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Happy birthday, Harry Potter! The Chosen One turns 38 today
JK Rowling’s iconic character – who shares her birthday – was born into the wizarding world on 31st July 1980
It’s 31st July and any Harry Potter fan worth their weight in gold galleons will know what that means – it’s the Boy Who Lived’s birthday.
JK Rowling gave her famous character her own birthday: Rowling turns 53 and Harry hits 38.
Now, 2018 is even more special given that it’s been 21 years since the first Harry Potter book was published, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also celebrate Harry and Rowling’s birthdays too does it?
Hold on, Harry Potter can’t be in his mid-thirties, can he?
He can indeed. Harry James Potter was born to James and Lily Potter on Thursday 31st July 1980. No, there’s no mention of the exact year in the book, but thanks to Nearly Headless Nick’s Death Day, fans were able to work it out.
In Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, the trio are celebrating Nearly Headless Nick’s 500th Deathday – the anniversary of the fateful day when his head was nearly chopped off – on 31st October. Nick says he was almost decapitated in 1492, so if we count forward 500 years it means Harry was 12 years old in October 1992.
