Harry Potter

"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."

- Albus Dumbledore to Harry.

Harry James Potter (b. 31 July 1980) was a half-blood wizard, the only child and son of James Potter and Lily Potter (née Evans), and one of the most famous wizards of modern times. In what proved to be a vain attempt to circumvent a prophecy that a boy born at the end of July of 1980 could be able to defeat him, Voldemort attempted to murder him when he was a year and three months old, shortly after murdering Harry's parents as they tried to protect him. This early, unsuccessful attempt to vanquish Harry led to Voldemort's first defeat and the end of the First Wizarding War. One consequence of Lily's protection is that her orphaned son had to be raised by her only remaining blood relative, Petunia Dursley, where he was neither welcomed nor nurtured, but would stay alive, at least until he was seventeen years old. As the only known survivor of the Killing Curse up to that point, Harry was already famous before he arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Early on his eleventh birthday, Harry learned that he was a wizard. He began attending Hogwarts in 1991 and was Sorted into Gryffindor house. While at school, Harry became best friends with Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, later he became the youngest Quidditch Seeker in over a century and eventually captain of his house's team, winning two Quidditch Cups. He became even better known in his early years for protecting the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort and saving Ron's sister Ginny Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets. In his fourth year, Harry won the Triwizard Tournament, although the competition ended in tragedy with the death of Cedric Diggory and the return of Voldemort. The next school year, Harry reluctantly founded Dumbledore's Army and fought in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, during which he lost his godfather, Sirius Black, who was a father figure to him.

Harry played a significant role in many other battles of the Second Wizarding War and hunted down and destroyed Voldemort's Horcruxes with Ron and Hermione. During the Battle of Hogwarts, he personally witnessed the deaths of Severus Snape and Fred Weasley, and learned that Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey, and many others had fallen as well. He encountered Voldemort and sacrificed himself, knowing that his doing so was the only way to destroy the fragment of Voldemort's soul that was inside him. In Harry's near-death experience after Voldemort cursed him in the forest clearing, Dumbledore gave Harry advice and background information on Voldemort. When told he could choose to live or to "move on," Harry chose to live, and after he awoke he confronted Voldemort, and defeated him.

Harry is also notable for being the only known Master of Death, having united the three Deathly Hallows.

After the war, Harry became an Auror and married Ginny Weasley, with whom he had three children: James Sirius who he named after his father and godfather, Albus Severus, named after Snape and Dumbledore, and Lily Luna, named after his mother and good friend Luna Lovegood. Harry was also named the godfather of Teddy Lupin. He became Head of the Auror Office in 2007, and occasionally went to Hogwarts to deliver Defence Against the Dark Arts lectures.

Family lineage
"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head Boy an' Head Girl at Hogwarts in their day!"

- Rubeus Hagrid talking about Harry's parents

The Potters were an old, wealthy pure-blood family, and Harry inherited much wealth from his parents. The Potters descended from the Peverell family, through Ignotus Peverell, who passed the Cloak of Invisibility on to his descendants. The Potters are related to the Gaunts, who are descendants of brother Cadmus, who passed on the Resurrection Stone as a family heirloom in a signet ring. But Harry's mother, Lily Evans was a muggle-born witch. Harry's aunt Petunia is Lily's sister.

It is also possible that Harry was distantly related, on his father's side, to the Blacks, Malfoys, Weasleys, and the Longbottoms, and almost all other pure-blood families, making him distantly related to various other wizards and witches, including Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius Black, Nymphadora Tonks, and even his wife Ginny Weasley, though the degree of consanguinity is not known.

Harry's maternal relatives were the Evans and Dursley families.

Childhood
"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Hallowe'en ten years ago. You was just a year old."

- Hagrid on James and Lily's deaths

Harry Potter was born on 31 July 1980 to Lily and James Potter, members of the (first) Order of the Phoenix at the height of the First Wizarding War; he was born "hours" after classmate Neville Longbottom. From birth, he lived in hiding with his parents after Voldemort marked them for death. They lived in the village of Godric's Hollow in a home put under the Fidelius Charm to keep them hidden. They also had planned to make Sirius their Secret-Keeper, but on his advice, they changed this designation to Peter Pettigrew, whom they thought he would be less suspicious. In a terrible turn of fate, it happened that Pettigrew was a spy for Voldemort. He betrayed James and Lily, then faked his own death, and framed Sirius for both.

When Harry was born, Lily held a christening; it was quiet and quick, and only James, Lily, Harry and Sirius were there. For Harry's first birthday, Sirius bought him a toy broomstick.The Potters owned a cat but it is unknown what happened to it after Voldemort's attack.

On the evening of Hallowe'en 1981, Voldemort arrived at Godric's Hollow and killed James and Lily; he started with James, who tried to stand up to him; unfortunately he did not have his wand with him and was killed immediately. Lord Voldemort then advanced on Lily, who died protecting Harry. Her sacrifice prevented the Killing Curse from working on Harry. Additionally, her love for Harry became a barrier protecting her son; when Voldemort attempted the curse on Harry, it backfired, and instead of killing Harry, Voldemort lost all his powers and his physical form was obliterated, but was saved from death by the five Horcruxes he had made up to that point. These included his diary, Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, Salazar Slytherin's Locket, Helga Hufflepuff's Cup, and Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem  Later, this also included Harry himself because Voldemort not only gave part of his powers to Harry, he also accidentally gave part of his soul. This event made Harry the only person to have survived the Killing Curse. The failed curse left a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead. The scar would be a bane and a blessing to Harry in the years to come, as it opened a telepathic link between Voldemort and himself. The house at Godric's Hollow was destroyed in the attack, and Hagrid rescued Harry from the ruined house. Hagrid was given specific orders to take him to his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, but he was intercepted by Sirius, who pleaded for Hagrid to give the baby to him. Hagrid refused, saying that he was under orders from Dumbledore to get Harry to Privet Drive as quickly as possible.

"This boy will be famous, a legend. I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in future. There will be books written about Harry, every child in our world will know his name."

- Minerva McGonagall

Sirius, though reluctant, relented and gave Hagrid his flying motorcycle to take Harry to Privet Drive. Dumbledore left a letter of explanation to the Dursleys, but they never relayed it to Harry. Instead, Harry spent the next decade of his life in their strict and miserable home without knowing he was a wizard.

Life at Privet Drive
"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"

- Vernon Dursley refusing that Harry was a wizard

Living with the Dursleys, Harry thought, was the worst thing in the world. As they were Muggles, they had no understanding of magic, and even though his aunt and uncle knew about his lineage, they wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. The Dursleys considered themselves a "normal" family and despised anything out of the ordinary. They lied to Harry about his parents, claiming they had died in a car crash and that James was an unemployed drunk. When he tried to remember them, all he saw was a green flash. He tried to understand what it was, or if it was from the car crash, but he simply could not. Petunia and Vernon forbade Harry from asking questions, particularly those regarding his parents. In addition, the Dursleys refused to have pictures of Lily and James, and did their best to avoid the subject of Harry's parents altogether. They resented Harry for his magic, which was sporadic, but evident. They discouraged any sort of imagination, insisting upon "stamping that rubbish out", and screamed at or punished Harry — sometimes by depriving him of meals — whenever something "unusual" occurred. In his youth, Harry could make strange things happen without understanding why he could, as no one had told him that he was a wizard. For instance, after Petunia sheared off all his messy hair using a pair of kitchen scissors in fury that it would not lay flat, leaving him almost completely bald with only the fringe at the front, it had grown all the way back, and to its previous messy state at that, by the next morning. Harry was punished, even though he had not done anything on purpose. Another time, Dedalus Diggle bowed to him in a shop, and Petunia ferociously interrogated Harry as to how he knew the man before leaving the shop very quickly. The Dursleys spoiled and pampered their son Dudley and paid almost no attention to Harry; indeed, what little attention they did pay to him was entirely negative. All his clothes were hand-me-downs from Dudley and were far too large for Harry. He was forced to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs, while his cousin got two bedrooms to himself. They ordered Harry around like a slave for most of his childhood. In time, Dudley started bullying Harry. The Dursleys took Dudley and a friend to spectacular places every year for his birthday, but the only thing Harry got for his birthday was one of Vernon's old socks. The Dursleys also hid evidence of Harry's existence by not having pictures of him in the house. During the times that Harry wasn't being made to work or bullied, he was provided with little entertainment and sometimes tried to entertain himself by playing games such as solitaire.

Harry's hardship, however, was necessary as by returning to live with his mother's only living blood relative, the protection that Lily gave Harry would continue. While Harry could call that place home, he could not be harmed. However, this charm would be broken when Harry turned 17 years old, or when he no longer called 4 Privet Drive his home. Furthermore, Harry's neighbour, Arabella Figg, was a Squib working undercover for the Order of the Phoenix to keep tabs on Harry's well-being. Unfortunately for Harry, to maintain favour with the Dursleys, she was forced to give him a lousy time whenever she had to look after him, as the Dursleys would never have let him go if they knew Harry was enjoying himself, a possibility that infuriated them. On Dudley's eleventh birthday, the Dursleys went to the Zoo with Dudley's best friend Piers Polkiss. Unfortunately for the Dursleys, they had to take Harry with them, as Mrs. Figg had broken her leg and there was no one to take Harry, and they refused to leave him alone in their house. At the Zoo, Harry unintentionally made the glass of an enclosure containing a boa constrictor disappear. This allowed the snake to slither out of his cage which scared Dudley into thinking it was after him. Harry was able to communicate with the freed boa in Parseltongue, which thanked Harry briefly, then slithered out of the reptile house calmly. After this incident, the enraged Dursleys sentenced Harry to his cupboard until the beginning of the summer holidays.

St. Grogory's Primary School
"At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang."

- The reason Harry had no friends at school



Harry attended St. Grogory's Primary School, a Muggle school, with Dudley. He had no friends there, since all the students were afraid of Dudley's gang, all of whose members hated Harry. In particular, Dudley's friends liked to play a unique game known as Harry Hunting which involved chasing Harry. Although he was good at sports, he was the last picked for a team because no one wanted to admit to Dudley that they liked him, rather than because he was no good. Harry got decent, if not good, grades at school. On one occasion, Harry accidentally turned his teacher's wig blue; on another, he accidentally Apparated onto the school kitchen roof when escaping from Dudley's gang; and on a third, he made Dudley's old jumper shrink as aunt Petunia tried to shove it over his (Harry's) head. These incidents always enraged the Dursleys, and after each, they would punish Harry by exiling him to the cupboard — except the jumper incident.

If Harry had not gone to Hogwarts, then he would have attended Stonewall High, a Muggle secondary school.

Harry's discovery of being a wizard
"Yer a wizard, Harry, and a thumpin' good one I'd wager, once yer trained up a bit, o' course."

- Rubeus Hagrid upon meeting Harry for the first time

Harry had no birthday celebrations until the day he turned 11, which was the same day that he discovered the exceptional reality about his identity. The week of Harry's birthday, hundreds of letters began arriving at the Dursleys's home, addressed to him from a place called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When the Dursleys saw the first letter was addressed as "cupboard under the stairs," they panicked at the thought of Harry's ill treatment being observed and transferred him to Dudley's second bedroom, which soon appeared on letters as the "smallest bedroom." When Harry's Uncle Vernon first read the letter, he turned a pale, porridge grey out of fear that wizards were trying to contact Harry. Because of this, Vernon Dursley tried to destroy the letters in a futile attempt to keep Harry from his destiny. But the letters kept coming in increasingly larger quantities, and as they did, the Dursleys saw no alternative but to flee from them. This was not enough to enable the Dursleys to avoid the letters, as the owls carrying these letters followed them wherever they went. In a final desperate move, the Dursleys relocated themselves to a shack on a rocky island in the edge of the sea.

At midnight on Harry's birthday, Rubeus Hagrid appeared in person to find out why Harry had not received his letter. He was infuriated by the Dursleys and explained to Harry, in spite of Vernon's obstinate protests, that he was a wizard, how his parents died, and that he was to be sent to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

This would be Harry's first birthday celebration, and Hagrid gave him a small home-made birthday cake and a white snowy-looking owl, whom Harry named Hedwig. Hagrid took Harry to the Leaky Cauldron, where he learned that he was famous. He met Quirinus Quirrell, his soon-to-be Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, the Inn-keeper, Tom, a witch named Doris Crockford, and Dedalus Diggle, the man who had bowed to Harry several years earlier. Hagrid then took Harry to Diagon Alley, where he learned more about his fame in the Wizarding world and that his parents had left him a small fortune in a vault at Gringotts.

Harry bought his first wand from the wandmaker Garrick Ollivander that day. The wand that chooses Harry is made of holly wood and has a phoenix-feather core; it is eleven inches long and supple. The phoenix feather at the core came from Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes. It was crafted by Garrick Ollivander, who had also created a twin wand. This wand had been made from yew, and contained the only other feather supplied by Fawkes. This twin wand had long ago chosen Thomas Marvolo Riddle as its wielder. But Riddle, after he turned to evil and assumed the alias of Lord Voldemort, ended up using this wand to attack Harry and his parents. The two wands, sharing the same phoenix origin, had a unique connection which would prevent them from successfully duelling against each other.

First year (1991-1992)
Harry Potter was further guided by destiny when he met his lifelong best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger while riding the Hogwarts Express. The Sorting Hat took a while to decide where to place Harry. It considered putting Harry into Slytherin, but changed its mind at Harry's insistence, as he had heard about the Dark Wizards who had been in the house. All three were Sorted into Gryffindor House on their first evening at school. While Harry immediately took to Ron, he did not immediately befriend Hermione, though he was nicer to her than Ron was. On Halloween, a Mountain Troll was let into the school. The students were sent back to their Common Rooms, but Harry realised that Hermione did not know about the Troll, since she was in the bathroom crying as Ron had made fun of her earlier in the day. Harry and Ron went to the girls' bathroom and found the troll bearing down on Hermione. After Harry stuck his wand up its nose, Ron was able to knock the troll out with its own club. Hermione lied to the professors when they came to investigate to keep Harry and Ron out of trouble. From that point on, the three were best friends.

Harry discovered at his first broomstick flying lesson that he was a natural flyer. When Draco Malfoy took Neville Longbottom's Remembrall, Harry retrieved it using his broom to fly up and catch it. He was so good that he was able to join the Gryffindor Quidditch team, becoming the youngest Seeker in a century, since first year students normally were not allowed to have their own broomsticks. Before Harry's first Quidditch match, he received the new Nimbus 2000, a top of the line racing broom, from Professor McGonagall. During that Quidditch match, Harry's broom was jinxed, and he lost control, which caused him to nearly fall off.

Ron and Hermione saw Professor Severus Snape staring at Harry and mumbling an incantation. Hermione went to Snape's row and under his seat and cast Lacarnum Inflamarae causing the end of his robes to catch on fire. As soon as Snape stopped making eye contact with Harry, he regained control of his broom and zoomed toward the ground. On his way, he caught the snitch in his mouth, almost swallowing it, ending the match and leaving Gryffindor victorious. It was later revealed that Professor Quirrell was the one jinxing Harry's broom, and Snape was trying to perform a counter-jinx, much to Harry, Ron, and Hermione's surprise. Meanwhile, Lord Voldemort, long presumed dead, was secretly mounting a return using the new Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, Quirinus Quirrell, as a host body, he was able to search for the Philosopher's Stone, which he believed would restore him to his body and grant him everlasting life. Voldemort was thwarted by Harry, with the help of Ron and Hermione. Harry, Ron and Hermione suffered a series of exhausting and difficult challenges down in the Philosopher's Stone chambers in an attempt to stop the Philosopher's Stone being stolen.

Throughout the challenges the group was picked off and in the final task Harry was left on his own when Hermione was unable to pass through, this left Harry to face Voldemort alone. Harry and Quirrell (who had been harbouring Voldemort with him all year) fought one another and Harry learned of his mother's protective charm when he blistered Quirrell's face by touching it with his hands.

Harry then passed unconscious, just as Dumbledore arrived and took the Stone. When Harry awoke in the hospital, Dumbledore informed him that Quirrell had been abandoned by Voldemort, leaving him to die.

Second year (1992-1993)
Harry's second year started out badly, and gradually got worse. Throughout the preceding summer, Harry had not been in contact with any of his friends, had heard no news from the wizarding world, and had been mistreated by his family, as usual. The Dursleys had gone so far as to ban Harry from saying the word "magic" and the like. The Dursleys had also gained a fear of Harry's newly discovered magical abilities, which he often exploited in order to get them to leave him alone. The evening of his twelfth birthday, Harry learned that the reason his friends had not been in contact with him was that a house-elf named Dobby had been stopping letters from coming to Harry. When Harry questioned Dobby as to why, Dobby told him that Harry Potter must not return to Hogwarts. Harry refused, saying the wizarding world was where he belonged, and Dobby set out to cause him trouble. During a business meeting between Vernon and Mr. Mason, who brought his wife with him, Dobby used his magical powers to drop Petunia's master-piece pudding, and then shortly afterwards disappeared, framing Harry for the chaos. Dobby's act of magic caused Harry to receive a warning from the Ministry of Magic and to be imprisoned in his room by the Dursleys. Despite their efforts, Harry was rescued by Ron and his brothers, Fred and George. Harry had packed his bags and loaded the Weasleys' magic flying car. Harry and the brothers arrived at the Burrow in the early hours of the morning, hoping not to be noticed. However, they were, and Mrs. Weasley was furious.

Dobby's first attempt at stopping Harry from returning had failed, so he continued trying. When Harry and the Weasleys arrived at King's Cross Station, Dobby sealed the entrance to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters early and stopped Harry and Ron from passing through the wall to get on the Hogwarts Express. However, this did not stop Harry from returning to Hogwarts, as he and Ron used the Weasleys' Flying Ford Anglia to follow the train to Hogwarts. They arrived later than they had hoped, but all in one piece; until Ron accidentally drove the flying car into the Whomping Willow and broke his wand.

However, Harry's year at Hogwarts was destined not to improve in the least. Throughout the year, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, humiliated Harry repeatedly by dragging Harry into the spotlight against Harry's will. During a duelling class led by Lockhart, Harry revealed himself to his fellow students and members of staff to be a Parselmouth, an uncommon skill that is normally associated with dark wizards. This brought on a great deal of trouble for Harry, since the Chamber of Secrets had been re-opened, and it was the "Heir of Slytherin" who was deemed responsible. Once the chamber had been unsealed, there were various attacks on Muggle-born pupils, including Harry's best friend Hermione Granger.



These attacks were believed to have been carried out by the heir, who many believed to be Harry, but Harry believed that Draco Malfoy was responsible. In order to prove their hypothesis, Hermione cooked up a Polyjuice Potion that Harry and Ron used to change to look like Crabbe and Goyle, so they could try to get information from Malfoy. They learned that Malfoy was not the heir and that he had no idea who the attacker was. Hermione, however, did not join the boys in this adventure as she had accidentally used a cat hair in her potion, causing her to spend weeks in the hospital wing. Prior to Valentine's Day, Harry discovered a diary, and while writing in it, Harry learned that the Chamber had been opened fifty years ago and that Hagrid had been accused of the crime.

By this time, Hermione had a different theory. She believed that the monster responsible for these attacks was a basilisk and conducted research into her theory. The morning Hermione was attacked, she and Penelope Clearwater had been using a mirror to look around corners for any attacking predator. Hermione had done enough research to figure that the basilisk had been moving around the school using the pipe system and scribbled her theory down on a scrap piece of paper torn out of a book. She was attacked the same day, and her paralysed body was taken to the school's hospital wing.

Still believing that if Hagrid were not responsible, he could at least point them in the right direction, Harry and Ron visited him after the attack on Hermione. From under the Cloak of Invisibility, they witnessed his arrest by Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge and the suspension of Dumbledore. As Hagrid was being led away, he gave the pair a new clue. He told them to follow the spiders. Harry and Ron heeded this advice, even though Ron was deathly afraid of spiders. They met Aragog who told them that Hagrid was not responsible for opening the Chamber the first time and that the girl who died was killed in a bathroom, leading Harry to theorise that Moaning Myrtle was the victim. A few days later, Harry and Ron discovered the scrap of paper in Hermione's hand. Harry and Ron wondered how a big Basilisk would go around the school undetected, and then they saw the word "pipes."

Harry (and later Ron) would soon learn that the person responsible for opening the Chamber was in fact Ron's younger sister, Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley, under the control of a memory of Lord Voldemort by writing into his diary, forcing her to torment and vandalise the school. They also learned that she was being kept down in the Chamber and were told that her "skeleton would lie in the Chamber forever." Determined to rescue Ginny and hopefully catch the Heir and destroy the Basilisk, Harry, accompanied by Ron and Lockhart, was able to locate and open the Chamber using his Parseltongue abilities. Once they got down into the Chamber, it was not long before the cowardly Lockhart attempted to erase Harry and Ron's memories using Ron's broken wand; however, his spell backfired, and he erased his own memory. The Chamber roof caved in, separating Harry from Ron and Lockhart.

Separated from Ron and a now deluded Lockhart, Harry ventured on alone. Harry soon found Ginny's unconscious body lying on the floor of the Chamber. As he hoped she was not dead, he was greeted by Tom Riddle, who had come to a simulation of life from the memories stored in the diary. Revealing his history and true nature, Riddle set the basilisk upon him. Harry defeated the Basilisk with the help of Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, and Godric Gryffindor's Sword. However, Harry was bitten by the Basilisk. Fawkes flew over to Harry and wept upon his wound. As Phoenix tears have healing powers, Harry survived. Harry then stabbed the diary with the Basilisk fang to rid himself of Riddle, unknowingly destroying one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Once the emergency was over, Fawkes flew Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Lockhart to safety. Harry spoke with Dumbledore on the events that took place, and explained to him that Ginny was not to blame and that Lockhart was a fraud. Harry and Ron both received Awards for Special Services to the School and two-hundred points a piece for Gryffindor House.

After interpreting Dobby's strange actions in Dumbledore's office, Harry realised Lucius Malfoy was the ultimate culprit for opening the Chamber. Before term started, he had planted Tom Riddle's diary in Ginny's cauldron in the hope of indirectly opening the Chamber of Secrets. At this time, he did not know the diary was one of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes. Afterwards, Harry was able to trick Lucius into freeing his mistreated house-elf, Dobby, who had been attempting to protect Harry all year, by giving him one of his socks. Malfoy was subsequently sacked as a school governor.

Third year (1993-1994)
"He was their friend...and he betrayed them. HE WAS THEIR FRIEND! I hope he finds me, because when he does, I'm going to be ready! When he does, I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"

- Harry, still believing Sirius Black to be the man who betrayed his parents, learns that Black is also his godfather.

In the summer of 1993, Sirius Black — who had been wrongly imprisoned twelve years earlier for allegedly betraying James and Lily Potter to Voldemort and killing twelve Muggles — escaped from Azkaban. This created a tense climate in the wizarding world, and many believed that killing Harry was the object of Black's escape. As such, he was treated leniently when, late in the summer, he inadvertently inflated his "Aunt" Marge, possibly with an Engorgement Charm. That evening he ran away from the Dursleys, and after an enlightening journey aboard the Knight Bus, he arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, where Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge was awaiting him. After spending two happy weeks at the Leaky Cauldron, Harry met up with his friends Ron and Hermione along with the entire Weasley family, who had just returned from a holiday in Egypt. That night, Harry overheard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arguing and learned of the Ministry's fears that Harry was the target of Sirius Black.

Prior to their departure aboard the Hogwarts Express, Mr. Weasley pulled Harry aside and in no uncertain terms told Harry not to go looking for Black. Harry found it necesary to point out that he was not stupid enough to go looking for someone who wanted to kill him. Finding only one open compartment, Harry and his friends shared their ride with a new professor, Remus Lupin. The train suddenly stopped well before it should have and was searched by Dementors looking for Black. Harry reacted poorly to the appearance of the Dementors, passing out, and beginning a pattern that would last most of the year. While he fainted, a Dementor began to suck out his positive emotions, and might possibly have stripped him of his soul had Lupin not repelled it. The following day, Harry and his classmates began their new classes. Among the first was Divination, where Professor Sybill Trelawney told Harry he had the Grim in his tea leaves. Trelawney also made a frequent habit of predicitng very gruesome deaths for Harry, much to Harry's annoyance. On the other hand, there were courses in Care of Magical Creatures, during which Hagrid, the new professor, taught them about hippogriffs. Unfortunately, Draco Malfoy had not been listening when Hagrid lectured and was injured by the hippogriff, Buckbeak. Professor Lupin soon proved to be an excellent teacher in Defence Against the Dark Arts, where he taught the students how to combat various dark creatures.

At Hallowe'en, the third year students went on their first visit to Hogsmeade village. Harry was not allowed to go, as he had not had his permission form signed. In light of Harry's difficulties, Ron and Hermione, who had been fighting over Hermione's new cat, Crookshanks, put aside their differences. While his friends were enjoying themselves in Hogsmeade, Harry visited with Professor Lupin. A few weeks later, Harry played in the first Quidditch match of the year versus Hufflepuff. In the pouring rain and storms, the teams played until the Dementors invaded the field. In their presence, Harry tumbled off his broom fifty feet to the ground, and his Nimbus 2000 was destroyed in the process. Knowing that Gryffindor would not win the Quidditch Cup if he continued to collapse in the presence of the Dementors, Harry asked Lupin to help teach him how to combat them.

Just before Christmas, the school had another Hogsmeade visit. This time Harry sneaked out of the castle using the Marauder's Map, which the Weasley twins presented to him in his time of need. During his illicit visit to Hogsmeade, Harry overheard a conversation between Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge and several of the Hogwarts teachers. Fudge told them that Black had betrayed the Potters and that he was still Harry's godfather. This revelation caused Harry great distress. To relieve Harry of some of his troubles the trio went to visit Hagrid, where they learned that Buckbeak was to be put on trial, and they promised to help his defence. Soon after, on Christmas day, Harry received a Firebolt, a broom of extreme quality and high price, from an anonymous benefactor. Believing it to be from Sirius Black, Hermione reported it to Professor McGonagall, causing Harry and Ron to stop talking to her.

Following the break, Lupin began his lessons with Harry. While Harry made progress, he regretted his inability to create a true Patronus many lessons in. Soon after, Harry was given his Firebolt back by Professor McGonagall, and Harry decided it was high time to patch things up with Hermione. However, that same evening, Ron's rat, Scabbers, disappeared, and Crookshanks was blamed. The boys did not reconcile with her until after the next Hogsmeade visit, when Harry was almost caught. After receiving a stern talking to for sneaking out of the school, Harry and Ron emerged from Professor Lupin's office to find Hermione standing there looking distraught. She told them that Lucius Malfoy had used his influence and Buckbeak had been convicted and sentenced to execution.

The Quidditch final was soon upon them, and Harry played in the dirtiest game of his career. He managed to catch the Golden Snitch after Gryffindor was sufficiently ahead, and Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup. They could not celebrate for long as finals were right around the corner. Harry did well enough in the tests, and following his last final in Divination, Professor Trelawney went into a trance and predicted Sybill Trelawney's second prophecy, which stated that the servant would return to Lord Voldemort and help him return to power. The same day, Buckbeak's appeal had taken place in the castle, where the hippogriff was, again, sentenced to death. Against the advice of Hagrid, the trio went down to his cabin to comfort him. While there, Scabbers resurfaced. When he discovered that the Ministry officials were on their way, Hagrid rushed Harry, Ron, and Hermione out the back. While they made their way back to the castle, the sound of a swishing blade rent the air, and Buckbeak was apparently executed.

Immediately afterwards, Scabbers bit Ron and attempted to escape, causing Ron to chase the rat into the shadow of the Whomping Willow. Once there, he was attacked by a large black dog who dragged Ron and Scabbers into a tunnel under the Willow. Harry and Hermione followed them into the tunnel, which led them to the Shrieking Shack. There, they followed the sound of Ron and discovered him in an upstairs bedroom, where they were ambushed by Sirius Black, who was an Animagus that turned into a dog. They were saved by Professor Lupin, but then the situation turned on its head when he embraced Black like a brother, and they began talking about the long dead Peter Pettigrew. When asked to explain, they revealed that Lupin, Black, and Pettigrew went to Hogwarts with Harry's father, James, that they had all become amimagi to help Lupin with his Lycanthropy, and that in fact it was Peter Pettigrew who had betrayed the Potters. This was proven when Black and Lupin forced Scabbers to become Pettigrew. After questioning he confessed, but Harry prevented Black and Lupin from killing him.

Determined to turn Pettigrew over, the whole group set off for the castle. Along the way, the moon came out from behind the clouds, and Lupin transformed into a werewolf, since he had not drunk his Wolfsbane Potion. Seeing the danger, Black used his Animagus powers to protect Harry and his friends, but was badly injured. When Harry and Hermione went to look for him, hundreds of Dementors fell upon them, trying to perform the Dementor's Kiss both on Sirius and him. Sirius quickly passed out, as Harry tried casting Expecto Patronum (using the thought that he would leave the Dursleys and move with Sirius to try and conjure it) and tried to make Hermione think of something happy and cast it as well, but neither could do it. The Dementors were quickly descending on them, and as Harry finally conjured a fog Patronus, Hermione passed out, leaving Harry to fight the Dementors alone. After trying to hold them off, Harry was quickly overwhelmed. The Dementors descended on him, Sirius, and Hermione. Then one Dementor grabbed Harry by the throat and attempted to perform the kiss on him. Harry then heard his mother screaming in his ears, thinking that she would be the last thing he ever heard, when a mysterious figure on the other side of the lake cast a powerful Patronus sending away all of the Dementors and saving Harry, Sirius, and Hermione.

Harry then began to think the mysterious stranger was his father when he passed out. Later Harry and Hermione awoke to find themselves in the infirmary and that Sirius was about to be subjected to the Dementor's Kiss. They pleaded with Dumbledore who instructed them that nothing could be done without more time. With this clue, Hermione grabbed Harry and used her Time-Turner to send them back in time. Once there, they hid out until the time was right to rescue Buckbeak, whom they saved just prior to his execution. Afterwards, they waited for the appropriate moment to save Sirius. While they sat in the woods, Harry tried to tell Hermione that he thought that his father might have saved them. When she reminded him that his father was dead, Harry dropped the subject. They ran for safety to Hagrid's hut when the werewolf Lupin was on the loose, and Harry, desperate to see who saved him, left to observe the situation. Harry arrived at the lake watching the dementors attack his past self as he watched, until in a flash of clarity, Harry realised that it had been he who had cast the Patronus Charm that had saved his life and, stepping forward, Harry cast the Patronus and produced a fully fledged stag Patronus that drove all of the dementors back saving his past self, Hermione, and Sirius. Once reunited with Hermione, the pair rode Buckbeak to Sirius's window and saved him.

Harry returned to the Dursleys feeling as if he had accomplished nothing, but his trip and future at Hogwarts was brightened when he received a letter from Sirius. Inside there was permission for him to go to Hogsmeade, and Harry was delighted to have a godfather. Sirius also told him that it was indeed he who had given him the Firebolt.

Fourth year (1994-1995)
"You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you."

- Dumbledore to Harry at the end of his fourth year

In 1994, Harry, the Weasley family (except Mrs. Weasley), and Hermione attended the Quidditch World Cup. At Stoatshead Hill, Cedric Diggory and his father, Amos, joined them. Once at the camp grounds, they met Ludo Bagman, Barty Crouch Sr. and his house-elf Winky, and many other Hogwarts students and their families, including Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Oliver Wood, and Draco Malfoy. They were able to see the match between the Irish and Bulgarian national teams up close, because Harry, the Weasleys, and Hermione had seats in the Top Box, thanks to a favour Mr. Weasley had done for Ludo Bagman.

The night after the match, while the Irish team's supporters were still celebrating, a group of black-cloaked, hooded figures held terrifying celebrations of their own by suspending the Muggle camp site manager and his family in air like twisted marionettes. On Mr. Weasley's orders, Harry fled into the woods near the camp site, along with Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny. The group was separated in the woods, and in the chaos, Harry had lost his wand. The trio ran into Draco Malfoy, and he all but told them that his father was among the cloaked wizards. Later, Harry learned that Barty Crouch Jr. had stolen his wand from his pocket. While in a clearing in the woods, Harry, Ron, and Hermione heard someone shout the incantation Morsmordre, casting the Dark Mark — a green skull with a snake protruding from its mouth like a tongue — into the sky. Although Harry did not immediately recognise its significance, he soon learned that the Dark Mark had evil implications. Then, Barty Crouch Sr., Amos Diggory, and other Ministry of Magic employees apparated into the clearing and began to question Harry, Ron, and Hermione about the Dark Mark. After Harry mentioned he had heard another voice conjure the Dark Mark, the Ministry employees searched the area and found the house-elf Winky unconscious in the bushes. Since Harry's wand was found in Winky's hand, Mr. Crouch fired her for shaming his family and disobeying his orders.

At the Hogwarts start of term feast, Professor Dumbledore announced that Hogwarts would host the Triwizard Tournament, a recently-revived inter-school competition in which the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Durmstrang Institute would also participate. New rules stated that only students seventeen and older could compete. Also, during the start of term feast, Dumbledore introduced Alastor Moody, an ex-Auror, as the newly appointed Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. This news was greeted with a mixture of responses, as Moody was known to be a great Auror, a little crazy, and to have a magical eye, earning him the nickname "Mad-Eye Moody." Around Hallowe'en the students from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute arrived at the school, and Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, and Cedric Diggory were all chosen to represent their respective schools in this tournament. However, Harry was mysteriously chosen as a fourth competitor, even though he was under-age and never entered his name into the Goblet of Fire during the selection process. Many people did not believe Harry's story, including Ron believing this to be nothing but another attempt to gain fame. This caused extreme tension between the two friends. Hermione, on the other hand, "accepted his story without question," and assisted Harry in preparing for the Tournament by teaching him useful spells, such as the Summoning Charm, which Harry used in the first task of the Tournament. The champions faced three dangerous challenges on their way to the Triwizard Cup. A few days after his name came out of the Goblet, Harry attended the Wand Weighing ceremony. There he was cornered by the notorious Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter who asked him many s and wrote an inflammatory article about him.

In the first task, each champion needed to get past a dragon to collect a golden egg. Harry received help from Hagrid who showed the dragons to Harry. Realising that every champion but Cedric had found out about the dragons, Harry told Cedric about the first task, trying to level the playing field. The newly appointed Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Alastor Moody, witnessed Harry telling Cedric, but did not report him. Instead he advised Harry to play to his strengths, hinting that he should use his flying ability to get the golden egg. Four different dragons were chosen for each of the champions to face. Fleur ended up with the Common Welsh Green, Cedric with the Swedish Short-Snout, Viktor Krum with the Chinese Fireball, and Harry faced the Hungarian Horntail. Harry used a Summoning Charm to bring him his Firebolt and dodged the Hungarian Horntail to get the golden egg. Harry and Viktor Krum tied for first at the end of the task. After seeing how dangerous the task was, Ron, as well as the other students, made amends with Harry, with Ron telling him, "I reckon someone is trying to do you in." He managed to escape the first task with only an injured arm.

Between the first and second tasks, the Yule Ball, a Triwizard Tournament tradition took place at Christmas. Ron, dismayed to discover that Viktor Krum had asked Hermione, called her out for "consorting with the enemy" though he and Hermione acted as if they had not fought the following day. Harry asked his long-time crush Cho Chang to attend the Yule Ball with him but was disappointed to learn that she had already accepted the invitation of Cedric Diggory. Harry and Ron ended up attending with Parvati and Padma Patil, respectively. They both ended up neglecting their dates, as Harry watched Cho with Cedric, and Ron was overcome with jealousy for Viktor Krum, who danced with Hermione. After the Yule Ball, Rita Skeeter struck again. She had overheard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his family. She then wrote an article exposing Hagrid as a Half-giant, and he was so ashamed that he stopped teaching. Only after Harry, Ron, and Hermione proved that they still liked him did he return to work.

To prepare for the second task, Harry had to open the egg he won from the dragon, but every time he did, it screeched. His rescue from that particular problem came when Cedric paid him back with the information that he would figure it out if he "take[s] a bath" with the egg. Harry followed this advice; while in the bathroom, he had an uncomfortable exchange with Moaning Myrtle, and on the way back to the Common Room, he ran into Professors Snape and Moody. The latter informed Harry of Barty Crouch Sr's obsession with catching Dark Wizards. Harry did learn that the second task was going into the Black Lake to rescue "the thing they would miss most" from the Merpeople. Harry's new problem was that he had no idea of how to survive underwater for an hour. He got his answer in the form of gillyweed from Dobby, who had come to work at Hogwarts. For this task, Harry had to save his best friend Ron. When Harry reached Ron, he was shocked to find Hermione, Cho, and Gabrielle Delacour, Fleur's sister, there as well. After Cedric and Viktor rescued Cho and Hermione, respectively, Harry hung around, and, concerned for Gabrielle, he saved her as well as Ron, landing him outside the hour allotted, but earning him points for "moral fibre." After the second task was finished, Harry and Cedric were tied for first. Viktor was in second, Fleur was finshed in last.

A month before the final task, the Champions were shown the beginnings of the challenge. They were told the third and final task was going into a maze filled with obstacles to find the Triwizard Cup. On the way back to the castle Krum took Harry aside to ask him something. Thinking that this was something important, Harry went with him. Krum then asked Harry about his relationship with Hermione, in whom Krum was deeply interested. Harry told him that there was nothing between him and Hermione and that she was just a friend. He also told Krum not to believe anything Rita Skeeter, who had recently written in Witch Weekly that there was a Harry-Hermione-Krum love triangle, wrote about him. That moment, Barty Crouch Sr. appeared in the forest disoriented and asking for Dumbledore. He disappeared again, when Harry went to fetch Dumbledore.

To prepare for the final task, Harry, Ron, and Hermione used vacant classrooms to practise spells and jinxes. In Divination class between two of these study periods, Harry dozed off dreaming about Voldemort and left the classroom in a disturbing fashion. Rita Skeeter had witnessed this event, and she wrote on the day of the final task, that Harry was disturbed and dangerous. This did nothing to boost Harry's morale, but when he spent the day with Bill and Molly Weasley, they cheered him up when they also came to watch the final task as his substitute family. During this final event, Hogwarts champions Cedric Diggory and Harry both showed supreme sportsmanship and cooperation despite the tension brought on by the maze and agreed to touch the Triwizard Cup simultaneously, planning to tie for first place. They were unaware it was actually a Portkey and were transported to the graveyard in Little Hangleton, the Riddle family's final resting place, where Lord Voldemort was waiting. On Voldemort's order, his servant Peter Pettigrew (aka Wormtail) murdered Cedric with the Killing Curse.

Harry was bound to Tom Riddle Sr.'s tombstone and forced to witness a ritual in which Pettigrew used some of Harry's blood to restore Voldemort's body. At which time, the Death Eaters were summoned to the cemetery. After Voldemort regained a full-size human form and explained his downfall and disappearance to his followers, he engaged Harry in a duel. Voldemort then tortured Harry with two Cruciatus Curses and then tried to kill him with the Killing Curse. The nature of their wands' mystical connection caused their magical streams to interlock, which created an effect called Priori Incantatem. After a battle of wills with Voldemort, Harry was momentarily shielded by the echoes of Lord Voldemort's previous victims, including Harry's parents and Cedric, this last of whom asked Harry to return his body to his parents, which allowed him time to grab Cedric's body and the Portkey and escape back to Hogwarts.

It was uncovered that Barty Crouch Jr, who had willingly taken the Dark Mark as a young man, was throughout the school year disguised as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Alastor Moody. In a terrible turn of fate, Crouch's soul was destroyed by the Dementor's Kiss from the Dementor that accompanied Cornelius Fudge. As a result, he could not give testimony, and the Ministry of Magic began to dispute Harry's and Dumbledore's insistence that Voldemort had returned, insisting that Dumbledore was trying to stir up trouble and that Harry was insane.

Fifth year (1995-1996)
Witnessing Cedric Diggory's murder was very difficult for Harry, and it was not helpful that he was forced back to number 4 Privet Drive on school holidays. To make things worse than they were already, in early August, someone sent Dementors to attack Harry in the Muggle town of Little Whinging, in an attempt to neutralise him. He was forced to perform a Patronus Charm to save Dudley and himself.

Subsequently, Harry was formally accused of performing under-age magic in the presence of a Muggle and was expelled, but thanks to Albus Dumbledore's intervention, it was changed to a Disciplinary hearing in front of the entire Wizengamot at the Ministry of Magic. In a further attempt to discredit Harry, the Ministry changed the time and location of the hearing at the last minute, but Harry was able to make just minutes late. He was threatened with expulsion from Hogwarts, but was exonerated with help from Dumbledore, who had witnesses and legal loopholes to help him. In retaliation against Dumbledore, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge appointed Umbridge, then Senior Under-Secretary to the Minister of Magic, as the new Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher so she could spy on the school. She was later appointed Hogwarts High Inquisitor, empowered to arbitrarily change and impose school rules whenever she chose. More over, every time Harry spoke out of turn, or even mentioned Voldemort, Umbridge threw him into detention, forcing him to write with her quill, that scribed a message "I must not tell lies" onto the back of his hand. However, she presumed the message failed to sink in, as Harry spread the word through The Quibbler about the previous year's events, thus banning him from any more Hogsmeade visits.

He was surprised when Ron and Hermione were chosen to be prefects, not him, as Fred always expected Harry to be one. It was later revealed that Ron was chosen instead of Harry, because Dumbledore thought that Harry had "enough responsibility to be going on with." Harry's jealousy threatened to affect his friendship with Ron, but he felt better when he discovered that his dad was also not chosen as a prefect at school. This suggests that Harry's desire in becoming Prefect was to emulate his father who was Head Boy in his day with his mother as Head Girl respectively, not to inflate a sense of his own importance.

Because Fudge stubbornly believed that Dumbledore was training an army to overthrow him, Umbridge had the Defence Against the Dark Arts class reduced to reading textbooks. Urged by Hermione, Harry secretly trained students in practical defensive magic. In an attempt to make light of the Ministry's fears, the group called themselves Dumbledore's Army, or the D.A. Feeling highly anxious and frustrated most of the time, Harry found that the D.A. was now his chief source of happiness, and the thing to which he looked forward throughout his school day. This happiness was felt by most members, as all of them, particularly Neville Longbottom, gained a lot under Harry's tutelage. Cho Chang became a member, and before the Christmas holidays, she and Harry kissed under the mistletoe in the Room of Requirement. This moment was confusing to Harry, as Cho, clearly still suffering from Cedric Diggory's death, had been crying. Cho also had misplaced jealousy towards Hermione and defended her friend Marietta Edgecombe when the girl betrayed the D.A. to Umbridge, which caused things between her and Harry to just "fall apart."

However, Harry took on some much more pressing worries later that night. Lord Voldemort, wanting a "secret weapon" against Harry Potter, had heard of a prophecy hidden in the Ministry's Department of Mysteries concerning both of them. He had been obsessing over the door to the Hall of Prophecy for the past few months, and had been inadvertently allowing Harry to read his thoughts through Legilimency. The link had been growing stronger for quite awhile. As a result, after falling asleep on the night of his kiss with Cho, Harry witnessed Nagini attack Arthur Weasley in a dream, and felt almost as if he was the snake. Realising what could happen if the link grew more powerful, Dumbledore commissioned Snape to train Harry in Occlumency in an effort to prevent further problems. Unfortunately, Harry did not enjoy having his mind peered into and did not focus on using Occlumency, having indeed been extremely curious about the door. During a lesson in Occlumency, Snape stepped out of the room, and Harry's curiosity got he best of him. He looked into the pensieve, which contained Snape's memories, and, to his dismay, found images of his father bullying Snape. Snape himself discovered Harry's spying and refused to give him any more Occlumency lessons.

As the second term progressed, Harry's relationship with Cho became more strained. While the two did like each other, Cho was mistakenly jealous of Hermione due to her closeness with Harry, and Harry still felt awkward about Cho's feelings over Cedric. When Cho's friend, Marietta Edgecombe, betrayed the D.A. to Umbridge, the members were all punished and forced to end their meetings. Harry was furious with Marietta, but Cho insisted on defending her friend. This was the final straw; at this point, Cho's and Harry's relationship "fell apart," and the two no longer saw each other romantically.

During the final Quidditch match of the year, in which Harry did not play as Umbridge had banned him for life, Hagrid, who had returned to the school months into the term and very badly beaten, decided to show Harry and Hermione why he was so badly injured. Hagrid had dragged a giant back with him from his mission over the summer. It transpired that the giant, named Grawp, was Hagrid's brother, and that Hagrid had been attempting to civilise the giant, but with few results. He made Harry and Hermione promise that they would look after Grawp should Hagrid be forced to leave the school. Hagrid was attacked and left the school during O.W.L. examinations, and Harry never had to go down to Grawp in the forest.

Eventually, late in the O.W.L. examinations, Harry dozed off and received a vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius and ordering him to get the prophecy. Harry was full of mind to go to the Ministry immediately, but Hermione advised him to check Grimmauld Place first to see if Sirius was still there. Harry used the Floo Network in Umbridge's office to peer into Grimmauld Place, where Kreacher stated that Sirius was gone. Unfortunately, Umbridge caught him and his friends in the act. She attempted to extract information via Veritaserum, which Snape claimed to have used up, before resorting to the Cruciatus curse, revealing that it was she who set the Dementors loose on him. Hermione managed to save him by luring Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest, where she was dragged off by centaurs for insulting them. Harry and Hermione escaped when Grawp stumbled into the centaur camp looking for Hagrid. The trio, along with D.A. members Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood, who had assisted in Harry's attempt to contact Grimmauld Place, used Thestrals to fly to London.

After reaching the Department of Mysteries, Harry led them through various rooms in search of Sirius, without finding him. The group became doubtful until they came across a room filled with crystal balls, later to be known as prophecies. One of the prophecies had Harry's name on it, and he picked it up, much to the displeasure of Hermione. Upon picking up the prophecy Death Eaters appeared, revealing that it was all a ruse to bring him there. Chaos ensued, and all but Harry and Neville were incapacitated in the fighting. Then reinforcements from the Order of the Phoenix, alerted by Snape, arrived to help aid in the battle. In the ensuing fighting, Sirius Black was killed by a curse from his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, and fell through a mysterious stone arch. Harry, enraged, pursued Bellatrix, using the Cruciatus Curse, but he was unable to kill her.

Voldemort appeared, enraged by the failures of his Death Eaters. For the second time, he attempted to fatally curse Harry, who was too transfixed to even defend himself, but Dumbledore's sudden arrival saved him. Voldemort then possessed Harry, hoping that Dumbledore would sacrifice Harry in order to kill Voldemort. However, Voldemort was forced to leave Harry's body when Harry grieved for Sirius, which Voldemort failed to understand. Voldemort then grabbed Bellatrix and disapparated, but the Minister and Ministry employees saw him first.

Back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore explained to Harry the real reason why Voldemort tried to kill him as an infant. A prophecy stated that he was destined to defeat the Dark Lord, for he had powers Voldemort did not: the ability to love, something that the Department of Mysteries was trying to research in a locked room. As a result of the battle, the Ministry of Magic realised that Lord Voldemort had indeed returned, and Harry and Dumbledore were vindicated. Serious steps were taken following this change in policy, such as the dismissal of Dolores Umbridge. However, this was not a sea change, as the Ministry still had a mistrust of Dumbledore.

Sixth year (1996-1997)
In the wake of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, in June, Harry was sent home to 4 Privet Drive for the summer holidays. There, he obsessed over his godfather's death, hardly leaving his room and refusing meals. As the battle had taken place in the famed "Hall of Prophecy," many in the wizarding community including the Daily Prophet began to speculate about the relationship between Harry and that place, leading to, accidentally correct, reports calling Harry "the Chosen One." Early in his summer, Dumbledore requested that Harry join him in some unknown adventure and arrived to pick Harry up on a Friday, late in the evening. However, they could not depart immediately, because there was a piece of business to attend to, Sirius's will. Much to his chagrin, Harry inherited his godfather Sirius Black's estate, including Grimmauld Place and the Black's melancholic and half-crazed house elf, Kreacher. They soon were off, and Dumbledore apparated Harry to the village of Budleigh Babberton, where Harry was introduced to Horace Slughorn. In their time together, Harry and Slughorn discussed some of the professor's old students and the improved security at Hogwarts. When Harry and Dumbledore made to leave, Slughorn agreed to return to the school if he got a raise and a larger office. Following their visit, Dumbledore dropped Harry off at the Burrow, where Harry spent the rest of the summer, but not before informing Harry that he was to be given special lessons by Dumbledore himself. Before the end of the summer, Harry received a surprise when he was made Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Having learned of Professor Slughorn's propensity for hand-picking favourites, Harry experienced this first-hand when he was invited to join Horace Slughorn's Slug Club during the ride to Hogwarts aboard the Hogwarts Express. He did not enjoy the experience, and made to leave as soon as possible. Instead of returning to his seat, Harry made to eavesdrop upon Draco Malfoy, who in a meeting weeks earlier led Harry to believe that he had taken the Dark Mark. What he heard did nothing to dispel his suspicions. Arriving late to the Welcoming Feast, due to an encounter with Malfoy, Harry learned that Severus Snape had been promoted to Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. While this disappointed Harry, his career as an Auror reopened, as Professor Slughorn would accept his "Exceeds Expectations" score in Potions. As Harry had not bothered to buy a text book, Slughorn allowed Harry to borrow an old one from the supply cabinet. When Harry examined it, he found that it once belonged to a student identified only as "The Half-Blood Prince." The book contained copious handwritten notes that helped Harry excel in Potions for once. In fact, his skills won him a prize from Slughorn — a small vial of Felix Felicis.

Within the first week of school, Dumbledore made good on his promise of private lessons. He informed Harry that they would be viewing memories of Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort in order to learn his secrets and weaknesses. Dumbledore promised Harry that this information would help him survive and would prove crucial to the eventual defeat of Lord Voldemort. In their first lesson, the pair delved into the origin of the boy Tom Riddle in the Gaunt family around Little Hangleton. The Saturday following Harry's first lesson, he assumed his Captain's duties holding open try-outs. After an arduous morning, Harry found three Chasers, including Ginny Weasley, two Beaters, and Ron had survived as Keeper, with Hermione's help. Throughout the autumn, Harry used Quidditch to dodge Professor Slughorn's "Slug Club" events, doing this because he disliked the idea and because it was kinder than leaving Ron alone as Hermione had been invited as well.

Harry's lessons were quite sporadic that autumn, and he did not have another one until after tragedy befell someone at Hogwarts. In October, during a Hogsmeade visit, Katie Bell was nearly killed after being bewitched to carry a cursed necklace to Dumbledore. The following Monday, Harry shared his suspicions of Malfoy with Dumbledore during their lesson, only to be rebuffed. That evening, Dumbledore focused on Tom Riddle just as he was on the cusp of his Hogwarts years, and Harry discovered a troubled orphan who consciously used his magic to bully and intimidate the other children. Not long after that meeting, Quidditch season was upon them. In preparation for their first game, Harry replaced the injured Katie Bell with Dean Thomas. The change produced some results, both expected, as the team excelled on the pitch, and unexpected, as Harry found himself in a jealous rage after seeing Dean kissing Ginny after practice. The team's only problem was Ron, who was suffering from confidence issues. In an attempt to boost Ron's confidence, Harry blatantly acted as if he had spiked Ron's pumpkin juice with Felix Felicis. Ron took the bait and played a flawless match; however, Hermione took the bait as well and acted unkindly toward Ron and Harry. While she made up with Harry when he told her of the ruse, Ron's sudden relationship with Lavender Brown led to continued strife.

While Harry attempted to reconcile his best friends, the Christmas holidays were fast approaching and with them the Slug Club Christmas party out of which Harry could not wrangle. Since the "Chosen One" rumours had been printed Harry had received an unnatural amount of attention from the young ladies at Hogwarts, specifically a fourth year name Romilda Vane. As Harry could not ask Ginny to the party, he was left to ask Luna Lovegood to attend with him as a friend. This hugely disappointed the gaggles of giggling girls who awaited Harry below every doorway with mistletoe. At the party, Harry was surprised to learn that Hermione attended with Cormac McLaggen, a large Gryffindor seventh-year whom Ron despised and told her that it served her right when he was less than gentlemanly. Later, after Malfoy was apprehended "gate-crashing" the party, he learned that Malfoy was indeed up to something and that Professor Snape had made the Unbreakable Vow to protect him.

Harry's Christmas was less than enjoyable, as he was cornered by the new Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. Scrimgeour had been hoping to speak with Harry for months and used Percy Weasley as his in, interrupting the Weasley family Christmas. He tried pitching Harry on becoming the Ministry's mascot, an idea that Harry was not prepared to accept. Upon returning to Hogwarts, Harry's sporadic lessons with Dumbledore continued. Early in January, Harry delved into a memory that all but proved that Riddle had killed his paternal family after his fifth year at Hogwarts. Then Dumbledore showed Harry a most curious memory, a memory that Professor Slughorn had apparently tampered with, and he gave Harry his first homework assignment: to get the real memory from Slughorn. After impressing Slughorn using a bezoar in class, Harry tried the direct approach only to be instantly shot down.

By 1 March, Harry had still not acquired Slughorn's true memory and had begun to grow more obsessed with Draco Malfoy. That morning he awoke to find Ron under the influence of a very powerful Love Potion, and he took him to Slughorn, only for Ron to end up poisoned. This was enough for Hermione to overcome her animosity toward Ron, and the three became friends again. Ron survived, but was not fit for the upcoming Quidditch match, so he was replaced by McLaggen. This turned out to be a bad choice as McLaggen accidentally knocked Harry unconscious mid-match. Upon his recovery, Harry had yet another lesson with the Headmaster. In it, he was upbraided by Dumbledore for not completing his assignment, witnessed the young Tom Riddle kill a woman for the famous artefacts (Salazar Slytherin's Locket and Helga Hufflepuff's Cup)  she owned, and curse the Defence Against the Dark Arts post at Hogwarts. However, Harry still could not figure out how to obtain the memory and focused on Malfoy. His interest was bordering on obsession, when Ron came up with the solution to Harry's dilemma with Slughorn, Felix Felicis. In the evening, Harry took the potion and not only obtained the memory, but also solved many of his and his friends's problems, including breaking up not only Ginny and Dean but also Ron and Lavender.

Even though it was after midnight, Harry immediately went to Dumbledore with the new memory. It confirmed Dumbledore's theory that Lord Voldemort had created multiple Horcruxes to ensure his immortality. Together, they theorised that the Dark Lord had created Horcruxes out of special objects such as Tom Riddle's Diary and Salazar Slytherin's Locket. Before Harry left, Dumbledore promised to let Harry join him if he found another Horcrux. With the memory found, Harry had only Quidditch and Malfoy on his mind. In the week prior to the final Quidditch match, Harry discovered Malfoy crying in the restroom, and a Duel ensued. With Malfoy on the verge of using an Unforgivable Curse, Harry cast Sectumsempra, a curse with unknown effects that he found in the Half-Blood Prince's book, nearly killing Malfoy and earning Harry indefinite Saturday detention. Unable to play, Harry waited with anticipation as he sat through his first detention. When he arrived back at Gryffindor Tower he was happy to discover that they had won the Quidditch Cup, and spontaneously kissed Ginny, about whom he had been thinking quite often, when she embraced him in the post-match elation; this marked the beginning of their relationship.

In June, Dumbledore led Harry out of the castle in search of a Horcrux. From Hogsmeade, they apparated to a sea-side cave, where Tom Riddle had traumatised two young children from his orphanage in his youth. The cave was difficult to enter with a toll paid in blood, and to get to the island in the centre of the cave there was only a small boat, only made to fit one. Once on the island, Dumbledore found a basin that he could not remove the Horcrux from without drinking its contents. Dumbledore extracted a promise from Harry that he would force him to drink, no matter how much he tried to persuade him not to. With this promise, Dumbledore drank, and Harry watched as he was driven out of his mind, but he upheld his promise. When the basin was empty, Dumbledore asked for water which Harry was forced to get from the lake, triggering the Inferi that were waiting there. Panicking, Harry was dragged below, but he was saved by an incredibly weakened Dumbledore.

They landed atop the Astronomy Tower to discover that Hogwarts had been invaded by Death Eaters, but Harry's friends Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and Ginny, who had been ordered to watch the school lest Malfoy accomplish his nefarious goal, battled alongside members of the Order of the Phoenix on the floor below Harry and Dumbledore, with some help from the remainder of Harry's vial of Felix Felicis. Dumbledore had stopped Harry from fighting and frozen him against a wall, hidden underneath his invisibility cloak, so all he could do was watch. Harry witnessed the death of Albus Dumbledore at the hands of Severus Snape, and Dumbledore's body then plummeted from the tallest tower at Hogwarts. With Dumbledore dead, Harry was free of the spell that petrified him. He immediately set off after Snape, petrifying a Death Eater and seeking revenge. As the Death Eaters made their way out of Hogwarts Castle and on to the grounds, trying to reach the border where they would be able to Apparate again, Harry pursued and faced off against Snape. Harry tried many times to defeat Snape, even attempting weakly the Cruciatus Curse and Snape's own hand crafted spells, all with no effect. In the process, Snape identified himself to Harry as the Half-Blood Prince and escaped Hogwarts with Draco Malfoy and the other Death Eaters. Harry returned to the castle to find Dumbledore's crippled and lifeless body where he was comforted by Ginny.

Harry took the locket from Dumbledore's robes and was beside himself when he learned it was just a plain bit of jewellery, a decoy; there was a note inside the locket that revealed the real Horcrux was taken by someone called R.A.B.. It appeared to him that Dumbledore had died in vain and that they had achieved nothing that night. Following the death of Albus Dumbledore, his funeral was carried out. Harry was disgusted to see that Dolores Umbridge and Rita Skeeter had the nerve to attend his funeral, but he did not want to make a scene at Dumbledore's funeral and bit his tongue.

Knowing that he would have to hunt down Voldemort's Horcruxes and fearing for her safety, Harry took Ginny aside, and broke off their romance. Ginny told him that she did not care about the danger of being his girlfriend, but Harry still thought it was best if the two stopped seeing each other. He then spoke to Ron and Hermione, who committed to forgoing their final year at Hogwarts in order to accompany him, despite his protests.

Hunting the Horcruxes


Harry, Hermione, and Ron all remained committed to their goal to locate and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes. To protect their families, Hermione altered her parents' memories so they forgot they had a daughter, and with some help from Fred, George, and their father, Ron transfigured the family ghoul to resemble himself with spattergroit. Harry has next to no family at all, so he doesn't need hide his Aunt and Uncle.

Battle of the Seven Potters
Harry stayed at 4 Privet Drive for a time, but the Order of the Phoenix needed to evacuate him to the Burrow before he turned seventeen. They sent the Dursleys into hiding first; Harry was surprised by Dudley's gratitude and goodbye. Six out of thirteen of Harry's escorts took Polyjuice Potion to take on Harry's appearance in order to be diversions if they were attacked, despite Harry's protests. Harry also secretly thought that he wished they would respect his body more. Upon leaving, the group was attacked by over thirty Death Eaters. Harry rode with Hagrid on his godfather Sirius' old motorbike, and they were attacked by multiple Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort himself.

Harry's owl Hedwig was hit by a stray Killing Curse a Death Eater sent his way. When Voldemort caught up with them, Harry thought this was the end, but his wand acted on its own to strike out at the man who was both kin and mortal enemy, destroying Voldemort's borrowed wand. The chaos ended when Harry and Hagrid passed the protective enchantments placed over the house of Nymphadora Tonks' parents. Although he was still completely grief-stricken over the death of his beloved owl. After finding Hagrid safe and sound, the pair took a Portkey to the Burrow, where he found a worried Molly and Ginny Weasley.

Harry was relieved to see that Hermione and Ron were fine, but was shocked when Remus Lupin arrived with George Weasley, who had lost an ear. Everyone else arrived safely but Alastor Moody, who had been killed, and Mundungus Fletcher, who had Disapparated as soon as the fight started. Many amongst those gathered at the Burrow believed that they had been betrayed, but Harry refused to believe any of those he loved would sell him to Voldemort, much to the chagrin of Remus Lupin. Harry then stormed outside, where he was struck by a vision of Voldemort torturing Ollivander.

Time at the Burrow
Once settled in at the Burrow, Harry, Ron and Hermione helped prepare the wedding ceremony of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. The day before the wedding, the group celebrated Harry's seventeenth birthday. Harry received a watch from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, a traditional coming-of-age gift, and Ginny gave him a kiss to remember her by in case he "meet[s] some veela" during the Horcrux hunt.

At the party that night, Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour arrived to release the contents of Albus Dumbledore's will. Harry was left the first Snitch he had ever caught in a Quidditch match and Godric Gryffindor's Sword; Scrimgeour withheld this second gift, claiming that it was a historical magical item and was not exclusively Harry's property. Noting that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the only students mentioned by name in the will, he asked the trio why this was; the three were unable to give him an answer.

On 1 August, Harry attended Bill and Fleur's wedding disguised as a distant Weasley cousin, Barny Weasley. They used polyjuice potion and the hairs of a Red-haired Muggle boy from the village to disguise him. The reception was interrupted when the Patronus of Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived and announced the Fall of the Ministry of Magic and the death of Rufus Scrimgeour. Chaos erupted and guests started to flee, while Harry and Hermione drew their wands and grabbed Ron before Disapparating to Tottenham Court Road.

There, Hermione revealed that she had planned ahead, packing supplies in her bag, which had an Undetectable Extension Charm on it. Ron changed, and Harry put on his Invisibility cloak, and the three then entered a nearby café to hang low for a while. Whilst at the café, Ron and Hermione discussed the events of the wedding and Voldemort's coup. They unwittingly broke the Taboo curse that had been placed on Voldemort's name when the Death Eaters overthrew the Ministry of Magic, alerting Death Eaters Antonin Dolohov and Thorfinn Rowle to their location. After a brief skirmish, the trio defeated the Death Eaters, whose memories Hermione wiped at Harry's suggestion. Harry, Ron, and Hermione then found refuge at 12 Grimmauld Place.

Infiltrating the Ministry and obtaining the locket
"You're going to leave here with us. Go home, grab your children, and get out, get out of the country if you've got to. Disguise yourselves and run. You've seen how it is, you won't get anything like a fair hearing here."

- Harry while freeing Muggle-borns from the Muggle-Born Registration Commission

Having found no leads regarding the Horcruxes over the summer, Harry discovered R.A.B. during the trio's first morning at 12 Grimmauld Place. Once Hermione remembered that Salazar Slytherin's Locket had been in the house during its occupation by the Order of the Phoenix, Harry summoned Kreacher, and they learned that it had been stolen by Mundungus Fletcher. When the trio questioned him about it, he revealed that it was now in the possession of Dolores Umbridge. On the same day, Remus Lupin had been to visit. He asked Harry if he could join them, but once Harry found out that Tonks was pregnant, he refused. This caused a temporary rift between the two of them.

For the following month, the trio would take turns under the Invisibility Cloak to watch the Ministry entrance. Formulating their plans, they managed to infiltrate the Ministry. Using Polyjuice Potion Harry transformed into Albert Runcorn. He searched Umbridge's office but did not find the locket. He did, however, take Moody's eye from her door. Finding Umbridge trying Muggle-borns for "stealing" magic, Hermione managed to trick Umbridge into revealing the locket, and she lied about how she obtained it.

Furious, Harry stunned both her and Yaxley. He and Hermione freed the Muggle-borns who were being held by the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, and Hermione conjured a copy of the locket while they took the real thing. They met up with Ron again and escaped, though Yaxley grabbed Hermione’s arm while they were Disapparating. She evaded him with a Revulsion Jinx, but the location of 12 Grimmauld Place was revealed to him, and they were forced to abandon it as a hide-out. But instead Hermione took them to the Forest of Dean, the location of the Quidditch World Cup.

Ron's departure
After securing the locket, the three friends took turns wearing it, to ensure it was not lost. The locket had a negative influence on all of them, straining relations and causing them to all act moody and inclined to get into petty arguments. They overheard a goblin saying that the sword protected by Snape was a fake. They learned that the Sword of Gryffindor in Snape's office was a copy of the real sword, and that they would have to trace the location of the real sword.

Harry and Hermione were excited at knowing what object they could use to destroy Horcruxes, but the locket's negative energy pushed Ron over the edge. Knowing that they now had something they were not close to destroying, Ron and Harry got into a horrible row, in which Ron accused Harry of not knowing what he was doing and not being very concerned when they learned that Ginny had been punished for attempting to steal Gryffindor’s Sword for them, along with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. Ron then abandoned his friends accusing Hermione of preferring Harry to himself.

Ron’s departure left both Harry and Hermione depressed. After some listless time in which they accomplished nothing, they decided to head to Godric's Hollow, as Harry wanted to visit his parents’s graves, and Hermione had convinced herself that Dumbledore might have entrusted the Sword of Gryffindor to Bathilda Bagshot, a magical historian who lived there and who had been friendly with the Potters and the Dumbledores.

Attack at Godric's Hollow
They arrived on Christmas Eve. After seeing the memorial dedicated to his parents, Harry and Hermione searched the graveyard for the Potters's grave and came across the grave of Kendra and Ariana Dumbledore and that of Ignotus Peverell. Harry was filled with regret that Dumbledore had not shared this connection with him. Upon discovering Harry's parents's grave Hermione called out to Harry and comforted him when he reached the grave. After placing a wreath on his parents’s graves, the two then met Bathilda, who motioned for them to follow her into her home. Believing Bathilda wanted to give him the Sword, Harry accompanied her upstairs alone when she indicated that Hermione should stay downstairs.

Once there, she questioned Harry in what he did not realise was Parseltongue, revealing herself to in fact be Nagini, Voldemort's snake. Voldemort had killed Bathilda and animated her corpse to hide Nagini, who attacked Harry, biting and coiling herself around Harry. Hermione raced upstairs and repelled the snake, while Harry’s scar burned, alerting him to Voldemort’s approach. The pair managed to escape, but Harry was knocked unconscious and such a close call with Voldemort caused the connection to re-open and Harry had a vision of his parents' demise. And in the scuffle, Harry's wand was accidentally broken by Hermione's Blasting Curse.



Ron's return and the obtaining of The Sword of Gryffindor
"Ron, stab it, STAB IT!"

- Harry and Ron confronting Voldemort's locket Horcrux

After escaping Voldemort, Harry and Hermione camped out in the Forest of Dean, where Hermione healed Nagini’s bite with Dittany. When they were camped out there, Harry and Hermione read parts of Rita Skeeter's biography of Dumbledore, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore which Hermione had stolen from the home of Bathilda Bagshot. Upon reading, Harry felt betrayed, because Dumbledore had not shared this information with Harry. Hermione tried to convince Harry that Dumbledore had his best interests at heart, but Harry became quite disillusioned.

A couple nights later, while standing guard outside the tent, Harry was lead by a silver doe Patronus Charm to a frozen pool into which someone had placed the Sword of Gryffindor. While trying to acquire the sword, the locket attempted to strangle him, but he was rescued by Ron, who had returned through the use of his Deluminator.

During the breif skirmish with the Horcrux, a taunting Harry and Hermione appearcreated by the Horcrux. The naked Harry and Hermione begin to kiss passionately, angering Ron, who then destroyed the Horcrux with the sword, casting the two away. As Ron had saved his life, Harry forgave him for leaving, and after seeing the Horcrux torture Ron, explained that he had no feelings for Hermione beyond that of a sibling. Hermione, who had been inside the tent during the destruction of the Horcrux, was angry with Ron for a longer period.

Visit to the Lovegood House


At Hermione's request, the three friends travelled to Luna Lovegood’s home to question Xenophilius Lovegood. They asked about a triangular symbol Dumbledore had left them to decipher in the book he bequeathed to Hermione. After learning of the Deathly Hallows, Harry, Ron, and Hermione discovered that Xenophilius summoned Death Eaters in an attempt to persuade them to return his abducted daughter. The trio escaped the Death Eaters when Hermione blasted the floor open to show them Harry, but managed to keep Ron's alibi of being sick at home with spattergroit intact by covering him with the Invisibility Cloak.

Harry soon became obsessed by the Deathly Hallows. He spent hours each day brooding over the possibilities forgetting about his responsibilities. He came to believe that the Resurrection Stone was enclosed within the Golden Snitch bequeathed to him by Dumbledore. He also surmised that Lord Voldemort was abroad in a search for the Elder Wand. This obsession troubled his friends, and with the drop in Harry's attentiveness, Ron's leadership qualities flourished.

Capture by Snatchers and Skirmish at Malfoy Manor
"You're a lying, you filthy Mudblood, and I know it! You have been inside my vault at Gringotts! Tell the truth, tell the truth! What else did you take? What else have you got? Tell me the truth or, I swear, I shall run you through with this knife! What else did you take, what else? ANSWER ME! CRUCIO!"

- Overheard parts of Bellatrix's interrogation of Hermione Granger

After listening to a broadcast of Potterwatch around Easter 1998, Harry determined that Voldemort was seeking the Elder Wand, and accidentally broke the Taboo on Voldemort's name. Captured by a gang of Snatchers led by Fenrir Greyback, the trio was questioned as to their identities. Hermione had hit Harry's face with a Stinging Hex, attempting to conceal their true identities. After Greyback and Scabior realised that they had caught Harry Potter, the trio was taken to Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire, England.

When Bellatrix Lestrange learned that Harry had been caught, she sought to summon Voldemort, until she noticed one of the Snatchers had the Sword of Gryffindor, which was supposed to be in her vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank. From her drastic change in tone of voice and her worries that they would all perish, Harry determined that another Horcrux was hidden there, as well. Bellatrix isolated Hermione for interrogation and torture with the Cruciatus Curse, but Hermione lied, claiming that the Sword was just a copy. Harry convinced Griphook, a goblin prisoner, to support this story.

In panic as Hermione screamed in pain upstairs, and Ron sobbed at hearing her, Harry called out for help — a cry heard by Aberforth Dumbledore through a fragment of a two-way mirror in the cellar. Aberforth sent Dobby the house-elf to rescue the prisoners. Harry had him take Luna Lovegood, Garrick Ollivander, and Dean Thomas to Shell Cottage, while he and Ron went to rescue Hermione. On the way, they had to fight Peter Pettigrew, whose silver hand strangled him to death when he hesitated to hurt Harry, who reminded him that he had once saved his life. A skirmish ensued upstairs, during which Harry took Draco Malfoy's wand from him, and he and Ron saved Hermione and Griphook with Dobby's assistance.

Escape and Dobby's death
As they escaped Malfoy Manor by Apparition, Bellatrix Lestrange threw a silver knife to where they were disapparating. Harry was initially relieved to realise he had managed to apparate to Shell Cottage with Ron, Hermione, and Dobby in tow, but was horrified to see the knife protruding from Dobby's chest before Dobby collapsed and died in Harry's arms. Harry decided that he would not build the grave of Dobby with magic, opting instead to do so manually, using a shovel; this was his way of both repaying Dobby's bravery and ebbing his own grief.

Harry, his scar now burning temptingly threatening to have Voldemort's thoughts engulf him, was finally able to learn control of denying Voldemort's entry into his mind, something he attributed to his grief and love for Dobby. While digging the grave, more understanding came to Harry. He realised that though the Deathly Hallows were tempting objects, Dumbledore had tasked him with destroying Horcruxes. He decided to trust Dumbledore, reaffirming his faith in his mentor. During the funeral, Luna Lovegood gave a short eulogy to Dobby, and Harry managed to say his final goodbye to one of his most loyal friends.

Shell Cottage and Break-In of Gringotts
Following the death of Dobby, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stayed at Shell Cottage for some time. During their stay, the trio formed a plan to break into the Lestrange Vault to obtain the Horcrux within, with the help of Griphook. Due to the fact that Griphook would only help in exchange for Godric Gryffindor's Sword, Harry decided to word his request so that the handover would not take place until after Harry had used it to dispose of the remaining Horcruxes.

Although feeling guilty for the deception, Harry knew that the sword was their only known weapon against the Horcruxes. The other residents of Shell Cottage could not fail to notice the trio's behaviour. Bill Weasley took Harry aside and advised Harry to be cautious when making deals with Griphook who Harry was increasingly disliking. Around the same time, Remus Lupin came to Shell Cottage bearing tidings of new birth. He asked Harry to be the godfather of his newborn child, Ted Lupin. It seemed as if the incident between them at 12 Grimmauld Place had never occurred.

The trio and Griphook left Shell Cottage early the next morning to break into Gringotts. Hermione disguised herself as Bellatrix Lestrange, using Polyjuice Potion, so as to fool the goblins at Gringotts that it was really Bellatrix who was entering the vault, and they had Bellatrix's wand that Harry had captured at Malfoy Manor as further proof for the disguise. Ron was transfigured to look like a foreign wizard named Dragomir Despard, and Harry had Griphook on his shoulders; both were under the Invisibility Cloak.

Their plan proceeded reasonably well; Hermione made a convincing Bellatrix, despite a close encounter with a Death Eater named Travers, whose susipicions seemed to be eased and accompanied the group to Gringotts. Two human guards there had Probity Probes that detected concealment charms, and Harry used a Confundus Charm on them to get Hermione passed unchecked. Inside, the Goblins requested Bellatrix's identification. When Hermione hesitated, one nervously said that her wand was sufficient proof, though Hermione claimed it was new. Harry suspected the Goblins knew that Bellatrix's wand was stolen and were looking for an impostor.

Griphook told Harry to use the Imperius Curse and Bogrod then accepted the wand as being correct. Bogrod requested the Clankers, and then led Hermione and Ron, with Harry, Griphook, and Travers into a passageway. The door slammed shut, and Harry sent Travers away to hide. Bogrod, still under the Imperius curse, summoned a cart that descended deep within Gringotts. After many twists and turns, the cart passed through Thief's Downfall, a security waterfall that washed away all illusion charms. When the cart overturned and dumped them out, Hermione and Ron had been reverted to themselves. Griphook believed the other Goblins knew they were impostors, but Harry wanted to continue and cursed Bogrod again.

The trio and Griphook found the Lestrange Vault guarded by an aged, half-blind dragon. Griphook subdued it using the Clankers. Hearing pursuit approaching, Harry forced Bogrod to open the vault, which was filled with precious objects. Hermione screamed in pain, and they discovered that the vault's protective charms included the Flagrante and Gemino curses: the contents would multiply and become searing hot every time something was touched. Harry spotted Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, the Horcrux, but it was out of reach. Hermione levitated Harry, and he snagged the Cup with Gryffindor's Sword, while Hermione, Ron, Griphook, and Bogrod all struggled to stay above the hot multiplying objects below.

As Harry was setting himself down, he dropped both the Sword and the Cup. Griphook grabbed Gryffindor's Sword, and flipped Hufflepuff's Cup up into the air. Harry caught it, ignoring the searing heat. Borne by a treasure avalanche spilling from the now-opened vault, Griphook ran off with Gryffindor's Sword, yelling that thieves were in the vault. Harry, Hermione, and Ron hurled curses at the Goblin throng. Harry released the half-blind Dragon and the three jumped on its back. The freed Dragon took flight, the three blasting holes into the ceiling for it to fly through as they made their escape.

Battle of Hogwarts
A vision from Voldemort helped Harry realise that the third Horcrux, whilst unbeknown to him at the time, Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem, remained at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their final mission to return to the school and obtain the diadem, inadvertently tripping the Caterwauling Charm upon apparating to Hogsmeade and thereby alerting the waiting Death Eaters to their presence. Due to the trio being under the Invisibility cloak, however, the Death Eaters resorted to unleashing Dementors into the streets to try to force the intruders out of hiding.

Having no choice, Harry conjured his Patronus to protect himself and his friends, automatically giving away their position and confirming their identities (the Death Eaters having been pre-warned that Harry Potter's patronus took the form of a stag). As Death Eaters began to close in on the still invisible trio, Aberforth Dumbledore emerged from the Hog's Head, hurriedly telling the three to enter his pub. While Harry, Ron, and Hermione did so, Aberforth remained outside, proclaiming to the Death Eaters that it was he who tripped the alarm (by letting his cat out) and conjured the Patronus to ward off the Dementor threat; mockingly contradicting a Death Eater, saying that what he had seen was a goat Patronus rather than a stag. The incensed Death Eaters believed this and retreated.

After Aberforth re-entered his pub and home, he scolded them for coming to Hogsmeade advising them to leave the country. After Harry engaged in a fierce argument with him, he led the grateful trio directly into Hogwarts through a secret entrance behind the portrait of his deceased sister, Ariana Dumbledore. Neville Longbottom, acting as their escort, then guided them into the Room of Requirement, where they were greeted by the reconstituted Dumbledore's Army; most of which were beaten and bruised yet ready to fight the Death Eaters controlling the school. Harry tried to tell them that he, Ron, and Hermione only returned to find something, but Neville contacted other allies with a call to arms. Harry was initially reluctant to allow the others to help, but in an attempt to be a better man than Dumbledore, whom he feared he was turning into, and after some discussion with Ron and Hermione, he allowed it.

Harry hesitantly asked the room at large if they had ever heard of any sort of legendary artefact belonging to one of the Founders of Hogwarts. Luna Lovegood then elaborated on the fabled Diadem of Ravenclaw, pronouncing that a statue in Ravenclaw Tower depicted Rowena Ravenclaw wearing a diadem. Harry, having no idea of what the diadem looked like, was led by Luna to the Ravenclaw Common Room to observe the statue. Here the pair were ambushed by Alecto Carrow who pressed her Dark Mark immediately upon noticing Harry, summoning Voldemort, before Luna stunned her from under the Invisibility Cloak. Amycus Carrow attempted to force his way through the common room door, designed only to open after the door-knocker's question was correctly answered, by seeking the help of Minerva McGonagall, who easily allowed him entry by solving the door's riddle herself; by that time, Harry had managed to rejoin Luna under the Invisibility Cloak.

Amycus, in fear of his master's wrath, suggested framing Alecto's apparently mistaken summoning of the former on the Ravenclaw students; as he did, he spontaneously devised a lie that made it seem as though the students had forced Alecto to touch her Dark Mark at wand-point. In her outrage, McGonagall strongly insinuated that Amycus was a coward for proposing such an idea. Carrow spat in McGonagall's face in retaliation, utterly enraging Harry who suddenly revealed himself while momentarily casting the Cruciatus Curse on the surprised Carrow, sending him flying backwards into the wall where he crumpled and fell unconscious. Harry then told McGonagall about the mission Dumbledore had left him, and she offered to hold Voldemort and his invading forces off, buying him the time he needed to search for the Horcrux. All students of age, the D.A., and the members of the Order of the Phoenix who had arrived to fight prepared themselves for the impending siege. The Battle of Hogwarts began as Voldemort and his army approached the outer boundaries of the school.

Lord Voldemort, upon arrival at Hogwarts, demanded that the school turn over Harry, and the Battle of Hogwarts began. Harry realised that the positioning of Alecto Carrow in Ravenclaw Tower confirmed the Horcrux's identity. It was the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. After thinking on it for some seconds, he went to ask the Grey Lady about the diadem. From her information, Harry surmised that the Horcrux had been hidden in the Room of Requirement. Harry, in the meantime, was worried about Hermione and Ron, who seemed to have disappeared. They had gone into the Chamber of Secrets, where Hermione destroyed Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup with basilisk fangs, which were one of the few weapons able to destroy Horcruxes.

The trio quickly headed for the Room of Requirement where Harry remembered seeing the Diadem the previous year. However, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle ambushed them. After a skirmish, the entire room was destroyed by the cursed fire Crabbe unleashed but could not control. Harry managed to fly himself and Malfoy out, while Ron and Hermione grabbed Goyle, but Crabbe perished in the flames that also destroyed the diadem. With one Horcrux remaining, Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued their pursuit of Nagini, but before they could go search for it, they witnessed the death of Fred Weasley. This incensed Ron and Harry, but Hermione reminded them that only they could finish Voldemort and that to obtain the final Horcrux they would have to do their share of fighting.

Snape's death
They fought their way to the Shrieking Shack. Along the way, Harry witnessed many scenes of horror. On the grounds, Voldemort's Dementors were waiting. After having seen so much pain and death, Harry could not summon the happiness required to conjure a Patronus. Neither could Hermione or Ron. In fact, Harry welcomed the oblivion that would come with the Dementor's Kiss. But after seeing the patronuses conjured by Luna Lovegood, Ernie Macmillan, and Seamus Finnigan, Harry summoned the will to conjure his and managed to drive the Dementors away. Once the trio arrived at the Shrieking Shack, they witnessed Voldemort order Nagini to kill Severus Snape, as he believed that Snape was preventing him from being the true owner of the Elder Wand. Before he died, Snape gave Harry memories to view in the Pensieve and asked him to look into his eyes. Upon returning to the castle, Harry saw the corpses of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks near Fred's, and he felt devastated. He left his friends behind to use Albus Dumbledore's Pensieve, welcoming the time in another's head.

During a one-hour ceasefire, Harry viewed the memories given by a dying Snape, which revealed to him that he had inadvertently been turned into a Horcrux himself and that Voldemort had to kill him in order to be rendered mortal himself. Harry also learned that Snape was, all along, with Dumbledore because he loved Lily Evans, since before they started school. Heavy of heart, Harry courageously slipped off on his own to carry out this dreadful task. He felt ghostly as he strode through the castle's empty halls, feeling as if he was already dead.

As Harry passed the Great Hall, he could not see Hermione, Ron, or the other Weasleys, nor Luna. He felt he would have given anything for one last look at them, but then he thought he would never be able to stop looking. During his way to Voldemort, he saw the corpse of Colin Creevey and told Neville to kill Nagini, if he could. He passed Ginny, who was comforting a small girl, and almost wished she could have sensed him, but under the Invisibility Cloak, this was impossible. As he passed Hagrid's hut on the Grounds, he emotionally remembered his trips there, particularly rock cakes, Ron vomiting slugs, and Norbert.

Harry then entered the Forbidden Forest, where he managed to open the Golden Snitch, which said on it, "I open at the close;" and the words to open it were, "I'm about to die;" this revealed the Resurrection Stone contained within. Harry used it to speak to the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, who offered him comfort before he met Voldemort and shielded him from the Dementors. As Harry approached the Death Eater camp, he dropped the Resurrection Stone. Harry offered no resistance as Voldemort struck him with the Killing Curse, thinking of Ginny before he died.

However, the "death" he met was not permanent: the blood Voldemort had taken from Harry to restore his physical form in 1995 still contained the Bond of Blood, anchoring him to life and protecting Harry from Voldemort's curse, and his willingness to die triggered protections on the people of Hogwarts similar to the protections he received from his mother's sacrifice. Also, since he had part of Voldemort's soul in him, Voldemort's killing curse unknowingly destroyed the part of Voldemort's soul, leaving one Horcrux left. Harry entered a state of limbo, where he met the spirit of Albus Dumbledore and the piece of Voldemort's soul that had just been destroyed. Dumbledore explained everything to Harry saying that he had "no more secrets from [Harry]." After reconciling with his mentor, Harry made the choice to return to the physical world rather than go on to the afterlife with Dumbledore.

Endgame


Harry woke up, but feigned death. He was assisted in this by Narcissa Malfoy, who had secretly turned against Voldemort by telling him Harry was dead in order to protect her son, because she knew the only way she would be permitted to enter Hogwarts was with the rest of the Death Eaters in their victory march. Voldemort then triumphantly disgraced Harry's "dead" body with the Cruciatus Curse then forced Hagrid to carry Harry's body back to Hogwarts, proclaiming Harry dead and demanding surrender. At first, the surviving fighters were heartbroken, especially Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Professor McGonagall. They screamed at the the Death Eaters in anger but remained defiant.

Neville Longbottom courageously stood up to Voldemort, and when the latter offered Neville a rank in his Death Eater society, Neville proudly refused and screamed to the high heavens, "Dumbledore's Army!" Voldemort pronounced a Body-Binding Curse, then Summoned the Sorting Hat and placed it upon Neville's head. After he announced that there would be no houses and that the school colours would be those loyal to Salazar Slytherin, he caused the hat to burst into flames. As Neville cried in pain, a distant uproar came from the direction of the school boundaries. Centaurs, thestrals, Buckbeak the Hippogriff, and the families of the Hogwarts students who remained to fight, plus the shop and home keepers of Hogsmeade joined the fight with a flourish.

This distracted Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and Neville was able to pull off the Sorting Hat, and from its depths he received the Sword of Godric Gryffindor and sliced off Nagini's head in one swift, fluid motion. Harry slipped away in the ensuing melee under the Invisibility Cloak. Death Eaters started to fold under sheer weight of numbers as the house-elves in the kitchens joined the battle, with Kreacher at its front, declaring war against the Dark Lord in the name of brave Regulus Black. Using his Invisibility Cloak, Harry protected the defenders of Hogwarts from attack. Soon, only Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange were the only two remaining and fighting, Voldemort duelling McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley at once, and Bellatrix duelling Hermione, Luna, and Ginny. Harry was torn between the two until he saw a Killing Curse shot beside Ginny's ear, the latter missing death by an inch.

Harry redirected his path to Bellatrix, until being roughly knocked aside by Molly Weasley, who duelled and ultimately killed Bellatrix. Voldemort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb, and Harry turned in to see McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley blasted backwards in pain, and Voldemort directing his wand at Molly. Harry then cast a shield charm to protect her from Voldemort's wrath, revealing himself for the final duel.

Unbeknownst to Voldemort, mastery of the Elder Wand, which he had stolen from Dumbledore's grave, had not been taken from Dumbledore by Snape, but by Draco Malfoy. Thus, when Harry had disarmed Malfoy in Malfoy Manor weeks earlier, he had become the true master of the Elder Wand.

When Harry and Voldemort faced off for the last time, Harry tried to tell him this and about the other mistakes he had made. Harry also asked him to feel some remorse, which Voldemort rejected. Voldemort cast the Killing Curse, and Harry countered with Expelliarmus. The Elder Wand refused to attack its master, and the Killing Curse rebounded, finally permanently destroying Voldemort once and for all.

Immediately, Harry was surrounded by overjoyed fellow fighters; Hermione and Ron reached him first, and then Ginny, Neville and Luna. Victory celebrations began, but Harry soon grew weary, and Luna created a distraction so that he could slip away under the Invisibility Cloak to find Ron and Hermione. They visited Albus Dumbledore's portrait, and along the way he explained everything to his two best friends. Harry decided to prevent the Deathly Hallows from ever being reunited again by keeping the Cloak of Invisibility, leaving the Resurrection Stone where it lay in the Forbidden Forest, and returning the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's grave, but not before using it to fix his wand.

When Voldemort destroyed the Horcrux that was Harry, Harry Potter lost the ability to speak Parseltongue, much to his relief. In addition, the scar on Harry's forehead no longer held magical powers, nor did it ever cause Harry pain again.

Later life
"The scar hadn't pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."

- Harry's later life



At the end of the Second Wizarding War, Harry became an Auror at the Ministry of Magic; new Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt permitted those who had fought in the final battle to become Aurors without getting their N.E.W.T.s. In 2007, Harry became youngest head of the Auror Office at the age of 27. He helped to reform and revolutionise the Ministry along with Ron Weasley, who also became an Auror, and Hermione Granger, who was ranked high up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. At some point, all three of them were featured on Chocolate Frog Cards for their accomplishments.

Following the war, he aided in the care of his godson, Teddy Lupin, thus fulfilling his role that his own godfather, Sirius Black, never got to play. By 2017, Harry had Married Ginny Weasley and had three children of his own: two sons James Sirius, Albus Severus, and one daughter Lily Luna. In September of that year, Harry and Ginny took their three children to King's Cross Station to see James and Albus off to Hogwarts. There, they met Ron and Hermione, and their two children, Harry's niece Rose and nephew Hugo. Albus expressed a fear that he might be sorted into Slytherin house, Harry told his son he was named after two Hogwarts Headmaster's one being a Slytherin and the "bravest man [he] ever knew." Harry assured him that his parents would be proud of him regardless of where he was sorted, and told him that the Sorting Hat would take his preferences into consideration, which happened to himself when he was being sorted.

Harry ensured that Severus Snape's portrait was hung in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts. He also made occasional visits to the school to give lectures to the students on Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Harry was also on "Christmas card" terms with his cousin Dudley Dursley and his family, and occasionally visited him, which were occasions dreaded by his own children. Harry also made peace with his former rival Draco Malfoy, something that his father and his friends were never able to do with Severus Snape. They were civil towards each other; however, their schoolboy enmity meant that they would never truly become friends.

Physical description
"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby. Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."

- Rubeus Hagrid to the eleven-year-old Harry Potter.

Harry was a near-spitting image of his father, having untidy jet-black hair, but his startlingly green, almond-shaped eyes were identical to those of his mother. Harry's physique as a boy was described as "small and skinny," with a thin face and knobbly knees, due to his poor quality of life in his childhood. However, despite the neglect he suffered, Harry seems to have grown at the same rate as James, as when he was fifteen he was within an inch of James at the same age, and when he was seventeen he was exactly the same height his father was, and James was often described as tall. Harry wore round-rimmed glasses, peculiarly similar to his father's glasses. During his time hunting Voldemort's horcruxes, Harry's black hair grew shoulder length as was described when he saw his reflection in Malfoy Manor.

Upon Harry's forehead, covered by his unruly black hair, was a scar shaped like a lightning bolt. The scar was a result of the failed (and famed) Killing Curse cast on him by Lord Voldemort when he was an infant. It burned painfully whenever Voldemort was near Harry or feeling particularly strong emotions, but this stopped after Voldemort's death and was reduced into an ordinary scar.

Harry also had a faint scar on the back of his right hand which said, "I must not tell lies." This scar was caused while Harry spent detentions with Dolores Umbridge, who forced him to use the blood quill that carved the words into the back of his hand.

In addition, Harry has an oval-shaped scar over his heart where the locket-Horcrux seared his skin during the confrontation with Nagini in Bathilda Bagshot's house, Godric's Hollow.

When possessed by Lord Voldemort at the end of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry's eyes became somewhat glassy green in appearance, and his voice became a mixture of his own and Voldemort's.

Harry had "great skin" and never suffered from zits.

Personality and traits
"I see Harry as someone who is struggling to do the right thing, who is not without faults, who acts impetuously as you would expect someone of his age to act, but who is ultimately a very loyal person, and a very very courageous person. So, in as much as he has qualities that I admire most I would say he is a good role model. That doesn't mean that he is saintly, but then frankly, who is? But I think you do see enough of Harry’s inner life, the workings of his mind in the books to know that he is ultimately human, struggling to do the right thing, which I think is admirable."

- J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter is an extremely brave, loyal, and selfless person who possesses tremendous strength of character. He willingly went to what he truly believed to be his death because he believed that this was the only way to defeat the Dark Lord. Harry was also marked by what Lord Voldemort once deemed a "weakness for heroics" — he would go to great lengths and take great risks in order to help others, particularly his loved ones. Notably, this was taken advantage of by Voldemort in 1996, when he lured Harry to the Department of Mysteries by making him believe that his godfather was in danger. Harry was also very strong-willed and unafraid to stand up for himself. The fact that he was capable of repelling the Imperius Curse suggests that he had an unusually strong sense of himself and his morals. Dumbledore once made parallels between Harry's traits and qualities that Salazar Slytherin looked for in his own hand-picked students, but noted that Harry's choice not to draw on those qualities really defined who he was rather than the simple fact that he had them.

"Hmm. Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?"

- Sorting Hat to Harry Potter

Harry was perfectly prepared to put his friends' needs and best interests first, shown by how he ended his relationship with Ginny Weasley due to his concern for her well being, even though being with her was one of the best thing that ever happened to him. The amount of trust that Harry put into his friends was so strong that he absolutely refused to consider that any of them would betray him to Voldemort. Considering that Harry knew a person who had betrayed all of his closest friends to Voldemort, they being Harry's parents, godfather and Remus Lupin who was there when Harry declared his trust in him, proves Harry's ability to love so unequivocally.

The closeness that Harry felt for many was great enough for him to behave violently should any of them get harmed. When his godfather was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry attacked her in a grief-stricken rage of righteous anger and attempted to use the Cruciatus Curse on her. He also attacked Severus Snape after the latter murdered Albus Dumbledore. Ironically, the only people Harry ever initiated a duel with were Snape and Bellatrix and he only desired to do so right after they killed someone he loved. This highlights Harry's bravery even further because Harry was fully aware that Snape and Bellatrix were two of the greatest wizards and witches of the age but did not hesitate to harm them as soon as he was pushed into it.

"Listen to me, Harry. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue; resourcefulness; determination; a certain disregard for the rules [...]"

- Dumbledore to Harry Potter after defeating the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets



However, Harry was also accused of being arrogant, in particular by Severus Snape (although in fairness, Snape was extremely biased, and Harry often found being famous and admired very difficult), and could be hot-tempered and impulsive. This can sometimes make him rude to authority figures such as Professor Snape and Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, and irritable with his friends. Harry was prone to moodiness during his adolescence, though this is likely the result of the great emotional stress and trials he endured during this period. Harry possessed an instinctual, intuitive intelligence that allowed him to make intellectual leaps as opposed to the logical intelligence of Hermione. For example, Harry divined the truth about the Deathly Hallows, well before Hermione would accept it, and although he was clever, Harry also lacked intellectual curiosity, rarely putting forth effort into school work; for example, he relied on the notes of the "Half-Blood Prince" to get ahead in his sixth-year Potions class rather than devoting time to studying (although he did study reasonably hard for his Ordinary Wizarding Levels, the only set of wizarding qualifications he sat at Hogwarts), and generally did his best magical work when tackling practical exams rather than theoretical ones. This could be a result of the lack of confidence that Harry developed from growing up with the Dursleys.

Harry also seemed to have a bit of an obsessive personality, a trait he shared with his arch enemy Lord Voldemort. He could be somewhat nosy and was known for sleuthing around and getting involved in things that did not concern him. During his sixth year, for instance, Harry became intensely preoccupied with finding out what Malfoy was doing in his free time.

Harry's greatest strength was his ability to feel love, despite having a miserable childhood of neglect. Harry was extremely loyal to and protective of his loved ones, and that love was what allowed him to overcome Voldemort, Dumbledore noting Harry's strength of will at resisting the temptation to act like Voldemort even when granted a direct insight into Voldemort's mind and methods. Harry even claimed that he felt sorry for Voldemort because of his inability to feel or understand love.

Albus Dumbledore noted that Harry was unfailingly kind, and he was also compassionate and respectful. This is shown by how he freed Dobby from the Malfoys, and by standing up for Muggle-borns, Half-bloods, and Half-breeds, like Hagrid. This is likely attributable to his childhood, during which the Dursleys deprived him of compassion, and discriminated against him due to his magical abilities. Also, Harry was not a cruel person and he never wished anyone harm. He rarely initiated duels, instead fighting in self-defence. Even after Bellatrix Lestrange had murdered his godfather, Harry failed to cast the Crutiatus curse on her; Bellatrix noted the he had failed to cast the curse properly because he had cast it out of righteous anger and not malicious intent. However, he did use the Cruciatus Curse more effectively on Amycus Carrow after he spat at and insulted Minerva McGonagall. In addition, he saved Peter Pettigrew from being killed by his (Pettigrew's) former friends Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Although, this was not done out of humanitarian reasons, but out of the memory of his father.

Remus Lupin once noted that Harry had very good and nearly always right instincts. Harry had a strong awareness of the incalculable power of certain acts, which is never more apparent than when he refused to allow Lupin to accompany him and leave his wife and child at home and realized that Ron Weasley was meant to destroy Slytherin's Locket.

In some ways, Harry can become extremely intimidating toward people such as Gilderoy Lockhart, Mundungus Fletcher, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. It is seen that Harry can become extremely frightening when pushed to the point of anger or extreme annoyance. When in a bad mood and argumentative even Harry's closest friends have been shown to be wary of him, usually replying to his angry tone in a calm and appeasing voice. The only person who does not appear to be afraid of him when he is angry (other than his teachers and other authority figures in his life) is Ginny Weasley.

Harry seems to have good and long memory, as he remember the motorbike ride to Privet Drive with Hagrid when he was eleven and could remember the deaths of his mother and Voldemort's laughter when the events occurred ten years earlier.

Harry also cared very much for his children. He comforted his daughter, Lily Potter when she was upset about not going to Hogwarts. He also made sure his younger son Albus Potter would not be teased a lot by Harry's older son, James Potter II.

Although never as given to sarcasm or humour as his best friend Ron, Harry often displayed a dry, occasionally sarcastic, wit. For instance, on finding out that Hermione Granger intended to take twelve O.W.Ls, he asked her if she planned to eat or sleep at all that year. This humour often became more cutting when applied to people Harry disliked: When threatened by Draco Malfoy and his cronies after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry remarked that he supposed that "Lord Voldemort's just a warm-up act compared to you three", responding to Malfoy's threat that he was dead by casually commenting that he would have thought he would have stopped walking. Harry also displayed wit on the occasion when he first encountered Crookshanks, remarking that he was either "a very large cat or quite a small tiger".

Although he never sought power himself, and would be content with a normal life, when the situation required him to step up, such as when he, Ron and Hermione discovered Voldemort and Quirrell's attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone, or his time as teacher/leader of Dumbledore's Army, Harry has shown not-inconsiderable leadership abilities, to the point that Dumbledore reflected that Harry was a better leader than him as he never sought power for himself but simply had to assume the mantle of leadership due to circumstances beyond his control and found in the process that he did it well.

During his youth, Harry also tended to see morality in a rather stark, absolute manner, particularly when it came to the Houses. Harry generally regarded members of Slytherin House as evil and therefore his enemies, while Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were allies. The former part could be due to his own status as a Gryffindor, and that many of the Slytherins he encountered, such as Lord Voldemort, Draco Malfoy, and Severus Snape, were significant enemies of his during this period. In addition, many of his friends and allies, such as Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and Hagrid, were fellow Gryffindors. However, this mentality eroded as he aged, since he encountered both allies among Slytherin, such as Horace Slughorn (and, later, Snape), and enemies among the other three Houses, such as Peter Pettigrew (a fellow Gryffindor) and Quirinus Quirrell (a Ravenclaw). By 2017, Harry adopted a more moderate attitude on the Houses, telling his younger son Albus Potter that "it doesn't matter to us" if Albus was sorted in Slytherin or Gryffindor. In addition, Harry named that same son after Severus Snape, whom he recounted as "the bravest man [he] ever knew".

Magical abilities and skills
"False hope? He has achieved high marks in all of his Defence Against the Dark Arts tests!"

- Professor McGonagall arguing with Dolores Umbridge about Harry's career

Harry was seen and had proven himself to be an extraordinarily talented and powerful wizard, with many of his strengths being praised by witches and wizards much older and wiser than he was.


 * Love: Harry's greatest power of all was his ability to love. In spite of being raised by a family that treated him with anything but affection, Harry remarkably turned out capable of very strong love. His love for his friends caused him to feel no concern for his own well being or happiness when they were at risk, and put himself in danger many times to protect them. Harry's ability to love also protected and helped him on several occasions, such as when he defeated Quirrell by causing his skin to burn, produced a Patronus that could drive numerous Dementors away, repelled Voldemort himself when he possessed him, and allowed him to close the connection between him and Voldemort when he was unable to perform Occlumency. His love was strongest when directed at Ginny Weasley, who was the driving force that kept him going until Voldemort was defeated.
 * Defence Against the Dark Arts: Harry was extremely adept in the Defence Against the Dark Arts, having mastered all manners of jinxes and spells, such as the Stunning Spell, Disarming Charm, Impediment Jinx and Reductor Curse. In fact, his Stunning Spell was so strong that opponents would get knocked out if they were hit directly. Harry also achieved an Outstanding Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., something that not even Hermione achieved, a testament of his extraordinary talent in defensive magic. Indeed, Harry was so good at D.A.D.A. that when the Ministry of Magic prevented the subject from being taught effectively in 1995, Harry set up his own D.A.D.A. club and successfully taught the members to defend themselves well against the Dark Arts. Harry had also developed a high level of resistance to the Imperius Curse, demonstrated when it was first cast upon him by Barty Crouch Jr. (disguised as Alastor Moody) during a Defence Against the Dark Arts class in his fourth year. Crouch cursed Harry with it four times in a row, until he could throw it off entirely. At the end of the school year, Voldemort himself cast the Imperius Curse on Harry, which he was able to resist, much to the astonishment of the Death Eaters who were present. Harry's natural aptitude for resisting the Imperius Curse, and ability to resist it when cast by the most powerful Dark Wizard in history, demonstrates an indescribable strength of will and character.

"Look at that, you lot...Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll try that again Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention — watch his eyes, that's where you see it — very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"

- Barty Crouch Jr., under the guise of Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody on Harry's ability to resist the Imperius Curse


 * Duelling: Despite his young age, Harry was an accomplished and skillful duellist, being able to single-handedly defeat Death Eaters and even survive numerous encounters with Lord Voldemort himself. He eventually defeated Voldemort by becoming the master of the Elder Wand. In many battles of the Second Wizarding War, he was able to incapacitate much more experienced Death Eaters, and during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, he was the only one of the six D.A. members to be neither injured nor incapacitated and, along with Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin, was the only fighter on their side to emerge from the battle physically unscathed, and in that time he had defeated Lucius Malfoy and had defeated the extremely powerful Antonin Dolohov twice. Later, in the same battle, he was able to hold his own against Bellatrix Lestrange, who was the most powerful of all the Death Eaters. In 1997, Harry defeated Yaxley, Fenrir Greyback, and one of the two Carrows, and briefly held his own against Severus Snape, who was able to block Harry's attempts of cursing him by using Legilimency. He fought off several Death Eaters in the Battle of the Seven Potters, defeated Thorfinn Rowle with a single spell during the Luchino Caffe Duel, knocked out Yaxley and Dolores Umbridge during the Infiltration of the Ministry of Magic, overpowered Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy and Fenrir Greyback during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, and avoided direct conflict damage all throughout the Battle of Hogwarts (ensuring that mastery of the Elder Wand did not waver from him). He was known to be very quick off the draw and had an aggressive duelling style, even incorporating Unforgivable Curses. Harry was especially skilled in the Disarming Charm, and used it so much that it was seen as his "signature spell" by many Death Eaters. His most notable uses of the Disarming Charm were when he formed Priori Incantatem with Voldemort and when he finally killed the Dark Lord. At the remarkably young age of seventeen, Harry became an Auror, and in 2007, was promoted to Head of the Auror Office.
 * Dark Arts: Harry was one of the few non-Dark Wizards who was highly proficient in the Dark Arts at all levels; whilst he knew simple curses and jinxes like the Furnunculus Curse, Flipendo and the Impediment Jinx, he could use more powerful spells such as the Blasting Curse and even attempted some of the Unforgivable Curses with varying degrees of success, such as the Imperius Curse on Travers and a goblin called Bogrod during the 1998 Break-in of Gringotts Wizarding Bank, as well as the Cruciatus Curse on several occasions — once on Bellatrix Lestrange in 1996 (though not very successfully), another on Snape in 1997 (at which time he was prevented from completing the incantation) and once more against Amycus Carrow in 1998, (and whilst the curse was more successful than Harry's past attempts, it did not result in the prolonged, excruciating pain that the curse was famous for — instead, Carrow screamed and was incapacitated). However, he has never used the Killing Curse for obvious reasons, even in his final battle with Voldemort.

"You play as good as your father did, Harry."

- Sirius Black talking about Harry's flying talent.




 * Flying: Harry had also inherited his father's talent for flying and for Quidditch, showing immediate command of a broomstick in his first year, which made him a naturally good Seeker. This was the first magical skill for which he discovered an aptitude, as he found in 1991. In fact, at the mere age of eleven, Harry became the youngest Seeker in a century. Harry's extraordinary flying skills aided him when he had to capture Winged Keys to get past Professor Flitwick's challenge in the Philosopher's Stone Chambers, and also helped him in the Triwizard Tournament (where he had to steal a golden egg from a Hungarian Horntail), and during the Battle of Hogwarts, during which he managed to escape a Fiendfyre inferno in the Room of Requirement.
 * Parselmouth: Because he carried a piece of Voldemort's soul within himself, Harry was able to speak and understand Parseltongue from 1981 to 1998. After that soul fragment was destroyed, Harry lost this ability, which he was glad for.
 * Insight into Voldemort's mind: Also due to the piece of Voldemort's soul, Harry was able to look into Voldemort's mind and see through his senses from time to time. He sometimes used this ability to monitor what Voldemort was doing. However, it was a dangerous ability to have as well; Voldemort once used it, along with Legilimency, to plant a false vision in Harry's mind of Sirius Black being tortured, which he used to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries. Additionally, because of their connection, Harry felt a burning pain in his scar whenever he and Voldemort were in close proximity or whenever Voldemort felt strong negative emotions. Although Harry failed to learn Occlumency, he did eventually have some success at blocking his connection to Voldemort by focusing on feelings of grief, even though Albus Dumbledore told Harry it was love. As Harry lost the ability to speak Parseltongue, he presumably lost this ability as well when the soul fragment within him was destroyed, as was Voldemort himself.
 * Master of the Deathly Hallows: Harry was master of all three of the Deathly Hallows for a time. Harry overpowered and disarmed Draco Malfoy during a skirmish at Malfoy Manor. Because Draco was unknowingly the master of the Elder Wand, which he had taken from previous owner Albus Dumbledore, the wand's allegiance turned to Harry when he disarmed him, although the wand was in Voldemort's possession at the time. Dumbledore left the Resurrection Stone to Harry in his will, contained in the Golden Snitch that Harry had caught during his very first Quidditch match. The Cloak of Invisibility was rightfully Harry's, as it was passed down to him through the generations of the Potter family from its original owner, Ignotus Peverell, who was Harry's ancestor. The Resurrection Stone was lost in the Forbidden Forest in 1998, while Harry returned the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's tomb that same year. Harry kept the Invisibility Cloak, as it was a priceless family heirloom.
 * Potioneer: His Potions ability was apparently better than it appeared, as he was able to achieve an Exceeds Expectations grade on his O.W.L. exam; and improved greatly during his sixth year when he came into possession of an old potions textbook in which a talented former student (Severus Snape) had revised many potion-making techniques. However, the usage of this textbook was noted by both Hermione and Snape to be cheating, and when forced to hide it, Harry's potion skills suffered. Despite this, it is noted that Harry had no problems with potions at all, as long as Snape was not around.
 * Transfiguration: Harry was able to conjure ropes in his sixth year and achieved an Exceeds Expectation grade in the subject. Minerva McGonagall herself complimented Harry on his Transfiguration ability.
 * Charms: Harry also achieved an Exceeds Expectations in his Charms work. He frequently used the Summoning Charm successfully and would occasionally cast the protective enchantments that Hermione would use during the Horcrux hunt. Under the teaching of Remus Lupin, Harry was able to cast a corporeal Patronus charm in his third year, which was a remarkable feat and yet another proof of his talent, given that many adult wizards were unable to cast the difficult charm successfully. His Patronus took the form of a stag, his father's Animagus and Patronus form. Harry's Patronus was so powerful that, even at the very first time he successfully cast it against true Dementors, it was able to drive away hundreds of Dementors.
 * Apparition: Harry had not earned a license to apparate but he used the ability frequently during 1997 and 1998 to great success, even when forced to apparate with only a seconds notice or while guiding others. Harry used apparition in his sixth year to a very impressive degree to get himself and a weakened Albus Dumbledore over an incredibly vast distance even though he was inexperienced. Harry has stated and it is noted that he does not like the sensation however.
 * Non-verbal and wandless magic: In 1995, when the Dementors attacked in Little Whinging, Dudley had knocked Harry's wand when he punched Harry moments before. In desperation, Harry calls out "Lumos!" Although his wand was not in his hand, the wand tip lit up. During 1997 and 1998, Harry began using spells non-verbally and became quite proficient at it when Snape wasn't bothering him. He used both non-verbal and wandless magic in 1991, when he caused the glass window of a snake's cage at the zoo to vanish and again in 1993 when he inflated Marge Dursley, although both of these occurrences were accidents fuelled by pure anger. Few other wizards have exhibited this power, although Dumbledore and Voldemort were among them. This further contributes to Harry's skill, as only some of the most powerful wizards of his time were able to do so.
 * Care of Magical Creatures: Harry has shown on more than one occasion to have good skill in handling numerous sorts of magical creatures. For example, he was the first in his class to tame a Hippogriff, which he did very excellently. He befriended the Hippogriff, Buckbeak, to the extent that Buckbeak defended him when he was in danger. He has also shown on three occasions that he is quite competent at dealing with dragons. This is shown when he was able to help Hagrid take care of baby Norbert the dragon, outsmart the Hungarian Horntail in the Triwizard Tournament, and tame a half-blind dragon into helping them escape Gringotts by flying out on its back. Harry is also very skilled at dealing with Dementors, so well that the first time he was able to drive away hundreds of dementors. Harry was also good at dealing with house-elves, befriending the house-elf Dobby and eventually freeing him, which made the little elf so loyal to him that he gave his life to save him. He also earned the respect and loyalty of Kreacher, a very difficult task.
 * Herbologist: Harry earned an Exceeds Expectations in Herbology, showing some aptitude in the subject.
 * Expert Detective Skills: Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, was also a formidably talented investigator. While in school, the trio had a knack for solving difficult mysteries and discovering the truth despite all attempts by others to conceal it, with Hermione generally finding the background information while Harry put the pieces together to make a coherent picture. In his first year, Harry uncovered the truth about the Philosopher's Stone and saved it from Voldemort. Over the next six years, he would solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets, learn of Sirius's innocence and Pettigrew's betrayal, find the truth about the Prophecy, and hunt down and destroy all of Voldemort's Horcruxes using his amazing deductive skills. Harry's deductive skills also allowed him to uncover the mystery of the Deathly Hallows and learn that he mastered the three of them. Harry also had a knack for spotting things that others did not, and had a sharp eye for details, as he was able to tell that Luna Lovegood had not been home in weeks by the state of her room, and he became suspicious when Dobby revealed that he had known that Harry was not getting any letters in 1992.
 * Leadership: While Harry never deliberately set out to be a leader to others, he has often taken charge when the situation required it, beginning with his impulsive decision to find and warn Hermione about the presence of a troll in the school during the 1991 Halloween feast and progressing to the point where over thirty students — some of them in their sixth and seventh years — respected him as a teacher in Dumbledore's Army despite his being younger than they were. Dumbledore later noted that Harry was a superior leader to him as Dumbledore had deliberately sought power in his youth — and subsequently avoided anything more demanding than his role as Hogwarts headmaster — while Harry had leadership thrust upon him and accepted the burden, acknowledging his responsibilities towards those who 'followed' him regardless of how uncomfortable he might feel about the prospect and coordinating his efforts against his enemies well when left with no other option but to take control.
 * Indomitable Will: Harry appears to possess an unbreakable spirit and, though not above depression, he has never truly given up on any mission. He's been shown to rise from defeat and loss, such as the deaths of many loved ones, even stronger than before. His indomitable will is exemplified by his ability to resist the Imperius Curse, and also by the fact that he's never begged for mercy when in life and death situations, but fights back in defiance, as well as perform non-verbal spell flawlessly. His inability to perform Occlumency, despite possessing the required willpower, is due to his inability to keep his emotions under control at times, and only once, during his lessons with Snape, did he managed to slightly escape the Legilimency, but faltered again in the subsequent attempt.

Possessions
"He's been left a house?"

- Vernon Dursley


 * Potter Inheritance: When Harry's parents were murdered by Lord Voldemort, they left behind a somewhat large savings account in vault 687 of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. This inheritance became Harry's source of funding for all his Hogwarts textbooks, wizarding clothes, etc.
 * Wand: As is the case with most wizards and witches, Harry's wand is among his most valued magical possessions. Harry's is made of Holly, a wood with the powers to repel evil. The wand is in deliberate contrast to the wand of Lord Voldemort, which is Yew ,a wood with the powers of evil. Harry's wand shared a twin core with Voldemort's wand, as both contained Phoenix feathers from the same phoenix, Fawkes. Harry's wand broke in 1997 during a skirmish with Nagini in Bathilda Bagshot's house due to a stray spell cast by Hermione Granger,  later he used the Elder Wand to repair it.
 * Cloak of Invisibility: Another valued and useful possession is Harry's Cloak of Invisibility. In his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he received it 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 descendent of Ignotus Peverell, one of the three brothers who created the Deathly Hallows. It is yet to be decided whether he would give the cloak to his oldest son, James Sirius, his youngest son, Albus Severus, or his daughter Lily Luna.
 * Hedwig: Harry's animal companion, Hedwig was vitally helpful in delivering messages and packages for Harry, especially while Sirius was in hiding from the Ministry. Hedwig loved Harry dearly, showing signs by nibbling his ear or fingers, and loyally obeyed his every command (even pecking Ron and Hermione until they answer back). Harry loved her as much as she loved him. Hedwig was killed during the Battle of the Seven Potters by a stray Killing Curse that was most likely meant for Hagrid. Harry was overcome with grief over Hedwig's death.
 * Marauder's Map: One of Harry's most treasured possessions. In his Marauder'sMap.png year, Fred and George Weasley gave it to Harry while he was trying to sneak into Hogsmeade. It was confiscated by Remus Lupin, but later returned when he quit his job. Harry kept it with him for a long period of time, keeping it in the Mokeskin wallet from Hagrid. Harry kept it in his possession until it was stolen from his desk by his son, James.
 * Deathly Hallows: For a brief time, Harry was master of all three Deathly Hallows: the Cloak of Invisibility, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand (though he was not in physical possession of the Elder Wand until after losing the Resurrection Stone). These three artefacts are the most powerful magical items in all of the wizarding world and were so ancient that they were only the subject of fairy tales. When Harry lost the Resurrection Stone inside the Forbidden Forest, he decided to leave it there. Harry also interred the Elder Wand in Albus Dumbledore's grave, so the power of the wand would be extinguished after Harry's eventual death. However, the portrait of Dumbledore that hangs in the Headmaster's office advised Harry to keep the Invisibility Cloak, since it was his father's.
 * Godric Gryffindor's Sword: A relic of the founder of Harry's house, the goblin-made sword of Godric Gryffindor was left to Harry by his former Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in his will. However, the Ministry of Magic claimed that it was not Dumbledore's to give, and that it truly belonged to Hogwarts. Although the Ministry confiscated a replica of the sword, the true sword found its way into Harry's possession still through the machinations of Severus Snape. Soon after, Ron Weasley used it to destroy Salazar Slytherin's Locket, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Harry lost the sword to Griphook when he, Ron and Hermione Granger stole Helga Hufflepuff's Cup from the Lestrange Vault at Gringotts. However, the sword reappeared in the hands of Neville Longbottom during the Battle of Hogwarts; he used it to kill Nagini, and thus destroyed the last of the Horcruxes. Neville was seen sitting beside the sword after the battle, but it is likely that it was returned to Hogwarts as a relic of the Founders, along with the remains of the other Founders' relics.
 * Sirius Black's Enchanted Knife: This magical knife, with the power to open most mechanical locks and magical seals and which Harry received for Christmas from Sirius Black, was melted when Harry tried it on a locked door at the Department of Mysteries. The protective enchantments on the door were far stronger than the magic of the enchanted knife.
 * Firebolt broom: During Harry's third year at Hogwarts, the Nimbus 2000 broom he'd been riding since his first year was destroyed by the Whomping Willow, and Sirius Black replaced it by giving Harry the finest broom available as an anonymous gift. The broom was one of Harry's most prized possessions for years. It was lost during the Battle of the Seven Potters. It is not known if Harry ever recovered or replaced it.
 * Communication mirror: Harry also owns one in a pair of two-way mirrors, given to him by his godfather Sirius Black. The mirror was intended to be a means covert communication, but Harry broke it out of anger over Sirius' death. Harry did not realise the mirror could still work, although he kept a shard out of sentimentality. When Harry and several friends are captured at Malfoy Manor, at the time being used as a headquarters for Voldemort, Harry used the shard of mirror to communicate with Aberforth Dumbledore, who had the other mirror. Aberforth sent Dobby to rescue Harry and the other prisoners.
 * Fabian Prewett's watch: Molly Weasley gave Harry the watch of her late brother Fabian Prewett for his seventeenth birthday. It has a dent in it, but Harry kept the watch, even into his thirties. The watch does not have arms; rather, it has stars.
 * Mokeskin pouch: A birthday present from Hagrid. Harry kept it with him throughout the Deathly Hallows, and kept in it his treasures that were of no use to his search; the Snitch, the broken mirror, his broken wand, his mother's letter and the fake Horcrux.Harry also received a photo album, from Hagrid, which had photos of his parents and other family members.

After Sirius Black died, all of his remaining possessions were passed along to Harry. This included:
 * Buckbeak: The hippogriff Sirius acquired from Rubeus Hagrid. Harry allowed Hagrid to take care of Buckbeak/Witherwings, as Hagrid had dearly missed the creature while it was in Sirius' possession.
 * The Black Family Residence:

"As you can see, Harry, Kreacher is showing a certain reluctance to pass into your ownership."

- Albus Dumbledore

Located at 12 Grimmauld Place, it and all the contents and furnishings of the house, including Kreacher (the family house-elf) became Harry's. Mundungus Fletcher would later try to steal many of Harry's inherited possessions, including Salazar Slytherin's Locket.
 * Black Family Inheritance: Harry also inherited the remainder of Sirius' wealth in wizard's gold at Gringotts. Since Sirius was disowned at the age of sixteen, it is likely that this wealth was limited to the gold left to him by his uncle Alphard Black. However, that is open to debate because although Sirius Black was disinherited by his family, he ended up inheriting the 12 Grimmauld Placeafter their death, which might lead us to believe in the existence of forms of inheritance from his family other than what his uncle left him.

Parents
James and Lily Potter died when their son was only a year old. Harry barely knew them, but nevertheless regarded them with great reverence and fiercely defended their memory if anyone spoke ill of them. In 1995, he punched Draco Malfoy for insulting his mother, and he frequently became furious with Professor Snape, who taunted Harry that James was not the great man others made him out to be. Snape was, to Harry's horror, proven right in the spring of 1996, when Harry accidentally witnessed James bully Snape using the Levicorpus spell in one of Snape's memories, with Dumbledore's Pensieve. However, Harry was relieved to know that his mother was a fair and kind person, who neither participated in nor tolerated bullying, and would stand up for those in need. Remus Lupin and Sirius Black later assured him that James had changed his ways, eventually becoming mature enough to win Lily over.

The few times he ever saw his parents were through pictures given to him by Rubeus Hagrid, a vision within the Mirror of Erised, spectral forms which came out of Voldemort's wand during Priori Incantatem, stored memories within the Pensieve, and as lifeless corpses in a flashback that was triggered when he saw his now-ruined parents' house. The last known time he saw them where when he "summoned" them during the Battle of Hogwarts by using the Resurrection Stone. Both James' and Lily's spirits told their son that they were tremendously proud of him, for being so brave and strong despite all the suffering and pain that he had been forced to endure, and gave him the support he needed to sacrifice himself to Voldemort. Harry described their presence as his courage, the very reason why he was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other, with his mother smiling at him, and his father nodding encouragement.

Harry: "Stay close to me"

Lily: "Always"

Albus Dumbledore maintained that Harry's greatest strength was his love for his parents and the love they had for him, and in part, this literally translated to the protection afforded to Harry by his mother's sacrifice. Harry eventually named two of his children after his parents, a gesture that clearly stated that he would always keep the memory of his parents alive and honoured. It is seen that both his parents call him a name of affection, as James calls Harry "son" and Lily "sweetheart", it is very possible that they had a nickname for Harry when he was a baby.

Petunia Dursley


After Lily and James Potter were murdered by Lord Voldemort, Harry was taken in by his maternal aunt, Petunia Dursley. Petunia had not been fond of her late sister, jealously and bitterly regarding her as a "freak" for her magical abilities. She took out her resentment on Harry, treating him poorly and depriving him of affection. When Harry was finally told about his wizarding background, Petunia admitted she had always feared he would turn out "like his parents." Though after years of neglect, Harry did not particularly care for his aunt either, he was concerned enough for the Dursleys to push them to go into hiding during the height of the Second Wizarding War. Just before departing, Petunia gave her nephew an odd, tremulous look, and seemed to want to say something more to him than goodbye, but ultimately just shook her head and left. She had wanted to wish him luck, and admit that her loathing of him and his world was born out of jealousy, but years of pretending that "normal" was best had hardened her too much.

During the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry was browsing through the repressed memories of Severus Snape that were given to him after the latter's death at the fangs of Nagini and explained Snape's true loyalties. In addition, Harry viewed many memories of Petunia as a child, and discovered the real reasons for her deplorable treatment of him: Petunia, as a child, was jealous of her sister for her magical abilities, and had written to Albus Dumbledore to accept her into Hogwarts so that she could learn magic herself. When this request was denied, Petunia responded by furiously rejecting the wizarding world in general and her sister in particular. However, Harry was more concerned with uncovering Snape's loyalties at the time. It is unknown if he ever revealed this information to anyone after the War.

Dudley Dursley


Harry and his cousin Dudley did not get along very well for most of their early lives. While Vernon and Petunia treated Harry poorly, they spoiled Dudley to the extreme. Dudley constantly bullied his much smaller cousin throughout their childhood, but did his best not to provoke him after he found out that Harry was a wizard, though the two still got into an occasional argument and trading of insults. This changed after Harry saved Dudley from a pair of Dementors that attacked them during the summer of 1995. When the Order of the Phoenix placed the Dursleys into hiding to keep them safe during the height of the Second Wizarding War, Dudley was the only member of the family to express concern for Harry's safety, asking his parents why Harry was not accompanying them and where he would go, if not with them. He also expressed remorse for his prior treatment of Harry, and the two shook hands before the Dursleys left.

The cousins eventually reconciled as adults, remaining on "Christmas card terms" and visiting each other occasionally. At these times, Harry's three children and Dudley's children would all play together while their fathers would sit together quietly.

Vernon Dursley
"Well, I've got news for you, boy ... I'm locking you up ... you're never going back to that school ... never ... and if you try and magic yourself out — they'll expel you"

- Vernon Dursley to Harry Potter

Vernon Dursley became Harry's uncle through Vernon's marriage to Harry's Aunt Petunia. Harry lived with the Dursleys after Albus Dumbledore appealed to Petunia and convinced her to take Harry in following the death of the Potters. Vernon seemed to resent this fact as much as, if not more than, his wife; he and Petunia begrudged Harry all but the meanest comforts, even forcing their nephew to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs until shortly before Harry's eleventh birthday. After Harry discovered his magical abilities, Vernon tended to take offence whenever Harry used words such as "magic", "Hogwarts", "wizard", and "wand" in the house. Vernon rarely referred to Harry by name, instead referring to his nephew by pronouns or "[The] boy". Vernon seemed to take particular pleasure in showing Harry all he was missing, while simultaneously spoiling and indulging Harry's cousin, Dudley.

In 1995, when Harry and Dudley were attacked by Dementors, Vernon demanded that Harry leave, thinking it the only way to protect his family from Lord Voldemort, though Petunia disagreed after receiving a Howler from Dumbledore. In 1997, Harry and the Dursleys parted ways, thus ending the protection placed on Harry by his mother's sacrifice for as long he had a "home" with his blood relatives, or until he came of age. Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley were hidden by the Order of the Phoenix, to be protected from the Death Eaters, while Harry was transported to the Burrow prior to searching for Voldemort's Horcruxes. Vernon almost shook Harry's hand, but changed his mind and left the house quickly.It is unknown if the two ever met again.

Marjorie Dursley
"I won't have this namby-pamby, wishy-washy nonsense about not hitting people who deserve it. A good thrashing is what's needed in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. Have you been beaten often?"

- Aunt Marge to Harry

Marge Dursley was Vernon's sister, whom Harry was forced to call "Aunt Marge" despite only being indirectly related to her, and despite the fact that Marge, in fact, hated Harry. She seemed to resent Harry's parents for having "left Harry to be a burden on their decent, hard working relatives," and called his mother the "bad egg" of Petunia's family, while assuming his father was a "good-for-nothing, lazy scrounger" after Vernon told her James had been unemployed. She spoiled Dudley, giving him gifts and money, while she gave Harry dog biscuits, and was overjoyed to think he was being regularly beaten at St. Brutus' Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys. In 1993, Harry lost control of his magic, and inflated Marge like a balloon after she insinuated that Harry's parents had died as a result of their driving while drunk. She was found floating near a chimney in Sheffield, and her memory was modified by the Ministry of Magic; had the Wizarding community not been in a panic about Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban, the incident could have resulted in serious trouble for Harry.

Ron Weasley


Ron Weasley became Harry's best friend during their first year at Hogwarts. Ron, along with his mother, brothers, and sister first met Harry at King's Cross Station, when Harry was unable to find "Platform 9¾." Ron sat across from Harry during the train ride and the two almost immediately bonded over the ample sweets Harry purchased from the Hogwarts Express food trolley, which Harry happily shared with Ron, who was unable to afford any sweets himself. Harry cemented his friendship with Ron by turning down Draco Malfoy's offer to help Harry avoid making friends "with the wrong sort," after Draco insulted Ron's family. After being sorted into Gryffindor House together and sharing the same dormitory, the two grew even closer, and eventually gained another best friend in Hermione Granger when they saved her from a troll on Halloween. As Ron was raised in a wizarding family, he was often called upon to explain customs and items that were commonplace to wizards, but completely new to Harry and Hermione, who had both been raised in Muggle society.

In the summer of 1992, after Dobby had prevented Harry from receiving any letters, Ron and his twin brothers (Fred and George) flew their father's Flying Ford Anglia to rescue Harry from Privet Drive. After spending a few days less than a month at Ron's home, Harry and Ron were supposed to return to school on the Hogwarts Express with Ron's other siblings. However, Dobby had blocked the entrance to the platform, and Harry and Ron were unable to board the train. Panicking, the pair flew the enchanted car to Hogwarts; however, they landed on the Whomping Willow and lost the car as well as broke Ron's wand. Later on in the year, when Hermione had been Petrified by Salazar Slytherin's basilisk, Harry and Ron ventured into the Forbidden Forest together, where they were rescued from a clan of Acromantula by the missing Ford Anglia. Ron also accompanied Harry down to the Chamber of Secrets the same year to rescue his sister Ginny.

Harry and Ron had a major falling out in 1994 when Harry was made a Triwizard Champion; despite knowing it to be completely contrary to Harry's character, Ron's insecurities initially led him to believe Harry had cheated in order to enter the tournament, but left Ron out of scheme to keep the resulting glory and attention for himself. However, Ron soon realised how badly he had misjudged the situation and apologised. Ron was later taken as the object Harry would "sorely miss" in the Second Task of the competition.

Harry and Ron had an even more serious falling out in 1997, when they, along with Hermione, were hunting Voldemort's Horcruxes; the negative energy within Salazar Slytherin's Locket affected Ron more severely than the other two, causing him to temporarily abandon his friends before regretting his decision, and returning to them as soon as he was able. During this outbreak, Ron thought that Harry and Hermione were in love, which momentarily disrupted Ron and Hermione's relationship.

Upon his return, Ron watched Harry follow the silver doe to Godric Gryffindor's sword, and saved Harry's life after he jumped into a lake to retrieve it. When Harry finally opened the locket, Ron saw the part of Voldemort's soul transform into a supposed Harry and Hermione kissing, and it almost led him to believe that the imagined relationship between Harry and Hermione was real. However, Lord Voldemort underestimated how strong Ron really was, and so the locket was destroyed when Ron plunged the sword of Griffyndor into it and overcame his fears and worries.

The hardships Ron and Harry faced together served to reinforce their bond, and they remained friends for life. Ron's fierce loyalty and sense of humour often helped Harry relax and have fun even in the darkest times of his life. The two were like brothers, and would eventually become brothers-in-law when Harry married Ginny. Ron was the uncle of Harry's three children, and became godfather to Harry and Ginny's eldest son, James Sirius Potter.

Hermione Granger
"She's like my sister. I love her like a sister, and I reckon she feels the same way about me. It’s always been like that."

- Harry talking to Ron Weasley about his relationship with Hermione Granger in 1997

Though Harry and Ron initially found Hermione Granger stuck-up and arrogant, the three became best friends after Harry and Ron saved her from a troll in 1991, and she, in turn, lied to keep them from getting in trouble. Her quick mind was at times the only thing that saved the three friends from potential failure in both life-threatening and every-day situations. Out of concern for her friend, Hermione often chided Harry for his recklessness; though this occasionally put some strain on their relationship, it often served to keep Harry on track, such as when he briefly considered pursuing the Deathly Hallows instead of the Horcruxes.

Hermione was always with Harry and was fiercely protective of him, from snapping at Lavender Brown when she doubted Harry's claim that Lord Voldemort returned to interceding when Dolores Umbridge was about to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry. Hermione stood by Harry even when Ron doubted him during the Triwizard Tournament, accepting his story "without question," and when Ron temporarily left them in 1997, despite her own romantic feelings for Ron. Harry, for his part, was quick to defend Hermione against Cho Chang, Draco Malfoy, and others who insulted her, and protects her physically on instinct in dangerous places.

Though their friendship remained entirely platonic, at times their closeness engendered jealously or curiosity in others; especially those who had feelings for one or the other, including Cho Chang, Viktor Krum, and even Ron. When the two were briefly alone together during the search for the Horcruxes, Harry and Hermione experienced some "charged moments," in which the two "shared something very intense" ; however, each remained devoted to Ginny and Ron, respectively.

As Harry himself described, Hermione was one of two of his best friends, akin to a sister. It could be further said she was like his older sister, protective and always trying to keep him in line. The two were also close enough to share their feelings with one another before sharing those feelings with their significant other. Through Hermione's marriage to Ron Weasley, and through Harry's marriage to Ginny, Hermione became his sister-in-law, as well as the aunt and godmother of his children.

Ginny Weasley
Ginny Weasley and Harry first met at King's Cross Station in 1991, though they did not formally meet until the summer of 1992, at which point it became blatantly clear that Ginny had a huge crush on Harry.

Though the feeling moderated over time, until 1995 she was too shy and nervous around him to even speak to him comfortably; he was a celebrity in her eyes, and to him she was his best friend's little sister. She became even further embarrassed after Harry saved her from the Chamber of Secrets in his second year, when she had been possessed by a fragment of Lord Voldemort's soul. Hermione helped Ginny by advising her to be more like herself around Harry, and perhaps even see other people. Ginny took this advice, and Harry came to see her as she truly was: strong-willed, witty, stubborn, and compassionate. The two became good friends in Harry's fifth year, the same year Harry started to enjoy her company as much as Ron or Hermione's, and also able to tell him to shut up and cheer up during his depression.

After his relationship with Cho Chang "fell apart" and Harry spent a good deal of time with Ginny as well as Ron and Hermione at The Burrow in the summer of 1996, Harry's feelings for Ginny began to deepen and change. In his first potions class with Slughorn, the love potion Amortentia revealed he was attracted to "something flowery he had smelled at the Burrow," which later turned out to be Ginny's hair. After witnessing her kissing Dean Thomas, Harry started to feel jealous and fantasise about kissing her himself, although he determinedly tried to convince himself that his feelings for her were "elder-brotherly." He began having dreams about her of a seemingly intimate nature, even reflecting once that he was very glad that Ron could not perform Legilimency.

Shortly after Ginny and Dean broke up, she and Harry spontaneously kissed at a Gryffindor Quidditch Cup victory party. The two began dating, and Harry regarded this time as one of the happiest in his life. However, after the murder of Albus Dumbledore, Harry decided to end things with Ginny, fearing that Voldemort would target her if he learned of their blossoming/growing strong romance and knowing that he would be leaving with Ron and Hermione to find Voldemort's Horcruxes. Ginny was upset, but respected Harry's decision, knowing that it was for "some stupid, noble reason."



The two soon saw each other again during the summer while Harry stayed at the Burrow. For Harry's seventeenth birthday, Ginny passionately kissed Harry as something for him to remember her by, but they were "accidentally" interrupted by Ron and Hermione. The former told Harry not to "mess [Ginny] around," as his sister had been "pretty cut up" when Harry ended their romantic relationship, though Hermione was more sympathetic towards the two of them. The two were soon separated for months as Harry tracked down Horcruxes with Hermione and Ron, while Ginny returned to Hogwarts, but still harboured pretty strong romantic feelings for one another. After Ron abandoned his friends, Harry took to staring at Ginny's dot on the Marauder's Map, and was worried when he heard that she, Neville, and Luna had gotten in trouble for attempting to steal Godric Gryffindor's Sword for him.

When the Battle of Hogwarts began, Harry wanted Ginny to stay out of the fighting but was forced to ask her to leave the safety of the Room of Requirement when he, Hermione, and Ron searched it for Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem. When preparing to sacrifice himself to Voldemort, Ginny was the last person about whom Harry thought. Later in battle, after Ginny was nearly killed by Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry ran at Bellatrix rather than Voldemort, though Mrs. Weasley got there first.

After Voldemort's defeat, Harry and Ginny resumed their strong romance. Sometime between 1999 to 2002, they married and had three children:James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna.

Weasley family
"Half our family does seem to owe you their lives, now I stop and think about it...well, all I can say is that it was a lucky day for the Weasleys when Ron decided to sit in your compartment on the Hogwarts Express, Harry."

- Arthur Weasley to Harry in the Hogwarts hospital wing after Ron accidently drank a glass of poisoned oak-matured mead.

Beginning in the summer of 1992, Harry came to spend many of his holidays with the Weasley family, at the Burrow. Through his friendship with Ron, and his later romance with Ginny, the Weasleys became far more of a family to him than the Dursleys ever were.

Molly Weasley announced to Harry's godfather that Harry was "as good as" one of her actual sons, and her Boggart — of dead family members, one after another — included Harry. She was always keen to make sure Harry was taken care of; at one point Harry noted that she "fussed over the state of his socks and tried to get him to eat fourth helpings at every meal." Her caring sometimes led her to become overprotective of Harry, such as when she strongly objected to the Order members giving Harry information regarding Voldemort during the summer of 1995. She even went as far as to give him, for his coming of age, her brother's watch, a clearly treasured family heirloom, and reminder of how much she had already lost in the struggle against Voldemort.

Arthur Weasley had always enjoyed discussing Muggle things with Harry, and entrusted Harry with sensitive information others had felt him too young to understand. Harry once saved Mr. Weasley's life, after seeing Him being attacked by Nagini in the Department of Mysteries before Christmas of 1995.

When Ron was poisoned in Harry's sixth year, and Harry saved him with a bezoar, Arthur pointed out how he had saved several members of the Weasley family, and said that it was a good day for the Weasleys when Ron decided to sit with him on the train in 1991.

Twins Fred and George Weasley helped Harry out numerous times, including saving him from the Dursleys during the summer of 1992 with an enchanted car, giving him the Marauder's Map in 1993, as well as volunteering to be D.A. members in 1995 and later that same year, distracting Dolores Umbridge so that Harry could use her office to communicate with Sirius Black. The twins, whom Harry regarded as close friends, were also on the Gryffindor Quidditch team with Harry for four years. Harry gave his Triwizard winnings to the Weasley twins to start Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and in their gratitude for the "start-up loan," they gave Harry products from their joke shop free of charge. Fred's death during the Battle of Hogwarts was one of the deaths that hit Harry the hardest.

Harry liked Percy Weasley the least of Ron's brothers, finding him pompous, although he was genuinely shocked when Percy sided with the Ministry against him in 1995. Percy later came to his senses and fought alongside Harry in the Battle of Hogwarts. When Harry saw his sons go to Hogwarts, he thought he overheard Percy talking and "was glad to have the excuse not to stop and say hello". He was also friends with Bill, describing him as "cool" upon first meeting him, participating at his wedding with Fleur Delacour, and living for a month at their house, Shell Cottage. He also liked Charlie, who helped him out somewhat during the Triwizard Tournament. In his first year, Harry heard many times that Charlie was a great Quidditch player, and was very happy when he and his team lived up to Charlie's reputation.

After the end of the Second Wizarding War, Harry officially became part of the Weasley family through his marriage to Ginny.

Teddy Lupin
Teddy Lupin was Harry's godson, and the son of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, two of Harry's close friends. In 1998, Remus asked Harry to be Teddy's godfather, and Harry accepted, with great happiness. After Remus and Tonks were killed in the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry helped Teddy's grandmother, Andromeda, raise him, and by 2017, Harry and Teddy were clearly very close. When Harry's children wanted Teddy to move in with the Potters, Harry mentioned that Teddy had been coming to their home for dinner four times a week, and that he practically lived with them already. The Potter kids were also thrilled at the idea that Teddy, who was seen kissing Victoire Weasley, the daughter of Bill and Fleur, might officially become a part of their family.

In 1998, as Harry was planning to break in to the Lestrange vault, he wondered if he was becoming as reckless as a godfather to Teddy as Sirius Black had been to him. With helping Andromeda raise Teddy, Harry possibly became a brother — father figure towards Teddy, as also Harry could understand how Teddy feels without his parents.

Nieces and nephews
Harry had many nieces and nephews through the Weasley family. The children of Bill and Fleur were Victoire, Dominique and Louis, and James announced that he had seen Teddy Lupin kissing Victoire at King's Cross Station, in 2017. The children of Percy and his wife, Audrey, were Molly, who was named after her grandmother, and Lucy, and either Molly or both of the girls were attending Hogwarts in the 2017-2018 school year, because Percy was at King's Cross on 1 September, 2017. The children of George and Angelina Johnson were Fred, who was named after his late uncle, and Roxanne.

Harry was most likely closest to Ron and Hermione's children, Rose and Hugo, as they were the same ages as Albus and Lily, respectively, and Albus was "relieved" to meet up with Rose at King's Cross. Ron and Hermione were probably close to all of Harry's children as well, and Harry's eldest son, James is their godson. It is also highly likely that Ron and Hermione made Harry their daughter's godfather.

Children
Harry had three children with Ginny Weasley: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna Potter. The eldest, James, has an outgoing personality and was a troublemaker, much like his grandfather and namesake, and liked to tease his brother Albus. Albus, on the other hand, was quieter and more thoughtful. When he admitted to Harry that he was afraid of being sorted into Slytherin, Harry told him that Albus and Severus were the names of two former headmasters of Hogwarts; one was a Slytherin, and "the bravest man he ever knew." He also informed his son that the Sorting Hat would listen to the wearer's choice, and he knew that for a fact because it had considered putting him into Slytherin; this was something Harry had not shared with any of his other children. Albus also closely resembled Harry, having the same eyes, untidy hair, and glasses. Lily, the youngest, was very like her mother. Harry and Lily were seen holding hands while walking into Kings Cross, much like Lily's mother and maternal grandfather. Lily was jealous of her brothers as they boarded the train for Hogwarts, exactly as Ginny had been in 1991. Harry comforted her by reminding them that they would be joining them in two years.

It is seen through Harry's actions that he loves and cherishes each of his children very much.

Harry said farewell to his sons, as Ron and Hermione Weasley said goodbye to their daughter Rose.

Albus Dumbledore


Albus Dumbledore was a mentor to Harry, akin to a grandfather figure. Dumbledore arranged for Harry to be rescued from Godric's Hollow after his parents' murder and left him in the care of his aunt Petunia Dursley in order to give him the benefit of the magical protection of his mother's blood. In Harry's fifth year, he admitted to Harry that he had not told him of the prophecy concerning himself and Voldemort, because he wanted to spare Harry the pain and responsibility it would burden him with for as long as possible. Though Harry was initially furious with him for the frustration he felt for being kept in the dark, the two continued to be close. By Harry's sixth year, Dumbledore took on the role of providing Harry with additional insights into the origins of Lord Voldemort, largely through the use of the Pensieve. He entrusted Harry with the task of getting a final, crucial memory from Horace Slughorn regarding Voldemort's knowledge of Horcruxes.

Dumbledore's death was greatly devastating to Harry, though he persevered in the impossibly difficult task Dumbledore had left him of finding and destroying each of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Harry had difficulty coping with the fact that there was much Dumbledore had not told him about his history with the Deathly Hallows and Gellert Grindelwald; however, when he learned during the Battle of Hogwarts that Dumbledore had supposedly planned all along for Harry to sacrifice himself, Harry innately showed incredible faith in his mentor by serenely accepting the task. When Harry allowed himself to be struck by Voldemort's Killing Curse, his soul entered a state of Limbo, resembling King's Cross Station, where Dumbledore was waiting to speak with him.

"Do not pity the dead, Harry, pity the living. Above all, pity those who live without love."

- Dumbledore's parting words to Harry during their encounter in Limbo.

The fact that Dumbledore himself was there to meet Harry in a place between life and death attested to the bond of fellowship between them. They discussed all that had happened to Harry since Dumbledore's death, as well as things that had remained unsaid prior to it. At one point, Dumbledore seemed to beg for Harry's reassurance, uncharacteristically doubting some of the decisions he had made in the course of his life, which Harry easily gave him. Though Harry had felt some resentment for how little he felt Dumbledore had actually revealed of himself in their time together, Harry probably learned secrets and saw a side of Dumbledore that no one else knew during the events at "King's Cross."

Harry also had a unique relationship Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes; not only was Harry's wand one of the only two ever made with feathers from Fawkes's tail, but the phoenix found Harry in the Chamber of Secrets, helped him kill Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk, and provided Harry with the only known antidote to Basilisk venom: phoenix tears. Fawkes's song was a source of comfort for Harry on a number occasions before the phoenix left Hogwarts following Dumbledore's death.

Harry later named his second son Albus, after the Hogwarts Headmaster.



Lord Voldemort
"Don’t you turn your back on me, Harry Potter! I want you to look at me when I kill you! I want to see the light leave your eyes!"

- Voldemort taunting Harry before the duel in the graveyard.

Lord Voldemort, who sought to destroy Harry ever since the boy was an infant, was Harry's most dangerous enemy. Dumbledore described the relationship between Lord Voldemort and Harry as follows: "You and Lord Voldemort have journeyed together into realms of magic hitherto unknown and untested... Voldemort wrapped your destinies together more securely than ever two wizards were joined in history...both kin and mortal enemy...". The two wizards had their destines locked together even since a prophecy foretelling of child "with the power to Vanquish the Dark Lord" was made and relayed in part Voldemort, who decided to act to prevent it from coming to fruition. Though two infants fit the description of the "Chosen One," Voldemort believed the son of James and Lily Potter posed the greater threat, as he, like Voldemort himself, was a half-blood. To circumvent the prophecy, Voldemort went to Godric's Hollow to murder the baby Harry. When Lily refused to move aside and allow Voldemort access to his true target, her son, her willing sacrifice afforded Harry a protection so powerful, it caused the Killing Curse Voldemort aimed at Harry to rebound. Voldemort's body was destroyed, and the fragment of soul residing within it was forced to flee and exist in a weak, spectral form. In attempting to kill Harry, Voldemort unintentionally embedded a piece of his soul and some of his own abilities into Harry, as well as effectively marking Harry "as his equal." It was only after Voldemort attacked Harry that the latter became a Parselmouth, a trait Voldemort inherited from Salazar Slytherin, and was able to see into Voldemort's mind on occasion—both tools that aided Harry in bringing about Lord Voldemort's end. As it happened, when Voldemort tried to kill Harry in the Forbidden Forest during the Battle of Hogwarts, he was unable to because when Voldemort had used Harry's blood to restore his body, he had unwittingly bound Harry's life to his own. As such, the curse only destroyed the Horcrux piece of Voldemort’s soul within Harry, while Harry survived. There are many features that both Voldemort and Harry share: both were only children who were "abandoned" at a very young age, too young to properly remember their parents. Both had grown up believing untruths about their parents (Harry was told that his parents were unemployed drunks who had died in a car accident, while Voldemort was allegedly told that his mother was from a circus). Lord Voldemort, like Harry, never knew his mother, and though he did meet his father, he only sought him out for revenge and then killing him. Harry only vaguely remembers both his parents, being too young when they were killed to remember anything more than vague images and fleeting feelings. However, he has been able to connect with them through objects once belonging to his father, such as the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map, his mother's letter, old photographs, and also his parents' friends. He also met their spirits via the Resurrection Stone. In addition, both boys wore second-hand clothes: Harry was given his repulsive cousin Dudley's enormous cast offs, and Tom wore tatty hand-me-downs supplied by the orphanage. Both Riddle and Harry were friendless as children: Harry was kept isolated and denied a normal social life by his aunt and uncle, while Tom expressed his bitterness and loneliness by tormenting the other orphans, frightening them away. "There is no good and evil... There's only power, and those who are too weak to seek it..."

- Voldemort, speaking through Quirrell, in 1992. Both Harry and Voldemort were Parselmouths: wizards who have the ability to speak to snakes. This is less coincidental than it might seem, for Voldemort actually transferred this ability to Harry when attacking him. Voldemort was in Slytherin house, and the Sorting Hat almost placed Harry into Slytherin, though Harry asked to be placed in some other House, thus, making it so his choices define who he is. Both boys had followers: Tom gathered a small group of "friends" through fear, intimidation, and tenuous promises, and then later a whole group calling themselves the "Death Eaters." Similarly, many students gravitated to Harry out of loyalty and a shared cause, but also curiosity and an attraction to his fame. The two wizards also had "twin" wands; each wand contained the same phoenix feather wand core, that is later revealed to be from Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix. As well, both boys were unaware they were wizards until about the age of eleven, even though each could make unusual things happen. Both Harry and Tom were of great interest to Dumbledore, and both felt their first home was Hogwarts. In addition, both achieved greatness in the Defence Against the Dark Arts class, however, each for different reasons. Both Harry and Voldemort were half-bloods, though that only matters to Tom Riddle. Both are also rule breakers: Harry, of course, feels justified when he does things like leaving his dorm after hours, entering the Forbidden Forest, and eavesdropping on teachers because he believes it serves a greater purpose. Tom might have engaged in similar activities, but if so, then he did this for darker and self-serving reasons, and without benefit of an Invisibility Cloak like Harry; while at school, Tom framed Hagrid for a girl's death, then went on to worse crimes. However, there are also many features that set Harry and Voldemort apart: at his initial Sorting, Harry requested he not be placed in Slytherin. It is unlikely Tom Riddle would have made a similar request, even if he was unaware what his ancestry was. Furthermore, Voldemort never had friends, only followers who feared him or hoped to gain some reward or advantage. Harry made many friends: his dorm-mates, the Weasley family, and many teachers, especially Hagrid, Remus Lupin, and (the real) Mad-Eye Moody. They supported Harry because they share a common belief. While both were half-blood, Harry's mother, a witch, was Muggle-born, whereas Lord Voldemort's father was a Muggle, and incidentally, so was Snape's, which is why he called himself the Half-Blood Prince.

Most importantly, Harry cared about the people around him, even pitying Draco Malfoy when the boy was ordered by Voldemort to assassinate Dumbledore. Harry had the ability to love and be compassionate, making him more vulnerable to suffering pain, but also capable of experiencing deep friendship and loyalty that helped guide him to greatness. For Voldemort, love, fidelity, or compassion are unknown and unwelcome concepts. Voldemort would demand loyalty and respect from his Death Eaters, but had little in return. Voldemort had a tendency to dispose of Death Eaters who either failed him, angered him, or were no longer of use to him. Despite literally sharing the same blood, Voldemort and Harry were also related by blood, however distantly, through their shared descent from the Peverells (Voldemort through the Gaunts and Harry through the Potters). This made them distant cousins.

It is possible that Harry won the allegiance of Voldemort's wand after the latter's death during their Duel in the Great Hall. If so, it is highly unlikely Harry will ever use the wand due to his personal history with both the wand itself and its original owner.

Voldemort and Harry share some things: The same wand cores and the same family because Harry Potter is related to Tom Riddle, they are related through the Peverell brothers.

Rubeus Hagrid
"There's no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid."

- Harry, after Hagrid's return from Azkaban

Rubeus Hagrid was Harry's first friend in the wizarding world. In effect, he rescued Harry twice: once from the wreckage of his destroyed home, as a baby; second, from the Dursleys' to take him back into the wizarding world.

Both orphaned outsiders, Harry and Hagrid shared a bond that Harry never failed to honour. He constantly defended the half-giant against name-calling and mockery, and despite his disapproval, helped Hagrid protect various dangerous pets and raise his half-brother, Grawp. Harry also refused to believe Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets, when Tom Riddle's Diary showed him the memory.

During the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, Voldemort forced a distraught Hagrid to carry Harry's "corpse" out of the Forbidden Forest, during which time Hagrid expressed his fury with the centaurs for initially refusing to fight, prompting them to join in soon after.

In 2017, Harry's sons, James and Albus, were planning to meet Hagrid for tea shortly after their arrival at Hogwarts.

Sirius Black
"I want you to listen to me very carefully, Harry. You're not a bad person. You're a very good person who bad things have happened to, you understand? Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are."

- Sirius Black to Harry Potter while in 12 Grimmauld Place

Filling in as a paternal figure or an uncle, Sirius Black was Harry's godfather, as well as his most trusted confidant. When Harry's scar hurt in 1994, he acknowledged that he could tell and ask Sirius anything without feeling foolish, hesitant, or uncomfortable. During Dolores Umbridge's dictatorial rule over Hogwarts in the 1995–1996 school year, Sirius supported Harry's plan to teach other students practical defensive magic, telling Harry that he and James would have done the same thing.

When Harry first met Sirius, he wanted to kill Sirius for the betrayal of his parents. When the truth was revealed that Peter Pettigrew had been the one who sold the Potters to Lord Voldemort, Sirius still showed immense guilt, because it had been his idea for Pettigrew to become the Potters' Secret-Keeper.

"It was cruel that you and Sirius had such a short time together. A brutal ending to what should have been a long and happy relationship."

- Albus Dumbledore

Harry, for his part, became very protective of Sirius. Knowing that the Ministry believed him guilty of mass murder, Harry refused to put Sirius in danger if it could be avoided. When Harry was mysteriously entered into the Triwizard Tournament, he tried everything to convince Sirius to remain in hiding instead of returning to England. During Umbridge's year at the school, Harry asked Sirius not to come to Hogsmeade as Padfoot, since he did not want to risk Sirius getting thrown back into Azkaban; while Sirius obeyed Harry's wishes, he observed that James would have been willing to take the risk.

When Sirius was killed in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry at first refused to believe he was dead. Harry was completely devastated by Sirius's death; for the following months, Harry avoided talking about Sirius if he could; whenever the subject came up, he would distract himself in some way to avoid joining the discussion. Very fortunately, Harry was able to move on with his life after a short period of grieving, knowing that Sirius would not want him to shut himself away or crack up. When Harry prepared to sacrifice himself to Voldemort in 1998, Sirius was one of the spirits he summoned using the Resurrection Stone. Sirius assured Harry that dying was "quicker and easier" than falling asleep.

"I realised I can’t shut myself away, or — or crack up. Sirius wouldn’t have wanted that, would he? And anyway, life’s too short...look at Madam Bones, look at Emmeline Vance...it could be me next, couldn’t it? But if it is, I’ll make sure I take as many Death Eaters with me as I can and Voldemort too, if I can manage it."

- Harry honors his godfather's memory.

Sirius also was the one who gave Harry his first toy broomstick, as a year old baby. In a letter to Sirius, Harry's mother thanked him and described James's impression that Harry would be a "good Quidditch player." Sirius later gave Harry another broomstick, the Firebolt, as thirteen years's worth of presents from his godfather.

Harry would name his eldest son after James and Sirius.

Remus Lupin
"You're the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had."

- Harry trying to convince Lupin not to resign.

Harry's simple student-teacher relationship with Remus Lupin quickly developed into a strong friendship, akin to the one that a kind, loving uncle and his favourite nephew would share.

Harry first met Remus when he was an infant, and again in 1993 when Remus saved him from the Dementors on the Hogwarts Express. Remus had been appointed the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts that year, and soon became his favourite professor as well as a mentor of sorts. It was suggested that Remus' classes were how Harry discovered his talent for Defence Against the Dark Arts. When Harry continued to be badly affected by Dementors, Remus agreed to give Harry private lessons to teach him the Patronus Charm. It was during these lessons that Harry discovered that Remus was one of his parents' oldest, dearest friends. Although Remus attempted to maintain a teacher-student relationship with Harry, he did act more as a close friend or a beloved uncle at times, answering his questions patiently, sharing Butterbeer after a private lesson, assisting him in avoiding trouble with Professor Snape, and even returning the Marauder's Map to Harry once he was no longer a professor. Harry, in turn, became deeply fond of Remus, and was extremely upset to hear of his resignation after Severus Snape exposed him as a werewolf. He even attempted to try and talk him into staying on at Hogwarts, but it was futile, though Remus told him that it had been a real pleasure teaching him, and assured him that they would meet again.

The two indeed met again in the summer of 1995 when members of the Advance Guard of the Order of the Phoenix arrived to pick up Harry from Privet Drive. Although initially wary of intruders, Harry relaxed on learning of Remus' presence in the group, indicating that he still trusted his father's old dear friend despite a year without contact. During the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Remus protected Harry and Neville Longbottom from an attack by Lucius Malfoy and saved Harry's life by preventing him from running into the Veil in the Death Chamber in an attempt to save his godfather, Sirius Black.

"But you are normal. You've just got a - a problem-."

- Harry Potter to Remus Lupin regarding the latter's lycanthropy

Remus' undercover assignment with the werewolves prevented him from maintaining contact with Harry in the wake of his godfather's death, something about which he expressed regret. On the few occasions that they saw each other during Harry's sixth year, Harry was worried about Remus' increasingly haggard and gaunt appearance. He displayed a protective streak towards Remus, expressing anger over his forced resignation from Hogwarts and the general perception of werewolves.

In 1997, Harry was thrilled to hear of Remus' marriage to Nymphadora Tonks and was puzzled by Lupin's increasingly worried appearance. He was outraged when Remus temporarily left his wife for fear of their then unborn child becoming a werewolf. While Harry maintained his stance on their argument, he deeply regretted the harsh words he said to Remus in his anger. When Remus' son Teddy Lupin was born, Harry was relieved that Remus had clearly forgiven him, and was overwhelmed but delighted to be made Teddy's godfather. Remus also spoke about Harry on Potterwatch, saying that if Harry could hear him he would tell him to trust his instincts which were "nearly always right." This deeply affected Harry who was then informed by Ron that Lupin was back with Tonks, having apparently listened to what Harry had said despite the way he said it.

Of all the people who died during the Battle of Hogwarts, Remus' death, along with those of his wife, Nymphadora Tonks, and Fred Weasley, were the ones that hit Harry the hardest. Remus was one of the spirits that was summoned by the Resurrection Stone to speak to Harry and give him the support he needed as he walked to what he believed was his death, indicating the almost familial bond between Remus and Harry.

In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Harry wrote in the werewolf section that they "aren't all bad," and Harry and Remus' son, Teddy became very close after the war. Harry and his family had dinner with Teddy four times a week and Harry's children hoped that Teddy would either be married into the Weasley-Potter family, or Harry would ask Teddy to move in with the Potters.

Minerva McGonagall
"Potter, I will assist you to become an Auror if it is the last thing I do! If I have to coach you nightly, I will make sure you achieve the required results"

- Minerva McGonagall

Harry had a strong relationship with his Transfiguration teacher and Head of House, Professor Minerva McGonagall. Though theirs was a typical student-teacher relationship for Harry's first three years at Hogwarts, after Harry was selected to become a Triwizard Champion, the sheer level of danger he faced seemed to warm her to him. In Harry's fifth year, McGonagall urged Harry not to give Dolores Umbridge or the Ministry any more ammunition to use against him, and she later stood up for him to Umbridge, promising to help Harry become an Auror if it was the last thing she did. Harry felt a powerful surge of anger when Umbridge later gloated that Minerva was too ill to talk to anyone after being hit in the chest with four simultaneous Stunners.

In 1998, Harry was so infuriated with Amycus Carrow for spitting in McGonagall's face, that he succeeded in using the Cruciatus Curse on the Death Eater, agreeing with Bellatrix Lestrange's assertion that one had to "really mean it" in order to perform the curse effectively. McGonagall returned Harry's devotion by arming Hogwarts on Harry's request, and then fighting Voldemort head on in the final battle. When Voldemort had Harry's seemingly dead body brought out from the Forest, Minerva gave a terrible cry, to rival those of Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. Professor McGonagall was like a strict and loving grandmother to Harry.

Severus Snape
"Look... at... me..."

- Severus Snape's last words to Harry Potter before he died.

During his years in school, Harry's relationship with Potions master Severus Snape was nothing short of deepest mutual loathing. When Harry first saw Snape in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, he got the initial feeling that Snape disliked him; only after his first Potions lesson did Harry realise the resentment dug much deeper. Harry soon learned that Snape saw Harry as a younger version of his father — a self-centred boy who enjoyed the attention paid to him, and was "so arrogant that criticism simply bounced off him." In 1995, after having "looked inside" Voldemort's mind, and discovering that Arthur Weasley, who was on guard duty at the Department of Mysteries, was to be killed by Nagini, Voldemort's snake, Dumbledore ordered Snape to teach Harry the skill of Occlumency, to block his mind from Voldemort's Legilimency probing. A very tedious and trying set of lessons, at one point Snape provoked Harry into casting a shield charm, which allowed Harry to catch a glimpse of Snape's own memories. Later, when Snape left the room to attend to Montague, Harry entered the pensieve in order to see what memories Snape was hiding from him--which turned out to be of Snape being taunted by James and the other Marauders, and of Snape calling Lily a mudblood out of humilation. This caused Harry great distress because he had never before believed a word of Snape's criticisms of James. Although humbling Harry somewhat towards Snape, they still retained a very strained and bitter relationship during Harry's remaining time at Hogwarts.

Harry's hatred of Snape reached its height in 1997 when he discovered that Snape had told Voldemort about the Prophecy involving him, which led Harry to believe that Snape had betrayed his parents. Harry raged at Albus Dumbledore for trusting Snape, only to have Dumbledore silence him. Later the same night, Snape killed Dumbledore, which only seemed to confirm what Harry had come to believe about his former Potions master.

In 1998, Harry witnessed Voldemort order the death of Severus Snape, in an attempt to gain the allegiance of the Elder Wand. Despite his hatred of his former teacher, he still felt sorry for the way Voldemort had killed Snape without even feeling sorry for taking his life. As Voldemort left Snape mortally wounded by Nagini in the Shrieking Shack, Harry was able to obtain several memories that contained not only the truth about Snape's motives and unwavering allegiance to the Order of the Phoenix, but relayed a crucial message from Dumbledore. What Harry discovered about Snape's persistent love for Lily Evans also explained Snape's final act: he had instructed Harry to look at him, so he could die looking into the eyes Harry inherited from his mother.

By 2017, Harry considered Snape to be one of the bravest men he had ever known, and gave his second son, who was the only one of his children to inherit Lily's eyes, the middle name "Severus." Harry ensured that Snape's portrait eventually found its rightful place among Hogwarts's previous headmasters.

Nymphadora Tonks
"Wotcher, Harry!"

- Tonks greets Harry

Harry and Nymphadora Tonks first met in 1995 when the Advance Guard came to transport Harry to Grimmauld Place. From there, she became one of Harry's most valuable allies and friend, and was one of the five Order members who rescued Harry and his friends during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. In 1996. Their friendship grew for the next few years; Tonks felt sorry Harry wasn't been able to attend her wedding in 1997, though nine months later, Tonks and Remus asked Harry to be godfather to their son, Teddy Lupin. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Tonks was killed by her aunt Bellatrix, who finally succeeded in managing to kill her "blood traitor" niece, however it is possible she was killed from behind as her husband had fell before her (she may have been distracted by this). Tonks's death, along with that of her husband and Fred Weasley, was among those that hit Harry the hardest.

In honour of Tonks and her husband's memory, Harry helped Nymphadora's mother to raise Teddy Lupin. When Harry saw his two sons off to the Hogwarts Express in 2017, James came running back to his parents to announce that he had seen Teddy snogging Victoire Weasley, which may have meant Teddy eventually became an official member of the extended Potter-Weasley family.

Luna Lovegood


Harry met Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw student at Hogwarts, in 1995, on the Hogwarts Express. Although Harry found the younger witch rather strange, he was grateful when she told him that she believed his claim that Lord Voldemort had returned, as she seemed to be one of the few students who did. Harry and Luna became friendlier through Dumbledore's Army, and after they fought together at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Luna comforted Harry over the loss of his godfather, telling him about her late mother. She holds Harry's hand in the process, and they both show a some feelings for each other. The following year, Harry defended Luna and Neville Longbottom when Romilda Vane implied they were not worth spending time with, whereas the previous year he found the two as embarrassment to his standing in front of Cho Chang, and he later on invited Luna to attend Slughorn's Christmas Party with him.

In the prelude to the final battle, Luna aided Harry in his search for Ravenclaw's Diadem, having been the one to inform Harry of its existence in the first place, and she Stunned Alecto Carrow when Harry was too shocked to move, which probably saved him from being held captive until Voldemort's arrival. Later when Harry was going to sacrifice himself, he realised that Luna was one of his closest friends and one of the persons he would like to see before his death. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Luna was the only one who noticed that Harry wanted to get away from the victory party, and created a distraction so that he could go speak with Ron and Hermione in private. The two remained friends into adulthood, and Harry gave his daughter the middle name “Luna” in honour of his friend.

Dobby
"You shall not harm Harry Potter!"

- Dobby protects Harry from Lucius Malfoy.

The House-elf Dobby became a vitally important figure in Harry's life, and their relationship played a crucial role in Harry's ultimate defeat of Lord Voldemort. Even before Harry freed Dobby from the slavery of the Malfoy family, in 1993, Dobby did all he could to protect Harry from impending danger, and later displayed the strength of his house-elf magic to protect Harry from Lucius Malfoy. For the next several years, Dobby was appointed to work at the kitchen of Hogwarts Castle in the paid service of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, though even as a free elf, his loyalty always laid foremost with Harry. In 1994, Dobby provided Harry with Gillyweed for the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, and the next year, told Harry about the Room of Requirement, which became Dumbledore's Army's base of operations.

In 1998, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna Lovegood, Garrick Ollivander and the goblin Griphook were captured and taken hostage at the Malfoy Manor. Alerted to their whereabouts by Aberforth Dumbledore, Dobby rescued the hostages in two groups, first apparating Dean, Luna and Ollivander to Shell Cottage, then returning to do the same for Hermione, Ron, Harry and Griphook. Dobby dropped a chandelier on Bellatrix Lestrange to release Hermione from being held at knife-point, giving Ron the opportunity to take a wand and disapparate with Hermione. Enraged by what he had done, Bellatrix threw the same silver knife at Dobby, mortally wounding him, just as he disapparated with Harry and Griphook. Upon arriving at Shell Cottage, Harry discovered Dobby's wound and cried out for help as Dobby died in Harry's arms. Harry dug a grave without using magic and held a small funeral for the elf in the garden of Shell Cottage. Dobby's epitaph read "Here lies Dobby, A Free Elf". After the funeral, Harry remembered the one Albus Dumbledore had, and thought that Dobby deserved one just as grand.

It was the grief Harry felt for Dobby's death that ultimately grounded him, ridding Harry of the "weird, obsessive longing" to find the Elder Wand and the resentment for how little he felt Albus Dumbledore had actually disclosed during their time together. While digging Dobby's grave, Harry reflected on all Dumbledore had said about love, and all he had foreseen, and replaced his trust in the late Headmaster, making the conscious decision to continue his pursuit of Horcruxes, and not Hallows.

Neville Longbottom


Neville Longbottom became Harry's room mate in 1991, in their first year at Hogwarts. In 1996, Harry learned that The Prophecy that prompted Lord Voldemort to target his parents could have been referring to Neville. Though Harry sympathised with the fact that Neville's parents had been tortured into insanity by Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jr, he spent part of the journey to Hogwarts prior to his sixth year pondering how things could have been different if Voldemort had chosen to attack Neville, and he had become the "one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord" instead of Harry.

In the initial years, Harry was quite friendly with Neville, though he was not as close to him as he was with Ron and Hermione. Harry helped out Neville in many occasions, such as in 1992, when he advised him to stand up to Draco Malfoy, who constantly bullied him. Harry and Neville became close friends only in their fifth year at school, when Neville took part in Dumbledore's Army, an organisation that Harry led in opposition to Dolores Umbridge. Neville became highly devoted to the D.A., which, along with Harry's encouragement, helped Neville not only improve his magical abilities, but gain badly needed confidence and incredible courage. He fought alongside Harry in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, where Neville saved Harry's life from the Death Eater Walden Macnair, and in 1997, was one of only three D.A. members who still checked their enchanted coin enough to receive Hermione's call for help prior to the Battle of the Astronomy Tower.

In 1998, when Harry, Ron and Hermione were on the run, Neville re-formed Dumbledore's Army with Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood, in resistance against Death Eaters Alecto and Amycus Carrow. Neville spoke out against their anti-Muggle rhetoric and habit of using the Cruciatus Curse on students, regardless of the consequences, saying he noticed it always helped give people hope when Harry did that. When Harry returned, Neville deferred to his leadership and summoned the rest of Dumbledore's Army (who, in turn, contacted the Order of the Phoenix) believing Harry was there to lead a revolt. Harry and Neville fought together throughout the Battle of Hogwarts, and just before Harry sacrificed himself, he left Neville with the instruction to kill Nagini, Voldemort's snake and last remaining Horcrux. When everyone believed Harry to be dead, Neville openly defied Voldemort, who tried to burn him alive with the Sorting Hat but failed due to Harry's sacrificial protection. Using the opportunity given to him by the sudden arrival of reinforcements, Neville completed the task Harry gave to him; he drew Gryffindor's Sword from the Sorting Hat and slew Nagini, destroying the last Horcrux and rendering Voldemort mortal, thus allowing Harry to finally kill him.

Nineteen years after the battle, Neville was the Herbology teacher at Hogwarts, and taught Harry and Ginny's children, James and Albus, they both remain close friends in adulthood, to the point where Ginny asked James to give Neville their love, which horrified James because although he knew Neville well, at school he's Professor Longbottom

Fleur Delacour
Harry's first opinion of Fleur Delacour in 1994 was that she was a very beautiful girl who looked like a Veela. Though Fleur initially paid him as little attention as she did most of the younger Hogwarts students, after the second task, when Harry saved Fleur's younger sister Gabrielle Delacour, Fleur was much kinder to Harry in her gratitude. Fleur met Harry again at the Burrow, in 1996, when Fleur was about to marry Bill Weasley, the eldest brother of Harry's best friend, Ron. After the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, Harry and his friends lived with Bill and Fleur for roughly one month at Shell Cottage, where Fleur cared for them all, much like a mother or an older sister. Fleur eventually became Harry's sister-in-law, after Harry married Ginny Weasley. Harry's godson, Ted Lupin, was seen kissing Fleur's daughter, Victoire Weasley, at King's Cross Station in 2017.

Draco Malfoy


Draco Malfoy became Harry's rival almost from the moment they met at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions in Diagon Alley. Draco came from a family that believed strongly in the importance of blood purity, thus he considered himself superior to most people, bullying and insulting Muggle-borns and Gryffindors in particular. He was bitterly jealous of Harry's seemingly effortless heroism. Draco bit off more than he could chew in his ambition to be like his father, Lucius Malfoy, when he became a Death Eater at a young age; to punish his father, Voldemort ordered Draco to assassinate Albus Dumbledore, threatening his parents' lives if he failed. Although he let several Death Eaters into Hogwarts in 1997, Draco found himself unwilling to actually go through with killing Dumbledore, even when given the opportunity to do so. A year later, when Harry was brought to the Malfoy Manor to be handed over to the Dark Lord, Draco was very reluctant to identify him, and during the confrontation that ensued, Harry forcefully disarmed him, winning both his Hawthorn wand and the unknowingly, the Elder Wand. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione saved his life twice: against Crabbe's Fiendfyre and from a masked Death Eater. Because of his family's switching of sides during the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco was not sent to Azkaban for his crimes. By 2017, he was married and had a son. Draco saw Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron at King's Cross Station when sending their children to Hogwarts, where he gave them a curt nod. While Draco and Harry eventually made peace, they never became friends. It is also unknown if Harry ever gave Draco his original wand back, as Harry won it's allegiance and it is never stated how a wand that has been won behaves towards his original master afterwards.

Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas
"Dean, Seamus. Good Holidays?"

- Harry to Dean and Seamus in the begin of the 1995 - 1996 school year

In addition to Ron and Neville, Harry’s room mates at Hogwarts were Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. Although he was not as close to them as he was to Ron, Harry was nevertheless friendly with both of them.

Seamus and Dean were also members of Dumbledore's Army. Dean, like Ron, Harry and Hermione, left Hogwarts in 1997, because it was supposed that he was a Muggle-born. He was caught by a group of Snatchers, led by Fenrir Greyback, along with Ron, Harry and Hermione. They escaped from Malfoy Manor, where they had gone, and lived for a few days at Shell Cottage.

Seamus and Dean eventually fought along with Ron in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Cho Chang
"Well, obviously, she’s feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she’s feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can’t work out who she likes best. Then she’ll be feeling guilty, thinking it’s an insult to Cedric’s memory to be kissing Harry at all…"

- Hermione on Cho Chang after the latter’s kiss with Harry

In his earlier years at Hogwarts, Harry was attracted to Cho Chang, a popular girl in Ravenclaw House and seeker of their Quidditch team. During the Triwizard Tournament in 1994, Harry plucked up the courage to ask her to the Yule Ball, but was disappointed to find that she had already agreed to go with Cedric Diggory, though she seemed to genuinely feel bad about having to turn him down.

In their next year, following Cedric's tragic death, Harry and Cho grew closer, eventually sharing a kiss under the mistletoe. However, Cho was still mourning Cedric, and became unreasonably jealous of Harry's friendship with Hermione, which, compounded with Harry’s inexperience with girls, put a strain on their relationship. The last straw was Cho's friend Marietta Edgecombe's betrayal of Dumbledore's Army to Dolores Umbridge; Cho defended Marietta and called the jinx Hermione had placed on the D.A. parchment a "horrible trick," both of which angered Harry. The two stopped speaking to one another, and Cho soon began dating Michael Corner. However, any animosity seemed to have vanished by 1998, as Cho was among the former D.A. members who returned to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts. Just before the battle, she offered to show Harry the Ravenclaw common room, and seemed disappointed when this offer was fiercely denied by Ginny Weasley.

Bellatrix Lestrange
"SHE KILLED SIRIUS! SHE KILLED HIM - I'LL KILL HER!"

- Harry on Bellatrix Lestrange, after she killed Sirius Black

Harry felt contemptuous of Bellatrix Lestrange from the moment he learned of her torturing of Alice and Frank Longbottom, his eyes immediately drawn to her picture wherever he saw it. Throughout their encounter in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Bellatrix goaded Harry with sarcastic baby-talk, mocking Harry for falling for Lord Voldemort's ploy and traveling to the Ministry of Magic to save his non-present godfather. She abandoned the baby-talk, however, becoming incensed when Harry used Voldemort's name- a mark of deep disrespect in Bellatrix's eyes.

After Bellatrix killed Sirius Black, Harry seemed to hate her as much as, if not more than, he did Voldemort, chasing her into the Atrium of the Ministry in a fit of rage. He even had to restrain himself from destroying her wand, which he managed to procure during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor. Bellatrix would later murder both Nymphadora Tonks and Dobby the house-elf in 1998, also nearly killing Ginny Weasley during the second round of the Battle of Hogwarts. In the latter incident, Harry, who had been hurrying towards Voldemort in the Great Hall, noticed the danger to Ginny's life and made a beeline for Bellatrix instead. He was beaten to her, however, by Molly Weasley's abrupt intervention.

Though she spoke disparagingly of the fact that Harry was a Half-blood, and vehemently denied Harry's claims that Voldemort was the same, Bellatrix despised Harry mostly out of loyalty to her master, the man with whom she had developed an obsessive infatuation. As such, Bellatrix more or less hated anyone who challenged or threatened Lord Voldemort. Regardless of his feelings, Harry recognized that Bellatrix made a fearsome opponent; while he hated her as his godfather's killer, he acknowledged that she was also a witch of "prodigious" skill and absolutely no conscience.

Peter Pettigrew
"You're going to kill me? After I saved your life? You owe me, Wormtail..."

- Harry to Pettigrew, reminding him that he had saved his life

Harry first heard about Peter Pettigrew in 1993, and he believed Pettigrew to have been a hero who had dared to confront the man who betrayed James and Lily Potter, and been tragically killed as a result.

After Sirius Black escaped from from Azkaban that same year, the alleged convict made his way to Hogwarts, supposedly with the goal of killing Harry in a crazed bid to bring Lord Voldemort back to power. Towards the end of the school year, Black managed to pull Ron Weasley through the Whomping Willow and in to the Shrieking Shack, followed closely by Hermione Granger and an incensed Harry. When they were joined shortly after by Remus Lupin, he and Sirius revealed a completely different truth: Pettigrew had been the one to betray Harry's parents, and had subsequently framed Sirius by pretending to confront him, then faked his own death by cutting off one of his own fingers and hiding in his unregistered Animagus form as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. Although Harry was disgusted by Pettigrew's disloyalty and cowardice, he convinced Sirius and Remus not to become murderers, and instead force Pettigrew to face justice in the hands of the Dementors. Though Pettigrew escaped, making it impossible to prove Sirius Black's innocence, Harry's decision to spare his life was not fruitless: Pettigrew owed Harry a Life debt.

Pettigrew, who had fled to Albania and sought protection from Sirius in the service of Lord Voldemort, returned to Great Britain in 1994. After Harry and Cedric Diggory were transported to the Little Hangleton graveyard following the end of the Triwizard Tournament, Pettigrew murdered Cedric, bound Harry to the grave of Tom Riddle Sr., and concocted a potion using the senior Riddle's bones, one of Pettigrew's own hands, and Harry's blood, to return Voldemort to physical form. When instructed by Voldemort to give Harry back his wand, Pettigrew did so without looking at him.

In 1998, during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, Peter Pettigrew's life debt was repaid; Harry reminded him that he had saved his life, and Pettigrew momentarily hesitated in the midst of attempting to strangle him. As a result, the silver hand Voldemort had made for Pettigrew, as a reward for sacrificing his own, saw the hesitation as sign of weakness, and turned against him. Though Ron and Harry both tried to save him, the hand ultimately strangled Pettigrew to death.

Dolores Umbridge
"As I told you once before, Mr. Potter, naughty children deserve to be punished."

- Umbridge speaking to Harry.

Harry disliked Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic, Dolores Umbridge, from the moment he first laid eyes on her, which was shortly before she voted in favour of Harry's undeserved expulsion from Hogwarts; he described hearing her voice made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, and his hate for her boils for reasons he could not explain at first. In the summer of 1995, Umbridge sent two Dementors after Harry and his cousin, Dudley Dursley, in an attempt to silence Harry from contradicting the Ministry of Magic's official position maintaining that Lord Voldemort had not returned to power. Harry was forced to use a Patronus to defend himself and Dudley from the Dementors, which resulted in Harry being summoned to the Ministry on the charge of using under age magic; if convicted, he would have been expelled from Hogwarts. Umbridge took part in Harry’s prosecution and spoke in favour of his conviction, but Harry was cleared due to Albus Dumbledore’s defence, as well as the impartiality of Amelia Bones and several other members of the Wizengamot. Though Harry was triumphant in his clearance, Umbridge kept glaring at him after leaving the courtroom, and he felt resentment for her voting his guilt.

Harry soon encountered Umbridge again when she was appointed Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, by the Ministry. Harry was outspoken in his outrage at the Ministry's denial of Voldemort's return and their refusal to allow Hogwarts students to practice defensive magic, which Umbridge sadistically responded to by making him carve the words, "I must not tell lies," into the back of his own hand using a Blood Quill. Umbridge clearly favoured Slytherin students, and presumably those who had ties to the Ministry in particular, as demonstrated by her allowing the Slytherin Quidditch team to re-form before any other, following the passage of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four, and later giving Harry and the Weasley twins lifetime bans from playing Quidditch after they attacked Draco Malfoy. Umbridge monitored all incoming and outgoing mail, resulting in the injury of Harry’s owl, Hedwig, and she made it nearly impossible for Harry, Ron and Hermione to visit Hagrid at his hut. When Harry publicly recounted witnessing Voldemort's resurrection in an interview with Rita Skeeter, published in The Quibbler, Umbridge banned him from Hogsmeade trips. One by one, Umbridge was robbing Harry of his reasons to want to stay at Hogwarts.

In order to offer students the practical defensive education Umbridge was denying them, Harry formed and led Dumbledore's Army. When they were betrayed to Umbridge by one of their members, Harry was nearly expelled from Hogwarts until Dumbledore convinced Cornelius Fudge that Harry only formed the organisation on his orders. Dumbledore was forced to leave Hogwarts to avoid being sent to Azkaban, after which Umbridge took the position of Headmistress and the students took to making things as difficult for her as possible. Umbridge attempted to have Hagrid arrested after a couple of Nifflers were released in her office, despite his obvious innocence, which resulted in his going on the run and Professor McGonagall being seriously injured and temporarily disabled at St Mungo's Hospital. With seemingly no adults left for him to turn to, Harry attempted to use Umbridge’s fire, the only fire not being monitored by the Ministry, to check on Sirius Black, after having a vision that Sirius was being tortured in the Department of Mysteries. Remembering that Severus Snape was, in fact, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Harry gave Snape the cryptic message, "he's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!" Umbridge nearly used the Cruciatus Curse on Harry in order to make him explain his statement, when Hermione intervened and tricked Umbridge into believing the D.A. had been building a weapon for Dumbledore in the Forbidden Forest. When Harry, Hermione and Umbridge were confronted by a herd of centaurs, Umbridge's angry diatribe-- in which she referred to the centaurs as "creatures of near-human intelligence" and "filthy half-breeds"-- resulted in her being carried off into the depths of the forest.

After the Ministry finally acknowledged Voldemort’s return to power, Umbridge was removed from Hogwarts. However, Harry was furious to learn later that year that Umbridge was still working for the Ministry. When Voldemort became the de facto Minister for Magic, with an imperiused Pius Thicknesse as his puppet, Umbridge, knowingly or not, immediately showed sympathy for his agenda by taking part in the hunt for Harry Potter and branding him "Undesirable Number 1." When Harry, disguised as Albert Runcorn by way of Polyjuice Potion, met Umbridge again in 1997, she had become Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, and was cruelly interrogating and "trying" innocent Muggle-born wizards and witches, before sentencing them to Azkaban for "stealing magic." When Umbridge taunted a Muggle-born witch by claiming Salazar Slytherin's Locket was a family heirloom and proof of her relation to the pure-blood Selwyn family, Harry stunned Umbridge in a fit of anger. Hermione replaced the locket with a decoy, after which she, Ron, and Harry proceeded to free all the Muggle-borns awaiting interrogation.

After the Second Wizarding War, Umbridge was given a life sentence in Azkaban.

Hedwig
"No...NO! Hedwig...Hedwig..."

- Harry to Hedwig, after her death



Hedwig was the Snowy Owl Hagrid bought Harry for his eleventh birthday, from Eeylops Owl Emporium in Diagon Alley. Hedwig was often Harry's only companion during the lonely holidays he spent with the Dursleys, and the bond that developed between them was a close one. Though Hedwig was usually very affectionate with Harry, which she showed by gently nibbling his ear or fingers, she was not above snubbing him out of jealousy or nipping him a bit harder than usual on the rare occasions he snapped at her. Hedwig was also highly intelligent; she understood perfectly when Harry asked her to peck Ron and Hermione until they responded to him, and even flew, completely of her own accord, to where Hermione was on holiday in France, to ensure that Harry received a gift for his thirteenth birthday. In 1997, Harry was completely grief-stricken after Hedwig was struck by a Killing Curse during the Battle of the Seven Potters.

Alastor Moody
"Don't put your wand into your back pocket! Better wizards than you have lost buttocks from it!"

- Alastor Moody to Harry Potter

Harry first saw the real Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody shortly after Barty Crouch Jr. was revealed to have been keeping Moody imprisoned in his own trunk, using his hair for Polyjuice Potion, and taking Moody's place as temporary Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts for most of the 1994–1995 school year.

The real Moody brought the Advance Guard of the Order of the Phoenix to Privet Drive in 1995, to safely transport Harry to the Order's headquarters, and Sirius Black's ancestral home, at 12 Grimmauld Place. As Harry got to know Moody through his time spent around the Order, Moody proved every bit the great, albeit incredibly paranoid, wizard he was reputed to be. When Moody was killed by Voldemort during the Battle of the Seven Potters, Harry was shocked and horrified by the abrupt end of such a skilled Auror, and shared a drink in his honour with the rest of the Order.

"Mad-Eye dead; it could not be...Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor..."

- Harry thinking about Mad Eye's death

When Harry, Ron and Hermione infiltrated the Ministry of Magic in 1997, to steal Salazar Slytherin's Locket from Dolores Umbridge, Harry found Moody's magical eye lodged in the door to Umbridge's office. Harry reclaimed the eye, though doing so ended up alerting the Ministry to the breach in security, and later buried it under "the oldest, most gnarled and resilient-looking" tree he could find, marking the spot with a small cross. Little though it was, Harry was certain Moody would prefer it to having his eye put to use spying for Dolores Umbridge.

Cedric Diggory


Harry and Cedric Diggory, were, for better or worse, rivals throughout Harry's third and fourth years at Hogwarts. As Cedric was seeker of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, one of their first encounters involved Cedric catching the snitch and securing the win for his team, while Harry fell off his broomstick after one of the Dementors guarding the school found its way onto the Quidditch field.

The next year, when both Harry and Cedric were declared Champions in the Triwizard Tournament, Cedric was the school's obvious favourite, as most of the students believed Harry had entered the competition illegally. Cedric also believed Harry had entered illegally and asked him how he managed to do it, but Cedric did not hate Harry for this, as much of the school did. Though the negative attention abated slightly after Harry's stellar performance in the first task, Cedric also beat Harry to the punch in asking Cho Chang to the Yule Ball. And although Cedric remained good-natured and gracious throughout, Harry could not help feeling jealous, and even slightly insecure about the fact that Cedric was clearly talented and "looked the part" of a Champion.

Regardless, when Hagrid showed Harry that the Tournament's first task would involve facing dragons, Harry felt compelled to help Cedric, realising he alone would be unprepared, as both Heads of other the two competing schools had seen the dragons as well. Cedric reciprocated by helping Harry with the second task, and during the third, each had occasion to save the other's life. As, such, when they reached the Triwizard Cup at the same time, they agreed to take it together; both boys were transported to the Little Hangleton graveyard, and Harry watched in horror as Peter Pettigrew murdered Cedric on Voldemort's command to "kill the spare." When Cedric's ghostly image emerged from Voldemort's wand, which was locked in Priori Incantatem with Harry's, he asked Harry to take his body back to his parents, which Harry honoured, risking his life in the process.

Cedric's death haunted Harry's dreams well into the summer, as Dudley mockingly asked him if "Cedric" was his boyfriend, and enabled Harry to see Thestrals for the first time at the beginning of his fifth year.

Kreacher
"Kreacher...er... I would like to give you this..."

- Harry, giving Regulus Black's locket to Kreacher

Kreacher was the last in a line of house-elves who served the Black family, inherited by Sirius Black, and eventually by Harry. In his fanatical loyalty to the House of Black, Kreacher mimicked the family's Pure-blood supremacist views, and as such, despised Sirius for being a "blood traitor" and for supposedly breaking his mother's heart. By extension, he hated, and muttered profanities about, anyone associated with Sirius, particularly Harry and the motley crew of blood statuses that made up the rest of the Order of the Phoenix.

For his part, Sirius saw too much of the family he hated in Kreacher, and had no problem treating Kreacher with utter disdain. After the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry learned that Kreacher had helped trick Harry into going to the Ministry of Magic by pretending Sirius was not at Grimmauld Place when Harry tried to find him, and thus helped bring about Sirius's end. In his will, Sirius left everything he owned to Harry, including Kreacher. As Harry wanted nothing to do with the house-elf, but couldn't risk setting him free and letting any information Kreacher had about the Order fall into the hands of the Lestranges or the Malfoys, he sent Kreacher to work in the Hogwarts' kitchens.

In 1997, when Harry, Ron and Hermione hid in 12 Grimmauld Place at the start of their hunt for Voldemort's Horcruxes, they discovered that "R.A.B" stood for Regulus Arcturus Black, and Harry remembered actually having seen and tried to open Salazar Slytherin's Locket in the summer of 1995. They asked Kreacher if he knew where the locket came from and what had become of it, and the house-elf was forced to reveal all that had happened between him, Voldemort, and Regulus Black; when Regulus was still a Death Eater, Voldemort told him he required the service of a house-elf, and Regulus volunteered Kreacher for the job. Voldemort took Kreacher to a seaside cave, where he ordered Kreacher to drink an emerald green potion. Kreacher was tortured by the potion, and then left to die in the hands of the Inferi; he was only able to survive and Disapparate out of the cave because his master called him home. Regulus became disillusioned by Voldemort's ill-treatment of Kreacher, and soon after, deduced both the existence of Voldemort's horcruxes and the fact that the magic that binds a house-elf to obey their master would supersede the cave's magical protections. Regulus then had Kreacher return with him to the cave, but instead of forcing Kreacher to suffer the effects of the potion again, ordered Kreacher to leave the cave with the locket, and destroy it as soon as he could. To protect Kreacher and his family, Regulus forbade Kreacher to tell any member of the House of Black what had happened. Kreacher took the locket and attempted to destroy it, but not before watching in horror as Regulus drank the potion himself, and was killed by the Inferi.

Though he initially didn't want to admit it, Harry realised that Kreacher playing a crucial role in leading Sirius to his death was something that could have, and should have, been avoided. When Kreacher finished his story, Harry, with Hermione's guidance, made an effort to show the distraught house-elf kindness, comforting him about Regulus' death and even giving him Regulus' fake locket; the miserable, wretched house-elf they had known became almost unrecognisable. Kreacher told the trio that Mundungus Fletcher had taken the locket, and gladly obeyed Harry's order--which Harry made a point of phrasing as a request--to find Fletcher and bring him to Grimmauld Place.

From that point on, Kreacher happily tidied up the house and fed the trio, until they accidentally broke the Fidelius Charm on 12 Grimmauld Place, and were forced to flee. Kreacher later led the Hogwarts house-elves, in the name of Harry, "defender of house-elves", and brave Regulus Black, in a fervent attack on the invading Death Eaters during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Horace Slughorn
"Please... don't think badly of me when you see it... you've no idea how he was like, even then..."

- Slughorn to Harry in 1997



Harry first met Horace Slughorn in 1996, when he accompanied Albus Dumbledore in attempting to persuade the old Potions master to come out of retirement. From the start, Harry was unsure how he felt about Slughorn; though he was clearly not someone with even the slightest inclination toward becoming a Death Eater, he seemed wholly more superficial and self-serving than the likes of people in the Order and most of Harry's other professors. Slughorn had a habit of nurturing and promoting students who would allow him to benefit from his connections to them later on; on the other hand, he seemed to take into account genuine merit as much status within the wizarding community, as he told Harry that his mother, who had no connections at all as a Muggle-born witch, was one of his all time favourite students.

Though he resisted, Slughorn ultimately could not pass up the opportunity to "collect" Harry, nor could he deny that there was no safer place to be than where ever Dumbledore was. Horace Slughorn resumed his post as Potions Master, and made quick work of inviting several choice students (which included Ginny Weasley, when he saw her perform an excellent Bat-Bogey Hex on Zacharias Smith, and later Hermione, when he saw that she was all around brilliant) in addition to Harry, to be a part of his "Slug Club."

In due course, Harry realised that Dumbledore had not just wanted Slughorn back at Hogwarts because he needed to fill a position. During one of their private lessons, Dumbledore showed Harry a memory that belonged to Horace Slughorn, in which Slughorn was chatting with a group of Slytherin boys, including a young Tom Riddle. Riddle had apparently gifted Slughorn his favourite Crystallised pineapple, was being being charming, and generally seemed to be building up to something. Indeed, when the other boys left, Riddle stayed behind, and slowly but surely made his way to his point; he wanted to know what Slughorn knew about Horcruxes. The room suddenly got hazy, and a voice that belonged to Slughorn but was clearly inorganic reprimanded Riddle for asking such a thing, before the memory abruptly ended.

Dumbledore told Harry that original version of the modified memory would be of vital importance in understanding exactly what destroying Voldemort would entail, and tasked Harry with retrieving it. Aside from simply being "Harry Potter," Harry had three things that would help him do what even Dumbledore apparently could not: a reputation with Slughorn as a excellent potioneer, courtesy of the Half-Blood Prince, the vial of liquid luck he had won, also courtesy of the Prince, and Slughorn's fondness for Harry's own mother. A combination of all those things, as well as a healthy dose of Mead and the opportunity to collect a few vials of Acromantula venom, allowed Harry to finally collect the memory that confirmed what Dumbledore had suspected Voldemort had done to travel "farther down the path to immortality than anyone else": created not just one, but several Horcruxes.

Though it seemed as if Slughorn had fled with the rest of the Slytherins prior to the start of the Battle of Hogwarts, he soon returned with reinforcements from Hogsmeade. During the final battle in the Great Hall, Slughorn displayed his immense skill and courage by taking on Voldemort directly, duelling him alongside Minerva McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Dumbledore's Army
"Every great wizard in history has started out as nothing more than what we are now: students. If they can do it, why not us?"

- Harry Potter

By the summer of 1995, the Ministry of Magic was in stubborn denial of Voldemort's return, and Cornelius Fudge, whether out of self-delusion or genuine paranoia, seemed to suspect Albus Dumbledore may have been making false claims as a pretext for mobilising the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in a coup against Fudge's administration. As such, the Ministry saw fit to appoint one of its own to fill a vacancy in the Hogwarts faculty; at the start of the 1995–1996 school year, Dolores Umbridge was announced as the school's new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, and later, the first and only known Hogwarts High Inquisitor.

As Umbridge steadily asserted her authority into nearly every aspect of life at Hogwarts-- from refusing to allow her D.A.D.A. students anything beyond a basic theoretical education and disbanding all student organisations, clubs, societies, and teams, to enforcing a unique form of corporal punishment-- most of the residents of Hogwarts quickly turned against her.

Harry was the most heatedly vocal among her opposition, followed closely by Hermione Granger, who had been the first to notice and question the fact that Umbridge's outlined curriculum did not seem to include the actual use of defensive magic. The two of them, along with Ron Weasley, founded Dumbledore's Army (so named to mock "the Ministry's worst fear") to secretly provide students a practical defensive education. When an unexpectedly high number of students arrived at the Hog's Head pub for the introductory meeting of the D.A., Harry suspected that many of the attendees were only interested in hearing the details of Cedric Diggory's death. However, nearly all of the members worked in earnest to improve their duelling skills, crediting their marked successes to Harry's effective teaching, and many were eventually able to produce corporeal Patronuses under Harry's tuition.

The organisation was disbanded in 1996, when Marietta Edgecombe gave into pressure from her parents and Umbridge to betray the location of the D.A.'s secret meetings, which nearly resulted in the expulsion of all of the members. Dumbledore ultimately took the blame (citing the fact that it was called "Dumbledore's Army, not Potter's"), and overpowered several Ministry officials to avoid being subsequently sent to Azkaban.

Only Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and Ginny Weasley continued to check their Enchanted coins and were able to answer Hermione and Ron's call prior to the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. Nevertheless, all of the former members, aside from Marietta Edgecombe and Zacharias Smith, reunited when the D.A. was re-formed in 1997, co-led by Neville, Ginny and Luna in Harry, Ron, and Hermione's absence, and fought together in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Order of the Phoenix
"I want to join! If Voldemort's raising an army, then I want to fight!"

- Harry Potter

Harry first heard about the Order of the Phoenix in 1995, a year after Lord Voldemort's return. The Order of the Phoenix was an organisation founded and led by Albus Dumbledore in opposition to Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters during the First Wizarding War, and was reinstated at the start of the Second. Most of the Order members worked to the best of their ability to protect Harry, at great personal risk, throughout the Second War, for which Harry came to view many of them much like a surrogate extended family.

"Thank you! You saved our lives!"

- Harry to Aberforth after he saved his, Ron and Hermione's lives



Aberforth was Albus Dumbledore's younger brother. Though Harry, Ron and Hermione had known him for years as the owner of the Hog's Head, they didn't officially meet him or learn his true identity till 1998, when Harry, Ron and Hermione apparated outside of Aberforth's pub, in Hogsmeade. Harry had read about Aberforth in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, a book Rita Skeeter had written, which described Aberforth as unlettered, rude, and bitter for having lived in the shadow of his elder brother. When the trio apparated outside of the Hog's Head, they set off a Caterwauling Charm set by Death Eaters. As the three were hidden beneath Harry's Invisibility cloak, the Death Eaters used Dementors to smoke them out; the Death Eaters recognised Harry's stag Patronus, but Aberforth claimed it was he who had set off the Caterwauling charm, and that the Patronus had actually been a goat.

Upon taking refuge in the Pub, the trio discovered Aberforth had saved their lives once before; he had been able to send Dobby to save them from the Malfoy Manor after Harry called to him through the broken shards of the Two-way mirror, as Aberforth had bought Sirius' mirror from Mundungus Fletcher. Aberforth advised Harry to take Ron and Hermione away from Hogsmeade, and to save himself. He told them about his family life, and that his sister, Ariana, had been so traumatised after being attacked by three Muggle boys, that she became unable to control her magical abilities. He also told them why his father had been imprisoned in Azkaban, and about the events leading up to the deaths of his mother and sister. Though Harry understood, or at least sympathised with, Aberforth's bitterness, he echoed Albus' sentiments by saying "sometimes you've got to think about the greater good!" Harry then informed Aberforth that, despite what he believed of his brother, Albus had never been free of what Gellert Grindelwald had done to Aberforth or what had happened to Ariana, referring to all Harry had heard Albus saying under the effects of the Drink of Despair in the Horcrux cave. After receiving this insight into his brother's mind, Aberforth showed the trio the secret passage to the Room of Requirement concealed behind Ariana's portrait.

Harry first met Kingsley Shacklebolt when he and the rest of the Advance Guard arrived at Privet Drive in 1995. Kingsley was an Auror who believed in equality and fairness for all wizards, witches, and Muggles. He later saved countless lives by sending his Patronus to warn the attendees of the Weasley-Delacour Wedding that the Ministry had fallen, and with it, the protections surrounding The Burrow. After the Second Wizarding War, Kingsley became Minister for Magic.

Harry had only read Elphias Doge's account of his friendship with Albus Dumbledore in their youth, until the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour, when they had a discussion about Dumbledore's past. Harry, who was beginning to doubt how well he had really known the late Headmaster, was unsure how to feel about Doge's insistence that he not "let" his memories of Dumbledore be tainted.

Before Harry had even known he was a wizard, Dedalus Diggle had met and even publicly bowed to a bemused, young Harry, much to the Dursley's confusion and disgust. In 1997, Diggle and Hestia Jones took the Dursleys into hiding under the Order's protection from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Hestia was furious when she realised how little Harry's Uncle and Aunt seemed to know or care about him, and was unimpressed by Dudley's attempt at reconciliation. Though Harry was mostly amused by Dudley's declaration that he didn't consider Harry a "waste of space," he probably appreciated Hestia's indignation on his behalf all the same.

Harry thought Arabella Figg was just his odd, cat-loving neighbour, until 1995, when he learned she was a Squib, and a member of the Order. She was outraged to learn that Mundungus Fletcher had abandoned his post when he was supposed to be guarding Harry, which left the boy and his cousin vulnerable when they were attacked by Dementors. Figg also participated in Harry Potter's trial, as a witness in Harry's defence. It is unknown if Figg fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, though it is likely that she didn't fight, as she lacked magical powers.

Harry had learned from Moody that several members of the First Order had been killed during the First Wizarding War, including Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Edgar Bones and his family, Marlene McKinnon and her family, Caradoc Dearborn, Benjy Fenwick and Dorcas Meadowes. In Harry's fourth year, Dumbledore told him that Alice and Frank Longbottom had been tortured to insanity and were permanently incapacitated in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, shortly after Voldemort's fall, by four Death Eaters who were attempting to discover their Master's whereabouts. Harry was later confused when he heard about the arrest of Order member Sturgis Podmore, who had apparently been attempting to break into the Department of Mysteries in 1995, but eventually realised that Podmore had been imperiused. Harry also learned about the death of Emmeline Vance in the Daily Prophet, when she was killed around the same as the murder of Amelia Bones.

Mundungus Fletcher was likely the member of the Order Harry liked least (barring, initially, Severus Snape), as he was a criminal who callously pilfered many of Sirius' inherited possessions very shortly after his death. Harry attempted to strangle Fletcher when he saw him hawking Black family heirlooms outside of the Three Broomsticks Inn, in 1996, and was disgusted to learn that Fletcher had abandoned Alastor Moody during the Battle of the Seven Potters. When Harry realised that one of the items Mundungus had stolen from 12 Grimmauld Place had been Salazar Slytherin's Locket, he ordered Kreacher, the house-elf, to catch him. Kreacher did so, and it was with reluctance that Harry stopped the house-elf from beating Mundungus senseless, in order to learn that the locket had been taken from Mundungus by Dolores Umbridge.

Augusta Longbottom, the mother of Frank Longbottom, mother-in-law of Alice Longbottom, and grandmother of Neville Longbottom, wasn't an original member of the Order, but she fought in both Wizarding Wars. She thought highly of Harry and his friends, and was immensely proud of her grandson. When Augusta arrived at the school to join in the final battle, she rushed off to find Neville, whom she was unsurprised to hear was off somewhere fighting Death Eaters.

Andromeda and Ted Tonks, Nymphadora Tonks' parents, also weren't original members, but were crucial in transferring Harry safely to the Burrow, after the Sacrificial protection was broken. Harry liked the cheery-looking Ted Tonks immediately, though he was initially startled by the appearance of Andromeda, who at first glance greatly resembled her sister Bellatrix, but upon closer inspection, clearly had softer features, and wider, kinder eyes. In 1997, after the Battle of the Seven Potters, Andromeda and Ted healed Harry's and Hagrid's injuries, before they took a Portkey to the Burrow. Harry was saddened by the news of Ted Tonks' death, and helped Andromeda raise her grandson, Teddy Lupin, after Nymphadora's death.

Hogwarts residents
"You’ll do no more murder at Hogwarts!"

- Professor Filius Flitwick to Severus Snape in 1998



Harry got along well with both Professor Filius Flitwick, the Charms professor and Head of Ravenclaw House, and Professor Pomona Sprout, the Herbology professor and Head of Hufflepuff House, and received O.W.L.s in both of their subjects. Harry also witnessed both teachers rush to the aid of Professor Minerva McGonagall shortly before Severus Snape's "sacking," prior to the start of the Battle of Hogwarts.

Sybill Trelawney
"'I miss having you in my classes, Harry,' she said soulfully, as they set off together. 'You were never much of a Seer, but you were a wonderful Object...' Harry did not reply; he had loathed being the Object of Professor Trelawney's continual predictions of doom."

- Harry's feelings for Trelawney

As Sybill Trelawney had a tendency to predict various grim deaths for Harry every Divination class, Harry was not especially fond of his Divination professor. Though most of Trelawney's predictions were nonsensical, in 1996, Harry learned it was Trelawney who had made the prophecy about him and Voldemort, and another in 1994 regarding the return of Peter Pettigrew to the service of Voldemort, though she was completely unaware of having done so.

Though Harry wasn't a huge fan of the subject, in general, Harry liked the other Divination professor, Firenze, a centaur who had saved Harry's life in 1991. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry saw Trelawney spiking Crystal balls at the invading Death Eaters.

Despite his general dislike of Sybill for being mostly a fraud who kept annoying him with nonsensical predictions of his death, Harry was nevertheless disgusted when Dolores Umbridge dismissed the Divination professor for inadequate performance, a dismissal that was utmost cruel and unceremonious.

Other residents
"Fame's a fickle friend, Harry. Celebrity is as celebrity does - remember that."

- One of Professor Lockhart's many pieces of "advice" to Harry.

Gilderoy Lockhart was Harry's Defence Against the Dark Arts professor in Harry's second year. Lockhart was a very handsome and famous author, who claimed he had done great deeds, but had in fact only taken credit for the deeds after erasing the memories of the actual doers: his only skill. Lockhart was extremely vain and highly self-obsessed; he assigned all of his own, very expensive, books for his class. Lockhart continually pulled Harry into the limelight against his will, often implying that Harry hoped to be as famous as Lockhart, which caused Harry a great deal of embarrassment and irritation.

When Ginny Weasley had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart boasted that he knew exactly how to enter the Chamber and defeat the monster within; though McGonagall only challenged him to do so in order to shut him up, Harry and Ron Weasley, who actually did know how to get into the Chamber, tried to tell him what they knew, only to find him packing his things and getting ready to flee. Lockhart attempted to erase Harry and Ron's memories, but fortunately for everyone except him, Lockhart attempted to cast the Memory Charm with Ron's broken wand, and the charm backfired. Harry, Ron, and Hermione Granger encountered him again, with absolutely no memories but still using his battered peacock feather quill, as a permanent resident of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Harry felt no sympathy for Lockhart for the attempt was all Lockhart's fault to begin with.

Harry disliked Argus Filch the caretaker, and his cat, Mrs. Norris, as much as they seemed to dislike all Hogwarts students, though Filch did eventually help younger students and the Slytherins leave the school prior to the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry found himself at odds with Irma Pince, the librarian, when she very loudly expressed her displeasure at seeing the Half-Blood Prince's marked up copy of Advanced Potion-Making, and he found it impossible to pay attention to Professor Cuthbert Binns's very boring, droning History of Magic lectures.

"...only few wizards choose to return as ghosts..."

- Nearly-Headless Nick, to Harry Potter

Harry became friends with "Nearly-Headless" Nick, ghost of the Gryffindor house, in Harry's first year. Nick invited Harry to his death-day party, which Harry reluctantly attended, along with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, instead of the Halloween feast. After Sirius Black's death in 1995, they had a discussion about death, and Nick told him that very few wizards choose to come back as ghosts.

Harry also met Moaning Myrtle at Nick's death-day party. Myrtle was an unpleasant ghost of a girl that lived in the girls' toilet. Harry learned in 1993 that Myrtle had been killed by Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk, which helped Harry find the location of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. She was disappointed when Harry survived his encounter with Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets, saying that she would have shared her toilet with him if he had died. The last time Harry saw Myrtle was when he a cast Sectumsempra, not knowing what it did, and hit Draco Malfoy.

Harry met the Grey Lady in 1998. He learned that, when she lived, she was Helena Ravenclaw, and that she had been killed by the Bloody Baron, who had subsequently killed himself, horrified at having killed the woman he loved. She hesitantly revealed to Harry that she had stolen her mother's Diadem and hidden it in an Albanian forest; she even more reluctantly admitted that Harry was not the first person she had told. Her admitting she had in fact divulged its whereabouts to a young Tom Riddle led Harry to realise where Riddle must have hidden it, and he assured Helena that she was neither the first nor the last to fall prey to Tom Riddle's charms.

Ministry of Magic
Harry had a mixed relationship with the Ministry of Magic. In 1992, Harry had his first run-in with the Ministry after Dobby had smashed a pudding in his Aunt and Uncle’s house. Although the incident was not Harry’s fault, the Ministry believed that Harry had used magic illegally while under-age, and given him an official warning.

A year later, Harry lost his temper and blew up his "Aunt" Marge. Believing that this time he would surely be expelled from Hogwarts, Harry went on the run and boarded the Knight Bus, but ran into Cornelius Fudge, then Minister for Magic, who seemed strangely unconcerned by what Harry had done. Furthermore, Fudge treated Harry like a friend, although he did not sign Harry’s letter permitting to allow him to visit Hogsmeade.

However, by 1995, the relationship between Fudge and Harry was not so rosy. Harry had witnessed Voldemort’s return to power, which he told both Dumbledore and Fudge. The latter stoutly refused to believe Harry, and branded Dumbledore and Harry as liars/nutters in a smear campaign. In the summer of 1995, Harry performed a Patronus Charm to save Dudley Dursley and himself from Dementors, for which Harry was unreasonably threatened with expulsion from Hogwarts, tried by the entire Wizengamot. Though Harry was cleared of all charges, thanks to Dumbledore's defence and Amelia Bones's impartiality, Fudge took his revenge by employing his undersecretary Dolores Umbridge as Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. Umbridge sadistically tortured Harry when he repeatedly contradicted the Ministry’s opinion that Voldemort had not returned. In 1996, after Dumbledore’s Army was discovered, Fudge came to Hogwarts to expel Harry, but Dumbledore claimed the D.A. had been formed on his orders. Though Harry was allowed to remain at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was forced to go on the run after overpowering several ministry officials. Later that year, toward the end of Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Fudge arrived at the Ministry in time to see Voldemort disapparate with Bellatrix Lestrange, and was forced to acknowledge that Dumbledore and Harry had been telling the truth all along. As the Wizarding community had lost all confidence in him, he was forced to resign as Minister for Magic.

Fudge's successor, Rufus Scrimgeour, did little to improve Harry's view of the Ministry. Scrimgeour asked Harry to essentially become the Ministry's mascot for the purpose of restoring public confidence, despite all they had done to Harry and the fact that Dolores Umbridge was still in their employ. Harry refused, stating he couldn't pretend to approve of the ministry's methods, showing Scrimgeour the scars on the back of his hand, and citing the fact that Scrimgeour was arresting innocent people like Stan Shunpike. In 1997, Voldemort and his Death Eaters took over the Ministry, and killed the Minister after torturing him in an attempt to ascertain Harry’s whereabouts. Although Harry did not like Scrimgeour, who hardly appeared to care at all about what actually happened to Harry or his friends, he was incredibly grateful that the Minister's final act had been to protect him.

After Lord Voldemort’s takeover of the Ministry, with an Imperiused Pius Thicknesse acting as Voldemort's puppet Minister for Magic, Harry’s relationship with the Ministry was worse than ever before. They named Harry Potter "Undesirable Number One" and claimed he was wanted for questioning about the death of Albus Dumbledore.

In 1998, after Voldemort's death, the position of Minister of Magic went to Order of the Phoenix member and Harry's friend Kingsley Shacklebolt, who later employed Harry as an Auror.

Death Eaters and enemies
Death Eaters were dark wizards under the orders of Voldemort during both wizarding wars; known Death Eaters included Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Peter Pettigrew. Though not all of Harry's enemies were Death Eaters, the ones who most persistently and ferociously pursued Harry and his friends were part of Voldemort's inner circle.

"I met him when I travelled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was...Since then, I serve him faithfully, although I have let him down many times."

- Quirrell

The first of Voldemort's servants to try to murder Harry was his Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Quirinus Quirrell. Though not a Death Eater, he encountered Voldemort in the forests of Albania, and was seduced into the Dark Lord's service by promises of wealth and power. Harry found out about Quirrell's true loyalties at the end of his first year, in the seventh of the Philosopher's Stone Chambers. This news also came with the discovery that Voldemort was actually sharing Quirrell's body, and the turban Quirrell wore was, in fact, hiding Voldemort's face on the back of Quirrell's head. When Quirrell attempted to grab Harry, he found he was unable to do so without experiencing unbearable pain, due to the power of Harry's mother's Sacrificial protection. Voldemort detached himself from his servant to escape the pain and fled before Albus Dumbledore's arrival because Dumbledore could have killed him, leaving Quirrell to die.



Harry first learned about the Death Eaters after the 1994 Quidditch World Cup Riot, where Barty Crouch Jr. raised the Dark Mark in the sky. At the end of Harry's fourth year, he realised that the man he thought was Alastor Moody was actually Barty Crouch Jr., disguised by way of polyjuice potion. Crouch attempted to kill Harry, but Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape rushed into Moody's office and stunned him. When Dumbledore forced Crouch to drink Veritaserum, he revealed how he had escaped from Azkaban with the help his father and dying mother, and told Dumbledore about how Voldemort had helped him overpower his father, allowing Crouch to later confund the Goblet of Fire to declare Harry a Triwizard Champion. Cornelius Fudge arrived at Hogwarts soon after with a Dementor for a bodyguard, and the latter subsequently gave Crouch the Dementor's Kiss.

Harry first saw Lucius Malfoy in 1992 at Borgin and Burkes, though they didn't officially meet until Lucius got into a fist fight with Arthur Weasley at Flourish and Blotts, over Malfoy's many insults aimed at the Weasley family. Though Harry didn't know it till much later, after a good deal of damage had been done, Malfoy had used the scuffle as a pretext for handing Ginny Weasley a book that turned out to be Tom Riddle's Diary. Harry and Malfoy met again at the end of the same year, when Harry tricked Malfoy into freeing his House-elf, Dobby; when Lucius threatened Harry in his anger at having lost his servant, Dobby demonstrating the might of his House-elf magic to protect Harry. They would eventually meet again in the Ministry of Magic, in 1995, after which Lucius was outed as an active Death Eater and arrested. Following his failure at the Ministry, and Voldemort's discovery of the fact that Lucius had allowed one of his Horcruxes to be destroyed, Voldemort punished him by giving his son the seemingly impossible task of assassinating Albus Dumbledore. When Harry and his friends escaped on Lucius' watch after the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, in 1998, the Malfoys fell further out of Voldemort's favour. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Lucius and his wife both deserted the Death Eaters, placing greater importance in the safety of their son, and Narcissa's crucial act of lying to Voldemort about Harry's death insured that the Malfoy family was not sent to Azkaban.

Throughout the Second Wizarding War, Harry encountered a number of other Death Eaters: Antonin Dolohov, who murdered the Prewetts and Remus Lupin, and almost killed Hermione Granger during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries; Travers, who killed the McKinnons; Augustus Rookwood, who was possibly responsible for the explosion that killed Fred Weasley; Yaxley, who imprisoned innocent Muggle-borns with the Muggle-Born Registration Commission; Walden Macnair, who was violent and bloodthirsty, and almost killed Buckbeak in 1993; Alecto and Amycus Carrow, who tortured the students of Hogwarts when they had been appointed Deputy Headmasters; Thorfinn Rowle, who indiscriminately cast Killing Curses all around him during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower and took part in the skirmish at the Luchino Caffe, and Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, who participated in the torture of Alice and Frank Longbottom. Lucius Malfoy, Rookwood, Dolohov, MacNair, and the Lestranges (including Bellatrix), all took part in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, along with Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle (fathers of Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle), Mr. Nott, Jugson, Avery and Mulciber.

In 1997, during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, Harry got his first glimpse of Fenrir Greyback, who was known for craving human flesh even out of Werewolf form, as well for planning his attacks by positioning himself near his intended victims prior to the full moon (typically the children of his employer's enemies). Harry, Ron and Hermione were taken hostage by Greyback and a gang of Snatchers just before the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, during which time Greyback expressed a disturbing interest in Hermione. Though he wasn't a Death Eater, and lacked the Dark Mark tattoo, Greyback was allowed to wear Death Eater's robes whenever Voldemort made use of him.

Harry met Durmstrang Institute's Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff, in 1994, during the Triwizard Tournament. Harry later saw Karkaroff in Dumbledore's pensieve bearing witness against several of his fellow Death Eaters, in exchange for his own freedom. Karkaroff fled after Voldemort's resurrection in 1995. Two years later, Harry learned that Karkaroff's corpse was found in a shack in the north of Britain.

Harry didn't initially think highly of Sirius Black's younger brother, Regulus, who followed the family tradition of zealous pure-blood supremacy for most of his life. However, Kreacher later revealed to Harry, Ron and Hermione that Regulus had likely been the first to deduce the existence of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and subsequently attempted to find and destroy them. When he located the hiding place of Salazar Slytherin's Locket, rather than force Kreacher to consume the Drink of Despair as Voldemort had done, Regulus drank it himself after ordering Kreacher to take and destroy the the locket, resulting in Regulus' death. In all likelihood, Harry came to appreciate Regulus' bravery, and respect the level of compassion he had for beings that had long been ill-treated by wizarding kind.

Etymology
Harry is the Middle English form of the name Henry, derived from the Germanic name Heinrich, from the words heim, meaning "home," and ric, meaning "power, ruler." It has been a very popular name in the English-speaking world for centuries. Harry can also be a diminutive form of the name Harold, from the Old English name Hereweald, meaning "leader of the army." It has been the name of five kings of Norway, three kings of Denmark, and two kings of England. In an interview J. K. Rowling stated that 'Harry' had always been one of her favourite boy's names and that if her daughter had been a son she would have named him 'Harry', although then she would have to have come up with a different name for the books as it "would have been too cruel to name him after my own son."

James is derived from the same Hebrew name as Jacob, meaning “holds the heel” (in the Genesis narrative, Jacob was born grasping Esau′s heel and later bought his birthright). The name came into English language from the French variation of the Late Latin name Iacomus, a dialect variant of Iacobus, from the New Testament Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iakōbos), from Hebrew word יעקב (Yaʻaqov). James is Harry's middle name, James was the name of his father and is also the name of his first son.

Potter is a very common surname of English origin. It traditionally refers to the occupation of making pottery. Beatrix Potter was a well-known English children's author. Potter's Field is the name for a burial ground for the unknown or unclaimed dead, particularly soldiers and orphans; the Potter family had many members that fit that description. The Potter Box is a model for making ethical decisions developed at Harvard University. J. K. Rowling has also commented that she has liked the name since childhood, as a family that had lived near her carried this surname.

Behind the scenes
"There are quite a few real Harry Potters out there. So far I have heard of a newborn baby who actually has Harry's full name (Harry James Potter), a barrister in London, a grandfather who was very pleased that he had become cool in his grandchildren's eyes, a soldier who died in the second world war (I was sent a picture of his tombstone) and a clockmaker who worked in London in the last century."

- J. K. Rowling


 * Harry is portrayed by British actor Daniel Radcliffe in the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2 and so is one of the 13 characters to appear in all 8 film adaptations. By the time Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released, Radcliffe had played the role for ten years consecutively.
 * Harry is right-handed. He tells this to Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. He is also seen writing with this hand throughout the film series.
 * He often describes various parts of his anatomy as feeling like lead.
 * Josh Herdman plays Harry when he is disguised as Gregory Goyle in Chamber of Secrets, as does David O'Hara when he is disguised as Albert Runcorn in Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The Saunders Triplets play Harry as an infant in Philosopher's Stone and Toby Papworth plays Harry as an infant in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
 * In a deleted scene of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, when he is disguised as Albert Runcorn, Harry calls Arthur Weasley by his first name. This is the only time Harry does this.
 * Daniel Radcliffe and Harry were both born in July — Harry on the 31st and Daniel on the 23rd.
 * Harry the character has green eyes, but in the films he has blue eyes. This is due to the fact that Daniel Radcliffe was allergic to the contact lenses. Radcliffe also has brown hair, as opposed to Harry's black hair, and also has a strong physical body, rather than the slim frame Harry is described as having. However Harry is only described as having an uncommonly 'slim' frame in the earlier installments, so it is possible that he bulked out a little into a lean frame as he matured.
 * Harry's birthday of 31 July is also the birthday of Harry Potter author, J. K. Rowling, and actor Richard Griffiths who plays Harry's Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films.
 * In the Mirror of Erised, Harry saw his family, a lot of people with untidy black hair, his own noses, mouths and knees. However, he also saw some people with almond-shaped green eyes, which could indicate that he saw his Muggle family as well, even though he did not see the Dursley family. All people were smiling at him, so there is a thought that all of his family, Wizards and Muggles, are proud of him.
 * In the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry is seen practising Lumos Maxima under the covers in his bedroom, but Harry does not get a letter from the Improper Use of Magic Office even though he is under-age, however, judging by the book he is reading, his reason for doing so is most likely for homework. In the book he is simply using a torch (or flashlight if you're American) while writing his homework for History of Magic.
 * While Harry repeatedly states Hermione is the best student in his year in all classes, he has beaten her in two of the three Defence Against the Dark Arts exams they had together, with Hermione only beating him in their first year exam. In addition, J. K. Rowling has said that Harry could have beat Hermione in a magical duel halfway through Prisoner of Azkaban. Part of this can be put down to Professor Lupin's way of teaching, as it seemed to help bring out Harry's own talent at the subject. It is probably more accurate to say that Hermione is the best student in every subject but DADA, in which Harry is strongest, hence in Harry's mind she is the best student overall.
 * Harry's niece and nephew, Rose and Hugo, have some of the same heritage of Harry. A Muggle-born mother, Lily and Hermione, and a pure-blood father, James and Ron. This makes Rose, Hugo and Harry all half-bloods.
 * When Harry is cleaning out his school trunk in 1997, he finds a "Support Cedric Diggory!" badge in there. Considering the badges were only created by Draco Malfoy to get a rise out of Harry in 1994, it seems out of place that Harry has it, although he may have it by accident, or out of respect for Cedric. He could also have kept one as a memento from the Tournament.
 * Throughout the films, Harry's hair grows longer and longer (the longest point was in the Goblet of Fire) until it was cut for the Order of the Phoenix. It has since grown to about the same length as it was for the Prisoner of Azkaban.
 * In the films, Harry's scar is off-centre on his forehead; this was apparently done at J. K. Rowling's request: because of the books' artwork, many fans believe the scar is in the centre of his head. But it is never explicitly mentioned where the scar is located. On all the U.S. book covers (illustrations), the scar on Harry's forehead is located in the centre. The same is definitely true of the last two U.K. instalments; however, on early U.K. book covers, Harry's scar tends to appear slightly off-centre. It is somewhat hard to tell on most of these covers, as Harry's face is only visible in profile. However, on the U.K. cover of Chamber of Secrets, Harry's scar is decidedly off-centre. It is perhaps of this book that Rowling was thinking.
 * The Marauders were said to have discovered more secret places than anyone else in the history of Hogwarts. This is not necessarily true, as unlike Harry and Tom Riddle, they did not discover the Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirement. However, as they discovered an untold number of secret passages and hidden rooms, they did discover more numerous secrets than Riddle or Harry, just not the same ones.
 * In Harry, A History, Rowling discussed how Steve Kloves suspected that something might happen between Harry and Hermione in Deathly Hallows. She replied: "I had always planned that Harry's true soul mate, which I stand by, is Ginny, and that Ron and Hermione have this combative but mutual attraction. They will always bicker, there will always be rough edges there, but they are pulled together, each has something the other needs. [Kloves] felt a certain pull between them at that point. And I think he's right. There are moments when [Harry and Hermione] touch, which are charged moments. One when she touches his hair as he sits on the hilltop reading about Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and [two] the moment when they walk out of the graveyard with their arms around each other. Now the fact is that Hermione shares moments with Harry that Ron will never be able to participate in. He walked out. She shared something very intense with Harry. So I think it could have gone that way."
 * The only person Harry ever considered killing by use of curse was Sirius Black and possibly Bellatrix Lestrange, ironically to avenge Sirius. It is, however, unclear if Harry knew how to cast the Avada Kedavra curse since he was not taught the Unforgivable Curses until his fourth year. Furthermore, when Harry found out that Peter Pettigrew was the one who had betrayed his parents to Voldemort, he did not want Sirius and Remus Lupin to kill Pettigrew in revenge. Even during the Battle of Hogwarts, in which Harry defeated Lord Voldemort, Harry did not do so by use of any curse intended to do harm to his opponent, but rather he used his "trademark," Expelliarmus. Harry finished Voldemort by reflecting a curse Harry would never use on another, even his mortal enemy. This suggests the love, which is "the power the Dark Lord knows not..." makes it difficult for Harry to kill. Even during the Battle of the Seven Potters, Harry illustrated his unwillingness to kill Death Eaters. During that battle the Death Eaters were masked at the time, he could not know who was a willing follower and who was a controlled drone. However in the example with Voldemort, Harry knew Voldemort's killing curse would backfire, so rather than use the same curse which would make him look somewhat bad, he instead decided to use the Disarming Charm to gain possession of the wand.
 * Harry usually has the last line in every Harry Potter film. Though it could be debatable on whether he has the last line of the second film since the closed captions say that Dean said, "Yes!", so he may have had the last line.
 * "I'm not going home...not really..." (PS/SS)
 * "There's no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid." (CS)
 * "Lumos. I solemnly swear that I am up to no good"/"Nox"." (POA)
 * "Yeah. Every week." (GOF)
 * "Something worth fighting for." (OOTP)
 * "I never realised how beautiful this place was." (HBP)
 * "I want to bury him [Dobby]... without magic." (DHPt1)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the only film in which Harry does not speak the final line. It is spoken by his son Albus: "Ready."
 * Harry was Wizard of the Month on J. K. Rowling's website for the month of October 2007.
 * Harry is the inspiration for the Wizard rock band, Harry and the Potters.
 * The makers of the film X-Men: First Class used Harry Potter as their role model.
 * Harry Potter's former romantic relationship with Cho Chang is well known for being his first crush, first kiss and first girlfriend in the Harry Potter series.
 * Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley's romantic relationship is told in a different way in the films series from the novel versions of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
 * In the novel version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry shares his first kiss with Ginny in front of Gryffindor students in the Gryffindor Common Room after the Gryffindor Quidditch team won the Quidditch Cup. He also breaks it off with her at Dumbledore's funeral.
 * In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Ginny go to the Room of Requirement together to hide Harry's copy of the Advanced Potion-Making book, which previously belong to the Half-Blood Prince, after he hurts Draco Malfoy. While there Ginny asked Harry to close his eyes while she goes and hides the Half-Blood Prince book so that he and other students can not find it, when she returned back to him, Ginny kisses Harry. Harry was very much delighted and surprised that he received a kiss from her. It is implied that they are still dating at the end of the film.
 * In the novel version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and Ginny kiss on Harry's seventeenth birthday in Ginny's bedroom at The Burrow, and Ron interrupts them when he opens the door.
 * In the film version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, Harry was in the kitchen at the Weasley family home, on the day of the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. Ginny arrives into the room, she asked him to fasten the zip of her bridesmaid dress. Harry and Ginny talked and shared a kiss, while they were kissing Ginny's brother George Weasley comes into the room and interrupts them.
 * In the film of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Ginevra Weasley and Neville Longbottom are both climbing up on one of the staircases, and run into Harry during the battle. Neville ask Harry if he has seen Luna Lovegood, then he confesses to Ginny and Harry that he as feelings for Luna, he went away to find and tell Luna. Harry and Ginny share a quick kiss, Harry was going to tell Ginny that he loved her, but Ginny quickly told him that she knows, and they both went back to what they were doing before they met up. This did not happen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book.
 * A running gag in the books is the messiness of Harry's hair. In the films, this is not mentioned except for a reference in the fourth film. Harry notices that Hagrid has combed his hair so he will look good for Olympe Maxime. When Harry says to him, "Hagrid, have you combed your hair?!" Hagrid states, "As a matter of fact, I have. You might wanna try the same thing now and again."
 * Harry Potter is still the only wizard to this day that has had all three Unforgivable Curses cast on him and survived.
 * Both Michael Corner and Harry have dated the same girls, but in a different order, Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley.
 * Despite being a talented Quidditch player (and the team Seeker, considered the most important player on the team), Harry never played a full season (every minute of all three matches):
 * In his first year, he was recuperating in the hospital wing after saving the Philosopher's Stone, and thus missed the final match.
 * In his second year, the final match of the season was cancelled due to the attack on Hermione and Penelope Clearwater.
 * In his third year, Harry came closest to playing a full season, but spent the last few seconds of the opening Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff match unconscious after being attacked by Dementors.
 * In his fourth year, the Quidditch Cup was cancelled due to the Triwizard Tournament.
 * In his fifth year, Harry was banned by Dolores Umbridge after the opening Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match.
 * In his sixth year, Harry was knocked unconscious partway through the second match of the season against Hufflepuff, and then held in detention for the final match against Ravenclaw.
 * J.K. Rowling has said that because of the demands of his life, Harry has had less sexual experience than boys of his age might have had.
 * J.K. Rowling has said that Harry's glasses are a clue to his vulnerability.
 * J.K. Rowling has said that the character of Wart from T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone is "Harry's spiritual ancestor".
 * Like his parents, Harry personally defied Voldemort three times before defeating him the fourth time: once in the Philosopher's Stone Chambers, once at the cemetery in Little Hangleton, and once again during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. However, there were four previous encounters if one counts the events of Harry's second year with Tom Riddle's Diary, though that was a memory instead of the real Voldemort.
 * Harry learns a new mode of transportation in every book.
 * In his first year, he learns to travel by broomstick.
 * In his second year, he travels by Floo Powder.
 * In his third year, he travels on the Knight Bus and Buckbeak the hippogriff lets him take a ride on his back.
 * In his fourth year, he gets to the Quidditch World Cup by portkey.
 * In his fifth year, he travels to the Ministry of Magic by thestral.
 * In his sixth year, he learns to Apparate.
 * In the seventh book, he breaks into Gringotts and flies out on a dragon.
 * The only autograph he ever gave out was to Colin Creevey.
 * In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Behind the Magic, the person who makes all the wands for the films revealed that Dan has gone through over 80 wands over the course of the ten years because he drums with them.
 * A variant of Harry is available in the "Downloadable Character Pack" DLC for LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7. The variant is called "Harry (Yule Ball)" because it portrays Harry wearing the dress robes he wore to the Yule Ball.
 * In the Half-Blood Prince film, Harry tells Dumbledore at the train station that he likes riding around on trains as it takes his mind off things.
 * Daniel Radcliffe said in an interview that Daphne seemed to have adopted him like another father. Interestingly, Daphne plays Daniel's (Harry's) daughter.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter Prequel
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
 * The Tales of Beedle the Bard (real)
 * Quidditch Through the Ages
 * Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
 * Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World
 * The Queen's Handbag
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
 * LEGO Creator: Harry Potter
 * Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Motorbike Escape
 * J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life
 * Harry Potter LEGO Sets
 * Pottermore
 * Harry Potter Trading Card Game
 * Harry Potter for Kinect

Notes and references
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