Lord Voldemort wished to become immortal and dominate all the wizards. The story also takes us to Hogwarts, where students learned to cast spells and make potions. It was written by JK Rowling and more than 400 million copies of books have been sold and even the film franchise earned a total collection close to $9.1 billion. We are aware of the fact that the whole concept was based on the whims of the author. But even the sources belonging to this real world had helped her in forming this imagination.

The Philosopher’s Stone shown in the story was not an original idea of the author. Even the stone’s maker, Nicholas Flamel was a real person. He was a landlord in medieval Paris who died in the year 1418. But soon after his death, an uncertain story about him began to circulate which described him as an alchemist who had discovered the Philosopher’s Stone. Nobody has a staunch proof of this theory or maybe, it was just made up by someone like us.

The Ripley Scroll is a 16-century manuscript which is some six meter long. It depicts the procedure of making a stone and its name was derived from the name of a priest and alchemist, George Ripley who belonged to Bridlington Priory, East Yorks. But it is not so easy to understand and some images are also hidden in order to not express the meaning clearly. Even the Flamel’s grave cannot explain the secret which is put on show along with the Ripley Scroll in a library.

The process of seeking information of the future may sound like something belonging to the whimsical world only. But it was actually a tradition in the previous century. The black moon crystal ball from 20th century was used by a witch from Paignton in Devon. Emma Watson’s character, Hermione Granger was an early Germanic writing system which was used in Old Norse, Old High German and Old English until the early 16th century.

The hippogriff which is a cross between a bird and a horse was depicted in a picture which can be found in Historia Animalium which belongs to an Italian author named Idonius and it is from the year 1595.

Harry Potter was shown riding the hippogriff but the picture shows a man running away from the creature. Another drawing of basilisk, a snake-like monster was already shown by Idonius. He described is as a creature with the width of a palm but capable of killing someone within seconds.

Similarly, potion and spells were also used to cure ailments and make people fall in love. Even “Abracadabra” was believed to be a method to cure malaria. The names of some characters were also taken from the real names of the constellations. The perfect examples are Bellatrix, which is the third brightest star in the Orion constellation and Draco, which is the Latin word for a dragon. The mermaids have also been the part of our mythology as being described in the Ancient Greece.

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