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As one of the most powerful younger wizards of the White Council, Harry has a large repertoire of magical powers. His skills at evocation, or ‘quick and dirty’ magic, aka "kaboom magic", aka "battle magic", lean toward large blasts of fire and force, sometimes using wind, and also has some skill with earth (usually manipulating gravity) and lightning magic. He has considerable magical brute strength, though his control is initially somewhat lacking - for example, while he could easily shatter a pair of handcuffs, he may also break the wrists of the person wearing them. For this reason, Harry is ofttimes referred to as a magical 'thug'. Harry is also shown to have tremendous power in ritual form battle magic, when he uses the energy of a ley line to concentrate gravity for several miles around into a small zone, and flattens hundreds of enemy combatants at once.

 

Harry's skill with battle magic has increased steadily and quickly. His shields are the most striking example, initially unable to deal with sufficiently strong attacks, and not warding away heat, such that his hand was almost burned off. Now, thanks to practice and improved foci, they can deal with significant attacks without a problem. While the head of the Wardens has sufficient focus to wield fire magic with a pinpoint laser-like effect that can cut a person in two, Harry has the power to take out a building, fry an I-beam, and has 'upgraded' to a blue-white shot of fire magic powered by his soul, strong enough to bore through a Denarian. Harry is also using physics more, using his shields to turn enemies attacks back upon themselves or their allies, and ripping heat away from areas to create ice as well as power fire attacks simultaneously, and transforming himself (and a White Court vampire) into an explosion-powered cannonball.

 

Harry was frequently accused of a lack of subtlety in his magic until he began training Molly as his apprentice. Through teaching to her particular talents (especially for veiling, illusion and subtle mind magic) and weaknesses (lacking brute force, emotional oversensitivity), Harry gained a greater understanding and finer control over his talents and began using subtler versions of his own spells, such as tightly controlled wind gusts.

 

Harry has developed much better control of his magic (he starts using illusions, veils, and Luccio's cutting fire beam, raising and lowering shields with great speed; and fine uses of soulfire), huge area effect spells; pure mental summoning of extremely powerful entities without a summoning circle; and using the fire and ice exchange trick in combat multiple times.

Harry takes up the mantle of the Winter Knight. It is a position of incredible power, giving Harry access to the abilities of the Winter Sidhe, though ironically, he still complains of his aversion to cold, something the position failed to take away. This gives him substantially more stamina, speed, and strength in both the physical and magical sense, improved ability with "ice magic" which he either lacked or was reluctant to use prior to his appointment, and gives him greater protection from physical attacks. It is presumed that Harry will hold the mantle of Winter Knight until he dies, as only with the death of the old knight can a new one be named.

 

Harry was able to employ Hellfire while possessed by the Shadow of the Denarian Lasciel, a power that especially aided destructive spells and fire effects. He first experienced this power noticing that his staff had begun to generate heat and smoke when he used it, and he realized that his brief exposure to Lasciel's coin had allowed him to tap into it involuntarily. After Harry lost that power, the Archangel Uriel awarded him the Angelic power of soulfire, which is used to make a sort of magical framework for the magic being used, turning, for instance, a straight force attack into an enduring silvery construct hand able to bash and batter repeatedly. The portion of the soul used in the soulfire returns over a period of days, enabling the wielder to get back to full strength; using all of one's soul is still fatal, however. Soulfire excels when used in creation magic, a notable example of which is illusions.

 

Magic itself has an innate power to disrupt technology. A strong wizard's aura interferes with devices such as computers, airplane engines, and car motors, severely limiting his use of any modern/electronic gadgets. As a result, Harry becomes a potential safety risk whenever he visits places containing sophisticated equipment, such as hospitals in which patients are on life support. He prefers older, less refined technology when he has to deal with it. Harry used to drive a 1960s Volkswagen Beetle, and knows a mechanic who can keep it running eight or nine days out of every ten, and favors revolvers over semiautomatic pistols when he needs to carry a firearm. Harry uses candles, a fireplace, a kerosene heater, and an icebox in his apartment and lab, and he keeps dozens of spare light bulbs in his office in case one burns out when he walks past it. He can deliberately cause widespread havoc around high-tech items just by drawing in his magic, a practice he refers to as "hexing."

 

Because of this technological stricture, many wizards employ the Never Never to travel long distances. If a wizard knows the path, they can step into the Never Never, walk a short distance, and emerge somewhere else far away, as distance and time function differently inside. Due to their difficulty in using advanced means of transportation, control of paths and locations in the Never Never is of critical importance to wizards for getting around rapidly. Knowledge of access points to the Never Never is among the most useful secrets and an important bargaining chip for the Faerie Courts, who control most of the Paths through them. Dresden's mother was one of the most knowledgeable of such travelers. According to Luccio she would breakfast in Prague, lunch in Rome, and be in Tibet by sundown, with a couple of stops for coffee along the way. Harry obtained a red crystal belonging to his mother from his godmother Leaninesidhe, which contains his mother's knowledge of these paths. He has become slowly better, faster, and neater about opening portals to the Never Never…he even uses one as a shield in combat to absorb falling stalactites from a collapsing ceiling.

 

Harry also possesses great skill at thaumaturgy including tracking and sympathy spells - he prefers it, since it gives him more structure and precision for his power. According to Harry, his skills lie in "redirecting energy, sending energy out into the world to resonate...". Harry has summoned spirits across multiple mythos in his time, including faeries big and small, Voodoo loa spirits of knowledge, and actual demons, using this skill and thaumaturgic rituals. His first use of a ritual in battle is in Changes.

 

A power that all true wizards have is The Sight, or the Third Eye. Using this power is one of the earmarks of wizardry. It allows a wizard to see the world as it truly is, on a magical and spiritual level, bypassing all veils and illusions and showing people and things as they truly are. Anything that is witnessed under the Third Eye is remembered perfectly, forever, which leads to reluctance to employ it, as it is often called on in situations to reveal evil, horrible supernatural harm, and the like, and the weight of such memories can cause significant mental stress over time. Harry's first use of the Sight was on a tree, and he can perfectly picture the gnome-like spirit within it to this day. His use of Sight on the Skinwalker nearly drove him mad with fear and terror at the depth of the evil, cruelty and anathema he witnessed within the creature. It is noteworthy he has never used True Sight on a true Denarian, although he has witnessed the conflict of the Fey Courts using this ability which completely turned his estimation of the power of Mab on its ear in his awe and fear.

 

Yet another power that all wizards have is the soul gaze, a meeting of the eyes that transforms into a highly personalized and revealing look at the other person's psyche and soul, and one of the reasons why people instinctively don't look deep into another's eyes. It is an immediate way to identify someone or something flawlessly. It is notably something he has never shared with Murphy, although he has with Susan. Harry has no idea how people perceive him, although those who have Gazed him tend to have their opinion and respect for him taken up several notches after it happens, as they realize the true nature of who they are dealing with. The crime lord Marcone, for instance, evidences a remarkable amount of respect for Harry after sharing a soul gaze, and a young wizard who shared a soul gaze with him said that Harry was gentle, kind, and alone. However, in the few instances when Harry has Gazed an enemy during a confrontation, they generally have had a horrified reaction (one even gasped that he "[didn't] believe in hell").

 

On a more mundane level, wizards like Harry are also capable of slowly 'healing perfectly' from injuries, leaving no scars or breaks. For example, his broken bones will seal and leave no mark behind, and he is slowly regaining use of his flame-seared left hand, damaged so severely the normal doctors recommended it be amputated. This characteristic is tied to the exceptionally long lifespan of wizards. It has limits...a wizard might take 40–50 years to heal the broken back Harry suffered when trying to rescue his daughter. Luckily for him, his back problem was fixed instantly when he became the Winter Knight. This is conditional; when he once considered defying Winter's Law, he momentarily lost control of his legs, giving him a moment to reconsider.

 

Harry's 'final' ability possessed by all wizards is that of the death curse. While it is typically targeted at the being that kills them, it may be employed upon anyone within line of sight (such as when Harry was readying to send the Death Curse at one of the Necromancers in Dead Beat when he anticipated Morgan's attack), and the wizard must have time to use it (a few seconds). Death curses can be incredibly powerful. Harry believes that the force of his curse could wipe every living thing off the island of Demonreach, and others agree. His mother's Curse completely blocked the ability of the King of the White Court of Vampires to feed, though he was otherwise immune to magic. Harry himself has been the target of a Death Curse, although the lesser power of the caster left it open-ended and of vague purpose.

 

Starting with his first exposure to the island of Demonreach, it also appears that Harry is starting to develop foresight, a characteristic seemingly common to all wizards as they get older (and are not warned about ahead of time to stop them from wondering if this or that event was foreseen).

 

Additionally, after bonding with the native spirit of Demonreach in Turn Coat, Harry is able to link in with the spirit's intellectus ability concerning itself and all upon the island, enabling him perfect knowledge of Demonreach and its denizens, and natural harmony with the creatures dwelling there, giving Harry an incredible tactical advantage while he is present.

It seems that by the timing of Harry's conception and birth, he (and his ex-lover, Elaine) have some form of power over Outsiders, such as He Who Walks Behind, resulting in his astonishing ability to overcome a major Outsider while still a teenager after his master had sent it after him, and actually surviving an Entropy Curse (a lethally malevolent form of bad luck). He and Elaine are known as 'Star-born' for this innate ability.

 

Harry has a fairly uncommon magical power he has developed with time and experience, the ability to Listen. This is more akin to a clairaudience effect of limited range then merely enhanced hearing, but the sensitivity of it has risen with time, to the point where Harry can even filter out and discern different heartbeats around corners and in rooms close by. Although it can be stopped by a Veil, it provides an excellent tactical edge against many opponents for him.

 

Unlike some of the other magic users in the series, Harry shouts foreign languages and faux Latin commands to perform spells. For example, Harry lights candles in his apartment by muttering "Fliccum Biccus," an allusion to the "Flick your Bic" lighter advertising campaign. When Harry utters this phrase and infuses the spell with a minor effort of his will, his candles light up or the fire in his fireplace comes to life. He often uses "Fuego!" (Spanish for fire) when using fire magic and "Forzare!" (Italian for 'to force') with kinetic magic. He explained that most magic users use some language they're not familiar with for their incantations, to provide a bit of magical insulation to the user's mind from the forces they are channeling and to avoid accidentally casting a spell by uttering a common phrase in a language they're used to.

 

The mechanics of mental assault and defense, the uses of advanced illusions via Molly Carpenter's burgeoning ability, and the rather spooky powerful abilities of ectomancers, the people who can speak with and control ghosts (a very separate line of study from necromancy). Harry's mental ability is noted as being incredibly obdurate on defense, and blundering tough on offense. Molly is noted as being swarmingly effective on offense and elusive and hard to find on defense.

 

We get a much better idea of Harry's abilities as a Winter Knight. Losing all of his equipment after rescuing Maggie. Harry is forced to learn to fight without using foci or charms; this means his barriers are now only forward facing and his attacks are less focused. In return, the boost from his new station gives him access to much more mental power to cast from, and he can perform ice spells with ease, including freezing a virtual iceberg to save him and his friends from drowning in the cold waters. He is immune to cold, won't slip on icy surfaces, can manifest icy claws from his hands, and when fully drawing on the Knight's power, displays the strength to jump fifty feet through the air and bench-press almost nine hundred pounds, coupled with incredible endurance and the ability to ignore pain and heal more quickly then a normal man. The power of the Winter Knight is also incredibly savage, even predatory, and Harry has to constantly be on guard against its influences (and comes to know how his brother Thomas sees the world). Finally, the mantle has raised his threshold to pain; he has several wounds stitched up without any anesthesia, remarking that he was aware of the sensation and it was not pleasant, but it did not hurt. This last is almost as much curse as boon, as he can become critically injured and not even realize it is happening.

 

This latest set of abilities does come at a cost. As a thrall of Winter, he is now bound by the codes of Queen Mab's Winter Court; any attempt to violate them deactivates his Winter Knight abilities, including his "healed" spinal injury. Also, any contact with iron or steel weakens him greatly, as he discovers after being shot with a nail gun and stabbed with fish hooks.

 

He also temporarily becomes a member of the Wild Hunt. This effect cloaks him in shadowy power, turns mundane weapons into powerful magical killing tools, lets a motorcycle ride across Lake Michigan, and hides the identity of those under its influence behind masks of ancient hunters, even supplying mounts for those without them (Karrin's motorcycle becomes a huge shadowy cat). By defeating the leaders of the Hunt, he takes command of the entire pack to lead the defense against an Outsider assault on Demonreach Island.

 

Harry's magical abilities are not on as much display. It's alluded that he has managed to find out much more about the powers the Warden of Demonreach possesses, but they are not described. The force energy that used to be stored in his rings he has instead moved into his staff, as he has not had time to make rings, and he has a new trick for getting around things immune to magic: condensing a steel hard ball of ice into existence and propelling it with force magic like a cannonball, to great effect. He is also shown redirecting a blast of Hellfire with a cyclone of air. In addition, Harry discovers that his Mantle of the Winter Knight has allowed him to push and train his body to its peak ability, and now has strength, speed, agility, and endurance as good as the world's top athletes, even without the aid of magic. Harry's spinal injury has been healing, and he can move freely even if stripped of his Winter powers.

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