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

[mgrantwich at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 23395

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., dfrankiswork at n... wrote:
> Ebony quoted:
> "'It is your turn to listen, and I beg you not to interrupt me, 
> because there is very little time', he said quietly. 'There is not 
> a shred of proof to support Black's story, except your word--and 
> the words of two THIRTEEN YEAR OLD wizards will not convince 
> anybody." --Dumbledore, PoA, Chapter 21, "Hermione's Secret"
> p. 287 (British paperback edition)

At the risk of being seen as a wet blanket, I would like to point out 
that we cannot pull small chunks of dialogue out of context for 
intense analysis.  As Dumbledore says above, "there is very little 
time" during that particular conversation and he is focussed on 
getting our intrepid duo on the move as fast as possible.  In that 
context, Dumbledore could be forgiven for rounding up or down 
Hermione's age to the closest year.

In fact, if he'd said "the words of a thirteen year old wizard and a 
fourteen year old witch", it would have struck readers as very 
improbable at that particular moment in the book.

So while LOON-ing is great, we should keep a sense of perspective 
about the whole thing.