Ginny + Bill - Hermione dying? - Homosexuality - Age - OWLs - Race

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 21032

Danette Schardt-Cordova <captain_debrowe wrote:

> According to my calculations(if I didn't do them wrong
> that is) Ginny was aprox. 2-7 when Bill went to Hogwarts.

My time line (I need some place to post it: my folder on HPff?) says
Ginny was born in the July-1981 thru June-1982 year, which was Bill's
sixth year at Hogwarts, as he was born in the July-1965 thru June-1966
year IMO. I was surprised that I didn't find Bill's birthyear on The
Lexicon; I've noticed that the birthyears Steve states for some
characters tend to be similar to mine but not identical: for example, I
have TMR born in 1926 and Steve has him born in 1927.

Madhuri wrote:

> Why is it that it's more probably Ron will die, rather than Hermione?

Hermione is JKR's Mary-Sue, so for Hermione to die, JKR would have to be
suicidal. I personally can't imagine Hermione dying unless EVERYONE
dies, but I can imagine the whole wizarding world being destroyed and
everyone except Hermione dying, and Hermione being left to write down
the whole story for us Muggles.

Neil wrote:
> It will always be an issue until people stop assuming heterosexuality
as a default.

Umm, Neil, I want there to be gay characters in HP for the sake of
realism and political correctness and more possible ships, but the
famous Kinsey statistic that 10% of people are pretty much homosexual
and 90% of people are pretty much heterosexual implies that assuming any
newly met person is heterosexual will be right 9 out of 10 times -- a
probability rate high enough that it will probably stay the default
assumption. A higher probability rate than the assumption that any
undescribed person mentioned in a fiction or a news article is white,
which was discussed recently on OT.

Dragon Star-ling wrote:

> I think that all muggle borns who would normally be going
> into their secondary school years (is  that what it's called in
> the UK?) would start going to Hogwarts. Hermione's parents
> probly decided Hermione was ready to start school though
> she'd be among the youngest.

That is one of the problems I have with JKR's statement that Hogwarts
has a magic quill that writes the name of each magic child born in
Britain (and Ireland?) in a book when it is born, so each year
McGonagall checks the book to find the students who were born 11 years
ago: if Divination is such an imprecise science, how does the quill know
which kids are going to start school early or skip a grade? My other
objection has to be with kids born in one place who move (usually with
their families) to another place before they reach a double-digit age.
If they were born in Britain and emigrated to Australia, perhaps
Hogwarts would still want to invite them, but their parents might prefer
to send them to the Australian wizarding school so as not to be so far
away. And if they were born in USA but emigrated to Britain, their
parents would probably want them to go to Hogwarts, which is not only
closer, but possibly the best wizarding school in the world. And they
wouldn't get an invitation from Hogwarts because their name wasn't  in
the book because they weren't born in Britain...  For all these reasons,
I think it would be much better if the magic quill wrote the names (&
addresses) on the Hogwarts admission letters rather than writing than
writing them down in advance.

> I personaly think that the cut-off would allow a little
> room for those who are born in Sept. so they wouldn't
> have to wait a year.

As someone already said, no matter WHEN the cut-off date is, SOMEONE
will have to wait a year. If the cut-off date is October 31, then the
kid born on November 1 has to wait a whole year just because of being
born one day late, If the cut-off date is December 31, then the kid born
on January 1 has to wait a whole year. When I was very young, the LAUSD
(Los Angeles) schools dealt with this by having TWO tracks: kids who
entered school in September and kids who entered school in February.
Kids who started in September would have summer vacation between first
grade and second grade, etc, and graduate high school in June as the
Class of 1965a, while kids who started in February would have summer
vacation between first semester and second semester of first grade, etc,
and graduate in January as the Class of 1966b (yes, within each calendar
year, b was before a). When they switched to everyone had to start in
September, kids on the b track got a choice between spending one
semester or three semesters in the grade that they were in at the time
the change was announced. But the school district put a lot of pressure
on parents to choose three semesters instead of one semester...

Dave Hardenbrook Oz wrote:

> Harry, Ron, and Hermione will be taking their OWLs.
> How do you think they'll each do?  What do you think
> is the nature of the test?

Someone who took O-levels before they were turned into GCSEs would know
better than this USAmerican, but I think that the OWLs are entirely or
almost entirely written exams, with essay questions. I think there is
one OWL per subject and there are 15 subjects tested. I think the
average student would take 10 OWLs and pass with mostly C+s. I think
Hermione will take all 15 and get A or A+ on all of them and be written
in the next edition of HOGWARTS, A HISTORY as the students who did best
ever on the OWLs.  I think Harry and Ron will take 12 OWLs and Harry
will get Bs and B+s and Ron will get C+s and Bs, and Mrs. Weasley will
be torn between her desire to scream at him for not getting As like
Bill, Charlie, and Percy, and her relief that at least he did better
than the twins.

Fyregirl wrote:

>  What do they do for students that get bad cases of test anxiety?

I think it would be very British to just let them fail. But I like to
think that Hogwarts is better than that, and I feel sure that Dumbledore
is better than that, and I imagine Madam Pomfrey doling out psychoactive
potions (calmness, alertness, confidence) to the students as they line
up to get their Anti-Cheating Quills.

Allison wrote:

>  There are 7 required classes, and it seems like everybody
> takes 2 extra classes out of 4 choices starting 3rd year, which
> makes 9, so how do you get 12 OWLs?

Let's try to guess the subjects of OWLs.
----History of Magic might have several:
Britain before 1000 AD,
Britain from 1000 AD to 1603 AD,
Britain from 1603 AD to Now,
Europe,
The Rest of the World.
----Charms could also have several:
Charms on Inanimate Objects
Charms on Living Beings
Charms on Humans
----That was eight. How many others?
Transfiguration
Potions
Astronomy
Divination
Herbology
Muggle Studies
Arithmancy
---What did I leave out?

Fyregirl wrote:

> Can someone please tell me where in Canon I can find
> the references to the race of Cho, Angelina, etc.?

I don't think JKR told us Cho's race: just her name and that she is even
shorter than Harry, who is short. IIRC Angelina is described as "a tall
Black girl" when Fred asks her to be his date to the Yule Ball.
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