Did you know that Harry Potter and his creator share the same birthday?Author J.K. Rowling was born on July 31st, 1965 near Bristol, England. And though Rowling imagined Harry and his world of magic on a train on an unknown date in 1990, she decided to give the young wizard her own birthday.

Fans of the novels and movies have lots of reasons to celebrate with the author and the fictional character this weekend:

• The much anticipated play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opens at London's West End theater on July 30.
• On July 31, the script will be published in book form. (But no, this is not the 8^th novel in the Potter series, nor is it a prequel, according to Rowling's Twitter feed.)
• If you get the channel Freeform (formerly known as ABC Family), you can watch a marathon of Potter movies starting this Friday. See the full schedule here. 

And though we still have a while to wait for Rowling's "new era of magic", check out the jaw-dropping early trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, released at last weekend's International Comic-Con:

Even for the world's most famous wizard and his creator, that's a pretty full birthday weekend.

Your "Happy Magical Birthday!" Gift Guru,
Linda