In the books, Harry is categorised as a "half-blood" wizard in the series, because although both his parents were magical, his mother, Lily Evans, was "Muggle-born". Meanwhile his father, James Potter, was a pure-blood descended from one of the most ancient pure-blood families, the Peverells, who lived before the founding of Hogwarts. According to Rowling, to characters for whom wizarding blood purity matters, Lily would be considered "as 'bad' as a Muggle,"[25] and derogatively referred to as a "Mudblood".
According to Rowling, Harry is strongly guided by his own conscience, and has a keen feeling of what is right and what is wrong. Having "very limited access to truly caring adults", Rowling said, Harry "is forced to make his own decisions from an early age on."[26] He "does make mistakes", she conceded, but in the end, he does what his conscience tells him to do. According to Rowling, one of Harry's pivotal scenes came in the fourth book when he protects his dead schoolmate Cedric Diggory's body from Voldemort, because it shows he is brave and selfless.[9]
Rowling also said that Harry's two worst character flaws are "anger and occasional arrogance",[16] but that Harry is also innately honourable. "He's not a cruel boy. He's competitive, and he's a fighter. He doesn't just lie down and take abuse. But he does have native integrity, which makes him a hero to me. He's a normal boy but with those qualities most of us really admire."[27] For the most part, Harry shows humility, often downplaying his achievements; though he uses a litany of his adventures as examples of his maturity early in the fifth book, these very same adventures are later employed to explain why he should lead Dumbledore's Army, at which point he denies that they make him worthy of authority. After the seventh book, Rowling commented that Harry has the ultimate character strength, which not even Voldemort possesses: the acceptance of the inevitability of death.
Physical appearance
Throughout the series, Harry is described as having his father's perpetually untidy black hair, his mother's bright green eyes, and a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. He is further described as "small and skinny for his age" with "a thin face" and "knobbly knees", and he wears round eyeglasses. In the first book, his scar is described as "the only thing Harry liked about his own appearance". When asked about the meaning behind Harry's lightning bolt scar, Rowling said, "I wanted him to be physically marked by what he has been through. It was an outward expression of what he has been through inside... It is almost like being the chosen one or the cursed one, in a sense." Rowling has also stated that Harry inherited his parents' good looks.[28] In the later part of the series Harry grows taller, and by the seventh book is said to be 'almost' the height of his father, and 'tall' by other characters.[29]
Rowling explained that Harry's image came to her when she first thought up Harry Potter, seeing him as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy".[1] She also mentioned that she thinks Harry's glasses are the clue to his vulnerability.[30]
Abilities and interests
Throughout the series, Rowling wrote Harry Potter as a gifted wizard apprentice. She stated in a 2000 interview with South West News Service that Harry Potter is "particularly talented" in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and also good at Quidditch.[31] Rowling said in the same interview that while his friend Hermione Granger—written as the smartest student in Harry's year—would have beaten Harry in a magical duel at the beginning of the story, from about halfway through the third book, Harry had become too talented in the Defence Against the Dark Arts and would have mastered her in such a duel.[31]
His power is evident from the beginning of the series; specifically, Harry shows immediate command of a broomstick, produces a Patronus at an early age, and survives several confrontations with Voldemort. Harry is able to speak and understand "Parseltongue", a language associated with Dark Magic, which, according to Rowling, is because he harbours a piece of Lord Voldemort's soul. After Voldemort destroys that soul fragment in the seventh book's climax, Harry loses the ability to speak Parseltongue. Harry "is very glad" to have lost this gift.[16] According to Rowling, Harry's favourite book is Quidditch Through the Ages, an actual book that Rowling wrote (under the pseudonym Kennilworthy Whisp) for the Comic Relief charity.
Possessions
Harry's parents left behind a somewhat large pile of wizard's gold, used as currency in the world of magic, in a vault in the wizarding bank, Gringotts. After Sirius' death later in the series, all of his remaining possessions are also passed along to Harry, including Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place and Sirius's vast amount of gold were transferred into Harry's account at Gringotts. Rowling noted that "Harry’s money never really is that important in the books, except that he can afford his books and uniforms and so on.”[32] It is also used as a contrast with Ron and his family, who must be careful with their limited gold.
Harry also inherits indirectly two of his father's prized possessions. One is the Marauder's Map, given to him by interim owners Fred and George Weasley, which endows Harry with comprehensive knowledge of Hogwarts' facilities, grounds, and occupants. The other is his father's Invisibility Cloak, given to him by Dumbledore, which eventually proves Harry's descent from the Peverell family. Harry uses these tools both to aid in excursions at school and to protect those he cares about; the Invisibility Cloak, in particular, can hide two full-grown people. If three fully-grown people hide under the cloak their feet will be visible. When Harry reaches his age of maturity at seventeen, Mrs. Weasley gives him a pocket watch which had once belonged to her brother Fabian Prewett, as it is traditional to give a boy a watch when he turns seventeen.
Throughout the majority of the books, Harry also has a pet owl named Hedwig, used to deliver and receive messages and packages. Hedwig is killed in the seventh book, about which Rowling says: "The loss of Hedwig represented a loss of innocence and security. She has been almost like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. I know that death upset a lot of people!"[16] As a Quidditch player, Harry has owned two high-quality brooms. The first, a Nimbus Two Thousand, was procured for him by Professor McGonagall when Harry was added to Gryffindor's Quidditch team despite being a first-year student. This broom was destroyed by the Whomping Willow during a match in Harry's third year. It was replaced by a Firebolt, an even faster (and more expensive) broom, purchased for Harry by Sirius; however, as Black was believed to be trying to murder Harry at the time, the broom was subjected to stringent security inspections before Harry was allowed to ride it. Harry used it throughout his Hogwarts career until it, along with Hedwig, was lost during the July escape from Privet Drive in the final book.
Harry also owns a mokeskin pouch, of small 'bag' that is used for storing items, which no one but the owner can get out. He receives this from Hagrid as a 17th birthday present. Harry uses the pouch throughout the course of Deathly Hallows to keep several sentimental (yet, as he himself admits, otherwise worthless) objects such as the Marauder's Map, a shard of the magical mirror given to him by his god-father Sirius Black, the fake Horcrux locket that had belonged to R.A.B (Regulus Arcturus Black), the Snitch bequeathed to him by Dumbledore, containing Marvolo Gaunt's ring (and Harry later discovers the stone set into the ring is actually the second Hallow, the Resurrection Stone), a letter from his mother to Sirius with part of a photo (of him and his father, James), and eventually, his own broken wand (which Harry later repairs with the Elder Wand).
