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I didn't read books, but I have seen movies with Harry Potter.

I understand that he is the main character. What I don't understand is that everyone treats him as someone very important. For example, his professors are talking to him like to someone equal to them (equal status and knowledge).

There are so many kids in the university. Why everyone talks to him as some kind of super-genius?

I can't point to exact scene, since I am not that big fan. But this pattern repeats through the movies. Ok, I just remembered the scene where the white beard wizard in Halfblood prince, takes Harry to that dangerous place, to drink watter and get that watch. Why didn't he take someone else, a colleague professor, or someone powerful?

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    Are you sure you watched the movies? This is spelled out pretty well over the course of all of them.
    – phantom42
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:00
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    He clearly didn't pay much attention if he's calling Dumbledore "the white beard wizard."
    – Golden Dragon
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:03
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    Just go watch the first one, it explains it well enough.
    – Dave Johnson
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:07
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    If not Harry I vote for random wizard reading Stephen Hawking's book about astrophysics and performing one of the more difficult acts of wizardry, wandless magic. harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Wizard_in_the_Leaky_Cauldron
    – Firebat
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:34
  • @phantom42 It is not my type of movie or literature, and I find some things confusing (at least in the movie). And, as Golden Dragon mentioned, I probably wasn't paying attention, since I never heard what is mentioned in the answer bellow.
    – BЈовић
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 14:34

2 Answers 2

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Harry is the Boy Who Lived

Prior to the series, Voldemort was basically taking over magical Britain. He was a terror, with very few people (the Order of the Phoenix, basically) opposing him.

Then Voldemort found James, Lily, and baby Harry Potter. James was killed, Lily was killed, and Harry... wasn't. Instead, Voledmort disappeared. The little baby had survived and apparently defeated the Dark Lord with nothing more than a lightning-shaped scar.

This alone was enough to make Harry a living legend in the magical community. The majority of this information is revealed in the first book/movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Sybill Trelawney's First Prophecy

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is it revealed that when Sybill Trelawney (the divinations professor) was being interviewed for her job at Hogwarts, she made a prophecy:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...

In the movies, the prophecy is similar, but slightly different:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... and the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal but he shall have power the Dark Lord knows not... for neither can live while the other survives...

(The movie version of the prophecy doesn't mention being born in July, but Dubledore later claims that it is also part of the prophecy.)

Combined with the fact that Harry is the "Boy Who Lived", all of the characters who are aware of the prophecy understand that it refers to Harry, making him even more important: the universe says he's important, after all!

The prophecy could have also been referring to Neville Longbottom, who was born within days of Harry and whose parents had also defied Voldemort on three occasions. However, after hearing the prophecy himself Voldemort chose to attack the Potters because Harry was a half-blood, just like Voldemort was (Neville was pure-blood). By making that decision, Voldemort marked Harry as his equal, completing the prophecy's description of the child.

So, not only did Harry free Britain from tyrannical rule by Voldemort, the universe claimed that Harry was the key to defeating Voldemort. Thus, he was a Very Important Wizard™, regardless of what skills he had or didn't have.

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It's rather a broad question to answer. I would advice you to read the books to understand (almost) everything.

Harry Potter was important for the wizard world because "he set them free" from Voldemort's first reign of terror. That alone already made him popular. And he did so by surviving a spell that you can't survive. So people give him extraordinary powers. Which he does not have, nor is he a super-genius. But that survival is what makes him special to others.

As for Dumbledore(aka the white beard wizard), he knows the prophecy which told that one person must die by the others doing. So Harry must kill Voldemort or vice versa. Dumbledore is preparing him for this final battle, without Harry knowing it. Dumbledore needed Harry to understand what kind of wizard/person Voldemort really is, so he takes him to places to do so. He let him see things from his past. Why didn't he take someone more powerful with him. Well, he's considered the most powerful wizard of that day, only rivaled by Voldemort himself. So he would not really needed someone, or at least thought so. And far from being a great wizard, Harry is also far from a bad wizard to have with you.

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