Harper Finkle

Harper Finkle is one of the main characters in the Disney Channel Original Series Wizards of Waverly Place. She is Alex Russo's best friend. She is one of the three mortals (along with Zeke and Theresa) who knows that wizards exist.
==Background==
===Personality===
Harper Finkle is artistic, creative, funny, quirky and smart. Harper is regarded as an obedient, punctual, smart, correct, and high-grades student, contrary to her best friend. She always tells her what is right and what is wrong, sometimes considered her conscience. She gets very nervous when in trouble or in fear, often panicking or yelling away screaming. Also, her famous line is, "See you in PE!" After finding out about Russo's magical abilities, she would see magic and wizardry with suspicion. As the series progressed Harper became, under Alex's influence, more tricky and manipulative, such as when she helped Alex trick Rosie (which they believe to be a Guardian Angels, which are forbidden to do wrong things) to take them to the Angels' Club or that she tricked Professor Crumbs to think that she knows about wizardry because of him.
===Power and abilities===
Despite being an ordinary human, Harper has won various temporary magic powers due to the Russo influence. Some of the most famous include:
*Superhero powers of flight, super-strength, super-hearing, and heat vision;
*Wielding a training wand that allows to open things even if the wielder does not have magic;
*She gained werewolf powers when she transformed into one by Alex.
==Role in the series==
===Early life===
Harper Finkle was born sometime in 1992 in Nebraska backstage behind a nightclub to Marty and Elaine Finkle, a couple of not-so-successful entertainment artists, whose odd behavior would later shape Harper fashion sense. She would be raised in a circus, which is why things like magic and supernatural creatures do not seem so amazing to her.
Later, she would meet the Wizard Alex Russo in kindergarten and, along with her, would become enemies of Gertrude "Gigi" Hollingsworth.
===Original Series===
====Season 1====
In the first season, Harper is a close friend of Alex, although she does not know her secret. Despite this, the two appear to know each other very well as Harper seems to usually be around the Russo household. It is shown that Harper harbors a strong crush on Justin, despite his disinterest in her. She becomes rather possessive of him as shown as she instantly dislikes each girl that he has dated or shown interest in him, such as Miranda. In "New Employee", we see the first time Alex actually uses magic on Harper without her noticing in order to spend more time with her.
Although it does not go as planned as Harper quits and also ends her friendship with Alex, the two makeup and their friendship seems to have grown stronger. Alex is shown that despite appearing not to care for some people's humiliation, mainly Justin's, she does care for Harper when she goes to Gigi's tea party at a hotel with an unspeakable name in order to stop her from humiliating Harper like she planned. Unknowingly to Harper, her magical adventures with Alex would follow to a fashion magazine and a magically brought to life mannequin. Both times, she is unaware of magic despite sometimes questioning some of the old things happening.
====Season 2====
In "Smarty Pants", it is shown that Harper is a part of a Quiz Ball team. She is highly competitive and does not take losing competitions well, as seen when Alex using the pants ends up showing her up mostly as she wants to be the class genius. Harper supports Alex during Gigi's exposing her magical diary secrets although she does not approve of her crush on Dean. She does not seem to like his reputation as well as questions his age due to his facial hair, she also warns her about 'Dean's Corner' at the rolling ring. She even goes as far as to use her job as the 'Chicken' as the ring to start the chicken dance to get Alex away from him, although Alex does seem surprised to see her.
Together they go through things such as bringing a taxi cab back to life, summoning the Greek god Cupid, arrange a fashion parade with the help of a magical machine, reversing a curse that TJ cast upon his ex-girlfriend, hiring a fairy to work at the school's Peter Pan play.
In "Future Harper", Alex finds out that Harper has made money in the Future by writing their adventures down. This makes Alex upset with the present Harper in which Harper responds by being upset with her although she seems mostly confused as to why. In the end, however, Harper does not find out why Alex was really upset with her despite their argument but Alex does give her permission to write her stories. At some point, Harper does make contact with her future self and is given her hat, although she does not seem to know who she is.
Their adventures continue as her brain fuses with Alex and they survive an alien invasion of the Waverly Place Substation. By the end of the season, Harper and Justin relationship would grow from a crush to a friendship, despite Alex's attempts to destroy it. Going as far as to say they are dating, this upsets Justin and Harper, although they do move past it. However, Harper still seems to have a crush on him, although not as bad as before. Also, Harper would meet the two-thousand-year-old vampire Juliet Van Heusen and, thought hard at her in the beginning, she would grow fonder of her.
====The Movie====
When the Russo family is preparing itself for a vacation in the Caribbean, Harper would be dragged into a skirmish on the New York subway which would only lead to a dead-end and nearly their deaths. Harper tries to tell her it is not the right thing to do, but like usual, Alex does not listen and gets in more trouble. Grounded, Alex later tells Harper that she intends to win the Wizard Competition.
====Season 3====
Harper survives an infestation of monsters in New York, a group of monster hunters trying to arrest her and helping the Russo with their Halloween party. However, her vision of magic would not change do the arrival of the sorceress Stevie whose irresponsible use in magic would result in a strangle of Harper and Alex relationship. In the end, when Stevie tries to lead a revolution against the Wizard world, Harper believes that Alex will do the good thing is unnerved.
Harper's relationship with Zeke would grow by the season, first during an Anti-Prom ball, and later kissing him during a party at his house.
====Season 4====
After Alex gives up the Wizard Competition, Harper tries to help Alex to live without relying on magic. Harper and Alex would later go to an Angels club in Los Angeles, but their lack of flying abilities would lead everyone to believe that they are Angels of Darkness.
After graduating from Tribeca Prep, Alex and Harper decide to move into an apartment but have to earn money to pay for it. So they mount a puppet show but Alex's usual laziness lead to Harper doing everything alone. Using magic to shrink Justin and Zeke, Alex creates her own puppet show, earning enough money to move into an apartment.
They move into a secret magic floor which is run by Gorog in disguise. While there, they make a party which is overrun by banshees, help a ghost, and try to reverse Mr. Laritate's zombie transformation. When Felix joins the dark side and casts a powerful spell that cannot be reversed, Harper flees (because the spell is intended to magical creatures) into the Russo Lair, where she uses the Abracadooler to contact Max.
===Revival Series===
Harper is set to return in the rebooted series.
==Relationships==
===Justin Russo===
Ever since the beginning of the series, Harper has had a very noticeable crush on Justin, getting jealous of every girl that he has either dated or had a crush on. Due to this, she has shown obvious hatred towards girls such as Miranda and Juliet van Heusen. Somewhere along the lines, however, she has grown out of her long-time crush on him, and is officially a close friend of his in "Justin's New Girlfriend". At first, Alex strongly dislikes their friendship, which she thinks of as a relationship, and tries to break them up. However, she fails at it, and they both get back at her by making their life a silent movie. One major factor that caused Harper's crush on Justin to weaken was seeing his future self as presented by Alex, in which Justin was a grungy, undisciplined beatnik. This sight prompted Harper to remark that she will shift her attention to guys who are in the US military instead of college students. In later episodes, when she starts dating Zeke, she no longer has a crush on Justin.
===Jeremy from science class===
He is first mentioned in "Harper Knows" when a goblin guard shows up and Alex has to convince Harper that he is just Jeremy from science class in a goblin costume. Alex adds that Jeremy likes Harper. Jeremy is mentioned again in season 3 when Stevie casts a spell that opens up a hole in the school and an unsuspecting student falls into it. Harper claims that was Jeremy and he was going to ask her out. In "Night at the Lazerama", Harper takes Max's conscience to a planet show at the museum, saying it is not a date, but if they see Jeremy from science, Max's conscience has to act like he is totally into Harper. She mentioned him one last time in "Ghost Roommate" when Alex yelled "I found him!" in the middle of the night, and Harper jumped up in her bed and replied, "Jeremy from Science?! This is bad timing, I'm with Zeke now."
===Zeke Beakerman===
Her crush on Zeke might have been spurred on by his similarity with Justin, and she has shown to have a similar crush on Zeke, joining the Alien language league for him, and the two have gone on one official date at "Zombie Prom". In "Alex Russo, Matchmaker?", Alex puts a spell on them to make them fall in love, which does not work, though it does bring the two closer. In "Wizards vs. Finkles", it is said by Justin that Harper and Zeke are currently dating. In the episode "Wizards Unleashed", Harper and Zeke shared their first kiss. In "Moving On", while disguised as Juliet, she tells Justin that she loves Zeke.
In the episode "Wizards of Apartment 13B", because the floor was just for magical creatures, Justin gave Harper a magic wand that can open things (including people's heart) and that can be used by mortals, as to make everyone believe that she is a wizard (which she is not).
==Appearances==
Season 1
*Crazy 10-Minute Sale (appears)
*First Kiss (appears)
*I Almost Drowned in a Chocolate Fountain (appears)
*New Employee (appears)
*Disenchanted Evening (absent)
*You Can't Always Get What You Carpet (absent)
*Alex's Choice (appears)
*Curb Your Dragon (absent)
*Movies (absent)
*Pop Me and We Both Go Down (absent)
*Potion Commotion (absent)
*Justin's Little Sister (appears)
*Wizard School Part 1 (absent)
*Wizard School Part 2 (absent)
*The Supernatural (appears)
*Alex in the Middle (absent)
*Report Card (appears)
*Credit Check (appears)
*Alex's Spring Fling (appears)
*Quinceañera (appears)
*Art Museum Piece (appears)
Total=13/21
==Key Episodes==
These episodes are the ones mainly about Harper:
Season 1
*New Employee
*Alex's Choice
Season 2
*Harper Knows
*Smarty Pants
*Baby Cupid
*Future Harper
*Family Game Night
*Justin's New Girlfriend
Season 3
*Doll House
*Marathoner Harper
*Third Wheel
*Alex Russo, Matchmaker?
*Wizards vs. Finkles
Season 4
*Lucky Charmed
*Zeke Finds Out
*Alex the Puppetmaster
*My Two Harpers
*Harperella
*Who Will Be The Family Wizard
==Trivia==
*[David and Victoria ("Posh") Beckham named their baby Harper Seven after Harper on Wizards of Waverly Place.
*She was born on November 23, 1993.
*Early material mentioned her last name as being "Evans".
*The actress who plays Harper has the same name as fictional Disney character Jennifer Stone from the film Cadet Kelly. She is played by Christy Carlson Romano.
==Gallery==
===Photography===
Wizards of Waverly Place - 2x27 - Wizards vs. Vampires Tasty Bites - Photography - Cindy, Alucard, Alex and Harper.png
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x07 - Marathoner Harper - Photography - Harper Karate.png
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x14 - Third Wheel - Photography - Stevie, Alex and Harper.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x15 - The Good, the Bad, and the Alex - Photography - Justin, Harper, Alex and Warren.jpg
===Screenshots===
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Justin with Date.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Harper and Alex.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Justin and Disguised Harper.jpg|Harper disguised as Juliet
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Alex and Harper.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Justin and Disguised Harper 2.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Harper.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Alex Changes Harper.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Harper as Old Juliet.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Alex as Young Juliet.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Alex and Harper 2.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Justin and Disguised Harper 3.jpg
Wizards of Waverly Place - 3x26 - Moving On - Justin and Harper.jpg
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