22 J.K. Rowling Facts That Prove She Is ACTUALLY a Magical Human

When asked why she felt Hedwig's death was necessary, Rowling replied that "the loss of Hedwig represented a loss of innocence and security. She has been almost like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. Voldemort killing her marked the end of childhood. I'm sorry . . . " Loss of innocence, indeed . . . for ALL of us.

In a detailed hand-drawn map, you can see important plot points in Order of the Phoenix, as well as the timeline of events in the novel. It's so amazing to get into J.K. Rowling's head and see how she came up with the masterpiece that is Harry Potter.

To fans, King's Cross Station is where Platform 9 3/4 is hidden, and it's an important gateway between the Muggle and wizarding worlds. For J.K. Rowling, it's something pretty special too. On Pottermore, she explains why she always knew this is where Harry would depart for Hogwarts: "King's Cross, which is one of London's main railway stations, has a very personal significance for me, because my parents met on a train to Scotland which departed from King’s Cross station. For this reason, and because it has such an evocative and symbolic name. . . . I never knew the slightest indecision about the location of the portal that would take Harry to Hogwarts, or the means of transport that would take him there."

It's Rowling as in "I'm going BOWLING," not Rowling as in "the wolf is HOWLING."

When a fan posed the sad question in a web chat for Bloomsbury, Rowling promptly responded, "Surely 'I Did It My Way' by Frank Sinatra." With lyrics like, "I've lived a life that's full / I've traveled each and every highway; and more, much more than this / I did it my way" and "For what is a man, what has he got? / If not himself, then he has naught," I can't think of a more fitting song for Dumbledore, either.

Yep, when interviewed by Daniel Radcliffe, she admitted that Harry's red-headed partner in crime almost didn't make it. About halfway through the series, she "wasn't in a very happy place" and considered killing Ron Weasley. Thankfully, she had mercy on us all and spared him.

As a child, Rowling preferred her neighbors' surname — Potter — to her own, because kids teased her with nicknames like "rolling pin."

In an annonated version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, she wrote a hilarious description in the text of the wizard sport: "[Quidditch] was invented in a small hotel in Manchester after a row with my then-boyfriend. I had been pondering the things that hold a society together, cause it to congregate and signify its particular character and knew I needed a sport. It infuriates men . . . which is quite satisfying given my state of mind when I invented it."

Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid (and was Rowling's first and only choice for the role), said that the book character was based on a Hell's Angel that J.K. Rowling knew in West Country [England]. "He was just huge and terrifying. And then he would sit down and talk about his garden and how his petunias had been very bad that year," Coltrane said.

She's named Emma as one of her favorite books of all time, and when asked which character in literature she would be if she could, she answered with Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennet.

Many have theorized that Dementors were a symbol for depression, and Rowling confirmed this. "That is exactly what they are," she said in a 2000 interview. "It was entirely conscious. And entirely from my own experience. Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it's a healthy feeling. It's a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different."

Her full name is Joanne Rowling. Rowling doesn't have a middle name; the "K" comes from Kathleen, her paternal grandmother's name. In the early days of Harry Potter, Barry Cunningham, Rowling's publisher, suggested she use a pen name so as not to deter younger boys from a female author's work. She is often called just "Jo."

"My favorite literary heroine is Jo March. It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer," Rowling said.

When asked if she based Harry Potter characters off people she knew, she responded "some of them are, but I have to be extremely careful what I say about this. Mostly, real people inspire a character, but once they are inside your head they start turning into something quite different. Professor Snape and Gilderoy Lockhart both started as exaggerated versions of people I've met, but became rather different once I got them on the page. Hermione is a bit like me when I was 11, though much cleverer."

Rowling knew she wanted to be a writer from a pretty young age, considering she wrote her first book when she was 6. She jokingly described the book as " . . . a work of towering genius about a rabbit, called Rabbit. I gave it to my mother who said, 'That's lovely,' as a mother would. 'That's very, very good.' I stood there, thinking, 'Well, get it published then.' Bit of an odd thing for a child of 6 to think. I don't know where it came from . . . "

July 31 is a BIG day for Muggles and wizards alike.