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The prophecy said that a child would have the "power" to kill Voldemort.

However, Harry Potter was average, and didn't kill Voldemort. Both times, it's Voldemort's own curse that rebounded. That wasn't because of Harry's power, but rather because of his mother's love the first time around, and the elder wand the second time around.

So what power did Harry have?

Blackwood
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Dame
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  • The power was the wand? – Edlothiad Mar 14 '17 at 20:11
  • Yes? It refused to kill its owner. That's a power. – Dame Mar 14 '17 at 20:12
  • I mean, Dumbledore says it straight up: the “power the Dark Lord knows not” is love. Are we sure this is not a duplicate? – Adamant Mar 14 '17 at 20:12
  • Done snd dusted – Edlothiad Mar 14 '17 at 20:12
  • Yes, but it wasn't Harry Potter's love that did anything. It was his mothers. What did HP's love do? Nothing. – Dame Mar 14 '17 at 20:13
  • That is, in itself, a power. I think the problem is that people take a magical perspective. Harry isn’t powerful, really, so much as Voldemort is weak. (Also, please Be Nice). – Adamant Mar 14 '17 at 20:13
  • See, love has a magical power in the hands of a witch or wizard (such as Lily’s spell), but it also has (at least according to Rowling) a wholly mundane power in the hands of anyone. This is, incidentally, one of the Christian parallels in the series (self-sacrificial love, though this concept is of course not exclusive to Christianity). – Adamant Mar 14 '17 at 20:19
  • You might consider this as well: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/130011/51379 – Adamant Mar 14 '17 at 20:22
  • I suspect this is a duplicate, but consider this: at the end of the series, Harry had centaurs, humans, and house-elves on his side. He had all four houses of Hogwarts, even (at the end) Slytherin. Voldemort had a bunch of cowards who betrayed him as soon as they had the chance. That’s Voldemort’s weakness (and Harry’s strength). To misquote Machiavelli, “Better to be loved than feared.” – Adamant Mar 14 '17 at 20:23
  • @Dame - Incidentally, Harry's DID do something; after he willingly sacrificed himself (even though he got better), it appeared he imparted the same kind of protection on the members of the school that his mother had given him. He even points this out to Voldy in the final confrontation. From Deathly Hollows: "”—I meant to, and that’s what did it. I’ve done what my mother did. They’re protected from you. Haven’t you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can’t torture them. You can’t touch them. You don’t learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?” – K-H-W Mar 15 '17 at 04:17

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The power Harry had was love.

It wasn't all about killing Voldemort - it was about stopping him and his followers. Harry's sacrifice - walking wilfully into the Forbidden Forest to protect the defenders of Hogwarts - kept them safe them from Voldemort when he returned to the castle. Harry said this himself:

I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them.

The result of this was Voldemort, alone, his Death Eaters fled, killed or captured. At this point, Voldemort had lost. He had nothing left - no Horcruxes, nobody to fall back on. And the entirety of the Order of the Phoenix, countless other witches and wizards, and an army of centaurs was ready to tear out his throat.

The happy accident that gave Harry command of the Elder Wand was icing on the cake, and gave us the poetic justice of Voldemort killing himself, but that was irrelevant. He had already lost. The prophecy stated that Harry's power over Voldemort would allow him to defeat the Dark Lord, and that's exactly what happened.

Cooper
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