand? Of course, it makes sense for Harry to have the wand, moreso than Voldemort, because of his loyalty to Dumbledore.

Harry also seems to have some talent at dueling, even though he has only done it once before. How many have dueled Voldemort, and lived to tell? I think not just magical powers, such as Parselmouth, were transferred, but maybe a little talent, and a little ambition. The Sorting Hat DID want to put Harry in Slytherin at first.

Good point, Black_Is_Back, about powers not necessarily being magical.

I also just wanted to point out that Voldemort could have transferred all of the aforementioned powers. As McGonnagall pointed out about Dumbeldore: It's not that he doesn't have the powers that Voldemort has, it's just that he's too noble to use them.

Harry has this stubborn pride that would prevent him from sinking so low as to using many of the powers that Voldemort does.

So... we really don't know what was and wasn't transferred. However... it will certainly be interesting if we learn more of what Harry received in book 7.

I think Harry is a sort of opposite of LV, with a few of his powers. LV hates, Harry loves, LV is power hungry and wants notoriety, Harry couldn't care less about power and hates being in the spotlight. The likenesses are the looks, the need for Hogwarts, and Parseltongue. I think LV transfered over a bit of his intelligence as well, or maybe Harry got that from his parents. Onto the Wands...

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There is also the likeness in their wands. What are the odds, that of all people, Voldemort's worst enemy would get the brother wand? Of course, it makes sense for Harry to have the wand, moreso than Voldemort, because of his loyalty to Dumbledore.

Harry got almost the same wand as LV because of some of LV going into Harry, if I remember right, (and because JKR said it would be a good wand for him)... DD as good as said it was because of LV in, if I remember right, OotP when he was explaining everything. Maybe it was GoF.

Harry really is too stubborn and has too much pride and love to use some of the DA stuff that LV may have transfered to him, and if he would even try, he couldn't. He can't properly perform the Unforgivible Curses, like LV can, is because of his love and righteous anger. LV just did it for the hack of it, as did Bella and the other DE's.

I also think that what is more important is that all these great powers of LV are useless against Harry.
-LV can converse with Snakes, but Harry is the only one who can understand him.
-LV can possess people, but he can't possess Harry because of Harry's heart.
-He can also not enter Harry's thoughts through their connection without Harry being able to enter his. Meaning Harry doesn't need Legilimency.
-Harry can fight the Imperius Curse and has survived the Avada Kedvra.
-Harry is protected by love, the only thing that Voldemort cannot understand.
-LV killed Harry's parents, which ensured that he wouldn't go over to the Dark Side and which made him choose Gryffindor instead of Slytherin.

I think what Dumbledore said in HBP about Dark Wizards making their own enemies by handing them the weapons they need about summons it. Harry won't defeat LV with magical talent. DD never tried to teach Harry Defense in his lessons, because he knew it would, in the end, not be important.

~Englaroma

With all the powers Harry did receive from LV, I can't help wondering why Legimency and Occlumency were not included.

In a way, I think they were. Harry can see into LV's mind. Isn't that a form of Legilimency?

I guess I am thinking of Legimency on a more general manner--as DD, Snape, and LV possess. I think we agree that Harry did not get any ready-made talent for Occlumecy.

That's true, I think. I dunno about the whole thing...I don't think he's really going to need those powers, though, in the long run. I think it's going to be more wand skills and quick thinking skills that are going to get him through than trying to dig into LV's mind. Seriously, how much help would that be in a duel?

I agree that Harry will probably not need Legimency (and could yet develop Occlumency) before the final battle. I am just bemused at the quirky nature of which powers transferred and which did not. I think I am safe to say LV had no say in the matter.

Haha, probably not. "Yes, I did choose to allow Harry to see into my mind and save the lives of people I tried to kill, and I absolutely wanted him to choose the ONLY other wand with Fawkes' feather so that his wand could force my wand to regurgitate the ghosts of the people I killed so they could stop me killing him! YES! It makes me wonderfully ecstatic that he is using the powers I chose for him to possess to such wonderful extents!"

No. Can you see LV saying that? Anyway. I dunno if he'd even use Legy in the final battle. I think Fawkes should bring him the Sorting Hat so that he can pull another sword out of it or something and chop Voldy's ugly snake head off...That would be so cool...*goes off into a vision of the final battle in which Harry wins and everyone comes back to life and all is happily ever after....* Sorry. I'm done now.

What's with this? Almost all of my posts, after I tell them to post there's an error message, and then my post is still posted but there's an error message before they're posted....? It doesn't stop the post but it's still annoying.

How useful would legilimens be in a battle???? I believe it was Snape who said Harry would never win a battle against him because he could read every move before Harry did it and counter it.

Voldemort was probably caught off guard with the expelliarmus thing in the graveyard. He didn't read Harry's mind because he probably didn't think he needed to. Snape knows Harry better and wouldn't underestimate him (no matter how much he insults Harry and calls him "talentless").

If there was one power I'd want Harry to have from Voldemort... it'd be legilimens. Granted it wouldn't be useful in located Horcruxes... but it's certainly a good dueling trick.

I still think Harry would be too noble to use it, though.

I think Snape knew what Harry was going to do because he started to say it out loud, if I remember right. I need to reread HBP again.

Why do you want it to be 2007?

Yes, Snape said something like: "Blocked again and again unless you shut your mouth and close your mind, Potter!"
So Harry is not only no good at Occlumency, he also doesn't use non-verbal spells.

About the Occlumency/Legilimency thing and why Harry can't do it... JKR discussed it in the interview with Melissa and Emerson, I'll paste it in here:

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I had an interesting discussion, I thought, with my editor Emma, about Draco. She said to me, "So, Malfoy can do Occlumency," which obviously Harry never mastered and has now pretty much given up on doing, or attempting. And she was querying this and wondering whether he should be as good as it, but I think Draco would be very gifted in Occlumency, unlike Harry. Harry’s problem with it was always that his emotions were too near the surface and that he is in some ways too damaged. But he's also very in touch with his feelings about what's happened to him. He's not repressed, he's quite honest about facing them, and he couldn't suppress them, he couldn't suppress these memories.

If Harry would also be able to master Legilimency, it would probably be a bit much, because he already has a lot of things that can help him e.g. Parsel or being able to fight the Imperius Curse.
And I agree with Derek that he won't need it in a battle (Legilimency), though Occlumency would certainly be helpful with all the information he's got...

~Englaroma