Harry Potter

"You're a wizard, Harry."

- Rubeus Hagrid to Harry Potter

"Facing this stuff in real life... is not like school. In school, if you make a mistake, you can just try again tomorrow, but out there... when your a second away from being murdered, or watching a friend die right before your eyes... you don't know what that's like."

- Harry Potter

Harry James Potter (born July 31, 1980) is the main protagonist of the series of books and films of the same name, he is a wizard who survived an attempted murder by a dark-wizard named Lord Voldemort as an infant - leaving him with a distinctive lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. He is the son of James Potter I and Lily Potter

Early Life
Harry James Potter was born on July 31st, 1980 in a West Country village in England called Godric's Hollow, into a family of wizards with considerable wealth. From birth, he spent much of his infanthood in hiding with his pure-blood wizard father James Potter and Muggle (non magical)-born witch mother Lily Evens-Potter inside a cottage put under the legendary Fidelius Charm by elderly family friend Albus Dumbledore, one of the greatest wizards of the age, due to a prophecy about Harry growing into a great threat to the tyrannical rise of a psychopathic dark wizard called Lord Voldemort, who aimed to take over the wizarding world and shape it in his supremacist views with the aid of an army of followers which he named Death Eaters. James and Lily planned to make Harry's godfather Sirius Black their Secret-Keeper, but on his advice, secretly changed this designation to another of their friends, Peter Pettigrew, whom they thought would be less suspicious. In a terrible turn of fate, it happened that Pettigrew was a spy for the Death Eaters. He betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort, using the wizarding world's belief that Black was their Secret-Keeper to frame him for the crime.

Voldemort arrived arrived at Godric's Hollow on the evening of Halloween in 1981 and broke the Fidelius Charm before breaking into the cottage in his attempt to kill all the Potters. James tried to act as a distraction for the Dark Lord, but unfortunately didn't have his wand with him and was killed immediately. Voldemort then killed Lily while she was trying to protect her son, but when he prepared to kill Harry, his Killing Curse rebounded on him due to Lily's love for the boy becoming a barrier protecting Harry, destroying Voldemort's physical form and making him very weak. However, the curse didn't kill the dark wizard because he was saved from death by five items containing pieces of his soul, known as Horcruxes, the sixth of them later revealed to be Harry himself because Voldemort not only gave part of his abilities to Harry, but also accidentally gave him part of his soul. This event made Harry the only person to have survived the Killing Curse, thus giving him the title "The Boy Who Lived" and making him recognizable to the wizarding world by the lightning bolt scar that the failed curse left on his forehead, which would be both a bane and blessing to Harry in the years to come, as it opened a telepathic link between Voldemort and himself.

When news on the attack spread across the country, Dumbledore's half-giant servant Rubeus Hagrid was sent to save Harry from the burning ruins of the cottage and was given specific orders from Dumbledore himself to bring the boy to their meeting place in the Surrey County town of Little Whinging, but was intercepted by Black, who arrived on his flying motorbike and pleaded for Hagrid to give the baby to him, as he was the chosen guardian in the event of James and Lily's death. Hagrid refused, saying that he was under orders from Dumbledore to bring Harry to Little Whinging as quickly as possible. Black, though reluctant, relented and gave Hagrid his motorbike to take Harry on. Upon arrival on the street of Privet Drive in Little Whinging a night later, Hagrid gave Harry and to Dumbledore and his deputy Minerva McGonagall, who left the child sleeping on the doorstep of the the fourth house on the street, which served as the home of Lily's sister Petunia, a snobbish housewife, and her husband Vernon Dursley, the director of a drill company called Grunnings, leaving a letter of explanation to them. But the Muggle couple never relayed it to Harry, and instead had the boy spend the next decade of his life in their strict and miserable home without knowing that he was a wizard.

Because the Dursleys were Muggles, they had no understanding of magic and wanted absolutely nothing to do with it, even though they knew about his lineage. They proudly considered themselves a "normal" family and despised anything out of the ordinary, going that far with claiming that both of Harry's parents died in a car crash due to his father being an unemployed drunk, and that the lightning bolt scar was from the same accident. However, every time Harry tried to remember the crash, all he could vaguely recall as if he strained his memory' was a green flash of light and a high cold, laugh. He tried to understand what it was, or if it was from the car crash, but simply couldn't because Vernon and Petunia forbade him from asking questions, particularly those regarding his parents. In addition, the Dursleys refused to have pictures of Lily and James, and did their best to avoid the subject of Harry's parents altogether.

Harry was resented by his aunt and uncle for his magic powers, which was sporadic but evident, and strongly discouraged any sort of imagination. In addition, they verbally and emotionally abused Harry — sometimes by depriving him of meals — whenever something "unusual" occurred. The Dursleys would constantly spoil their son Dudley and paid almost no attention to Harry himself; indeed, what little attention they did pay to him was negative in its entirety. All his clothes were hand-me-downs from Dudley and were far too large for him, and he was made to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs while his cousin got two bedrooms to himself (one for sleeping in, one for storing all his toys). They also made Harry do household chores for them, such as cooking and getting the post. The way he was treated bordered on abuse, but was left unreported to authorities. During the times that Harry was not being made to work or bullied, he was provided with little entertainment and sometimes tried to entertain himself by playing games such as solitaire. His hardship, however, was highly necessary as by living with his mother's only living blood relative, the protection that Lily gave him would continue. While Harry could call that place home, he could not be harmed. In his youth, Harry could make strange things happen without understanding why he could, as no one had told him that he was a wizard. For instance, after Aunt Petunia sheared off all of his messy hair using a pair of kitchen scissors in her frustration that it would not lay flat, it left him almost completely bald with only the fringe at the front. It grew all the way back to its previous messy state overnight without Harry even noticing while the dreams he had about what school was like kept him up. Another time, Petunia tried to shove Dudley's old jumper over his head, but he inadvertently kept shrinking against his body until it became the size for a hand puppet. These incidents always enraged the Dursleys, and after each, they would punish Harry by throwing him into the cupboard — except for after the jumper incident.

Throughout every punishment, the boy often dreamed that a family who would turn out to be related to him on his father's side would come to take him to live with them, believing that they would care for him. It never happened, for the Dursleys were his only living relatives, and they never spoke about anything regarding his ancestry. Over the years, however, Harry came to meet a lot of strangers who were, unknown to him then, from the wizarding world, and guessed that each of them knew his parents since they seemed to know his name. On one such occasion, another wizard among Lily and James' friends, Daedalus Diggle, bowed to their frail son in a shop, causing Petunia to interrogate Harry as to how he knew the man before leaving the shop very quickly. Some time later, Harry was waved merrily at by a wild-looking witch on a bus, making the Dursleys get off with him and Dudley on the wrong stop to get him away from her. The only thing that Harry came to find magical about these people was that they seemed to vanish before he could take a closer look, and his aunt and uncle always made a fast getaway out of fear of wizards trying to meet their celebrity wizard nephew. In time, the Dursleys took Dudley and his best friend Piers Polkiss to someplace spectacular every year for his birthday, but the only thing Harry ever got for his birthday was one of Vernon's old socks. His aunt and uncle even hid evidence of Harry's existence by not having pictures of him in the house. Among the few people who did know about Harry was Vernon's sister Marge, who the boy was forced to consider an aunt to him despite not being a relative of his. Unlike Vernon, Aunt Marge showed the most dislike for the frail boy while visiting Privet Drive during Dudley's fifth birthday, when she whacked Harry around the shins to stop him from beating Dudley at musical statues, and on holidays like Christmas, when she brought a computerised robot for Dudley and a box of dog biscuits for Harry. She eventually made a fool out of the young Potter during Dudley's tenth birthday, when Harry accidentally stepped the paw of her favorite pet bulldog Ripper, causing the enraged mutt to chase him out into the garden and up a tree. Dudley laughed himself silly at the sight of his cousin then, and to the Dursleys' delight, Marge refused to call Ripper off until past midnight, long enough for Harry to be covered all in tree branches and ants when this allowed him to go back inside safely.

Sometimes, when the Dursleys had to be away, they left Harry in the care of one of their neighbors, Arabella Figg, who unknown to them and the boy, was a Squib (a witch or wizard born without any magic powers) assigned by Dumbledore to watch over Harry. To maintain the Dursley's favor, however, she was forced to give him a lousy time whenever she had to look after him, as the Dursleys would never have let him go if they knew Harry was enjoying himself, a possibility that would infuriate them. Dudley often ensured that the lousy time for his cousin would turn into harassment as they both attended St. Gregory's Primary School. Harry had no friends there, since all the students were afraid of Dudley's gang, all of whose members hated him because Dudley did. In particular, Dudley's friends liked to play a unique game called "Harry Hunting", which involved chasing Harry. Although he was good at sports, the latter boy was always the last picked for a team because no one wanted to admit to Dudley that they liked him, rather than because he was no good. Harry got decent, if not good grades at school, but still he unknowingly exposed hints of his magic powers throughout the school term. Examples of such was when he accidentally turned his teacher's wig blue, apprated (the magical act of reappearing to another place) onto the school kitchen roof when escaping Harry Hunting and

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
When Dudley's eleventh birthday arrived, the Dursleys took him and Piers to a zoo but had to take Harry along as Mrs. Figg broke her leg and there was no one else to take him, for they refused to leave him alone in their house. At the zoo, Harry unintentionally made the glass of an enclosure containing a boa constrictor disappear by communicating with the animal via Parseltongue (the language that mostly dark wizards use to communicate with snakes), allowing the snake to slither out of its cage and scare Dudley into thinking it was after him. Following the incident, the enraged Dursleys sentenced him to his cupboard until the summer holidays. By the time he was aloud out, Harry still couldn't escape Dudley's gang, who regularly visited the house. To keep out of the way, Harry usually wandered around Privet Drive, glad that Dudley and Piers were going to attend Vernon's old school, Smeltings Academy, while he was to attend Stonewall High, a secondary public school.

One day, almost three weeks before Harry's eleventh birthday, he was told to get the post for his Uncle Vernon. When he made to the front door, the boy saw the mail delivered as three letters: a postcard from Aunt Marge during her vacation in the Isle of Wight, an electric bill from Grunnings and a letter accepting Harry to a school for young wizards and witches head-mastered by Dumbledore, called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Surprised of getting a letter for the first time, Harry returned to the kitchen and gave the first two letters to his uncle. But when Dudley noticed the letter still in his cousin's hands, Vernon snatched it from his nephew to read to his family thinking it was a letter from his co-workers (because he refused to accept that it was to Harry due to stopping the boy from having any friends), only for he and Petunia to notice the Hogwarts crest on the envelope as well as the address written as "cupboard under the stairs" and panic at the thought of Harry's ill-treatment being observed. They told Harry and Dudley to get out of the kitchen, but the cousins eavesdropped on them as the adults decided to ignore the letter. The Dursleys later transferred Harry to Dudley's second bedroom out of fear getting arrested for child abuse. Uncle Vernon even burned the letter in a futile attempt to keep Harry from his destiny out of fear that wizards were trying to contact, but more letters addressed to "the smallest bedroom" instead of "cupboard under the stairs" kept coming in increasingly larger quantities up to the point where they started flying out of the fireplace by the dozens. Because of this, the Dursleys saw no alternative but to flee from them. This was not enough to let them avoid the letters, as the owls carrying these letters followed them wherever they went, even when the manager of the gloomy hotel they were saying at found one of them on his desk to hand to Harry, but Vernon snatched it and had the family leave again. In a final desperate move on the night before Harry's birthday, the Dursleys got on a boat that took them to a small hut on a rocky island on the edge of the sea, where Harry stayed awake until his birthday finally came.

Meanwhile in the wizarding world, Dumbledore gave Hagrid the task of finding Harry and find out why he hadn't answered back the Hogwarts acceptance letter. When Hagrid arrived at the hut at midnight, he accidentally broke the door down from the force of his knocking and woke both Harry and the Dursleys up. The half-giant was shocked that Harry knew nothing about Hogwarts and was told that his parents were killed in a car crash, thus growing angry at the Dursleys for not telling him anything about his parents' world. In spite of Vernon's obstinate protests, he explained to Harry about his wizard status, how his parents really died and that Dumbledore demanded him to take Harry from the ruined house to his hated relatives until he was sent to Hogwarts. This would be Harry's first birthday celebration, and Hagrid gave him a small homemade birthday cake which Dudley started to eat behind their backs. Harry at doubted that he was a wizard until Hagrid asked him if he ever made anything happen he couldn't explain when he was angry or scared. Uncle Vernon made the mistake of mocking what magic Dumbledore was expecting to teach the boy, and an insulted Hagrid swished his umbrella in Dudley's direction, making him sprout a curly pig's tail. Though amused by such a theatrical trick, Harry was asked not to mention it at Hogwarts because the half-giant was banned from using magic when he got expelled. The next morning, Hagrid took him into London to to shop for Hogwarts supplies. They started in a wizard pub called the Leaky Cauldron, where Harry learned of his fame when he met other witches and wizards like Quirinus Quirrell, his soon-to-be Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, the inn-keeper Tom, Doris Crockford and once again Dedalus Diggle, who was surprised that the boy remembered their first meeting in the shop years earlier. They all talked for a bit until Hagrid steered Harry out a back door into a small enclosed area, where a hole in the brick wall invited them into a crowded street full of magical people known as Diagon Alley. First, they stopped at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, as Hagrid needed to get something inside while helping Harry take some money out of his vault. One of the Goblins working there, Griphook, took them down to Vault 713 to get the object and the Potter's vault, taking a bit of money there left by Harry's parents.

Harry first used his new money to buy his Hogwarts uniform Madam Malkin's Robe Shop, where he was measured for the robes alongside another first young wizard, Draco Malfoy, who stuck up a brief conversation with him about life at the school like playing the broomstick riding wizard sport Quidditch on one of four teams representing which of the four Hogwarts school houses they would be sorted into. Harry felt very out of place a little, but Malfoy advised that there were many wizarding families who believed that those who were Muggle-born were unworthy to study magic. Harry and Hagrid spent the rest of the day shopping for the books required for Hogwarts and a magical pet to have as a companion, which Harry chose as a female snowy owl that he named Hedwig. When all that was left on the shopping list was a wand, they went to Ollivander's Wand Shop so the boy could be tested for which wand chooses him as its master. Harry three wands, but none of them seem to work well enough for him. However, the wand that finally chose him with a warm feeling in his fingers was an 11-inch one made of holly, had a phoenix feather core and was nice and supple. Mr. Ollivander stated that it was curious that Harry should be destined for that wand since the phoenix feather core came from the same phoenix that provided the core for Voldemort's wand (a 13½-inch one made of yew and had the phoenix feather core). With Harry's shopping in Diagon Ally finished, Hagrid gave him a train ticket giving him the date, time, and location to catch the Hogwarts Express, telling the boy that he was to write a letter if he needed anything before leaving him to catch the next train home.

Throughout his last month on Privet Drive, Harry found himself unpleasantly ignored by the Dursleys due to how furious they were after he found out about his wizard heritage, up to the extent of hardly speaking to him and instead pretending that Harry wasn't even were they saw he was. This became depressing after a while, and Dudley became so scared of his cousin that he refused to be anywhere near him. Above all that, Harry was allowed to keep the smallest bedroom with only Hedwig and his new school books as company. He laid on his bed and read through the interesting books late at night with Hedwig swooping in and out of the window as she pleases, bringing back dead mice that she later left lying around the room to make them the main reason why Aunt Petunia had avoided coming in to vacuum. On the day before he was due to leave, Harry asked Uncle Vernon to take him to King's Cross station. Vernon agreed, but doubted the fact that the Hogwarts Express was scheduled to leave from Platform Nine and Three Quarters (as said on the ticket Hagrid gave the boy). The following day, Harry arrived at the station but wondered how to find platform nine and three quarters despite it being possibly in between platforms nine and ten, and was finally pointed in the right direction by a family of red-haired witches and wizards called the Weasleys, who demonstrated the way by running through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. He did the same, and was astonished to find the Hogwarts Express on the other side and went aboard. During the train ride, Harry was treated like a honored guest by the trouble-making twins among the Weasley children, Fred and George, and shared a seat with their younger brother Ron, who was starting at Hogwarts. The latter Weasley introduced the young Potter to such details of wizard life as Quidditch, Famous Witches and Wizards cards, and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. One of the cards bore a picture of Dumbledore, which vanished before Harry could take a second look at it. When word of Harry's presence on the train, many of the new Hogwarts students came by to visit him and Ron, such as Neville Longbottom, who came looking for his pet toad Trevor, Hermione Granger, a somewhat annoying and overachieving Muggle-born girl who came to help Neville, and Malfoy, who came to recognize Harry from the robe shop, this time with his buddies Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. After Malfoy made some rude comments about Ron, Harry rejected his offer on associating with the right kind of wizards.

Arriving at Hogwarts Castle, the newcomers were led by McGonagall into the Great Hall, where they were to try on the Sorting Hat, a sentient hat that determines which of the four school houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin) should each of the children who tries it on be placed into. When it was Harry's turn to be sorted, the hat took a while to decide where to place him, making him a near hatstall. It considered sorting the boy into Slytherin due to his resourcefulness and the abilities based on dark magic that Voldemort gave to Harry as an infant, but changed its mind at Harry's insistence, as he already heard about the dark wizards who had been in Slytherin (such as Voldemort himself) from Ron and Hagrid. Thus, Harry was sorted into Gryffindor along with Ron, Hermione and Neville due to his courage and chivalry while Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were sorted into Slytherin instead. Everyone sat down at their house tables to a grand feast to begin the year, but Harry was overwhelmed by the variety of luscious food served and the ghosts that arrived for entertainment. Dumbledore got up to make his welcome speech, but added a few warnings about staying away from the Forbidden Forest and avoiding the 3rd-floor corridor on the right side of the school before sending everyone off to bed in their common rooms. The Gryffindor door common room, for example, was located within a tower that's only entrance behind the portrait of a Fat Lady, who lets them into Gryffindor Tower after Ron's older brother Percy, a prefect, gave her the password. Harry was assigned to share a dormitory with Ron, who he shared dessert with before their bedtime. He probably to much of the desserts, because while in bed that night, the young Potter dreamt of wearing Quirrell's turban, which told him to transfer to Slytherin at once. But Harry refused, allowing the headwear to become heavier on his head, with many Slytherins appearing in front of him laughing as he struggled with it. The nightmare ended with the same green light from the night Voldemort killed his family, causing Harry to wake up sweating at falling asleep again, forgetting about the dream immediately afterwards.

Biography
See: Harry Potter#Biography

Personality and Traits
Harry Potter was an extremely brave, loyal, and selfless person who possessed tremendous strength of character. He willingly went to what he truly believed to be his death because he believed that this was the only way to defeat the Dark Lord. Harry was also marked by what Lord Voldemort once deemed a "weakness for heroics" — he would go to great lengths and take great risks in order to help others, particularly his loved ones. Notably, this was taken advantage of by Voldemort in 1996, when he lured Harry to the Department of Mysteries by making him believe that his godfather was in danger. Harry was also very strong-willed and unafraid to stand up for himself. The fact that he was capable of repelling the Imperius Curse suggests that he had an unusually strong sense of himself and his morals. Dumbledore once made parallels between Harry's traits and qualities that Salazar Slytherin looked for in his own hand-picked students, but noted that Harry's choice not to draw on those qualities really defined who he was rather than the simple fact that he had them.

Harry was perfectly prepared to put his friends' needs and best interests first, shown by how he ended his relationship with Ginny Weasley, due to his concern for her well being (even though being with her was one of the best things that ever happened to him). The amount of trust that Harry put into his friends was so strong that he absolutely refused to consider that any of them would betray him to Voldemort. Considering that Harry knew a person who had betrayed all of his closest friends to Voldemort, his closest friends being Harry's parents, godfather, and Remus Lupin who was there when Harry declared his trust in him, proves Harry's ability to love so unequivocally.

The closeness that Harry felt for many was great enough for him to behave violently if any of them were harmed. When his godfather was murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry attacked her in a grief-stricken rage of righteous anger and attempted to use the Cruciatus Curse on her. He also attacked Severus Snape after the latter murdered Albus Dumbledore. Ironically, the only people with whom Harry ever initiated a duel were Snape and Bellatrix and he only desired to do so right after they killed someone he loved. This highlights Harry's bravery even further because Harry was fully aware that Snape and Bellatrix were two very skilled and experienced duellists, but did not hesitate to harm them as soon as he was pushed into it.

However, Harry was also accused of being arrogant, in particular by Severus Snape (although in fairness, Snape was extremely biased, and Harry often found being famous and admired very difficult), and could be hot-tempered and impulsive. This could sometimes make him rude to authority figures such as Professor Snape and Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour. In contrast, Dumbledore stated that "many teachers report that [Harry's] modest, likeable, and reasonably talented". Harry was prone to moodiness during his adolescence, though this is likely the result of the great emotional stress and trials he endured during this period. An example of when Harry showed something close to arrogance was when in his fifth year, Ron became a prefect instead of him.

As mentioned earlier, Harry is not a flawless individual. Anger became a serious problem around his fifth year. After being cut off by Dumbledore, then later Ron and Hermione he was extremely agitated to the point where he viciously screamed at his friends at Grimmauld Place. This bad-tempered nature only worsened after discovering the Prophet and Fudge were calling him a liar about Voldemort's return. Harry lashed out on many authority figures in his life because of this, specifically the Dursley family. He embarrassed Dudley in front of his gang then came close to attacking him with magic after he brought up Cedric, and came close to doing the same with Vernon when he thought he was expelled from Hogwarts. Harry's anger normally gets the better of him, specifically around Dolores Umbridge, who after lashing out during her class she had him endure torturous detentions with the Black Quill, to the point where he had an emotional breakdown after Sirius' death but was able to calm down with the help of Dumbledore.

Harry possessed an instinctual, intuitive intelligence that allowed him to make intellectual leaps, as opposed to the logical intelligence of Hermione. For example, Harry divined the truth about the Deathly Hallows, well before Hermione would accept it. And although he was clever, Harry lacked intellectual curiosity, rarely putting forth effort into school work; for example, he relied on the notes of the Half-Blood Prince to get ahead in his sixth year Potions class rather than devoting time to studying (although he did study reasonably hard for his Ordinary Wizarding Levels, the only set of wizarding qualifications he sat at Hogwarts), and generally did his best magical work when tackling practical exams rather than theoretical ones. This could be a result of the lack of confidence that Harry developed from growing up with the Dursleys.

Barty Crouch Jr. (disguised as Alastor Moody) remarked that Harry possessed a streak of pride and independence that almost cost him the Triwizard Tournament. His pride didn't allow him to ask for help regarding the problem of breathing underwater for an hour, which was required for the Second task that took place in the Black Lake, was what almost cost him the competition. Harry was also known for wanting to tackle challenges and obstacles on his own, without the aid or intererence of others. His friends had to frequently remind him that he needed their assistance and that he "did not always have to go it alone".

Harry also seemed to have a bit of an obsessive personality, a trait he shared with his arch enemy Lord Voldemort. He could be somewhat nosy and was known for sleuthing around and getting involved in things that did not concern him. For instance, during his sixth year Harry became intensely preoccupied with finding out what Malfoy was doing in his free time(which unfortunately led him to nearly killed him by using Sectusempra without thinking twice). He also developed on unhealthy obsession with the Deathly Hallows, to the point where he was listless with longing for the three artefacts. This period of listlessness lasted for many weeks during the hunt for Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Harry's greatest strength was his ability to feel love, despite having a miserable childhood of neglect. Harry was extremely loyal to and protective of his loved ones and that love was what allowed him to overcome Voldemort. Dumbledore noted that Harry's strength of will at resisting the temptation of the Dark Arts, even when granted a direct insight into Voldemort's mind and methods was due to Harry's ability to love. Harry even claimed that he felt sorry for Voldemort because of his inability to feel or understand love.

Albus Dumbledore noted that Harry was unfailingly kind and compassionate. This is shown by how he freed Dobby from the Malfoys and by standing up for Muggle-borns, half-bloods, and half-breeds (like Hagrid). This is likely attributable to his childhood, during which the Dursleys deprived him of compassion and discriminated against him due to his magical abilities. Also, Harry was not a cruel person and he never wished anyone harm. He rarely initiated duels, instead fighting in self-defence. Even after Bellatrix Lestrange had murdered his godfather, Harry failed to cast the Cruciatus Curse on her. Bellatrix noted the he had failed to cast the curse properly because he had cast it out of righteous anger and not malicious intent. However, he did use the Cruciatus Curse more effectively on Amycus Carrow after he spat at and insulted Minerva McGonagall. In addition, he saved Peter Pettigrew from being killed by his (Pettigrew's) former friends Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, though this was not done for humanitarian reasons but for the memory of his father.

Remus Lupin once noted that Harry had very good and nearly always right instincts. Harry had a strong awareness of the incalculable power of certain acts, which is never more apparent than when he refused to allow Lupin to accompany him and leave his wife and child at home and realised that Ron Weasley was meant to destroy Slytherin's locket.

In some ways, Harry can become extremely intimidating toward people such as Gilderoy Lockhart, Mundungus Fletcher, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. It is seen that Harry can become extremely frightening when pushed to the point of anger or extreme annoyance. When in a bad mood and argumentative, even Harry's closest friends have been shown to be wary of him, usually replying to his angry tone in a calm and appeasing voice. The only person who does not appear to be afraid of him when he is angry (other than his teachers and other authority figures in his life) is Ginny Weasley.

Harry seems to have good and long memory, as he remember the motorbike ride to Privet Drive with Hagrid when he was eleven and could remember the deaths of his mother and Voldemort's laughter when the events occurred ten years earlier. Harry possessed a tremendous eyesight as well, he was able to locate the Golden Snitch (which was approximately the size of a golf ball) in a massive Quidditch field. Harry also cared very much for his children. He comforted his daughter, Lily Potter when she was upset about not going to Hogwarts. He also made sure his younger son Albus Potter would not be teased a lot by Harry's older son, James Potter.

Although never as given to sarcasm or humour as his best friend Ron, Harry often displayed a dry wit. For instance, on finding out that Hermione Granger intended to take twelve O.W.Ls, he asked her if she planned to eat or sleep at all that year. This humour often became more cutting when applied to people Harry disliked. When threatened by Draco Malfoy and his cronies after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry remarked that he supposed that "Lord Voldemort's just a warm-up act compared to you three", responding to Malfoy's threat that he was dead by casually commenting "Funny, you'd think I'd have stopped walking around". Harry also displayed wittiness on the occasion when he first encountered Crookshanks, remarking that he was either "a very large cat or quite a small tiger". He was also known to apply his cutting wit to Severus Snape as well. During his first Potions lesson, Snape antagonised Harry with question after question, until Harry responded with "I don't know. I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"

Although he never sought power himself and would be content with a normal life, when a situation required him to step up he would do so. Such as when he, Ron, and Hermione discovered Voldemort and Quirrell's attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone and his time as teacher/leader of Dumbledore's Army. Harry has shown not-inconsiderable leadership abilities, to the point that Dumbledore reflected that Harry was a better leader than him as he never sought power for himself but simply had to assume the mantle of leadership due to circumstances beyond his control and found in the process that he did it well.

During his youth, Harry tended to see things in a rather stark, absolute manner, particularly when it came to the Hogwarts' Houses. Harry generally regarded members of Slytherin House as evil and therefore his enemies, while Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs were allies. The former part could be due to his own status as a Gryffindor and that many of the Slytherins he encountered, such as Lord Voldemort, Draco Malfoy, and Severus Snape, were significant enemies of his during this period. In addition, many of his friends and allies, such as Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and Hagrid, were fellow Gryffindors. However, this mentality eroded as he aged, since he encountered both allies among Slytherin, such as Horace Slughorn (and later, Snape), and enemies among the other three Houses, such as Peter Pettigrew (a fellow Gryffindor) and Quirinus Quirrell (a Ravenclaw). By 2017, Harry had adopted a more moderate attitude on the Houses, telling his younger son Albus Potter that "it doesn't matter to us" if Albus was Sorted in Slytherin or Gryffindor. In addition, Harry named that same son after Severus Snape, whom he recounted as "the bravest man [he] ever knew".

Appearances

 * 1) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * 2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * 3) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * 4) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * 5) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * 6) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * 7) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1 and Part 2)
 * 8) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
 * 9) Avada Kedava in Castaras by Voldemort, Wormtail and Draco. (mentioned)

Trivia

 * Harry is similar to Tom Clarke as both are wizards and both lost one or both of their parents at a young age on Halloween (Harry was one when his parents James and Lily were killed by Lord Voldemort on Halloween 1981 whilst Tom was ten when his mother Helen was killed by a Nekross probe on Halloween 2006). There a two differences between the two: first, Harry has unlimited magic, whilst Tom can only cast three spells a day. The second difference between them is Harry attends Hogwarts to learn magic whilst Tom attends a normal school and is taught magic by his grandmother Ursula and possibly Helen before her death.
 * Though was known used 2 of 3 Unforgivable Curses (namely Cruciatus and Imperius), Harry's proficiency with them was inferior than the Dark Wizards due to his pure heart.
 * When Harry uses Imperius Curse on Gringgots Staff when he, Hermione, and Ron hunted Hufflepuff's cup, his influence over them worn off in faster rate.
 * Harry is similar to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Both have special talents (Rudolph has a red nose that can glow and Harry is a wizard and can do magic). Both are cousin of an antagonist (Dudley Dursley and Arrow). Both were disliked by the antagonist (Dudley disliked Harry because he is a wizard and Arrow disliked Rudolph because he has red nose). But they are now in good terms.
 * In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it's revealed that in some ways, Harry is complete opposite with his nemesis Voldemort though at the same time they share a number of things in common:
 * Known similarities with Voldemort:
 * Harry and Voldemort have blood relations with Salazar Slytherin, but Harry is very distantly related to Salazar Slytherin, but is not a descendant of him, as Voldemort is descended from Slytherin and the second Peverell brother, while Harry is a descendant of the third.
 * Both once having a parent before they died but their difference are:
 * Harry's parents were loving parents that willing to gave their life for their son's safety, while...
 * Voldemort's parent were unofficially divorced where his mother dies soon after the childbirth while his father, whom disown his wife and unborn child ultimately assasinated by Voldemort himself years later.
 * Both has developed their powers in the equal age but...
 * Harry was skeptical about his magic heritage even with him have used his powers once (which is reasonable due to used them for the first time by accident) and yet to mastered it until attending Hogwarts.
 * Voldemort has fully mastered his powers and even used them to threatened others.
 * Both known making a number of friends but..
 * Harry deeply trusts his allies and friends, while
 * Voldemort had no affection toward his allies and friends and only see them as expendable pawns.
 * Obvious difference with Voldemort
 * Voldemort was a model student in Hogwarts that uses his reputation as mask for hiding his malicious nature, while Harry is not a model student and known having records in breaking rules, but still a good boy nevertheless.
 * Harry was born with pure love union from his parents, while Voldemort's instead born with a fake love union (implied either Imperius Curse or Love Potion).
 * Harry had not fear with death while Voldemort was otherwise.

Similar Heroes

 * Anya/Anastasia Romonov (Anastasia)
 * Balto (Balto)
 * Bambi (Bambi)
 * Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars Prequel Trilogy)
 * Optimus Prime (Transformers Film Series)
 * Simba (The Lion King)
 * Sora (Kingdom Hearts Series)
 * Tarzan (Disney's Tarzan)
 * Tod (The Fox and the Hound)
 * Tom Clarke (Wizards vs Aliens)