[HPforGrownups] Re: the Weasleys

[Penny Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 42410

Hi --

Jodel: <<<<<<I tend to agree with Penny's exploration of the subject in the main.>>>>>>> 

Just a clarification -- this was not Penny's exploration -- it is one of the group FAQs that hasn't been uploaded to the FAQ site yet.  It also wasn't compiled/written by me -- as I said in my intro to the subject, Simon Branford wrote it.  I happened to have a draft in Word on my computer from where I edited it for consistency last summer, so I just cut & pasted the relevant section on the family ages from it.  Just wanted to clarify that, since Simon should certainly get the credit!

<<<<<<<I don't offer any simple justification for the conflict between Bill's statement that he had not been back at Hogwarts for 5 years, which was made three years after Oliver Wood's statement that Gryffandor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup for 7 years when Charlie was the Seeker, given that Bill is the elder of the two (Bill and Charlie). But Ginny's statement about Bill at Hogwarts narrows the gap of possibilities even further.>>>>>>>>>

This is actually Penny talking now (my opinions):

I've always assumed that Bill could have come back to Hogwarts for a Quidditch match, to attend an alumni dinner, to meet with the faculty on something related to his job at Gringotts or any number of other reasons -- I think it's illogical to conclude that the only interpretation of his statement is that he graduated 5 yrs before.  In fact, that makes *no* sense.  5 years earlier is only *one* year before Harry et al. arrived at Hogwarts, is it not?  Charlie is at least one year younger than Bill.  So, if Bill's statement is taken to mean that it's been 5 years since he graduated, then Charlie should have been a 7th year during Harry's 1st year.  So, I completely dismiss the notion that Bill meant it had been 5 years since he graduated.  He's just saying it's been 5 years since he was last there.  

I also think Ginny's statement makes no sense.  She's 11 when she makes that statement.  At that point, Bill had been gone *at least* 3 years (and that's only if you assume Charlie graduated the year before Harry arrived, which I also think is faulty on a number of levels).  So, if true, then Bill had first come to Hogwarts 10 years before -- i.e., when Ginny was one year old.  She has no memory then.  

Jodel: 

<<<<<<So. Kicking the statements that we DO have around; Seven years before Harry and Ron's first year, Charlie was the Gryffandor Seeker. I doubt that a Quidditch head like Wood would have been mistaken in this. When he was 
Seeker, he would have been at least a 2nd year (given that Harry was the 
youngest team member in a hundred years when he was drafted for the team in 
his 1st year). And, since that year was the LAST year that the Gryffs took 
the Cup, it was amost -- but not absolutely -- certain that it was the last 
year that Charlie played that position. (Although it is just as possible that he COULD have earned his "legendary" status as a Seeker through brilliant play in games that Gryffandor did not win. I am surprised that no one seems to have mentioned this, but I've not been on the list long, and this could be an old thread.)>>>>>>>

Actually this is an old thread, and that fact has been mentioned by several others before (including me).  Krum is a legendary seeker, even though his team didn't always win after all.  

Jodel:

<<<<<<Making him 19 or 20 at the time of PS/SS as Penny stated.>>>>>

Actually, the FAQ argues several different possibilities, only one of which is that Bill is 19/20 at the time of PS/SS.  My (Penny's) personal view has always been that Bill is 26/27 at the time of GoF, so I don't fall into the "Bill is 19/20 at time of SS" category at all.  :--)  I think the preponderance of evidence is that Bill & Charlie are older and that there's a fairly large gap between Charlie & Percy, suggesting all sorts of possibilities & explanations.  But, it's pretty clear that JKR has been very inconsistent, and while I do suspect, she knows the answer, I'm not at all sure that she's thought through the implications of these various "clues" or statements.

<snip the rest of Jodel's great theories about Arthur & Molly's ages, wedding date & reasons for large family>

I too think there might be a family connection of some sort between Dumbledore & the Weasleys.  We know that Dumbledore had auburn hair in his youth, and I suspect that isn't a throw-away reference.

Penny








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