more on wizard ages

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 13729

paxber wrote:

> > Lord Voldemort (born Tom Marvolo Riddle)
> >    Born c. 1927.  
> 
> Now this is interesting. Remember Hagrid was at school with V. -- he 
> might be a couple of years younger but not more than that. So Hagrid 
> is roughly 60 at the time of the books. For some reason, he strikes 
> me as a good bit younger than McGonagall, but apparently he's not 
(10 
> years = 5 wizard years). Is it just the different personalities?
> 
> If they were Muggles, I'd have envisioned Hagrid as maybe 35-40, but 
> McGonagall as 50+.

That's about what I picture too, or maybe MM 55, RH 45.  I think you 
have to think of it like dog years.  People say a dog year = 7 human 
years, but the years aren't distributed the same way; dogs reach 
maturity much faster than humans (otherwise a dog wouldn't be 
full-grown 'til age 3) and spend more time in "middle age."  The same 
with wizards.  We don't know how old James and Lily were when they had 
Harry, but we know they weren't 50, nor do wizards seem to mature more 
slowly than Muggles (though with all the comments lately about Ron's 
arrested development, one might wonder--can we lay off him?  How many 
12-year-olds do you know who would calmly allow themselves to be 
attacked by giant stone creatures in order to help Save the World?).  

See the Lexicon for the full timeline stuff, but briefly, I got V's 
year of birth this way:

-CoS takes place 1992-93 (proof: Nick's deathday cake)
-Chamber of Secrets first opened about 50 years earlier, when Riddle 
age 16/5th year student: c. 1943
-Subtract 16: c. 1927.

And yes, we know that Hagrid was a 3rd-year when he was expelled, so 
he is 2 years younger than Voldemort, give or take a year.  Sure wears 
his years better than V, don't he?

Amy Z

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  "Do you mean to tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that
this boy--this boy!--knows nothin' abou'--about ANYTHING?" 
  Harry thought this was going a bit far. 
                               -HP and the Philosopher's Stone 
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