J.K. Rowling wrote seven novels in the original Harry Potter series.
The story begins with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, published in 1997, and ends with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, published in 2007. Each book covers a major stage of Harry’s education and his growing conflict with Lord Voldemort.
The seven-book structure follows Harry through seven potential years at Hogwarts, although the final novel does not follow a normal school year. The books became progressively longer and darker as the characters aged and the central war intensified.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is not an eighth novel by Rowling. It is a stage play credited to Jack Thorne, based on an original story by Rowling, Thorne, and John Tiffany. Fantastic Beasts books and screenplays are also separate from the seven-novel sequence.