Characters / Child of the Storm: Harry Thorson

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This page lists tropes associated with Harry Thorson, the main character of Child of the Storm.

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Harry Thorson né Potter a.k.a. Prince Aurvandil of Asgard

I never wanted power. I never wanted to be god. And I am done playing.

The Hero of the story, and for the most part, as sweet and kind-hearted as in canon... but also as temperamental. The discovery that his father wasn't just James Potter - he was Prince Thor of Asgard, member of the Avengers and all round awesome guy, and the often chaotic ramifications of this, shape the story. Increasingly, Harry's responses to those ramifications shape the story, and Harry himself takes centre stage in the great supernatural chess game as a player in his own right.

Needless to say, this also drastically affects his Character Development — not all of which is for the better. An increasingly snarky, increasingly confident and assertive individual, he's more proactive and thoroughly resigned to the absurdity of his life. However, he's also deeply traumatised, occasionally ruthless, with a darker side and a sometimes dangerous temper. Even with his struggles, however, he's still a hero at heart and steadily maturing into a wise Knight of Faith.

For tropes pertaining to the Red Son and the Dark Phoenix, see their respective entries here and here. All canon tropes through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets apply.

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Tropes A to H

• Ace Pilot: He is a natural at flying, even with a Quinjet.
• Adaptation Species Change: Harry is a Demi-God in this story as a result of James and Thor being the same person.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: A rare written version, since he's explicitly fancast as a young Tom Welling (Tall, Dark, and Handsome heart-throb) who's growing into a young Pierce Brosnan/Henry Cavill (ditto).
• Adaptational Badass: Aside from the Combo Platter Powers, by Ghosts, he's lethal in close combat, and far more tactically adept. As in canon, initially he wanders into trouble and Indy Ployed his way out. After some brutal lessons and tutelage from Bucky, Loki, and Strange, he upgrades to Xanatos Speed Chess, becoming good enough to run rings around some of the most accomplished schemers and commanders in the story.
• Adaptational Muscles: Magical correction of stunted growth, a properly regulated diet (both courtesy of his grandmother), a son-of-Thor related growth spurt, and training with Sean Cassidy/Bucky Barnes all help. Thus, he's considerably taller and somewhat more muscular than his novel counterpart. The end result is that he's younger than he looks, even pre skunk stripe.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: At first. By Ghosts, it's a bit more nuanced - less fear of what could happen if he loses control, more fear of what he might do. At the start of The Phoenix and the Serpent, Shou-Lao systematically hammers this attitude out of him.
• Agent Peacock: While he's generally a fairly subdued figure in jeans and hoodie, he's got a streak of showmanship a mile wide, somewhat fancy if understated battle armour, and a tendency to pull on the Simple, yet Opulent Phoenix costume when wielding it. Oh, and he increasingly favours Combat Parkour. None of this occasional flamboyance - which tends to vanish when he's in a particular mood - makes him any less dangerous.
• A God Am I: He veers into it briefly when he snaps and becomes the Dark Phoenix.
• A God I Am Not: Technically speaking, he's a demigod, but he's not entirely happy with the idea and is very uncomfortable with the idea of being worshipped. Cue the quote.
  "I never wanted power. I never wanted to be god. And I am done playing."
• A Lesson in Defeat: Receives the typical one from Shou-Lao, as part of the Test of the Iron Fist in the third book (while he's not an Iron Fist, it serves the same function of testing whether he's understood what he's learned), as the Test is an Unwinnable Training Simulation.
• All Genes Are Codominant: Averted - he looks like his father (as James), eyes excepted, and he's got a developing Asgardian physique, but as noted by several people, he acts a lot like his mother and his Psychic Powers, which he has a greater natural affinity for, come from her. He even starts looking more like her as time goes on (though he still favours his dad).
• All-Loving Hero: Mostly, even after his traumatic experiences result in his steady evolution into a Knight in Sour Armour. It becomes a plot point when the Avengers note that it would be just like him to befriend and basically adopt the possibly evil Living Weapon clone of his beloved cousin - she's not actually a clone, but that's another matter. Bucky remarks on it, noting how it can bring out the better natures of people who didn't actually know they had better natures.
• The All-Solving Hammer: His pyrokinesis and telekinesis turn into this towards the end of the first book, until he finds out the hard way that, no, they do not solve everything.
• Alternate Self: In Ghosts' he encounters an older version of himself thanks to an enchantment malfunctioning under his powers' influence, and still present cracks in reality. The counterpart refers to himself as 'Nathan' for simplicity's sake, and comes from a timeline where Wanda adopted him after the events of his First Year, and ends up reappearing as Jean and Maddie's Phoenix teacher.
• Always Save the Girl: As an extension of his Chronic Hero Syndrome, emerging in the second book. While Carol can usually more than look after herself, he makes it quite clear that he's willing to threaten to cross his personal Godzilla Threshold and risk becoming the Dark Phoenix to get the gods of gods to bring her back should she die - or just to take her someone far safer and far away to do it anyway. Unusually, this is pointed out as a character flaw and explained just why it's a bad idea (short version: Top Gods have long memories, touchy pride, and a talent for Disproportionate Retribution somewhere down the line).
• Amazon Chaser: Harry's magnetic attraction to danger extends to his taste in women. If he's interested, it's because the lady in question is somewhere between 'formidable' and 'terrifying'.
• Ambiguously Human: He starts becoming this more and more as time goes by, particularly when he gets angry, at which point he starts shading into Humanoid Abomination territory. It scares him witless.
• And This Is for...:
  • When ripping Gravemoss's heart out, he makes it clear it's for what he did to Sif under Paris.
  • Subverts it in chilling fashion in Ghosts, when dismembering Dudley, calmly explaining that this is not being done out of revenge, or rage, but because it must be done.
• Animal Motifs: He's also repeatedly described as resembling a young bird of prey, often a falcon, fitting his lean physique, aerial talents, razor-sharp eyesight, frightening observation skills, tendency towards lightning-fast surprise attacks to compensate for a relative lack of physical power, and habit of working alone.
• Animal Themed Super Being: Is increasingly associated with the Phoenix, pyrokinesis and all. Given that his mother merged with the Phoenix Force, this isn't entirely surprising. More generally, he's sometimes described as resembling a bird of prey, particularly a falcon.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Starts out as a textbook idealist, albeit with a cynical streak. After his more unpleasant experiences and rapidly expanded knowledge of just what makes the cosmos tick, plus a brief dabbling with Nihilism, he comes around to this idea in chapter 35 of Ghosts.
  If you took apart the universe down to its smallest bits, I’m willing to bet you wouldn’t find any justice, or any mercy. There’s no mercy in the universe. No justice. Just us. And what we do. [..] If the universe is a dark place, then I want to bring some light into it. If there’s no justice, then I’d like to bring some. And if there’s no mercy in the universe, then I’d like to try and show some.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Part and parcel for being connected to the Phoenix, which he underlines by nearly destroying the world as the Dark Phoenix.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: While his position as de facto leader of the younger generation owes more to personal loyalty, part of why he's increasingly taken seriously in the sequel is his phenomenal track record in defeating obscenely powerful threats - something which Strange goes to some trouble to very publicly hammer home.
• Astral Projection: Does this a couple of times - the second time, in the sequel, he manages to project an avatar across the Atlantic capable of going hand to hand with a Grey Court Master. Gorakhnath later notes that this was both impressive and like watching a child juggle hand-grenades.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: While he usually plays it smart, his strategy devolves into this once Luna dies and Daken taunts him, so he quite understandably really loses his rag. He's powerful enough by this point that it almost works. Almost.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Like canon, he is frighteningly perceptive when he puts his mind to it - and increasingly does so from the second book onward, using his talent for reading people to his advantage (and to sometimes somewhat morally ambiguous ends).
• Back from the Dead: Not only is he exceptionally hard to kill, this tends to happen via the Phoenix. In Ghosts, it's made clear that this has consequences, to the universe if not just to him. However, there are options and workarounds, and if he's not on Earth, the consequences are minimal. This gets a typically snarky Lampshade Hanging in Book III after his latest technical death lasted about five minutes and turned into an off-the-cuff Thanatos Gambit.

  I realise that I come back from the dead so often that my coffin might as well have a revolving lid...

• Back-to-Back Badasses: With Carol on several occasions, and with his father later during the Battle of London.
• Badass Boast: He makes a few, much like his dad.
  • He makes a couple more in chapter 70 in the throes of Tranquil Fury that are truer than anyone, least of all him, realises. While he suffers a Disney Death at the end of chapter 70, the Phoenix instantly resurrects him and goes on a rampage.
  If there’s one thing I can guarantee, just one, it is this. You have never faced anything like me.
  Because Daken, there is no power on this Earth that can stop me now!
  • Shortly after, when in a similar mood he combines it with a short "No More Holding Back" Speech.
    You people and your guns. Did you really think that they would protect you from me? ^note  The answer to that would be a resounding 'no.'
  • And in chapter 28 of Ghosts, he gives this one to a surprised group of adults, including Crouch Senior, Bagman, Karkaroff, and Maxime, after being selected for the Triwizard and demonstrating his powers by levitating the Durmstrang ship, all 6,000 tons of it, while inspecting his fingernails when they're questioned.
    What? Surprised? Let me make it very simple. I don't know what you've heard, what you know, or what you think you know, but it boils down to this: you have limits. I don't.
  • In The Phoenix and the Serpent he embraces his role as something of a Cosmic Plaything, pointing out how he's Born Lucky (with certain limits).
  Harry: I'm a wild card. Where I go, I tip the balance, I change the odds, and logic goes out the window. I'm Doctor Strange's own pair of loaded dice, made for the biggest roll of all. Alone, I'm dangerous. With others? In the right hands, what do you think I'm capable of? What do you think I'm not?
• Badass in Distress: In Forever Red, he's captured, then re-captured, by the Red Room, and tortured in an ultimately successful attempt to transform him in the Red Son. And that's the abridged version.
• Badass Finger Snap: Develops a habit of signalling a telepathic or telekinetic manoeuvre with one of these, something picked up from his mother at the end of Child of the Storm. Hermione disapprovingly notes that it's an unnecessary piece of theatrics, and Harry admits that she's right.
• Badass Longcoat: Twice in Ghosts, first when adapting the Power Limiter the Red Room gave him, and secondly when pretending to be the Dark Phoenix to trick Dracula.
• Battle Couple: During the Battle of London, Thor teases him by saying that he and Carol (with whom Harry is Just Friends) make a very fine Battle Couple. Harry lets out a wail of teenage embarrassment, but doesn't exactly deny it. This gets a Call-Back in Ghosts when Harry brings up the battle, and Thor snarks that it wasn't a battle, it was a first date. Cue another wail of teenage embarrassment. Nevertheless, by Ghosts they're frequently seen fighting side-by-side, and their psychic connection means that they're much more in-tune with each other than would otherwise be possible - and after chapter 46, they're dating.
• Battle-Halting Duel: Gets into one with Daken, which ends abruptly when Daken kills him. Then the Phoenix takes over.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind:
  • When Chthon possesses him, thanks to the machinations of Doctor Strange, and with some support from his parents, he's able to cast the Elder God out.
  • He has another epic one with Maddie Pryor. She's more powerful than him, but he's got cunning to spare, and he's intentionally avoiding a direct fight, allowing him to hold his own - though it's made clear that he's fighting a losing battle. Since winning the fight wasn't ever part of his actual plan, this suits him just fine.
  • He also manages to get away honours even from one with Surtur - though the latter was handicapped by reaching back through time, and a vision, and Harry's a Phoenix host, so inoculated.
  • Really, it's not surprising that his plan to deal with an Eldritch Abomination that specialises in Mind Rape is to lock it in his head and force it into a psychic cage-match.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Compare the open-hearted impulse driven cutie of the first book, and the ruthless, thoughtful, and pragmatic manipulator of the sequel. The latter is an entirely different and much darker kettle of fish, even after his regained levels in kindness and maturity.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Gets hit with this hard when he darkly remarks in Ghosts that he hopes the telepath (Sinister) who intervened to keep him at Privet Drive to study him comes around and has a go. Cue Forever Red.
• Because Doctor Strange Says So: Subverted. Harry gets understandably resentful of Strange's manipulations, claiming that he doesn't have a choice in anything he does. Strange's retort boils down to the fact that it's precisely because Harry chooses to be a hero, no matter what, that he focused on him to begin with.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: He remembers kindness very clearly, but he tends not to hold grudges when it comes to those who slighted him. However, on the inverse of this, he also remembers those who are cruel to people he cares about - and in that case, he can and will hold a truly monstrous grudge.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: How he wound up as the Red Son, then the Dark Phoenix. He is, thankfully, talked down, but at the very least he is a much more ruthless and morally pragmatic individual afterwards.
• Best Friend: Up through the beginning of his fourth year, Ron and Hermione were this. However, as all three of them sadly come to realize, Harry's increased secretiveness and unwillingness to open up (even if there are, sometimes, good reasons for it) mean that they simply cannot maintain this.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While the 'nice' is in doubt for a fair chunk of Ghosts, thanks to PTSD, he is caring and has a good heart. He will also not hesitate to earn those comparisons to Doctor Strange and Magneto if you threaten the innocent, particularly his loved ones.
• Beware the Superman: Harry is a fundamentally kind and compassionate person, but there's a streak of Knight Templar in him, he's got a horrifying capacity for cold rage, a deadly mind, and enough trauma to break him into a monster. Without others around to hold him in check, there is - at times - a risk that he'll veer straight into The Unfettered, one he recognises. Comparisons are made to a young Magneto, by Magneto himself, and with reason - and even Magneto is stunned by what Harry is capable of. Even following his Sanity Strengthening field trip in Book III, his nightmarish side is still present and all the more frightening for being so well hidden.
• Big Brother Instinct: Becomes increasingly prone to this, as he becomes one of the more senior members of the younger cast.
  • Uhtred and Diana after being kidnapped by the Disir, protecting them and shipping Uhtred/Jean-Paul and Diana/Ginny. When talking to Jean-Paul in Book 2, he mildly tells his friend that if he thought the latter were cheating on Uhtred, he would break Jean-Paul's leg before demanding answers. Bear in mind that Harry has previously stated that given how powerful and ruthless Jean-Paul is, he'd rather go another round with Dracula (who curbstomped him, twice, and nearly killed him both times) than fight him.
  • Luna Lovegood, becoming a Bully Hunter to try and protect her. It ends up backfiring.
  • Also towards Ginny Weasley, setting her up with Diana and firmly telling her that he's more than happy to intimidate anyone who has a problem with her sexuality - though he also acknowledges that she might not want this 'help' given how it backfired last time he tried it (with Luna).
  • He immediately takes Clark under his wing when they meet in Ghosts, offering the benefit of his experience to help him through his issues and ensure that he won't make the same mistakes. They can actually pass quite easily for brothers, and Harry's skunk stripe and demeanour make him seem notably older than Clark. Then, he finds Clark Strapped to an Operating Table. See Unstoppable Rage for what happens next.
  • His attitude to Francis in The Phoenix and the Serpent is similarly protective, and he implies a similar willingness to go in to bat for Johnny Storm if the Grandmaster is abusing him in the way he suspects (thankfully, he's not). If that was the case, then as he puts it, he'd do what he did in London - "make an Elder God scream."
• Big Brother Mentor: As noted above, Harry is protective of Clark (who could easily pass for his younger brother), mentoring and teasing him, giving him advice on everything from espionage to romance.
• Big Little Brother: Jean treats him like a much loved little brother, despite the fact that by the time they meet again, properly, he's about as tall as she is - and with a growth spurt, is quickly at least half a head taller than her and increasingly muscular with it. Hormonal lobby aside, Harry doesn't mind it in the slightest. Also, despite how powerful he becomes, it's worth noting that Jean is still considerably stronger than he is.
• Big Man on Campus: Played With, then Subverted. He's a skilled sportsman, handsome, and famous. However, his PTSD and secretive behaviour mean that while he's seen as fundamentally decent, he's also generally considered to be distant, dangerous, and unpredictable. He's more or less resigned to it, noting that it's not like his fellow students don't have reason to think that of him.
• Blackmail: He's entirely willing to use it to achieve his ends if more conventional methods don't work.
• Blemished Beauty: His famous lightning bolt scar mostly attracts curiosity, and his white streak is considered more of a mysterious accent than a deformity.
• Blessed with Suck: See Hybrid Power. Also more generally, his new-found family and rank, while awesome, attracts trouble like nobody's business and sparks the plot of the first book and most of the second.
  • Ghosts elaborates on this. While the Phoenix gives him access to immense reality warping powers, and acts as both passive defence and active boost against evil powers/creatures, actually using it a) risks turning him into a Humanoid Abomination if he loses control, and b) breaking the Seal of Muspelheim and unleashing something far worse - Surtur. Also, it burns off anything trying to affect his soul — useful in some circumstances, but also nullifying anything Strange could come up with to help heal him.
• Blood Knight: Reluctantly comes to realize that a large part of him enjoys being in life-or-death fights.
• Blow You Away: What he's next best at, after fire magic, though again, he generally prefers his telekinesis. In Ghosts, he proves capable of condensing a thunderstorm into something the size of a golf-ball.
• Blue Blood:
  • Very much so, on his dad's side. He's in direct line to the throne of Asgard, his great-grandmother was Zeus's Aunt and, also through his dad, he may very distantly be related to the House of El - though that relation, in the latter case, is either non-existent or watered down to the point of homeopathy (though his adopted great-uncle was an ancestor of the House of El).
  • The sequel reveals that on his mother's side, via the Grey family, there was a solid amount of middle-ranking English nobility, though nothing really relevant in the present day. He was even distantly related to Lady Jane Grey a.k.a. 'the Nine Days Queen'. However, it's implied that (since the House of Grey is still extant) his ancestors were not in the line of inheritance for whatever titles there were.
• Book Dumb: Downplayed. He's not by any means bad at academics, he's frighteningly intelligent, and he's got a surprisingly philosophical streak. However, his education is often interrupted, and outside of a very specialised skillset, his knowledge is usually shown up compared to those around him. This means that while he has a brilliant intuitive grasp of magic, his understanding of the theory is fairly loose - he's noted to learn better by doing than studying. As a result of this and his impulsiveness, even those who know him quite well forget how smart he can be when he puts his mind to it - he can play a mean game of Xanatos Speed Chess, outplaying and manipulating some of the most dangerous characters in the series.
• Boring, but Practical: By the sequel, thanks to becoming a Combat Pragmatist. While he's creative, with a vast array of abilities and skills, he's got two primary battle-tactics: move fast and blow everything up, or an illusion-aided sneaky back-stab. Neither is particularly exciting, but with the raw power he can bring to bear, blowing things up usually works. When that doesn't work or isn't practical, stabbing someone in the back (or somewhere even more painful) tends to do the job. That being said, he can be very creative when going up against a sufficiently powerful opponent.
• Born Lucky: While his general luck is probably the worst in the known multiverse (even Peter Parker is sympathetic), he'll usually get out of any situation, no matter how hairy, by the skin of his teeth. And even if he can't do it by himself, that's okay - Wanda's blessing boils down him always having back-up. He turns it into a Badass Boast in The Phoenix and the Serpent.
  Harry: I'm a wild card. Where I go, I tip the balance, I change the odds, and logic goes out the window. I'm Doctor Strange's own pair of loaded dice, made for the biggest roll of all. Alone, I'm dangerous. With others? In the right hands, what do you think I'm capable of? What do you think I'm not?
• Borrowed Catchphrase: He borrowed the Eleventh Doctor's "Geronimo!" when going into the Chamber of Secrets shortly after meeting his uncle, and later the Tenth Doctor's "Allons-y!". In a much darker example, when going up against Dracula, he gives the following Pre Ass Kicking One Liner, borrowed from his father:
  "Dracula, King of Corpses, Lord of Leeches. I, Harry Thorson, Prince of Asgard, would have words. Words, vampire, with thee."
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: He gets a broad selection of teachers from Sean Cassidy to Doctor Strange to Shou-Lao the Undying for this exact purpose, turning him a raw powerhouse into someone lethally dangerous with or without powers.
• Brainy Brunette: He has his father's (mortal) black hair, white streak notwithstanding, and while no one mistakes him for stupid, but both Hermione and Jean-Paul note that he's far smarter than most people realise. In the sequel, he's frighteningly perceptive even without his powers, and capable of out-thinking some of the most accomplished schemers in the series.
• Break the Cutie: Chapters 60 through 74 of the first book - especially 70 to 74 - break him quite comprehensively, though chapters 76 and 77 put him back together again. Then, in the sequel, Forever Red breaks him all over again, and the repair process takes much longer.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Initially, he has canon counterpart's preference for living a relatively ordinary life - and still remarks wistfully on it, even if he realises that he enjoys combat and danger a bit too much to stay away from it. When that stops being an option, he brings his canon drive and intelligence to the intense tutelage he gets in order to survive.
• Bring It: A couple of times in Ghosts, usually when he feels like making a show of his fight.
• Bruiser with a Soft Centre: By the end of Book 1, he could blow up a reasonably sized mountain, and halfway through the sequel, he's estimated as being one of the most powerful people in Europe. He is also, for the most part, a total sweetie - though for a while in Book II, before further Character Development, that centre can be harder to find under all the trauma.
• Brutal Honesty: Occasionally on display, especially in the second book, when confronting what he perceives as teenage stupidity (not that he ever displays such stupidity himself, of course), or more generally doesn't feel he has the time to waste by being polite.
• Bullet Dodges You: First via the Phoenix possessing him, with magic and energy bolts as well as bullets. Shortly after, he does it himself, and in Ghosts he repeats the trick as the Red Son.
• Bully Hunter: He is this, because he wants to protect people who can't protect themselves. However, it tends to do more harm than good, and he starts stepping back on it.
• Burning with Anger: After he develops a talent for Playing with Fire, this starts happening - and, after Forever Red, the smell of wood-smoke appears when he gets really hacked off. The latter in particular is generally a sign that you should start running. Preferably to another galaxy. Or another universe. And even that might not be far enough.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: He's occasionally prone to forgetting how significant certain events were to other people. This is forgivable, considering how regularly epic scale horror shows up on his doorstep. He becomes aware of it in the sequel and starts pointing it out to illustrate a) how messed up his life is, b) why he is the way he is, and c) why he doesn't want to drag the likes of Ron, Hermione, or Clark into it.
• Byronic Hero: Tall, Dark, and Handsome, passionate and temperamental to the point where it rules him at times, brilliant in specific ways, greatly gifted, and his lifetime is a tapestry of tragedies. And yet, he keeps going.
• Cain and Abel: The Abel to Dudley's Cain, though he ends up killing Dudley - who, admittedly, had become both a vampire and an absolute monster before he was turned.
• Catchphrase: Burn. Fortunately, it only shows up when some supernatural monster has really angered him. Unfortunately, he's not always that discriminating once said button has been pressed.
• The Call Put Me on Hold: His powers wait until the final quarter of the first book to appear in earnest. They promptly prove more of a problem than a solution.
• The Cape: During Book I and Book III, after spending most of Book II as The Cowl following a brutal Trauma Conga Line and a steady Reconstruction of his character, going from a Wide-Eyed Idealist and Knight In Shining Armour with a sardonic streak to a temperamental and embittered but kind-hearted Knight in Sour Armour to a thoughtful, meditative, and compassionate (if sometimes terrifying) Knight of Faith. In Book III in particular, he endeavours to be a compassionate figure and, at times, an inspiration, rather than simply a terrifying one.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: He deeply dislikes his fame, and the attention that comes with being who he is - though unlike canon, he is sometimes, begrudingly, willing to use it to his advantage and realistic enough to know that it's not going away.
• Chain Pain: During the fight with the Fallen Fortress' Spirit, he uses a magical chain to both hurt it and try to bind it, with varying effectiveness.
• The Champion:
  • Platonically to Luna Lovegood (which explains why he went berserk after she was killed).
  • Later, not-so-platonically to Carol (though she has been known to flip the script). The positive aspect is that she's a very effective Morality Chain, because he'll always listen. However, the negative is that if something were to happen to her, his reaction would be downright horrifying. Like, return-of-the-Dark-Phoenix horrifying.
• Character Development: In spades, in just a year. By the latter point, he's a morally flexible Action Hero, with talents as a liar, actor, and manipulator, who's Seen It All and is generally unimpressed. He's also Older and Wiser, and much more practical. After approximately another year's worth of character development following the time-travelling Time Skip in Book III, he's mellowed out considerably into a Fiery Stoic, a philosophical Knight of Faith, and has regained much of his kindness (and taken it to new heights) and faith in others - though he's still fully capable of being very dangerous, and is occasionally prone to Brutal Honesty.
• Chest Insignia:
  • The brief age-up netted him some rather nice armour as well, including a Phoenix symbol on his chest. It reappears when he's resurrected and possessed by the Phoenix in chapter 71 and when he taps into the Phoenix's power in Ghosts, and later becomes the Dark Phoenix.
  • Later, he seems to explicitly choose a version of one used by his distant ancestor, Frey; a stylised Yggdrasil with seven stars over it, in gold on a silver-white background, and it reappears as part of Project Galahad.
  • In Book III, after passing the Test of the Worthy in K'un L'un, he gets the traditional chest tattoo of the Iron Fist, a simplified, stylised tattoo. While he doesn't hold the rank or powers this is usually associated with, it's given to him because he's passed the same test, given for the same reasons, and as an acknowledgement of the lessons he's learned - he's not an Iron Fist, but he could have been.
• Chekhov's Skill: In his first sparring match against Uhtred, he flips over his Uhtred's head to deliver a finishing blow, albeit hurting his ankle in the process. About a year later in Ghosts, he does this again to the mutated Dudley, this time landing gracefully.
• Chick Magnet: From Ghosts onward due to a combination of being a) The Chosen One, b) Tall, Dark, and Handsome, and c) a literal Knight in Shining Armor, even if he's sometimes rather short-tempered due to his PTSD. He finds it very irritating, and employs a variety of means to avoid female attention.
  • Ironically, as is pointed out, his attitude post-Forever Red actually makes him more attractive to a certain group - though as is also pointed out, it makes him less attractive to others.
• The Chosen One: He is this, much to his irritation/resignation.
• Chrome Champion: His 'Galahad' armour goes with this. It's silvery-white, and thanks to Asgardian input and no weapons system bar its repulsors (because, as is pointed out, Harry is the weapons system), much sleeker than most Iron Man suits. It's all finished with emerald green eye-lights and an entirely blank white mask, one often compared to 'the skull of an angel' for unnerving effect.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: This crossed with Leeroy Jenkins is identified as a Fatal Flaw in Ghosts when it reaches its apogee: having just escaped from the Red Room, he dives right back in, as they're vanishing to parts unknown, to try and save Maddie Pryor/Rachel Grey. The resultant brutal Trauma Conga Line strongly informs his Character Development, and by the next major arc he makes sure to have both a plan and where possible, back-up. That being said, his Chronic Hero Syndrome is still as strong as ever post-Character Development. He just plans better.
• Clashing Cousins:
  • With Dudley, as per canon. They end up fighting when Dudley reappears after several years under Sinister's influence, and Harry beats him to a pulp. Then, he reappears as a Grey Court Vampire, Voldemort having got hold of him and given him to Dracula as a new super-minion, nearly kills Uhtred, and promptly gets dismembered.
  • Also with Maddie, Jean's Separated at Birth twin - though in that case, she's a Punch-Clock Villain at worst thanks to her upbringing as a Sympathetic Sentient Weapon and deeply skewed moral education, and he spends most of his time trying to redeem her. He succeeds... eventually.
  • Also, technically, with Voldemort, as they're very, very distantly cousins.
• Color-Coded Eyes: Has green eyes per canon. They fit his spitfire nature like a glove and they're even more significant than usual owing to the facts that Jean Grey is his second cousin (as is Maddie Pryor) and his mother merged with the Phoenix Force.
• Color Motif: Initially, red and gold, representing his temper, royalty, and heroism. In the sequel, it shades into silver-white and gold, both because Gold and White Are Divine, and because it represents his increasingly colder, more controlled, and harder to read demeanour.
• Combat Parkour: In the sequel, he mixes this with dance-style moves, his speed, reflexes and agility making him exceptionally hard to hit - and that's before he starts throwing out illusions.
• Conflicting Loyalties: Harry's loyalty tends to be both straightforward and absolute. However, in Book II he's constantly struggling between his loyalties to his old friends, Ron and Hermione, and to his biological and extended family and new friends, including the Avengers and their associates, as obligations to one often end up hurting the other. Since he'd rather die than hurt those he loves, he finds the experience pretty miserable and develops a fair degree of self-loathing as a result. Over the course of Ghosts, it becomes increasingly clear that he's picked a side, even if he hasn't exactly admitted it.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: As the Ravenclaw Quidditch team found out (for their part in the bullying of Luna Lovegood), he has a proclivity for these. It can drift into Pay Evil unto Evil, and one part of his Character Development is keeping this tendency in check.
• Cool Big Bro: To Uhtred, Diana, and Clark, the latter two of whom he immediately takes under his wing after they meet (with Uhtred, there's some initial tension). He also immediately bonds with Francis Storm-Richards in Book III, slipping into this role with perfect ease.
• Cool Crown: Favours circlets for official occasions - initially a simple golden one with a triskelion design, then a silvery-gold one with a gem that resembles pure starlight set in the brow - with the usual connotations of Modest Royalty who do stuff.
• Cooldown Hug: He sometimes needs them, but he's quite good at handing these out, pulling one on Diana in Book I when she'd lost herself in a berserker rage, and one on Anakin Skywalker, of all people, in Book III (he promptly tried to squirm out of it and failed miserably).
• Cool Helmet: His first 'Galahad' suit, silvery-white, has what resembles a futuristic Numenorean helm. The later version is more slimmed down, with an even blanker face mask than most Iron Man suits that's repeatedly described as 'the skull of an angel'.
• Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: He's arguably the ultimate cool kid, on paper at least (he's often Endearingly Dorky in person), but tends to pick odd-balls and outcasts for friends - probably because underneath, he has more in common with them. The main exception is his cousin Jean, who's even cooler.
• Cool Sword: The altered Second Prophecy, and Trelawney's unexpectedly accurate tarot reading, allude to one. In Ghosts, Uhtred personally forges, under Tony's guidance (with enchantments from Loki) a sword as a belated birthday gift. It's an almost perfectly balanced sabre. It later gets an upgrade.
• Combat Pragmatist: When he's actually in a fight, he tends to be quick, brutal, and effective - one of many things that, per a passing comment from Thor, he gets from his mother. His Guile Hero tendencies (as noted below) and his quick thinking, combined with his raw power, make him very dangerous when he's thinking clearly. However, he's still got Chronic Hero Syndrome, he's still impulsive, and suffers from The Dulcinea Effect. This has absolutely horrific consequences in the Forever Red arc.
  When it came to fighting creatures such as this, Harry left his scruples at the door.
• Combo Platter Powers: Psychic Powers in the same weight class as Jean Grey (in fact, aside from Maddie, who's her equal, he's the only one who can even compete), magical gifts supercharged by divine heritage to the point where they're explicitly described as strong as his psionics, and developing physical powers that will max out at about three-quarters of his father's strength/durability (meaning he's still a Physical God) and implied to be considerably faster, along with the associated Healing Factor and instinctive combat skill... and then there's his Phoenix fragment, which is simultaneously an emergency response, a protection against any soul-based attack, and easily supercharged by emotions into a Reality Warper that even the Gods of Physical Gods fear. Oh, and then there's a chaos blessing courtesy of Wanda Maximoff that he's extremely resistant to being reality warped or otherwise altered - and that's not even getting into the implications/metaphysical headache of his mother merging with the atemporal Phoenix, which is implied to have retroactively meant he was always a child of the Phoenix. Given that he was as a potential Thanos-killer by Doctor Strange, this makes more sense than it doesn't.
• Consummate Liar: Becomes this in Ghosts, and is so good that even he sometimes doesn't notice he's doing it. Hermione is disconcerted when she notices, and he bluntly tells Ron that he's one of the best liars Ron will ever meet, and Ron can trust him on that. He later lampshades this, bitterly observing how good he is - and, implicitly, the kind of things it says about him. A blunt demonstration of this when the secret of Hermione's heritage comes out causes a major rift between the trio.
• Covert Pervert: He's a teenage telepath with an active imagination, and to his mortal embarrassment, an increasingly active sex drive. This leads to a few reasonably serious scenes being punctuated by him trying to focus and ignore his libido: e.g. when he's mulling over a vision of multiple universes and the implications of the fact that his subconscious selected them for him to view and learn a Very Important Lesson from, a large part of his mind is stuck on one universe where an older version of him and Carol were about to have a Shower of Love and comparing Naked!AU!Carol to Sleepwear!Carol. This is actually justified - the subconscious, after all, includes the libido.
• The Cowl: In Book II, he protects, he defends, he looks after children... and frequently does it by being as scary as the monsters, if not even more so. In Book III, he's dialled back on it, but he demonstrates a couple of times that he's fully capable of whipping out the style when he wants to.
• Crazy Enough to Work: His plans are considered in-universe to be absolutely crazy, yet surprisingly effective (usually). It gets to the point where estimating how crazy something is tends to be considered a good way of figuring out whether or not it was one of his ideas.
• Creepy Child: At times in Books I and II, particularly to those who don't know him so well. He acts far older than he is, he knows far too damn much, he's far too perceptive for anyone's comfort, and moves just a little too gracefully to be human. By Book III, he's mellowed out considerably, and is closer to the age he looks, but his casual ease with cosmic horror and well-hidden homicidal streak still unsettle people.
• Creepy Good: For many of the same reasons as Creepy Child, to the point where even his armour borders on the creepy, resembling 'the skull of an angel'. His response to danger is a disturbing degree of casual amusement, his rage usually manifests in the most eerily quiet and cold ways imaginable, and during Book II, to an outward observer, he sometimes goes off like a bomb without obvious reason. He's a potential messiah, but also a potential Anti-Christ, an Apocalypse Maiden who could open the gates of armageddon as he wishes - and nearly does at one point post Rage Breaking Point. Hell, in Book II, freaking Dracula refers to his reputation as The Dreaded with a certain amount of approval, "as one professional to another". As he sadly notes, he scares people, and with good reason. Even when he's that much saner in Book III, the scary side can still come out to play, and it's all the more alarming for being unexpected.
• Creepy Monotone: In Book II, while plumbing the depths of Tranquil Fury, to the point of bordering Soft-Spoken Sadist territory.
• Crush Blush: Occasionally, usually around Carol. This happens even after he's gone Dark Phoenix and by all logic, should not be able to blush. A particularly prize-winning version pops up after Carol kisses him on the cheek.
• Cry into Chest: Several times in chapter 72 of Book I, with good reason, first Wanda, then Thor, then Carol.
• Cuddle Bug: He has evolved into this, now that affection is freely given.
• Curbstomp Battle: Notable examples include both rounds with Dudley, as a Blob-type mutant and later, a mutant vampire and the Elder Wyrm. However, he's also on the receiving end in Ghosts from Maddie Pryor and Dracula.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: While Maddie has him more or less on the ropes, he wins a tactical victory - they'd made enough noise to act as a homing beacon for the Avengers. Later, though Dracula batters him from pillar to post, Harry gets several good strikes in, actually hurting the Vampire Monarch, and if he had been up against almost any other vampire, he probably would have won.
• Cute and Psycho: Develops into this thanks to various Trauma Conga Lines (plural), and dialled up after Forever Red. The Magneto comparisons didn't come out of nowhere. Unusually, he spends much of the second book dialling down the 'Psycho' part, through therapy (though he gets much, much worse before he gets better). By Book III, the 'Psycho' part is entirely invisible - unless he chooses to show it.
• The Cynic: After hints in the first book, he becomes this (and a Knight in Sour Armour) in Ghosts, after the Trauma Conga Line of Forever Red. However, he later notes that it's good for surviving, not living, and a reflex he's trying to overcome. By Book III, he seems to have more or less succeeded.
• Dance Battler: While fast to begin with, by the later parts of Ghosts, he's a highly accomplished classical and Latin dancer (as he smugly explains, Asgardian muscle memory is good for more than just learning how to fight), and an exceptionally graceful fighter, being almost impossible to hit - on several occasions, he's described as "dancing" in a fight, whether between lightning bolts or away from chaos blasts. By Book III, he's good enough that he can nigh-flawlessly impersonate Obi-Wan Kenobi, enough that it takes a few minutes of frenzied duelling for Anakin Skywalker to catch on that this isn't Obi-Wan.
• Dark and Troubled Past: One made worse than canon by the addition of Sinister.
• Deadly Upgrade:
  • The Dark Phoenix usually functions as this, though the transformation is more a Fate Worse than Death.
  • In Ghosts, he gets a short-lived power boost from Jean and Maddie - short-lived because there's no way he can sustain it for more than a couple of minutes, and it leaves him drunk on power, but it serves its purpose by making Dracula think he's facing a Phoenix host.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's pretty mild to begin with, but rapidly becomes freer with his snark and evolves into a full-on Stepford Snarker in the sequel.
• Death-Activated Superpower: The Phoenix, as HYDRA find out the hard way.
• Death Seeker: In Book II. He has a disturbing lack of a self-preservation instinct, though how much of it is ever a desire to die, and how much is simply a belief he is more expendable/that he is more likely to survive the trauma is unclear. By Book III, he's fairly blase about death, but that's because as he remarks, he comes back so often his coffin should probably have a revolving lid.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: He loves his father deeply, and they get on like a house on fire. However, he's constantly drawn to his mother, as even though she turns out to be Not Quite Dead, her situation is such that he's met her in person exactly once. While he's realistic about his father being a case of Parents as People, albeit a very good one, he places great significance on his mother and everything about her.
• Defense Mechanism Superpower: His mother's protection a.k.a. a fragment of the Phoenix Force, which activates whenever he's in mortal danger. The results are never, ever, pretty.
• Defiant Captive: With the Red Room and especially Sinister, spitting in the latter's face.
• Defiant to the End:
  • When being battered from pillar to post by the mutated Dudley, Harry refuses to give up, and his refusal to lay down and die gives him a Heroic Second Wind.
  • When Dracula considers killing him, Harry tells him to go ahead, as it can't be more painful than listening to him talk.
• Deity of Human Origin: A complicated example, since his father was human when he was conceived, but he's now beginning to develop the usual godly powers. This is actually a minor plot point in Ghosts, since Doctor Milbury a.k.a. Sinister states that Harry's unique nature holds the key to the transformation from humanity to divinity.
• Demonic Possession: Briefly possessed by Cthon during the Final Battle of Child of the Storm, but casts him out.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Downplayed. He's not clingy, per se, but given his lonely (and abusive) childhood, he's prone to getting very attached to very specific people (usually those who treat him as just Harry, without preconceptions), very quickly. It's not entirely surprising that a lot of his friends were as lonely as he was.
• Destructive Saviour: A recurring habit in the first two books, thanks to raw power, an explosive temper, a penchant for dramatics, and an inclination to just plough through everything in his way. Bucky, Coulson, Carol, and Natasha all lampshade this tendency in Ghosts, along with his habit of making big entrances. However, he can be subtle when he feels like it, to Coulson's surprise.
• Detect Evil: As part of his Sensor Character shtick, though until he trains with Magneto, it isn't totally reliable.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • He goes mind to mind with Chthon (admittedly, a weakened fragment) in the finale of Book 1 and wins. This reaction is intentionally invoked by Doctor Strange in the sequel, who sets him up to face down and slay (with help) the Elder Wyrm, so Harry can very publicly demonstrate how powerful he has become.
  • He also goes mind to mind with Surtur in the sequel, and comes out honours even, resisting handily and getting under his skin with a good "Reason You Suck" Speech. He escapes with nothing more than burns to his face, temporarily impaired vision, and a nasty headache. While it was through the medium of a vision into the future and across time, Surtur's a vastly powerful Eldritch Abomination. Harry's reaction is But for Me, It Was Tuesday. Everyone else, up to and including Odin, thinks otherwise.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Like with water, it's not his thing and he prefers to use his telekinesis for anything he might use Earth Magic for, but in Ghosts he gets the basics under his belt, and becomes fairly proficient with brute force gravity magic and electromagnetism, as well as a few more subtle tricks.
• Disney Death: He's killed by Daken, only to then be immediately resurrected by the Phoenix at the start of the next chapter.
• Determinator: He is insanely stubborn, as underlined in Ghosts when he resists psychic attacks from Sinister, brainwashing from the Red Room, and torture for two whole days without sleep, food, or water, all while simultaneously keeping his Phoenix fragment locked away inside him, despite/because he knows it could get him out of there instantly, and obliterate everything in his way.
• Didn't See That Coming: This is usually the root of his status as a Spanner in the Works. A lot of antagonists either dismiss him as a child or don't expect him to get involved. The more dangerous villains tend to be those who either plan specifically to deal with him or adapt to his involvement.
• Dissonant Serenity: Like his canon counterpart, he tends to be disturbingly calm and relaxed in hideously dangerous situations. This, and the associated Casual Danger Dialogue (and, where Carol is concerned, Flirting Under Fire), is something that those around him - even his grandfather, who's got five millennia of adventures and cosmic warfare under his belt - tend to find disturbing. When he slips into Tranquil Fury, it becomes even more disturbing as it gives him a Creepy Monotone that borders on the sadistic.
• Divine Parentage: His father is Thor. Also, his mother became the White Phoenix of the Crown and conferred upon him a fragment of the Phoenix - due to the atemporal nature of the Phoenix, Sunniva later suggests rippled backwards in time to influence him from birth.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Initially, both with Super-Strength and Psychic Powers. By Ghosts, he's got both under control. The Phoenix and the Serpent has him start to truly master the Phoenix in the same fashion.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Dislikes being reminded that he's a Prince in any formal capacity. Naturally, Uhtred sometimes does it to annoy him.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: He sometimes hands out warnings like these, especially earlier on. Later, if sufficiently angry, he doesn't bother.
• Doom Magnet: A Justified Trope, as he's got vast amounts of personal and political power already, and will only grow stronger and more influential with time. As a result, a lot of mortal and supernatural beings and organizations would like to either control that power for their own ends, or to stop him before he grows into that power. Furthermore, his Chronic Hero Syndrome means that even if monsters such as HYDRA or the Grey Court aren't explicitly interested in going after him, he's still going to get mixed up with them if they go after someone he's determined to protect, like Bobby Drake, his family, or Carol.
• Drama Queen:
  • He's usually much more of a Deadpan Snarker than a Large Ham, with George Weasley noting in Ghosts that "understated sarcasm is his coping mechanism of choice." However, he can also occasionally be spectacularly histrionic - usually when particularly stressed out. Carol does not hesitate to point this out.
  Carol: Oh my god, you total fucking drama queen.
  • He sometimes plays up to it for effect, by his own wry admittance, and usually to get - or misdirect - someone's attention. For instance, he's clearly having the time of his life in Book III when, to hold the Grandmaster's attention, he uses Phoenix-endowed Voluntary Shapeshifting and his acting skills to flawlessly impersonate Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Contest of Champions.
• The Dreaded: By the sequel, if only because of the Phoenix fragment within, though as more than one person points out, that he's repeatedly survived the outright impossible and left supposedly far more powerful, skilled, and experienced enemies in ruins behind him... and that was before he got high-end Person of Mass Destruction level powers and the skills/experience to properly use them. Doctor Strange taking him as his apprentice underlined it even further, as no one (bar those Strange has told) knows exactly why he's so interested in Harry. Even Surtur is afraid of him.
• Driven to Madness: The events of Forever Red push him right off the deep end, and most of Book II is spent shaking off the remains.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: A potential Dark Phoenix related hazard, and in Book III he notes to Anakin that he's been in his shoes.
• Dual Wielding: Sif starts training him in this later in the sequel, as an extension of his swordsmanship training with Fandral. Why this is happening is unclear other than Doctor Strange rather pointedly suggested it.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Very, very prone to a non-romantic version of this due to his Chronic Hero Syndrome, and it frequently gets him into trouble, as Forever Red demonstrates.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Downplayed. He's a Hormone-Addled Teenager and a bit of a Covert Pervert, but mostly considers his immediate reaction to be a bit embarrassing, and understands how this can embarrass and upset the recipient (e.g. Carol and the tankini in Ghosts). Also, having learned the psychic basics from the gorgeous Betsy Braddock means that he's much better at controlling and hiding his feelings than most teenagers.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He has dark hair, pale skin, and from time to time is described as being 'fey', faintly unnerving, and vaguely inhuman. After Forever Red, he tends to give even the least psychically inclined Hogwarts students a case of the creeping horrors when he's in a bad mood - which is most of the time. He gets better, but he's generally considered to be more than a little unnerving.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Becomes one after the Time Skip in Book III, having both gained a great deal of poise to go with his dashing good looks, and learned how to play Hagrid's now mithril-inlaid flute well enough to entrance an audience or start a lively dance party, as well as casually ad-lib an instrumental of "Pretty Woman" when he notices Carol's presence. And that's leaving aside the Magic Music he can use it for.
• Elemental Punch: Becomes capable of the fire variant, then demonstrates it again on the Beast a.k.a. Dudley with additional telekinetic topspin. This time, the results are more in the order of a Megaton Punch.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Harry is not necessarily very good at using his words, mainly because life with the Dursleys taught him to repress everything. This is particularly obvious with Carol, but she gets the Princess Bride reference he resorts to instead. While he gets better over time, it's also implied repeatedly that this is why he's so close to Carol to begin with; thanks to their Psychic Link, because he doesn't have to verbalise his feelings because she can understand them straight from the heart.
• Emotional Powers: See Psycho Active Powers. Even after he gets his Psychic Powers under control, they tend to be that much more ferocious when he's angry.
• Emotion Suppression: Life with the Dursleys taught him to do this, and a key part of his initial Character Development is becoming more open with his emotions and more assertive. Considering that he's got some powerful and difficult to control Psycho Active Powers as well as a truly phenomenal amount of Suppressed Rage, this is a mixed blessing. He seems to have mostly got over this (or at least learned better forms of emotional regulation) at the start of Book III.
• The Empath: As part of the psychic package - he's less skilled than Diana, but it's one of the many things that makes him alarmingly perceptive. In Book III, he's refined it to the point where he Speaks Fluent Animal (and implies she can do the same), though he characterises that as more exchange of intention.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Specifically, pettiness. He's always faintly irritated by it, but he gets considerably more annoyed by it (and generally tetchier) after Forever Red thanks to a nasty case of PTSD. While he mellows out somewhat, his increased impatience with standard teenage stupidity is one thing suggested to be separating him from his peers, as he just doesn't have the patience for them.
• "Eureka!" Moment: As per canon, he tends to have moments of inspiration where everything clicks together.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Visions of him as the Dark Phoenix put him on edge, at the very least.
• Excellent Judge of Character: He's not bad in canon, but he becomes even better here, and only partly thanks to his Telepathy. In Ghosts, Bucky notes his knack for spotting and bringing out the better sides of those who didn't even know they had them, and for better or worse, he's very good at pushing people's buttons to get what he wants (a talent that he loathes), to the point where he can do it without even realising what he's doing. The only person who he doesn't see through is Alexander Pierce - and, to be fair, neither did literally anybody else.
• Experienced Protagonist: Played With in the first book, being adaptable and calm under fire but inexperienced and horribly out of his depth, and Played Straight in Books II and III after being brutally Taught by Experience in Forever Red.
• Expy: He's got a lot in common with several characters, which is sometimes lampshaded.
  • Susan Sto-Helit: part-human, wants relative normality, inherited abilities through slightly unusual means (including a Compelling Voice), and has an occasionally difficult relationship with his well-meaning but definitely not human grandfather. Oh, and by the end of Book 1 he's got untameable black and white hair and to go with the strange scar. Also, he prefers anger to fear and is Enraged by Idiocy.
  • Rand al'Thor: His personality, power, pyrotechnics and potential to go insane and destroy the world, along with association with a legendary creature that is widely and wisely feared. His later Character Development into the Anti-Nihilist and a Fiery Stoic also mirrors Rand's epiphany on the Dragonmount. Hell, allowing for hair and eye colour differences, this commissioned picture of him even looks a bit like Rand. Not to mention his later status as a Master Swordsman.
  • Nate Grey: Immense and initially unstable Psychic Powers, personality (again), Knight In Shining Armour/Knight in Sour Armour dichotomy, past with Sinister, being a Momma's Boy/close bond with Jean Grey, and eventually, a skunk stripe. It's nodded to a few times, with an alternate counterpart even referring to himself as 'Nathan' to avoid confusion, and Harry uses it as an alias.
  • King Arthur: Unsurprisingly, since a chunk of the backstory is owed to Merlin (2008) and the author is an unabashed fan of The Once and Future King. He's The Chosen One whose path has been guided by The Arch Mage (one who learned beside/from Merlin himself in Arthur's court), the Hero of his generation and undisputed leader of the rest, a Humble Hero who grew up in ignorance and obscurity before discovering his destiny (and arguably it - though that part was In-Universe fiction), who wields a Cool Sword (and possibly has another waiting for him), a Knight In Shining Armour who's sometimes worn down by the darkness of the world, but still earnestly fixated on bringing justice to a world - a universe - without any. Harry, an Arthurian geek In-Universe (having mainlined The Once and Future King at Steve's instigation), is more than happy with this. It gets to the point where more than one person who knew Arthur makes the comparison, with the Lady Knight noting that he's at least as talented a swordsman.
  • Eärendil: Stunningly beautiful green eyes, Half-Human Hybrid of notable lineage on both sides who prefers humanity to immortality, survived an early murder attempt, heavily associated with the stars, loves sailing/flying, The Dragon Slayer, The Hero, and a Messianic Archetype capable of handling cosmic power (one that has a severe intolerance for evil) unscathed. This reaches its peak when he's actually named Earendil in the past, with the implication that visions of him directly inspired the character. He finds this hilarious.
  • Kyle Rayner: Not inherently The Chosen One, but Closest Thing We Got made into The Chosen One (Doctor Strange takes the Ganthet role and like Ganthet, could have picked anyone, but saw something special in him), creative, romantic, nice but very hard to cross, prefers relative normality but Jumped at the Call with the potential to become a Physical God that is repeatedly and very reluctantly accepted out of a sense of responsibility. Word of God has made the Kyle comparisons, and hinted that there are parallels between the White Phoenix and the White Lantern.
• Eye Colour Change: His eyes flash or outright burn gold when he's seriously using his powers, pissed off, or just wants to make an impression. They also go solid white when he's possessed by the Phoenix or willingly becoming the Dark Phoenix and red when he's possessed by Chthon. Neither is a particularly good sign.
• Eye Motifs: He has the same distinctive emerald green eyes as his mother and his Grey cousins, especially Jean and Maddie, indicating how much he takes after that side of the family underneath the obvious. It's implied that they show up in pretty much every powerful psychic in the Grey line.
• Eyes Never Lie: Subverted in the sequel - the fact that he can lie while looking people dead in the eyes is considered a sign of how alarmingly good he is at it.
• Facial Markings: His scar.
• Failure Knight: After Luna's death. He gets better.
• Fallen Angel: At the end of Forever Red when he comprehensively snaps, he gets very Luciferian in his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, something magnified by his uncanny nature mixed with his Pretty Boy good looks. Combining looks, power, potential, and destiny as The Chosen One, and The Hero, it's not surprising that when he morally wavers, he has flavours of this.
• Famed In-Story: Much to his resigned irritation, through a combination of being "the Boy Who Lived" and other connections (even before the story started, he had Living Legends Doctor Strange as a paediatrician and the Scarlet Witch as a godmother), his deeds at Hogwarts, his Really Royalty Reveal giving him literally universal fame, association with the Avengers, and a growing reputation in the supernatural community for fighting and surviving everything from Chthon downwards.
• Family Eye Resemblance: As per canon, he has his mother's eyes. These become more significant when it is revealed that Jean Grey is his second cousin and she shares the famous eyes, as does Maddie Pryor/Rachel Grey.
• Famous Ancestor: A lot, mostly through his father, something he treats with increasing degrees of bemused apathy.
• Fantastically Indifferent: By Ghosts, it takes something very unusual to surprise him, and something very, very bad indeed to genuinely faze him.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His Chronic Hero Syndrome, flavoured with a martyr complex and an overprotective streak a mile wide. While it's not quite as bad as canon, with Carol having browbeaten most of the Ineffectual Loner tendencies out of him, it still leads him to sideline Ron and Hermione, and with his impulsiveness, it gets him into even more trouble. He's the Spanner in the Works for the bad guys, but also the good guys too (sometimes, he's even one to himself). Both are brutally exploited. As Thor sadly notes in Ghosts, a lot of what Harry's gone through is the product of acting without thinking. Bucky moderates this significantly. However, Harry's desire to protect all those he deems more vulnerable than himself remains just as strong, even if the individuals in question don't want him to protect them. And given that Magneto of all people referred to what Harry was capable of in that regard as "both magnificent and utterly terrifying", that should worry you.
  • His secretive nature; it makes him an excellent Secret-Keeper, but he tends to keep things to himself far longer than he should, even when he doesn't necessarily have the moral right to keep them.
  • Both of the above also make him more than a tad manipulative from Ghosts onwards, and his skills as a Consummate Liar, Truth Twister, and Master Actor make him very good at it, to the point where he's compared to Strange (who does not consider this to be even remotely a good thing). This means that Ron and Hermione in particular are much less disposed to trust him.
  • He's also got a badly damaged sense of self-esteem, meaning he sees himself as expendable and risks being a Martyr Without a Cause. However, this is mostly because he thinks that odds are pretty good that he'll survive whatever he's throwing himself into or come back anyway - and he has a point about that.
• The Fettered: Tries very hard to be this once his Psychic Powers come in, as noted by Carol, mostly because he's downright terrified of what he'll become if he takes the other path. As Forever Red demonstrates, this is not without reason. He seems to be easing up on the paranoia in Book III.
  • It's also slightly deconstructed: Because he's so wary of misusing his psychic powers, he can sometimes miss pretty obvious empathic clues he really should've picked up on, something that's touched on in Book III.
• Fiction 500: Thanks to the Potter vaults which, thanks to some smart investments by Thor's mortal father, Charlus Potter, including in Stark Industries (he met Howard during WWII and was favourably impressed), are conservatively estimated at £1.5 billion. He only reveals it to Hermione after casually mentioning that he could buy her a new laptop if she wanted, and mentions in passing that he offered to replace the X-Men's SR-71 Blackbird ^note  Which cost the equivalent of a little under $281 million per unit when originally built, and similar amounts to maintain it - and that's not taking into account their rarity, or the fact that the X-Men's version is heavily customised after it got wrecked in the fight between the Red Son and Magneto in Ghosts. Otherwise, he doesn't talk about it and is mostly vaguely embarrassed by it whenever the subject comes up. Naturally, as Prince of Asgard, he also has access to an incredible amount of money, though so far he hasn't taken advantage of it.
• Fiery Stoic: Starts becoming this in Ghosts after Forever Red, as part of a general drift away from his previous Hot-Blooded and impulsive nature, and trying to control his inner Phoenix, becoming wiser and more thoughtful as he recovers and mellows out. However, the temper hasn't gone away, and he sometimes veers back into the traumatised end of The Stoic. By Book III, thanks to training and therapy from Shou-Lao, and further training from his distant aunt and fellow Phoenix host, Sunniva, the process would seem to have been completed.
• Fighting the Lancer: In the sequel, there's a slowly increasing tension between him and Ron, mostly related to two things.
  • First, Harry's unwillingness to involve Ron (and Hermione) in his more dangerous hijinks, especially when he has no compunction about involving Carol and others. The argument that he doesn't often have much choice about their involvement, and that they've got experience, while valid, doesn't cut too much ice, as it's very clear that Harry would keep the two of them at arm's length from that sort of thing anyway. As in canon, this desire to keep his friends safe rather rankles.
  • Second, his increasingly secretive and occasionally manipulative behaviour, again related to the fact that he shares these things with others, such as Carol. Again, both have logical reasons. Harry's trauma makes him unwilling to open up, especially to those who weren't there. Likewise, he's being entrusted with keeping those secrets. Carol (and others) gets him to open up because she's usually there and has a psychic connection - and it's generally accepted that thanks to said connection, what one of them knows, the other will inevitably discover shortly after. This is made worse by the fact that Harry has increasingly less compunction about keeping secrets from his friends, flat out admitting it, and the revelation that one of those secrets was Hermione's true parentage.
  • To a lesser extent, it also applies to Hermione, because of the latter: she's not particularly interested in being directly involved in Harry's more dangerous exploits, preferring the research role instead (though she's more than capable when pushed), and she's more pragmatic, logical, and understanding about his need to keep secrets... except that one. That, and the fact that he seems to be Wanda's favourite, which is compounded by the fact that she both resents Wanda for existing and for only involving herself in Hermione's life after being manipulated and publicly arm-twisted by Strange. The truth is a touch more complicated (Wanda felt keeping Hermione secret would keep her safe, while that wasn't an option for Harry), but more than one character notes that there might be some justice to it - while she loves them equally, it's suggested that thanks to a lack of traumatic associations, Harry might be easier to love.
• Fighting Your God: Expresses a willingness to at least threaten this in Ghosts, if necessary (i.e. to resurrect Carol, should it come to it), something that would carry real impact with the threat of going Dark Phoenix, and flipping a metaphorical middle finger up to all of the Gods above. Considering that he's a demigod, worships none of them, and barely even likes any of them, this is not surprising - though both Jesus and Thor talk him through the practical reasons of why this would be a very, very bad idea.
• Fights Like a Normal: He can do this very effectively by the sequel, though his match-up with Daken in Book I leaves him wise to the risks. By Book III, he's good enough at it to go one on one with Lobo and have the upper-hand in a stalemate only maintained by Lobo's Healing Factor.
• Finger-Snap Lighter: Masters this trick and mostly uses it to show off (to Hermione's disapproval), with the exception of a Badass Finger Snap at the end of Child of the Storm, which he uses to banish Chthon.
• Fireballs: Capable of creating these, though he mostly just plays with them.
• Fish out of Water: In Asgard, though he adjusts fairly quickly.
• Flaw Exploitation: Usually by Voldemort, who knows him far too well for anyone's comfort. His Fatal Flaw is being compulsively heroic - usually, his problems come back to the fact that he Didn't Think This Through. Even after he starts planning better, he's still got some pretty reliable buttons. Of course, whether someone can survive pressing them is another matter entirely...
• Flying Brick: By the end of Forever Red arc in Ghosts, he's Made of Iron and can mimic this with his Psychic Powers.
• Foil: Primarily to Clark, highlighted in Mirror Image. In short: Clark's an instinctive idealist with fears and self-doubt, while Harry's reflexively cynical but trying to overcome it; Harry is a hyper-competent trained fighter who's Fantastically Indifferent, while Clark is untrained and a Naïve Newcomer but resourceful and quick-thinking and unnerved by Harry's ruthlessness; Clark is a local hero quietly dealing with local problems as and when he stumbles across them, while Harry is a Doom Magnet without equal who is often forced to act on a global or even cosmic scale. They're also similar in a lot of ways, and get on like a house on fire.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: Occasionally gets this reaction, thanks to his raw power and its initially uncontrolled nature.
• Forgiveness: He's noted as being very forgiving... when it comes to misdeeds committed against him (with certain exceptions). If they're committed against someone he cares for, he can and will hold an enormous grudge.
• Freudian Excuse: Oh, where to start? Well, thanks to the Dursleys' abuse, he has both a festering darker side to his nature which he buried deep because repressing his negative emotions was the only way he ever learned to cope, and a lot of his self-esteem and Ineffectual Loner tendencies come from there.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Harry gets them towards at least half the more important side characters due to a mix of being an endearing Magnetic Hero, just brazenly acting as The Nicknamer, and practically never using his own title of Prince, or the name he is given in Book III: Earendil/Aurvandil.
• Friend to All Children: Even at his grumpiest and most temperamental, he has a soft spot for children and the vulnerable in general, particularly his goddaughter, little Ada Stark. It's also on full display in Book III when he succumbs to Cuteness Proximity regarding the admittably adorable six year old Francis Richards.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He starts as a short, skinny, and relatively shy child with little more than an above average magical talent for his age, courage, and a talent for improvising. A year later, he's tall, lean, confident (if Endearingly Dorky), battle-hardened, lethally skilled in armed and unarmed combat, inhumanly fast and strong, a dangerously intelligent tactician and schemer, and between his vast magical and psychic powers, one of the most powerful people on the planet.
• Gallows Humour: Becomes increasingly prone to this as time goes by, after a number of near-death and actual death experiences turn his snark darker - mainly as a coping mechanism.
• Game Face:
  • His eyes flash or glow gold when he gets annoyed. When he's really angry, or wants to make a point, it's joined by a strange and compelling double voice. As Carol observes in the sequel, no one's exactly sure where this comes from.
  • And then there's what happens when he becomes the Dark Phoenix. The less said about that, the better.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: To Uhtred during the Disir incident, with a touch of Dare to Be Badass.
• Generation Xerox: While there are the usual comments about his resemblance to his father appearance-wise, it becomes apparent that he's most startling in his resemblance to his mother, at least in personality. When Hermione encounters her in Ghosts, she observes several similarities - including that both are annoyingly secretive and enjoy it a little more than they should.
• The Gift: His psychic abilities. While they don't really kick in until around two-thirds of the way through the first book, and he doesn't really get control of them until the finale, his very first act is to instinctively reach out with them to call for help, and it's implied that he's been using them subconsciously for years.
• The Glasses Come Off: Harry gets a kind of Asgardian eye surgery leading to him ditch his glasses in Book I. The reactions are broadly appreciative, though Hermione inwardly notes that it, among other things, makes him look dangerous.
• Glory Seeker: Inverted, like canon, though less so. Not because he's more interested in glory, but because he is much, much more vocal about objecting to it - notably, when he goes nuclear after he's picked for the Triwizard Tournament.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: From about halfway through the first book, usually when something is about to be burned to a crisp.
• Godzilla Threshold: He has a few.
  • Mind Rape is this, initially. As Hermione explains to Ron, it's not that Harry can't do it, it's that he won't. Not unless he feels he absolutely has to.
  • The Dark Phoenix is several steps further, until he gets a handle on that power and stops being scared of it.
  • Usually, he doesn't like Astral Projection, for very understandable reasons. However, he projects his mind and powers through Carol via their Psychic Link when she gets kidnapped. Gorakhnath, after commenting that his initial efforts were impressive, sets about teaching him how to do it properly because it was also like watching a child juggle live hand grenades.
• Good Hurts Evil: Having a Phoenix fragment inside him helps. In a Good Is Not Soft sense, it's also increasingly implied after Forever Red that being trapped in the darker parts of Harry's head is one of the last things you want to happen.
• Good Is Not Soft: He's kind to most people, even during his Knight in Sour Armour periods. However, he's entirely capable of being ruthless, manipulative, and when driven far enough, absolutely vicious.
• Good Is Not Nice: Veers into this after Forever Red, due to a nasty case of PTSD, and even months after he's stabilised, Hermione points out that while most of his fellow students see him as fundamentally decent, 'nice' went out the window sometime ago. Harry, reluctantly, acknowledges this as a fair point.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: His canon scar is followed by two silvery scars over his heart (from Daken), and in Ghosts, a vampire bite on the arm, and a stab mark through the shoulder surrounded by fern-like scars resulting from a lightning strike. Martha Kent is understandably startled and not a little horrified when she sees all of them, especially given his striking resemblance to Clark. She's not the only one, either.
• Good Wears White: Played With. His armour from Book II onwards is predominantly white with a bit of silver and gold, he sometimes goes full White Phoenix, but it's also often a sign of his more eerie and dangerous nature.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Bludgeons one bully with another in Ghosts.
• Guardian Entity: His Phoenix fragment, and the Phoenix as a whole, function as this to him. If you succeed in killing him... then there is no god that can save you from Her wrath. Literally.
• Guile Hero: As Jean-Paul notes in Ghosts, it's easy enough to forget that Harry's actually very, very clever. This is particularly apparent early on, as he doesn't have the raw power to just bulldoze his way through opponents. When he does have that level of power (and hits a Rage Breaking Point) he tries Attack! Attack! Attack!, and pays for it. As part of his Character Development in the sequel, he develops the wisdom to start using his head again - and promptly demonstrates his ability to run mental rings around some very clever opponents.
• Guilt Complex: Somewhat, particularly related to the death of Luna Lovegood and the Red Army, though nowhere near as badly as in canon - getting therapy probably helped with this, as did having Carol, Jean, Wanda, and Thor (among others) around to alternately console him and verbally kick him up the arse if necessary.
• Had to Be Sharp: Repeated epic level murder attempts force something of an 'evolve or die' scenario upon him.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: On his return to Hogwarts following the Forever Red arc in Ghosts, he has this for a little while, terrifying pretty much all his fellow students since they have no idea what's likely to make him go off like a claymore mine, until Cedric Diggory gives him a gentle What the Hell, Hero? and inspires a Jerkass Realization.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Naturally, as the son of Thor. Though, considering the somewhat ambiguous nature of his mother, he may not even be half human to begin with.
• Hand Blast: Once he starts seriously Playing with Fire, it becomes his default form of attack until Ghosts.
• Handicapped Badass: Briefly in Ghosts. Losing an arm and an eye didn't slow him down much.
• Harmful to Minors: Oh so very frequently. He should be dead several times over (in fact, he has been dead at least once) and it's considered to be a legitimate miracle that he's not completely insane as a result of all he's been through. As it is, he's suffered serious Sanity Slippage at points, he's got horrible PTSD in the sequel, and almost the entire second book is about his Mental Health Recovery Arc - all while the danger ramps up. On his jaunt to the past in Book III, Sunniva, his distant aunt who grew up in a far more peaceful time for Asgard, is utterly horrified at even a small selection of what he's been through when - in her eyes - he should still be in schoolroom. In fact, despite decades of experience and control of the Phoenix, she nearly goes Dark Phoenix on the spot in sheer outrage. If she knew the full extent of it, it probably wouldn't be 'nearly'.
• Has a Type:
  • And much like his dad, it's Action Girls - in his case, especially blondes. Carol fits both categories like a glove. Guess what happens next.
  • Zig-Zagged when it comes to his affinity for redheads.
    • While Harry finds Jean 'inconveniently attractive', his attraction is mostly just an awareness that they're gorgeous, and Word of God has it that while Harry was originally going to be with Ginny (an idea discarded relatively early on), he's completely baffled by the revelation that in another world he might have got together with her. Though he concedes that Ginny is pretty, and technically does have a lot of personality traits he finds attractive, he doesn't really see her that way.
    • Later in the sequel, it's tacitly confirmed that a small part of him is more interested in Maddie than might be considered proper between second cousins in some parts of the world.
• Hates Being Alone: Suffice to say that a disdainful upbringing by the Dursleys left some serious psychological scars.
• Healing Hands: By Ghosts, he picks up some basic healing magic, though as he explains, Healing Magic Is the Hardest.
• Heal the Cutie: After the comprehensive Break the Cutie that was Forever Red , he ends up slowly - very slowly - being healed through a combination of therapy, affection, and time, all of which evolve him through the Knight in Sour Armour to a more ruthless and cynical version of the Knight In Shining Armour that he used to be, who nevertheless believes in the Power of Trust and that Rousseau Was Right. Falling head over heels in reciprocated love with Carol, cemented in a Relationship Upgrade in chapter 46 doesn't hurt, either. By The Phoenix and the Serpent, it seems to have stuck and he's lightened up even further.
• Heinz Hybrid: His father's an Asgardian who's one quarter Titan thanks to Bor marrying Theia, his mother was a witch and a latent mutant, and, to complicate matters further, while he was conceived his father was a human wizard, leaving him with three sets of biological grandparents and it's implied that the Asgardian side of the family intermarried with the House of El a very long way back (no one's quite sure and the blood connection would be more or less homeopathic at this point anyway). While it gives him a bucket-load of power (eventually), mostly all it does is give him an absurdly complex family tree, which he treats with increasingly bemused apathy, and a bucket-load of enemies.
• Held Gaze: Frequently, with Carol, or more generally when he's trying to make a point or convey sincerity.
• Heroic Lineage: He's the son of Thor, it kind of comes with the territory. He's alternately bemused and embarrassed.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Like canon, he's prone to this, though Carol is just as prone to puncturing this as she is his bouts of melodrama. It takes a more serious edge later in Ghosts as he bitterly reflects on his instinctive knack for/default to manipulative lying and Exact Words.
• Heroic Resolve: A defining trait, and as the finale of Child of the Storm and Forever Red demonstrate, one that often gets him into trouble. Once he learns to balance it with some forethought in Bloody Hell, it becomes much more useful.
• Heroic Willpower: Again, his stubbornness is legendary, allowing him to hold out under two days of physical and psychic torture - of course, this stubbornness is also revealed to have a number of downsides.
• Heroism Motive Speech: Gives one in Ghosts, though couched as a Motive Rant, as he's both exhausted and infuriated at having been dragged into something completely unnecessary in the form of the Triwizard Tournament. It essentially boils down to the fact that he does what he does not because it is fun (which it frequently isn't) or because it is easy (which it almost never is), or because people are grateful (which they often aren't), but because it is right.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He gains a mixed reputation at Hogwarts in the sequel, thanks to a PTSD driven Hair-Trigger Temper. Since his attention is largely elsewhere, he rarely notices or cares - at least, once it's established that he's no longer actively terrifying his fellow students, which horrified him when it was brought home to him by Cedric Diggory.
• Hidden Depths: He has many, starting with the fact that he's much, much smarter than he lets on and than he initially realises, and even people with little reason to like him concede that by the second book, he's an Excellent Judge of Character - so far, he's only been fooled by Alexander Pierce. The start of the third book reveals that, as hinted in canon, he's a surprisingly adept amateur flautist - useful when Magic Music is involved.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Phoenix fire. Even once he learns to control it, in Book II, it's because he's on Earth and using it there will shatter the Seal of Surtur and unleash Ragnarok. In Book III, during Following Yonder Star, being first in an era when the Seal is solid, and then in space, he's using it openly, but when he's on Sakaar, he has to be much more sparing with it as a) it risks burning him up, b) he's saving it as a surprise sucker-punch for the Grandmaster and he doesn't have enough power to spare to use it on anything else. In the end, he hits on the idea of using it in a Hive Mind of everyone on Sakaar, connected by Sunniva to the Future Foundation's teleportation matrix, making everyone a Phoenix host temporarily, unleashing Phoenix fire on all of Sakaar and tearing him apart, and simultaneously supercharging himself with the Phoenix Fire of billions of people.
• Holding Hands: Usually with Carol. Three guesses why.
• Holy Hand Grenade: When he whips out his fire magic, the Phoenix (and possibly his latent Asgardian heritage) tends to add a certain influence to it that's inimical to evil, even if he's not consciously using it. His blood is also apparently lethally dangerous to vampires, enough that some mingled blood and spit burns like acid, and a cup of it cures a part-turned Grey Court vampire. Curtana being reforged in his blood gives it some of these properties, with Harry implying that it could even kill Lobo, who otherwise seems to enjoy Complete Immortality - and Lobo's uncharacteristic silence and sweat implies he may be right.
• Honor Before Reason: While he becomes a Combat Pragmatist and Truth Twister extraordinaire, one persistent tendency of Harry's is to do what he thinks is right, no matter the cost. Which usually means doing something "very noble, and very, very stupid." More than once, Doctor Strange relies on exactly that. It can also lead to his brain fusing if doing right by one person, especially someone he considers family or near enough to, is simultaneously doing wrong by another.
• Hope Bringer: Specifically name checked as this. However, the flip side of this is that he could also become a terrifying Dark Messiah. After veering worryingly close to the latter, he starts becoming this in earnest in Ghosts.
• Hot-Blooded: As per canon, though it's more obvious because he's now being freer with his emotions. Uhtred, Diana, and Sunniva all note that the Warrior's blood of the Asgardian royal line flows hot in him. And cold.
• Hot for Teacher: Develops a little bit of a crush on Betsy Braddock, one that lingers into Ghosts.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Just a bit, every now and then, developing as time passes. Especially when Carol is around.
• Humble Goal: As is occasionally noted, he's mostly just interested in a comparatively normal (by supernatural standards) life with his family - with a sidenote of adventure.
• Humble Hero: Mostly, being somewhat embarrassed when people start treating him like royalty - which he is. However, he does become willing to pull rank as and when he finds it useful, or show off his powers to demonstrate how irritated he is.
• Hunk: He will grow up to be this. Unsurprising, since per Word of God, he's slowly growing into something like a mixture of Henry Cavill and Pierce Brosnan.
• Hybrid Power: Thanks to his parentage, which seems set to drive him straight into Story-Breaker Power territory, but this is Harry we're talking about. There are caveats.
  • Initially, the Super-Strength appears completely at random, meaning that he lives in mortal fear of shaking someone's hand and squashing it or similar.
  • The Psychic Powers come through violently and are dangerously uncontrollable for a good while (nearly getting him, Ron and Hermione killed and leaving him open for Voldemort to play Power Parasite). Word of God says that he'll never be as strong as Jean is, (or Maddie, for that matter), or as good as Xavier is (as Word of God also admits, this still means he's pretty damn powerful), and he lacks the skill and until chapter 74, the will, to use those powers effectively. After, though, he gets a very, very rapid grip on them.
    • Oh, and Doctor McCoy theorises that the steady altering of his body and brain chemistry by his Asgardian genes could mean that his Psychic Powers will eventually short-circuit his brain.
  • And when he does learn to use them effectively in combat, it's largely as a result of an epic case of Break the Cutie.
• Hyper-Awareness: Even without his Psychic Powers, he's disquietingly observant. Sirius indicates that he got it from Lily, who by all accounts was scarily observant in her own right, and when Hermione meets Lily and is in a position to compare, does so. In the sequel, this is one of many skills Bucky's training him in.

Tropes I to Z

• I Am What I Am: In Ghosts, he comes to reconcile the various facets of his nature, and makes it clear to Ron - who's struggling to accept those changes.
• Ice King: In the sequel, as he becomes more serious, emotionally guarded, and testy with less mature peers and adults. He doesn't have much time for pettiness in general, really, and he won't hesitate to make that clear. As this is a side-effect of the brutal Trauma Conga Line of Forever Red, he defrosts as time goes by
• I Got Bigger: He quotes the trope to a puzzled Hulk after the Plot-Relevant Age-Up. It's temporary, though he later undergoes a significant growth spurt, being described as tall by later in the second book, and just shy of six foot by Book III.
• I Have Many Names: Harry starts to accrue nicknames and bynames the way that he collects relatives, partly thanks to derring-do and an Asgardian propensity towards this, partly thanks to happenstance, and partly, when time-travelling, out of reluctance to give his own name. Some exasperate him, some he finds quite funny.
  • These include: Harry Potter, Harry Thorson, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Boy-Who-Has-Been-Repeatedly-Fried-By-His-Own-Powers (by Carol, when noting the general issue of Power Incontinence), Phoenix, Harry Phoenix-Born, the Red Son, Dark Phoenix, 'Nathan Danvers' (given by Lex as an undercover alias), 'Agent Galahad' (courtesy of Coulson blandly claiming that he's an Agent of SHIELD), Listens-And-Asks-Endless-Questions, Starlight-In-His-Eyes, the Wanderer/Wander, Lord Earendil from the Alfar (which he finds particularly amusing), an updated translation of the latter courtesy of Sunniva in Prince Aurvandil, and, technically, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Or, 'I Just Want To Be A Normal Wizard-Mutant', anyway. This is played with, however, as while he resents his status as The Chosen One and the stresses it puts him under, he enjoys the kind of conflict it lands him in a bit more than is normal.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Downplayed - he's actually terrified that Carol's developing feelings for him as a reflection of his feelings for her down their psychic link, but the reason he falls for her is that she sees him as a person first and foremost. Not the Boy Who Lived, not the Prince of Asgard, and certainly not The Chosen One - just Harry.
• Immune to Mind Control: By the sequel, willpower, psychic scars, vast Psychic Powers, and his Phoenix fragment mean that it's almost impossible to control him - and anyone getting inside his head is going to very quickly regret it. He actually invokes this at one point, where he plans to force a monster he's facing into his own head and take care of it that way.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: Comes out with words to this effect once, which Carol affectionately mocks.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: This happens on a distressingly regular basis, as he sourly lampshades in Ghosts.
• Improvisational Ingenuity: Arguably his true superpower - he's used to being wildly outgunned, so he's learned to think sideways when it comes to solving problems, and using anything he can lay his hands on to do it. And he does. Notable examples include using a penny and some magic to jury-rig a rail-gun.
• Incest Subtext: Mixed with Kissing Cousins. He's uncomfortably attracted to Jean, his second cousin, before his emotions win the argument with his hormones (mostly). When it comes to Maddie (also a second cousin) he tacitly admits that he's a bit attracted to her, too, after a dark duplicate suggests he was fantasising about her.
• Inconvenient Attraction: His attraction to Jean and Maddie - the former he finds particularly awkward because she treats him as the baby brother she never had, which on an emotional level, he's perfectly comfortable with. Physically is a more difficult matter. Maddie is different, less awkward since they have a different dynamic, but still awkward.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness:
  • Played With. At first, it's Played Straight, until his temper starts emerging and he's put under greater strain, with several observations that he could turn into a new pre Heel–Face Turn Magneto. More than once, he comes very close to snapping entirely. However, it seems that the only thing capable of corrupting him is his own rage, as his reliable resistance to temptation proves.
  • As of Ghosts, however, this is increasingly called into question, with his dark side being brought up as something to watch out for, before the Trauma Conga Line of the Forever Red arc nearly drives him insane and does result in his briefly snapping and becoming the Dark Phoenix. While he manages to draw back from the edge, it's independently noted by several people that even ignoring the rampant PTSD, there's something of a shadow on him - he's more ruthless, temperamental, secretive, and manipulative. The pendulum starts swinging back in The Phoenix and the Serpent after months of time and space to get his head straight, though he's still not unchanged.
• Indy Ploy: His hallmark, where plans are concerned, along with Crazy Enough to Work.
• Ineffectual Loner: Downplayed. He's increasingly capable of looking after himself, but when it comes to really serious situations, going it alone tends to end very badly - though unless the situation is truly horrific, the start of the Phoenix and the Serpent demonstrates that he's perfectly fine being left alone to wander around a de facto Death World (prehistoric Earth), despite being 15 at the oldest.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: While his general self-esteem improves, his more anti-heroic behaviour and enforced secret keeping leave him with this - as usual, he's dead set on doing the right thing, no matter what, and is defensively certain that he is doing the right thing... but often loathes the lies and manipulation involved and what he feels that says about him.
• In Harm's Way: Tends to find trouble and as he reluctantly admits to himself, a considerable part of him actually enjoys the life or death fights he finds himself in.
• Inner Monologue Conversation: While he's an immensely powerful telepath, one of his more disconcerting characteristics is the ability to do this even when his telepathy isn't in use, simply by reading features and body language.
• Innocently Insensitive: Increasingly in the second book - ironically for a psychic, he's really bad at considering the viewpoints of other people unless he's actively trying to manipulate them. This is implied to be thanks to a mixture of trauma-induced shutting people out and his obsessive attitude regarding Mind over Manners, meaning that he ignores empathic cues (both psychic and not) that he really should pay attention to. However, it's notable that the main incidents tend to pop up when something has aggravated one of those trauma scars, causing him to shut down and clam up. Some people (Cedric) take this behaviour better than others (Ron and Hermione), though everyone calls him out on it - and he usually cops to it. Usually. In Book III, this improves somewhat more, as he opens up somewhat.
• Insecure Love Interest: While he doesn't doubt her feelings for him, he's initially extremely hesitant to make any moves on Carol even after they start dating, partly thanks to his deep respect for her boundaries and initial desire to stay Just Friends (and he prizes their friendship above all), but also partly because of his insecurities and lingering fears that he's subconsciously influencing her feelings. She gently calls him on this at one point, and they talk through it.
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Most of his enemies are arrogant as they come (the really dangerous ones either aren't or don't let it get in the way of their thinking), while he's a riddled mess of insecurities under a facade of swagger.
• Instant Costume Change: When the Phoenix is involved.
• Instant Expert: Not quite instant, but thanks to a natural kinesthetic learning style (which he's implied to have in canon), Asgardian muscle memory, and it is hinted, telepathy, he learns practical and intuitive skills exceptionally quickly.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Under the brooding, temper, and occasional manipulative tendencies, he's a sensitive and emotional character who enjoys snuggling with loved ones, digs into floriography to ask out the girl he likes, and after a talk with his dad, has no compunctions about crying if the situation merits it. Even his fighting style is more stereotypically feminine in the sequel, with noted influences from Natasha.
• I Shall Taunt You: He has a great deal of fun winding up his enemies, being a Deadpan Snarker with a Motor Mouth and a tendency towards Casual Danger Dialogue. At one point in Book III, he laments that his current enemies are so eldritch that they can't understand his material.
• It's All My Fault:
  • In the first book, he insistently blames himself for Luna's death.
  • He also reserves a certain amount of blame for himself after becoming first the Red Son, then the Dark Phoenix and the aftereffects, which happened because of an Indy Ploy gone horribly wrong.
• It's Personal: He's fairly forgiving of offences to himself (Belova understandably excepted), but offences to/harming people he cares about tends to lead to his bitterest grudges and most savage responses.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: Regarding the Red Room, he holds a significant grudge towards Yelena Belova and, to a lesser extent, Sinister. Considering what both of them did to him, especially Belova, this is not surprising.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: And doesn't he know it. On the other hand, he does come to note some of the upsides.
• Jack of All Stats: He doesn't top out the scale for power or skill as a Flying Brick, wielder of Psychic Powers, or sorcerer. However, he is damn close to the top end of each, and he's terrifyingly capable. More than one character notes that in some ways, his ability to combine his different abilities actually makes him more dangerous, in a way, than if he were the best at only one.
• Jade-Coloured Glasses: In Ghosts. He's still an All-Loving Hero and fairly idealistic when the story starts. The finale of the first book makes him both more and less cynical - it exposes him to brutal reality, but everything is wrapped up in a bow by Doctor Strange. Then Forever Red happens, and he gets spectacularly cynical, something he later implies to be both a mark of his longstanding PTSD and a coping mechanism, calling it "a good way to survive, but a bad way to live." Around that point, he seals his journey in the opposite direction and settles as a Knight of Faith, swinging further back into his lighter nature in The Phoenix and the Serpent.
• Jedi Mind Trick: Uses this and notes the Trope Namer in Ghosts. He later does it again to both Filch and Mrs Norris, quoting Obi-Wan Kenobi and lampshades it, claiming Carol force-fed him Star Wars. Twice.
• Jerkass Ball:
  • In Ghosts, he picks this up after Forever Red and tapering off around the next big arc, Bloody Hell, because of an absolutely horrible case of PTSD. It gets better with his mental health, though he's still a bit grumpier than before, and Hermione notes that he's widely considered to be "decent, but not nice" afterwards.
  • Grabs it again while in Smallville, thanks to the situation triggering both his Big Brother Instinct and almost every single one of his Trauma Buttons. However, he softens pretty quickly, and he's overall a Cool Big Bro to Clark.
• Jerkass Realization: In Ghosts, he has one when Cedric Diggory gently points out that while Harry's understandably a bit messed up and angry over what he's been through, the Hogwarts students don't deserve to have him taking his anger out on them. It then really hits home when Harry sees just how he looks in Cedric's eyes just when he's about to go nuclear on him for nothing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Becomes this in Ghosts, following the Trauma Conga Line of Forever Red. He (mostly) gets better, with diminishing quantities of jerk as time goes on. He does sometimes get snappish under strain or dealing with teenage shenanigans, as the Smallville arc demonstrates - though in the latter case, he was also under significantly more stress than he let on, as the situation was jumping up and down on his Trauma Buttons.
• Junior Counterpart:
  • Initially, people compare him to Thor and with good reason, but in terms of mannerisms and personality, he reminds people intensely of his mother. While this is usually positive, he also inherited her temper and secretive nature. The latter makes both great Secret Keepers, but Hermione notes sourly that they enjoy it a little too much for their own good.
  • More disturbingly, his Tranquil Fury and willingness to use Cool And Unusual Punishments tends to remind people of a young Magneto. These people include Magneto himself, who is particularly disturbed.
  • In Book II, he starts acting very like Bucky. Since Bucky was the Winter Soldier, and Harry's imitations reflect that part of him, this tends to disturb both of them - though given that he was explicitly intended to be the Winter Soldier's Superior Successor, and Bucky is his Sensei for Scoundrels, it's not entirely surprising, either.
  • When he's just done something clever (especially if it's to make someone evil suffer), he gets a wicked smile that makes him look disturbingly like Doctor Strange. As the sequel goes on, he takes on more and more of Strange's mannerisms and tactics, to the point where one reviewer referred to him as 'Diet Doctor Strange'. Strange himself recognises it and tries to head it off, on the grounds that he regards his own actions and personality as Necessarily Evil rather than anything to imitate.
• Kansas City Shuffle: In Ghosts, he starts favouring this as part of his various gambits, with more than one reviewer commenting on it in relation to his becoming something of a 'Diet Doctor Strange'. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's spectacular.
• Kid with the Leash: Sometimes with the Hulk, who is rather fond of "Little God", even if he's extremely disoriented and thoroughly pissed off. In turn, Carol is sometimes perceived as this to him - and given that she's one of the very few people with a cat in hell's chance of actually controlling him, this is not exactly groundless.
• Kill It with Fire: Burn. It's his standard tactic, really, and it usually works. As Alison observes, "fire is very hard to argue with."
• The Kirk: His default position in most of the trios he occupies, particularly with Maddie and Jean. However, with Carol and Jean-Paul, he usually acts as The McCoy, and with Ron and Hermione, he has elements of The Spock (being more secretive, pragmatic, and manipulative).
• Knight In Shining Armour:
  • He's steadily growing into this trope, even down to charming ladies without deliberately seducing them and a certain susceptibility to the Dulcinea Effect. This is repeatedly lampshaded. However, by Ghosts, this has veered sharply into a smoothie of this and Knight in Sour Armour - basically, he's a Knight In Shining Armour with added cynicism - before back into a Knight of Faith with elements of this. He even has the requisite suit, initially transfigured by Sirius from broken Iron Man suits, then purpose-built as 'Project Galahad'.
  • By Book III, he's settled into a primarily Type II Knight of Faith - in other words, a Knight In Shining Armour who is fully aware of how cynical the world can be.
• Knight in Sour Armour: In Ghosts. While he's largely accepted the inevitability of new and interesting murder attempts, and will unwaveringly stand in protection of what is right and good, developing into a Knight of Faith, this does not mean that he'll necessarily be particularly happy about it. Nor will it stop him providing a snarky commentary on events. This tendency has decreased markedly by Book III, however.
• Knight of Faith: His Mental Health Recovery Arc rebuilds his idealism into something more pragmatic, nuanced, but still hopeful - the universe may have no inherent sense of justice, so he'd best get about creating some.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": He adjusts pretty well to meeting some fairly spectacular people, but he's got a hero worship streak towards Steve in Book I (which is why he's a bit shy around him), immediately latches onto Tony and Loki, goes bug-eyed when he meets the Lady Knight, and clearly enjoys teaming up with Anakin Skywalker.
• Lady and Knight: He and Carol develop this dynamic in Ghosts, though more of the Action Duo/nascent Battle Couple variety, interwoven with a whopping great dose of Courtly Love.
• Large Ham: He's usually a fairly subdued figure, and more inclined to be a Cold Ham, but goodness, when he feels particularly histrionic or, indeed, just like showing off (particularly in a good mood), he's not shy of Chewing the Scenery. I mean, for god's sake, this is the same person who in Book III decided to enter the Contest of Champions not just as a Mystery Knight, but in full shapeshifted disguise as Obi-Wan Kenobi, complete with an imitation so good it downright disturbed someone who knew the person he was disguised as. And then spent the final part of that arc channeling the Doctor.
• The Leader: A classic combination of Charismatic and Headstrong (he's working on the Headstrong part).
• Leave Him to Me!: Says this to his friends when encountering Daken - for the second time - in HYDRA's main base.
• Le Parkour: He's got quick reflexes and great balance to begin with, and by the sequel, he's exceptionally fast and agile too. He often folds this into his combat style.
• Let's Get Dangerous!:
  • When matters get serious (usually around the point where he gets really angry), the chatter and mocking banter (plus totally not Flirting Under Fire, if Carol's around) all vanish. His voice gets cold, calm, and somehow dead and if he speaks at all, what he does say will be brutal and direct. He will then discard his usual morals and cut straight to the most efficient method of destroying his opponent, whether that is Mind Rape or straight up decapitation.
  • There's also the small matter of, from Ghosts onwards, the smell of wood-smoke. It appears when Harry's on the edge of his Rage Breaking Point and means the Dark Phoenix is on the point of emerging.
• Lightning Bruiser: In the sequel thanks to slowly developing Asgardian powers and occasional psychic amplification over short distances he's the fastest character barring Jean-Paul, he's got the raw mystical/psychic power to contend with anyone who isn't on his dad's level, and similar raw physical power when telekinetic amplification kicks in.
• Like a Son to Me:
  • Molly Weasley had this, as in canon, in Book 1. Though thanks to a combination of circumstances, Harry ends up drifting away from the Weasleys as a surrogate family, as he now has his own family, and they have to cope with Arthur's death.
  • Wanda is his godmother and as soon as it becomes clear that she's not going to endanger him by engaging with him, she embraces the role of Parental Substitute, having previously been forced to keep her distance by Strange's warnings. It's made abundantly clear that this broke her heart and she considers what followed to be My Greatest Failure; and even then, it's suggested that she sent him presents - until she realised that they were given to Dudley - and watched over him sometimes, once comforting him when he'd been chased by bullies when he was about seven. It's repeatedly noted that she loves him like her own, and after an initially rocky relationship, Harry reciprocates. This becomes a significant problem when Hermione finds out that Wanda is her biological mother, as Harry instinctively takes Wanda's side, and while Hermione is Happily Adopted, she perceives a certain Parental Favouritism. More than one person notes that while it's more complicated than that, it's quite probable that though Wanda loves them equally, she may find Harry easier to love, given various traumatic memory associations with Hermione.
  • Natasha is gentler with him than with literally anyone else (except possibly Bucky—we don't see very many of their interactions), allowing him to call her "Nat" and even staying the night with him when he's sick. It's speculated by a few characters that she sees him as the son she could never have, or at the very least is the closest thing to it. Sadly, this leads to Belova raping him in a bid to claim what she perceives as being Natasha's, and an utterly brutal Curb-Stomp Battle from Natasha after Belova molests him in front of her.
  • Doctor Strange is the general Big Good, for a given value of 'Good', and he's more than willing to push around, manipulate, and outright bully almost everyone. While he's generally kinder to children, he gives Harry far more latitude and time than he does to anyone else except for Wanda - his former apprentice and foster-daughter. While Harry's the centre of his schemes, and later his student, he does every little kindness he can for Harry, explains far more than he does to literally anyone else, treats him with respect (which puts him in the same company as Wanda, Dumbledore, and Merlin, and exactly no one else), was his doctor as a small child and whenever he gets seriously hurt as a teenager, and is visibly upset when he can't whip up a magical salve for Harry's mental health troubles as he could for practically anyone else. Though he would never say it, it's implied that he sees Harry as a sort of surrogate grandson.
• Like Brother and Sister:
  • Lobby from his hormones aside, he settles on this with Jean, who embraces the role of loving (and terrifyingly protective) big sister. With Maddie, it's a bit more ambiguous, while with Diana, he happily plays the big brother.
  • He used to be like this with Hermione, though they start drifting apart a little in the second book. Even so, however, he cares for her very much and it's noted by Loki that he's "about as attracted to her as he is to mold."
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Played With.
  • Thor was, both as himself and as James, something of a Sheltered Aristocrat growing up. He became a Boisterous Bruiser/Jerk Jock pre Character Development, albeit a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and evolved into a Prince Charming/Lovable Jock. Even after toning down the Large Ham tendencies and controlling his Unstoppable Rage (the result being closer to Tranquil Fury, unless he's really pushed), he's still a Boisterous Bruiser. He's the outgoing type of Magnetic Hero, who welcomes and thrives on the limelight.
  • Harry, by contrast, was a small, skinny, mistreated outcast, softer spoken, compassionate and an absolute sweetie, one who retains elements of that sweetness even after becoming a Knight in Sour Armour. He's also drawn to and protective of his fellow misfits and outsiders - though considering the Marauders, that might run in the family - and a Reluctant Warrior (albeit not as reluctant as he might admit) who shuns the limelight. Also, due to the fact that he started out as a Fragile Speedster, then a Glass Cannon, rather than Thor's literal Lightning Bruiser, he's had to be more creative. Where Thor was fairly open about being Hot-Blooded, even as James, Harry wound up suppressing it, which led to it festering into a dark side with a a capacity for cruelty that Thor doesn't possess.
• Like Parent, Like Child: His courage, nobility and arch-protectiveness of his friends are reminiscent of his father, though most of his personality - his blazing temper, compassion, skill with fire, secretive nature, and Phoenix connection - tend to remind most very strongly of his mother. It gets to the point where people who knew her start to recognise some of Lily's specific mannerisms in Harry.
• Likes Older Women: Examples include attraction to Darcy, conflict between hormones and emotions regarding Jean, a crush on Betsy Braddock, very complicated feelings towards Maddie, and technically speaking Carol (the technically part being that she's about a year older than him, at most, an age gap which pretty much vanishes entirely once he comes back from his temporal jaunts).
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Played With. His paternal heritage and his relationship with his father are in heavy focus for most of the first book, but towards the end, and during the second, by far the greater emphasis is placed on his mother. She's where he gets his much favoured Psychic Powers from, as well as his inclination towards pyromancy, she's where he gets his signature eyes from, and as is repeatedly indicated, a surprising number of character traits too. Oh, and then there's the Phoenix. Heck, even though his features mostly come from his father, his expressions and body language tend to draw comparisons to his mother. Given he's seen her exactly once since he was one, no one has any idea how this is possible, though it probably isn't coincidental that it starts happening after his Phoenix fragment starts making itself known (and through it, Lily herself).
• List-of-Experiences Speech: Sometimes brings this out in the sequel, and they aren't always his own. Unusually, most of the time he's making a point about how putting himself on the line - or being put in the line, because The Call Knows Where You Live - has left him horribly traumatised, and a lot of his other friends who end up in the same line aren't much better off.
• Little Brother Is Watching: He's much more conscious of his behaviour around Clark in the sequel (who has that effect on a number of people), and to a lesser extent Luna Lovegood in the first book.
• Living Is More than Surviving: Muses on this in Ghosts, observing that his now reflexive cynicism has made him very good at surviving, but not so good at living.
• Living Legend: Technically one from the start as the Boy-Who-Lived, but by Book II, his reputation is rapidly growing beyond the Wizarding World, to the point where even his foes are acknowledging it with professional respect.
• Living Mood Ring: From the final part of Book I onwards, his eyes are fairly instructive as to how much trouble you're in. If they're green, you're fine (... probably). If they're glowing gold, he's both angry and charging up to do something big, in which case you should probably run. If they're glowing white, the Phoenix has come out to play, and there's nowhere you can hide.
• Locked into Strangeness: After being possessed by Chthon, he develops a thick lock of white hair at the front of his head, much to his surprise. Mostly, it just attracts odd looks, but it takes on additional significance when it's revealed that Krum saw memories of the Red Son in a Pensieve, and despite a mask and goggles, the skunk stripe and raw power meant that he put two and two together when saw Harry at close quarters.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Less so than canon, as Thor doesn't really see much point in keeping his son uninformed, and Doctor Strange tends to add information when needed (though this is variable, with Harry at one point snarking in Ghosts that "Doctor Strange operates on a need to know basis: as in, he's the person who needs to know").
  • However, Harry is much more inclined to pull this on Ron and Hermione in Ghosts, albeit for fairly understandable reasons; it's indicated that given the choice, he would do this with most of his friends, but the others tend to be involved in whatever insanity has gone/is going down, so he wants to preserve Ron and Hermione's relative innocence (being very aware of the psychic wear and tear his adventures cause). As he also points out, a lot of the secrets he's learned aren't necessarily his to share; and after Forever Red in particular, he's not particularly willing to open up about just what has happened.
• Lonely Among People: He gets better with time and therapy, and he's got a much wider social circle than before, but his tendency to repress and lock down painful feelings, plus a general reluctance to open up, mean that he's even more prone to this than canon until someone persuades him to open up. This person is usually, but not exclusively, Carol.
• Longing Look: A few times towards Carol. No one is remotely surprised.
• Love Redeems: The Power of Love is what keeps him from tipping over into the Dark Phoenix in Ghosts. On the other hand, even he acknowledges that it could have the opposite effect.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Develops both the ability and willingness to do this in Ghosts.
• Made of Iron: You can knock him down, but it is next to impossible to keep him down - he will take supposedly lethal damage and keep on coming. Even being impaled with his own sword and struck by lightning after a brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown only succeeds in slowing him down and pissing him off.
• Madness Mantra: "Didn't want it" in the sequel, relating to Belova raping him and his unwilling physical arousal.
• Magic Enhancement: Undergoes this twice, though it's temporary on both occasions, when visiting Asgard for the first time and when the Genius Loci of the Mountain gives him and a few others a Plot-Relevant Age-Up.
• Magic Fire: All his fire magic is tinged with this thanks to the Phoenix, though it only usually has a basic Holy Burns Evil effect (and considering Harry's combat style, it isn't generally obvious). When he really taps into the Phoenix is another matter entirely.
• Magic Knight: In Ghosts, having spent the previous book as a Squishy Wizard. Figuring out how to use his telekinesis to enhance his strength, speed, and durability during Forever Red helped, as did tapping into the knowledge of hand to hand and knife-fighting skills he got implanted as the Red Son.
• Magic Music: By Book III, he's learned these from Doctor Strange, well enough to use his flute as an ersatz Ocarina of Time.
• Magnetic Hero: Partly natural, partly caused by Wanda's blessing.
• Making a Splash: Learns a bit in Ghosts under Strange's tutelage, but he doesn't like it very much.
• Male Gaze: Mostly downplayed and consciously resisted on his part, but he is a Hormone-Addled Teenager.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A rare male example; quirky, energetic, and prone sweeping all sorts of often apparently people/people living relatively ordinary lives into adventures beyond their imagining.
• Manipulative Bastard: By the second book, he's an extremely adept manipulator. He doesn't necessarily like it, and he's usually just playing matchmaker or defusing tension with a well-timed guilt trip (which he's sometimes called on). Usually. The exceptions can be chilling, if only because he's good at it - and he's not particularly happy about that. And what's most disturbing is that sometimes, he doesn't even notice he's doing it.
• Man of Kryptonite: In several respects.
  • By blood to vampires, thanks to his protection, which proves crucial when curing Peter Parker of Grey Court vampirism before he turns in full.
  • Also thanks to the Phoenix protection, his mind and fire magic carry extra punch against dark magic and spirits.
  • More generally, Surtur fears he is this because he's a very unusual Phoenix host. He's indicated to be right.
• Master of Illusion: He has a remarkable knack for this - enough to successfully fool Dracula by impersonating the Dark Phoenix. His uncle is Loki, after all.
• Master of One Magic: While he's far from incompetent in other areas, especially in Ghosts, his real strengths are fire magic and telekinesis, being outright referred to as exceptionally gifted with the former by Harry Dresden, a fire magic prodigy in his own right. Ron speculates near the end of Ghosts that since he Had to Be Sharp, he played to his strengths as hard as he could to give himself a chance of surviving long enough to broaden his skill-base (which he does).
• Master Swordsman: He's still learning and gets utterly schooled by Dracula in Book II, but he shows it more and more over time, particularly in Book III. It helps that he's a frighteningly quick learner with buckets of talent and, as the Lady Knight points out in detail, he has every natural advantage even without his powers. Per Sif, he'll be a master by human standards by his early 20s at the latest, and by Asgardian ones by 100 (and Asgardians routinely get to 5000). The Lady Knight reckons that's actually an underestimate, considering he's a telepath and as such can learn more quickly. She also reckons that he's "at least" as naturally talented as Arthur Pendragon - and by her account, " Arthur was brilliant."
• The Matchmaker: Plays this for Lex and Sue and again for Ginny and Diana in Ghosts. It's a sign both that he's a Nice Guy, and that he's got a nascent gift as a manipulator.
• Menacing Stroll: Sometimes in the sequel, usually manifesting as a predatory stalking movement when he's expecting trouble - one that tends to make people very aware that he is not entirely human.
• Mentor's New Hope: He's Strange's. While Strange has had several apprentices, his first was meant to be The Chosen One who would be capable of defeating Thanos. Unfortunately, Strange was much younger and drastically misjudged his character, blinded by fatherly love for his apprentice, and that apprentice ended up becoming Apocalypse. His next two apprentices both ended up going dark as well, albeit that it was at least somewhat more planned and Margaret pulled away towards the end. Harry, his protege and last apprentice, is his new hope, based entirely on his being a hero in spite of his powers rather than because of them.
• Mercury's Wings: His later helmets incorporate this, like his dad, albeit in a style more like that of Numenor than the classic example. Given that he turns out to be the inspiration for Earendil, which he finds immensely funny, this is apt.
• Messianic Archetype: Zig-Zags the trope. Throughout Child of the Storm he's generally the All-Loving Hero of canon, and ultimately saves the world by rejecting The Final Temptation. However, in Ghosts, the traumatic experiences and PTSD pile up, and he risks veering into Dark Messiah territory. As of chapter 58 of the latter, he inclines towards it once more, giving Clark a Rousing Speech about how Rousseau Was Right when Clark was having a crisis of faith and dismissing cynicism as 'an unfortunate reflex' on his part, deeming it 'a good way to survive, but a bad way to live'. By Book III, he's striding straight back into it again, as a more matured and measured Knight of Faith.
• Messiah Creep: Over the story, he undergoes this, even more than canon - though with the flip side that he could yet become a Dark Messiah and during Ghosts is something of an Apocalypse Maiden. He's not particularly happy about it, though as Jesus points out, he can either front up to it, or run from it - and the latter never works in the long term. By Book III, it looks like he's come to accept it.
• Messy Hair: As per usual. It occasionally gets brought up, with Wanda maternally carding her hands through it, and Carol affectionately mussing it even further.
• Metaphorgotten: He sometimes loses track of what he's saying, with amusing results. It's also generally a good sign that he's in a good mood - if he's cold and precise, start running.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Usually Played for Laughs when he gets grumpy about unfiltered teenage thoughts, but his Psychic Powers are so great that it's hard to keep other people out.
• Mind over Manners: Is extremely scrupulous about this and initially squeamish about using anything more than passive telepathy, partly because of privacy, partly because of what Riddle's Diary did to Ginny, and partly because he's absolutely terrified (and not entirely without reason) that he could start on a slippery slope. It's pathological, to the point where it may be stunting his empathy, though. In Book III, he's more or less made peace with it.
• Mind over Matter: Develops this later in the first book. It quickly becomes his default power, to the point where it's occasionally noted that his teachers have to remind him to use magic rather than telekinesis, and in Ghosts, particularly after tuition from Magneto, he's absolutely lethal with it.
• Mind Rape:
  • He violently objects to it on moral grounds, and is initially terrified of using his telepathy at all for fear of doing this accidentally. By Ghosts, Hermione corrects Ron, saying that it's something that he won't do. That's not the same as saying that he can't.
  • This happens to him at the hands of the Red Room. He is much, much touchier about it afterwards. However, if you make him properly mad... Harry's psychic attack on Reynolds is described as so vicious that the associated dismemberment was 'a mere courtesy detail'.
• Missing Mom: His mother may be Not Quite Dead, but due to one reason or another, he can't really see very much of her. While he previously gravitated to father figures, he now gravitates even more strongly to maternal figures; formerly Mrs Weasley, and now mostly his godmother, Wanda (though Natasha is hinted to get a look in). This unfortunately clouds his judgement regarding the issue of Hermione's parentage.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: In Ghosts, at Hogwarts - no one knows what happened to him during Forever Red, and only a few, such as Cedric Diggory, have the background knowledge to guess that he's suffering from a horrible case of 'Curse Shock' and conclude that something truly awful happened to him as a result. And even then, Cedric needs another chance clue from Krum to put together just what happened.
• Modest Royalty: Very much so - he tends to get embarrassed if people even bring up his rank, and even more embarrassed about songs being sung about his deeds.
• Moe Couplet:
  • As per canon, with Luna, for many of the same reasons.
  • He also develops one with Diana, who shares a number of Luna's personality traits.
  • Hermione, again, for the same reasons as in canon.
  • Maddie is a stoic and very controlled character with a vast technical understanding of her psychic powers, but next to no understanding of the more intuitive side. Or, indeed, of people. Harry's more Hot-Blooded, has a knack for getting under people's skin, and has very little technical instruction in his psychic abilities, but a great of intuitive talent and creativity. They spark off each other very well.
• Moment of Weakness: In the sequel, he has a few, thanks to his struggles with his mental health and contradictory obligations.
  • Becoming the Dark Phoenix at the end of the Forever Red arc.
  • He almost fries Cedric Diggory when the latter confronts him about his PTSD derived Hair-Trigger Temper and its effects on other students, and is utterly horrified when he realises what he nearly did. It serves as a turning point in his Character Development and mental recovery, especially given Cedric's concerned reaction.
  • While he'd kept the secret of Bucky's identity as the Winter Soldier from Ron (whose father was Mercy Killed by the Winter Soldier) before, until the end of the Dungeons and Dragons arc he simply didn't say anything. Then, Ron confronted him with the possibility that the Winter Soldier survived, sparked by the Elder Wyrm's telepathic rhyme that implied that Harry had lied about it. Harry then used Exact Words to imply that it was actually referring to his stint as the Red Son, the Winter Soldier's successor, to stir up mistrust. He immediately bitterly regrets it, and the narration notes that it's a 'fateful decision.'
  • Keeping the secret of Hermione's parentage also qualifies, rather than at least pushing Wanda to bite the bullet and actually reveal the truth. After her initial righteous fury, a clinical part of Hermione feels a detached pity when she notices that Harry's brain has sort of fused because he was simultaneously doing as his godmother requested and looking out for her, while also unhappily lying to Hermione, meaning he was doing something he saw as wrong either way. He later admits that he was wrong.
• Momma's Boy:
  • Is very close to both his grandmother and his godmother, and very attached to his mother when she makes an appearance. He's also noted to respond best to women for reasons that have very little to do with being a Hormone-Addled Teenager.
  • This leads to significant friction between him and Hermione after she discovers her heritage, as he instinctively (and viciously) defends Wanda when Hermione lashes out. To make matters worse, it's implied that despite her resentment of Wanda, Hermione also resents the comparative lack of attention - she feels she was The Un-Favourite. The truth is more complex, but it's hinted that while Wanda loves both equally, due to some traumatic associations, she does find Harry easier to love.
• Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: Luna, invoked by Thor when a traumatised, grieving, and angry Harry attempts to use his telepathy to torment the Ravenclaws he blames for Luna's death.
• Morality Pet: He both serves as this to others and has a couple of his own.
  • He serves as one to most of the Avengers, who behave in more classically heroic fashion when he's around, and to Doctor Strange, who's nicer to him than he is to pretty much anyone else. Bucky specifically notes how his remarkable capacity for trust brings out the best in people (though it's dented for a while after Forever Red), revealing better natures in those who didn't know they had them. Later in Ghosts, he references the latter, lamenting how he's lost the ability to trust so easily.
  • In turn, as he becomes more of an Anti-Hero, he develops a few. Luna Lovegood, who gently points out how his Bully Hunter behaviour doesn't help and ends up as a Morality Chain Beyond the Grave; Carol Danvers, who's his usual Morality Chain and someone who he tries to be better for (which is one reason they put off dating, because - though he doesn't exactly put it that way - he recognises that it would be horribly co-dependent); and Clark Kent, who he treats like a little brother and sees as having the innocence that he's lost, and who also inspires better behaviour on his part to try and set a good example/live up to Clark's purer morals.
• Motifs:
  • Fire. He's strongly associated with the Phoenix, for obvious reasons, he's got a gift for Playing with Fire passionate, temperamental, warm (literally and figuratively), and he's prone to leaving absolute devastation in his wake when he gets out of control.
  • Masks. In the sequel, after Forever Red, the number of secrets he's keeping and a general desire to keep his feelings under wraps (both because he doesn't want to talk about them and fear of the alternative) combined with his skills as a Master Actor and Consummate Liar mean that he's sometimes referred to as wearing many masks and being very hard to read. He also refers to multiple aspects of himself when explaining his Character Development to Ron, using illusions to demonstrate. And tellingly, his armour features a mask, its blank white helmet repeatedly being described as like "the skull of an angel."
• Motor Mouth: A lot of the time he's relatively quiet, but when he does get going, it's usually quite hard to get him to stop, with Maddie in particular being rather startled by it. Particularly if he's about to do something spectacular.
• Mr. Fanservice: As he gets older, he's Tall, Dark, and Handsome, charming in an Endearingly Dorky sort of way, fundamentally kind, and receives a share of Eating the Eye Candy from Carol and Jean-Paul, among others.
• My Greatest Failure: At the end of Ghosts, he reveals that his obliteration of the 'Red Army' of clones, primarily of him and Maddie while he was the Dark Phoenix qualifies as this. Why? Because they were programmed Human Weapons, but they were fundamentally innocent, with souls of their own, and they'd never even had a chance to live. A chance that he could have given them, if he hadn't just decided to wipe them out because they were in his way. While it's pointed out to him by Shou-Lao that there was absolutely no way he would have been able to make that happen and it was the best of a bunch of terrible options, and confirmed by Sunniva, it still haunts him.
• Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: Was given one by the Forest People, who have names like these (though they don't mind diminutives) on his trip to the ancient past. He's initially nicknamed 'Listens And Asks Endless Questions', before being dubbed 'Starlight In His Eyes'.
• Nerves of Steel: After everything he's been through, very little actually fazes him, short of his loved ones being threatened. Except, that is, for reminders of what Essex and Belova did to him. The one time this does happen, he nearly goes Dark Phoenix on the spot, and it's only the fact that Clark is in serious danger that snaps him out of it.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Harry is strict on this, no matter how far over the edge he seems to be about to go, and he spends a good chunk of the first book terrified of accidentally doing so with his newly emerged and unstable powers. This is why the deaths of the Red Army rattle him so badly.
• Nice Guy: Vies with Chronic Hero Syndrome for the position of his defining trait, veering at points into All-Loving Hero, though it takes a bit of a backseat to Good Is Not Nice in Ghosts, after the Forever Red arc. It starts becoming more prominent again after Bloody Hell, particularly after chapter 46. By the time of Book III, it's come back pretty much entirely.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Of the Divine Protection kind, extending on at least one occasion to Resurrective Immortality. He's also heading towards the Made of Diamond kind due to his (very slowly) developing Super-Toughness.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A Half-Asgardian Wizard Psychic, is a conduit for the Phoenix Force, is distantly related to the House of El, was (for a time) a cyborg through the Transmode Virus as well as a murderous brainwashed agent of the Red Room.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech:
  • Delivers a short, chilling, one to some HYDRA Agents who horribly underestimated him.
  You people and your guns. Did you really think that they would protect you from me?
  • Delivers an even more chilling one in Ghosts.
  I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER... I. AM. PHOENIX!
  • Later, while venting to Bucky, Ron, and Hermione, he paraphrases the original speech by saying that he lives in a "world of glass." However, he's trying to avoid breaking anything.
  • In Book III, he repeats the "world of glass" one with some variations, but this time, he's using it as both an intimidation technique and to tacitly explain why his current disguise as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and somehow It Makes Sense in Context, is about to cut loose with sufficient telekinetic power to beat Lobo to a pulp.
• Noiseless Walker: By the second book, he's mastered the art of moving in complete silence, when he wants to - something usually accompanied by a predatory stalking movement that reminds whoever's watching that while half of him is human, the other half is definitely not.
• Non-Idle Rich: Along with Royals Who Actually Do Something, what with Thor essentially giving him control of the Potter vault, which is revealed to total around £1.5 billion, he's probably the second richest character in the cast after Tony Stark in terms of actual disposable cash. It mostly just embarrasses him, and save when he's trying to help friends, he practically never talks about it.
• Not Afraid Of You Any More:
  • Regarding Voldemort when he first reappears, though Voldemort quickly shows why that's a mistake - while Harry himself has very little to fear from Voldemort in a straight fight, his friends and loved ones are another matter entirely. After that, Harry is more wary of Voldemort's capabilities, but not personally afraid.
  • Has a breakthrough on this when facing down Dudley a.k.a. the Beast/the Blob in the sequel, noting just how stupid it is to have even a residue of fear towards him, even if he is now a Person of Mass Destruction. Their later rematch, when Dudley is a powerful vampire on top of everything else, is brutally short.
• Not So Above It All: While he's a Humble Hero and comes to detest pettiness and perceived immaturity by his peers, he's not above reminding people exactly what he's capable of when he's irritated. Usually, in the most unnecessarily dramatic fashion possible. Such as telekinetically flying the 6,000 ton Durmstrang ship in a neat figure of eight, from a windowless room in the middle of Hogwarts, while inspecting his fingernails, to make clear how annoyed he is by being selected for the Triwizard.
  • While he often gets frustrated by teenage idiocy, even after a brutal lesson on the value of looking before he leaps, he's still prone to speaking or acting without thinking through the consequences once in a while, such as setting up Diana as a platonic date for Draco at the Yule Ball without considering how this would look to Ron, who's a little bitter about not having a date himself, which the latter remonstrates with himself about.
• Not So Similar: Aside from the fact that unlike Voldemort, he has no shortage of empathy and instead of sacrificing others for his own sake, sacrifices himself for others without hesitation...
  • Unlike Strange and Magneto, he's neither a loner nor ambitious. Likewise, Harry tends to only go in for major dramatics when under serious stress, in a very bad mood, or as a distraction (unlike Strange, for whom they're a constant). This is an Invoked Trope by Strange, who states to Gorakhnath that he's intentionally ensuring that Harry does not turn out too much like him.
• Occult Detective: He's still got the aptitude and inclination, as the Mirror Image arc of Ghosts shows, when his deductive and profiling skills impress Agent Coulson.
• Ominous Walk: By Ghosts, when trouble is brewing, he tends to slide into a stalk that is repeatedly noted as too graceful to be human. Notably, he pulls this on a helpless Dudley, a vampire, just before he's about to decapitate him. It underlines the power dynamic, and that he's indulging his darker side.
• Omniglot: One of the few upsides of Forever Red is that afterwards, he's a perfectly fluent speaker of French, Russian, German, and Spanish - in the case of Russian, he's good enough can pass as a native, if he feels like it. It's implied that this isn't a complete list, either.
• One True Love: While he is a Hormone-Addled Teenager and has a bit of a crush on Betsy Braddock, Carol is the only girl he ever shows any kind of romantic interest in. This gets deconstructed a bit in the Mirror Image arc of Ghosts, where he's at first unable to sympathize with Clark's struggles regarding having a crush on someone who isn't interested back. He improves on this, though he points out to Clark that his advice is of limited usefulness both for this reason and because his dynamic with Carol is by no definition normal.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • The general gist is that if he's angry and he's gone all calm and quiet then he's probably been pushed too far and running won't help unless you can get a long way away very quickly. Likewise, his personality shift following the Forever Red arc is meant to show that something is very, very wrong.
  • On a lighter note, after his First Kiss with Carol, he actually starts acting his age instead of like a Shell-Shocked Veteran. His fellow students are both surprised and, frankly, deeply relieved by this - as Seamus Finnegan points out, it makes him much easier to live with.
• Oppose What You Suffered: His treatment by his abusive aunt and uncle, as in canon, leaves him with a significant degree of empathy for the downtrodden and outsiders. After Forever Red, he's also violently opposed to Mind Rape, medical experimentation, and the exploitation of others - while each infuriated him before, his experiences at the Red Room's hands made it personal.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Averted. While he bickers with 'Nathan', the two get along well, and Harry is later both glad and ruefully amused when he discovers that Nathan found his way back.
• Part-Time Hero: Played Straight in the first book, and largely Averted in the sequels. Both are Justified by the fact that the heroes understandably want to keep him out of trouble, which shouldn't be his responsibility, and then by how everyone is more or less resigned to the fact that Harry's going to be heavily involved in what is to come, so he needs to be more prepared. This means that while he does have a semblance of a normal life, unlike canon he gets more tailored combat and espionage training to cope.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: While he's often blunt, direct, and temperamental, he's more than capable of this when he feels like it, as both Carol's father and Snape find out. It's noted as a sign that he's been paying to attention to his uncle and Natasha.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Has an absolutely brutal one regarding what Yelena Belova did to him, which leaves him an absolute wreck.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He's got a taste for it, especially when he's in a Tranquil Fury. It's generally terrifying. He's entirely aware of it, and warns Ron against it.
• Personality Powers: Harry's preferred element is fire. Doesn't particularly enjoy the cold and wet? Check. Temperamental? Check. Impulsive? Big fat check. Assertive? After some Character Development, absolutely.
• Person of Mass Destruction: By the end of the first book, he's well into this category, and rising fast.
• Physical God: One day, obviously, as shown during a temporary Plot-Relevant Age-Up. Also to an even greater extent as the Dark Phoenix.
• Pillars of Moral Character: Zig-Zagged. In the first book, his moral strength is a key plank in Strange's plan. In the second, one horrendously brutal Trauma Conga Line and a horrific case of PTSD later, his darker side becomes more prominent and his idealism is tarnished, while circumstances force him to make several hard choices. Even after his recovery, he becomes more ruthless and practical, a Consummate Liar and Manipulative Bastard with a truly frightening capacity for viciousness when loved ones/friends are threatened or harmed. However, his core morals - and vast capacity for kindness and compassion - remain intact, and indeed, are eventually enhanced (or made more nuanced) by his experiences, and the darker traits fade somewhat over time thanks to the influence of Morality Chains and Morality Pets. By Book III, he seems to have become one once more, even invoking Thou Shalt Not Kill on Lobo, who entirely deserves it - though that's partly because he anticipates that living with the humiliation is worse.
• Pinball Protagonist: Spends most of Child of the Storm as this, being only 13 and caught up in a conflict of far greater scope than canon, lacking the power or skill to be proactive - though that changes as the book goes on.
• Planet Destroyer: When his Phoenix fragment is being revved up into a full-fledged Phoenix host, this is warm-up territory. In Book III, it's revealed that as a Phoenix he's casually capable of this, and like Surtur, potentially capable of going galactic. Hell, when he's cut off from the universe, via a truly spectacular piece of cheating best summed up as 'Phoenix powered Hive Mind', he's still capable of dialling it up to 'Destroyer of Pocket Universes'.
• Playing with Fire: He's a firebrand in every sense of the word, and it becomes his signature, like his namesake, to the point of When All You Have Is a Hammer…. Even after he expands his repertoire in the second book, fire is still usually his preferred option. As is noted, it makes him a little bit predictable (which he sometimes exploits). As is also noted, however, fire is very hard to argue with, especially given how ridiculously powerful and prodigiously talented he is at using it. And then there's Phoenix Fire.
• Politeness Judo: Ghosts demonstrates that he's more than capable of this when he feels like it, thanks to observing Natasha at work. Mostly, though, he'll just plough straight through whoever and whatever is in his way.
• Poor Communication Kills: He has a recurring tendency to make plans up on the spot or alter them on the fly, then fail to inform friends and family. While this unpredictability makes him a massive headache for villains to deal with, it is at least as much of a problem for the good guys - and it's even been known to screw up his own plans. It's implied to be why Bucky gets given a wrist-strap based teleporter linked to Harry, so he can catch up almost instantly if (when) his charge goes AWOL - though happens far less after Forever Red, when Harry learns the consequences the hard way.
• Pop-Cultured Badass:
  • Is an avowed fan of Doctor Who, and a more casual fan of The Lord of the Rings (partly because it's fiction based on reality, thanks to Loki taking a liking to Tolkien, who was apparently something of a Seer and picked up rather more than he was meant to). The fact that Harry later turned to be the inspiration for/actually be Earendil is something he finds very funny.
  • Additionally, his plan for dealing with Gravemoss comes straight from Buffy the Vampire Slayer - as he admits, it's not a very good plan (and Hermione firmly agrees), but it worked. It's mentioned that he watched it at Mrs Figg's when living with the Dursleys and spent years wishing for a Buffy of his own to come save him. Which, in hindsight, probably explains a lot about his taste in women. He also quotes Dark Willow to chilling effect, when facing down a speechifying vampire.
    Bored now.
• Popularity Cycle: As in canon, though for different reasons. By the sequel, he's long past caring, dismissing it as childish when he even notices it.
• Power Copying: His frightening adaptability, flexible power-set, and active imagination sometimes allow him to do this. The most prominent example is in the sequel, when Maddie - a Living Weapon trained from infancy - infuses lightning with psychic energy and throws it at him. To her astonishment, all this achieves is Harry making a light-hearted quip thanking her for the "new trick" and copying it... with fire.
• Power Glows: Frequently. It appears more and more when he uses his psychic powers, and usually when he's winding up to do something big.
• Power High: Briefly thanks to a supercharge from Jean and Maddie. He manages to keep it on a leash, mostly - and when he does seem to go Laughing Mad, that just adds to his pretence that he's the Dark Phoenix.
• Power Incontinence: Until his Super-Strength stabilises at 'just under Super-Soldier and growing' and he's persuaded to get lessons about his Psychic Powers. After that, if he breaks something, he usually means it.
• The Power of Love: As per canon - though here, it conferred a fragment of the Phoenix on him as a defence mechanism. It also breaks the vicious cycle of the Dark Phoenix, calming him down. As he discovers thanks to Sunniva's teaching in Book III, he can also use it, and other positive emotions, as fuel for the Phoenix.
• Power of Trust: Bucky notes that he's very good at using this to encourage the better natures of people who didn't actually know that they had better natures, and encourages it. Several levels in cynicism later, he laments losing much of his capacity to do this, envying it in Clark, though he gets it back in Book III.
• Power Strain Black Out: A couple of times. He later notes to Clark, and about Hermione, that this happens the first few times you hit the wall - he's learned to push past it.
• Powers via Possession: The Phoenix gives him Complete Immortality and turns him into a Reality Warper when She takes over, or when he fully embraces the fragment within him. The fragment of her power within him also acts as a Power Crutch in Ghosts, though not without... consequences. The start of Book III is about learning how to use this constructively.
• Power-Upgrading Deformation: As the Dark Phoenix, he looks rather creepy, while turning into a low-grade Reality Warper.
• Precocious Crush: On Betsy Braddock, his psychic teacher, who finds it - and him - rather adorable. However, while she teases him a little pre-growth spurt, she firmly steps off after to prevent others (including possibly him) interpreting that as actual romantic interest.
• Pretty Boy: He is this at the moment, to his surprise. Will still have elements of this as a Tall, Dark, and Handsome adult, from certain angles.
• Pride: While he's a Humble Hero, by and large, he's got a bit of a prideful streak - though the stuffing gets kicked out of it by Forever Red.
• Pride Before a Fall: On more than one occasion, he overestimates his ability to get out of trouble/pull off his latest mad caper alone, and usually gets smacked down for it. However, it happens most brutally in Forever Red, where his usual Indy Ploy is coming off nicely... then it hits a hiccup and he tries to Indy Ploy with his way through that, dancing back into trouble with a jaunty quip. Cue an utterly brutal Trauma Conga Line.
• Prince Charming: Mostly of the Dork Knight variety, especially when Carol's around ("As you wish"). Betsy Braddock even name-drops the trope, likewise Carol. Also a literal case.
• Princely Young Man: An Endearingly Dorky version of the Prince Charming type to begin with, albeit with the chessmaster streak underneath, and The Stoic, practical, and testy (especially when it comes to pettiness or immaturity, whether by peers or adults - though he's Not So Above It All) Ice King type for a long time in Ghosts after the traumatising experiences of Forever Red. Unlike most versions, however, he's rarely surrounded by retainers of any kind, save Bucky in the sequel, who's more like The Mentor and is more likely to order Harry rather than the other way around.
• The Profiler: Thanks to his Hyper-Awareness, he's scarily good at reading people even without his powers, something Sirius implies comes from his mother. It helps in the Mirror Image arc, when his understanding of the relevant magic and the situation allows him to quickly build up a very accurate picture of the person that's attacking Clark, something that impresses Agent Coulson.
• Pro Human Trans Human: Occasional frustrations notwithstanding, he's very pro human. However, it could very easily go the other way...
• Protagonist Title: He is the titular Child of the Storm, and implied by Word of God to be 'The Phoenix' of The Phoenix and the Serpent.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: It's one of the many reasons he's very wary of using his telepathy, and he nearly forces the leader of a HYDRA assault force to do this when finally pushed too far. This incident gets brought up in the context of his being particularly scary - though also because it was in public and recorded.
• Psychic Block Defense: Being a Hormone-Addled Teenager with a very attractive young psychic tutor means that he develops a very good one, very quickly. His passive defences are noted on several occasions as being remarkably strong as a result, and with the psychic scar-tissue from past Mind Rape, it's very hard to get in his head. And considering what's in there, it's probably better that way.
• Psychic Powers: Thanks to being a Grey on his mother's side. Initially, they're latent and usually misfire, but by Ghosts, they're his preferred weapon as an almost fully fledged Omega Class psychic. Even partially trained, he's one of three mortals alive who can keep up with Maddie in a full on psychic fight (albeit mostly by evasive action), creativity and raw power making up for inexperience, and as the Red Son, wields them to terrifying effect.
• Psychic Radar: Though as Jean-Paul notes in Ghosts, it's initially not always totally reliable. It gets much better with time, and Magneto helps him expand this to sense other energies, and even objects, using a variant of his telekinesis.
• Psychotic Smirk: Occasionally develops one, though only when in a very bad mood - or when he's becoming the Dark Phoenix, and has thus gone off the deep end. It's described as being eerily reminiscent of Doctor Strange.
• Rage Breaking Point: PTSD aside, he's usually pretty even-tempered. But when he snaps...
  • Thor being shot makes him come very close to going full Magneto.
  • In Ghosts, regaining the memories of the Red Son has the same effect. Except that this time, he goes full Dark Phoenix.
• Raging Stiffie: As the A/N's point out, Harry is a straight teenage boy surrounded by a lot of extraordinarily attractive women. Specifically, in Ghosts, after sharing a Sleep Cute with Carol, he wakes up to a case of 'Morning Wood'. He then spends the rest of the scene carefully trying to edge out of bed without waking her up so he can go have a cold shower.
• Rags to Royalty: Very literally, and it is patently obvious throughout Book I that he's having trouble adjusting.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: When he's briefly aged up and his has gotten really pissed off, he unleashes a series of punches so fast that they generate their own sonic booms.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: As he gets Progressively Prettier (justified by a better diet, expert Asgardian medical treatment and a growth spurt), becoming Tall, Dark, and Handsome (or 'Tall, Dark, and Homicidal') in Ghosts.
• Reality Warper: When the Phoenix is involved, he's functionally capable of more or less anything he puts his mind to. It takes a little mind-opening from Sunniva before he really starts to put it to conscious use, beyond basic self-defence.
• Really Royalty Reveal: At the start of the fic.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: Develops a knack for handing out these by Ghosts, usually when he's extremely angry and/or deeply embittered.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Dark Phoenix is this with a burst of molten gold, and it appears when he's on the verge of tipping into truly horrifying rage - and in at least one alternate reality, true evil.
• Red Baron: The classic 'Boy Who Lived', though in the sequel he acquires another, more ominous one: Dark Phoenix. In Book III, he acquires a third, more whimsical and more eerie one - 'Asgard's Wandering Star'.
• Red Is Heroic: In Book I, at his most uncomplicated and purely heroic, he wears a lot of red.
• Red Is Violent: He wears a lot of red prior to Sirius transfiguring the prototype of his 'Project Galahad' armour in Ghosts, and he's explosively temperamental - it's probably no coincidence that he gets that suit around the time he starts to get his temper and impulses under a far tighter rein. Also, when he goes Phoenix, it's usually for combat reasons, even if he isn't about to go Dark Phoenix, meaning that it's dark red.
• Reforged Blade: His sword undergoes this after Dracula skewered him with it and used it to electrocute him, and Harry had just shoved a massive amount of power through it, before Strange completes the job. After, the sword has a faintly golden-red sheen in the right light and a sense of power about it, and Loki suspects that if someone other than Harry tries to pick it up without permission, it might bite. At this point, no one's entirely sure what it does, though Loki suspects that it's now a Holy Hand Grenade - and The Phoenix and the Serpent reveals that it has other functions including flawlessly imitating a lightsabre. Harry winds up naming it Curtana, at which point it develops an inscription, likely courtesy of Strange.
  For Justice, take me up. In Mercy, cast me away. I am Curtana. Wield me wisely.
• Refuge in Audacity: A significant number of his escapades involve fights that are well out of his weight class, and needing to tip the scales in his favour by doing the most ridiculous and unpredictable thing possible. Perhaps the crowning glory of this tendency is in The Phoenix and the Serpent when he decides to distract the Grandmaster by entering the Contest of Champions as a Mystery Knight... specifically, in shapeshifted disguise as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• Related in the Adaptation: Thor’s son due to the Asgardian being James. Also applies to an incredible variety of other characters (all largely Strange's fault), which he eventually starts treating with a sort of bemused apathy.
• Remember That You Trust Me: Thanks to Dursley related issues, he tends to feel that he has to go it alone. He starts getting over this after Forever Red teaches him a brutal lesson, but he still tends to default to trying to handle things by himself to protect people. As a result, he occasionally has to be clipped around the skull to remind him that he can rely on other people, something he lampshades at the end of Ghosts.
• Repression Never Ends Well: It's implied on several occasions in Book I, then confirmed in Book II, that Harry has serious problems with repression and great difficulty healthily expressing his emotions thanks to the Dursleys punishing him every time he did. Given that he has immensely strong Psychoactive Powers, to say this is unfortunate would be a drastic understatement, leading to some serious Power Incontinence. Furthermore, as Carol notes, all the anger and bitterness and resentment that got bottled up ended up festering somewhere in the back of his mind and sometimes emerge as a much more frightening side of his nature. Combine the two, and you get the Dark Phoenix. Care, support, and industrial grade therapy help with this, along with very literal Divine Intervention.
• Reputation Apathy: By the time he returns to Hogwarts in Book II, he is a long way past caring what people think about him, for the most part - he only gets concerned if he's genuinely frightening them, and even then not until Cedric Diggory gives him a gentle wake-up call.
• Resurrective Immortality: The Phoenix is willing to resurrect him, but no one's exactly sure how far that goes - and he's been advised not to test it. Given that in Ghosts, unleashing Phoenix fire risks a) the Dark Phoenix, or b) Surtur, the original Dark Phoenix, he very much agrees.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: He comes to believe this quite strongly, despite a very strong vengeful streak - or rather, because of it. As he makes clear to Ron, he is acutely aware of what an obsession with revenge can do to you. If you're lucky, it'll get you killed. If you're not, it'll turn you into something unrecognisable. In Book III, this develops additional philosophical nuance, as he points out to Carol - in relation to the matter of Anakin Skywalker, fresh from Mustafar and why Harry thinks he deserves a second chance - that while the person in question made terrible choices and did horrible things, he was also a victim, having been steadily broken, isolated, and manipulated, and they know a lot of people who've done stuff that's as bad or worse. He then states that in his view, punishment, in the context of revenge, only has significance for the living, because aside from ghosts it means nothing to the dead - they are beyond pain (or, at worst, somewhere where that won't make things better). Justice, on the other hand, can mean something to both the living and the dead.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Word of God has implied that Strange's machinations have left him with one, making him much harder to 'warp'. Given that Strange is a Time Master, has noted his impending death, and Harry is confirmed to time travel at some point in his late teens, with the 4th book being provisionally titled Time War, it's not hard to guess why.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He goes absolutely berserk after Luna is killed, then again (mixed with Roaring Rampage of Rescue) in the finale of the first book, and then again at the end of Forever Red, the latter as the Dark Phoenix. Maintaining the self-control to avert this in Bloody Hell is noted as a significant step in in his Character Development.
• Rousseau Was Right: Astonishingly, despite all he goes through and his briefly delving into a bitter nihilism, during a Rousing Speech to a downcast Clark he reveals that not only is he a Knight of Faith, but he genuinely believes this at heart - even if he has trouble with his own reflexive cynicism. By Book III, he fully embraces this, with some nuances, as a Knight of Faith.
• Royal Blood: See Blue Blood.
• Royalty Superpower: Along with the rest of the Asgardian Royal Family, though it's not immediately apparent.
• Rugged Scar: Played straight and subverted with the scars he gets from Daken stabbing him in the heart - it fills the standard criteria being a claw mark, but its placement means that it's not usually visible and he avoids showing it off.
• Scars Are Forever: His famous lightning bolt scar. Daken's claws also leave a permanent mark, despite a limited Healing Factor, as might Dracula's stabbing him in the shoulder and a vampire bite on his wrist. The stab wound and the related lightning scars are shown to last into Book III.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Harry tends to have a very dim view of rules, especially when they get in the way of doing what he perceives to be the right thing. This sometimes gets deconstructed, because sometimes rules are there for a reason, and sometimes because Harry's habit of not bothering with anything resembling tact/tendency to aggressively bulldoze said rules ends up scaring people.
• Secret-Keeper: Being both smart and trustworthy, he tends to both discover and be entrusted with secrets. As Hermione notes, he gets it from his mother - and they both enjoy it rather more than they should. This becomes increasingly problematic as he's forced to be a Consummate Liar to keep those secrets. Since they increasingly involve Ron and Hermione, it's not going to end well.
• Seen It All: After all he's been through, post Forever Red he's pretty much totally unfazed by whatever comes his way. Occasionally, however, some things are absurd enough to stun even him.
• Sensor Character: As his telepathy develops into a Psychic Radar - though it's initially unreliable. Shortly after, Magneto starts training him expanding his senses as a telekinetic radar, sensing matter and energy he can't see. He uses it several times, and by the First Task, he's capable of (crudely) adapting the technique for magical use (though he notes that psychometry is more Maddie's thing).
• Set Swords to "Stun": In Phoenix and the Serpent, he demonstrates Betsy's psychic knife.
• Shared Family Quirks: He has his father's talent/love for flight, and his more adrenaline junkie traits, including a taste for a good fight. Even his occasional bluntness falls under this. However, a remarkable number of his mannerisms, including subtle stance shifts, come from his mother - from whom he also inherits his explosive temper, thoughtless compassion, disquieting observational skills, and knack for/inclination towards keeping secrets.
• Shed the Family Name: A subtle change in Ghosts is that he increasingly prefers to answer to Harry Thorson rather than Harry Potter. In this case, the implications are less that he's disavowing his family, more that he's increasingly accepting of his identity as a Prince of Asgard and the various changes he's undergone/undergoing. He spells this out to Ron to try and help him accept that he is not who he was.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He's got textbook PTSD by the end of Child of the Storm, then more and more as time goes by, especially after Forever Red. He's recovering, aided by having an actual therapist, but it's a slow process.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: All but quotes this trope, annoyed, in respect to Diana when Sirius and Tony tease him. More frequently, he has to deal with such assumptions about him and Carol, which have a much stronger basis, to the point where it becomes a Running Gag, because literally Everyone Can See It. This vanishes when they get together and have The Big Damn Kiss.
• Shipper on Deck: Briefly for Lex and Sue in the first book, who then sort things out on their own. When he notices that Diana and Ginny have mutual crushes, he encourages it enthusiastically, even arranging for the former to attend the Yule Ball, nominally as Draco's date. He also serves as one for Ron and Hermione, contemplating locking them in a room together until they get over their Belligerent Sexual Tension, and teasing them about it.
• Shock and Awe: Develops a gift for this, to absolutely no one's surprise - it's pretty close to fire, and of course, it's In the Blood.
• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Despite expressing profound cynicism throughout most of the second book, he voices this opinion. As he explains, he developed it as a survival reflex, and while it's a good way to survive, it's not a good way to live.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Highly downplayed, but he does occasionally mutter a litany of multi-lingual cursewords when annoyed or embarrassed.
• Sleep Cute: He is semi-frequently involved in this with friends and family, especially Thor, Wanda, Jean, and particularly in Ghosts, Carol Danvers.
• Smarter Than You Look: No one mistakes him for stupid, but very few people realise just how clever he really is. He's highly observant, capable of Mega Manning complex psychic moves on the fly, he's freakishly good at reading people even without his Psychic Powers, he's a surprisingly adept tactician, he's an exceptional actor, a Consummate Liar, a growing talent for manipulation, and per canon, he's got a sharp deductive mind. As Jean-Paul muses, it's very easy to forget what he's capable of.
• Smug Super: Or more usually, Irritable Super - he's more prone to showing off the sheer extent of his powers when he's angry, and usually to make a point about how far the person who has irritated him is out of their depth.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Does this with most of his friends and adopted family, most especially Sirius, Tony, Diana, Hermione, and Carol. In the latter case, it's often combined with Casual Danger Dialogue and Flirting Under Fire.
• Socially Awkward Hero: At first, as per canon. Some mentoring, encouragement, and generally increased confidence mean that he's less awkward... though still frequently Adorkable.
• Soul-Cutting Blade: By The Phoenix and the Serpent, he can mimic Betsy's psychic-knife - and his is significantly more powerful. Unfortunately, as Shou-Lao points out - actually, lectures - you should never assume that a shapeshifter will keep their brain in their head.
• Soul Fragment: Used to have a piece of Voldemort's in him, though per Word of God, his brief death and resurrection via the Phoenix burnt it out.
• Soul Jar: Previously was one to Voldemort, unwittingly on both counts. However, his brief death and resurrection removed the Soul Fragment.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: For a long while after Forever Red. He recovers, though he retains a cynical edge.
• Spanner in the Works: He specialises in this, much to Lucius' annoyance, though it's not just a problem for the bad guys, as shown in Ghosts. His tendency to go off and do things without telling anyone else can be extremely problematic for the good guys too, even putting a hole in his own plans.
• Squishy Wizard: In the first book. By Ghosts, he's Made of Iron, operating on Super-Soldier level, and capable of amplifying it to Flying Brick levels.
• Stepford Snarker: As George Weasley notes, "understated sarcasm" is his "coping mechanism of choice". It's implied that this what makes it so easy for him to play the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Book III, an example in his own right.
• The Stoic: From the end of Book I onwards, he veers into the Shell-Shocked Veteran part from time to time, even after he starts settling into Fiery Stoic territory - basically it's the 'Ice' side of his personality. Among other things, it makes him come off as cold, distant, and incredibly hard to read, with Hermione characterising it as a mask, which causes problems in his relationship with Ron and Hermione.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Increasingly at Hogwarts in Ghosts. He's a bit unhappy about it, and tries to keep Ron and Hermione as his 'normal' friends, also advising Clark to stay grounded, citing trouble relating to anyone not in the same weird circles, but he's mostly fine with it. He's also implied to be aware that Ron and Hermione are uneasy with it (and being kept Locked Out of the Loop), and to resent them for that in turn.
• Strong, but Unskilled: Initially after his powers kick in, he's ludicrously powerful but very raw. After a brief period of Well-Trained, but Inexperienced, following Forever Red, he shifts into Talented, but Trained. However, there are limits, as Dracula brutally demonstrates.
• Stubborn Hair: As per usual. Carol enjoys ruffling it and Wanda maternally cards her fingers through it.
• Stunned Silence: When particularly shocked, he goes completely silent - usually by something that breaks even his extreme tolerance for weirdness.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While he's initially (almost) all sweetness and light, there's a colder streak in him that tends to appear when he gets really angry. It becomes dominant after Forever Red thanks to his PTSD, but after Bloody Hell, he becomes a Knight of Faith and the warmer side becomes the dominant side again, and much more so in Book III.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: His eyes occasionally glow/flash gold. It's generally a bad sign, as it usually signifies either a bad mood or him winding up for something big.
• Supernatural Sensitivity: By the sequel, his mystical senses, trained by Magneto and Strange, are increasingly refined. He still defaults to psionics, however.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Neither is strictly a personality (as Carol points out), but he technically has two.
  • While not strictly more powerful than he is, Harry has a dark side that Carol characterises as the result of his repressing all the horrible experiences that should have driven him mad or dark, being Harry with his conscience switched off. This side of him is in charge, is far more ruthless and far more combat effective.
  • The Dark Phoenix, meanwhile, trades sanity and humanity for Reality Warper level powers.
• Superpower Lottery: By the end of Book I, he's won big time.
• Super Power Melt Down: Everyone (particularly him) is initially worried that he'll lose control of his powers and go into one that, while it's not lethal to him, will probably be lethal to everyone around him. This abates somewhat... then after the altered second prophecy and the start of Ghosts, the worry returns, specifically that he'll go Dark Phoenix. This worry is profoundly justified, though it becomes less so thanks to his Mental Health Recovery Arc.
• Super-Soldier: The Red Room think that he's the key to the next generation of these. They were right. They regretted it.
• Super-Speed: He's alarmingly fast to begin with and only becomes more so. With a telekinetic boost, his Flash Steps are fast enough to surprise a young Superman.
• Super-Strength: He spends half the first book genuinely afraid he'll lose control of his strength at some point - not helped by its uneven development. It settles around Super-Soldier level by Ghosts, reaching somewhere non-specific beyond that by the Bloody Hell arc.
• Suppressed Rage: Considering his childhood, it's unsurprising that he has an absolute shedload of this, which he locked away for obvious reasons. This is a strategy he's suggested to have followed with just about all his other negative emotions, too. Unfortunately, as Carol notes, it's festered into a rather frightening dark side, one that he refers to as one of his 'inner demons', and fuels the Dark Phoenix. He more or less exorcises that particular demon in The Phoenix and the Serpent, learning better management strategies.
• Talented, but Trained: In Ghosts, particularly from Bloody Hell onwards, thanks to a lot of tutoring and hard-earned experience.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: By Ghosts - Carol notes that he was short and "cute in a Hobbity sort of way" when they first met, but as time went by... see Hunk. In combination with his temper, this sometimes leads to him being referred to as "tall, dark, and homicidal."
• Technician vs. Performer: He's most definitely a Performer - he makes his strategies up on the fly before graduating to Xanatos Speed Chess, a defining trait of said strategies is that they're Crazy Enough to Work, and by Ghosts, he's a Dance Battler.
• Terror Hero: Develops into The Dreaded towards at the start of Ghosts, thanks to his extraordinary exploits, fears that he'll become the Dark Phoenix again, and a PTSD-induced Hair-Trigger Temper. Dracula notes that he scares serious supernatural heavyweights, and that as one professional to another, he respects that. Harry doesn't like it very much, and he tries to ameliorate it, he's also willing to use it when it suits him, becoming The Intimidator after Forever Red, throwing in a little of The Master of Illusion. It even works when he's in disguise.
• Thanatos Gambit: While he wasn't actually intending to die in Book III, it worked out nicely for him as it gave him the opportunity to exploit his (very temporary) death for all it was worth. End result? Phoenix Force Hive Mind.
• There Was a Door: He likes dramatic entrances, as is lampshaded in Ghosts. His lofty response is that it "makes an impression."
• Thinking Up Portals: Via a Sling Ring in Ghosts, though The Phoenix and the Serpent implies that he doesn't need them to open up portals to the Mirror Dimension or anywhere else, for that matter.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: It does, on several occasions - though the first time, he was noticeably relieved when it did work. Later on, after his abilities develop, this becomes a much more effective, if still rarely used, tactic of his. Literally godlike psychic powers (even if they're latent at first) probably help.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Keeps/is kept to this, partly because he's psychologically unstable enough as it is from PTSD and Survivor's Guilt without adding more fuel to the fire. This is a large part of why his time as the Red Son left him so furious that he was willing to become the Dark Phoenix.
• Time Master: 'Master' might be stretching it, but he's capable of putting different parts of a person out of sync (which usually has messy results) by the back end of Book II. By Book III, he can pause time for one person and rewind it for others with startling precision via Magic Music.
• Took a Level in Badass: To cut a very long story short, he takes several.
  • At the start of the first book (in the November of his 3rd year), he's a moderately talented 13 year old wizard who's brave and resourceful, but way out of his depth and prone to making plans up as he goes along. By the following November, he's a high-end Magic Knight with espionage training who can take on armies, duel Physical Gods on equal footing, and - thanks to a mixture of pragmatism and guile - win.
  • Book III starts after a 6 month time-travel related Time Skip, and includes a Training Montage with Shou-Lao the Undying and his many times removed Aunt, Sunniva, Goddess of Life and Fire and host of the Phoenix. The results are someone wiser, kinder, and more patient who can not only take on something like Annihilus on equal footing, more or less, but figure out how to take on and (with help) more or less curbstomp the Grandmaster on his own extra-universal turf.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Takes a few throughout Child of the Storm, then takes a whopping great one in Ghosts, following the Forever Red arc, though mitigated when he Took a Level in Idealism after the Bloody Hell arc, developing into a Knight of Faith with shades of Rousseau Was Right deep down. By The Phoenix and the Serpent, he's much more chilled out thanks to further therapy and time-travel related self-care and space. Played for Laughs in Ghosts, when his immediate reaction to Professor Bach a.k.a. Strange telling him to go in, have a big dinner and get some sleep is to assume that something horrible is going to happen the next day.
• Took a Level in Idealism: After his increased cynicism post Forever Red, he slowly begins to take these again in Book II. Post Time Skip in Book III, he's practical, but ultimately hopeful, a Knight of Faith firmly convinced that while there are true monsters, Rousseau Was Right - and is determined to prove it.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Takes several after the Forever Red arc in Ghosts leaves him a traumatised wreck with a Hair-Trigger Temper, and it takes a Heel Realisation following Cedric Diggory calling him out and offering to help to start shaking him out of it.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Slowly starts improving after Cedric offers a helping hand in Book II, having taken many of the reverse thanks to trauma and cynicism (understandable on both counts). He takes many more levels in kindness during the events of the third book, thanks to a trip to the past where he gets to wander and spend time practicing self-care without needing to worry about looking after anyone else. While he's still capable of getting very nasty if necessary, he's actually arguably kinder - and definitely wiser - than he was before.
• Too Clever by Half: In Forever Red, where he manages to be the Spanner in the Works for his own plan, a mixture of glib pride, stubbornness, and the Dulcinea Effect meaning that he refuses to fold when he should. Needless to say, he learned a hard lesson.
• Trademark Favourite Food: He has his canonical taste for treacle tart.
• Tragic Keepsake: His mother's brooch.
• Training from Hell: What the Red Room do to him in the sequel is horrific. It also makes him utterly lethal.
• Tranquil Fury: When he's really lost it, he tends to get quiet. Magneto style. It's generally a good sign that he's about to do something scary. For instance, when a vampire annoys him...
  Bored now.
• Trauma Button:
  • In the sequel, Mind Rape becomes this after Forever Red. Before, it profoundly pisses him off. After, even the slightest implication sets him off, as Crouch Senior finds out. He gets better with time, but it's worth noting that his response to the suggested Mind Rape of Carol was originally anger at the person proposing. After, Alison notes that that if it had been put to him now, the person doing so would be dead.
  • Following the return of his full Red Room memories, seeing Clark Strapped to an Operating Table is one - once the battle is over, he is shown to be at the very end of his coping ability and anticipating some very bad nightmares. He ends up reliving being raped by Belova.
• Troubling Un Childlike Behaviour:
  • Increasingly, particularly after Forever Red in Ghosts, to the disturbance of McGonagall. Part of this is that after all he's been through, he's unfazed by weirdness and now somewhat numb to potential threats. It's particularly striking when he interacts with Clark - who, powers aside, is a fairly normal teenager - something which doesn't go unnoticed, least of all by Harry himself. It gets to the point where him actually acting his age is met with genuine astonishment (and relief) by his classmates.
• True Sight: He can and has used this once or twice - though doesn't usually because you never forget what you see.
• Twice Shy: With Carol. Unusually, they do figure it out by Ghosts, but as both acknowledge when they admit their feelings apart and to each other, they're riddled with issues that would make a relationship problematic (his horrible self-esteem and her twitchy nature, primarily, with PTSD) and the risks that any relationship would be a co-dependent mess. They eventually get over them enough to get together.
• "Uh-Oh" Eyes: The colour his eyes are is an excellent barometer for how much trouble you're in. Green's the baseline, and means you're probably fine. If his eyes are glowing gold for more than, say, 5 seconds, you're in trouble. If they're glowing red, or red-gold, you're kind of screwed. If they're glowing white, there are no words to adequately describe how screwed you are.
• Underhanded Hero: Downplayed. While his methods in the sequel frequently include mass destruction and the rubble being set on fire, this tendency conceals the fact that he's a Guile Hero with a knack for manipulation, lying, and Flaw Exploitation. This allows him to get under Maddie's skin (and her Heel–Face Turn eventually brings down the Red Room and Sinister alike), and pull a flawless Batman Gambit at the second time of asking on Dracula in Bloody Hell.
• The Unfettered: Briefly slips into this at the end of Forever Red when he snaps and becomes the Dark Phoenix. It appears again from time to time when he's pushed over the edge - Tranquil Fury and utter brutality follow shortly after.
• Unhappy Medium: From time to time, after his telepathic powers come in.
• Unstable Powered Woman: A Rare Male Example - aside from his gender, he ticks pretty much every box in the sequel. Given his connections to the Phoenix and Wanda Maximoff, two famous examples, this is not entirely surprising. He stabilises over Book II, and post Time Skip related Character Development, he's phenomenally stable in Book III - enough that it actually unnerves people a little.
• Unstoppable Rage: Periodically prone to this.
  • The first time, he forgets he's a Glass Cannon. Against Daken. Who stops it.
  • At the end of Forever Red when he snaps and becomes the Dark Phoenix.
  • Briefly in Mirror, Mirror when he sees Clark Strapped to an Operating Table by the Arc Villain. This mashes a Trauma Button and he nearly goes Dark Phoenix in the process. Later, said Arc Villain tries to choke Clark by turning all the carbon dioxide in his mouth, throat, and lungs into carbonia glass and dry ice and beating him up with a chunk of Kryptonite. Cue a spectacularly brutal piece of Mind Rape (including forcible, permanent, opening of the villain's True Sight), dismemberment, and drop-kicking the still screaming monster into orbit.
• Uptown Guy: Even more so after becoming royalty. It rather bemuses him, considering that he grew up kept in a cupboard and half-starved.
• Use Your Head: Learns this from Sif, and uses it in Ghosts.
• Unwilling Roboticization: In Ghosts, thanks to Essex's Transmode Virus giving the Red Son a One-Winged Angel form and compounding his resemblance to Cable (or Earth X Nate Grey). It's temporary, but he's understandably extremely unhappy about it, and in chapter 54, it's shown that he's still got issues over it.
• Unwinnable Training Simulation: Part of passing the Test of the Iron Fist is recognising that it's this. The other part, since Harry's figured that out from the off, is figuring out how you should approach and prove that you're worthy (in most cases, of the Iron Fist. In his case, of having learned the lessons he's been taught).
• Vengeance Feels Empty: He comes to realise that while vengeance feels good in the moment, it tends to feel empty at best after the initial euphoria wears off. This doesn't mean that he stops finding it tempting, however.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Jean-Paul, and with Carol - though in the latter case it's tempered by/combined with really-absolutely-definitely-not-flirting. After his return to Hogwarts in the second book, he goes back to this with Hermione as well, and Ron later on. He also almost immediately gets into this with Clark in the form of brotherly bickering.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He's capable of a limited degree of this via self-transfiguration in Ghosts, used to disguise himself, but he can't do his eyes for fear of accidentally blinding himself. In The Phoenix and the Serpent, he discovers more or less accidentally that the Phoenix offers an intuitive form of this as one of its many powers, and later uses it in his latest absurd scheme - distracting the Grandmaster by pretending to be Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• Warrior Prince: Develops into this in the latter part of Child of the Storm, and properly in Ghosts, like his father.
• The Watson: Is usually the one to whom various things are explained, though he sometimes does the explaining instead, especially in the sequel.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Between chapter 70 of the first book and the end of Forever Red/Bloody Hell. After that, he's got far more experience than anyone is comfortable with.
• What If God Was One of Us?: Initially, he's primarily The Self-Denouncer, because while he's technically a demigod, he doesn't want to be elevated above others, before evolving into a mixture of The Saviour and The Reluctant Messiah in the sequel. Unlike the former, he's reluctant to bear the mantle of Messiah and would really prefer people didn't worship him. Unlike the latter, he believes that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, so he very grudgingly puts up with it.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: See Young Conqueror. As the second book makes clear, there is very little he is not willing to do for the people he loves, meaning that he is absolutely willing to go even to Dark Phoenix extremes if he feels the situation merits it.
• Weirdness Magnet: Most definitely, which makes the Magnetic Hero thing very useful, especially before most of his powers kick in. He even lampshades it to Hank McCoy in the first book:
  The more powerful I get, actually or just potentially [...] the more people try and kill me in new and interesting ways. Don't get me wrong, I love having a family and the Avengers. I love being a wizard too. But I could do without the near-death experience every few months.
  • By Ghosts, he's more or less unfazed by it - though annoyed by and bitter about the Doom Magnet aspects. By Phoenix and the Serpent, he's remarkably zen about it all, and leans into the amusing side of it.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: His extremely distinctive emerald green eyes are always one of the first things that anyone notices about him. They also merit notice for the connection to Jean Grey, and the implication that every powerful psychic in the Grey bloodline has had them. Oh, and if they're still green, you're probably fine. If they're glowing gold, then you should be worried. If they're glowing red, you should be on the other side of the planet. If they're glowing white, you should be on the other side of the galaxy.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: He starts as a Guile Hero, but becomes this towards end of the first book, with the power to demolish most opponents outright. As a result, he doesn't develop his offensive repertoire beyond Playing with Fire, energy blasts in general, and some martial arts. After a very painful Near-Death Experience (or rather, Actual Death Experience, but the Phoenix/his mother resurrected him and went on a rampage), he becomes a highly creative Magic Knight in the sequel. That said, he still tends to default to fire magic or telekinesis - Ron speculates this is because he had to get very good in a very short space of time, so he focused on what came naturally to become at least a Master of One Magic.
• When He Smiles: He has an absolutely lovely smile which a) makes him look very much like Jean, b) briefly wipes away all the cynicism and suffering, making him look like an ordinary teenager.
• White Is Pure: His Galahad armour and the White Phoenix garb, are both associated with purity of purpose... and can be decidedly unnerving.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Painfully subverted. He starts out as one, and a Knight In Shining Armour to boot, one of whom Godric Gryffindor would be proud. However, he gets steadily more cynical as time goes on, though retains elements of this.... until the Forever Red arc, when the Dulcinea Effect and his Chronic Hero Syndrome finally get the better of him. He eventually settles on something like The Anti-Nihilist.
• Willfully Weak: He starts off favouring standard fire blasts, telekinetic blasts, or even hand-to-hand combat over more efficient and effective uses of his powers, even to an extent in Ghosts after he becomes much more of a Combat Pragmatist. It gets to the point of Obfuscating Stupidity, where some characters (e.g. Ron) think that that's all he can do. More observant characters (Hermione) point out that just because he doesn't use them doesn't mean that he can't. As it happens, he is abundantly aware of what he can do, so usually holds back. When he's angry enough to stop playing nice, the results are brief and usually messy.
• Willing Channeler:
  • Lets the Phoenix/his mother briefly possess him twice in the first book, allowing her to have a brief chat with Chthon and briefly sever his connection to Gravemoss.
  • Then, he does so for far darker purposes in Ghosts after finally being pushed too far: he embraces the Phoenix fragment within him to become the Dark Phoenix. The results are not half as pretty.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Usually ends up walking the line between this and Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour by the end of Child of the Storm. In Ghosts, it tilts sharply into the latter.
• The Wise Prince: Steadily evolving into this trope, cynicism and struggles with his darker side notwithstanding.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • The Red Room invoke this trope by forcing him into a Power Limiter so that he can't just beat Dudley into a pulp. Once he figures out a way around it, though, he does so anyway.
  • When Syrus kidnaps Carol, Harry would have blasted him to pieces if not for the fact that he had to project his astral form through her from the other side of the Atlantic.
  • In Book III, it very quickly becomes plain that the only reason Lobo could fight a Phoenix powered (and now much more experienced) Harry to a standstill is that he was forced to powers.
• Xanatos Gambit: Comes up with a clever one off the top of his head in Forever Red - he's locked into a psychic duel with Maddie/Rachel, and while he's got very little chance of winning, if he does, great. If he doesn't, though, something that's far more likely since she's way stronger and more skilled than he is, he's powerful enough and good enough to prolong the duel and make an awful lot of psychic noise, so the Avengers can home in. It works like a charm. His next plan, on the other hand, is not quite so well thought out.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Develops a knack for this by Ghosts - see Xanatos Gambit. Unfortunately, this tied in with his habit of not informing friends and allies of what he's going to do next, and an in-built knack for being the Spanner in the Works, means that he often derails everyone's plans - even his own. After Bucky drills into him the need to actually explain things, he becomes much more effective - and more dangerous.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Handles both Phoenix Fire and Chaos Magic at the end of the first book, using them to stitch reality back together - albeit somewhat imperfectly.
• Young Conqueror: He has all the hallmarks of this, as noticed by much of the cast. All of them note that while he could be the next Captain America, a hero among heroes, he has the intelligence, charisma, experience of the dark side of humanity and hatred of injustice to become the next Magneto - and potentially far worse. Part of his character arc leads to him noticing this and rejecting it with a little help from his friends. Offers of We Can Rule Together in the sequel tend to be met with mocking laughter (though by that point, he has related, but different issues).
• Younger Than They Look:
  • By the last part of the first book, at thirteen he can easily pass for fifteen or sixteen and that he's starting to attract the Female Gaze. In the sequel, he looks closer to 18 than 14 (and acts older, most of the time). The white streak in his fringe helps, as does the fact that his body spent six months working for the Red Room shortly after, meaning that his body aged while his mind didn't.
  • This is discussed in Ghosts, with both Betsy and Strange noting at different times that for all Harry's maturity and appearance, in many ways he's still just a kid.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: This takes on a whole new meaning when an Omega class psychic is involved.