[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's birthday

[wynnde1 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 48139


>  patchespup100 at a... asked:
> > Is there anybody from the UK out there that can tell us how things 
> operate 
> > there.  If not I might be able to find out from a friend I have in 
> England.
> 
> 
> To which Maria responded:
> 
> My opinion is that the Hogwarts age timetable runs the same as the 
> English one. So term starts beg of Sept and you have to be 11 to 
> start the school, just as you do with normal muggle secondary 
> schools.  Therefore Hermione would have been 12 on 19th Sept and 
> would have been one of the oldest first year students. Harry is one 
> of the youngest. 
> 

Now me:
It's not like that in Scotland, however, at least not where I live (in East 
Lothian, near Edinburgh). I'm not sure what the exact cut-off date is 
(sometime in December, I think), but my son will turn five on 12 October next 
year, and would have been starting at the primary school in August before his 
birthday.* So, if Hogwarts (which is also in Scotland) follows this system, 
then Hermione would have been 10 when she started at Hogwarts, and turned 11 
on 19 September of her first year. This is *my* personal opinion of the way 
it works, but really, either of us could be right - JKR can put her cut-off 
date anywhere she likes. Although Dumbledore's comment to Harry and Hermione 
in chapter 21 of PoA (that no one would believe the word of two 
thirteen-year-old wizards), leads me to believe that they were both thirteen 
at that time, which means Hermione would have had to have started at Hogwarts 
before her 11th birthday.

:-)
Wendy
* I say my son "would have started" next year because he won't actually be 
going to school here - we're moving back to the US in January. :-( 
Hopefully, though, this won't keep him off the list for Hogwarts - he's all 
set to go there when he gets old enough, and is fond of saying that the 
sorting hat is going to put him in Ravenclaw, and he has a small plastic 
cauldron that he plays with and says that Professor Snape is going to teach 
him to make potions. <G>


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