im not completely sure on this one but there is nothing to say harry potter is written for the present day, i mean we start from where harry was left with his auty, we dont know how long after his parents death that was. i guess it was like follwing what happened in harrys life up to a point as if his life had already been lived.

its not set in present day. the first book is set in 1991. making him 11 years old. the final book is set in 1997 and 1998. hope that helps clear up your confusion. you can also google harry potter timeline many sites outline the entire history of the wizard world.

how do you know that

she has said as much in interviews, through various things on her website. if you really want to research this subject. put chronology of harry potter in wikipedia and research their references. she started writing in 1990 or 1991 so thats why its set then. it was 'present day' when she started. but since she took breaks between books it took her more than 7 years writng the series. thus it is no longer set in 'present day'....what gave you the idea is was set in present day? as she has never said it was and the dates in the book would counter that idea...ie the year on james and lilly's tombstone.

To finish off this time line thing. The last chapter of the last book takes place 19 years later. So the story ends in 2018.

It was in the present when the first one cames out, but because she didn't write one every year that changed.

I posted a forum on this aswell because I knew that when the first one came out it was the present,but since its not the present now you expect the to be in the present.

its set in the 90's

In Chamber of Secrets, Nearly Headless Nick turns 500 (?) and he died in 1492 so the book was set in 1992...JKR started writing the books in 1991 and each book takes place a year after the previous one thus book 7 took place in 1997-1998
You could look it up on Harry Potter Lexicon