[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's birthday

[Calypso8604 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29805

In a message dated 11/24/2001 9:25:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
hollydaze at btinternet.com writes:


> 
> I've just thought of something that "could" settle this arguemnt, it 
> has been said "In Hogwarts there's a magical quill which detects the 
> birth of a magical child, and writes his or her name down in a large 
> parchment book. Every year Professor McGonigal checks the book, and 
> sends owls to the people who are turning eleven."
> 
> If this is the case then Hermione must be older, the reasoning being 
> that her birthday is the 11th of September so if she was older, fine, 
> she would have got her letter and everything is wonderful, she goes 
> off to Hogwarts with Ron and Harry.
> 
> Then there are two ways you can follow this, that JK quote means they 
> get their letters ON their 11th birthdays or that they get them JUST 
> BEFORE their 11th birthdays, going with the first one (on thier 11th 
> Birthdays): If she is younger then we get to Harry's birthday on the 
> 31st of July and he gets his letter, (Ron presumably (sp) got his 
> eariler in the year) and on the 1st of September they go to Hogwarts, 
> then 10 days later (on the 11th) Hermione would recieve her letter, 
> meaning that at the time Ron and Harry went to Hogwarts, Hermione 
> would not even know about the school, let alone the fact she is a 
> witch and will be going too.
> 
> Fowlling the second way, that they get them Just before thier 11th 
> birthdays: we can see from the books that Harry got his letter, about 
> a week before before his birthday as he gets the first letter on day 
> 1, the 2nd day Dudley gets the post, the 3rd day Herry tries to sneak 
> out and get it from the post man, the 4th day they come in the eggs, 
> the 5th day (Sunday) they come shooting down the fire place. The 6th 
> (Monday) day they stay in the Railview hotel adn move to teh hut on 
> the Rock they sleep in teh rock and the 7th day is the day he gets 
> his letter, Tuesday and his birthday, a whole week after he first 
> received his letter. Following this route and going that the children 
> get the letters before their birthdays plus, knowing how efficiant 
> (sp) Hogwarts seemes to be with these things it is probably so, that 
> most kids get thier letters a week before their birthday either with 
> their Birthday being the cut off for responding, or else the same 
> date as Harry's being the cut off. Even with this that makes 
> Hermione's letter come 7 days before her birthday, meaning it would 
> arrive either on the 3rd or 4th of September, but still too late for 
> her to go to Hogwarts with Harry and Ron! adn even if it came a few 
> days earlier, she would never have time to get to Diagon Alley and 
> buy her things.
> Therefore she must be OLDER than Harry.
> 



Owls are sent off to all the young witches and wizards who are TURNING 11. I 
doubt that Hermione could be 11 for nearly a year before going to Hogwarts. 

You argued that Hermione must be older because they recieve letters a week 
before their birthday. That is incorrect. Simply because Harry's came a weekl 
before his birthday doesn't mean that all the children do. It's more likely 
they all recieve their letters during that week in July. They had to hurry 
and get Harry his letter by his birthday because his birthday was the last 
date the new Hogwarts students could send an owl confirming their enrollment.

~ Calypso


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