Harry Potter is the main protagonist in The Deathly Hallows and the Harry Potter series. At the novel's beginning, Harry turns 17, making him an adult in the wizarding world. Harry is supposed to begin his seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but following the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry drops out of Hogwarts to hunt down the Horcruxes that are keeping the evil Lord Voldemort alive.

Harry is a noble, good-hearted young man with a grave sense of responsibility. He knows that he has a role to play when it comes to defeating the most evil wizard who ever lived, but in the seventh installment of The Deathly Hallows, Harry is forced to wrestle with the concepts of mercy versus justice. When he chooses to disarm a Death Eater instead of killing him, Harry is scolded by Lupin for showing mercy. Still, Harry insists that he “won’t blast people out of [his] way just because they’re there” (71). The goblin Griphook notices that Harry chooses to bury Dobby when he dies, and because house-elves are widely disrespected by wizards, Griphook calls Harry “a very odd wizard” (486) who seems to care about others, regardless of their background or species.