Harry Potter

Distinguishing Characteristics : Most famously, a scar shaped like a bolt of lightning on his forehead, caused by Voldemort’s attempt to kill him with the Avada Kedavra curse. Harry looks just like his father, James, except for his green eyes which he gets from his mother, Lily. Harry has round glasses (no longer held together with Sellotape), and can speak Parseltongue (snake language), which is a very rare ability.

Family : Only son of James and Lily Potter (both deceased). Adopted against their will by his aunt Petunia Dursley and her husband Vernon Dursley.

First Mention : Chapter One of The Philosopher's Stone.

General : Harry was born on 31st July 1980 to Lily and James Potter, formerly the golden couple of Hogwarts and then active members of the Order of the Phoenix. During their time in the Order, James and Lily had encountered Lord Voldemort on three occasions and escapedf each time. This was to prove crucial, as it rendered Harry one of two possible subjects of a prophecy Sybill Trelawney made before his birth. This prophecy, in turn, drove the actions of Voldemort which led to Harry's life changing dramatically. It stated that someone with the power to defeat the Dark Lord would be born as July drew to a close. The exact words of this prediction meant it could apply to Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom; Voldemort, perhaps unwisely, chose Potter, and set out to destroy him when he was too young to defend himself.

He made his move on the night of 31st October 1981 when Harry was just 15 months old. The Potters knew Voldemort had singled them out to be murdered--Severus Snape had tipped him off about the partial contents of the prophecy. Albus Dumbledore advised them to go into hiding and use a Fidelius Charm, and they chose a village called Godric's Hollow as their refuge. Unfortunately, there was a spy in the Order of the Phoenix, and that very man was chosen as Secret Keeper for the charm. Peter Pettigrew, their Secret Keeper and friend from Hogwarts days, decided to have three innocent people killed in order to enhance his reputation with his dark master.

Before the Potters knew they were betrayed, Voldemort himself turned up on their doorstep. James tried to hold Voldemort off at first so that his wife could escape with their son, but he was cut down and the Dark Lord moved on to corner Lily. She begged him to kill her instead of her son. Voldemort, never one for a fair deal, killed her and then tried to kill Harry anyway. This was where it all went wrong for him. He had rather a dodgy memory and forgot that such a great sacrifice is a very powerful counter-curse. Hence his attempt to kill Harry simply rebounded on him. Interestingly enough it didn't kill him either (thanks to his Horcruxes, the bits of his soul he'd hidden in various places), making them the only two people ever to survive the Avada Kedavra curse.

The problems for Voldemort which arose from his decision to attack Harry didn't end with Harry's survival and his own near-demise, however. Not only was the baby alive and well, but many of Voldemort's powers passed into him, such as the ability to speak Parseltongue. This, along with Harry's exceptional wizarding heritage, helped to make Harry a young wizard of great ability in many areas, especially that of Defence Against the Dark Arts (although he's not up to much at History of Magic or Divination).

Following the failed attack Voldemort fled to Albania, his physical body stripped from him, where he hid for more than a decade. Pettigrew rescued his master's wand and used his Animagus skills to live for the next 12 years as a rat. Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid brought Harry from the wreckage of the Godric's Hollow house to a rendezvous with Professor Dumbledore at 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging. Suddenly orphaned, Harry was moved away from the wizarding world for his entire childhood and grew up as a Muggle with his only living relatives - the exceptionally unpleasant Dursleys.

The protection given to Harry by his mother's sacrifice would last just as long as he remained a part of her family. Petunia Dursley was the only one he could live with safely, no matter how revolting she was. Therefore Dumbledore - knowing Voldemort was not truly vanquished - did what he could to protect 'The Chosen One.' Harry's aunt and uncle despised the wizarding world and all the abnormality it stood for, and he was treated as an inconvenience rather than a child. He was forced to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs whilst his cousin Dudley had two rooms, and while there was a guest room which went untouched. He had no possessions, and wore only ridiculously large hand-me-downs. Dudley beat Harry up whenever he could waddle fast enough to catch him.

Harry unwittingly defended himself through a number of magical incidents over the course of his time in Little Whinging. He once spontaneously Apparated himself on to the school roof when he was being chased by Dudley's gang; he caused his hair to grow back overnight after Petunia had shaved his head; and most famously he released a Boa Constrictor at London Zoo by causing the glass in front of its tank to vanish. Knowing nothing of the world of wizards and magic, he didn't recognise these things for what they were at the time. Everything became clear, however, one Tuesday morning in 1991 when a most unusual thing happened: he went to fetch the post and discovered a letter addressed to him! Harry had never had a letter before in his life, and Uncle Vernon certainly wasn't going to let him have this one.

Despite their hatred for magic, both Vernon and Petunia had at least a passing knowledge of the wizarding world - enough, certainly, to know a Hogwarts letter when they saw it. Perturbed by this development (and no doubt seeing keeping him at home as a lesser evil than having him turn magical), they took every step possible to stop him getting his hands on any of the 180 letters or so that were delivered over the next week. They even rowed out to a small hut on a tiny rock in the sea to escape the unending flow of Owl Post, but it was to no avail. Eventually Hagrid himself delivered a letter by hand, and however large Vernon is, he was no match for a half-giant. Harry finally had his introduction to the wizarding world, and he started at Hogwarts that September.

Although worried at first because of his total ignorance of the magical scene, Harry quickly adapted to life at Hogwarts. He made friends - he'd never had any of these before because nobody wanted Dudley to think they liked his favourite victim - and a new enemy or two. Armed with a supple wand made of holly and with a phoenix feather core, Harry found he had a real aptitude in a number of magical disciplines, as well as a talent for breaking rules and getting into trouble. In particular he was a natural flyer and Quidditch player, and became the youngest Seeker for any of the four school teams in over 100 years. From his first match onwards he has maintained the impressive record over all his years at Hogwarts (when he hasn't been banned) of never failing to win the game for his team, except when he's been attacked by Dementors or a fanatical substitute Keeper. He flies a Firebolt which Sirius gave him.

School life has not protected him from danger, however, and it certainly hasn't kept him out of the reaches of Voldemort. He has actually been in greater peril at Hogwarts than he was in Privet Drive, no matter how much Dudley beat him up. Outdoing his parents, Harry has in fact defied the Dark Lord on no less than four occasions since his encounter with him in infancy: he outsmarted him in his quest to get his hands on the Philosopher's Stone, he defeated him (as Tom Riddle) in the Chamber of Secrets, he escaped from him in the graveyard at Little Hangleton in 1995, and he escaped physically unscathed, though emotionally stricken over the loss of Sirius, from the battle at the Department of Mysteries the following year.

Probably as a result of these experiences-and other side issues such as repeated run-ins with the hated Professors Snape and Umbridge, and romantic trysts-Harry has changed from a wide-eyed idealistic 11-year-old, through a raging adolescent phase, to a responsible, even compassionate young man. In the wake of Dumbledore's death at the end of Harry's sixth year, Harry took charge and gathered all the details of what had happened that night, in some respects taking the place of Dumbledore himself. In spite of his own cumulative losses and his realisation that he must go on alone, Harry finally learned to appreciate the people around him, even the sort of oddballs like Neville and Luna. His plan now is to carry out what his lost loved ones would encourage him to do; to destroy Voldemort starting with his Horcruxes, and to do it, hopefully, without endangering more of the people he loves. He has even tried to sacrifice his long-awaited relationship with Ginny Weasley in order to fulfill this. But it's doubtful that any of his friends will really allow the Chosen One to get too lonely, especially since Harry has over the years been a dedicated friend to them.

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