Harry's looks (Was: Dark Book - Blood and Cruelty/ Draco)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177281

Magpie:
> I think this [Harry's physical attractiveness] probably is
subjective--especially since we'll never really see him. What is fact
is that whether he's classically handsome or not, he's certainly
played as very attractive. He's been chased by various girls since he
was 11 and by HBP his attractiveness has become comical with him being
literally chased pretty much the way Cedric was. So he's certainly not
living the 
> life of an unattractive person. In fact, I would say "an ordinary 
> boy with beautiful eyes" as you described him sounds like many 
> women's idea of a dreamboat--far better than somebody who looks like 
> a fashion model. 
>
Carol responds:

"Various girls since he was eleven"? I count Ginny as one girl. In
PoA, when he's thirteen, Cho (a fellow Seeker) starts to like him,
with their mutual attraction developing in Gof and OoP, but that still
makes only two girls. In GoF, girls are temporarily attracted to Harry
as a TWT champion--the ones who aren't wearing "Support Cedric
Diggory" badges want to go to the Yule Ball with him--but once the
ball is over, things return to normal. In OoP, only Ginny and Cho are
attracted to him (and many people, even Gryffindors, think he's a
lying attention seeker). In HBP, after the MoM expedition (when
everyone knows that Voldemort is back), Harry has a few new fans of
the type who follow the unattractive but famous Viktor Krum around,
chief among them Romilda Vane, and the desire to be escorted by Harry
to Slughorn's party tempts some of them to talk about dosing him with
love potion, but only Romilda actually attempts it. There's no
indication that she thinks Harry is handsome; he's just a fellow
Gryffindor who happens to be famous. Not so different from Colin
Creevey following him around with a camera in CoS except that she's a
girl who wants a famous date. (She does retain her crush or whatever
it is to the extent of being displeased when Harry kisses Ginny, but
otherwise her attention to Harry falls off after Slughorn's party, and
we hear no more about girls following Harry around because there's no
point in doing so, no social event at which they could arouse the envy
of other girls by being the Chosen One's date.) During the few (make
that two) times when the girls are following Harry around (a la
handsome Cedric and famous Viktor), there's a social event at stake
*and* Harry is experiencing a surge of popularity based on something
that Harry has *done*.

As for "beautiful eyes," that phrase is never used in the books,
either by the narrator or by any character. They're bright green ("as
green as a pickled toad") and we're told twice, IIRC, that they're
almond-shaped, but they're also covered by glasses, and, except for
Ginny, the only people who notice them are former friends or
acquaintances of Harry's parents, almost all of whom see Harry (to
some degree) as James with Lily's eyes.

Carol, who would like to see *one* piece of evidence that the reaction
of the girls (who, except for Cho and Ginny) are extremely fickle in
their attraction to Harry, is in any way based on looks