Order of the Phoenix features three games within the game that you can join any time you come across other wizards playing them. You’ll find more than one session of each game happening around Hogwarts, with your opponents getting harder to beat as you progress through the story. Beat all of the champions in each game to add those trophies to the Room of Rewards.

• Wizard Chess: The rules are the same as the game you’re used to, except the piece capturing another one smashes its opponent before moving into the square. If you’re interested in some chess tips, try playing Chessmaster 9000 and picking up a few there.
• Gobstones: Based on the muggle (non-wizard) game marbles, Gobstones can be played three ways: traditional, in which the player who knocks more Gobstones out of the ring is the winner; snake pit, in which you must roll your Gobstones closer to the pit, without falling in, than your opponent; and jack stone, where the player whose Gobstone is closest to the jack stone wins the match. You need to beat the champions in all three to win the Gobstones trophy.
• Exploding Snap: You play the card game Exploding Snap one of two ways: one is similar to the muggle game memory, in which you uncover cards and look for matched pairs; the other flips over cards in a deck one by one, and you hit the deck with your wand when you see a pair. Failure while playing either version results in a nasty snap. You must beat the champions in both to secure this trophy.

Games Within the Game. Defeat other students at wizard chess, Gobstones, and Exploding Snap to increase your prowess.

From King Arthur’s days as a stable boy to Luke Skywalker’s time on a moisture farm, humble beginnings have always played a key part in heroic origins. In Harry Potter’s case, not only did the boy wizard grow up in the nondescript surroundings of the Dursley household, but author J.K. Rowling was a woman of modest means when she invented the character.

Sitting on a crowded train delayed for hours one day in 1990, Rowling relates on her personal Web site, she began developing the idea of “this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn’t know he was a wizard.” She couldn’t even find a working pen, but that didn’t deter her from turning over the concept in her mind, shaping it until she arrived home and set her ideas on paper.

After a failed marriage in Portugal, Rowling returned to England and raised her daughter, teaching English full-time while cramming in her Harry Potter writing whenever she could. She finally completed the first novel in the series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” and received word in August 1996 that publisher Bloomsbury had accepted it. A dozen others had turned it down.

Fearing that a woman’s name on the jacket might keep boys from picking up the book, Bloomsbury asked Rowling to use two initials, rather than her first name, Joanne. She was never given a middle name, however, so Rowling chose “K” in honor of a grandmother, Kathleen, with whom she had had a close relationship. Bloomsbury published 1,000 copies of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in June 1997, with the United States debut of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” coming from Scholastic in October 1998. Scholastic felt that “Sorcerer’s Stone” would connect better with an American audience.

The Phenomenon Grows

During that time, the novel grew in popularity, thanks to positive word of mouth. Within a decade, it would sell 107 million copies, making it the ninth-best-selling book of all time, ahead of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” The next three books in the series appeared annually through 2000, before Rowling took some time off as she prepared for the fifth Harry Potter novel, “The Order of the Phoenix,” which took the series in a darker direction. It was published in 2003.

“The Half-Blood Prince” and “The Deathly Hallows” wrapped up the series with their publication in 2005 and 2007, respectively. They didn’t spell the end of all things Potter, however, since the film adaptations of the books launched in 2001 and had reached “The Order of the Phoenix” by the summer of 2007. The video games’ releases have paced the movies — in fact, you can play Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on your Mac.

As for Rowling, Harry Potter has made her a household name as well as one of the richest people in the world. However, she has no plans to cease writing. After the publication of “The Deathly Hallows” on July 21, 2007, she revealed that she was working on an encyclopedia of unpublished material and notes from the series, with all profits to be donated to charity. She also said at the time that she was working on two new projects, one aimed at children and one meant for adults.

Draw Your Wand. Sometimes Harry has to show those Slytherins who’s boss.

No, That Way. Mark a destination on the Marauder’s Map and magical footsteps will lead the way there.