Harry's Intelligence

[Centaur Lord]

Alright, this has been bugging me for a really long time now. You would think that Harry would be a whole lot smarter than he is. I mean, it is mentioned that Harry's parents were Head Boy and Girl. So, he would have to be pretty smart right? And then...some powers were transfered to him by one of the most powerful wizards ever. I know that being treated badly by the Dursleys and living in a cupboard probably aided in his "IQ reduction", but i would still think that he would be pretty smart, or at least smarter than he is now. Has this occured to anyone else?

[menotyoo]

I agree, it never struck me that he was any smarter than Ron, and definately not more so than Hermione. This bothered me most in OotP, since he wanted to become an auror, which is the ultimate "smart person" job. He needs great, nearly perfect it seems, grades, and so far he seems to narrowly avoid failing in most subjects.

[Female_alien]

I agree too. People are always saying how Lily and James were great wizards, and as we can see, harry does spells good to when he needs to (when he fights Voldermort or on the TWcup in 4th book. But when it comes to grades he's "stupid". Well, if he wa smart too, he would be too perfect character, maybe even annoying?

[Meg Boyd]

Harry is under a lot of stress, and I am sure his focus on defeating the evils around him, (in addtion to normal teenage stress) is getting the better of him. He has a worse stress load than probably anyone in school and kudos to him for getting the grades he does. He obviously is very clever, or he wouldn't be able to complete such difficult DADA tasks, but it is his teachers (aka Snape) and his own stress level that is probably keeping Harry from getting top marks.

[Gower]

Harry is very good at DATDA as is shown when he is able to take on death eaters and Voldemort. It is his best subject and he gets very good marks in it(like in the third year where he got top marks even beating Hermione). There is no reason why he should be anything special in other subjects, many of them won't help him being a hero.

[Mistress Siana]

I agree with Meg...I wouldn't call myself that stupid, I've always been a good student, but I got about two grades worse in almost every subject simply because of lovesickness...I'd really understand if Harry had other things to worry about.

[Mint]

Well, becised the stress and lots of other things in his life - having Smart Parents does not garantee a smart kid! Also, a lot of times smart parents start teaching their kids early on, and Harry's parents are not there to make him learn. And, transfering power into something does not equal trasnferring smartness.

But the Main Reason is - u can see that Harry is good in the subjects that he likes. So he just doesnt bother paying extra attention in other classes. If you are comparing him to Hermoine, well she spends a lot of free time learning things and reading, she is motivated by just about any subject. DADA motivates Harry - so he excells in it (even better then Hermoine).