Hermione's ages

[jonathandupont at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 28019


--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Barb" <blpurdom at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., jonathandupont at h... wrote:
> > Anyway, back to the topic - what are these seemingly obvious to 
> > everyone else reasons why Hermione has to be younger than Harry? 
To 
> > go with Occam's razor or whatever its called - the simplest 
> > explanation is probably the best one. From everything we've seen 
> > (the school year starting on Septemeber 1st and so on) Hogwarts 
> > does follow the British school system. Would they really know how 
> > bright Hermione is anyway? And, another point, maybe the reason 
she 
> > knows so much is because she's been preparing for this for so 
long -
> > she's got herself very psyched up, so to speak, and tried to 
learn 
> > as much as possible. 
> 
> Despite the seeming-similarity between GCSE's (formerly O-levels, I 
> believe) and O.W.L.s, and between N.E.W.T.s and A-levels, I don't 
> believe the wizarding school system has been rigidly based upon the 
> British version.  There are enough differences between the wizard 
and 
> Muggle worlds that I hardly think they would concern themselves 
with 
> conventions important to non-wizards.  The wizarding world also 
> changes very, very slowly.  I think the similarities in tests are 
an 
> in-joke JKR provided for British readers, and she's probably also 
> harking back to her own days in school.  (<aside> She identifies 
with 
> Hermione and JKR was Head Girl, so let's just assume we know that 
> Hermione will be as well.</aside>)
<bit from later on>
> Given that the cut-off in our local school district has changed in 
my 
> relatively short lifetime from January 1 to September 1 and the 
slow 
> rate of change in wizarding society, I find it doubtful that there 
is 
> a September 1 cutoff for Hogwarts.

Unless my memory really is terrible - didn't JKR use to be a teacher? 
Thus she would be very used to this sort of thing. GCSEs and A-Levels 
haven't been around for a thousand years either - why discount them 
as an injoke for modern readers but not allow the starting date to be 
the same? 

Wizarding society may be slow to change - but it does mirror our 
society very well (Grindelward / WW2, fire / telephone, Quidditch & 
Quodpot / football & boring American sports (sorry), something to 
come / Internet (a fairly new addition) and so on). In the school the 
pattern of uniforms, houses, prefects, exams ALL match a normal 
school. Thus cut-off date... 
 
> At any rate, there a couple of other possible reasons for why 
> Hermione might be born in September of 1980 rather than 1979:
> 
> 1) She could already have been slightly ahead in her Muggle 
school.  
> Given her academic prowess at Hogwarts, this is hardly a leap.  It 
> fits with her character perfectly.  Hogwarts is probably in the 
> practice of sending acceptance letters to any magical child who 
will 
> turn eleven during the calendar year, and if the parents prefer to 
> wait a year for a child to begin, so be it.  This would 
be "Hogwarts 
> Deferred Acceptance."

I think I already argued against this - I don't see that much co-
operation between Muggle & wizard schools - and in real life it is 
very unusual to go up a year early into secondary school.
 
> 2) She could have received her letter and (hopefully) a visit from 
> McGonagall or Sprout or someone else reassuring and non-threatening 
> to introduce the Granger family to the idea of the magical world 
and 
> Hermione's place in it despite Hermione still having one more year 
to 
> go in Muggle primary school. 

Preparing for choosing your secondary school up to a year early is 
not unusual - and this school needs a LOT of preparation (just to get 
used to the idea). If they don't give the parents enough notice 
surely they'll waist their time trying to find another school for 
their child?

> The Grangers might very well have 
> decided to send her to Hogwarts anyway because a) Hermione is very 
> bright and probably had already read all of her texts for the 
> following year of school in the first week of summer holidays; or 
b) 
> Hogwarts does not seem to place much store in students learning 
> Muggle things such as world capitals and French irregular verbs and 
> quadratic formulae, so Hermione forgoing her final year of Muggle 
> school would hardly seem a loss to McGonagall/Sprout, who would 
urge 
> the Grangers to let her begin her magical studies immediately.

I disagree - from all we've seen, in Hogwarts you need to be able to 
read and write well (admittedly something Hermione would have no 
trouble with), world capitals - well, Dumbedore is trying to promote 
international cooperation right?, and maths would probably be a good 
start for arithmancy. I will concede that a bright child will 
probably learn next to nothing in Year 6 (will have done it all in 
the years before) - but going to boarding school is a big step, when 
it would be helpful if the child was as mature as possible, right? 

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Hermione has 
been preparing for her first day of Hogwarts for a long time - that's 
why she knows so much.

Oh, and French irregular verbs / quadratic formulae? Not at primary 
school... You don't learn any French or formulae at all at primary 
school (yes, I know I'm being pedantic). 

> 3) JKR might not have had any contact with school friends with 
> birthdays after September 1 and may not have been aware that this 
was 
> the cut-off.  
<cut bit>
> --Barb

She was a teacher, she has a baby daughter, and apparently she's 
obsessed enough to try and correct the amount of ns that should be 
used in "ennervate". I think JKR equally has a thing for details - I 
can't see her just deciding it arbitarily. 

Jon