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This article is about the fictional character Harry Potter. For information about the Harry Potter book series, see Harry Potter.

Template:HP character Harry James Potter (born 31 July 1980)^[1], the only son of James Potter and Lily Potter, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter is portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe in all Harry Potter films to date. Template:Spoiler

Biography

Harry physically resembles his father James, although he is frequently told too that he has his mother Lily's eyes. There is speculation that the resemblance of his eyes to his mother's will play a significant role in the next and final book.

Harry is famous in the wizarding world for his encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort, one of the most powerful sorcerers of all time and the primary villain in the series, when he was just a year old. Voldemort mysteriously lost his powers in the encounter and was severely crippled, although he survived.

James and Lily Potter were killed in this incident in 1981 while protecting baby Harry from Voldemort's attack. James died first, and Lily's dying act - sacrificing herself to save her infant son - placed Harry under a spell of love and protection. Subsequently, Harry survived the Avada Kedavra or 'killing curse' aimed at him by Voldemort, and for as yet unknown reasons linked to Lily's act of love, the curse rebounded on Voldemort. Apart from sustaining serious injury, Voldemort's powers were sapped by the encounter and he was defeated. In Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, Harry tells Voldemort, I don't know why you lost your powers that night, but I know why you couldn't kill me.. Beaten and powerless, Voldemort went into hiding, and Harry became a celebrity in the wizarding world as "The Boy Who Lived", especially famous for the lightning-shaped scar Voldemort's curse left on his forehead.

Harry was raised by Petunia and Vernon Dursley, who neglected him in favour of their own son Dudley and in their attempt to remove all traces of his magical self to make him "normal", kept him fully isolated from the wizarding world. Harry did not even know that he was a wizard until his eleventh birthday, when Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwarts gamekeeper and loyal aide to Professor Albus Dumbledore, explained to Harry his situation, and also told him of his fame in the wizarding community.

Shortly after this revelation from Hagrid, Harry began his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There he was placed in Gryffindor House, and makes friends with Ron Weasley and later Hermione Granger. He shares his dormitory with Ron, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas.

Harry did not let his fame go to his head, even though Gilderoy Lockhart and Colin Creevey in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets offered persistent reminders to him of his renown. In fact, Harry was annoyed by his fame, and its effect on his relationships, causing various people to fawn over him artifically or hate him for it.

The protection granted to Harry by Lily's self-sacrifice helped him again ten years later in the first book in the Harry Potter series, when Lord Voldemort returned secretly to the wizarding world to search for the philosopher's stone. Using Hogwarts teacher Professor Quirrell as a host body, Voldemort came to Hogwarts in his quest for the stone. Voldemort attempted to kill Harry again, but Lily Potter's protection lingered in his veins, and he was unable to touch Harry. He was forced to flee again, leaving Quirrell to die.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry started to change. He's angry because he believed Sirius Black to be responsible for the betrayal of his parents to Voldemort. Harry maintained this belief until he discovered that Black was his father's best friend, as well as his godfather. Later on he finds out that it was not he who betrayed his parents, but a servant of Lord Voldemort's, Peter Pettigrew. By the end of the story, Sirius offers Harry something he has wanted all his life: a home away from the Dursleys'. Harry was quick to accept, only to have the chance taken away from him.

Harry's greatest desire is to to be normal with parents who love him, and for everyone he cares about to be safe and happy. Harry often puts himself at risk for other people, and often tries to convince others not to put themselves in danger. For example, in the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he does not want Ron and Hermione to attempt to locate the philosopher's stone with him. This also occurs in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Ginny, Neville and Luna wish to join Harry, Ron, and Hermione on a rescue mission.

However, Harry is depicted with many flaws. He can be angered easily when his parents or others about whom he cares are insulted, or when people do not believe him. Like Ron, he is not always diligent with his studies. In Order of the Phoenix, Harry appears more disturbed and troubled, and is extremely temperamental, as he has to endure the entire wizarding world believing him to be an attention-seeking liar, along with the normal difficulties of being a teenager. Sometimes, Harry even gets angry with Ron and Hermione, especially when they argue with each other; most notably so when Ron and Harry have a row that lasts nearly a month in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Harry has always been isolated and alone. He has lost his parents, his godfather, and finally his last protector, Dumbledore. He tends to lean to towards Remus Lupin and the Weasleys whenever he needs help or advice. [[Molly Weasley|Mrs. Weasley] in particular is something of a mother figure for Harry, and she treats him as any one of her sons. At other times, Hagrid will offer support to Harry but as he progresses as a teenager his relationship with Hagrid diminishes ever so slightly.

Harry has a very strong sense of loyalty to others and expects loyalty in return. This streak has often prevented Harry from looking at things objectively and will occasionally prevent him from heeding constructive criticism from friends such as Hermione.

Harry tends to feel very concerned about whom he can trust and whom he cannot. For example, Harry is reluctant to trust Severus Snape, the Potions Master, even though Snape has the open and firm confidence of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Since Harry has been raised by the Dursleys, and has experienced nightmarish events, including the deaths of Cedric Diggory in Goblet of Fire and Sirius Black in Order of the Phoenix, Harry seems to feel rather misunderstood. Harry's feelings of isolation increase at the end of Order of the Phoenix when he learns that he alone must battle Voldemort to the death.

In Goblet of Fire, Harry develops his first crush, on Cho Chang (though there are hints of it even back at Prisoner of Azkaban). During his fifth year he has an on-and-off relationship with her and even kisses her under the mistletoe, but they split up at the end of the year. Technically this break-up is as a result of Cho's friend Marietta Edgecombe's betrayal of Dumbledore's Army, but at the time this occurs their relationship is already faltering; they are simply not on the same wavelength, as Harry is quite clueless about how romance is supposed to be gone about in general and is unable (or indeed, unwilling) to deal with Cho's grief at the death of her late boyfriend Cedric Diggory or comically misplaced romantic jealousy of Hermione.

Harry's failed relationship with Cho is a contrast to his eventual relationship with Ginny Weasley, who J.K. Rowling has said she had set up to eventually become Harry's "ideal girl" and "total equal"[2]. This plot arc starts with Ginny's unrequited crush on Harry during Chamber of Secrets through to Goblet of Fire, which appears to serve mainly purposes of comic relief; it is however eventually revealed to be a case of ironic set-up, as in Order of The Phoenix Hermione tells Harry that Ginny has given up on him and in Half-Blood Prince, he develops apparently unrequited feelings for her, with which he struggles throughout the year (during the year, Ginny instead has a relationship with Dean Thomas, and Harry is further convinced that Ginny's brother Ron, Harry's best friend, would disapprove of any relationship). Things eventually work out for them - after Ginny and Dean break up, Harry is swept up in the high of Gryffindor's Quidditch Cup victory celebrations and spontaneously kisses her in front of the whole Common Room; Ron, who obviously has mixed feelings about this relationship, expresses his kind-of approval by meekly failing to object. By the end of Half-Blood Prince, Harry breaks off his relationship with Ginny in an attempt to ensure her safety. Ginny accepts his decision without much argument, but they seem hopeful for their future after Voldemort will be destroyed for good.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the entire wizarding population believes Harry to be the 'Chosen One' as a result of prophecies concerning Harry and Voldemort. Dumbledore places a great deal of trust in Harry, sharing with him memories viewed in the Pensieve regarding Lord Voldemort's past. He takes Harry on an expedition to retrieve a supposed Horcrux, an object that contains a piece of Voldemort's soul and which would have to be destroyed in order to render Voldemort mortal. This horcrux is hidden in the centre of an Inferi-infested lake within a secluded cave. This sets in motion events that lead to the headmaster's death at the Battle of Hogwarts. After Dumbledore's death (in which there is still debate as to whether Hogwarts should be reopened or not) Harry decides that, should he be required to attend the school in the coming year, he will not; instead, Harry decides to shoulder his burden and take it upon himself to destroy the four remaining Horcruxes of Voldemort.

This will be followed by Harry's attempt to finally confront Voldemort himself. He does not shoulder this burden alone, however - Ron and Hermione will be there with him as well, at his side wherever he goes. The events of this final encounter are expected to be revealed in the seventh and final Harry Potter book, as yet untitled.

Family tree of Harry Potter

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Notable possessions

• A house at 12 Grimmauld Place (inherited from Sirius Black)
• A house-elf named Kreacher (inherited from Sirius Black)
• A handsome amount of wizarding gold in a vault in Gringott's inherited from his parents and Sirius Black.
• A Firebolt (a very good flying broom given to him as a Christmas present by Sirius Black; formerly he had a Nimbus Two Thousand which was destroyed when it got too close to the Whomping Willow)
• An Invisibility Cloak (Inherited from his father, received from Professor Dumbledore as a Christmas present in his first year)
• The Marauder's Map (given to him by George and Fred Weasley, which was drawn by his father, James, and his three friends, Padfoot (Sirius Black), Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) and Moony (Remus Lupin). James was known as Prongs)
• A pocket sneakoscope (a present from Ron)
• Hedwig, a snowy owl (a birthday present from Hagrid)
• A photo album with pictures of his parents and their friends (another present from Hagrid)
• A wand made using a phoenix feather. The originator of this feather, Fawkes, also happens to be the originator of the feather in Lord Voldemort's wand.
• A broken two-way mirror (given to him by Sirius Black)
• A locket nobody can open, possibly one of Voldemort's horcruxes (inherited from Sirius Black among the contents of 12, Grimmauld Place)

See also

• Harry Potter series
• Harry Potter plot
• Relatives of Harry Potter

References

• ^[1] "JKRowling.com Archives: Birthdays" from MuggleNet