Harry Potter is, as most people know given the title of the books, the protagonist of the Harry Potter series. He is the hero of the story and the “Chosen One,” and he definitely does a lot of heroic things. He can be selfless at times, and he is overall a character that is trying to do the right thing and make the wizarding world a better place. However, while he might be good, he also has his flaws. Many of his flaws involve the fact that he can be very self-absorbed and even selfish at times.
Here are the ten times that Harry was surprisingly selfish.
He expected special treatment because he played Quidditch
While Harry might have had a troubled past, he in many ways is somewhat of a jock while he’s at school. Given his position of Seeker on the Gryffindor team, he often gets a lot of admiration and status by his peers, especially when he spectacularly wins matches. However, his attitude about Quidditch can be really selfish and self-absorbed at times.
He often thinks professors shouldn’t give him homework because of practice and matches, and he seems to want special treatment, like insisting he shouldn't have detention if it interferes with his matches.
Always putting himself at risk and therefore putting others around him at risk
Harry is someone who doesn't always think things through. He can be incredibly reckless and will go into dangerous situations even when he’s been told not to. While there were definitely times when he needed to break the rules to save people, there were other times where his selfish actions put other people at risk unnecessarily, such as when he insisted they break into the Slytherin common room in Chamber of Secrets.
He often doesn’t consider that other people could have knowledge and wisdom to share with him, and he can be really selfish about this.
He can be rather arrogant
Along with Harry’s general disregard for rules, he can also be really arrogant about a lot of things. While this isn't true across the board, he often has an attitude of being special or better than others.
This is especially true during his fifth year at Hogwarts when he feels like his accomplishments make him better than Ron or Hermione.
Being really obtuse about Cho Chang’s grief
One of Harry’s biggest flaws overall is that he can be incredibly self-absorbed and unaware of what others are going through. There’s no denying that Harry has a huge burden on his shoulders and that he goes through a lot of trauma. However, there are other people around him that also lose people and go through hard things.
Even though he supposedly cares about Cho, he’s very selfish about her emotions over Cedric’s death. Instead of being sympathetic to what she’s going through, he often is just annoyed or even slightly jealous that she’s talking about him.
When he didn’t listen to anyone about Occlumency
Harry is someone who can be immensely stubborn and who often acts as if he knows best. When he is supposed to do Occlumency lessons with Snape, he never takes them seriously.
Despite the fact that many people around him who care about him urge him to try, he doesn’t listen to them. In the end, this ends up leading to Volemrot being able to plant false images in his head. And, if he had just listened to other people, this wouldn’t have happened.
The way that he acted when he wasn’t made prefect
During Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts, he’s understandably in a really rough place emotionally. He’s just lost Sirius, and it’s another time where he loses a parental figure in his life. So, it’s understandable he’s not completely in control of his emotions.
However, when he gets jealous that it’s Ron and Hermione who were made prefects and not him, it just comes off really selfish. Instead of being happy for them and relieved he doesn’t have more to worry about, he feels like he deserved it over them.
He often takes his friends for granted
While Harry might care about his friends, he often takes them for granted. It’s not even just Ron and Hermione that Harry takes for granted, it’s also his other friends.
He often isn't aware of the things that people like Neville and Luna do for him. He is often so wrapped up in his own issues, which to be fair are many, that he’s also not there for his friends the same way that they are for him. For instance, he had no idea about Neville's difficult home life or the way Luna is often teased.
Spending the entire Yule Ball pouting and being a bad date
When Harry asks Cho to the Yule Ball and she has to turn him down because she’s already going with Cedric, Harry then asks Parvati Patil instead. But, he spends most of their date moping about the fact that Cho didn’t go with him.
This is really rude and selfish. He could have just been kind to her and treated her like a friend, but instead, he was totally wrapped up in his own hurt feelings about another girl.
When he took his feelings out on people around him
Harry is definitely not a character who is good at holding his emotions in. He can be rather emotional in many ways and also rather brash. In many cases, he ends up taking out his feelings and emotions on the people around him that he cares about.
This is especially true for how he treats Ron and Hermione. Just because he’s dealing with a lot doesn’t mean that he has the right to treat them poorly when he’s upset. Particularly in their fifth year at Hogwarts, he yelled at the people closest to him much of the time.
The way he always acts above the rules
The most selfless thing about Harry overall is the way that he refuses to follow the rules at almost all turns. While it's one thing to break rules when it has to do with saving other people or fighting against Voldemort, Harry breaks rules for many other reasons, too.
He can be obsessive about doing so, and he doesn't ever really feel like there's anything wrong with it. He can be extremely brash about his rule-breaking when it comes to everything from midnight duels, to smuggling dragons, to cursing other students.