Here’s how Harry Potter is supposed to look like:
According to the books, Harry Potter is not exceptionally good-looking, but he is probably just above average on the attractiveness scale.
Throughout the books, many characters his age express interest in him.
That probably has more to do with his character and his fame than his raw good looks.
So if you want to learn all about how Harry Potter should look like, then this article is for you.
Let’s get right into it!
Who Is Harry Potter?
Really?! Who doesn’t know who Harry Potter is?
Well, there are a few things I need to bring up on that front.
First, there are still people who haven’t read the books or watched the movies, and at this point, the original Harry Potter story isn’t exactly young.
So, anyone coming into the franchise via Fantastic Beasts, or anyone who is otherwise new to the story will need to know a little bit about him.
More importantly, Harry Potter largely has two incarnations: books and movies.
Since we’re talking about how Harry is “supposed” to look, I’m going to be focusing on his descriptions in the books.
If you want to know what movie Harry looks like, you can Google images pretty easily.
Also, I need to put down a spoiler warning.
Since Harry Potter is the main protagonist of the series, I can’t talk about him in too much detail without getting into at least some plot points.
While I’ll try to avoid the most major spoilers, some are inevitable.
Keep that in mind if you’re not up to speed on the Harry Potter books.
With all of that said, here’s a brief overview of Harry Potter.
He’s the titular character of all of his books (of which there are seven), and he’s the main protagonist.
He is a kid who grows up without parents and finds out that he is a wizard at the age of 11.
The books follow his life as he goes to a boarding wizard school, called Hogwarts.
Each book covers one year of his life and the many adventures therein.
That’s probably enough of an overview of who Harry Potter is. Let’s talk about his looks.
What Is Harry Potter Supposed to Look Like? (2 Time Periods)
I’ll go over the main details of Harry’s appearance as described in the books.
I’ll also spend some time talking about how other characters in the series seem to perceive him.
Before any of that, we need to have a little chat.
We’re discussing the written descriptions of a fictional kid.
Even at the end of the books, he’s only 17, so let’s not get too carried away.
By that same token, let’s remember that this isn’t a real person, so we don’t have to take any of this seriously.
With that in mind, it’s worth noting that Harry’s appearance does change some over the course of the books.
So, I’ll discuss how he looks when he is first described.
Then, I’ll talk about some of the significant changes over time.
#1 At the Beginning of the Series
The very first chapter of the first Harry Potter book is called “The Boy Who Lived.”
In that chapter, Harry is roughly one year old, so I’ll be skipping that part.
In the very next chapter, he’s 10, nearly 11, and that’s the best place to start.
Harry is described as “small and skinny for his age,” and he’s also dressed in oversized hand-me-downs that make him look even smaller.
As he meets people, they always note his green eyes, and it seems to be a major point.
Most likely, other characters think that the eyes are cute or otherwise good-looking.
They note his eyes despite the fact that he wears glasses.
Harry also has messy black hair that never seems to listen to any styling attempts that he makes.
Most of all, Harry has a lighting-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead.
It’s not a hideous scar, but it is prominent, and it’s also famous.
For those who don’t know, the scar is the result of a curse that Voldemort tried to use to kill Harry.
The curse rebounded and ended Voldemort’s reign of terror, all when Harry was a baby.
But, the scar remained for the rest of Harry’s life.
#2 Over Time
Through the books, Harry starts to grow up, and the series ends when he is 17 (if we exclude the epilogue at the end of the last book).
In the wizarding world, 17 is the age of majority, so Harry is technically an adult at this point.
As Harry advances through his teens, more than a few girls his age express romantic interest in him.
This suggests that overall, he’s pretty attractive for a wizard kid.
Despite that, Harry still looks like Harry throughout all of the books.
He remains a small and skinny kid.
He wears the same style of glasses throughout.
He never manages to tame his dark hair, and the lighting bolt scar is always present.
Harry is by no means ugly, but he’s never revered as the most attractive kid his age either.
It’s more likely that people find Harry interesting due to his character than his raw good looks.
Is Harry Potter Good Looking? (4 Descriptions)
We can look at this another way.
I can break down Harry’s primary characteristics and discuss whether or not they are attractive to characters in his world.
Again, I’ll be averaging these things from all of the books rather than going through each year of his life.
The overall consensus is that he is not bad looking, even if he isn’t stunningly gorgeous.
But, it makes more sense when I break it down a little deeper.
#1 Attractive Features
When it comes to attractiveness, Harry has physical and non-physical traits working in his favor.
Let’s start with the physical.
His black messy hair sometimes works for him.
It gives the impression that he has recently been flying through the air, and as he is something of a wizarding athletic prodigy, many characters his age find that to be an attractive quality.
His build isn’t that of an Adonis, but he is relatively fit.
He’s on the small and skinny side, but he’s not so small as to be rendered unattractive.
Probably his most prominent physical feature is his green eyes.
They are brought up a lot.
While people often point out how they look like his mother’s eyes, it’s clear that they are an attractive quality to most people in the wizarding world.
Beyond that, Harry’s lack of overt ugliness is really working for him.
He has an even, unblemished face.
He doesn’t have a hooked nose or disgusting warts.
The only real blemish is the scar, and because of the intrigue behind it, it’s not exactly an ugly feature for him.
Beyond his looks, Harry seems to have plenty of charm and social grace on his side.
He’s witty enough, never struggles to keep up in conversations, and finds a way to connect with people throughout the series.
It’s likely that his personality is more responsible for his apparent attractiveness than anything else.
#2 Average Features
In reality, we can put most of Harry’s features in this category.
He’s not particularly tall, so his stature is close to average.
His build in general is fit enough to get around, but he’s not particularly muscly.
When it comes to being a wizard, there are elements of magic to consider too.
Harry seems capable of powerful magic, but he’s far from the most skilled or accomplished wizard his age—at least when it comes to actually casting spells.
The same thing goes for his non-physical characteristics.
He’s capable of being funny, but he’s overall pretty average.
He’s by no means stupid, but he’s not nearly the smartest kid around.
His overall charisma is pretty average too.
If not for a few standout features (listed above) and the extraordinary events inundated through his life, he would probably be someone everyone got along with, but he probably wouldn’t be outright popular.
#3 Ugly Features
What works best for Harry’s apparent attractiveness is that he doesn’t really have ugly features.
He does have the prominent scar, but even without the intrigue behind it, it’s not a hideous or grotesque scar.
It just looks like a lightning bolt, and the shape alone would probably make it interesting.
Harry is a little shorter than average, but he’s never the shortest kid around (if you even care about that kind of thing).
He also has that messy hair.
Because he plays quidditch (more on that in a bit), he’s a bit of a jock, and the messy hair works in his favor.
Without the quidditch angle, his hair is probably more of a detractor than not, but it’s still not outright ugly.
The lack of ugliness is really what makes Harry’s appearance sit somewhere between average and very attractive when compared to his peers.
#4 That Something Extra
All of the physical traits really pale in comparison to Harry’s x-factor qualities.
There’s a lot to cover, so bear with me.
First off, Harry is arguably the most famous wizard in the world.
When he was a baby, he defeated one of the most terrible evil wizards of all time.
Intrigue is not really a strong enough word.
The whole wizarding world knew his name before he was old enough to talk.
On top of that, Harry’s fame grows as he ages.
Voldemort eventually returns to plague the world again, and it is Harry who directly confronts him at every turn.
Eventually, Harry fully defeats Voldemort for the very last turn.
The whole story takes seven years of Harry’s life and seven books full of events.
Suffice it to say that Harry is constantly pulling off miracles and coming out on top of situations that defy expectations and even logic.
His exploits grow his fame through time, and there are clearly characters in the books who like Harry for his fame.
Harry is also a pretty good quidditch player in his school.
If you’re not familiar, quidditch is a wizarding sport played by people flying on broomsticks.
It’s kind of like flying soccer, but more complicated, and it is the essential sport for wizarding high schoolers.
Since Harry is very good at the sport, he gets popularity points at school for it.
He’s not internationally famous as a quidditch player, but amongst his peers, his quidditch prowess probably raises his general attractiveness.
There are also Harry’s defining characteristics.
He is simultaneously one of the bravest and most humble characters in the series.
As an 11-year-old kid, Harry charges into danger to try to stop Voldemort from achieving power.
He faces death at multiple points on that journey, and it never even occurs to him to turn back, run away, or even regret his decision.
It’s an incredible display of courage and one of near countless displays over the course of the series.
It’s fair to say that Harry overcomes insurmountable odds time and again largely because he is so courageous.
He’s not fearless.
He recognizes the danger around him, but he is always able to push forward just the same.
In fact, his courage is so pronounced that it is even used against him by his enemies at points in the series.
With that courage, Harry accomplishes a lot of things.
He wins a wizarding tournament.
He defeats Voldemort multiple times.
He wins duels against full-grown wizards.
He defeats hordes of evil monsters.
His list of accomplishments is impressive, and it’s mostly due to his character rather than some special skills as a wizard.
Despite all of that, Harry remains genuinely humble throughout.
He never expects people to like him, and he sees his fame as an awkward burden rather than something that makes him special or great.
Because of his humility, Harry is regularly able to relate to other kids and wizards.
He maintains a social aptitude that clearly makes him more approachable and likable.
It’s the combination of Harry’s feats in the wizarding world, bravery through it all, and humble approachability that really drive how and why other characters like him so much.
All of that is to say that according to most of the characters his age, he is in fact an attractive character, and it’s not really because of how he looks.
