ANYONE who has the Elder Wand

It was hard to pick between Voldemort and Dumbledore. Voldemort is said to have powers that Dumbldeore never dreamed of, but I picked Dumbledore, because Dumbledore defeated him.

I think it's a misconception that anyone with the Elder Wand automatically becomes unbeatable. The wand has a history of bloody battles and being passed from person to person, meaning the master could truly be beaten.

Dumbledore beat Grindewald, who had to Elder Wand, which is definite proof that whoever has the wand isn't the most powerful.

I think that Harry is the most powerful it was him who saved Sirius from the dementors, him who found the horcuruxes, him who finally killed Voldemort.

Dumbledore, because he knows everything about the strongest magic of all: love

Yeah your right

I vote for Harry because... He's still so young when he killed Voldemort, who knows what he can do when he's 25?

I'd say Dumbledore because he was always calm and you'd think he would have no idea but he's just so powerful!

In terms of "raw" potential in magic, it is not even close. Voldemort.

I put the obvious - Dumbledore, but Harry can't be ignored as a future 'Very Powerful' wizard. But where Dumbledore outshines Harry and the others is his intelligence. And in that area there would only be one other who could challenge Dumbledore is Hermione.

Snape. Just because....he's Snape.

Dumbledore, no question. Voldemort had many things on his side, but he didn't acknowledge love as much as he should have. He thought of it only as a weakness and didn't see how much strength it can bring. Harry did do unbelievable things at a young age, but he had help throughout the years. I think we finally see how powerful of a wizard he is in the battle of Hogwarts.

Voldemort. Not Even Close. DD couldn't even beat him with the elder wand with Voldemort at 50% cause he had just gotten his body back.

In terms of sheer power, Dumbledore would win. But all excel in their own categories.

Dumbledore would win in who has the most feelings, not sheer power. What are you talking about?

Lord Voldemort has more power than Dumbledore could ever dream of. It took the combined effort of the whole wizarding world and dumb luck to defeat Voldemort. All it took to defeat Dumbledork was a lame ring cursed by Voldemort himself.

I think Dumbledore it is. But then again once you jump down the rabbit hole of "how do you define power?" your chances of coming out with one clear answer diminish significantly. I suppose I see him as more powerful because of his ability to orchestrate everything to suit his purposes over such a long period of time. Even when Harry faces Voldemort it appears to me that he is only able to do so effectively because Dumbledore had the foresight to guide him and teach him certain skills beforehand. It is true that Dumbledore wasn't able to just defeat Voldemort in a duel and sweep him under rug. But Dumbledore had some significant limitations on what he was willing to do because of his values. Voldemort was willing to do whatever was necessary to achieve his own ends, regardless of the consequences. Dumbledore was not, and had to be more restrained in order to avoid unnecessary casualties (and all that nastiness).

It is clearly subjective, but I chose Dumbledore. Voldemort was robbed of power by his own mother, being born under the influence of Amortentia and having the inability to love. So, in this respect he is inherently trumped by Dumbledore.

Both Harrry and Severus have lesser power. Much of Harry's power is vicarious, derived from the women in his life (his mother's sacrifice and protective love, Hermione's intellect and loyalty) and the support of friends.
Severus is talented and power hungry. Dumbledore and Voldemort recognise him as a valuable commodity, but ultimately he lives on his knees as a pawn for them both.

I agree that in terms of actual magical power, it's Voldemort hands down. There might be many ways to define "power," but I think that both magically speaking and speaking as a leader/manipulator, Voldemort beats Dumbledore.

Regarding magical power, Voldemort defeated Dumbledore pretty soundly in OotP. He would have actually murdered Dumbledore right there, except that Dumbledore had the help of his immortal familiar to pull his butt from the fire by swallowing the curse for him at the last second. Without Fawkes, Dumbledore was dead in Book 5.

I know that it says that Dumbledore is the only person Voldemort was afraid of, but two things: 1) This doesn't necessarily mean he was afraid of Dumbledore magically speaking. He had reasons to be afraid of Dumbledore in terms of Dumbledore being the only person who really knew his secrets and also the icon that Voldemort's opponents rallied around. But he never acknowledges or even appears to acknowledge that he's afraid of Dumbledore's magical power. 2) The only people we ever hear say that Voldemort is afraid of Dumbledore are Dumbledore's biggest supporters, namely Hagrid and Harry (who heard it from Hagrid) for the most part. If Rowling was trying to make it a fact, as opposed to just a character's opinion, then she failed by only having the most biased Dumbledore supporters say it.

Regarding leadership/manipulation, I think it's important to keep in mind that Voldemort was soundly defeating Dumbledore in the first war. Dumbledore himself tells us in the beginning of Book 1 exactly how little success they'd been having in defeating Voldemort for the past ten years, and Sirius tells us later on in Book 4 that during the first war nobody knew who was a Death Eater and who wasn't, not even closest friends and family, because Voldemort's reach stretched that far. Dumbledore's leadership and knowledge didn't defeat Voldemort in the first war; some accidental magical sacrifice triggered by Lily's and Voldemort's actions defeated him.

In the second war, it's true that Dumbledore had knowledge of Voldemort's Horcruxes and that's what allows him to be finally killed (as opposed to just vanquished again or something), but it's important to keep in mind that Voldemort wasn't ultimately defeated by Dumbledore's knowledge. Dumbledore's plan had very little to do with Harry's victory! Dumbledore's plan was for Snape to have the Elder Wand physically but for its power to die with Dumbledore himself, and he didn't anticipate that Draco would become the master and then ultimately Harry would be the master and that's why he'd win the big final show down in the Great Hall. If Dumbledore's plan had succeeded (if Draco hadn't been the master of the wand, against Dumbledore's wishes), then we don't know whether Harry would have won, but certainly he wouldn't have been able to win by casting a simple Expelliarmus and would have had to actually try to duel properly or at least to catch Voldemort by surprise, because the Elder Wand wouldn't have backfired on Voldemort.

Dumbledore definitely understood love better than Voldemort, but Dumbledore's knowledge of love isn't what defeated Voldemort either the first time or the second time. For that matter, Harry's love or Lily's sacrifice also isn't what really defeated him, but it was all mostly luck and chance all aligning perfectly so that Harry was master of the Elder Wand when Voldemort tried to use it against him. So Harry's also out. As for Snape, he's creative, intelligent, and magically gifted, but there's no indication that he's more powerful than Voldemort in any capacity.

Harry definitely. To go through so much beginning at a young age and being thrown into a whole other world with no knowledge it exists. Harry took it step by step and grew into a powerful wizard.
SeekingHarmony xoxo