Harry James Potter

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"I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me."

Portrayed by: Daniel Radcliffe (films), Joshua Herdman (Gregory Goyle disguise in Chamber of Secrets), David O'Hara (Albert Runcorn disguise in Deathly Hallows: Part I), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ^cast

Video game voices: Joe Sowerbutts (Philosopher's Stone), Tom Attenborough (Chamber of Secrets & Prisoner of Azkaban), Daniel Larner (Goblet of Fire), Adam Sopp (Order of the Phoenix to Kinect), Daniel Radcliffe (LEGO Dimensions, archive audio from the films)

Voiced in French by: Kelyan Blanc
Voiced in Latin-American Spanish by: Arturo Castañeda (Philosopher's Stone), Claudio Velázquez (Chamber of Secrets), Víctor Ugarte (Prisoner of Azkaban-Deathly Hallows: Part Two)
Voiced in European Spanish by: Axel Amigo
Voiced in Japanese by: Kensho Ono
Voiced in Brazilian Portuguese by: Caio César de Melo
Voiced in Polish by: Jonasz Tołopiło (all movies except Chamber of Secrets), Aleksander Gręziak (Chamber of Secrets)

Appears in: Philosopher’s Stone | Chamber of Secrets | Prisoner of Azkaban | Goblet of Fire | Order of the Phoenix | Half-Blood Prince | Deathly Hallows | Cursed Child

"Gee, I wonder what it'd be like to have a difficult life."

The Chosen One. The one who survived the Killing Curse. The Man with the lightning bolt scar. The titular hero of his own franchise.

The Boy Who Lived.

At the age of one, Harry James Potter's parents are killed by Lord Voldemort, who then attempts to kill him with the Killing Curse. Due to The Power of Love from his mother's self-sacrifice, however, he survives and rebounds the curse upon Voldemort, getting a lightning bolt-shaped scar as a souvenir. The series' resident Eccentric Mentor, Dumbledore, then arranges to have his Muggle aunt and uncle take him in... or else. For ten long years, they grudgingly comply, forcing Harry to live in the cupboard under the stairs and being both cruel and neglectful of him. Harry's bullying cousin, Dudley, doesn't make things any easier.

Then, shortly before his eleventh birthday, everything changes. Letters (from "no one") begin arriving in Harry's "home", growing by the number each day. Harry's aunt and uncle, acting suspiciously, refuse to allow him to read even one, and after several days, leave the house and go to a tiny house in a cliff in the middle of a storm. Unfortunately (for the Dursleys), the ones who sent the letters are not deterred by such means, and Harry is eventually told of his past, and the wizarding world.

Thus, Harry's adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry begin, growing darker in nature each year, as he learns of his destiny, and matures.

Nineteen years after he defeats Voldemort for good, he's married to Ginny Weasley and is the father of three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna Potter.

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A-E

Academic Athlete: Played Straight, but it is rather subtle compared to his father. He's an exceptionally talented Quidditch player and while when it comes to academics Harry is Brilliant, but Lazy, he still often achieves above average marks outside of Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which he gets perfect marks, and Potions, where he has a hard time due to his mutual enmity with the subject's teacher Snape. When he applies himself he moreover achieves Exceeds Expectations or higher O.W.L.s in Defence Against the Dark Arts (he gets the highest O.W.L.), Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and even Potions, which is noted to be a fairly exclusive class. It's worth mentioning that many of Harry's bad grades in Potions can be chalked up to Snape's vendetta against him. Snape actively sabotages Harry's work multiple times, including one instance after Harry views Snape's Pensieve where Snape nonchalantly destroys his work and subsequently gives him a zero out of spite.
Accidental Celebrity: Overlapping with Accidental Hero - Harry is world famous for vanquishing Voldemort and being the only person to ever survive the Killing Curse, but since he was an infant at the time it was certainly not a conscious choice and he is rather uncomfortable with his fame.
The Ace: Harry’s considered, by his peers, to be the best in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and a naturally gifted Quidditch player. And while it is not the focus of the narration, he achieves rather high marks on his O.W.Ls and has never failed his exams. A proof of his skill is his ability to use the Patronus, while several of his fellow students manage to perform it, even Corporeal, Harry and Dumbledore are the only two people able to repell a full swarm of Dementors on their own. And has been able to perform rather Powerful Wandless Magic under highly stressful situations. Harry is a case of Brilliant, but Lazy.
Achey Scars:
- The lightning-shaped scar created by Voldemort starts aching whenever Harry is close to him, and in the later books, whenever Voldemort is feeling a particularly strong emotion.
- The "I must not tell lies" scars on his hand that he received from detentions with a Sadist Teacher in his fifth year tingle when he thinks of her.
Acquainted with Emergency Services: Harry doesn't go a full year during his time at Hogwarts without spending time in the hospital wing, something lampshaded by Madam Pomfrey. "Oh, it's you, is it? I suppose you've been doing something dangerous again?"
Action Dad: Becomes the Head Auror and father of three by the year 2017.
Adaptational Badass: Downplayed. Harry is badass enough in the books but the movies make a bit more of an effort to characterize him as an Action Hero.
- In Philosopher's Stone, Harry is barely able to hold off Quirrell, with the effort nearly proving fatal. In the film, Harry kills Quirrell with relative ease, and is still on his feet before being downed by Voldemort's soul when he escapes.
- When confronted by Snape in the Shrieking Shack in Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry sends him flying into the wall with an Expelliarmus from Hermione's wand, which is supposed to be more difficult with a wand that hasn't chosen him. In the books, this same effect was achieved by him, Ron, and Hermione trying to disarm Snape simultaneously.
- In Order of the Phoenix, his duel with the Death Eaters in the Ministry had him fumbling spells a few times including reversing his own spell by accident. The film portrays him as being far more competent overall.
- The final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort in Deatly Hallows had them involved in Circling Monologue with a single spell shot by both. In the final movie, Harry held his own fairly well against Voldemort for about the final twenty minutes.
Adaptational Personality Change:
- In the sixth book, Harry isn't exactly keen on following Dumbledore's instructions to get close to Slughorn and often neglects the assignment in favour of other things like Quidditch. In the film version, Harry takes Dumbledore's orders much more seriously and gladly works to gain favour with Slughorn outside of class.
- Also in the sixth movie, his reaction to Romilda Vane's advances are changed from the book, where he found her rather off-putting, especially because she is an Alpha Bitch to his less popular friends and because her attraction towards him was only because he was The Chosen One. In the movie, while her negative qualities are not shown, his Hormone-Addled Teenager aspect is played slightly more and he finds her attractive enough to consider taking her as his date and when Hermione points out she only wants him because he is The Chosen One, he replies "But I am The Chosen One", which earns him a Dope Slap.
Adaptational Seriousness: Harry's Deadpan Snarker tendencies from the books are toned down in the films.
Adaptation Dye-Job: Harry has green eyes in the book, but they are blue in the movies. His hair is also dark brown instead of black. Initially, the plan was for Daniel Radcliffe to wear green contact lenses, but he had an allergic reaction to the lenses he was given. Averted in the video game adaptations of the first four books as well as Quidditch World Cup, where his eyes are green. A reasonable number of related materials, such as the Lego sets and official artwork also retain his black hair.
All-Loving Hero: Harry's greatest power is capacity for love, compassion, empathy, and general decency. In spite of being raised by a family that treated him with anything but affection, Harry did not come out full of resentment or hatred against his adopted parents, or Muggles or the world at large (unlike Voldemort, Snape and even the young Dumbledore, who were unable to get past their Freudian Excuse). He is willing to go out of his way to help even those he is not entirely friendly with or actively dislikes, and in the end, he was even willing to offer Voldemort one last warning to save himself, because even after everything Voldemort did to him, he still wasn't consumed by hatred enough to make his enemy suffer a Fate Worse than Death.
Dumbledore: You are protected, in short, by your ability to love! The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort's! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven, when you stared into a mirror that reflected your heart's desire, and it showed you only the way to thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches. Harry, have you any idea how few wizards could have seen what you saw in that mirror?
All of the Other Reindeer:
- Public opinion of Harry in the Wizarding world oscillates between hero worship to complete rejection at the drop of a hat. But Harry is not particularly saintly in his isolation.
- Harry was an outcast in the Muggle world too because of the Dursleys' rumours about his behaviour and because Dudley and his gang bullied anyone who befriended him.
Allergic to Evil: His lightning-bolt scar burns whenever Voldemort is close to him or feeling strong emotions — negative or positive — and in book 4, Voldemort just touching him causes him horrible pain.
Always Someone Better: Unintentionally this to Ron. As he points out repeatedly to Ron and Hermione, most of the adventures he goes on is stuff that he barely scrapes by, he considers his fame both harmful and unmerited, and that the crazy stuff he goes through ends up being perceived as far cooler than it actually was.
Amazon Chaser: He really started falling for Ginny when he noticed her feisty attitude and Quidditch skills. This is more pronounced in the fifth film. During a D.A. meeting, when Ginny casts a Reducto that obliterates the dummy they were practicing on, Harry looks at her with a proud smile. Later on, when Ginny masters a corporeal horse Patronus, Harry's response is a very proud "Fantastic, Ginny!"
Ambiguously Bi: The books are written from Harry's perspective but by a straight woman. So there are more than a few occasions where Harry mentions how attractive some of his friends... or enemies... or strangers are.
Amicable Exes: A scene in the eighth movie indicates that he and Cho have become this.
Ancestral Name: Harry takes his middle name after his father, James, and he mostly takes after his dad in terms of appearance, hobby and general temperament.
Animal Motifs: Stag (his Patronus), associated with gentleness, compassion, nobility, virility, strength, rebirth and resurrection.
Anti-Hero: At first and for most of the series, he is unambiguously good and heroic, even if he is more than a bit snarky and an Anti-Hero who isn't above lying, eavesdropping, and generally being an occasional "trouble-maker" in school, even during the earlier instalments. Then Harry got Darker and Edgier along with the series, doing things that become much more questionable as time goes on, even when they're being used to reach goals that are unquestionably heroic, and became a Pragmatic Hero.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: According to Rowling, he later went on to become the youngest head of the Auror Office in history. It isn't hard to see why… Let's see: saved the Philosopher's Stone, defeated Slytherin's Basilisk, learned how to make a Patronus when only 13, escaped Voldemort seven times, survived the Second Wizarding War, while more experienced wizards (like Sirius Black, Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Nymphadora Tonks, and Albus Dumbledore) didn't, defeated more Death Eaters than one can count… Yeah, he definitely qualifies.
The Archmage: Zig-Zagged and Downplayed Trope. While he is no academic genius, it should be noted that he is highly capable academically, and in the practical area he has mastered every spell that has been put in front of him. By the age of 26 he is in charge of the supposedly most elite wizard hunters in England, hinting that he is more powerful than them. So this trope is not completely undeserved.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Harry is very perceptive when he actually put some effort on it:
- When Kingsley modified Marietta's memory, Harry take notice of the spell flying behind his back and Kingsley murmuring something, and when he recognized the effects of the Memory Charm in Marietta, Harry realized what happened in like five seconds. Take note that, besides Dumbledore, nobody else noticed what Kingsley did.
- Happens again in Deathly Hallows, when Harry takes note of Bellatrix's over-the-top reaction to the Sword of Gryffindor and becoming paranoid about the possibility of the Trio stealing it from her Gringotts' vault. He correctly guessed from her reaction that Voldemort hide a horcrux in her vault.
Babies Ever After: Harry has three children (two boys and one girl) with Ginny by their adulthood.
Back from the Dead: Harry Potter is technically the only person in the franchise who has ever truly come back from the dead, though it's made clear he's not actually in the afterlife. After Voldemort uses the Killing Curse on him in the Dark Forest, he winds up in the limbo between life and death, due to Voldemort using Harry's blood to revive himself in the fourth book. Harry is even offered a choice to either come back to life or move on to the next life if he wants to. He ultimately chooses the former, so that he can stop Voldemort once and for all.
Bad Bedroom, Bad Life: Harry's abuse by the Dursleys was highlighted thanks to the fact that they made him sleep in the cupboard under the stairs.
Badass on Paper: Harry views himself as one of these. The event that made him famous happened when he was a baby, and when, in Order of the Phoenix, he gets asked to teach a defence against the dark arts club, he argues that all of his other achievements have been either through luck or from getting a lot of help. He begins to grow out of this in the seventh book, as he is now the one taking the fight to Voldemort, and his previous experiences fighting against the Dark Arts help him realize what has to be done. On a real inspection, Harry is closer to a real prodigy rather than Teen Genius Hermione; while he does not shine academically, that does not mean he is a bad student and does decently on his O.W.L.S. He has also mastered spells that should not be mastered by any normal, or even above average Wizard (Like the Patronus or the Unforgivables) and his skill at flying is rather unnatural for a person who had never touched a broom before (though we later learn that Sirius Black had given him a broom for his birthday when his parents were still alive.)
Badass Teacher: Harry has shown tremendous skill in teaching others. Having mastered many spells at a young age, Harry successfully passed them onto others even when he was still a student himself, giving proper instructions and corrections on how to perform many fields of magic, ranging from the relatively simplistic Disarming Charm to the highly advanced Patronus Charm. Harry's effectiveness as a teacher led many, some even older than him, to choose him over a Ministry-installed professional, and he even returned to Hogwarts to give occasional lectures. It's telling that the Dumbledore's Army only suffered three casualties since its creation, compared with the several ones suffered by the Order of the Phoenix or the Ministry.
Bad Powers, Good People: Harry can do magical skills that most of the wizarding society find to be tied with evil.
- He speaks Parseltongue, the language of snakes. Most people think Parseltongue is an evil power, because several evil wizards (Voldemort being the most recent and bigger example, Salazar Slytherin the most famous) not only spoke it, but used it for nefarious purposes. Harry becomes ostracized for having this power, and only uses it for good, most notably to rescue his future Love Interest Ginny Weasley. He loses this power after defeating Voldemort.
- Harry's also capable (from a power standpoint) of using the "Unforgivable Curses": Imperius, Cruciatus, and Avada Kedavra, spells considered pure evil and worthy of life imprisonment. However, he has only used the first two either to complete his mission of finding the Horcruxes or in the defence of another person. And for obvious reasons, he never uses Avada Kedavra.
- He was also capable of using Sectumsempra, which Snape (its inventor) describes as very advanced dark magic, on his first attempt with enough skill to cause severe lacerations on Draco Malfoy's face and body, though he didn't know what the spell was and was horrified.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Given that his parents died when he was only a baby, Harry has always wanted to know more about them. However, in Order of the Phoenix, he is treated to the unwelcome surprise that his father was a bully.
Because Destiny Says So: Zigzagged. Harry's destiny has been predicted by a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, but according to Dumbledore, it's only self-fulfilling because Voldemort insists on fulfilling it and Harry himself has no intention of turning away from it.
Harry Potter: It all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got to try and kill him, or—
Dumbledore: Of course you've got to! But not because of the prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest until you've tried! We both know it!
Because I'm Good At It: Unlike many examples Harry's job as an Auror is a moral one, since he hunts Dark Wizards. But like many examples, he is a man of many talents, from Quidditch to a skilled teacher. Yet Harry's life has been fighting Dark Wizards and Dark creatures since the age of eleven and has never stopped, because at the end of the day (As Ginny implied) that is what fulfils him.
Because You Were Nice to Me: Harry will always remember the kindness and support of his friends.
- His animosity with Malfoy was kicked off when the other boy insulted Hagrid (who was the first person in Harry's life to show him any kindness), and it only worsened when Malfoy taunted Ron, Harry's first ever friend.
- While he was initially weirded out by Luna like most of the other students, he soon takes a liking to her because she was one of the very first ones (outside of his closest allies) who believed in him about Voldemort returning.
Beta Couple: He and Ginny get together faster and don't argue as much as Ron and Hermione. The only reason they even broke up was because, between Dumbledore's death and the upcoming mission to hunt down Voldemort's Horcruxes with Ron and Hermione, Harry had no idea if he was going to live past the war. It was all but stated that if they both survived, they would get back together.
Beware the Nice Ones: He may have a big heart, but Harry is quick to anger whenever his friends are attacked.
Big Good: He becomes this in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Even though he does not exactly lead anyone, he continues to inspire hope and is a rallying point for the students of Hogwarts, Dumbledore's Army, and the Order of the Phoenix. In the practical sense, however, Moody and, after he dies, Kingsley, seem to be Dumbledore's designated successors.
Big Man on Campus: Zigzagged throughout the series. His status as a Living Legend, his Quidditch talents and the fact that he's considered to be very good-looking in later books make him quite popular in general. There have also been times when the student body and the larger wizarding world shunned him — such as when he was accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets, and when Cornelius Fudge made him the target of a smear campaign — but each time he eventually regained his popularity after disproving the slander against him.
Birds of a Feather: With his main love interest Ginny. According to Rowling, both are "very strong and very passionate." Both have a great proficiency in Defense Against the Dark Arts, both love to play Quidditch, both are Leos, both have a darker sense of humor, and both are considered very good-looking, enough to attract many people of the opposite sex. Ginny is also notably the only girl of Harry's generation who, like Harry, personally suffered at the hands of Voldemort at a young, vulnerable age.
A Birthday, Not a Break: Most of Harry's birthdays aren't nice. Particularly his twelfth (in which he ends up locked in his room as punishment for something he didn't do) and his seventeenth (because Rufus Scrimegour interrupts his birthday party with Dumbledore's will, which sours it). Many of his early birthdays are implied to be less than satisfactory, as his relatives do not bother to get him real gifts.
Black-and-White Insanity: Justified in that this is common at Harry's age, but Sirius eventually has to spell out to him that the world isn't divided between good people and Death Eaters. For example, while Snape is not at all a nice guy, Harry is perpetually suspicious of everything he does from the first book onwards because of his own dislike for him, and it actually leads to significant problems later in the series. On the other hand, Dumbledore's portrait calls Snape out for his attitude towards Harry, explaining that his actions had made him completely untrustworthy; add to that that Harry finds out that Snape is the one that told Voldemort the Prophecy and Snape ultimately kills Dumbledore, and Harry's hatred and distrust in the final book is seemingly justified — until he discovers the truth behind Snape’s killing Dumbledore.
Blemished Beauty: He has his iconic lightning-bolt scar that is seen more as a badge of honor than a deformity.
Blessed with Suck: Harry and his fame. Being rather shy, he gets stared at and even mobbed in public, has his personal life blown out of proportion, particularly in fourth year, and has to deal with wannabe hangers-on (especially when he's old enough to date) and people — like Snape — who assume that his fame has made him arrogant. Worst of all, his fame is for surviving when his parents didn't.
Blind Without 'Em: Though he seldom drops his glasses. In the film of Prisoner of Azkaban, there are a few moments of blurriness coinciding with Harry getting his glasses knocked off when the Whomping Willow sends him flying. When she transforms into Harry with polyjuice potion at the start of Deathly Hallows, Hermione comments on how poor his eyesight is.
Blunt "No": In Prisoner of Azkaban, after Aunt Marge insults his dead parents too many times, Harry's Power Incontinence causes her to inflate like a human balloon and float out the window. In the ensuing chaos, Harry grabs his luggage and departs the Dursley house, but Vernon angrily confronts him and demands that he bring back Marge immediately. Harry bluntly refuses and says, "She deserved what she got."
Book Dumb:
- Downplayed; he's more Brilliant, but Lazy, but he still gets by mostly by practice and reliance on Hermione, aside from a few isolated moments like doing his homework when he's stuck at the Dursleys'. After the first book, he never seems to read any books for pleasure or information, and continues to rely on Hermione and Ron for Info Dump well into his sixth year despite having been part of wizard culture for some time now.
- This becomes a plot point in Book 4; the Moody-disguised Crouch in his speech to Harry at the end, when explaining how he manipulated Harry into winning the tournament, noted that he often felt handicapped by Harry's stupidity. He noted that the solution to get past the merfolk in the Second Task was a in a book he gave to Neville and all Harry had to do was ask Neville, since he knew perfectly well that Harry wouldn't read any books or gather knowledge on his own.
- As an Auror, Harry ignores paperwork so he can gather information in the field and do work from there.
Boring, but Practical: The Disarming Charm, Expelliarmus, which becomes Harry's signature move. It does Exactly What It Says on the Tin, causing the target to drop whatever he or she may be wielding. It is fairly dull, basic, and unimpressive compared to most other spells, but given that wizards are basically helpless without a wand, it's an instant win if executed correctly. This does come back to bite him in the ass during the beginning of Deathly Hallows, in which the Order distributes several of its members, disguised as Harry, across several teams so that the Death Eaters will have a harder time finding and killing the real thing. When Harry disarms a supposedly Imperiused Stan Shunpike, his use of the spell tips off the other Death Eaters, and quickly alerts Voldemort to his location.
Brainy Brunette: Often described as having "jet black hair" like his father and despite his lazier tendencies, Harry is actually quite perceptive and is known to be bright.
Break the Cutie: At the age of one, his parents die and he gets attacked and scarred permanently and then gets shipped off to his abusive aunt and uncle's and discovers at age 11 that his guardians had lied to him all his life. He goes to Hogwarts, he discovers that the world of magic isn't so much an escape but another place where he is constantly in danger of death and other losses, and more or less faces the fact that he's powerless and a pawn to more powerful interests.
Brilliant, but Lazy: He's struggled with his Potions and Transfigurations classes, but his O.W.L. scores demonstrated that he's actually rather good at them. There are subjects that he is legitimately bad at, but his lack of skill in Divination and History of Magic don't affect him in the story. In-universe, Harry has been described as bright, but not exceptionally so, being a Jack of All Stats. However, he's certainly as talented a wizard his parents were described to have been when it comes to Defence against the Dark Arts.
- Harry is considered to be the best duellist among the students by the time he's in his fifth year. He still gets owned by more experienced wizards, however, and gets handed down a Curb-Stomp Battle from Snape, though to be fair, Harry has JUST returned from a fight against literal zombies and witnessed the Death of Dumbledore and had to fight the Death Eaters in the Castle to get to Snape. He is also the best in the year (possibly the entire school) at Defence Against the Dark Arts.
- It's also made clear one reason he's so bad at Potions is because Snape is his teacher. During his O.W.L. Harry's narration notes that the class is much easier without the pressure of Snape waiting to find something to punish him for. Also worth noting, when Snape finally stops being his Potions teacher, Harry immediately becomes far better at the subject, even outperforming Hermione. Technically this is due to the textbook he used in his sixth year having annotations, effectively making it a cheat sheet. However it's worth considering that this book was annotated by Snape himself. Therefore, he was still being taught by Snape, it just seems that Harry does infinitely better when Snape isn't breathing down his neck.
- He also has a natural affinity for flying. He's able to ace riding a broomstick on his first time, despite the teacher having to leave before she could tell him all of the basics. (It's implied he showed a natural talent for flying even as a one-year-old.) He then manages to upgrade to the considerably faster Nimbus 2000 and Firebolt without any trouble. He even does well when it comes to taming and riding flying animals, such as Hippogriffs and Thestrals, and then getting a rather High Mark in Care of Magical Creatures O.W.L., hinting that he is rather skilled in that area.
- On a closer inspection, it is not that Harry or Ron are "lazy" so much as the fact they hang around Hermione, who has obsessive studying habits. Harry and Ron study reasonably hard, and it has never been stated that they fail their classes. They are just reasonably applied students, with other interests aside from schoolwork. The only O.W.L.s Harry failed are Divination (which almost everyone including Hermione, McGonagall and Dumbledore regards as a joke) and History of Magic (taught by the incredibly boring Professor Binns and Harry collapsed partway through the exam due to a vision implanted in his mind by Voldemort), neither of which were required for his chosen career path of becoming an Auror.
Broken Ace: Most people in the wizarding world perceive him as The Ace while his relatives perceive him as worthless. Harry develops major insecurities as a result.
Broken Hero: He's nice to people despite being emotionally abused by his aunt, uncle, and cousin.
Broken Pedestal: He undergoes this at some point or the other with each of his adult role models. Sirius, his father, Dumbledore... Fortunately they all become Rebuilt Pedestals in the end.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: With Ginny. This starts in Order of the Phoenix when Harry is brooding and moody over the aftermath of Cedric's death, almost no one believing him about Voldemort's return, and being terrified over the possibility of Voldemort being able to possess him. Ginny manages to give him some comfort by having him actually talk about his fears, which helps him, somewhat. This continues in the next book, when Ginny offers him a comforting shoulder after Professor Dumbledore's death.
Bully Magnet: In the first book, it's briefly mentioned that Harry was this trope at the Muggle school he attended before Hogwarts. His situation largely improves when he gets to Hogwarts, but then he gets the ire of Draco and Snape, his teacher.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
- Ginny getting possessed by Lord Voldemort was this for Harry, more or less in hindsight. It was not for Ginny. This leads to a What the Hell, Hero? moment when Ginny calls him out for it.
- This also undermines some of the tension between him, Ron, and Hermione. He can't appreciate that being an orphan and being raised by the Dursleys like an indentured servant, and later finding out that he's independently wealthy as a result of his inheritances, makes it easier for him to become a free range wizard than it is for people with family who are worried about them.
- Harry has a much easier time than either Ron or Hermione adapting to the hunger and deprivation that the group endures in book 7, because such things were just a fact of life for him while he was being raised by the Dursleys.
…But He Sounds Handsome: Inverted in the film adaptations. Whenever Harry talks about himself, whether in disguise or to people who don't know him, he won't say anything positive:
- In The Chamber of Secrets, while disguised as Goyle, he uses himself as an example of someone who's worse than Dumbledore.
- In The Half-Blood Prince, he calls himself a "tosser" when a Muggle waitress asks who Harry Potter is.
Butt-Monkey: He goes through a lot of crap over seven books.
Byronic Hero: He is a handsome young man, with very intense emotions and a temper to match, and at time his passions work against him. He is a highly powerful Wizard and also very intelligent. His life is tragedy after tragedy, yet he has the strength to keep going.
Cain and Abel: The Abel to Dudley's Cain, even though they're cousins, not brothers.
Clashing Cousins: Harry and his arch-nemesis Voldemort are very distant cousins, due to the former being descended from Ignotus Peverell and the latter from his older brother Cadmus Peverell.
The Cassandra:
- Harry, with his claims that Voldemort has returned, is made a pariah by the wizarding government throughout Order of the Phoenix. When he tries to contradict the Ministry's stance in Umbridge's presence, she punishes him by forcing him to repeatedly write "I must not tell lies" with a Black Quill, eventually scarring his hand permanently.
- It happens again even after he's revealed to be right about Voldemort. He becomes convinced that both Malfoy and Snape are Death Eaters and is met with significant skepticism, with Lupin even suggesting Harry is simply determined to hate Snape because of his animosity with James Potter. He's correct about Malfoy, but Snape turns into a subversion when it turns out he was The Mole for Dumbledore the entire time.
Celebrity Is Overrated: Harry is deeply uncomfortable with the fame he has within the magical world and dislikes the spotlight, preferring to be treated like any other wizard. This is partially due to a combination of his age and due to the events in question as most people wouldn't want to be known for the night their parents were murdered.
Chekhov's Skill: More of a survival adaptation than a learned skill, but he was frequently Denied Food as Punishment when living with the abusive Dursleys, allowing him to more easily cope with hunger pangs. When travelling with Ron and Hermione during Deathly Hallows, he's more able to deal with the lack of food than either of them.
Chick Magnet: Ginny, Cho, Gabrielle, Romilda Vane, and Moaning Myrtle. Not to mention two unnamed girls that tried to ask him to the Yule Ball in book 4, possibly Parvati Patil at one point, and in the movie adaptation of Half-Blood Prince a Muggle waitress at a café. Hermione Lampshades it in Half-Blood Prince by telling him that he's 'never been more fanciable.'
Childhood Friend Romance: Harry eventually marries Ginny Weasley whom he became friends with in his second year of Hogwarts.
The Chosen One: Harry is given this nickname by the press by the beginning of HBP, due to his connection to the prophecy. Like such people as Scrimgeour and Snape, he's less than amused. He is literally the Chosen One in that Voldemort assumed he was the subject of the prophecy and chose him as his adversary by attacking him, leading to a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, but the press does not understand this.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: AKA "his saving people thing." This is eventually exploited — with tragic results — by Voldemort.
Hermione: This isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do... sort of... I mean — don't you think you've got a bit of a — a — saving-people thing?
Closet Sublet: He provides the current page image for a reason.
Conveniently an Orphan: Played with, since his home situation is not really "convenient."
Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: At Hogwarts, Harry is the Cool friend to a bunch of students who, with the exception of Ginny, are not quite popular on their own. This includes Ron, Hermione, Luna and Neville. The only time Harry feels upset about this is in Book 5, where he has a crush on Cho Chang who is the most popular girl in school, but then in Book 6, he gets over it and dismisses Luna's complaints about people expecting Harry to be around people cooler than them.
Cool Teacher:
- He secretly teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts during his fifth year. Several characters subsequently praise his teaching ability, including Hermione and Ernie Macmillan. Even Fred and George Weasley, who disregarded their schoolwork and rebelled against teachers at every opportunity, comment positively on Harry's teaching skills.
- Word of Rowling states that while he unfortunately didn't become a teacher (at least not immediately), he occasionally gave lectures about Defence Against The Dark Arts, after the end of the series.
Crazy Jealous Guy: Harry didn't act on it, of course, but he was secretly angry at Dean whenever he kissed, held, or spent time with Ginny. He also was jealous when Cho told him that Cedric had asked her to the Yule Ball first but only acts on it by ignoring his actual date, Parvati, during the Yule Ball.
Crime Of Self Defence: In Order of the Phoenix, he risks breaking The Masquerade by using magic to protect his cousin and himself against Dementors, and is put on trial for this. In this case, the government in question is waging a propaganda war against Harry, and is twisting the law in order to punish him as much as possible and make him look like a delinquent. When the defence proves Harry was in a situation where the options were breaking The Masquerade or having his soul ripped out of his body, the Ministry spun the story to make it sound like he got Off on a Technicality. And then it turns out that one of their particularly nasty members is secretly responsible for the attack in the first place, precisely to provoke him into using magic so they could prosecute him for it.
Cruel Mercy: He convinces Lupin and Sirius to spare Peter Pettigrew. Not to protect him, of course, but so he can have his soul sucked out by the Dementors (and prove Sirius Black's innocence).
Dark and Troubled Past: Parents murdered at one, a decade of abuse from his relatives, a bullying cousin, and a psychopathic murderer out to kill him.
Dark Is Not Evil: Masters spells that have been associated with dark magic.
Deadpan Snarker: Perhaps one of his most defining traits, mostly in the books. If you try to be smart with Harry, he normally has an insult to hit you right back with.
Vernon: Listening to the news! Again?
Harry: Well, it changes every day, you see.
- Also shown in other occasions, such as this exchange in Half Blood Prince.
  Harry: Yes.
  Snape: Yes, sir.
  Harry: There's no need to call me "sir", professor.
- He's definitely snarkier in the books, with the above lines of dialogue being two great examples. That said, he does get some great lines in the films, like this one from Chamber of Secrets.
  Harry: [after nearly being run over by the Hogwarts Express and hanging out of the Ford Anglia] I think we found the train!
Death Seeker: Subtly implied to be one after Voldemort's return, especially right after Sirius dies.
Deceased Parents Are the Best: He grew up hearing nothing but bad things and lies about his parents from the Dursleys, only to learn from Hagrid that both of them were heroes in the wizarding world. This ends up feeding his curiosity about his family, and he associates a lot of special significance to objects or events concerning his parents, and wholeheartedly comes to believe that he would have had a happy childhood had it not been for Voldemort, which the small flashbacks and glimpses into his early life (Lily's letter in Book 7, and Voldemort seeing James playing with Little Harry before attacking Godric's Hollow) confirms.
- When he first receives the Invisibility Cloak from Dumbledore on behalf of James, Harry, rather than sharing it with Ron, seeks to use it to tour and explore Hogwarts on his own because of the special connection to his father's relic. On that same night, he discovers the Mirror of Erised, which is the first real glimpse Harry ever received of his parents, since he didn't grow up with photographs. At the end of Book 1, Hagrid provides him an album of photographs that he made by calling everyone who had seen and known his parents and it becomes one of Harry's prized possessions. Of course, eventually, thanks to Pensieve Flashback, he comes to see his Parents as People, that his father had his flaws and virtues, and that it took a while for his mother to return James' affections and befriend Sirius and the other marauders.
- This is also an underlying tension between him and Ron. Ron is constantly filled with angst about his Middle Child Syndrome and his baggage with his father and mother, while Harry for his part loves being part of the Weasleys' extended family while at the same time, thanks to his parents' inheritance, does not have to worry about money and supplies. From Ron's perspective, Harry is getting the best of both worlds, while Harry chides Ron for his jealousy of his "fame".
Decoy Backstory: An In-Universe example. Harry was told by the Dursleys that his parents were killed in a car crash and got his scar from it. Harry vaguely remembers a big green flash and supposes this must be the crash. Then Hagrid came along to tell Harry that his parents were actually killed by Lord Voldemort, who gave the scar on his forehead. We the readers already know all this because we were there for the prologue.
Denied Food as Punishment: He was often on the receiving end of this from the Dursleys. Surprisingly, in Deathly Hallows, it's noted that since he often went through periods of near starvation, Harry is able to go for longer without eating than Ron and Hermione.
Denying the Dead Parent's Sins: Until Harry sees Snape's memories, he never believed a word that Snape said about his father. Realizing that Snape was right about his father's attitude as a young man leads to a Heroic BSoD on his part.
Deus Angst Machina: To cut short 7 books worth of angsting, fate seems to have no other reason for his existence than finding any and every available opportunity to abuse and torture him physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Deuteragonist: Harry qualifies as this in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; while the main plot follows his son's exploits, Harry's relationship with him is just as important to the plot of the play.
Disney Death: At the end of Book 7.
Disney Villain Death: Not to Harry, but both of his broomsticks. His Nimbus 2000 in book 3, which falls right into the Whomping Willow. His Firebolt in book 7 during the ambush.
Dissonant Serenity: Doubly, with respect to both others and himself. Harry's temperament and propensity for recklessness are among his chief faults, yet as he notes in Deathly Hallows, he tends to get calmer the more everyone else freaks out. Half a lifetime of dodging death by a hair seem to have effectively rewired his panic response, so much that past a certain threshold, his brash temper reverses and he ends up being shockingly clear-headed.
Does Not Like Spam: Harry doesn't like peppermint humbugs. They're the only food he doesn't try at his very first Hogwarts welcoming feast.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Hogwarts students and the wizarding world in general turn on Harry at the drop of a hat, despite Harry having saved both several times.
Early Personality Signs: When Harry was just a baby, he loved flying around on a toy broomstick that he got from his godfather Sirius for his first birthday. He would grow up to become a gifted Quidditch player.
Earn Your Happy Ending: He goes through a lot of physical and emotional pain across the books, but by the end of the series, he's in a loving marriage with three kids, and has a happy life. As the final line in the saga states, "All was well."
"Eureka!" Moment: While Hermione does the grunt work research, Harry is generally the one who ends up putting the clues together at the end. Unlike other examples of this trope, he doesn't normally get any particular source of inspiration, but rather simply gets focused enough to solve the given problem when things get really bad.
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Harry Potter, who was kind enough to forgive Snape's horrifically unfair abuse and offer Lord Voldemort a shot at remorse, has nothing but flat-out hatred for Dolores Umbridge. While Harry was routinely breaking school rules and getting away with it because he needed to to save the day since getting the Invisibility Cloak in Philosopher's Stone, Umbridge's refusal to teach any Defence Against the Dark Arts class worth a damn drives him and Hermione to illegally form a Students' Secret Society dedicated to teaching the self-defence Harry had learned in the previous two or three books. He also repeatedly fails to follow McGonagall's instructions to not let her push his buttons and goad him into another week's worth of detention with Umbridge.
Evil Is Not a Toy: Discovers this in the sixth book when he casts the spell Sectumsempra on Malfoy without knowing what it does beforehand. He's horrified to discover that it vivisects the target.
Experienced Protagonist: By the final book, Harry has grown into his magical prowess to become one of the most powerful and skilled wizards in history.
Expy: According to this questionnaire, J.K. Rowling said that Wart from T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone is "Harry's spiritual ancestor".
Eye Motifs: Harry has his mother's green eyes. This probably reflects his "deepest nature" being more like his mother than his father, or at least that's what Dumbledore wants Snape to believe. While Dumbledore told Harry in Books 1-4, that he was very much like his father, and he connects more to his father, most of what we see of him and know of Lily suggests that beyond the surface, he really is more like his mother, particularly in terms of his befriending outcasts like Luna, as she had Snape (though with Lupin, James wasn't short of that himself). And when he sees how his parents act in Snape’s Worst Memory, it’s pretty clear that he would have defended an outcast against a bully just like his mother.

F-K

Family Eye Resemblance: Harry is often told he has his mother's eyes, so often that he can finish the phrase himself. As Snape dies, his last words to Harry are "Look at me..." (in the books), or "You have your mother's eyes..." (in the films), so he can see the eyes of his beloved, Lily, one more time.
Family of Choice: He wants nothing to do with his surviving blood relatives and the feeling is mutual on their part until Dudley's Character Development. Instead, he considers Ron and Hermione his adopted brother and sister, and the Weasleys take him in as one of their own.
Famous Ancestor: Averted. Pottermore reveals information about his ancestry that confirms that Harry is the first prominent Potter in wizarding history. His ancestors did work in creating well-known healing remedies which made the family fortune, while Ralston Potter and Henry "Harry" Potter played a part in advocating pro-Muggle legislation, but nothing amounting to more than a footnote. Indeed, despite being directly descended from Ignotus Peverell (through his grand-daughter Iolantha who married Linchfred of Stinchcombe), the Potters weren't considered among the top 28 Pureblood families.^note
Fatal Flaw: Harry's "saving people thing" gets him into trouble. He's willing to do anything in order to save the people he cares about, and he has a martyr complex that keeps him from asking for help or back-up at times when it would really be a smart idea. He does this to keep the people around him safe, but it tends to really work against him. Voldemort uses this to manipulate him into doing things that lead to Sirius's death. This also makes it very easy for Harry's enemies to lead him into traps.
- Secondarily, his Ineffectual Loner tendencies (which really stem from a desire to protect his loved ones from danger). These reach their peak during the fifth book, but this is also the point where he starts to grow out of them.
- His inability to master Oclumency (Granted, he is suffering PTSD and has an incompetent teacher), and by extension his inability to control his emotions during Book Five, causes a lot of problems for Harry and people around Harry throughout the series, resulting in Harry getting manipulated more than once, making reckless decisions, alienating people close to him, and even getting people killed. It's no coincidence that when he does defeat Voldemort, he's not only willing to rely on others for help, but he's able, by then,to fully close his mind against Voldemort and to calmly form a plan instead of reacting.
- Tying into all of the above, his impulsiveness in general which he pretty much displayed since Book One, and has only gotten worse as the series progressed, resulting in his failure to master Occlumency and his very poor grasp of his emotions in Book Five. Combining this with his Chronic Hero Syndrome has often led to disastrous results.
Fighting Fingerprint: Expelliarmus! See Boring, but Practical.
Fighting the Lancer: Twice with Ron.
- In Goblet of Fire, Harry and Ron weren't speaking to each other after Harry was selected as a Triwizard Champion and Ron, out of jealousy, refused to believe that Harry hadn't hoodwinked his way in and didn't want the glory. It takes until after the First Task for them to make up.
- In Deathly Hallows over the stress and lack of progress of finding the Horcruxes, and to make matters worse, Ron is wearing the Horcrux locket, which is negatively affecting his mood. After Ron's statement of Harry not having a family because his parents are dead, their fight turns physical before Harry tells him to leave if he wants. And Ron does.
First Love: To Ginny, as she has always held a torch for him since she was a child, and while she did have two boyfriends before him, her feelings for Harry didn't go away.
Freudian Excuse:
- Harry has a difficult experience being a father. Part of the reason for this is not despite, but rather because of, his upbringing with the Dursleys. Of course, Harry is far from the Abusive Parent that the Dursleys were to him (unfortunately, it is Truth in Television for kids who were abused to become abusive parents themselves), but the fact that he had very few positive, stable role models for fatherhood during his childhood and adolescence causes him to struggle in that department.
- He also had some difficulties trusting authority figures. Considering that his remaining relatives had lied to him about his heritage and how his parents actually died, Dumbledore's manipulations and the Ministry's yearly campaign to discredite him, is no wonder why Harry had no trust in the authorities.
Flat-Earth Atheist: It only comes up a few times, but Harry seems to not believe in an afterlife for much of the series in a series where souls are known to exist. When Luna tries to comfort Harry at the end of Order of the Phoenix, saying they'll see their loved ones again someday, he seems doubtful, and at his parents' grave in Deathly Hallows, he bitterly thinks to himself that despite the epitaph on their grave "The last enemy that will be destroyed is death", his parents are just mouldering under the earth. That said, he doesn't seem that surprised by his use of the Resurrection Stone or his near-death experience.
Forgets to Eat: On occasion, he doesn't eat due to stress or anxiety.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic —Introverted, observant, gentle and prospecting.
Friendless Background: Due to Dudley and his gang's bullying, his baggy hand-me-downs, and his taped glasses, Harry was an outcast in Muggle Primary School.
Friends Are Chosen, Family Aren't: Harry is good at making friends with all sorts of people, but the Dursleys treat him like dirt.
Gallows Humour: A lot of his snark.
Generation Xerox: Physically, and as repeated very often, Harry is almost identical to his father James with the exception of his emerald green eyes, which are identical to those of his mother. He also has a lot in common in terms of Undying Loyalty to his friends and willingness to break rules to do what's right and a total opposition to the Dark Arts. However, personality-wise, James and Harry are very much not the same at least as far as fifteen-year-old James goes. Dumbledore suggests to Severus Snape that his inner nature is like his more compassionate mother, while in Book Three, he reminded Harry that his decision to spare Dirty Coward Peter Pettigrew is something his father would have approved. So it's an even mix in the end. In terms of his family, Harry shares a common name with his great-grandfather Henry "Harry" Potter. His Humble Hero nature is also shared by other ancestors, who also stood up for Muggle Rights. But he otherwise lacks the genius in potions, ironically enough, that allowed his family to invent Skele-Gro, Pepper-Up Potions, and Sleekeazy (which Harry uses without knowing that his family invented it).^note
Glory Seeker: Inverted. Many people who have no idea what kind of life Harry lived before coming to Hogwarts (or even some of the stuff that came after) tend to think he is one of these. Some (like Snape) think he is a born troublemaker like his father; some (such as the Ministry, the Daily Prophet, and a number of citizens) think that he just wants glory and is an attention seeker. Some of his classmates even thought he was the heir of Slytherin, once. The truth is largely the opposite, as living with the Dursleys and a lot of the stuff he dealt with in the Wizarding World actually made him very humble and quiet (until he continued to grow in self-confidence and ability). Susan Bones lampshades it when her involuntary fame makes her like him — and she wonders how he stands it, it's horrible.
Good Hurts Evil: Voldemort learns this the hard way when he possesses Harry — the goodness and love in Harry's heart drives Voldy out, and he never attempts to possess Harry again.
Good Is Not Soft: For as much as is made of his Chronic Hero Syndrome, Harry draws the line at unnecessary murder, but pretty much anything else is fair game if he thinks it’s deserved. From deliberately horrifying Slughorn with vivid tales of his mother’s assassination to extract information to torturing a Death Eater as punishment.
Hermione Granger: Oh, that was horrible. And he might kill them all.
Harry Potter: I'm not that fussed, to be honest.
Good Scars, Evil Scars:
- Harry's famous 'lightning bolt' shaped achey scar. It's easily covered up by his fringe.
- A magical quill in the fifth book gives Harry another scar, this one on the back of his hand. It's the words "I must not tell lies" in his own handwriting, from writing those words, over and over again, in his own blood during detention.
- In Deathly Hallows, he acquires two new scars in the same scene: a round one in his chest where Hermione had to cut out the locket-Horcrux that had stuck to his skin, and two snake-bite marks on his arm.
Green-Eyed Epiphany: Harry spends the summer of his sixth year getting close to Ginny in what he believes is a wholly platonic way, feels slight tingles of annoyance at the notion of her going off with her boyfriend which he pays no mind to, offhandedly asks her on a Not a Date to Hogsmeade without even realizing he's doing it, and even misses that she has the same aroma as the love potion that's supposed to smell like things he likes. Then he catches her making out with her boyfriend and it finally dawns on him that his violent desire to eviscerate the guy might have deeper implications. He tries to convince himself that she's just like a sister to him and that his territoriality was entirely brotherly, but ditches the idea after imagining himself as the one kissing her and realizing that image doesn't bother him at all.
Guilt Complex: Born partly out of his Chronic Hero Syndrome, Martyr Without a Cause, and Heroic Self-Deprecation. Harry carries a huge amount of guilt and blames himself for almost every death related to him. He blames himself for Cedric's death because he requested they grab the portkey together despite the fact that neither of them could have known it was such. He blames himself for Sirius's death because he thinks he should have known better than to fall into Voldemort's trap. He blames himself for not letting Sirius kill Pettigrew, thereby aiding Voldemort's return, as well as Voldemort's return to life because his blood was taken by force. He pretty much blames himself for every death Voldemort causes because he thinks Voldemort just wants him, despite the fact that he prevented countless deaths. That's one massive Guilt Complex. Some of it is justified, most notably in Sirius's death, which could have been prevented altogether if he'd set aside his grudge against Snape and his resentment towards Dumbledore and just learned Occulumency. Or not believed a known liar who hates both him and Sirius (and had to maintain his cover). Or listened to Hermione. Or simply used the Mirror that Sirius gave him to communicate to him privately.
Hair-Trigger Temper: In book five, Harry often (and easily) loses his temper due to a raging case of PTSD caused by witnessing Cedric Diggory's death and Voldemort's return, frustration at being kept out of the loop all summer, by the Order and by Dumbledore, and being snubbed for prefect (he recognises the latter as petty, and is genuinely happy for Ron... but still a bit annoyed about it). His friends are visibly scared to talk to him half the time, fearing his explosive temper. He calms down somewhat after the formation of the DA and his interview for the Quibbler allow him to actually feel like he's doing something and gain some closure. The calming down is completed in book six after his impetuousness gets Sirius killed.
Happily Married: The Cursed Child shows that he and Ginny are in a stable marriage with healthy communication and her keeping most of his rashness in check.
Has a Type: His two main love interests (Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley) are extroverted, light-hearted, popular girls who are talented Quidditch players, something that Harry doesn't fail to notice. The main reason Harry broke up with Cho was because she was too grieved and confused with Cedric's death, and Harry, burdened with his own baggage, wasn't looking forward to being somebody else's shoulder to cry on. One of the reasons he favoured Ginny was that she was able to remain light and free of issues despite facing trauma as in Chamber of Secrets.
Hate at First Sight:
- Disliked Malfoy's insensitivity and arrogance during their first meeting, which was cemented when they met again later and Malfoy snubs Ron.
- Also, when Harry first sees Umbridge as their new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor:
"Her voice was high-pitched, breathy, and little-girlish and again, Harry felt a powerful rush of dislike that he could not explain to himself; all he knew was that he loathed everything about her, from her stupid voice to her fluffy pink cardigan."
The Heart: The strongest moral centre in the story.
Heartwarming Orphan: Harry starts out as an orphan living in a closet under the stairs and ends up not only making Hermione's, Ron's, and Hagrid's lives a little brighter, but also saving the world from You-Know-Who.
The Hero: The story revolves around his maturation into a powerful wizard and dealing with the Big Bad trying to kill him.
Heroic Sacrifice: He does this near the end of the seventh book; however, this results in Harry's resurrection and Voldemort's final Karmic Death.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Occasionally delves into this.
Hermione: ...I'm not talking about test results, Harry. Look what you've done!
Harry: How d'you mean?
Ron: (sarcastically) Uh... first year- you saved the Stone from You-Know-Who-
Harry: But that was luck, that wasn't skill-
Ron: Second year- you killed the basilisk and destroyed Riddle- Third year, you fought off about a hundred dementors at once.... last year, you fought off You-Know-Who again-
Harry: ...But I didn't get through any of that because I was brilliant at Defence Against the Dark Arts... I just blundered through it all, I didn't have a clue what I was doing-
- This is a bit ironic, as Harry also falls under the Dude Where's My Reward? trope in the same book.
  - That one is more due to the fact that, after having seen Cedric Diggory's death and Voldemort's resurrection, he isn't told anything about Voldemort, which he feels is important because Voldemort is trying to kill him personally. And he is proven correct later in the book, by Dumbledore nonetheless, when he says that he has just realised that, by not telling Harry what he should have known earlier, believing he was protecting him, he only made things worse.
- Harry's playing down of his own competence is probably justified, as he is already well aware that he's the centre of a 14-year-old reputation built on a deed that he didn't actually perform himself. The last thing he wants the other students to believe is that he can pull an unbeatable solution out of his arse every time or teach them to do the same, because he knows it could get them killed. And sure enough, Colin Creevey, one of his biggest fans, dies in the last book, and it hits Harry "like a punch in the gut". Then again, Colin knew the score: he'd had to go out of his way to evade McGonagall and sneak back to fight. What Harry couldn't comprehend was just how determined the whole school was to make a stand; if McGonagall hadn't ordered them out, everyone would have stayed to fight.
Heroic Willpower: One of the few known wizards who can shake off the Imperius Curse, even one cast by Voldemort himself (which gives him a CMOA near the end of book 4).
Hero with Bad Publicity: Multiple times throughout the series, most notably in the fifth book, where the Ministry of Magic does everything they possibly can to make him look bad.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Ron — they have been best friends (with Hermione) since their first years and are more like brothers.
Honour Before Reason: Harry will consistently do the noble thing over the sensible thing, with Ron wondering at his 'saving people thing'. During the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, unaware that none of the "hostages" were in any real danger, Harry also decides to "save" Gabrielle after Fleur was nowhere to be seen, in addition to Ron. Due to his demonstration of moral fibre, he is awarded second place.
- Harry opts to disarm an Imperiused Stan Shunpike during the Battle of Seven Potters because any incapacitating spell would effectively kill him. However, it's pointed out more than once that this show of mercy jeopardized the entire mission by exposing the "real" Harry, as the Death Eaters considered Disarming to be his signature spell.
Hope Bringer: In early books, he's a Living Legend as the only one to survive the Killing Curse, but by Half-Blood Prince, his status as the Chosen One prophecized to defeat Voldemort once and for all turns him into this. It gets played up even further in Deathly Hallows after Dumbledore's death, where Hestia Jones lampshades his importance in the anti-Voldemort movement. The anti-Voldemort resistance radio is even dubbed Potterwatch, and Harry's presence at Hogwarts rallies virtually the entire resistance to him to make their stand against the Death Eaters.
Hot-Blooded: Sometimes, especially in the 3rd and 5th books. The latter has a lot to do with his issues surrounding Cedric's death and Voldemort's resurrection. Dumbledore reveals in Limbo that this was specifically why he held back information in the way that he did, wary at the prospect of Harry's hot head dominating his good heart.
Humble Hero: Although he dislikes being kept out of things or treated as incompetent, Harry never thinks of himself as anyone impressive and answers to mentions of his achievements by fixating on the fact that he always cut it extremely close. He ridicules the suggestion that he might have things to teach other students and insists that a lot of his feats sound much more impressive than they really were.
Ron Weasley: That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was.
Harry Potter: Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was. I've been trying to tell you that for years.
- Taken to Heroic Self-Deprecation levels at times, particularly during the first couple of years, as well as during the aforementioned teacher nomination. Sometimes played for laughs as in book six, where he's genuinely baffled by the fact that girls now consider him attractive.
Mad-Eye Moody: Play to your strengths.
Harry Potter: I haven’t got any.
Hypocrite: Has his moments, particularly when he tried to tell Ginny she was too young to go with him to rescue Sirius, only for her to point out that she's three years older than he was when he started going on these adventures. Harry is annoyed, mostly because he doesn't actually have an answer to this, and is trying to keep everyone out of it because he's scared they'll die like Cedric did.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: When you think of it, Harry is Dumbledore's sidekick and many times when Dumbledore is outgambited (such as during the Chamber of Secrets incident), it is up to Harry to pick up and handle the situation. A notable example is in Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore's plan to save Sirius boiled down to "give Hermione a few clues and then let Harry improvise on the run". Dumbledore acknowledges in Half-Blood Prince.
Albus Dumbledore I am not worried Harry, I am with you.
I Got Bigger: As a boy, Harry was described as "small and skinny". By the end, a now adult Harry is almost the same height as his father and frequently described as "tall".
Iconic Outfit: Harry is instantly recognizable by his glasses, black Hogwarts robes, and red-and-gold Gryffindor tie.
Idiot Ball:
- A minor example with major consequences: Harry forgetting Snape's membership in the Order. (He calls himself on it too.)
- Harry also forgets about the two-way mirror Sirius gave him after Christmas. He doesn't know exactly what it is, but he does know it's a communication device. This could be because he was determined not to use it before even finding out what it was, thinking that he didn't want to be the one to lure Sirius out of hiding (and look how well that works out for him!).
- He admits to himself after casting the Sectumsempra spell on Malfoy that it was incredibly stupid it was to cast completely unknown spells on random people, or in the case of Levicorpus, flick his wand at nothing in particular.
- Relying on his invisibility cloak after learning about the Disillusionment Charm and going into the Slytherin compartment instead of using an Extendable Ear to spy on them gets him caught. Luckily for him, the Order was keeping an eye on him.
Ignored Epiphany: In The Half-blood Prince, after hearing that Dumbledore and Snape had an argument about Snape not keeping an eye on the Slytherins enough, Harry speculates that Dumbledore probably didn't outwardly take Harry's suspicions about Malfoy and Snape seriously because it wasn't Harry's place as a student to investigate other students or teachers. This doesn't stop his obsession with what Malfoy is doing, which ends disastrously when Harry accidentally uses dark magic on Malfoy in a fight, nearly killing Malfoy (Harry had seen the spell in the Half-Blood Prince's notes and used it without knowing what it did).
I Just Want to Be Normal: The Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One, a Psychic Link into the insane mind of a monster, Weirdness Magnet… Well, with all this heaped on him, guess you can't blame him. It's more like "I Just Want To Be A Normal Wizard", though; he was miserable living among Muggles.
I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Downplayed. Harry becomes romantically interested in Ginny after she backs off, makes her crush on him less obvious, and interacts with him in a platonic and friendly manner. In this case, it's less that Harry enjoys the challenge of pursuing her, and more that he finds it unnerving and smothering when girls try to get him to love them, and more generally, much prefers people who treat him as a person rather than a Living Legend.
Immune to Mind Control: He's the only one in his class capable of fighting off the Imperius curse. Even Voldemort can't mind-control him, much to his surprise and annoyance.
I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: Harry verbalized this trope a few times throughout the series.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Not completely incorruptible since, being a Pragmatic Hero overall, he does have minor corrupting qualities, but he comes very close to being pure good. Despite entering the wizarding world as a Living Legend, Harry never once tries to take advantage of his fame for personal gain (as much some people think he enjoys the attention). Dumbledore notes when they meet in Limbo that, of all the people he's met, Harry is the only one who has zero interest in power despite every good Freudian Excuse offered by the world to seek it, and the mind and talent to claim and achieve what he wants. This is shown when after uniting the Deathly Hallows, Harry's only use of the Elder Wand is to repair his broken one before being willing to let the Elder Wand's power be broken; he cements it even more in the movie by snapping the wand in two and throwing the pieces away. He's also content with letting the Resurrection Stone be lost in the Forbidden Forest. He only opts to keep his Cloak of Invisibility as a family heirloom.
Indy Ploy: While having variable results with premeditated action, Harry is tremendously good at quickly thinking up ways to get out of tight spots or solving problems when pressed for time. Generally speaking, you light a fire under his ass and the kid's IQ jumps fifty points. One example of this would be escaping Gringotts by way of dragon.
Ineffectual Loner: Harry often tries to discourage his friends from helping him. This in spite of the fact that he's often quite helpless without them. When, in Deathly Hallows, he wishes that Ron and Hermione were with him, it's a sign that he has started to accept that he needs help from his friends.
Insecure Love Interest: Towards Ginny in the sixth book. He thinks that the only way she'll ever break up with Dean and date him, with Ron's approval, is if he drinks some Felix Felicis. Even after Ginny breaks up with Dean and Harry spends more time with her, he fears that another guy will ask her out, and he feels tempted to drink some more Felix Felicis to put the odds in his favor.
Inspector Javert: Subverted. Everyone thinks Harry is doing this to Draco, but his suspicions turn out to be right. He plays it straight with Snape, as we learn in the next book.
Instant Expert: It's mentioned that Harry is a very competent wizard when he applies himself, being capable of quickly learning new spells that most adults struggle with. This trait gets balanced, however, due to him being relatively lazy - though his chronically low self-esteem often leads to him assuming that he can't do it, or that whatever he can do isn't special. It's also implied that he's a kinesthetic learner - lectures and reading books don't do much, but when it comes to practising, he learns exceptionally fast. His skill with Flying is particularly noteworthy, since he demonstrates it right off the bat and without any training whatsoever. We later learn in the seventh book that he was capable of flying toy brooms with expert precision as early as one; he was one when Lily wrote to say that Harry loved his birthday present.
Irony: In The Cursed Child, Harry experiences the same thing his former professor did when he was a student: Being bullied that resulted the bad-blood between him and his bully, and ends up taking it out on his bully's son, despite the former Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up trying to better themselves for their families. To be fair to Harry though, he doesn’t realize that Draco has really tried to better himself and once he does, Harry is more accepting.
I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Parseltongue sounds completely indistinguishable from regular languages to those with the innate talent to speak it, so the only way Harry can tell if he or someone else is speaking it is by having a non-speaker point it out. Until an episode in his second year, he didn't even recall the talent, much less realize that it was extraordinary.
It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Considering being the Chosen One entails being the focus of Voldemort's not-inconsiderable ire, it very much does.
It's Not You, It's My Enemies: How he breaks up with Ginny Weasley.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Wants Ginny to live a happy life and marry someone else if he doesn't survive his search for the Horcruxes.
Jack of All Stats: Like Ron, Harry comes off as Brilliant, but Lazy in most subject. However, he's a very solid all round student when he actually applies himself, earning Es (the second-best grade one could get) in most subjects, including his least-favourite one of Potions (noting himself that he does a lot better when he doesn't have Snape breathing down his neck), while consistently besting Hermione in Defence Against the Dark Arts. He's a brilliant seeker but he ends Hogwarts with an overall weaker record than both Ron and Ginny^note. Of course compared to his parents, his father who became an Animagus at age 15 and co-invented the Marauder's Map, as well as his mother who was a Potions genius, Harry (and the trio in general) comes off as a relatively weak student - however, that's generally down to lack of motivation, and the fact that Defence Against the Dark Arts is his specialist subject, rather than something more obviously academic. When he actually is motivated to do or learn something, he picks it up remarkably quickly, with his learning how to cast the Patronus at 13 (something many grown witches and wizards can't do) and then using it to blast a Hundred or more Dementors (something that only Dumbledore can do), and when he has to learn for the Tournament in his 4th year, he learns spells that Krum - through Hermione - later notes that even he didn't know, despite being in his final year at Durmstrang. So while Harry is not Academic Genius, he is a highly competent student and probably the most powerful wizard of his generation with rather superior duelling skills.
Jerkass Ball: Catches this hard in Book 5, though a justified example: the trauma of witnessing Cedric Diggory's death and Voldemort's return gave Harry a severe case of PTSD and depression, causing him to snap at his friends. Then Dolores Umbridge shows up and just makes everything else worse and worse.
Karma Houdini: Harry is very often not punished for breaking school rules or other laws. Mostly because it all turns out to have been the best. In later books though he does take to using dark magic, sometimes in periods of stress (Sirius' death) or dire need (Gringotts break in) but other times less so (using Crucio when McGonagall is spat on), and the narrative doesn't really note this disturbing use of dark magic.
Kid Hero: Technically, by the final book, Harry is an adult by wizard estimation. But he’s been running circles around Voldemort since he was prepubescent.
The Kirk: Not as impulsive as Ron and not a stickler for rules like Hermione.
Kirk Summation: Gives one to Voldemort in the final book, outright explaining why the Elder Wand isn't working for him the way it should, telling him about Snape and how - and why - he betrayed him.

L-R

The Lancer: For Dumbledore in Book 6 on the Horcrux hunt.
Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Raised to be this, unintentionally so by Dumbledore - though it has to be said that Dumbledore tried to keep him out of it, long after it was practical.
The Leader: Of Dumbledore's Army and the Golden Trio. Harry fits three of the four archetypes — Most obvious is that he's a stubborn young man willing to save anyone (Headstrong); despite his fluctuating relationship with the Wizarding World, Harry grows to become a well-liked, inspiring figure to many people (Charismatic); and while Harry was noted to being reckless, he was often the middle man when dealing with Ron's temper and Hermione's practicality (Levelheaded). Becomes this to the Dark Wizard-fighting Auror Office as an adult - and a relatively young one, to boot.
Like a Son to Me: To Sirius, Molly Weasley, and Albus Dumbledore.
- Molly Weasley considers Harry one of her many sons. Somewhat deconstructed as she is very overprotective of him and acts as though she's the only parental figure he has. Sirius flat out tells her that she's not the only one who cares about him this way. Also slightly deconstructed in that she treats him better than her own children, particularly Ron, which puts a minor strain on their friendship culminating in The Deathly Hallows. Harry often feels awkward receiving better praise and presents from her than the other Weasley brothers (especially when they're right next to him), and listening to her scold and chide the others for reckless stunts that she instantly forgives him for. Though that might be because Molly is trying to make up for how the Dursleys treat him.
Sirius: [Harry]'s not your son!
Molly: He's as good as!
- Sirius is Harry's godfather and while circumstances, tragedy and bad luck prevent him from ever really playing that role, he cares enough about his godson that, as soon as he left Azkaban, he made a beeline to Privet Drive to glimpse Harry, unintentionally spooking him until the Knight Bus arrived, and even as he spent a year trying to infiltrate Hogwarts and find Peter, Sirius went out of his way to see Harry play at Quidditch and risked his secrecy by buying him a Firebolt. Also slightly deconstructed since Sirius, who is understandably traumatized and messed up, partly sees Harry as an extension of James, and when cooped up in Grimmauld Place, sometimes treats him like a friend rather than a child under his care.
- Albus Dumbledore never quite says this outright but he more or less sees Harry as his son, going leniently on him, being very patient, compassionate and forgiving of his antics and outright admitting to Harry in Book 5 that their relationship had always been more than just Headmaster and Pupil. Dumbledore even takes the role of Harry's father by passing the Cloak of Invisibility to him, an Ancestral Weapon that had been passed from parent to child by all of Harry's ancestors.
Like Brother and Sister: How Harry explains his relationship with Hermione to Ron. Harry also has this more obviously with Luna Lovegood, who is basically the little sister and sibling he always wanted. Harry tries to pass off his feelings for Ginny as this but realizes after a while that he's only fooling himself.
Like Parent, Like Child: A lot of characters tend to make this comparison, especially the people who knew Harry's father as a young man, both his teachers and his former schoolmates. Dumbledore and Remus note that James had a similar Honour Before Reason approach to combating the Dark Arts, in refusing to suspect his friends of treachery and a practitioner of Thou Shalt Not Kill even to the most undeserving. However, Harry gradually realizes that he and his father were different in some very important ways. His father was raised as an only child of privilege in a wizard household and that he ultimately has more in common with his Muggleborn mother, especially her compassionate nature (and fiery temper).
Locked Out of the Loop:
- Chronically, to the point of being a bit of an Idiot Ball issue for Harry's guardians and Dumbledore in particular. Their repeated attempts to keep Harry from finding out about dangers looming over him so as to not make him worry failed spectacularly every single time, with particularly disastrous results in Order of the Phoenix. After that fiasco, they finally realize that this was foolish, Dumbledore admitting it and explaining why (essentially, he'd hoped to protect Harry from the awful truth for a little longer) and let Harry and the rest of his friends in on what's going on.
- Ironically, Harry has to do this with everyone else in the Order and all his other friends sans Ron and Hermione come Deathly Hallows. Ostensibly it's to keep them safe, mainly because if Voldemort found out too early that they were hunting his Horcruxes, they were all screwed.
Longing Look: In the sixth book, he stares longingly at Ginny quite often, even before his Green-Eyed Epiphany and especially after she breaks up with Dean. Hermione catches him a few times, and merely responds with a smug look on her face.
Lovable Jock: Harry has been the Seeker for Gryffindor's Quidditch team since his first year. And since that time, he has remained a Nice Guy.
Loved by All: Poor Harry really goes through a lot to achieve this; the wizarding community constantly changes their opinion regarding Harry either seeing him as a hero or attention-seeking liar. He suffers a lot of ridicule and abuse in Order of the Phoenix due to the smear campaign conducted against him by the Ministry of Magic, but he regains his popularity when the Ministry is forced to admit that he was telling the truth about Voldemort's return and firmly cements himself as deserving of this after he finally defeats Voldermort once and for all.
Loving a Shadow: His crush on Cho Chang, which throughout the fifth book comes off as Harry being desperate for someone other than Ron and Hermione who believes and understands his angst and frustration over the Cedric, Ministry, and Voldemort issues. His crush on Cho was mostly based on an idealized view coming from how pretty, popular and Quidditch-adept she was, aside from how she treated him kindly in a constant manner. In the meantime, the emotionally crushed Cho is trying to wrap herself up in the memories of her tragically cut short relationship with Cedric Diggory by latching onto the person who was closest to him when he died. However, they had barely shared anything close to real conversations, and the relationship is ended about three-quarters of a way into the book.
Made of Iron: Harry can take a lot of punishment and still keep going. The most clear example is in Book Four. After a rather difficult and exhausting Third Task, where he injures his leg, he is transported to the Little Hangleton Graveyard where he has to witness Voldemort being revived, then tortured, resist brainwash, more torture and then having to duel Voldemort. He does all of that and can still run towards the Cup firing spells at the pursuing Death Eaters. And then he got back to Hogwarts and even more problems. Made of Iron indeed.
Magnetic Hero: While Harry is a very talented duellist, his true strength is his ability to inspire loyalty from those around him. Snape ironically uses this trope to damn Harry's ability as a wizard, but it is what ultimately leads to Harry's defeat of Voldemort.
Martial Pacifist: He's an excellent duellist, but refuses to kill to such an extent that he specializes in the nonharmful Disarming spell.
Martyr Without a Cause: At times, he recklessly risks his life to protect others even though he doesn't have to. This greatly exasperates his friends, and it gets worse when Voldemort quickly figures that out.It should be noted, that because of the Prophecy, Voldemort will ALWAYS come after him. And when he tries to warn people about a situation they tend to ignore it. It is completely Averted by the end of the saga when he realizes that he needs to die to destroy the last Horcrux that is inside of him
The Marvellous Deer: Harry's Patronus is a stag.
Mentor's New Hope: Young Harry is wisely watched over by Dumbledore, who also kept a close watch over Tom Riddle before he became Lord Voldemort.
Messiah Creep: Although there are messianic overtones right from the first chapter of the first book.
Messianic Archetype: Let's see his credentials — The Chosen One, All-Loving Hero, would save the ones who once ostracized him, and willingly sacrifices himself in order for the Horcrux within him to be destroyed so that Voldemort could be vanquished, but comes back to life.
Messy Hair: Inherited from his father, Harry's perpetually messy bush of jet black hair is his third most mentioned feature, after his scar and green eyes. It's almost supernaturally averse to staying down.
Molly Weasley: (at her wits' end trying to groom him) Doesn't it ever lie flat?
Harry Potter: (silently shakes his head)
- Depicted very inconsistently in the films, where besides being brown, it shifts from straight and neat to accurately bushy to short and tidy as the movies go. Overall, his hair spends most of the run looking anything besides bushy and messy.
- The first four movies have Harry with messy hair, but the fifth film just give Harry a close crop.
- Implied to be magically influenced, as Petunia gave him a horrible at-home haircut to get rid of the mess, and the next morning his hair had regrown and re-mussed itself.
Mind Reading: Performs it to Voldemort in the later parts of Book 7. It is slightly ambiguous if it is Legilimency.
Misery Builds Character: Dumbledore chose to leave him with the magic-hating Dursleys instead of a loving wizard family because he didn't want Harry to grow up with a swollen head from being told he was the Boy Who Lived and defeated Voldemort before he could walk or talk. He mentions this to Harry during their conversation near the end of Order of the Phoenix.
Dumbledore: Five years ago, then, you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy nor as well nourished as I would have liked, perhaps, yet alive and healthy. You were not a pampered little prince, but as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well.
Mistaken for Misogynist: During Half-Blood Prince, at one point Hermione accuses Harry of thinking that the titular Prince has to be male just because the writer is smart, only to be flattered when Harry points out that after spending years with her he obviously recognises that girls are brainy.
Mistaken for Racist: In Chamber of Secrets, when the Hufflepuffs are afraid of him because they think he's the Heir of Slytherin, Ernie mentions that he's heard Harry hates his Muggle relatives. However, he doesn't seem to be aware that Harry hates the Dursleys because they're abusive, not because they're Muggles. Later exaggerated once Harry speaks Parseltongue, making him look like the long-lost descendent of Salazar Slytherin himself, who was racist enough to hide a killer snake monster under the school that would hunt down Muggle-Born students once unleashed. The true long-lost descendent turns out to be Lord Voldemort, who does a better (read: far worse) job of living up to that racist legacy.
Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: At Privet Drive. Harry's relatives viciously spread lies about how he's a delinquent that steals from little kids and attends St. Brutus' Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys, when in truth Harry hates bullies and attends Hogwarts.
Moe Couplet:
- Harry and Luna. Luna is a Cloudcuckoolander who hardly seems troubled by anything and helps her father run the magical equivalent of a tabloid magazine, whereas Harry becomes more traumatized as increasing numbers of his friends and loved ones die. Some of them right in front of him. Yet, Luna understands what losing a loved one feels like, enabling her to empathise with his grief over Sirius — and Harry knows what being picked on feels like, so he naturally wants to help her out when people hide Luna's things and mock her behind her back. They serve as two sides of the same coin.
- Hermione is a magical genius, except when it comes to dealing with actual dark wizards, which is Harry's specialty (his life is basically a long series of fighting dark wizards). When it comes to personality, Harry is selfless to an annoying degree even when personal friends are not involved, while Hermione focuses on immediate gain and loss to her close friends (especially when it comes to grades!). While these traits alone would get kind of annoying, together they play off each other quite well. What they both lack is the ability to focus on caring for themselves, which is where Ron comes in — he's the rock they both lean on.
Mundane Fantastic: Inverted. Harry had never experienced life in a magical household before staying with the Weasleys, and he falls in love with The Burrow. Ron had been surrounded by magic for his entire life, and he doesn't think much of it.
Ron: It's not much, but it's home.
Harry: I think it's brilliant!
My God, What Have I Done?: He's horrified and guilt-ridden when he uses Sectumsempra on Malfoy and discovers that it's extremely dangerous dark magic. He's a bit more defensive in the book despite deeply regretting what he did, rationalizing the Half-Blood Prince's use of it. In the film he's left stunned and shaken to the point of crying.
Naïve Newcomer: Being raised by Muggles, Harry spends the first few months of the first book adjusting to the strange new world he finds himself in, and still has his moments after that.
Nephewism: Harry is nominally the nephew of the couple he lives with. In practice, he's more the unpaid overworked abused servant with nowhere else to go than a family member. Dumbledore arranged for him to live there so he wouldn't learn about the whole "Boy Who Lived" thing until he could have some perspective - and because he needed Harry to live with a family member as part of a magical protection, and Petunia was the only candidate and because Harry was a Living Horcrux and he was afraid about what could happen should that particular fact leak out far too soon.
Nice Guy: He may have angst and a sharp tongue, but he has possibly the biggest heart and most resilient moral code in fiction this side of Superman.
Noble Bigot: Has shades of this regarding Slytherin House. Somewhat Justified given that his first impressions of Slytherin involve Draco Malfoy being a stuck-up snob, Severus Snape hating him for no discernable reason, and Hagrid telling him that Voldemort and his flunkies were Slytherins.
Non-Idle Rich: Most definitely. Beyond the fact that he doesn't have to ever worry about money, his parents' Undisclosed Funds don't really impact his personality at all; he spends the last few books aiming to get a job in magical law enforcement. This is a point of difference between him and Ron, the fact that Harry doesn't really have to worry about money while for Ron, it's a central fact he had to internalize all his life.
Not Afraid of You Anymore: Part of Harry's maturation is his relationship with the Dursleys. In the early books, he feared earning their ire, particularly Vernon's, and gave them all a respectful berth whenever possible. However, as the series goes on and Harry survives countless dangerous situations and grows as a wizard, his fear of his abusive family becomes increasingly nonexistent. A good example would be in the final book, where he refuses Vernon's rude demand for him to sit down until his uncle adds a strained "please."
Not Afraid to Die: Harry and Voldemort are remarkably similar in many ways, but if there is one difference between them, it's this. Harry has never feared death, while Voldemort regards it as the worst thing that could ever happen to him.
Not So Above It All:
- While he's ordinarily a textbook Humble Hero, he couldn't resist writing Sirius a full, play-by-play description of his performance in the First Task that took up multiple pages in Goblet of Fire.
- Played for Laughs in the Goblet of Fire film. He, along with Ron, are among those who encouraged the fight between Fred and George after the latter two placed their names in the Goblet of Fire, which, as a result, backfired amusingly.
"Not So Different" Remark: In Chamber of Secrets, Harry notices disturbing similarities between himself and Voldemort. Voldemort returns the sentiment because, as Dumbledore notes, when faced with two possible candidates that fulfilled the prophecy, he chose to go after Harry because he was also a Half-Blood and thus saw himself in the boy. At the climax of Deathly Hallows, he sees parallels not only between himself and Voldemort, but also Snape, going so far as to think of them as "lost boys" whose only real home is Hogwarts.
Not So Similar: However, it is made very clear several times throughout the series that there are quite a few key differences between Harry and Voldemort. Both had a horrible childhood, but Harry nevertheless chose to be a good person. Voldemort sees love as a weakness, while it is Harry's greatest strength. Voldemort is vain and egomanic, while Harry is the textbook example of a Humble Hero. Voldemort is, above everything else, afraid of death, while Harry won't hesitate one second to sacrifice his life for the good of his friends.
Dumbledore: Harry, it isn't [about] how you are alike. It's how you are not!
Occult Detective: Much of what Harry ends up doing over the course of each book amounts to investigative work, motivated by his curiosity and his default involvement in anything Voldemort is doing. For example, Chamber of Secrets consists of Harry trying to get to the bottom of what the Chamber of Secrets is, who opened it, and what lurks inside it. Since Harry becomes an Auror, he may continue this kind of work professionally.
One Head Taller: In the final two books, Harry's growth spurt makes him about as tall as his father James. As shown in this artwork by Mary Grandpre, he stands one head taller than his main love interest Ginny.
One True Love: Per Rowling in this 2007 interview, Harry and Ginny are soulmates. Their brief time together in Half-Blood Prince was the happiest Harry had ever been in his entire life, and the only reason he even broke up with her was to ensure she wouldn't be put in even more danger by being his girlfriend. Even then, she remains a constant source of comfort throughout the Deathly Hallows. When Ron runs out on him and Hermione, Harry stares longingly at her dot on the Marauder's Map, thankful that she's as safe as she can be in these dark times. And finally, when Harry goes to sacrifice himself to Voldemort in order to destroy the horcrux within him, his last thoughts are of not of Ron or Hermione, or even his parents — they're of Ginny, proving once and for all that she was the most important person in his life. Also, in all the alternate timelines shown in The Cursed Child, Harry and Ginny still become an Official Couple.
Only Sane Man: Harry becomes this for the majority of Half Blood Prince. When Ron and Hermione are both dating whoever they can to make the other jealous, Harry has no qualms about telling them that they're both idiots.
Oppose What You Suffered: Harry was raised by his abusive aunt and uncle. This contributes to his empathy for others who've been abused, like Dobby the House Elf. He also notably hates bullies after suffering through it through his early childhood from his Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley, and this probably didn't help matters when he found out his father had, at one point, been something of a bully.
Parental Substitute: By the epilogue of Deathly Hallows he has become this to Teddy Lupin. After Teddy is born Remus asks Harry to be godfather, and Harry happily accepts. After the deaths of Remus and Nymphadora Tonks during the Battle of Hogwarts he helps Andromeda Tonks - Teddy's grandmother - raise him. Harry's own children become excited at the prospect of Teddy officially becoming a member of the family by marrying Victoire Weasley, noting that he spends so much time at the Potter home that he practically already is.
Part-Time Hero: Harry frequently neglects preparation for his battle with Voldemort in favour of sports and dating. Snape calls him on this during their battle at the end of the book. To be fair, it never should've been his job in the first place — if it weren't for the prophecy, Harry would've been left out of the war for the most part, and would've been happy with that.
Passing the Torch: Subverted. In Deathly Hallows when he believes he needs to die to destroy the fragment of Voldemort's soul inside of his body Harry explicitly passes his role as part of the trio to Neville, tasking him with killing Nagini. Neville briefly takes on Harry's role as Big Good when everyone believes that Harry has died until Harry reveals himself.
Past Experience Nightmare: Often, especially after his first encounter with Voldemort in the first year and Cedric's death. Subverted in Book 5, where he thinks he's having these but they're actually visions of actual events visible because of his connection with Voldemort.
Phrase Catcher:
- "Professor Snape, Harry."
- If Harry meets someone from the magical world for the first time, expect the following:
  - "You look just like your father."/"You have your mother's eyes."
  - The non-verbal glance up to his scar from people he's meeting for the first time.
Pinball Protagonist: Due to a combination of grief, PTSD, and being Locked Out of the Loop, Harry rarely does anything active in Order of the Phoenix unless Dumbledore orders him to do it (Occlumency) or Hermione convinces him that it's a good idea (Dumbledore's Army, the interview).
Playing Possum: Harry does an outstanding job of convincing Voldemort that he's dead, then sneaks his way into the final battle.
Politically Incorrect Hero: While it's justified and handwaved by the special fantasy rules and codes imposed by the author, the fact is from Book 6 to Book 7, and as per JKR even after the book, Harry Potter becomes a slaveowner, inheriting Kreacher from Sirius who he's told not to free by Dumbledore and later Hermione. He kept Kreacher in servitude and bondage even after Voldemort's downfall when there wasn't any military necessity anymore.
Popularity Cycle: Whether Harry's the most popular student in school, the most hated, or just some guy varies greatly over the course of the series. He's a celebrity for something that happened when he was a baby, and he's generally well-liked and a great Quidditch player, but plot-related drama wreaks havoc on his social life, over matters ranging from petty (being out of bed at night costs Gryffindor tons of House points and he's shunned over this for weeks) to serious (he's suspected of being the one attacking students and many fear the attacks will become outright murder soon). Harry greatly prefers being regarded as just "some guy," since that's all he considers himself to be.
The Power of Love: The reason he survived the Killing Curse as a kid is because his mother's Heroic Sacrifice invoked this on him. Plus, Dumbledore claims that Harry's greatest strength is his ability to love, even though Harry wants to know What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?. As seen during Deathly Hallows, The Power of Love is an awesome power, given that it protects everyone in the castle after Harry sacrifices himself, only it doesn't really manifest as power in any Functional Magic sense. Rather, it's a metaphor for his ability to make friends, inspire loyalty to them which is returned and his ability to be a man of honour who would extend helping hands to his enemies (the Malfoys) and his friends.
The Profiler: In Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore passes his knowledge and analysis of Tom Riddle's life and character to Harry in preparation of the Horcrux hunt. Harry, having lived a life similar to Tom's, uses that information to deduce the locations of two of them almost entirely on his own. In some ways, Harry understood Voldemort more than even Dumbledore did.
Protagonist Title: All of the books/movies are titled "Harry Potter and the X" or "Harry Potter and the X of X".
Psychic Dreams for Everyone: In Cursed Child Harry somehow correctly dreams that he'll find Albus wearing Durmstrang robes in the Forbidden Forest.
Rage Against the Mentor: Harry is displeased when Dumbledore up and dies (most inconsiderate), leaving him a seemingly impossible quest with 10% completion and some unbelievably vague clues about the Deathly Hallows; and he has to find out secondhand about Dumbledore's torrid past, including how Albus was BFFs with Wizard Hitler (well, the first one, anyways).
- A much more direct version occurs at the end of Order of the Phoenix, when Dumbledore finally spills the beans about almost everything. Harry's rebuttal leaves many of Dumbledore's office decorations in pieces around the room.
Rage Breaking Point: Having had enough of Dudley taunting him about his mother and Cedric, Harry forces his wand into Dudley's throat in rage.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives Voldemort one in the last book about one minute before their final battle at the end.
Red Baron: Harry is known as "The Boy Who Lived" because he is the only person in the wizarding world to have survived the dreaded Killing Curse. Twice. At the end, he lives once again after his Disney Death.
Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- The calm and sensible blue to Ron's red.
- The emotional and impulsive red to Hermione's blue.
Relationship Upgrade: He and Ginny start off as strangers in the first book. They get to spend more time together in the second book, with Ginny's crush on Harry being revealed. They become proper close friends in the fifth book as Ginny helps Harry with his emotional troubles and their time together in the Dumbledore's Army. By the next book, they are an Official Couple but Harry breaks up with Ginny to protect her from Voldermort and his followers. When the said wizard is killed and peace is assured, they get back together since the epilogue shows them Happily Married with two sons and a daughter.
Relative Button:
- Whatever you do, do NOT insult his parents.
  - Harry endures a whole week of relentless insults from Marjorie Dursley, but it isn't until she has a go at his father that he finally snaps completely.
  - Later in the novel Snape makes the same mistake, prompting a Big "SHUT UP!" from Harry.
  - Voldemort has no problem referring to Lily as a "filthy Muggle mother" in front of Harry's face. Harry retaliates with an Expelliarmus, only for Voldemort to repel it without issue.
  - When Draco starts making fun of Ron and insulting his parents after losing a Quidditch match, Harry tries to restrain George. But the moment Malfoy mentions Harry's mother, Harry jumps at him, punching him in the stomach while still holding the snitch in his fist.
- Diss one of his favourite teachers to his face, and you'll be in for a world of hurt. Just ask Amycus Carrow.
- Dudley taunts Harry about his mother and Cedric after overhearing him talking about them in his sleep. Harry, who will have none of it, forces his wand into Dudley's throat in anger.
- After Bellatrix kills Sirius, she enjoys taunting Harry over the atrocity and goading him into chasing after her every opportunity she gets.
Reluctant Warrior: He honestly doesn't want to be The Chosen One. It’s justified, considering all that he goes through.
Replacement Goldfish:
- Part of the reason his relationship with Cho Chang failed—she latched onto him mainly because of his connection to Cedric.
- Mostly in the films, but Sirius sends mixed signals about his relationship towards Harry, sometimes being a Parental Substitute as his godfather and other times trying to pretend that he's still at Hogwarts with James - though it should be said that in the books, he only really does this at all in Order of the Phoenix, when cooped up in Grimmauld Place. The latter is a point of contention between Sirius and Molly Weasley when Molly lampshades this in Order of the Phoenix.
Molly Weasley: He's not James, Sirius!
- Then this:
Sirius Black (during a duel late in the corresponding film): "Nice one, James!"
- It also works the other way round; during the hour when it seemed like Harry would live with Sirius instead of the Dursleys at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry later reflected that it was "almost as good as having his father back.''
Rescue Romance:
- His first really significant interaction with his future wife Ginny Weasley was when he descended alone into the dread Chamber of Secrets, slew a basilisk with a sword, and destroyed a soul fragment of the worst Dark Wizard of all time that was trying to siphon her life away. After that, you'd probably be rather surprised if they hadn't ended up together.
- He also gains the affections of Gabrielle Delacour after he rescues her from the Black Lake (even though she wasn't technically in danger). This, however, goes nowhere.
Rookie Red Ranger: In the first book, at least. He's the de facto leader of the main trio because of his bravado and reputation as "The Boy Who Lived", but he has the least magical knowledge of any of them; while Ron was raised by Wizards, and Hermione began studying and practicing Magic as soon as she got her acceptance letter^note, Harry remains mostly clueless about the Wizarding World until he actually begins his term at Hogwarts.

S-Y

Save Our Students: Gets persuaded/strong-armed into the role by Ron and Hermione in Order of the Phoenix. To his own surprise, he achieves very good results.
Save the Villain: He has a habit of this:
- His initial saving of Wormtail from being executed by Sirius and Remus is a subversion, as he's only doing it to clear Sirius' name and turn him over to the dementors. Played straight in Deathly Hallows when he and Ron try unsuccessfully to stop Wormtail's enchanted hand from strangling him after he momentarily hesitates when Harry calls him out on his life debt.
- He does this twice for Draco Malfoy in Deathly Hallows despite Malfoy being enough of an Ungrateful Bastard to try appealing to the Death Eaters. Draco's mother subsequently returns the favour.
The Scapegoat: In a bid to keep the public from learning of the return of Voldemort in Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry leads a media campaign against Harry, smearing his name in the dirt.
Scars Are Forever: While magic can cure most injuries, Harry's lighting-bolt scar is caused by Dark Magic and can't be removed. The scars from his Writing Lines for Umbridge also persist, but whether they can't be fully healed, or Harry has chosen to keep them, isn't fully explained.
Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As soon as he becomes Head Auror, he can use this as an excuse to ignore protocol and help people on ground zero.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: His basic approach to life. He will ignore and/or go against authority, laws and people with power if he what he thinks is doing the right choice. This is probably the reason why he is able to resist the Imperius curse, as seen when he's not agreeing with the voice in his head.
Sharp-Dressed Man: By his late-thirties/early-fourties, Harry is almost always seen exclusively wearing three-piece suits.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's obvious that he suffers from PTSD that gets worse by the time of the fifth book, with nightmares and all. It's also pretty bad throughout the last book.^note
Shipper on Deck: When he realizes Ron and Hermione have feelings for one another, he is quick to ship them together and spends a decent amount of the sixth book trying to get them to repair their relationship with one another and finally get together.
Shonen Hair: In the books, his hairstyle is described as having a kind of magical permanence; it's constantly unruly and messy, immune to hairbrushes, combs, and gel, and whenever it's cut short, it's back to the exact same style it was before a day later. In an anime, that last detail would be considered a parody of every single Shonen hero.
Signature Spell:
- Expelliarmus, the Disarming Charm, not always for the same reason. In Chamber of Secrets he uses it against Lockhart because it's the only combat spell he knows at the time. In Prisoner of Azkaban he uses it against Snape for the same reason. In Goblet of Fire he uses it against Voldemort because Voldemort's use of the word "duel" made Harry think of the Duelling Club, where he learned it. In Order of the Phoenix he teaches it to Dumbledore's Army as the first spell because of his experience with it and because it works. In Deathly Hallows he uses it again on Imperiused Stan Shunpike because other spells would have knocked him off a high-flying broom and Harry doesn't want to kill victims under the Imperius Curse. Later in Deathly Hallows he uses it against Voldemort as an acknowledgement that it is his signature move.
- To a lesser extent, Expectum Patronum, the Patronus Charm can be considered one as well. Though its usage is very situational, Harry's mastery of the spell (especially for his age at the time his learned it) is always on full display whenever it's cast.
Significant Birth Date: The reason he's born as the seventh month dies is because JKR wanted her hero to share a birthday with his creator.
Sins of Our Fathers:
- Much of the hostility that Snape and Vernon hold for Harry is a result of problems they had with James.
- In And the Cursed Child Harry himself displays this trope, going to great lengths to keep his son, Albus from being friends with Scorpius Malfoy (son of Draco Malfoy, whom Harry has never been on good terms with). But it should be noted that the situations is completely different: At worst James was a schoolyard bully to Severus Snape, meanwhile Draco was a Death Eater and had tried to kill Harry at several points during the War. Also unlike Snape, Draco does not change sides and only shows improvement during that same book Once he sees that the Malfoys are genuinely good people now, he changes his attitude.
Socially Awkward Hero: He's quite shy in the beginning of Philosopher's Stone, and remains unable talk to girls romantically for most of the series. Also, any attention he receives as a result of his celebrity makes him uncomfortable and embarrassed; he therefore confides mainly to his two best friends. And while Harry is well-liked by his peers (when they're not turning on him due to false suspicions), only a few really know him.
Soul Fragment: When Voldemort tried to kill the one-year old Harry and failed, he accidentally made him into a Horcrux, forging a connection between their minds.
Soul Jar: One of the biggest shocks (for some) in book seven was learning that Harry was a Horcrux for Voldemort.
Speaks Fluent Animal: Fluent Parseltongue, allowing him to perceive the hissing of snakes as human speech and be able to speak to them in turn. In Harry’s particular case, this ability seemed to come from being scarred by Voldemort, creating a connection between them. As such, this power disappears once Harry kills the Dark Lord.
Strong and Skilled: Magical-variant. Harry's spells have a lot of "juice" since he can send an adult wizard flying with his Expelliarmus (Lockhart in the books, Snape in the movies) and by the Triwizard Tournament Viktor Krum (a fully trained Wizard and Proffessional Quidditch player) is amazed at Harry's skills, both at spell casting and flying. And it is only upwards from there.
Strong Family Resemblance: People who knew his parents constantly remind him that he looks a lot like his father, but he has his mother's green eyes. When Harry sees the young James inside a memory, he finds the experience quite uncanny; noticing that looking at his father is quite a bit like looking in a mirror, though with some details being somewhat off, like James having different coloured eyes.
Surrounded by Idiots: He feels this way towards the Ministry of Magic for not accepting Voldemort's return sooner as well as not punishing Umbridge for her actions at Hogwarts. He has good reason to feel that way.
Sweet Tooth: A given since his favourite food is a dessert.
Sympathy for the Devil: Is moved enough to want to help Voldemort in Limbo, who has irreparably damaged his soul, but is powerless to do so.
Talking to Themself: Even without mental disorders, Harry occasionally holds amusingly even-split arguments with himself, such as in his fifth year where his jealousy over Ron's prefect badge argued against his natural humility, or his sixth year where his crush on Ginny argued against his guilt about her being Ron's sister. He refers to it as the "little voice in his head," which usually plays the part of his conscience.
Harry Potter: She's Ron's sister.
Also Harry: But she's ditched Dean!
Harry Potter: She's still Ron's sister.
Also Harry: I'm his best mate!
Harry Potter: That'll make it worse.
Also Harry: If I talked to him first—
Harry Potter: He'd hit you.
Also Harry: What if I don't care?
Harry Potter: He's your best mate!
- At other points, Harry's inner voice is quite nasty, which could possibly be an effect of the Voldemort's fragment of soul inside of him, or just a result of his insecurities.
Tantrum Throwing: Pushed to this after Sirius dies, trashing most of Dumbledore's various magical tools and equipment in his grief. While the portraits of the headmasters think he's lashing out for no good reason, Dumbledore remains calm throughout and acknowledges Harry has the right to vent his anger on him. He even tells him that, if he were to come charging to hurt him physically, he wouldn't stop him, because he feels he deserves it.
Taught by Experience: Harry's combat skills were developed exclusively on the fly, owing largely to the spastic and uneven quality of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes coupled with necessity. As a result, he has a somewhat limited (but effective) arsenal of spells, but excellent split-second reactions and is largely immune to pressure choking.
Teacher's Unfavorite Student:
- Snape pegs Harry as his least favorite student within seconds of meeting him, unfairly marking him down in class and letting the Slytherins bully him—especially Harry's rival and Snape's own favorite, Malfoy. It's because Harry looks like his father James, who was not only Snape's biggest bully during their Hogwarts days, but eventually married Lily, the only girl Snape ever loved.
- In Harry's fifth year, the enmity he quickly develops with Umbridge makes his and Snape's mutual loathing look downright friendly. Under orders from the Ministry of Magic, she stifles all of his attempts to tell everyone that Voldemort has returned, up to and including punishing him with a detention where he's forced to carve the phrase "I must not tell lies" into the back of his hand. She also finds other ways to punish him, including banning him from the Quidditch team, taking away his privilege to visit Hogsmeade after finding out he published an interview in The Quibbler about Voldemort's return, and trying to get him expelled for starting a secret student organization to learn proper Defense Against the Dark Arts skills.
Technical Pacifist: He'll hex, disarm, or stun any opponent he faces, but don't expect him to kill anyone—except Voldemort, and even that was more Voldy causing his own undoing.
Tiny Schoolboy:
- He is noted to be short in earlier books, but he has several growth spurts throughout the series; by the final book, he's exactly as tall as his father, who is described as "tall" several times; although he's still slightly shorter than Ron, the twins, and even Draco.
- His actor in the films, Daniel Radcliffe, is 5'5" (165 cm).
Tomato in the Mirror: He eventually realizes that he must let himself be killed because he is holding on to Voldemort's life.
Too Dumb to Live: Defied in Prisoner Of Azkaban.
Mr. Weasley: Harry, promise me that whatever you do, you will not go looking for him.
Harry: Mr. Weasley, why would I go looking for someone who wanted to kill me?
Took a Level in Badass: A rather gradual case throughout the course of the series. In the first book, Harry is never shown using a single spell, his only magical contribution being his natural talent for flying. In the second book, he uses a few basic spells against Draco in a Wizard duel, but nothing particularly special. Things begin to change in the third, where he spends several months learning the Patronus charm and becoming quite proficient with it, despite being a very difficult spell to master. However while impressive, it is rather situational, only really being useful when facing a Dementor. The bigger shift comes in the fourth book when Hermione and Ron help him learn several hexes and jinxes to prepare him for the final challenge in the Triwizard Tournament. Those same spells are honed into real skills in the fifth book where he teaches them to Dumbledore's Army. The sixth book gives him a few extra bonus spells courtesy of the Half Blood Prince and by the time the seventh book comes around, it's finally time to put all of that learning to the test.
Took a Level in Cynic: Harry has horrible stuff happen to him every year, but in his first few years at Hogwarts, he still bounces back and has a tendency to believe that everything can turn out alright and trust the teachers for help. As the series goes on though, people he's close to actually start to die, things aren't nicely fixed by the end of each book, and the adults he previously trusted are either corrupt or well-meaning but unable to do much. Of note is how the later books, particularly the last one, show his crumbling trust in Dumbledore. A younger Harry sees Dumbledore as an impressive authority figure who can solve any problem. When he gets older, Harry is forced to accept that not only is Dumbledore not always in control and always know what's going on, but had a history that was about as far from noble and heroic as one could get.
Toy-Based Characterization: When he was a baby, Harry loved flying around on a toy broomstick that was a birthday present from his godfather Sirius. Later in his life, he discovers his natural aptitude for Quidditch, a sport played on broomsticks.
Trademark Favourite Food: Harry seems to be very fond of treacle tarts. Hell, he's so fond of the stuff that its aroma is one of the three things he smells when he sniffs a love potion.
Tragic Keepsake: Harry gained items that once belong to departed loved ones.
- In his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he received the Cloak of Invisibility as an anonymous Christmas gift. He later learned the gift came from Albus Dumbledore, who obtained it in turn from Harry's father, James Potter. It was later revealed to be a family heirloom as well as one of the three Deathly Hallows. From this Harry realises he is a direct descendant of Ignotus Peverell, one of the three brothers who created the Deathly Hallows. Ignotus' grand-daughter married Linchfred, the founder of the Potter family, and brought the cloak into the family. It has yet to be established which of his three children will inherit (or has inherited) the cloak; tradition dictates it be the eldest, James Sirius Potter, but Harry's not been one for tradition.
- In his third year, Fred and George gave the Marauders' Map to Harry while he was trying to sneak into Hogsmeade. It was confiscated by Remus Lupin, but later returned when Lupin quit his job. In addition to providing Harry with unparallelled knowledge of the Hogwarts castle and grounds, this too was an inheritance, as his father James "Prongs" Potter — along with schoolboy friends Sirius "Padfoot" Black, Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew and Remus "Moony" Lupin himself — was one of the Marauders who had created the Map. Harry kept it with him for a long period of time, storing it in the moleskin wallet he had gotten from Hagrid, until it was finally stolen from his desk by his son, James.
- In Deathly Hallows, when Harry leaves the Dursleys' house for good and discards most of his possessions, he keeps with him the fake Horcrux that Dumbledore had all but died helping him retrieve from the cave. This is also an example of the hero not keeping the keepsake; instead, Harry gives it to Kreacher, an act that results in the house-elf that had loathed Harry and his friends becoming one of his most loyal allies.
- In Cursed Child, it's revealed that the only thing of Lily's that Harry has is the blanket in which Hagrid wrapped him up when he brought him to Privet Drive. Harry tells his son Albus that he brings out the blanket every Halloween's Eve to remember his mother's sacrifice. Turns out to be a Plot Device All Along when the blanket becomes the means through which Albus communicates with Harry when he is trapped back in time in 1981 on the eve of Voldemort's attempted murder of baby Harry.
Trauma Conga Line: His entire life really, but he has a particularly bad run at the end of GOF through OOTP leading to an extended Heroic BSoD in OOTP:
- First, his classmate Cedric gets killed in front of him.
- Then, he witnesses Voldemort's resurrection.
- He's forced to duel with Voldemort, only surviving the encounter due to an obscure magical fluke between their wands.
- As a result of that fluke, he encounters the spirits of his dead parents. And Cedric. Who asks him to survive a battle with a newly Back from the Dead Lord Voldemort himself and escape back to Hogwarts whilst carrying his corpse.
- Upon managing to escape with Cedric's body and return to Hogwarts, promptly discovers that "Moody", a teacher he's liked and trusted all year, has actually been an imposter manipulating him and had been the one who served him up for Voldemort, and discovers the real Moody has been held hostage the entire year.
- Once finally safe, his story is promptly disbelieved and dismissed by Fudge, who then embarks on a discrediting campaign against him and Dumbledore for the next year.
- Coming down from all that, he then gets parked with his abusive relatives for half the summer, hearing nothing from Dumbledore or any of his friends, and still manages to get attacked by Dementors in the middle of his boring Muggle suburb.
- He's then taken to Number 12, Grimmauld place, where he lashes out at his friends for Locking him Out Of The Loop on Dumbledore's orders, they all have to deal with the frustration of being Locked Out of the Loop by the Order of the Phoenix, worries about being expelled from Hogwarts (which Hermione considered A Fate Worse Than Death in Philosopher's Stone) and has to deal with Fudge and Umbridge being quite biased during his expulsion hearing and needing Dumbledore Mrs. Figg to bail him out, listen to Kreacher and Sirius' mother's portrait being appallingly racist towards literally everyone present, including poor Sirius, who's stuck in a house he hates because he's still wanted for the murder Pettigrew committed, breifly be convinced Ron has died suddenly, and watch Molly Weasley break down in a sobbing mess at the sight of a boggart turning into the corpses of the Weasley children, including his own.
- When he returns to Hogwarts, Dumbledore is inexplicably distant with him and Umbridge begins her reign of terror.
- He's plagued by pains in his scar and odd visions and random surges of feelings not belonging to him, that he eventually realizes are a psychic link to Voldemort, which terrifies him.
- On top of all that, Harry spends the entire year desperately short on adult guidance from anyone he can trust. Dumbledore is being aloof out of fear of Voldemort exploiting the psychic link with Harry. Sirius is struggling mentally at Grimmauld Place and Harry fears he'll put himself in danger if Harry confides in him. Lupin is living with Sirius and thus also isn't an option. And Molly is clearly terrified for Harry as it is and is unlikely to have any real answers for the things he's dealing with.
- Finally culminating in Dumbledore's arrest and Sirius' death. And Nearly Headless Nick telling him that not only did Sirius board the train and continue into the afterlife, but he would've been a coward like him if he'd stayed, clinging to a poor imitation of life forever, just so he could help his godson feel better.
- Given that he's still only fifteen years old, small wonder he Took a Level in Jerkass that year.
Tritagonist: In Cursed Child. His relationship with protagonist Albus is the focal point of his character arc and he's the one to subdue the Big Bad in the end (and it's his name in the title), but he doesn't get as much stage time as Albus or Scorpius.
The Unchosen One: Dumbledore helps Harry become this in Half-Blood Prince. By the time the series ends, it transpires that there was nothing wholly special about Harry himself apart from the importance Voldemort's paranoia thrust upon him. His courage, wit, and empathy are what see him through against forces far more straightforwardly powerful than he.
Undisclosed Funds: He is quite wealthy, as the money his parents left him adds up to quite a lot. Reinforced when he gives away the entire 1000-galleon Triwizard earnings to the Weasleys without a second thought, serving in effect as an angel investor to a new startup at the age of 15. But then he becomes sole heir to the Black family fortune at the age of 16, it's implied to be somewhere between extremely and obscenely. He is perhaps the richest independently wealthy student at Hogwarts.
- Pottermore finally discloses that his family made a fortune from patents on healing potions such as Skele-Gro, Pepperup and Sleekeazy's Hair Potion (which considering the Messy Hair of James and Harry, is some kind of cosmic joke, not to mention Harry's dislike for Potions (at least when Snape teaches it), despite actually having a knack for it). Harry's grandfather, Fleamont Potter sold the family business for a big sum and retired comfortably, having more than enough to be independently wealthy and it was still sizeable enough that James didn't have to work and could devote full-time to the Order, while also supporting Lily and Remus, still leaving Harry a reduced but sizeable fortune.
- With the addition of the Triwizard Prize (which he quickly gives away) and then Black's inheritance, Harry is loaded as never before and moreover possesses, to wit: his own mansion (The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black), a House Elf (Kreacher) and the most expensive broom in the world (the Firebolt, which he sadly loses in the final book). And while he would never sell it, his Cloak of Invisibility would be worth several pureblood fortunes should its true nature ever be divulged.
The Un-Favourite: In the Dursley household.
Unskilled, but Strong: He has the raw power to produce a solid, stable patronus at 13, and is able to access a considerably large reservoir of magical power (enough to face down Death Eaters and Voldemort when he's 17). However, he is continuously outclassed by Hermione, who is incredibly skilled, and any other wizard or witch who doesn't just rely on raw power for their magic.
- Harry ends up inverting this, in a sense, as he's a supremely skilled duellist. Interestingly, duelling isn't even mentioned as one of his skills until the fifth book, at which point it becomes clear that we've watched him live the past four years on his wits and creative uses of magic. Also while Hermione is capable of doing "school spells" to a rather good degree, she struggles with the "true" high level spells, like the Patronus and the Unforgivables, meanwhile those spells come rather easily to Harry who is also very good at managing pitched battles and out-hexing wizards with access to powerful dark magic through good aim, honed reflexes, and an ability to take advantage of his environment. So yeah, "in a weird way". The movies also show Harry at being extremely good at pulling up combat spells quickly, so he definitely skilled at casting spells.
- To simplify, Rowling herself has stated that in terms of combative magic, Harry has definitely exceeded Hermione and would be capable of defeating her in a duel when it comes to both raw power and combat skill. She has also stated that as a student, Harry might well have been the third most powerful student Hogwarts ever had in terms of how much power he could pump into his spells. It's just that his spell repertoire compared to other wizards wasn't necessarily the widest.
Unstoppable Rage: In Order of the Phoenix, after Sirius is killed, Harry loses his shit so badly he tries to use the Cruciatus Curse on their murderer. It doesn't work since the curse is fuelled by sadism, but points for trying. Subverted, however, when Voldemort intervenes.
Unwitting Pawn: At several points he serves as this to Voldemort in Book 2, 4 and 5 especially. The final book gives him what is likely the Awful Truth, that he is one for Dumbledore himself, who knew all along that he would have to sacrifice himself to Voldemort and had prepared and trained him as a Stealth Mentor to do this at the right time. Of course, Dumbledore in the afterlife admitted he figured Harry would survive anyway and feels guilty about it. Rowling noted that Dumbledore was fairly Machiavellian in his relationship with Harry and that the latter is basically "his puppet."
Uptown Guy: Harry isn't obscenely upper class, but he's very well-off and at times, particularly his sixth year, is pretty popular. He ultimately marries Ginny Weasley, who is from a poor "blood traitor" family.
We All Die Someday: The key thing that separates him from Voldemort, aside from their views on The Power of Love; while Voldemort seeks immortality and simply cannot imagine a Fate Worse than Death, Harry acknowledges and accepts his own mortality.
What Beautiful Eyes!: Along with his trademark lightning-bolt shaped scar, his green eyes (inherited from Lily) are his most frequently commented-on trait.
Who Are You?:
- Harry's first reaction to Hagrid. The narration states that because Hagrid is so huge, Harry has to repress his astonishment and avoid asking "What Are You?" instead.
- He has the same reaction, and initial desire to ask "what" rather than "who", to Dobby in the second book.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: An interesting variation; Harry's greatest fear is of Dementors, evil creatures that feed off emotions and force the victims into a deep despair. Professor Lupin takes this to mean that Harry's greatest fear is of fear itself. Ironically, Harry's mastery of the Patronus charm means that Dementors are really no big deal for him, in spite of them remaining his boggart.
Wise Beyond Their Years: Even at eleven, he knew that death was preferable to a cursed life.
Would Hit a Girl: Harry has no qualms over using aggressive spells on women.
The Worf Effect: While a highly skilled duellist, Harry's often used to highlight the skills of other characters. Both Lord Voldemort and Severus Snape effortlessly outclass him in duels, as it's specifically made clear that Harry has only ever been able to defy Voldemort due to external circumstances that makes their fight involve no skill, and Belaatrix Lestrange and Antonin Dolohove also trounce him summarily, only surviving due to outside interferences. Even after Taking a Level in Badass Remus Lupin is able to knock Harry down without even using a wand!
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Occasionally. Harry believes he is unworthy of his fame. Partly justified, though, as it was technically Lily who destroyed Voldemort the first time by sacrificing herself to save Harry. But Harry more than proves himself by facing off Voldemort each year. He also feels unworthy of his house in Chamber of Secrets, but he gets over it after Dumbledore shows him that he pulled out Godric Gryffindor's sword.
You Killed My Father: The reason why he wants to hunt down Voldemort is because he brutally murdered his parents.
Young and in Charge: By his fifth year, due to Harry's first hand experience fighting and defending himself from Death Eaters, he gets made into the leader of Dumbledore's Army, effectively making him the unofficial Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor.

"I've had enough trouble for a lifetime."

Characters / Harry Potter – Harry James Potter

Harry James Potter

Portrayed by: Daniel Radcliffe (films), Joshua Herdman (Gregory Goyle disguise in Chamber of Secrets), David O'Hara (Albert Runcorn disguise in Deathly Hallows: Part I), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ^cast

Video game voices: Joe Sowerbutts (Philosopher's Stone), Tom Attenborough (Chamber of Secrets & Prisoner of Azkaban), Daniel Larner (Goblet of Fire), Adam Sopp (Order of the Phoenix to Kinect), Daniel Radcliffe (LEGO Dimensions, archive audio from the films)

Appears in: Philosopher’s Stone | Chamber of Secrets | Prisoner of Azkaban | Goblet of Fire | Order of the Phoenix | Half-Blood Prince | Deathly Hallows | Cursed Child

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Characters / Harry Potter – Harry James Potter

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Harry James Potter

Video game voices: Joe Sowerbutts (Philosopher's Stone), Tom Attenborough (Chamber of Secrets & Prisoner of Azkaban), Daniel Larner (Goblet of Fire), Adam Sopp (Order of the Phoenix to Kinect), Daniel Radcliffe (LEGO Dimensions, archive audio from the films)

Appears in: Philosopher’s Stone | Chamber of Secrets | Prisoner of Azkaban | Goblet of Fire | Order of the Phoenix | Half-Blood Prince | Deathly Hallows | Cursed Child

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