Hermione's age (was A Mistake and a Question)

[dfrankiswork at netscape.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 23389

Ebony wrote

>OK--first off, I realize I have no authority to speak on this, being 
>an American.  

No, actually, that's not true.  I think what we're talking about is really Hogwarts, rather than general UK, practice.  As card carrying Muggles, we all have the same lack of authority there.

>Do you mean to tell me that the British system is 
>so rigid that there is no room for moving that date? 

In previous posts I may have given that impression.  But I don't believe it's that rigid.  It's just that, in a chat rather than in the books, JKR described a rather mechanistic system which, under a few unprovable but reasonable assumptions, leads to an 'old' Hermione.  Anything in the books which would point to a 'young' Hermione would overrule that, and for finding that, LOONiness rather than Britishness is the main criterion.

For the sake of completeness, those assumptions are:

1) Hogwarts operate the same year (1 Sep - 31 Aug) as the rest of UK. BTW, no answer to my Scottish query.
2) The criterion for writing is reaching 11 in the current school year.
3) McGonagall pays no attention to current educational status in Muggle schools when sending letters, i.e. it makes no difference if the Grangers got Hermione into primary school a year early.

I have never taken any impression either way from the books, but then I often do miss stuff.

>All right, back to lurkdom while my faulty logic gets torn to 
>shreds.  :-D

David, whose faulty logic and poor memory have often been shredded - I mean, *someone* has to give the shredders a sense of meaning in their lives


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