funny really, because this is the same harry who killed a grown man in his first year. oh and also volunteered to plunge headfirst into a seemingly dark, bottomless pit. X

this is the same harry who mastered an extremely complex, advanced piece of magic at 13.

this is the same harry who was the only one in his class who resisted being mind controlled by a curse, not once but twice. Both the times it was cast by a far more experienced, seasoned dark wizard.

this is the same harry who taught an entire curriculum of combat magic to an entire year of students. everything hermione granger knew about duelling and defense, Order of Phoenix onwards was because of harry potter.

this is the same harry who battled a whole mob of much older criminals and was the only one who didn't face a setback or got straight up knocked out by the end.

this is the same harry who strangled a man in broad daylight, in a public place.

this is the same harry who cast two unforgivable curses by 17, one on a bank manager to break into the said bank, and one on a death eater who dared to spit on his professor. fking cruciated his arse to hell. also yes, it was him who came up with the idea of escaping the bank on dragon back, not hermione.

this is the same harry who was known to take lead in the books. he led a secret rebel group, and a bunch of people who were to be tried wrongfully at the ministry to their freedom.

this is the same harry whose mere gaze made hermione granger shiver in them boots. she even feared he might hex her at one point.

this is the same harry who fantasized about poisoning a teacher, prayed for the death of another teacher (to hermione’s horror) and was again fine with a giant squashing a group of centaurs to death.

Harry James Potter not only would survive just fine without Hermione Granger, but if he chose to go evil at any point which would've been decently justified given to his trauma, i think the latter would have a real hard time surviving him.

Hermione a near genius

Harry more intelligent than average but not as special as Hermione

Ron pretty average

Seamus a lil stupid

Goyle a dumbass

Voldemort is a sort of genius? Fair enough. It carries a range of interpretations. I don't really believe in talent as something purely inborn, but when I say he had an innate pull toward certain skills and abilities, it's because it suits his intellectual bent. It does fit the way his overachieving (and overwhelming) ambition works.

Hermione isn't more special than Harry. She isn't as magically powerful as he is, and he's able to think faster in dangerous situations, combining his power with the kinds of spells that throw his opponent off balance. Also that is not a lack of creativity. That's pure practicality and intuitiveness in a survival mode, the exact sort of skill a top-tier Auror needs, and he does become Head Auror later. Practicality comes from intense training and a certain talent ("innate pull toward") for acting quickly under pressure without letting your emotions take over. And none of that matters if you're not quite powerful to begin with. Harry checks every box. He's built for high-stakes confrontation, fundamentally being a combat wizard with battlefield instincts. He is a soldier.

hermione would warn to not touch the hot stove and then scold you afterwards.

ron would warn you too to not touch it but would laugh afterwards.

Color me a skeptic when I come across depictions of Tom as this stoic, stone-cold ice prince of Slytherin.

That was what he tried to project himself as, but at his core, Tom Marvolo Riddle is like a ripe fruit, almost about to burst with pent-up emotions.

I fully endorse the headcanon that deep down, Tom takes after the Gaunts more than the Riddles.

He did a grand job aping their distinguished disposition and glacial aura (his aristocratic looks helped too), but scratch the surface, and he's a Gaunt, a slave to his passions.

Apathy is not his Achilles heel. Avarice and arrogance are.

He's not immune to emotions. On the contrary, he's at their mercy. He's not the type to hide his emotions for long. At the first opportunity, he will make sure the world knows about his feelings, whether it wants to or not. Have you seen him monologue his entire life story and unresolved daddy and mummy issues to his prophesied enemy?

There’s nothing measured, controlled, or austere in my Tom.

He is prone to excess. Just as his Gaunt forefathers thoughtlessly squandered their immense wealth, he too wasted his brilliance, his genius, and his remarkable talent and shredded his soul to pieces in the pursuit of immortality.

Like y’all. I don’t care how much of an overachieving genius Tom was, that man is canonically a patchwork of the worst character flaws anyone could ever have. I love him because he is a loser. He is beautiful and smart and over-emotional and egotistic and cruel and antisocial and it ruins his life.

Fics tend to write Harry as surly and reacting with anger, but in canon the only time we see him genuinely get angry after all the shit he’s been through is 1) when he has to deal with Umbridge, and 2) after Sirius dies at the Ministry. I’d go so far as to say that he is less emotional than Tom.

Harry’s levels of idgaf are so unapologetically high that he literally sees no point in pandering or lying to anyone about anything. He goes to formal networking events with outcasts, breaks rules on the regular, blows up his aunt because she pissed him off, casually murders his DADA professors on a Tuesday afternoon… he literally asked the Minister for Magic to sign his Hogsmeade permission form and crucio’d a Death Eater for spitting on McGonagall.

There’s no realistic scenario where Harry James Potter would be submissive or overly insecure.