Ages of Hogwarts First Years (was Ron & Quidditch)

[heidi]

No: HPFGUIDX 11809



Ebony Elizabeth Thomas wrote:

> This gets right back into our debate about the Hogwarts cut-off date
> for
> entrance.  *Must* the child be 11 on September 1?  If so, then
> Angelina is a
> sixth year in GoF.  However, that means that Hermione's almost a year
> older
> than Harry and perhaps older than Ron as well, since JKR has expressly
>
> stated that her birthday is September 19.

I am convinced that the cutoff date has to be a little flexible. In my
HP Universe, children of wizards and/or witches start Hogwarts on the
September 1 after their 11th birthday (or on their 11th, in the case of
kids born that day) but children from Muggle families, who attended
Muggle primary schools, start Hogwarts when they've finished primary
school and are ready to enter a comprehensive/go to boarding school,
which may or may not be after they are 11. In other words, if Hermione
skipped a year in primary school or started kindergarten at 4, three
weeks before she turned 5, she would've started Hogwarts at 10, turned
11 just after starting, and would be about 7 weeks younger than Harry.

And I say this as someone whose birthday was 2 weeks after the cutoff
date to start first grade back in 1976, so I was sent to private school
for a year, then transfered to the local public school for 2nd grade -
once I'd finished first grade, they couldn't prevent me from going into
second. And I didn't turn 17 until 6 months before I finished high
school.


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