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

[prefectmarcus at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 23416

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., mgrantwich at y... wrote:
> --- 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.

I do agree that we cannot take everything everybody says in the books 
as gospel.  There are plenty of statements made by good guys that are 
shown to be false.  

I also doubt that Dumbledore -- brillant as he is -- knows the precise 
age of every student in the school at any given time.

It is also a fact that we must take what he says in the context of the 
moment.

However, Dumbledore specifically did say "two thirteen year old 
wizards."  He did not say "two young wizards", nor did he say, "two 
underaged wizards".  He didn't even say, "two third years".  He 
chose to say, "two thirteen year old wizards."

My point?  My point is that unless JKR says differently, or something 
more definitive shows up; if we are looking for Hermione's age in 
respect to Harry's, we are pretty much stuck with that statement -- 
unreliable though it might be.  

Are there any other statements in cannon that cast doubt on 
Dumbledore's statement?

Marcus

P.S: Where I grew up, the cut-off day was Nov 1.  I was born Oct 27.  
Ouch!!