Lupin, the Moon and the Bewitching Hour (WAS TAGS and moonlight )

[joanne0012]

No: HPFGUIDX 32744

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at h...> wrote:

> The timing seems to work, because I think it is a one-hour, one-way 
> trip to the Shrieking Shack, and Lupin sees Sirius on the Map at 
> nightfall, which is maybe 7-8 p.m. that time of year.  So if the full 
> moon rises at midnight, he has plenty of time to save the trio, 
> apprehend Sirius/Peter, and make it back to the castle for a dose of 
> wolfsbane potion.

But the full moon doesn't rise at midnight, it rises in the early evening, around 6 
PM.  Always.  It's been doing so all your life.  The moon is full because it reflects 
the sun and so must be halfway-around the earth from it -- i.e., high in the sky 
at midnight when it's full.  Here's a pretty lucid explanation.  

http://www.treasure-troves.com/astro/MoonPhase.html

Likewise, sunset is very late in Scotland in mid-June, since it's so far north:  10 
PM or even  a little later.

http://www.onlineweather.com/v4/uk/sun/June/Edinburgh.html

So in reality, the moon has risen (i.e., 6 PM) long before the kids set off for the 
Shrieking Shack (after dark, i.e., 10 PM), and even longer before Lupin arrives at 
the shack.

In PoA, Lupin transforms when the clouds break and the group (just emerging 
back on the Hogwarts grounds) is "bathed in moonlight" (PoA, p. 380 of the US 
version), not when the moon rises.

JKR, being a novelist, can make the sun, moon, and werewoves behave just as 
she pleases, of course.