Where do people get that idea?

My theory? Well you gonna get it now! :D

A person A likes a character C more than Harry. Now, I understand that. It's just a personal preference.

Then A goes and writes a fic.

A wants to pair up their favourite character with the hero of the story.

Again, TOTALLY understand that.

Since A likes C more, A wants C to be COOLER than Harry. I still get that, but the problem?

How do you make someone smart and witty and cool?

That is hard!

It's much easier to make your not so favourite characters extremely stupid, so YOUR character would seem AWESOME next to them.

Because, in the majority of Dumb!Harry fics his chosen pair is often not-so-bright though everyone in the fic keeps saying that s/he is, in fact, s/he is often just very RUDE! But everyone in the fic refuses to acknowledge it because the AUTHOR refuses to acknowledge it.

Let's say you want to have a story where Draco comes up on top. (literally AND figuratively :D)

So, if Draco makes a stupid plan and Harry falls for it than Harry is an idiot and so is Draco. So you have a story about two idiots.

But if Draco makes an AWESOME plan and Harry falls for it. Then you get to admire Draco AND feel bad for Harry.

Both scenarios have Draco end up on top of things. But one makes me get my mallet and the other could intrigue me!

So, basically, I'm hoping that people don't actually think that Harry is stupid, but don't know how to make their characters smarter! :D