# Harry Potter (character)

Harry James Potter is the titular character of the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. The plot of the seven-book series chronicles seven years in the life of the orphan Harry, who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard. He attends Hogwarts, a school of magic, where he receives guidance from the headmaster Albus Dumbledore and becomes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry learns that during his infancy, the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort murdered his parents but was unable to kill him as well. The plot of the series revolves around Harry's struggle to adapt to the wizarding world and defeat Voldemort.
Harry is regarded as a fictional icon and has been described by many critics, readers, and audiences as one of the greatest literary and film characters of all time. He is portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe in all eight Harry Potter films. Harry also appears in the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which has been produced on stage since 2016.

## Concept and creation

According to Rowling, the idea for Harry Potter and the novel series came to her while she was waiting for a train in 1990. She first conceived of Harry as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy" who is unaware that he is a wizard. While developing ideas for the first book, she decided to make Harry an orphan who attends a boarding school called Hogwarts. She explained in a 1999 interview with The Guardian: "Harry had to be an orphan—so that he's a free agent, with no fear of letting down his parents, disappointing them ... Then there's the security. Having a child of my own reinforces my belief that children above all want security, and that's what Hogwarts offers Harry."
The death of Rowling's mother in December 1990 inspired her to write Harry as a boy longing for his dead parents. She explained that his anguish became "much deeper" and "much more real" than in earlier drafts because she related to it herself. In a 2000 interview, Rowling said that the character Wart in T. H. White's novel The Once and Future King is Harry's "spiritual ancestor". Although Rowling gave Harry her own birth date of 31 July, she maintained that he is not directly based on any real-life person. She explained that he came "out of a part of me".
Rowling has claimed that Harry is a suitable real-life role model for children. She said, "The advantage of a fictional hero or heroine is that you can know them better than you can know a living hero, many of whom you would never meet ... if people like Harry and identify with him, I am pleased, because I think he is very likeable."

## Appearances
### Novels
#### Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry is first introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) as an orphan living with his abusive aunt and uncle, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, and their bullying son, Dudley. On his eleventh birthday, Harry discovers he is a wizard when Rubeus Hagrid brings him an acceptance letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that his parents, James and Lily Potter, were murdered by a powerful Dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, who also tried to kill Harry. However, Voldemort's killing curse bounced back and apparently destroyed him, leaving Harry with a lightning-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. Due to his miraculous survival, Harry became famous among wizards.
Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley to shop for school supplies. Harry buys a wand, and the proprietor tells him that his wand and Voldemort's wand contain feathers from the same phoenix. At the end of the summer, Harry boards the Hogwarts Express, where he befriends Ron Weasley and meets Hermione Granger. When he arrives at Hogwarts, he is assigned to Gryffindor House by the Sorting Hat. During the school year, he receives guidance from the Transfiguration professor Minerva McGonagall and the headmaster Albus Dumbledore. He develops animosity towards a fellow first-year named Draco Malfoy, and becomes increasingly wary of the Potions professor, Severus Snape. Harry and Ron become friends with Hermione after they save her from a troll, and Harry becomes the youngest Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in a century.
During Christmas holidays, Harry receives an anonymous gift – his father's invisibility cloak. Aided by the cloak, he is able to explore the school freely. He, Ron and Hermione decide to enter a trapdoor they discovered one night, which is guarded by an enormous three-headed dog. They believe a valuable magical object, the Philosopher's Stone, lies beyond the door. After they navigate a series of obstacles, Harry faces Professor Quirrell, whose body has been possessed by Voldemort. When Harry obtains the Stone, Quirrell tries to kill him. However, Quirrell's flesh burns upon contact with Harry's skin, and Harry passes out.
Harry awakens in the Hogwarts infirmary, where Dumbledore explains that Harry was protected by his mother's love, which also killed Quirrell. Voldemort survived, and the Philosopher's Stone was destroyed. During the school's end-of-year feast, Gryffindor is awarded the House Cup thanks to the many points Harry and his friends obtained from their adventure.

#### Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Muggle-born students are being Petrified in the Hogwarts castle. Some students suspect that Harry is behind the attacks, which alienates him from his peers. Harry learns that he shares Voldemort's ability to communicate with snakes, and he begins to question whether he is worthy of Gryffindor House. After Ron's sister Ginny disappears, Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets to rescue her. He battles Tom Riddle, a version of Voldemort that lives in a diary which had possessed Ginny. In addition to Riddle, Harry encounters the basilisk which has been attacking students. To defeat it, Harry summons the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat. After Harry triumphs over the basilisk and saves Ginny, Dumbledore reassures him that he is worthy of Gryffindor.

#### Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Near the beginning of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Harry becomes angry after his Aunt Marge disparages his parents. He accidentally inflates her with magic, then runs away from home. As he re-enters the wizarding community, he learns about Sirius Black, a notorious killer who escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban. On the train to Hogwarts, Harry is assaulted by Dementors, which cause him to relive his worst memories. During a Care of Magical Creatures lesson with Hagrid, Draco is injured after provoking a hippogriff named Buckbeak. As a result, the Ministry of Magic sentences Buckbeak to death. After Harry has more encounters with Dementors, he asks the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Remus Lupin, to help him ward them off. Lupin teaches Harry the Patronus charm, which Harry struggles to master.
While in the village of Hogsmeade, Harry learns that his parents were betrayed by Sirius, their friend and Harry's godfather, and that Sirius also killed Peter Pettigrew. After Ron is taken to the Shrieking Shack by a wild dog, Harry and Hermione give chase and realize the dog is Sirius in Animagus form. Lupin arrives, and he and Sirius explain that Sirius did not kill Pettigrew. They also reveal that Ron's pet rat, Scabbers, is Pettigrew. Lupin then transforms into a werewolf and injures Sirius, and Pettigrew escapes amid the chaos. A swarm of Dementors appear, but they are driven off by a Patronus cast by a mysterious figure.
Awakening in the school infirmary, Harry and Hermione learn that Sirius is being held captive in Hogwarts and is awaiting the Dementor's Kiss. At Dumbledore's advice, they use a Time-Turner to travel back in time to the moment before Buckbeak's execution. After they save the hippogriff, Harry notices the past versions of himself, Hermione, and Sirius being attacked by Dementors. He conjures a strong Patronus to fight them off, then realizes that he was the mysterious figure who appeared earlier. Harry and Hermione free Sirius, who flies away on Buckbeak, still a wanted fugitive. Harry and Hermione then return to their original timeline.

#### Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry is mysteriously chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the dangerous Triwizard Tournament, even though another Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory, has already been selected. During the Tournament's final challenge, Harry and Cedric are transported to a graveyard, where Cedric is killed by Peter Pettigrew. Voldemort, aided by Pettigrew, uses Harry's blood to resurrect his body. Harry then duels Voldemort, and their wands connect. Spirit echoes of Voldemort's victims, including Harry's parents, emerge from his wand. The spirits protect Harry as he escapes to Hogwarts with Cedric's body.
Rowling said it was necessary to depict violence and death in this novel because it allows Harry's bravery and compassion to show. She said that Harry's effort to prevent Cedric's body from falling into Voldemort's hands was based on the scene in Homer's Iliad where Achilles retrieves the corpse of his friend Patroclus from his enemy Hector. She asserted that Goblet of Fire marks a turning point in Harry's life. She said Harry has been "very protected until now" but in this novel he is no longer protected.

#### Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), the Ministry of Magic wages a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, disputing their claims that Voldemort has returned. The Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Because the Ministry suspects that Dumbledore is building a student army, Umbridge refuses to teach students practical defensive magic. Harry, Hermione and Ron subsequently form a secret group called Dumbledore's Army to teach students defensive spells. The group is disbanded, however, when one student informs Umbridge about it. To shield his students from punishment, Dumbledore falsely claims that Dumbledore's Army was his idea. As a result, he is ousted from his position as headmaster and replaced with Umbridge.
During this time, Harry's increasingly angry and erratic behaviour nearly estranges him from Ron and Hermione. He suffers another emotional blow when his godfather Sirius is killed by the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange during a battle at the Department of Mysteries. Also present is Voldemort, who tries to possess Harry so Dumbledore will kill him. This ruse fails, and Harry and Dumbledore thwart Voldemort's plan to steal an important prophecy. Later, Dumbledore explains to Harry that Voldemort chose Harry as his equal, and that either he or Voldemort must eventually kill the other. A subplot of the novel involves Harry's romance with Cho Chang, which quickly unravels.
Rowling said she put Harry through extreme emotional stress in Order of the Phoenix to show his emotional vulnerability and humanity, which contrast with Voldemort's inhumanity.

#### Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), Dumbledore brings Harry along as he attempts to persuade Horace Slughorn to rejoin the Hogwarts faculty as the Potions professor. Harry excels in Slughorn's class after he begins using an old textbook that once belonged to someone known as "The Half-Blood Prince". Outside of class, Dumbledore uses the Pensieve to teach Harry about Voldemort's life and his rise to power. Harry and Dumbledore learn that Voldemort created six Horcruxes to gain immortality, and that they must be destroyed before Voldemort can be killed. Harry repeatedly warns Dumbledore that Draco Malfoy is an agent of Voldemort, but Dumbledore refuses to take action against Draco. He tells Harry that he already knows more about what is happening than Harry does. During the course of the novel, Harry becomes romantically involved with Ginny.
Near the end of the book, Dumbledore and Harry enter a cave in search of a Horcrux. Dumbledore drinks a potion inside the Horcrux's container and begins to scream in agony. When Harry attempts to retrieve some lake water for Dumbledore to drink, he is attacked by Inferi. They try to drown Harry, but Dumbledore rescues him. Dumbledore and Harry then return to the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower with the Horcrux. Dumbledore asks Harry not to interfere in the events that are about to take place, and puts him in a body-binding curse. Immobilized, Harry is unable to intervene as Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore. Later, Harry ends his relationship with Ginny to protect her from Voldemort.
Rowling said that Harry's tumultuous puberty in the novel is based on her own difficult teenage years and those of her sister. She said that after Half-Blood Prince Harry becomes "battle-hardened" and is ready to fight and take revenge against Voldemort and Snape.

#### Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) to search for and demolish Voldemort's four remaining Horcruxes. They must be destroyed with basilisk venom, the Sword of Gryffindor, or some other powerful means. Ron, Hermione, Vincent Crabbe and Neville Longbottom each destroy one of these Horcruxes. After a battle at Hogwarts, Harry goes into the Forbidden Forest to meet Voldemort, who uses the Elder Wand to cast the Killing Curse on Harry. The curse stuns Harry into a deathlike state, and he finds himself in an ethereal realm with Dumbledore. The deceased headmaster tells Harry that he is a Horcrux that Voldemort unknowingly created. There was a part of Voldemort's soul inside Harry, but it was destroyed by the curse Voldemort cast moments ago. Harry subsequently returns to the living world and duels with Voldemort. The Dark Lord uses the Killing Curse again, but it rebounds and kills him. Harry, not Voldemort, was the true master of the Elder Wand, and the wand did not wish to harm its master. Harry decides to leave the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's tomb and the Resurrection Stone hidden in the forest, but he keeps the Invisibility Cloak.
In the epilogue, set nineteen years after Voldemort's death, Harry and Ginny are a married couple and have three children: James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter and Lily Luna Potter. Albus is departing for his first year at Hogwarts, and is worried that he will be sorted into Slytherin. Harry, evoking the memory of Snape, explains to him that not all Slytherins are bad and that his son's life - even his house - will be shaped by his own choices, as Harry's own has been.

### Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play written by Jack Thorne from a story by Thorne, J. K. Rowling and John Tiffany. It takes place nineteen years after the events of Deathly Hallows. In the play, Harry is Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic. The story focuses on Harry's son, Albus Severus Potter.

### Film adaptations

Harry is portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe in all eight Harry Potter film adaptations. Radcliffe was asked to audition for the role in 2000 by David Heyman, who was producing the first film in the series. Radcliffe met Heyman while attending a London play called Stones in His Pockets.
In a 2007 interview with MTV, Radcliffe described the development of his character during the course of the series: "That's what the films are about for me: a loss of innocence, going from being a young kid in awe of the world around him, to someone who is more battle-hardened by the end of it." Radcliffe said that after the death of Cedric Diggory in Goblet of Fire, Harry experiences survivor's guilt and feels immense loneliness. Because of this, Radcliffe talked to a bereavement counsellor to help him prepare for the role. Radcliffe stated that the most repeated question he has been asked is how Harry Potter has influenced his own life, to which he regularly answers it has been "fine", and that he did not feel pigeonholed by the role, but rather sees it as a huge privilege to portray Harry.
In 2011, Empire magazine ranked Radcliffe's Harry Potter as the 36th greatest film character of all time. The magazine published another character ranking in 2018, this time placing Harry at 67th.

## Characterisation
### Outward appearance

In the novels, Harry is described as having his father's perpetually untidy black hair, his mother's bright green eyes, and a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. He is short and skinny for his age, with a thin face and "knobbly" knees, and he wears Windsor glasses. When asked about the meaning behind Harry's scar, Rowling said she wanted him to be "physically marked by what he has been through". She said the scar is "an outward expression of what he has been through inside". Rowling also said that Harry's glasses are the clue to his vulnerability. Harry eventually grows taller, and by the final book is almost the height of his father, and is described as tall by other characters.

### Personality

According to Rowling, Harry is strongly guided by his own conscience, and has a keen feeling of what is right and wrong. Having "very limited access to truly caring adults", Rowling said, Harry "is forced, for such a young person, to make his own choices". He "does make mistakes", she conceded, but in the end, he does what his conscience tells him to do. According to Rowling, one of Harry's pivotal scenes came in the fourth book when he protects his dead schoolmate Cedric Diggory's body from Voldemort, because it shows he is brave and selfless.
Rowling has stated that Harry's character flaws include anger and impulsiveness; however, Harry is also innately honourable. "He's not a cruel boy. He's competitive, and he's a fighter. He doesn't just lie down and take abuse. But he does have native integrity, which makes him a hero to me. He's a normal boy but with those qualities most of us really admire." For the most part, Harry shows humility and modesty, often downplaying his achievements; though he uses a litany of his adventures as examples of his maturity early in the fifth book. However, these very same accomplishments are later employed to explain why he should lead Dumbledore's Army, at which point he asserts them as having just been luck, and denies that they make him worthy of authority. After the seventh book, Rowling commented that Harry has the ultimate character strength, which not even Voldemort possesses: the acceptance of the inevitability of death.

### Magical abilities and skills

Throughout the series, Harry is described as a gifted wizard. He has a particular talent for flying, which manifests itself in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the first time he tries it, and gets him a place on a Quidditch team one year before the normal minimum joining age. He captains it in his sixth year. In his fourth year, Harry is able to confront a dragon on his broomstick.
Harry is also gifted in Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which he becomes proficient due to his repeated encounters with Voldemort and various monsters. In his third year, Harry becomes able to cast the very advanced Patronus Charm, and by his fifth year he has become so talented at the subject that he is able to teach his fellow students in Dumbledore's Army, some even older than him how to defend themselves against Dark Magic. At the end of that year, he achieves an 'Outstanding' Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., something that not even Hermione achieved.
Harry also has the unusual ability to speak and understand "Parseltongue", a language associated with Dark Magic. This, it transpires, is because he harbours a piece of Voldemort's soul. He loses this ability after the part of Voldemort's soul inside him is destroyed at the end of The Deathly Hallows. However, in the events of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it was revealed that he had not lost the ability to recognise or speak the language when he encountered Delphini, Voldemort's daughter, who was trying to use his son and Draco Malfoy's son Scorpius to fulfill a prophecy that could guarantee the return of Voldemort by changing time.

### Possessions

Harry's parents left him a large pile of gold in the wizarding bank, Gringotts. After Sirius' death later in the series, all of his remaining possessions are also passed along to Harry, including Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, and Sirius's vast amount of gold were transferred into Harry's account at Gringotts.
Among the school items Harry purchases in Diagon Alley after discovering his gold inheritance is his first wand, an 11-inch-long holly and phoenix feather model that he learns is the twin of Voldemort's wand, as the feathers that both wands contain as their cores both comes from Fawkes, the phoenix that Dumbledore keeps as a pet in his office until his death in Half-Blood Prince. Harry's wand is broken in Deathly Hallows. For a time, he borrows Hermione's wand, and later steals Draco's. With his defeat of Voldemort at the end of the series, he comes into the possession of the Elder Wand, but uses it only to repair his holly wand, before returning it to Dumbledore's tomb, from which Voldemort had stolen it. In the film version of Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry destroys the Elder Wand.
Harry also inherits indirectly two of his father's prized possessions. One is the Marauder's Map, given to him by interim owners Fred and George Weasley, which endows Harry with comprehensive knowledge of Hogwarts' facilities, grounds, and occupants. The other is his father's invisibility cloak, given to him by Dumbledore, which eventually proves Harry's descent from the Peverell family. Harry uses these tools both to aid in excursions at school and to protect those he cares about; the Invisibility Cloak, in particular, can hide two full-grown people. If three fully-grown people hide under the cloak their feet will be visible.
Throughout the majority of the books, Harry also has a pet owl named Hedwig, used to deliver and receive messages and packages. Hedwig is killed in the seventh book, about which Rowling says: "The loss of Hedwig represented a loss of innocence and security. She has been almost like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. I know that death upset a lot of people!" As a Quidditch player, Harry has owned two high-quality brooms. The first, a Nimbus Two Thousand, was procured for him by Professor Minerva McGonagall when Harry was added to Gryffindor's Quidditch team despite being a first-year student. This broom was destroyed by the Whomping Willow during a match in Harry's third year. It was replaced by a Firebolt, an even faster broom, purchased for Harry by Sirius; however, as Sirius was believed to be trying to murder Harry at the time, the broom was subjected to stringent security inspections before Harry was allowed to ride it. Harry used it throughout his Hogwarts career until it, along with Hedwig, was lost during the July escape from Privet Drive in the final book.
Harry also owns a mokeskin pouch, or small 'bag' that is used for storing items, which no one but the owner can get out. Harry uses the pouch throughout the course of Deathly Hallows to keep several objects such as the Marauder's Map, a shard of the magical mirror given to him by his god-father Sirius, the fake Horcrux locket that had belonged to Sirius's brother R.A.B. (Regulus Arcturus Black), the Snitch bequeathed to him by Dumbledore, containing the Resurrection Stone that had previously been set into Voldemort's grandfather Marvolo Gaunt's signet ring, which Harry discovers is actually the second Hallow, a letter from his mother to Sirius with part of a photo (of him and his father, James), and eventually, his own broken wand (which Harry later repairs with the Elder Wand).

### Family

In the novels and films, Harry is the only child of James and Lily Potter, orphaned as an infant. Rowling made him an orphan because she felt an orphan would be interesting to write about. However, after her mother's death, Rowling wrote Harry as a child longing to see his dead parents again, incorporating her own anguish into him. Harry is categorised as a "half-blood" wizard in the series, because although both his parents were magical, Lily was "Muggle-born", and James was a pure-blood.
Harry's aunt and uncle kept the truth about his parents' deaths from Harry, telling him that they had died in a car crash. James Potter is a descendant of Ignotus Peverell, the third of the three original owners of the Deathly Hallows, and thus so is Harry, a realisation he makes during the course of the final book. The lineage continues at the end of the saga through his three children with Ginny: James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter and Lily Luna Potter.

## Reception

In 2002, Book magazine ranked Harry Potter No. 85 among the "100 Best Fictional Characters since 1900". Entertainment Weekly ranked Harry Potter number two on its 2010 "100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years" list, saying "Long after we've turned the last page and watched the last end credit, Harry still feels like someone we know. And that's the most magical thing about him." UGO Networks listed Harry as one of their best heroes of all time, who said that "Harry is a hero to the often oppressed and downtrodden young fan boys and girls out there, who finally have an icon that is respected and revered by those who might otherwise look down on robe-wearing and wand waving as dork fodder". Harry Potter was also ranked number thirty-six on Empire's 2008 list of "100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time". IGN said that Harry Potter was their favourite Harry Potter character, calling him a "sympathetic figure" and saying in response to his fights against Voldemort that "everybody loves an underdog story of good vs. evil".
On the other hand, he has received criticism. In 2010, he was voted the 35th "Worst Briton" in Channel 4's "100 Worst Britons We Love to Hate" programme. In The Irish Times, Ed Power called Harry an "anointed cherub" who is "told he is special from the very outset" before he has any "winning attributes". Power said Harry is "celebrated as an overachiever before he's achieved anything". Lannah Marshall called Harry "a bland character". She further described him as "an audience surrogate, or what I call a 'puppet protagonist'. A puppet protagonist is a main character with dull, limited personality, enabling the audience to step inside the role and use their imagination to fill in the rest.
Despite blowback from some Christian fundamentalists critical of Rowling's usage of witchcraft and magic in the series, other Christian critics, including Rev. John Killinger, have argued that Potter is a Christ figure in the series. Killinger opined in 2002 that "J.K. Rowling has written the Christ story of the 21st century, and it's wonderful that she has attained such a magnificent following worldwide." He noted several allusions to Jesus in Potter's character arcs in Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. Rowling herself later admitted that the Gospel story inspired that of Harry Potter, especially with his ultimate sacrifice in Deathly Hallows and apparent death before returning to defeat Voldemort once and for all.

## In popular culture

Wizard rock bands like Harry and the Potters dress up like Harry Potter, sporting painted forehead scars, black wigs, and round bottle top glasses. Wizard rock is a musical movement dating from 2002 that consists of at least 200 bands made up of young musicians, playing songs about Harry Potter. The movement started in Massachusetts with the band Harry and the Potters, who cosplay as Harry during live performances.

### Parodies

In April 2009, a group of University of Michigan students eventually known as StarKid Productions performed Harry Potter: The Musical, a two-act musical parody that featured major elements from all seven books and an original score. They posted the entire musical on their YouTube channel but removed it in late June, to edit some more mature elements from the videos. The musical, re-titled A Very Potter Musical, was reposted on 5 July 2009, starring Darren Criss as Harry Potter. A sequel was premiered at the 2010 HPEF Harry Potter Conference Infinitus, and released on YouTube on 22 July at 8 pm EST. The sequel was called A Very Potter Sequel and featured the Death Eaters using the Time-Turner to go back in time to Harry's first year in Hogwarts. Harry Potter is spoofed in the Barry Trotter series by American writer Michael Gerber, where a "Barry Trotter" appears as the eponymous antihero. On his homepage, Gerber describes Trotter as an unpleasant character who "drinks too much, eats like a pig, sleeps until noon, and owes everybody money". The author stated "[s]ince I really liked Rowling's books ... I felt obligated to try to write a spoof worthy of the originals".