Harry Potter is one of the most popular book series in the world, having sold more than 500 million copies. Despite this, many people don’t know how the wizarding world started out. The author, J.K. Rowling, had originally come up with the idea while riding on a train from Manchester to King’s Cross in 1990. Over the next five years, she planned out the story, and in 1993 she took the first three chapters of the first book to try to have Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone published; however, she was turned down by all publishers except by a publishing company named Bloomsbury. The book was released in 1997 and became wildly popular extremely fast.

Ten years later, the seventh book was published and Harry Potter’s journey was complete and Rowling was one of the richest authors to ever live. The books were transformed into movies, but Rowling wrote three other books in the wizarding world, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is now a three part movie series, Quidditch Through the Ages, and The Tales of Beetle the Bard. She also helped write the eighth book, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was adapted into a play, but fans did not like this entry.