Harper Finkle

Harper Finkle is Alex's best friend. She is one of the three mortals (Zeke, Harper, and Theresa) who knows that wizards exist and previously had an obvious crush on Justin, which was used for comedy on the show and freaked Justin out. She would get jealous of every girl that he dated/had a crush on. She is portrayed by Jennifer Stone.

Early life
Harper would be born in Nebraska back stage behind a nightclub to Marty and Elaine Finkle, a couple of not-so-successful entertainment artists, whose odd behavior would later shape Harper fashion sense. She would be raised in a circus, which is why things like magic and supernatural creatures don't seem so amazing to her.

Later she would meet the Wizard Alex Russo in kindergarten and, along with her, would became enemies of Gertrude "Gigi" Hollingsworth.

Season 1
In the first season Harper is a close friend of Alex, although she doesn't know her secret. Despite this, the two appear to know each other very well as Harper seems to usually be around the Russo household. It is shown that Harper habors a strong crush on Justin, despite his disinterest in her. She becomes rather possessive of him as shown as she instantly dislikes each girl that he has dated or shown interest in him, such as Miranda. In New Employee, we see the first time Alex actually uses magic on Harper without her noticing in order to spend more time with her.

Although it doesn't go as planned as Harper quits and also ends her friendship with Alex, the two make up and their friendship seems to have grown stronger. Alex is shown that despite appearing not to care for some people's humiliation, mainly Justin's, she does care for Harper, when she goes to Gigi's tea party at an hotel with an unspeakable name in order to stop her from humiliating Harper like she planned. Unknowingly to Harper, her magical adventures with Alex would follow to a fashion magazine and a magically brought to life mannequin. Both times she's unaware of magic despite sometimes questioning some of the old things happening.

Season 2
In Smarty Pants, it is shown that Harper is apart of a Quiz Ball team. She is highly competitive and doesn't take loosing competitions well, as seen when Alex using the pants ends up showing her up mostly as she wants to be the class genius. Harper supports Alex during Gigi's exposing her magical diary secrets although she doesn't approve of her crush on Dean. She doesn't seem to like his reputation as well as questions his age due to his facial hair, she also warns her about 'Dean's Corner' at the rolling ring. She even goes as far as to use her job as the 'Chicken' as the ring to start the chicken dance to get Alex away from him. Although Alex does seem surprised to see her.

Together they go through things such as bringing a taxi cab back to life, summoning the Greek god Cupid, arrange a fashion parade with the help of a magical machine, reversing a curse that TJ cast upon his ex-girlfriend, hiring a fairy to work at the schools Peter Pan play.

In Future Harper, Alex finds out that Harper has made money in the Future by writing their adventures down. This makes Alex upset with the present Harper in which Harper responds by being upset with her although she seems mostly confused as to why. In the end however, Harper doesn't find out why Alex was really upset with her despite their argument but Alex does give her permission to write her stories. At some point Harper does make contact with her future self and is given her hat although she doesn't seem to know who she is.

Their adventures continue as her brain fusioned with Alex and survive an alien invasion of the Waverly Place Substation. By the end of the season Harper and Justin relationship would grow from a crush to a friendship, despite Alex's attempts to destroy it. Going as far as to say they are dating which unsettings Justin and Harper although they do move past it. Although Harper still seems to have a crush on him, although not as bad as before. Also Harper would meet the two thousand year old vampire Juliet Van Heusen and, thought hard at her in the beginning, she would grow fonder her.

The Movie
When the Russo family is preparing itself for a vacation on Caribe, Harper would be dragged into a smirmish in New York subway which would only lead to a dead-end and nearly their deaths. Harper tries to tell her it's not the right thing to do, but like usual Alex doesn't listen and gets in more trouble. Grounded, Alex later tells Harper that she intends to win the Wizard Competition.

Season 3
In season 3 Harper survives an infestation of monsters in New York, a group of monster hunters trying to arrest her and helping the Russo with their Halloween party. However her vision of magic would not change do the arrival of the sorceress Stevie whose irresponsible use in magic would result in a strangle of Harper and Alex relationship. In the end, when Stevie tries to lead a revolution against the Wizard world, Harper belief that Alex will do the good thing is unnerved.

Harper relationship with Zeke would grow by the season, first during an Anti-Prom ball and later kissing him in a party at his house.

Season 4
After Alex gives up the Wizard Competition, Harper tries to help Alex to live without relying on magic. Harper and Alex would later go to an Angels club in Los Angeles but their lack of flying abilities would lead everyone believe that they're Angels of Darkness.

After graduating from Tribeca Prep, Alex and Harper decide to move into an apartment but have to earn money to pay for it. So they mount a puppet show but Alex usual laziness lead to Harper doing everything alone. Using magic to shrink Justin and Zeke, Alex creates her own puppet show earning enough money to move into an apartment.

They move into a secret magic floor which is run by Gorog in desguise. While there they make a party which is overrun by banshees, help a ghost and try to reverse Mr. Laritate zombie transformation. When Felix joins the dark side and cast a powerful spell that can't be reversed, Harper flees (because the spell is intended to magical creatures) into the Russo Lair where she uses the Abracadooler to contact Max.

Personality
Harper is regarded as an obedient, punctual, smart, correct and high-grades student, contrary to her best friend. She always tells her what's right and what's wrong, sometimes considered her Conscience. She gets very nervous when in trouble or in fear, often panicking or yelling away screaming. Also, her famous line is, "See you in PE!" After finding out about Russo's magical abilities, she would see magic and wizardry with suspicion. As the series progressed Harper became, under Alex influence, more tricky and manipulative, such as when she helped Alex trick Rosie (which they believe to be a Guardian Angels, which are forbidden to do wrong things) to take them to the Angels' Club or that she tricked Professor Crumbs to think that she knows about wizardry because of him.

Abilities
Despite being an ordinary human, Harper have won various temporary magic powers due to the Russo influence. Some of the most famous include:
 * Superhero powers of flight, super-strength, super-hearing and heat vision;
 * Wielding a training wand that allows to open things even if the wielder doesn't have magic;
 * She gained werewolf powers when she transformed into one by Alex.

Justin Russo
Ever since the beginning of the series, Harper has had a very noticeable crush on Justin, getting jealous of every girl that he has either dated of had a crush on. Due to this, she has shown obvious hatred towards girls such as Miranda and Juliet van Heusen. Somewhere along the lines, however, she has grown out of her long-time crush on him, and is officially a close friend of his in "Justin's New Girlfriend". At first, Alex strongly dislikes their friendship, which she thinks of as a relationship, and tries to break them up. However, she fails at it and they both get back at her by making their life a silent movie. One major factor that caused Harper's crush on Justin to weaken was seeing his future self as presented by Alex, in which Justin was a grungy, undisciplined beatnik. This sight prompted Harper to remark that she will shift her attention to guys who are in the US military instead of college students. In later episodes when she starts dating Zeke, she no longer has a crush on Justin.

Jeremy from Science
He is first mentioned in "Harper Knows", when a goblin guard shows up and Alex has to convince Harper that he's just Jeremy from Science class in a goblin costume. Alex adds that Jeremy likes Harper. Jeremy is mentioned again in season 3 when Stevie casts a spell that opens up a hole in the school and an unsuspecting student falls into it. Harper claims that was Jeremy and he was going to ask her out. In "Night at the Lazerama", Harper takes Max's conscience to a planet show at the museum, saying it's not a date, but if they see Jeremy from Science, Max's conscience has to act like he's totally into Harper. She mentioned him one last time in Ghost Roommate when Alex yelled "I found him!" in the middle of the night, and Harper jumped up in her bed and replied, "Jeremy from Science?! This is bad timing, I'm with Zeke now."

Zeke Beakerman
Her crush on Zeke might have been spurred on by his similarity with Justin, and she has shown to have a similar crush on Zeke, joining the Alien language league for him and the two have gone on one official date in Zombie Prom. In 'Alex Russo, Matchmaker' Alex puts a spell on them to make them fall in love, which does not work, though it does bring the two closer. In Wizards vs Finkles it is said by Justin that Harper and Zeke are currently dating. In the episode Wizards Unleashed, Harper and Zeke shared their first kiss. In Moving On, while disguised as Juliet, she tells Justin that she loves Zeke.

In the episode Wizards of Apartment 13B, because the floor just for magical creatures Justin will gave Harper a magic wand that can open things (including peoples' heart) and that can be used by mortals, as to make everyone believe that she's a wizard (which she's not).

Key Episodes
These episodes are the ones mainly about Harper

Season 1 Season 2 Seas​on 3 Sea​son 4
 * New Employee
 * Alex's Choice
 * Harper Knows
 * Smarty Pants
 * Baby Cupid
 * Future Harper
 * Family Game Night
 * Justin's New Girlfriend
 * Doll House
 * Marathoner Helper
 * Third Wheel
 * Alex Russo, Matchmaker?
 * Wizards vs. Finkles
 * Lucky Charmed
 * Zeke Finds Out
 * Alex the Puppetmaster
 * My Two Harpers
 * Harperella
 * Who Will Be The Family Wizard

Behind the Scenes

 * She is portrayed by Jennifer Stone.
 * David and Victoria ("Posh") Beckham named their baby Harper Seven after Harper on Wizards of Waverly Place.

Trivia

 * She was born on November 23, 1993.