I am going to be what I think is the rebel here and admit this...Harry is my favourite character. It's really true, I just love the boy, however immoral-but-moral he thinks he is being at any given time. It's an unpopular opinion, sure, but this entry really made me think. Because while I once thought I loved him because he was the "main character, poor orphaned boy, so sweet sometimes" etc, etc... I think it is almost unnerving, because I don't love Harry because he relates to me in any way. It's just that he is the boy who has been held with relatives who hate him and whom he hates in return, for his whole life, and been constantly picked on and discriminated throughout his childhood (running from bullies in elementary school, etc). And yet he is, for the most part, fairly well adjusted and doesn't complain on-and-on about his life (well, until fifth year, and considering all he's undergone, that is a pretty good record). He's actually had a similar life to one that you would expect bullies to evolve from, and yet he doesn't do this. I don't know, sometimes I'm aware that he REALLY needs to grow up, but when I balance his five years of security and status at Hogwarts against his eleven years of discrimination with the Dursleys, no matter how much of a brat the kid can be, the admiration always wins out and I love him, and...well, I just wish I could do that. That Harry is for the most part well adjusted after his childhood at the Dursleys is utterly unrealistic, I've realized that long ago, but on some level, part of me wishes that I could be like that, that I could NOT want to lash out at the world and still "fight for what's 'right'" and actually KNOW what was right and wrong after being in these circumstances. And I know it's unattainable, of course (because again, it's not realistic that Harry should be this way, even if he DID decide to build his character around complete defiance of the Dursleys -- which is a strange decision for a kid to make, anyway). But that's what the draw is, that unattainable level of....not-messed-up-ness (wah, I'm sorry, I couldn't find the word!). And of course, Harry is far from perfect, which makes it slightly more reassuring, but on the whole...it's strange, because honestly, I think I would relate more to...well, maybe not a Slytherin (because personally, I don't think that I would be able to stand up to the prejudice directed agaginst them; they always fight back, I don't think I would be able to, which is why I admire them). I don't think I would identify completely with any Slytherin (since OMG me too, I've gone through HORRIBLE bullying experiences), but at least I think I would have a streak similar to theirs, similar to Draco's -- I would be totally the one to try underhanded things in an act of desperation, and the way I relate to this is why I think I fell in love with Draco around PoA (what with the Dementor thing and the "grabbing-the-Firebolt" -- both acts of desperation, IMO, though that couldn't have made it right, either). But I think I love Harry because I just can't be that, I wouldn't be able to be so sure that I was doing the right thing, I wouldn't be able to be so...level, I guess, after all he/I'd gone through. *shrugs* Harry-love is somehow so hard to explain. But it's just me.

In what seems to be a huge contrast, my next-favourite character IS Draco; the B&B scene really got to me, too (I mean, my parents, not to say anything bad about them, but they DO sometimes put me down, especially about my grades. But at least with them, there's always that assurance that they do it because they love me. I find myself sincerely doubting that Lucius is the type of parent to give out this reassurance, even if he MAY feel it. And this is another small part of what affects Draco). I too, doubt I would be friends with them, because they remind me vaguely of the bullies who picked on me through grade school. Grades four through eight, the entire time ^^* (But the bullies were mostly boys, and though I have grown out of the perspective since, back then I remember just drawing the conclusion that "boys are stupid", and leaving it at that).