Harry Potter is the protagonist and hero in the Harry Potter series, but this doesn’t mean he’s perfect all of the time. Having a protagonist who is overall good and reliable but also has many flaws makes for an interesting character. While Harry tries to do the right thing and make the right choices when faced with difficult situations, he doesn’t always do so. He is quite young and has a lot on his plate, and he also has personality flaws such as being reckless that contribute to poor decision making. Some of his decisions also have some pretty severe consequences.
Here are the ten worst decisions that Harry himself ever made.
Moping around at the Yule Ball
While Harry Is overall a compassionate person, he can be a bit selfish at times. One of his most immature decisions is how he acts at the Yule Ball. Instead of being a good date and just being friendly with Parvati, he spends most of the time mopping with Ron about the fact they didn’t get to go with the girls they liked.
This is definitely an example of Harry’s emotions getting the better of him, and it’s not the only time.
Lashing out at Ron and Hermione
Harry is a good friend in some ways, but he can also be rather self-absorbed. This is somewhat forgivable given that he really does have a huge burden on him and that he’s also lived through a ton of trauma.
However, given that Ron and Hermione are the two people there for him the most, it’s not a great choice to take his anger out on them. He does this often in their fifth year, and it definitely isn’t a good way to treat friends.
Breaking rules without thinking things through
There are quite a few times when Harry breaks rules because he needs to. He often breaks rules in an attempt to save people or do the right thing, but he also often does so very recklessly.
His rule-breaking can sometimes contribute to putting other people at risk, and he very often puts his own life in danger. While things work out usually because of the fact he’s the protagonist, he doesn’t have the best decision-making skills or common sense.
Stealing the Ford Anglia with Ron
There are many times in the books where Harry does things that just don’t make a lot of sense. Some of these poor decisions can be attributed to the fact that he’s so young.
For example, stealing the Ford Anglia with Ron to fly to Hogwarts is absolutely ridiculous. They could have just waited like twenty minutes for Ron’s parents to show up and asked for help. While 12-year-olds might not have the best decision-making skills, this was still something that most kids that age wouldn’t do.
The way he treated Cho Chang
Some of Harry’s poor behavior has to do with how he treats the people around him. When he starts to date Cho Chang during his fifth year, he’s not that great at it. Instead of being kind and understanding of the fact that Cho is grieving Cedric, he gets annoyed and jealous.
This is also frustrating because of the fact that he is also dealing with the trauma of Cedric’s death, so it’s weird he couldn’t be more gentle about things.
His obsession with Draco Malfoy his sixth year
During Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts, he basically becomes obsessed with following Malfoy and figuring out what he’s up to. While they’ve always had a rivalry, he becomes completely concerned about Malfoy’s actions.
While he ends up being right that Malfoy is involved with something nefarious, the way he goes about this is really not smart. He puts himself at risk and acts rather illogically in this quest to catch Malfoy.
Refusing to take Occlumency seriously
One of the worst decisions Harry ever makes has quite severe consequences in the end. When he’s supposed to take Occlumency with Snape, he never really takes the lessons seriously or tries very hard.
Despite people around him urging him to learn to shut Voldemort out, he instead wants to get the vision of what Voldemort is doing. This was very reckless of him, and just one of many examples of Harry listening to his own feelings over the advice of others.
Using the Imperius Curse
The Unforgivable Curses in Harry Potter are definitely illegal for a reason. This is because they do severe harm, or kill, other humans. When Harry uses the Imperius Curse, it might be understandable given the situation he is in, but it also makes him look bad.
He also tries to use the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix even though he’s not able to do it correctly. Harry using these curses definitely isn’t great because it makes him seem like he’s on the same level as some of the dark witches and wizards that he’s fighting against.
Going to the Ministry to “rescue” Sirius
One of Harry’s worst decisions ever is when he believes the vision Voldemort gives him showing Sirius being tortured at the Department of Mysteries. Instead of thinking things through or waiting for help, he charges in.
This leads to a lot of consequences including Sirius’ death. While he might have made the decisions he thought were right in a tough situation, he should have learned Occlumency in the first place.
Using Sectumsempra without knowing what it did
One of Harry’s other worst decisions is when he uses Sectumsempra on Draco. During their duel in the bathroom, Harry decides to use a spell that he doesn’t know. He has no idea what this spell does, all he knows is that it’s labeled for enemies. While he might not have expected it to be something so severe, this is another example of how Harry doesn’t think things through and ends up causing big problems because of this.
