1. Neville Longbottom - Harry Potter
Let's face it: the Harry Potter books are pretty awesome, but Harry himself isn't the most interesting character in the world. He's brave, selfless, noble, the poor orphan who always does right by people. Boring. Sure, he has to struggle against people trying to kill him every year right before finals (seriously, it's like clockwork), and you can make an argument that he has some anger management issues, but for the most part his conflicts are largely external in nature. Contrast that with Neville Longbottom, who to me is a much more interesting character. Everyone is sympathetic to Harry because he lost his parents as an infant, but Neville has had to experience possibly the only thing worse than having your parents killed -- having them tortured to insanity. Neville may not have had the Dursleys to deal with, but his grandmother belittled and frightened him so much she came to mind when he had to fight the boggart. When he got to Hogwarts, he didn't have the tight-knit group of friends or natural talent that Harry had to make his life any easier. He struggles to be a good wizard, to overcome feelings of inadequacies -- while Harry falls into the role of hero, Neville fights to be worthy of it. Harry in book one is pretty much the same guy he is in book seven; Neville, on the other hand, goes through a difficult journey along the way, one that makes him infinitely more interesting.