Hermione's ages and intuition

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 28076

Ebony wrote:

> 
> You're right IMO, Vicky.  *All* the evidence save the British 
Muggle 
> education system itself points to Hermione being 10 upon starting 
> Hogwarts.  I spent the summer studying the British educational 
system 
> when this question came up and asked my tutor if it was possible 
for 
> a child to begin school early or to be accelerated at some point.  
> His answers seemed to allow for exceptions to be made.
> 

Yes, I believe exceptions are possible and do happen.

I'ts bad netiquette to ask the same question twice, even if you don't 
get an answer, so I can't possibly ask Scottish list members again to 
confirm whether the Scottish system is the same as the English one, 
even though they have wilfully sat with the relevant post burning a 
hole in their inboxes for *three months*.

And if we have *no* Scottish members (what happened to Robert 
Carnegie?) that is in itself a significant fact.  Could all Scottish 
non-members e-mail me to inform me of their non-existence please.

Anyway, to my main point.  *All* the evidence, Ebony?  There is 
Dumbledore's comment about 13 year old wizards.  This aside, I 
suspect there is little or no evidence <i> of the simply factual, 
nitpicky kind </i> on *either* side of the case, which brings me to 
the interesting question - how do we form these apparently strong 
convictions?

I suspect that very minor nuances in the way things are presented in 
the text hit us at the subconscious level, and then inform our view 
of characters in a profound way for a long time.  For example, I felt 
there was something fishy about the way McGonagall was hanging around 
Privet Drive at the beginning of PS, with the result that it wasn't 
till about the time of Harry's visit to petrified Hermione that I 
began to cut her some slack.  I now think that she was there as a 
narrative device.

Likewise, Hermione's age.  British, and apparently, Norwegian, 
readers will approach the text just *knowing* that the cutoff is 1 
Sept, and will interpret the rest of the evidence accordingly, unless 
a solid direct contradiction comes up. (Barb - this is something we 
all realised in school, not as parents, when we compared birthdays 
etc.)  Anything such as Dumbledore's comment about 13 year olds will 
just be interpreted as loose language.  Any immaturity in Hermione's 
behaviour (I don't see any myself for someone in that age range, just 
as I don't see anything unbelievably mature for soeone two months 
younger than Harry) would be seen to be just that.

American readers are not so constrained - so, Ebony, Barb, and other 
1979'ers (In a network, in an e-group, Speculating on a filk...), 
what were those triggers in the text that said 'young Hermione'?  
Officiousness (IMO she's never truly bossy) over Trevor's toad 
implies insecurity implies a life of playing catchup at school?  
Australians, Germans, South Americans, etc?

There is more at stake than Hermione's age here - I believe that the 
H/R - H/H shipping debate is similar, for example: Christian is right 
to point out that a lot of argument is based on 'my position is not 
inconsistent with the text' - but we want to do better than that - we 
want to try to see objectively where the text *leads* us, if possible.

David