Hermione's age again!

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 28241

Hi --

Amy Z wrote:

> Ebony wrote:
> 
>  > --Ebony, who thinks that no one considered a 1979 birthdate for
>  > Hermione before JKR confirmed her birthday AFTER the release of GoF
> 
> ??  We knew her birthday, or near enough, in PoA.  I wasn't around for
> the thrilling between-time (there was no between-time for me, just a
> brief coming up for air before diving into GoF <g>), but I would have
> thought that knowing she was born in September would be enough to make
> people consider the possibilities of her being born either year.  No
> one wondered?

Actually, I think Ebony's right.  I don't think it was ever debated or 
considered a potential issue until JKR gave the exact date.  You're 
right that we knew it was in Sept from PoA, Amy, but my recollection is 
that this whole 1979/1980 debate came up after that chat where JKR said 
it was Sept 19th.  I think this might be because while people had the 
nebulous idea that her birthday was in Sept, Sept 19th is pretty far 
into the month & therefore, if there were a Sept 1st cut-off, the 19th 
is a good ways away from that.  Suddenly the whole "Sept 1st cutoff 
date" made people wonder: is Hermione 2 mths younger or 10 mths older 
than Harry?

I'm going to pick up a bit on what David Frankis said the other day in 
his brilliant post about how our subconscious forms solid opinions about 
various things as we read.  We had a Sept 1st cutoff date in Texas when 
I was growing up anyway, and my Nov birthday made me one of the "older" 
kids in the school year.  But, somehow, when we learned her birthday was 
in Sept in PoA, I didn't even consider that Hermione was one of the 
"older" kids of Harry's year.  I had somehow already formed the opinion 
that she would not be 10 mths older than him.  Why this is I cannot say. 
  She is more mature than either boy IMO, despite her social ineptness 
at the beginning of PS/SS.  But, girls do mature faster than boys in 
general.  I'm not sure I can point to anything specific that made me 
think: "Aha, Hermione is a bit younger than Harry & Ron."

It's just a general opinion I suppose.  OR, it may have to do with the 
JRK chat from Feb 2000 that describes the magical quill recording the 
name of every magical child born & that McGonagall sends a Hogwarts 
letter to those turning 11.  I think I interpreted that as *calendar* 
year.  Harry received letters *before* his 11th birthday, so I don't 
think it's correct to say that a child must have turned 11 in order to 
receive the Hogwarts letter (& that each 11 yr old receives a letter as 
he/she turns 11 from Sept 1st through Aug 31st).

It is, however, possible to think that maybe *all* students who turned 
or will turn 11 from the previous Sept through the current Aug 31st 
receive a Hogwarts letter in July.  Especially muggle-born students 
might need a little time to persuade their families after all!  So maybe 
July is when *all* the letters get sent out, even though some of the 
July/Aug students haven't yet turned 11.  Would Hermione have gone 
through her entire last year of primary school knowing she was going to 
Hogwarts the next year (assuming a 1979 birthday)?  My guess is no -- 
they wouldn't want the muggle-borns to have that knowledge for *that* 
long, would they?  My guess is there would need to be a balance between 
giving the muggle-borns enough notice to persuade their families & 
adjust to the idea and not giving the muggle-borns the knowledge for too 
long (although I suppose they could memory charm them if the kid seemed 
likely to spill the beans to all the muggles at his primary school).

Anyway ... this is a long way of saying that while I have no hard 
evidence to support my position, my instinct is that Hermione was born 
in 1980.  Given that I was an older kid myself, I don't know why or how 
I came to that conclusion other than my interpretation of the "year" 
reference by JKR is a calendar-year interpretation for some reason.

Penny