inconsistencies

[davehoz at yahoo.com]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C1530
From: davehoz
Subject: Re: inconsistencies
Reply To: [Yahoo! #1524] inconsistencies
Date: 5/30/00 6:08 pm  (ET)

Here is what I consider the most serious continuity error in the series:

In book 2, Nearly Headless Nick's deathday cake says he died in 1492,
implying that the party happened on Oct. 31, 1992. This and the date
set for Buckbuck's appeal set the climatic events in Book 3 to June 6,
1994. JKR's narrative of Harry et al's Final Exam schedule indicate
that this is a Thursday, and it must have been the night of a full moon,
since Lupin transforms. But June 6, 1994 neither fell on a Thursday nor
had a full moon, nor does June 6 of any year within ten years before or
after! (And I assume that Book 1 couldn't have occured much before the
1990's or else Dudley's video games become anachronisms.)

(Does anyone have access to a computer program that can find the nearest
year with a full moon occuring on a Thursday in early June? Then "June
*6*" can be assumed to be a bureaucratic typo on the Ministry of Magic
document setting the date for the appeal, and the problem goes away.)

However, my kudos to JKR for writing a book series with so relatively
few inconsistencies. (The Oz Books are riddled with 'em!)