Ages?

[Emerald7586 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 7917

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer 
<pennylin at s...> wrote:
> Hi --
> 
> Stephanie Becvar wrote:
> 
> > I have a question, i read somewhere, maybe on this list maybe not,
> > that
> > someone assumed sirius, lupin, snape, etc. were about 43.  This 
makes
> > no
> > sense to me, bc that would make Lily around 30 when she had 
Harry.  I
> > always assumed, that they got married in their early twenties, or 
even
> > right after they graduated Hogwarts.  It would make sense that the
> > wedding would happen, Harry would be born,
> 
> Well, I'll climb on my soapbox briefly to state that no matter what 
you
> believed as a teenager, babies do not *always* immediately follow
> marriage, even when the parents desperately want that.  I suffered
> through 4 yrs of infertility to get where I am (6 mths pregnant at 
last)
> so .... I tend to get a bit touchy when people make this assumption
> (right up there with "Oh, you've been married 7 years?  'Bout time 
you
> two got around to having kids."  Grrrr!).
> 
> Okay ... anyway ... back to the Potters.  Assuming no infertility, 
it is
> possible that they had Harry in their early 20s.  But, I have 
assumed
> that Lily's occupation will turn out to be just as important as 
James'
> career -- in fact, I suspect that they must have been working in the
> same field.  It seems more plausible to me that they worked at least
> several years before having a child, and that they were more likely
> mid-20s when they had Harry.  I guess I don't see how Lily & James 
could
> have had an important occupation (and JKR has said we'll learn more
> about their occupation(s) and its importance later) for only a brief
> period of time after graduating.  So, I say it seems more reasonable
> that they got married relatively early (maybe at age 19-20) but 
didn't
> have Harry until they were 25-27.
> 
> > and Mrs. Weasley more in her late 40's, which makes sense seeing 
as
> > how Bill is about 23.
> 
> We've had huge debates in the past about the ages of the older 
Weasley
> kids -- hopefully the Weasley FAQ can be uploaded soonish so you can
> more easily read the arguments we've advanced.  I'm in the Bill is 
26/27
> in GoF camp.  I put Charlie at 24-26 in GoF camp.  You have to look 
at
> all the statements in the books about when Gryffindor last won the
> Quidditch Cup & House Cup & such to start really piecing it 
together.
> Simon has done a good draft of the Weasley FAQ so far so ... as 
soon as
> we can get our act together & start uploading these FAQs, you'll see
> what I mean.
> 
> Penny
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I was just rereading SS and on the second page it says "Mrs. Potter 
was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years..."  
This means that if we assume the last time Petunia had seen Lily was 
before Petunia was married and Lily was still a minor and living at 
their parents house Lily probably did get married young and have 
Harry since she would have had to do that in the space of several 
years.  The Dursleys had never seen Harry either, so he was probably 
born within the space of those few years.  Petunia probably never saw 
Lily again after she herself was married due to her loathing of 
anything having to do with the wizarding world. I can't seem to type 
out how I'm thinking so if anyone can figure it out and tell everyone 
else in comprehendable logic I'd be very grateful.  

~~ Emerald