Harry James Potter (b. 31 July 1980) was an English wizard, one of the most famous wizards of modern times. He was the only child and son of James and Lily Potter (née Evans), both members of the original Order of the Phoenix. On his eleventh birthday, Harry learned that he was a wizard. He began attending Hogwarts in 1991 and was Sorted into Gryffindor House. However, the Sorting Hat wanted to put him in Slytherin. At school, Harry became best friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He later became the youngest Quidditch Seeker in over a century and eventually the captain of his house's team, winning two Quidditch Cups.
Outward appearance
Harry is described as having his father's perpetually untidy black hair, his mother's bright green eyes, and a
lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. He is further described as "small and skinny for his age" with "a
thin face" and "knobbly knees", and he wears round eyeglasses. In the first book, his scar is described as "the
only thing Harry liked about his own appearance". When asked about the meaning behind Harry's lightning bolt
scar, Rowling said, "I wanted him to be physically marked by what he has been through. It was an outward
expression of what he has been through inside... It is almost like being the chosen one or the cursed one, in a
sense." Rowling has also stated that Harry inherited his parents' good looks. In the later part of the series
Harry grows taller, and by the seventh book is said to be 'almost' the height of his father, and 'tall' by other
characters.
Rowling explained that Harry's image came to her when she first thought up Harry Potter, seeing him as a
"scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy". She also mentioned that she thinks Harry's glasses are the clue to
his vulnerability.
Personality
Harry is strongly guided by his own conscience, and has a keen feeling of what is right and wrong. Having
"very limited access to truly caring adults", Rowling said, Harry "is forced to make his own decisions from an
early age on." He "does make mistakes", she conceded, but in the end, he does what his conscience tells him to
do. According to Rowling, one of Harry's pivotal scenes came in the fourth book when he protects his dead
schoolmate Cedric Diggory's body from Voldemort, because it shows he is brave and selfless.
Rowling has stated that Harry's character flaws include anger and impulsiveness; however, Harry is also innately
honourable. "He's not a cruel boy. He's competitive, and he's a fighter. He doesn't just lie down and take
abuse. But he does have native integrity, which makes him a hero to me. He's a normal boy but with those
qualities most of us really admire."For the most part, Harry shows humility and modesty, often downplaying his
achievements; though he uses a litany of his adventures as examples of his maturity early in the fifth book.
However, these very same accomplishments are later employed to explain why he should lead Dumbledore's Army, at
which point he asserts them as having just been luck, and denies that they make him worthy of authority. After
the seventh book, Rowling commented that Harry has the ultimate character strength, which not even Voldemort
possesses: the acceptance of the inevitability of death.
Magical abilities and skills
Harry Potter is described as a gifted wizard apprentice. He has a particular talent for flying, which manifests
itself in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the first time he tries it, and gets him a place on a
Quidditch team one year before the normal minimum joining age. He captains it in his sixth year. In his fourth
year (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Harry is able to confront a dragon on his broomstick.
Harry is
also gifted in Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which he becomes proficient due to his repeated encounters with
Voldemort and various monsters. In his third year, Harry becomes able to cast the very advanced Patronus Charm,
and by his fifth year he has become so talented at the subject that he is able to teach his fellow students in
Dumbledore's Army, some even older than him how to defend themselves against Dark Magic. At the end of that
year, he achieves an 'Outstanding' Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., something that not even Hermione
achieved. He is a skilled duellist, the only one of the six Dumbledore's Army members to be neither injured nor
incapacitated during the battle with Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries in Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix. He also fends off numerous Death Eaters during his flight to the Burrow at the beginning of
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Harry also had the unusual ability to speak and understand
"Parseltongue", a language associated with Dark Magic. This, it transpires, is because he harbours a piece of
Voldemort's soul. He loses this ability after the part of Voldemort's soul inside him is destroyed at the end of
The Deathly Hallows.
Family tree
Harry is the only child of James and Lily Potter, orphaned as an infant. Rowling made Harry an orphan from the
early drafts of her first book. She felt an orphan would be the most interesting character to write about.
However, after her mother's death, Rowling wrote Harry as a child longing to see his dead parents again,
incorporating her own anguish into him. Harry is categorised as a "half-blood" wizard in the series, because
although both his parents were magical, Lily was "Muggle-born", and James was a pure-blood.
Harry's aunt and
uncle kept the truth about his parents' deaths from Harry, telling him that they had died in a car crash.James
Potter is a descendant of Ignotus Peverell, the third of the three original owners of the Deathly Hallows, and
thus so is Harry, a realisation he makes during the course of the final book. The lineage continues at the end
of the saga through his three children with Ginny: James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter and Lily Luna
Potter.
In an original piece published on the Pottermore website in September 2015, Rowling described the
history of the Potter family in greater detail, beginning with the 12th-century wizard Linfred of Stinchcombe,
"a locally well-beloved and eccentric man, whose nickname, 'the Potterer', became corrupted in time to
'Potter'". Linfred was the inventor of a number of remedies that evolved into potions still used in the modern
day, including Skele-Gro and Pepperup Potion. These successful products garnered Linfred the earnings that
formed the basis of the family's wealth, which grew with the work of successive generations. Linfred's oldest
son, Hardwin, married a beautiful young witch from Godric's Hollow named Iolanthe Peverell, the granddaughter of
Ignotus Peverell, who continued the tradition of passing down Ignotus' Invisibility Cloak through the
generations. Two of Harry Potter's ancestors have sat on the Wizengamot: Ralston Potter and Henry Potter.
Ralston was a member from 1612–1652, and an ardent supporter of the Statute of Secrecy. Henry Potter, known as
"Harry" to his closest loved ones, was a direct descendant of Hardwin and Iolanthe, and a paternal
great-grandfather of Harry Potter. Henry served on the Wizengamot from 1913–1921, and caused a minor controversy
when he publicly condemned then Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, for prohibiting the magical community from
helping Muggles waging the First World War. Henry's son, Fleamont Potter, who was given his grandmother's
surname as his given name in order to grant the dying wish of Henry's mother to continue her family name,
garnered a reputation for his duels at Hogwarts, which were provoked when others mocked him for his name.
Fleamont quadrupled the family gold by creating magical Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, selling his company at a vast
profit when he retired. Fleamont and his wife, Euphemia, had given up hope of having a child when she became
pregnant with their son, James, who would go on to marry Lily Evans and bear a son of their own, Harry Potter.
Fleamont and Euphemia lived to see James and Lily marry, but they would never meet their famous grandson, as
they both died of dragon pox, stemming from their advanced age.
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