JK Rowling reveals the meaning behind famous symbol in Harry Potter

It may be sixteen years since its first release, but we still have many questions about the Harry Potter series.

Well, one of those questions has been answered by the woman behind the magic – JK Rowling. A new documentary called Harry Potter: A History of Magic is being released by the BBC to mark the 20^th anniversary of The Philosopher’s Stone and one of the things that Rowling revealed was the story behind the symbol featured in The Deathly Hallows. While sketching the character of Professor Sprout, Rowling was also watching The Man Who Would Be King and says she thinks that her background entertainment may have seeped into her character drawings.

“The Masonic symbol is very important in that movie,” Rowling says in the documentary. “And it was literally 20 years later that I looked at the sign of the Deathly Hallows and realised how similar they were. “When I saw the movie again and saw the Masonic symbol, I went cold all over and I thought, ‘Is that why the Hallows symbol is what it is?’ “And I’ve got a feeling that, on some deep, subconscious level, they are connected.”

The day after she first sketched Professor Sprout, Rowling received the heartbreaking news that her mother had died – a moment that has had a huge impact on the Harry Potter series as we know it.

“So I feel as though I worked my way back over 20 years to that night, because the Potter series is hugely about loss, and – I've said this before – if my mother hadn't died I think the stories would be utterly different and not what they are.”