#also Harry is a good student? he’s just not a flipping savant like Hermione

[sailforvalinor]

As a rebuff to the “Harry Potter is a himbo running on adrenaline and dumb luck” take: the difference between how Hermione is smart and how Harry is smart is similar to the difference between how Sticky is smart and how Reynie is smart in the Mysterious Benedict Society (a great series that I highly recommend for its wonderful representation of different kinds of intelligence): one utilizes pure information and memorization, the other utilizes mental flexibility and deduction. Both are equally valid, albeit different, forms of intelligence.

To illustrate further: at the beginning of the Mysterious Benedict Society, Sticky aces a test because he had all the information on the test memorized. Reynie aces that same test by figuring out that the answers to each question were hidden in the other questions on the test.