Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves. Harry wears his courage on his dang forehead.

Move aside, Inigo Montoya—there's a new most iconic scar in town. It's shaped like a lightning bolt and provides irrefutable proof that babies are tougher than they look. Harry got his scarry status symbol from Voldemort the night his parents died, and as such it carries symbolic weight beyond just looking awesome.

The ever-helpful Hagrid helps Harry put some of the pieces together as they share a quiet drink at the Leaky Cauldron while waiting for the train to Hogwarts.

HAGRID: Yes. That ain't no ordinary cut on your forehead, Harry. A mark like that only comes from being touched by a curse...and an evil curse at that.

So Harry's carrying proof that he faced down Voldemort, got attacked by an evil curse, and lived to tell the tale. And that gives him serious street cred in the wizarding world.

But it also symbolizes Harry's link to the past—both to the night Voldemort killed his parents and the connection he maintains to three of them. Harry has no memory of what happened that fateful evening (he was, after all, still in diapers), but now that he knows the story, he's going to be reminded of it every time he looks in the mirror.

He'll also be reminded that if Voldemort ever returns, people are going to look to him to repeat the feat of vanquishing him…a feat Harry doesn't have any memory of accomplishing in the first place.

That gives the scar its second important feature: Harry's potential power. Clearly he's got it, or else he wouldn't have sent Ultimate Doom-Laden Wizard Man packing in between games of peek-a-boo and midnight feedings. But how does he access it and how can he control? That's the question consuming him during his first year at Hogwarts, and with the scar in such a prominent spot, he's not bound to forget it easily.