Harry's Birthday

[hulintay]

No: HPFGUIDX 31197

Hello everyone,

I have just joined this Yahoo! Group, and this is my first message.
You may have observed from my personal particulars that I am a
teenager, but I hope you will not think differently of me because
of my age. I have read all released Harry Potter books so far,
(including Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and Quidditch
Through The Ages), and I am deeply interested in Harry Potter. I
assure you that I will be very mature in all my posts.

Now to the topic at hand – I'm aware that this matter isn't very 
major, and I hope it hasn't been mentioned before, but it has
puzzled me throughout the 4 books. It is to do with Harry's birthday.
Firstly, I shall give some examples: in SS, towards the end of
chapter 3, Harry is counting down the number of seconds before he
turns eleven. (Although the actual time is not mentioned in the
book, it is shown as 12.00 midnight in the movie)

In PoA, on page 10 of the UK edition, it is mentioned that "it
was one o'clock in the morning. Harry's stomach gave a funny
jolt. He had been thirteen years old, without realizing it, for a 
whole hour". This of course suggests that Harry *turns* 13 at exactly 
12 midnight.

I know, I know
 this sounds quite trivial, but isn't it strange that
Harry *knows* that he was born at 12 midnight? He hardly knows 
anything about his parents! IMO, I think JK should have wrote these
passages in such a way that his birthday would not be represented
by a particular hour, but by the day itself.

If you don't understand, notice that in the first example, Hagrid
bursts in at exactly 12 midnight to give Harry his letter, and
since Harry needed to get the letter by the time he was eleven, it
suggests that Harry *turned* eleven at exactly 12 midnight. For the 
second example, it is quite obvious, as it is stated clearly that "he
had been thirteen years old, without realizing it, for a whole hour".

Please give me your opinions on this matter, I'd really appreciate
it. :)

hulintay
a.k.a.
***Astral?!?Wizard***