"Oh, Mom, can I go on the train and see him [Harry Potter], Mom, eh please...."
"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"
"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there - like lightning."
"Poor dear - no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."
(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)
What does dear mean? (It seems an exclamation; yet it is after the adjective poor. It's not proper to call it. So it could be pointing "Harry Potter".)