Who Is Harry Potter?

We’ve read the books, watched the movies, but do we really know who Harry Potter truly is?

Harry Potter is a fictional character created by J. K. Rowling for her Harry Potter series of books. She says she got the name Potter from a family who lived down the road from her in Winterbourne. She liked the surname so she used it. She also says that a man named Harry Potter was a 19th century British clockmaker. Harry shares his birthday, July 31, with author J. K. Rowling.

Harry has been portrayed on film by British child actor, Daniel Radcliffe. In the novels, Harry is the only child of James and Lily Potter. He is described as being small and skinny for his age in the first few novels, but by the fifth he is described as tall. He also has a thin face and a rather quiet voice, except when he is angry.

He has untidy jet-black hair, green eyes, wears round glasses, and has a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead - the result of the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort’s attempt to murder Harry as a baby with The Killing Curse. Harry is famous throughout the wizarding world for being the only known person to have survived the Killing Curse.

Harry attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where his best friends are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry is loyal to his friends and expects loyalty in return, although this trait often clouds his objectivity. He is highly intuitive and tends to follow his instincts, feeling strongly about whom he can and cannot (or will not) trust.