CoS Inconsistency & Weasley Ages

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 29610

Hi --

I was about to link to the excellent Weasley Family FAQ that Simon wrote 
& discovered that it still isn't uploaded (waiting to be coded I 
believe).  So, in lieu of linking to the FAQs, I will cut & paste the 
relevant section from this FAQ into this message.  This discusses all 
past discussions we've had on this topic about the age gap (or not) 
between Bill/Charlie & Percy (and how it might be that Ginny remembers 
Bill going to Hogwarts ...or not).

Here it is:

AGES OF THE WEASLEY FAMILY MEMBERS

How old are Molly and Arthur?    While Molly and son Bill Weasley were 
reminiscing of their times at Hogwarts  , Molly remarks that Hagrid was 
not the gamekeeper while she and Arthur were at the school.  Molly also 
says that the Whomping Willow was planted after her time at the school. 
This indicates that Molly and Arthur are definitely more than 7 years 
older than the Marauders. A good estimate would be that they are in 
their late 40s or early 50s.

How old are the children?    In PS/SS, we know the younger 5 children are:

Percy - 15
Fred and George - 13
Ron - 11
Ginny - 10


How old are Charlie and Bill?

"If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, they would overtake 
Slytherin in the House Championship for the first time in seven years."

"And Potter - do try and win, won't you? Or we'll be out of the running 
for the eighth year in a row..."

"Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie 
Weasley had been Seeker."

"I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came..."

"It's great being back here. Haven't seen this place in five years."

These quotes have lead group member to form two possibilities for the 
ages of Bill and Charlie.  Neither answer seems totally satisfactory, 
but this is a subject, that until the author gives us an answer, will 
keep on surfacing.

Since we know that Charlie and Bill are not twins, it seems safe to 
assume there is at least a one-year age gap between the two of them.

Case 1: Bill is 20 and Charlie 19  .

For: Bill says he was last at Hogwarts five years previous to GoF. 
Therefore, this can be assumed to be when he finished his schooling.  In 
this case, Ginny would have been 2 when Bill started at Hogwarts and so 
could remember him starting at Hogwarts.

Against: Gryffindor last won the Quidditch Cup when Charlie was seeker, 
which was seven years before the events of PoA. According to this 
timeline, Charlie would have been at least a second year student at 
Hogwarts since Harry was the youngest player for a century according to 
PS/SS (evidence that Charlie started Quidditch in his second year, or 
later).  But why, if he was such a great player, did the team only win 
in this one year? We can rule out him only playing for the one year as 
Oliver Wood saw him play   and Wood did not start at Hogwarts until a 
couple of years after this.

Case 2: Bill is 24 (or older) and Charlie 23  .

For:  Gryffindor would have won the Quidditch Cup in Charlie's last year 
and maybe several years before that.

Against: Ginny would have been at most three when Bill finished 
Hogwarts. How can she remember him starting if she wasn't even born? 
This could be countered by assuming she in fact meant  that she had 
wanted to go to Hogwarts ever since she can remember Bill being at 
Hogwarts, not necessarily his first year.  However, why was Bill last at 
Hogwarts five years ago if he finished schooling there 10, or more, 
years previously?  One might assume that Bill came back for some alumni 
event after he had finished or that he came back to give career talks to 
the students.

Why the large age gap between Charlie and Percy?

The ages leave the Weasley children as having births about 2 years apart 
(taking the twins as one) but with the anomaly of either an age gap of 
four or eight+ years between the births of Charlie and Percy. This led 
the group to discuss reasons why the Weasley family have no children to 
fill this gap. It is worth noting that Percy, Fred, George, Ron and 
Ginny were all born during the last few years, and the most potent 
years, of Voldemort's reign.

Members have put forth several explanations for this gap in the family. 
  One theory holds that Molly and Arthur decided at the beginning of 
Voldemort's reign to have no more children until after the struggles had 
finished. Then, unexpectedly, Percy was conceived at which point they 
decided to have more children.  Another theory suggests that Molly 
decided, after many years of looking after Charlie and Bill, that she 
also wanted a daughter and so tried for a few more times to have a girl, 
first getting Percy, Fred, George and Ron, before finally stopping after 
Ginny was born.  Another possibility is that Molly and Arthur split up, 
but then later reconciled and had more children.  Or, Arthur, or maybe 
even Molly, was away from home for long periods of time due to his/her 
career.  Yet another possibility put forth is that Molly and Arthur were 
just unlucky for several years.

It is also possible that Molly is in fact older than we are lead to 
believe. After having Charlie she thinks there is no chance of getting 
pregnant again and Percy is a surprise. After Percy's birth, Molly and 
Arthur decided to try for more children.

One of the more intriguing possibilities is that there was one or more 
children born between Charlie and Percy but they all died before birth 
or during the first few years of their lives. Molly and Arthur might not 
discuss these children and so the younger children know nothing about 
them and hence the reader has never heard about them.  This raises 
interesting possibilities of Ron being the 7th son of a 7th son 
(assuming, of course, that Arthur was a 7th son himself).

Members have also suggested that Voldemort or his Deatheaters killed 
some of the Weasley family, perhaps even any children born between 
Charlie and Percy. This seems a strong likelihood when one considers 
that Arthur has a very clear, and graphic, understanding of the 
significance of the Dark Mark.

It is also possible that Arthur and Molly decided that they did not have 
enough money to support any more children. This is unlikely though, as 
there is no good explanation as to why they suddenly had enough money to 
have children again.

Perhaps Molly and Arthur decided to embark on a one-family repopulation 
drive due to the fact that Voldemort was killing or depleting many 
wizarding families.

Penny