Ages of Hogwarts students

[hp_lexicon]

No: HPFGUIDX 41976

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "serenadust" <jmmears at c...> wrote:

> If you type "Hermione's age" into the search engine, you will find 
> enough posts/arguments/discussions to entertain yourself for 
weeks.  

Did you actually try this? The group search isn't very good at such 
things. I tried "September 19" and had better luck.


> If you check Steve's lexicon, you will find (under Timelines, 
> Hermione) an essay by Ebony who eloquently makes her case for 
> Hermione being younger (1980 birth), rather than older (1979 
birth).


Just for the record, the Lexicon uses the date of 1980 mostly 
because of the single reference in the books to Hermione's age: when 
Dumbledore referred to Harry and her as "a couple of fourteen-year-
old wizards" at the end of PA. I know, I know, there are all sorts 
of arguements about what he really meant or why he would say that 
even if she were older, but basically that's the only specific canon 
information we have, so the Lexicon, in all its bullheadedness about 
canon, sticks with that. You can read about this in the New and 
Improved, More Spiffy than Ever Timeline Section of the Lexicon, 
under the year 1980. Here's a direct link:
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/timeline_main2.html#Eighties

My personal opinion is that JKR never really throught it all through 
and when she wrote that line (fourteen-year-old wizards) she really 
assumed that Harry and Hermione were both 14 at that time. I don't 
think she thought through the ramifications of that in terms of when 
her birthday was and what that would mean for cut-off dates etc. She 
has almost certainly thought it through by now, however, since it's 
been debated so much, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that 
mentioned in some way in the next book, kind of like the way she 
managed to sneak the correct pronunciation of Hermione's name into 
GF. 

Steve
happily not working on anything 
well, exceptg an article about the trading card game for pojo.com
and drawing the Marauder's Map
bit by bit by bit